Retrevo and ShoppingVale are two comparison shopping engines that specialize in consumer electronics, so Charles Knight had them face off on several criteria. In terms of driving traffic, ShoppingVale's strategy is primarily focused on paid search, as the shopping engine is running PPC campaigns on all three of the big engines. Meanwhile, Retrevo's traffic strategy is more SEO-based, but also focuses on getting users to evangelize the service themselves. In terms of what makes Retrevo a better choice than core search or searching via a retailer's site, the company says that its service algorithmically analyzes products …

New data from Netconcepts' Gravity Stream service found that there are really five "Cyber Mondays" during the holiday season. Organic search traffic has continued to grow from one Monday to the next, with an average of 14.5% growth week-over-week this holiday season -- compared to 9% during the same time period last year. And by using data from the past few weeks (as well as from pervious years), Netconcepts is pegging Dec. 17 to be the busiest Monday in terms of search volume.

There have been multiple accounts of changes to Google's SERPs with regards to Universal Search, but the search giant admits to constantly tinkering with the algorithm and certain interface features in the aims of "improving the user experience." But the newest change caught by the blogosphere is the shift to a double-paneled SERP (a la Ask-3D minus one pane), with the images, video or other non-text results lined up in a OneBox on the right side of the page. Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag notes that this new interface is remarkably like a design scheme AOL tried (and then …

Lisa Barone culls info from a recent MarketingSherpa seminar for this post on the best tests, design schemes and overall strategies for boosting the conversion power of landing pages. Stats from MarketingSherpa's new Landing Page Handbook reveal that of the myriad steps you can take to impact a landing page's conversion rate, dynamically serving the on-page copy bumped up conversions by 68%. Giving users a sign that this new page contains the specific information that they were looking for -- even simple copy that says "you searched for 'x' on Yahoo" -- is an incredibly effective change. Though …

Just days after Ask debuted its AskEraser search data anonymizing service, privacy advocates and industry insiders have said that it falls a bit short when it comes to eradicating user info. Jason Lee Miller highlights a statement in the AskEraser FAQs that proves that while Ask attempts to get rid of the search data, it cannot force third-party providers of info like stock quotes, weather conditions, and paid search results (i.e. Google) to remove the user info from their servers. Miller does more digging and finds out that Ask still keeps the search info (user or session IDs, …

Jonathan Mendez offers five reasons why landing page optimization (LPO) will take center stage next year. Competitive pressures will force both SEM firms and digital agencies to work LPO into their suite of standard offerings, as the number of advertisers searching for those services will increase -- and LPO will become a critical part of overall marketing spend. LPO technology will continue to improve, with dollars flowing from VC investors as well as new M&A activity in the space. Mendez also says that landing pages have become the "30 second spot" for the digital age, and as …

Did your client wait until the last minute to ask you to optimize their site for the holidays? Don't worry -- there are plenty of last minute shoppers, and SEO tips on how you can use to snag them! According to Stephan Spencer, you can still make some small changes that will impact their traffic and possibly sales. The first is to add some new keyword-rich links to the homepage -- holiday-focused, anchor text that the engines can pick up and will drive those last minute shoppers to your "great gifts and goodies." Revising your meta descriptions with …

The search giant's latest algorithm tweak centers on keeping Google News fresh and citing the sources that are doing the most to advance breaking stories, as well as shining a spotlight on local news outlets and their take on newsworthy events. Eric Lander pulls quotes directly from Sharad Jain, a software engineer who wrote about the changes on the Google News Blog. Instead of posting just the most recent sources to comment on a particular issue or event, Google News will "highlight the sources that brought you the information in the first place," and then update the results …

Want to snag more sales via your (or your client's) Web site? Try adding a video tour. While video may bump up a site's visibility in both the big engines and video-specific search services, recent Coremetrics data found that consumers who viewed on-site video tours were 35% more likely to actually make a purchase. Over 30 days, Coremetrics analyzed more than a million shopping sessions at CompUSA.com (which features Sellpoint's video retailing platform) and found that shoppers who'd seen a video tour spent more than 2.5 minutes on average viewing each individual product -- an engagement …

Kalena Jordan's lighthearted look at the ten worst offenses in site design and SEO spread the blame equally amid clients, Web designers, search pros and IT managers. It's likely that if you've been in the online marketing business for even a few months you've come across (or had a hand in?) at least one of these errors. Jordan includes three domain errors in the mix. The first is misspelling the domain (a caution against buying domains over the phone, or not verifying with a client exactly how it should be spelled), and the second is buying anything other than …