According to Stoney DeGeyter, product pages are some of the most vital components of an e-commerce site, as they provide information on the products themselves, shipping costs, warranties and return policies -- as well as what separates one company from its competitors. Most importantly, these pages need to move visitors through the purchase process -- from research and competitive analysis, to product selection and then an actual transaction. And DeGeyter serves up 12 tips for tweaking these pages to net increased conversions. Including a call to action -- whether it's "buy now," "add to cart," or "add …

If you've ever taken a Myers-Briggs-based personality test, then you probably have some idea of whether you're an Introverted-Thinker, an Extroverted-Judger, or any of the other myriad variations. By applying those kinds of characteristics to keyword and ad copy research, Hamlet Batista has developed an ingenious way to craft more effective PPC campaigns. So if Methodical types want accuracy or proof, then you could target them with copy that includes a "100% money back guarantee." Ad copy with keywords or phrases like "community" or "help others" would likely appeal to Humanist types, since it appeases their need to …

Launching a non-US version of a site may not be part of a smaller company's initial growth strategy, but if there's a spike in demand for their products or services from other countries, then establishing a Web presence in that market will be good business sense. But what are the steps to take to ensure that the new site is successful? According to the Fresh Egg team, the first steps are to get a domain in the selected country (i.e. widgets.br for Brazil) and have it hosted by a Brazilian service. This makes it easier for the in-country …

Big, successful brands (and their SEM teams) aren't immune to making mistakes when it comes to paid search, and the blogosphere continues to catch their blunders. This time it is Target, and Daniel McGuigan uses screenshots to show how the retailer snags perfect PPC placement for a product, only to have the ad link consumers back to the main homepage instead of the product's own landing page. Since the ad copy actually featured the correctly targeted URL, this technically isn't an inexcusable offense. But McGuigan notes that most shoppers aren't going to remember that URL they …

Aside from lead-gen models like click-to-call or third-party sources like Yodle, there's no industry standard for making direct correlations between PPC ads and offline sales. But Scott Clark compiles info from fellow search marketers and a recent SMX conference to come up with an outline of five ways to link offline conversions to paid search campaigns. Anecdotal tracking is the most ambiguous, since it just attributes a specific number of sales to the paid search efforts. As Clark says though, this method is "never, ever accurate" unless PPC is the only kind of advertising the company ever uses. …

Say what you will about Google's stance on paid links and PageRank (and the myriad blurred lines between their other free and for-profit products and services), but the search giant has always maintained a thick wall between the paid and organic search results. Not even offering a paid inclusion model (as Yahoo has done with SSP) bolsters the integrity of Google's organic listings, and according to Bryson Meunier, the assault on paid links helps to keep big businesses with big pocketbooks from gaining an unfair advantage in natural search.

Some domain hosting companies also offer site design services, making it easy for business owners to establish an online presence quickly, somewhat stylishly and on-the-cheap. By serving up various templates and automating the meta-tagging and content uploading processes, these companies are able to keep costs low (and charge much less than a design firm or consultant). But according to Miriam Ellis, sometimes these package deals come with hidden strings attached. And in the case of Homestead.com, one of the "best known" site design template and hosting companies, that string prevents site owners from actually owning their newly launched …

Hitwise search stats show that the Nintendo Wii was the most-searched for product with UK shoppers in November. The volume of searches for "Nintendo Wii" jumped by 156% year-over-year, and by 278% for "Wii." Essentially, six in every ten searches for a game console in November was for a Nintendo Wii -- but due to widely publicized shortages in the UK, it's likely that a majority of those intents to purchase went unfulfilled. The scarcity of the console has created a strong market for Web sites that tell searchers exactly which stores have them in stock. …

Low quality scores, low quality click traffic and low or decreasing conversion rates are three of the most common problems a search marketer can encounter with PPC campaigns, so John Lee has compiled a list of quick steps you can take to deal with them. The strategies for fixing low AdWords Quality Scores and low conversion rates are roughly the same: Break down your keyword list into tightly themed ad groups, assess their overall relevance and upgrade if necessary.. The first step in combating low quality traffic is to define what high quality traffic really means …

"MySpace" was the king of all search terms in 2007, according to Ask.com's Real Deal list. The social networking site beat out searches for "area codes," "weather," and even "Google" to claim the No. 1 spot -- and no other social media site gained a place in the top ten. Searchers were hungry for information on "Barack Obama," who took the top spot for presidential candidates. "Hillary Clinton" and "Fred Thompson" took the second and third spots, respectively. In sports, the "Boston Red Sox" beat the "Colorado Rockies" both in the World Series and search -- …