Much has been made recently about Webmasters harnessing the power of social news sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit to help drive traffic - but the clique-like nature of the "power users" on these networks (especially Digg) and their ability to influence which blogs or sites get front-page prominence has been just as well documented. Some insiders advise Web pros to actively read, comment on and submit articles to the Digg community -- in the aim of building a reputation as a qualified "Digger" and thus, grabbing more eyeballs -- but this post lists seven reasons why search pros …

As Google's senior product manager (and resident click fraud czar), Shuman Ghosemajumder has helped the search giant develop strategies to combat click fraud and streamline the advertiser refund process, as well as weather the storm of last year's click fraud class-action lawsuit. The one thing Ghosemajumder hasn't been able to do is adequately manage the public's perception of how hard Google actually works to fight click fraud. The search giant's PR strategy when it comes to the issue has largely been a combination of dismissing all third-party reports as biased or incomplete, and downplaying the level of advertiser …

Yahoo nabs almost a quarter of all searchers -- according to recent Hitwise data -- so focusing only on optimization for Google could be costing a Web site valuable traffic. The second-largest search engine in the U.S. sometimes gets eclipsed, given the press (and public opinion) that equates quality search with Google, but Webmasters (and their clients) can't afford to forget about Yahoo. Ross Dunn's piece is a deep dive into how to optimize a site for Yahoo search.

Search marketers can make lots of mistakes when it comes to pay-per-click campaigns, from errors in choosing max bids (which can send costs soaring), to misspelling keywords or ad copy -- but what seems to be a common mistake is actually bidding on the word "keyword." Bill Hartzer gives examples (complete with screenshots) of how companies like Dell, Staples, and even a local Honda dealership showed up in the sponsored listings for the search term "keyword" -- and describes how easily it could happen to anyone else who uses Excel to keep track of their PPC campaigns.

Some search pros may cloak the html of affiliate links, blocks of text, or other information on Web pages to keep search engine spiders from penalizing that content -- and some in the industry would call that Black Hat SEO. But what about keeping images or other text from getting scraped and duplicated by parked domains or parasite sites -- or just saving users from long, ugly URL strings? SEO Scoop's DazzlinDonna explains the rationale for urging her fellow search pro Michael VanDeMar to create a new text and HTML obfuscation tool. The post provides a link to the tool …

While some Webmasters struggle with finding the "magic number" of in-bound and out-bound links to boost page rank and traffic, SEOish's Patrick Sexton argues that focusing solely on linkbuilding (at the expense of high quality content, and Web 2.0 staples like widgets and social networking) is a mistake. In his lengthy piece (complete with snarky comments and illustrations) Sexton illustrates how search pros can optimize a site before links even factor into the equation.

Most searchers have at least ten organic links to choose from in their first page of results - and your SEO strategy is clearly working if you're in that top ten. But the job doesn't stop there, since if users choose your page and it takes forever to load, they'll hit the back button - costing you engagement time. In a voice that echoes the fast, faster, fastest sentiments of Gen X/Y, tech student and blogger Christian Raiber lists seven tips for speeding up your site, from avoiding JavaScript to reducing the number of automatic HTTP requests it …

Deloitte's annual State of the Media Democracy survey found that 84% of consumers were directed to Web sites using a search engine, a nod to what most Web-savvy professionals know to be true: Search is the traffic king. But many Web insiders also believe that print media is dead -- evidenced by the almost daily reports of magazines and newspapers folding. Jason Lee Miller culls contrasting data from Deloitte's survey to show that almost three quarters of all online users still read magazines. And in terms of advertising, 64% of respondents actually paid more attention to print ads …

Most Webmasters have to pay for a third-party critique of their site's pay-per-click ad strategy, but Practical eCommerce is launching a new monthly feature that does it for free. With the "PPC Report Card," one Web site will be graded on factors like account structure, keyword choices, and landing page - with the results posted for all other readers to see. Interested site owners can request to be graded (and must be willing to provide confidential pay-per-click information) -- and Practical eCommerce chooses a different outside expert or firm per month.

In the newest sign that the Web has influenced politics and the dissemination of political info worldwide, Google will launch a portal to deliver nonstop information about Australia's first-ever online election debates. As in the U.S., the debates will air on YouTube --with coverage coming from both online and mainstream media. Google's accompanying site will feature the video clips, maps, and widgets so that users can customize their election coverage.