The gloves are off when it comes to advertising for the upcoming elections, and while the debate is still on about how much the candidates will spend on Web ads, Google is already banking on snagging megabucks for paid search. With $10 minimum bids for state-targeted, generic phrases like "2008 elections" and "2008 senator election"--one can only imagine how expensive national-facing phrases like "presidential primaries" or "presidential election" are. The problem is that the giant's predictive tools can't even offer up a preliminary guess for how much traffic such terms may generate. Greg Meyer has some …

George Michie advocates using ad groups when managing content network campaigns, but when it comes to plain old paid search, he says that running huge campaigns using ad groups may actually be a barrier to success. One keyword can have multiple attributes, from customer targets, to SKUs, to holiday usage--and forcing it into an ad group based on one particular category can limit its flexibility. This is why the search team at The Rimm-Kaufman Group places keywords into ad groups only if they share all of the same attributes, not just one or two, as the PPC management platforms …

So your site was one of the PageRank casualties resulting from Google's recent paid links smack down--and now you want your traffic back. You agreed to play by the giant's rules and got rid of all paid links (possibly severely reducing your alternative cash flow) in the hopes of getting re-included in the main index, and filed a reconsideration request. That was more than a month ago--and no change. What gives? According to Matt Cutts, you might want to make sure that you've found every paid link or post and "no-followed" it, as well as removed any language …

Knowing how to set boundaries is not just a must for a healthy personal life, it's important for businesses as well--particularly when it comes to the scope of SEM projects. From creating a new PPC campaign (complete with keyword research and testing), to optimizing blog posts, to tweaking the copy on a specific landing page--every task needs to fit into the scope of work for a client, or the effort expended can quickly outweigh the service fees. Including a "Goals and Scope" document with every client's contract can go a long way toward helping account managers and strategists …

Phil Bradley reviews Galaxy IT, a new search engine currently in alpha phase that aims to visualize search. Specifically, the Fresno, Calif.-based company presents search results as a set of 8 boxes that surround your query. You can refine results with tabs like video, images and news, and zoom in or out to see more clusters of results (each in groups of 9 boxes). The problem with this interface, Bradley says, is that it quickly creates a cluttered screen with no room for the necessary info like URL or description. You can mouse over the boxes and …

Traffic, traffic, traffic, Anthony Kirlew says that before you even address the "how do I get more traffic to a Web site" question, you need to answer some fundamental questions about the site itself, starting with "Why would someone want to visit it?" Whether it's a blog, an e-commerce site, or just a company boilerplate and some management profiles, every site needs a purpose. So if you don't have products to advertise, and can't or don't see a need to develop articles, then create a customer review section or throw up funny pictures of the COO--in other words, …

UK-based Video Search News will host the first annual Video Search Summit on April 8 and 9 in San Francisco. Speakers like Pixsy CEO Chase Norlin and Suranga Chandratiilake, CEO of Blinkx, will be on hand to discuss the myriad issues that Webmasters face when trying to maximize the impact of online video, including indexation problems, legal battles, as well as the search vs. browsing debate. Discussions at the Video Search Summit will also address tactical issues, like how to incorporate Flash-based clips in search, how to broker syndication deals, as well as how to optimize videos for …

Housing recession--says who? Certainly not Roost, the newest real estate search engine to hit the market. Unlike hybrid home buying info sites like Trulia and Zillow, Roost is focused on search, plain and simple, with an interface that is quite similar to travel search engine Kayak. Users will find data from various local listings services and real estate agents, and can sort it according to criteria like price, school district and number of bedrooms. Currently in public beta, Roost covers 14 markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston and Portland, as well as various locales in northern and southern …

That's right, he said it. Wil Reynolds argues that search firms (and the search pros that work in them) are diminishing their own value in the industry, and driving more companies to develop search in-house. While it may be logical for a brand to cultivate a search-savvy marketing squad, complete with a few in-house pros, Reynolds says that most companies don't need their own full time search staff. But because there are quite a few search firms that engage in shady tactics and deliver poor customer service, companies are wary of calling in yet another "snake oil seller" …