In today"s au Natural column, "Blog Your Way to the Top," Mark Jackson takes a look at the benefits of blogging on a corporate Web site. Besides the SEO-related benefit of adding fresh content to usually static sites, corporate blogs can also provide a good way to interact with customers and potential customers, and to establish thought leadership in your industry.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Convincing the Executive Team to Invest in SEO," Aaron Shear shares tips on how to get the executive management team to buy into the idea of search marketing. There are still many executives at large companies that think SEO is black magic. The key to convincing them otherwise is to start small, prove the value of search marketing, and build up allies in your organization.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Digging Deeper Into the Latest Release of Google Analytics," Eric Enge explores the subtle differences in the latest version of Google"s metrics tool. Among other enhancements, Enge notes that the new interface does a much better job of presenting the most common numbers people look for up front.

In today"s Link Love column, "Building the Love," Sage Lewis gives tips for brainstorming ideas for building links. It takes more than business basics on a Web site to create link bait, and even a site offering the most mundane products can create compelling content.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, Getting Hyper-Active in Local Search, Michael Boland dives into the world of hyper-local, where newspapers and online startups use local online communities to get an edge on news aggregators like Google and Yahoo.

In today"s Outsourced column, Measuring ROI Can Be Difficult for SEO, Chris Boggs offers tips on calculating ROI to see if your SEO campaign is cost-effective.

In today"s Link Love column, "Building the Love," Sage Lewis gives tips for brainstorming ideas for building links. It takes more than business basics on a Web site to create link bait, and even a site offering the most mundane products can create compelling content.

In today"s au Natural column, "Using a Corporate Blog for CRM," Mark Jackson examines how corporate blogging can be used for customer relationship management (CRM).

Many times, a customer will visit your Web site and look for answers or a way to share their input. If none is found, they will look elsewhere. This is your window of opportunity to nurture positive comments, or nip negative ones in the bud.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Universal Search for Small Business: What You Need to Know About Google"s New Search Results," Carrie Hill tells you what universal ranking of multiple silos of search results can mean for your small business.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, Getting Hyper-Active in Local Search, Michael Boland dives into the world of hyper-local, where newspapers and online startups use local online communities to get an edge on news aggregators like Google and Yahoo.

In today"s Outsourced column, Measuring ROI Can Be Difficult for SEO, Chris Boggs offers tips on calculating ROI to see if your SEO campaign is cost-effective.

In today"s By the Numbers column, A Look at Latency In Search Engine Ranking, Eric Enge presents a case study of a niche content site that reveals differences in latency involved in each search engine"s index, and in how each search engine responds to removed pages.

In today"s Link Love column, "Avoiding Low-Quality Links and Link Networks," Justilien Gaspard tells you how to build links while spotting low-value links or links that might be devalued.

In today"s In-House column, Nobody Likes to Hear Their Baby is Ugly, Jessica Bowman tells you how to make an SEO presentation that won"t ruffle any feathers by gaining prior buy-in along the way.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, The Local Video Revolution, Michael Boland addresses the latest trends in local online video. He points out that video is a perfect venue for small businesses to advertise and for local search destinations like Citysearch, Superpages.com and YellowPages.com to integrate video with existing forms of local search advertising.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Setting Campaign Goals and Metrics for Success," Tony Wright explains the importance of setting initial metrics for success, especially for those new to search.

I can’t imagine what it’s like for the vast majority of small business owners who decide to put their toe in the search engine marketing pool without a lifeguard like an agency or a consultant with expertise.

The term “sink or swim” comes to mind. And judging from what I’ve seen in the small business landscape, far too many small businesses immediately sink and then get out of the pool forever. This is a shame, as the rewards of a successful search marketing campaign are great.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Leveraging Big Business Assets for Better SEO Visibility," Aaron Shear looks at ways to get multiple units of a large business collaborating to improve SEO visibility.

In today"s au Natural column, "Will Google’s FeedBurner Scorch Organic SEO?," Mark Jackson examines the impact Google"s acquisition of Feedburner could have on search marketers.

In today"s By the Numbers column, Making the Case for Portfolio Based Bid Management Tools, Eric Enge shows why he prefers portfolio based bid management tools to the rules based solutions that evaluate ROI on a keyword-by-keyword basis.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, Balancing Video Quality and Search Optimization, Grant Crowell shows how to create quality video and shorten compression time, using YouTube as an example.

In today"s Outsourced column, Predicting the ROI for Future SEO Efforts, Chris Boggs continues his series on calculating ROI with a look at predicting ROI for future SEO campaigns.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Five Tips for Hiring a Paid Search Agency," Tony Wright gives his list of the five most important questions to ask vendors when looking for someone to manage your PPC campaigns.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Priming Your Quality Score to Boost Campaign Results," Eric Enge shows you how to use the new paid search Quality Scores to your advantage to provide great campaign results.

In today"s Link Love column, "Creating Link Bait With Hot Content and Promotions," Justilien Gaspard tells you how to create hot, compelling content and then spread the word with promotions that create buzz, gain links, and bring in new customers.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "The Business Case for Expanding B2B SEM," Jessica Bowman reviews the Enquiro 2007 Business to Business Survey. If you’re looking to expand your B2B SEM efforts, you’ll find the key take-aways and all the nitty gritty in between.

In today"s In-House column, "When the Honeymoon Ends, In-house," Jessica Bowman explains how an in-house SEO startup has a life similar to marriage. There’s the honeymoon phase, and then it ends. Listen up as Bowman tells you how to make the most of the benevolence while it lasts.

In today"s Search Ads column, "The Five Characteristics of Highly Effective PPC Specialists ," Tony Wright has come up with five characteristics of successful PPC specialists. As anyone in the search marketing industry can tell you, talent is scarce. If you can find one with all these traits, hire him/her on the spot.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Can Social Media Work in Big Business?," Aaron Shear reviews various social media strategies and offers advice on justifying it to VPs in the boardroom.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads," Eric Enge discusses changes to lead generation strategies in the real estate industry. He explains that while real estate sales are a large, highly fragmented market that evolved around control of data through the Multiple Listing Service, the Web has jarred this system with its premise that information should be freely available online.

In today"s Link Love column, "Does Your Site Deserve Link Love?," Sage Lewis offers some examples of clever ways to go about getting links and making your ideas go viral.

In today"s Outsourced column, "Flash: The Pink Elephant or the Spark," Chris Boggs goes over the history of epic battles between designers and SEOs over Flash. To make your life easier, he provides you with one of the latest technologies for dealing with Flash issues.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Can Google Analytics Be Evil?," Tony Wright is looking for feedback on Google Analytics. Like many search marketers, he has recommended that clients stay away from Google Analytics because of concerns about data privacy and some of the ways Google has used AdWords data in the past.

Is he right to be wary, or are the benefits of a free and easy to use analytics application worth any potential risks? Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

In today"s au Natural column, "Five Fundamental Questions of Keyword Research," Mark Jackson reviews five fundamental questions to ask of your site when performing keyword research.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Using WordPress to Manage Your Web Site Content – Part 1," Carrie Hill tells you how easy it can be to use WordPress to build or maintain your Web site or blog.

In today"s By the Numbers column, " ZoomInfo – People Finder and Company Intelligence Tool," Eric Enge checks out Zoominfo, a tool you can use to find a long lost buddy or to get business intelligence when your company is small and data is hard to come by.

In today"s Link Love column, "7 Ways to Promote Your Content as Link Bait ," Justilien Gaspard offers seven ways to promote a new site project for links and exposure. If your site is already established, these links can help raise your rankings.

In today"s In-House column, "Stop In-house SEO Disasters Now!," Kevin Ryan pens an ode to the in-house SEO practitioner, with a few best practices and a guide to identifying problematic personalities.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Video Search Optimization Tech Tips – Knowing the 4 P’s," Grant Crowell explains the technical aspects of video optimization and viral linking.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Zen and the Art of Paid Search Maintenance," Tony Wright shows that discipline is the key to achieving paid search enlightenment – aka success. He provides tips for implementing some regular processes to ensure top performance from your paid search campaigns.

In today"s au Natural column, "7 Questions for Conducting an SEO Site Review," Mark Jackson offers tips for performing a professional site review and invites you to submit your own site for a complimentary review on SEW.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Can You Purchase Text Links for Big Business Sites?," Aaron Shear offers some insights on purchasing text links for a big business site, and the subsequent effects.

In today"s Link Love column, "How Many Links Could a Link Lover Love?," Sage Lewis describes the many different ways to count and track your links. What good is link love if you don’t know how many links love you?

In today"s Outsourced column, "Enterprise SEO Project Pricing: One Size Does Not Fit All," Chris Boggs talks about the challenges of scoping an enterprise-level SEO project.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Why Should I Book My Vacation Via Your Travel Site?," Elisabeth Osmeloski tells owners and managers of travel sites how to convince every traveler that their service provides the most value. Do this well, and word of mouth marketing will kick in.

In today"s Search Ads column, "The Beginning of the Fragmentation of Search," Tony Wright ponders the evolution of search marketing from its heady first years to the competitive situation today. Can this be the beginning of the fragmentation of search?

In today"s au Natural column, "Hosting Issues as They Relate to SEO," Mark Jackson defines the use of basic server response codes the common pitfalls as related to search engine optimization.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Using WordPress to Manage Your Web Site Content – Part 2 ," Carrie Hill tells you how to use plug-ins when designing your standalone or Web site blog – great tips for getting started.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Up Your SEM Knowledge Now!," Kevin Ryan reviews the importance of SEM education, and provides some guidelines to help you choose the right path for you.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "The Role of Trust in E-Commerce Sales," Eric Enge reviews research from ScanAlert showing that e-commerce sites can profit by ensuring their sites are safe and secure.

In today"s Link Love column, "Exploiting Your Current Backlinks and Link Referrals," Justilien Gaspard tells you how to take full advantage of your current backlinks, while getting referrals to other Web sites that can help promote your business.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Call for Production Value Standards in Search Marketing Videos," Grant Crowell conducts a survey of the top-20 videos on YouTube and comes to the conclusion that our industry needs the same professional standards for search marketing videos as we hold for our Web sites.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Boosting CTRs in a Search Fragmenting World," Tony Wright reports further on the fragmentation of search with reader-submitted tips and some of his own. Here"s what you can do to keep your CTRs up.

In today"s au Natural column, "Creating Synergy in Your SEO Efforts ," Mark Jackson discusses the key components of successful SEO, showing you how on-site optimization efforts work together to accomplish a common goal.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Don"t Panic Over Sudden Traffic Changes ," Aaron Shear tries to ease the fears of a sudden algorithmic traffic change. Shear has been there, done that, and provides some advice for meeting panic from the executive suite.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Housebreaking the Search," Kevin Ryan struggles with search marketing for grown-ups.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Analyzing Data to Lower Your CPA," Eric Enge takes on the challenge of optimizing a PPC campaign, showing you one way to lower your cost-per-acquisition by analyzing the data.

In today"s Link Love column, "Creating Link Love With Informational Videos," Sage Lewis gives some advice for creating B2B videos that can create a lot of link love.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Getting Started in Local Search," Gregg Stewart introduces a new column, Local Search, with information on how to get started in finding cost-effective leads and developing a media plan.

In today"s Outsourced column, "The Guts of an Enterprise-Level Web Analytics Audit," Chris Boggs gives you the lowdown on a site side analytics audit, to help you overcome one of the biggest problems faced by large companies: knowing how to interpret Web analytics data.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Do You Really Need to Overhaul Your Landing Pages?," Tony Wright tells you how to determine whether or not it"s really necessary to spend the summer doldrums tweaking landing pages.

Historically, summer is a slow time for conversions. Wright allows that it can be a good idea to look at your landing pages constantly, testing and tweaking to get that perfect combination of interesting information and eye-popping graphics. He warns, however, that before you go wild with your Web designer, it might be a good idea to take a look at the other aspects of your campaign before you go creating a new landing page with 12 Ajax wizards, a Flash intro, and a picture of a scantily clad model hocking your product.

In today"s au Natural column, "Quarterly Site Review: MDC Wallcoverings," Mark Jackson examines a reader-submitted Web site, suggesting how it can be optimized.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Don"t be a Local-Yokel — Enhance Your Local Business Listings," Carrie Hill shows you how to enhance your local listings in Google Maps and Yahoo Local to bring more traffic to your site.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Turning Local Inside Out," Kevin Ryan takes a look at what local search looks like today, and why one-stop technology and search providers have an advantage over the big sales forces and more heavily regulated telephone directory advertising..

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Taking Your PPC Campaigns Beyond the Majors," Eric Enge shows you why you might want to broaden your horizons beyond Google, Yahoo and Microsoft with your PPC campaigns.

In today"s Link Love column, "7 Tips for Training Link Developers," Justilien Gaspard offers 7 tips for training link developers that range from promoting creativity to teaching negotiation tactics.

In today"s In-House column, "Look After Your Brand and Your Brand Will Look After You," Rob Kerry explains that an in-house SEO"s work doesn"t stop with optimizing page elements. He tells you how to put out fires before they spread by defending your brand.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Pimp My Vertical Search," Michael Boland tells you about the future of local search in a verticalized world. See how Vehix uses the strength of video advertising and online search to give consumers local search on steroids and advertisers better direct response.

In today"s au Natural column, "Avoiding Cookie Cutter SEO," Mark Jackson explains why no two Web sites are created equal.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Taking Off at SES Travel Edition," Kevin Ryan returns from the recent SES Travel event in Seattle with carry on, sage advice.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "The Impact of Comparison Shopping Sites on E-Commerce Sales," Eric Enge discusses comparison-shopping sites, and their impact on buying decisions, resulting in shorter conversion times.

In today"s Outsourced column, "SEM Support Tools for Enterprise-Level Projects," Chris Boggs tells you about the latest SEO tools for enterprise-level projects and diagnostic tools that provide site-specific SEO recommendations.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Microsoft adCenter Could Win the Search Battle," Tony Wright explains why he thinks Microsoft adCenter can win the search wars -- if it can scale the audience.

In today"s au Natural column, "The Site Map: Gateway to Optimization," Mark Jackson reviews a vital piece of on-site optimization, for both users and spiders.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Don"t Be a Local Yokel II – Enhancing Your Yahoo Local Listing," Carrie Hill tells you how to enhance your local listings in Yahoo! Local to bring more traffic to your site.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Yellow Pages and Search," Kevin Ryan explains that yellow pages directories and search engines are hopelessly intertwined as directories feed search queries and search queries feed directories. A new spin on the old book might just connect the dots.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "SEO Site Design Improves User Experience and Site Performance," Eric Enge shows you the value of improving the user experience by implementing SEO in your site design while testing design elements with analytics.

In today"s Link Love column, "Reverse Engineering Linking Patterns to Create Link Equity," Justilien Gaspard tells you how to get quality links from trusted sites in a round about manner, creating trusted linking neighborhoods.

In today"s In-House column, "Don"t Be An SEO Alien," Rob Kerry has some practical advice for in-house SEOs, and it doesn"t have to do with following Best Practices.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "Choosing Partnerships for Your Video Search Marketing," Grant Crowell tells you how to select and work with a professional video production partner as well as the importance of choosing a video host for displaying your videos.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Google"s Local Search Land Grab," Tony Wright tells you how you can help Google to digitize local search information, and help yourself in the process.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Understanding the Search Landscape ," Aaron Shear tells you how to answer the pesky questions about search rankings from upper management.

In today"s au Natural column, "How to Select a Search Engine Optimization Firm," Mark Jackson points out some issues to keep in mind when selecting a vendor to handle your search engine optimization efforts.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Google vs. the World ," Kevin Ryan is here to tell you that privacy is dead and your future lies in everyone else"s hands.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Survey-Based Customer Satisfaction Tool," Eric Enge tells you about a Web-based tool that can help you learn what customers think about your site, and which areas are in need of an upgrade.

In today"s Link Love column, "Integration: Key Element of Link Building ," Sage Lewis discusses a key element of link building: integration, the process of incorporating something special into your Web site to attract linking partners.

In today"s Outsourced column, "Link Building for Large Corporate Sites," Chris Boggs gives you a quick course in advanced link building for enterprise-level SEO projects.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "This Just In, Google Recruits Local Sales Force," Gregg Stewart gives you a heads up on Google Local Business Referrals and continues his review of local search strategies by covering underutilized local media sources.

In today"s Search Ads column, "The Long Tail Is Dead -- Long Live the Long Tail," Tony Wright has some tips for playing the long tail in today"s SEM market, given that search is not the well-kept secret it once was, and targeting the long tail is becoming harder to do.

In today"s au Natural column, "Which Hat Should I Wear?," Mark Jackson looks at various considerations for determining which type of SEO may be best suited for your needs.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Won"t You Be My Neighbor?," Carrie Hill tells you how to build a well-focused Web site to maximize traffic and succeed in a competitive online marketplace.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Public Relations Train Wrecks," Kevin Ryan reports in from SES on the press and search optimization controversy.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Review of "Web Analytics, An Hour a Day" by Avinash Kaushik," Eric Enge reviews Avinash Kaushik"s basic philosophy of Web analytics as defined in his new book, which helps you learn how to view analytics the right way.

In today"s Link Love column, "Training Link Developers to Become Marketing Gurus," Justilien Gaspard continues his link training theme with a focus on training link developers to use marketing tactics.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "A Tale of Two City Guides," local search expert Michael Boland reviews recent plans announced by Yahoo Local and CitySearch to enhance features and content, making local search a more competitive landscape.

In today"s In-House column, "Playing Dirty With PPC," Rob Kerry gives in-house SEMs a few black hat PPC tricks, to help them keep up with competitors that choose to play dirty.

In today"s Search Ads column, "Tips for Being a Great PPC Client," Tony Wright tells you what it takes to be a great PPC client, getting the most out of the client-agency relationship.

In today"s au Natural column, "Tools of the Trade," Mark Jackson recommends several useful tools for running an effective search engine optimization campaign.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Scaling Your Big Business Internationally," Aaron Shear tells you what to expect when expanding your business internationally.

The beauty of certain industries -- and the challenge -- is they"re international, national, and local all at the same time. Such is the case with auto dealers. In today"s Link Building column, "Link Building Ideas for Local Auto Dealers," Justilien Gaspard shares two link building ideas for a local auto dealer that can be applied to various types of local businesses.

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A look at Google Trends comparative data can help guide companies in making strategic decisions. In today"s Building Brand Equity column, "Can Google Predict the Next President?," Erik Qualman shows how the same can be done in the political world, as McCain and Obama are trying to build up their respective "brands" in the eyes of voters.

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