Continual keyword research is important, both for refining paid search campaigns and managing a site's organic search ranking. Some search pros use automated software, others use analytics, and others try to gauge what their competitors are ranking for -- but at the 2007 Shop.org Summit. panelists said the best keyword research strategy combines all of the above, and even throws in some offline tactics.

To some, Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) seem like analog relics in a digital age, but according to recent comScore data, there were over 3 billion IYP searches last year, and that's a 27% increase from 2005. Some IYPs will list a business for free, others charge (and offer display and rich media ad opportunities as well), and according to Greg Sterling, an IYP investment would still be a smart move for companies targeting local searchers.

Yahoo has tapped Jessica Bowman, industry blogger and former Head of SEO for Business.com, to be its in-house search "evangelist." Though her official title will be senior technical marketing manager, Bowman will help search teams from various properties like Yahoo Travel and Yahoo Autos work together more effectively.

As more brands with billion-dollar ad budgets funnel those bucks into paid search, it gets harder for smaller, more direct marketers to maintain visibility and top placement. So where reaping the benefits of paid search was easy and affordable for some firms, PPC success has become more costly and less of a sure shot. Sara Holoubek recounts a conversation she had with a direct marketer at a recent mixer that threw her for a loop, as she learned about the current paid search obstacles his firm was facing, and realized how the influx of brand advertisers seems to be …

Jim Parent filed down a panel's worth of local search information (from August's SES San Jose) into eight fundamental steps Webmasters can take to boost their site's local search rankings -- including getting customers to write reviews and recommendations, as well as listing the business address more than once on the home page.

So the company you represent has finally gotten listed on Wikipedia -- congratulations! The online encyclopedia's links tend to rank high in natural search results -- especially from Google - so the resulting uptick in traffic is almost a given. But what happens when the Wikipedia entry does more harm than good (i.e. it's littered with misspellings, factual errors, or even just a lengthy section on some snafu the company made a few months ago)? This piece from Marketing Sherpa explains the nuances behind policing, maintaining, and correcting a company's Wikipedia entry -- and how to do it without …

One of the myriad factors that influence a site's Quality Score (and the placement of any paid search ads that link to it) for Google is the overall quality of the landing page. Seems like common sense, but the search giant thought to remind advertisers about the landing page issue in a new AdWords blog post. Sites that exist only to harvest user information (in exchange for "free gifts" or in stealth), install malware or otherwise provide a poor user experience will be penalized. And Webmasters will no longer get a heads-up when Google updates its system for checking landing …

Rand Fishkin gives quick descriptions of some of the ways Webmasters can use the search engines directly (and not tools or analytics from Yahoo, Google or a third party) for competitive keyword research. But this is not a primer or post for relative SEO newcomers; it's more like a roundup of tactics for knowledgeable search pros, as Fiskin includes tips like using the "inanchor," "intitle," and "inurl" search term modifiers.

The Pandia team reviews the TouchGraph Google Browser, a java-based Web service that piggybacks on a Google search to give users a graphic rendering of the "search clusters" on the Web that surround the term. For example, a search for "search marketing" might reveal a cluster of pages directly linked to that term in blue, then a cluster of pages linked to "search marketing firms" in green, and a cluster of pages linked to "search marketing and optimization" in red -- complete with site names, and a sidebar that lists each URL. While TouchGraph is not the first …

A study from the China IntelliConsulting Corp (CIC) found that major American-based search companies' shares in China's top cities slipped year-over-year. Both Google China and Yahoo China's shares declined -- despite Google's heavy tech and personnel investments in the space. Baidu increased its share of search by 7.6 percentage points to reach almost 70% overall.