Content scraping and duplication is a problem that plagues bloggers, media outlets and site owners -- and can create a mound of extra SEO work. While many search pros struggle with keeping the originator of the content on top of the organic search heap, Jonathan Bailey has outlined the six steps site owners can take to get the offenders purged from the engines, dropped by their advertisers and even removed from their domain. It starts with detecting the theft via services like Google Alerts and Mahalo's Plagiarism Detection tool, or even just following the trackbacks that automatically come …

During Jason Calacanis' turn as an executive interviewee at this week's joint ILM:07 and SES Local conference, the Internet entrepreneur gave his take on Facebook (great tech, but it's overvalued), Mahalo (human power is the best way to compete with Google for search), former employer AOL (if they spin off from Time Warner, they could actually have the last laugh) and the state of the local search market. Contrary to his take on core search needing more human intervention, Calacanis thought that automation was the way to go to make local search more viable for small business owners. …

Simon Heseltine attended the Search Marketing for Financial Services panel at SMX London and came back with a mantra that applies across the board with search: Plan, test and review your campaigns. Then wash, rinse and repeat. According to BigMouthMedia's Chris Cathcart ,the state of the online ad market for financial services is healthy and quite competitive. To stay atop the heap, Cathcart advocated adhering to a 3-stage campaign management process -- starting with developing a solid plan. For financial services this plan includes getting answers to questions like "Who are the key stakeholders?" in addition to …

Lately affiliate marketers have had it rough with Google, from the search giant rolling out its CPA offering full scale, to changes to the AdWords algorithm (with regards to Top Placement, especially). But the business of generating online leads or sales for big brands, overseas manufacturers or even just service providers is still going strong. Still, an affiliate is only as good as his network, so Titus Hoskins has compiled a list of the 10 most reputable and beneficial affiliate networks available. ValueClick's Commission Junction took the top spot, as according to Hoskins' source the international …

Sometimes a business owner can't avoid creating a deep site with hundreds of pages of product information, awkward navigation and the propensity to make PPC management and SEO a nightmare. But Eric Enge poses that with thoughtful planning and SEO in mind from the onset, Webmasters can avoid crafting a site with overly complex page hierarchies, and reduce the amount of duplicated content. Enge's set of navigation solutions include crafting only one path for users to follow (a simple but viable option for site owners with less extensive product offerings), or setting up a system that …

Most Webmasters learn about the functionality of the robots.txt file very quickly, since incorrect use of the protocol can make it impossible for the search engines to crawl and index the site. But there is no trade organization backing use of the Robots Exclusion Protocol -- so technically, it's not really a standard, just a format that the engines and the site owners have agreed upon. Until now. A global group of publishers is rallying behind a set of extensions to the robots.txt protocol called Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP). Comprised mainly of publishers and news organizations like …

Alt Search Engines has compiled its list of the top 10 alternatives to the Big Four for 2007, and is asking readers to vote on which one should receive the title of "Search Engine of the Year." Pandia summarizes the choices and provides a link to the voting page. Finalists include social-oriented engines like Omgili, which indexes content from discussion forums, and AfterVote, which is a metasearch engine that also ranks results according to user votes. A look at the comments stream from the original Alt Search Engines post shows that Onkosh and Exalead have emerged …

At the heart of Li Evans' quick write-up of the link building session at SES Local is the idea of "win-win" -- that is, creating a situation where local businesses want to link to your site because they're getting something in return. Not to be confused with reciprocal linking, Sage Rock's Sage Lewis urged site owners to find creative ways to generate goodwill (and good links) within their community. "Be creative," and donate to local charities or sponsor a youth sports team, said LinkWorth's Matt Stoddart. Then requesting links from their sites won't seem so random. …

Fulfilling client expectations and maintaining an amicable relationship is vital to the success of any search pro -- whether she's part of a search firm, a digital agency or a solo consultant. But having a client who's fully committed to her search marketing efforts goes a long way toward fostering that success. Matt McGee outlines the qualities that make up a "committed SEO client," and some signs that a commitment-based problem may be brewing. McGee notes that it's often easier to work with sole proprietors, as they understand the determination and perseverance it takes to get even minor …

Google introduced dynamic keyword insertion tools for AdWords at least four years ago, but many search marketers have chosen not to use them. For some it's out of confusion, for others it's out of fear of wrecking an effective campaign. Andrew Goodman thinks that some of the fears are warranted -- after all, misuse of a feature that allows marketers to dynamically insert any keyword they're bidding on into the ad text (from headline and body copy, to URL) can cause a host of costly clicks. Goodman outlines the pros and cons of using dynamic keywords for …