Google rolled out Universal Search amidst much fanfare last year, but many industry insiders noted that with the exception of entertainment-related queries, most of the time users still got text-only results. A debate over why the search giant was hesitant to show blended results (while upstart Ask continued to poke fun at Google's "bland" SERP in its TV ads) ensued. Part of the "blame" for the lack of multimedia content lies with publishers, as they've had to adjust to optimizing videos and images in addition to text. And the giant has always been a fan of testing, …

Adding a sitemap to your Web property can be a great way to help users navigate more effectively and keep them coming back -- but that's only if the sitemap itself is simple and well planned, according to Jeff Spires. Keep the graphics to a minimum, make sure to name the page "sitemap," and don't make it the only way users can navigate, Spires says. It's also important to submit the sitemap to the engines, as the links it contains will help their crawlers index all of the other pages on your site. Be sure to …

In the midst of the industry's most nonproductive week, OneUpWeb's Matt uncovered an interesting stat hidden in comScore's latest U.S. search rankings report. While searches on Google.com fell by about 4% in November, queries on Google's network of partner sites (including Blogger pages and YouTube) actually increased by more than 9%. Users conducted about 1.4 billion searches on these Google partner sites -- roughly 500 million more queries than across Time Warner/AOL's entire search network, and 400 million more than across Microsoft's entire network. And if the searches across Google's expanded network continue to grow, these partner sites …

Seems that there are limits to the kinds of advertisers that Google will allow to run AdWords and AdSense ads. No, they're not exactly going after domain squatters, content scrapers or the "made for AdSense" types -- this time the search giant has taken a firm stance against smut, or the inclination toward "adult content." Englewood, Colo.-based lingerie company Pampered Passions found that Google banned its ads for containing adult images and copy. The text and image ads were running across sites in Europe. According to a Google representative cited in the post, the ad had …

The concept of social media optimization (SMO) took hold in 2007, and now that search marketers have witnessed how traffic from social networks, blog comments and forums can help boost their rankings, expect the trend to continue. Dan Zarrella does guest author duty on the SEO Scoop blog and lays out a set of in-depth tips for maximizing your social media optimization efforts, starting with never submitting your homepage URL as linkbait on a social media site. Since you want to drive traffic to specific pages or articles with each SMO campaign, you'll need to create a unique …

Each of the big three engines offers PPC ad conversion tracking via a snippet of code that Webmasters can embed on their thank you or confirmation page -- but the Apollo SEM team found out that many site owners either aren't using the trackers or just aren't aware of them. Google illustrates the process of snagging and embedding the code via a Flash-based presentation -- including a thorough explanation of what conversions are and why tracking them is beneficial. For Yahoo Search Marketing, find the conversion tracking code in the dashboard under the "Administration" tab, then click …

Gina Trapani digs up some of the lesser-known tweaks searchers can use to find info on Google, from finding the time in various locales by entering "what time is it" in the search box, to tracking a flight's status by searching for the airline and flight number -- and getting the departure, arrival and on-time info (via flightstatus.com) as the first result. Some of these hacks are aimed at making it easier to shop online, like the "-site:" parameter, which lets users remove specific sites from the crawl (typically affiliate resellers like eBay, mammoth sites like Amazon, or …

Have you ever noticed how much the ever-evolving YouTube video page mirrors a Google SERP? Jonathan Mendez points out a number of similarities between the page layouts of Google's two properties, from the main logos nestled in to the upper left corner, to the fact that the search boxes are situated at the top of the screen on each. But the most telling similarity is the inclusion of links to similar videos, related Web pages and ads on the right side of the YouTube page -- much like the sponsored links that appear on a Google …

AdWords gives search marketers multiple ways to have their ads served according to which keywords searchers type in--broad match, exact match, phrase match and negative match. And, as with most campaigns, the best setting is determined by the promotion's goals (i.e., lead generation, actual sales, discounted sales, etc.). But Chad Frederiksen gives his take on which setting has worked best for his clients and their affiliate marketing efforts, and that's phrase match. With phrase match, "you get the specific long-tail targeting ability of exact match, with the flexibility of broad match thrown in," says Frederiksen.

It's official. SEM has moved a step closer toward becoming a commodity--or so it seems. Wal-Mart's bulk brand Sam's Club recently started advertising its SEM services for about $25-$100 per month. At a minimum, the services include submission to the search engines and the creation of listings with IYPs and local directories--with the likely option to get assistance with PPC or local search ad campaigns for an additional cost. The actual tech and services will be powered by Innuity (a privately held SaaS firm), which actually inked the deal with Sam's Club back in 2004. It seems that the …