So you're launching a new Web site, and you have a catchy, easy-to-type URL in mind, no one else has registered it, and you've checked to make sure that the .com domain is available. It's all systems go--except Ann Smarty recommends that you follow up on a few more things before you sign on the virtual dotted line. First, you should check to make sure that Google will not consider your domain name as a possible misspelling. Since many users enter a domain name into the search box (even if they already know it's www.[domainname].com), if they …

It's no secret that Google is continually doing back-end upgrades to its myriad ad products, but the AdWords Quality Score is one feature that many advertisers wish the giant would just leave alone. Last year Google started using the quality of an ad's landing page to help determine its Quality Score--and according to OneUpWeb's Adam, the rules are still too opaque for advertisers to follow. For example, there are Webmasters that are blatantly using their landing pages for click arbitrage, and Adam posts two such examples. These landing pages host nothing but sponsored links (likely from AdSense or …

Jobfox is the newest entrant to the online job search market, and the brainchild of Rob McGovern, the founder and former CEO of Careerbuilder.com The engine aims to make searching for a job online feel more organic, and matches candidates according to what McGovern deems, "The 10 Dimensions of a Good Job Fit." In addition to the standard features of profile, resume and Web page creation, Jobfox serves up multiple ways for searchers to be notified of possible matches and interested employers, including e-mail, text messages and IMs. The site also allows applicants to create "aliases" to protect …

Francis SEO's Galen de Young says that research suggests that b-to-b customers "overwhelmingly ignore" PPC ads when searching and stick to organic results--which means that b-to-b businesses may be best served by shifting more of their search efforts to SEO.

A recent search for "pizza Minneapolis" on Google yielded some 10 local listings above the fold--the latest example of how the giant continues to play with the density of Universal Search results. But Paul Jahn also draws attention to the fact that one particular local pizzeria managed to dominate both the paid and local search listings for those keywords. With screenshots, Jahn shows that Pizza Luce snagged the top and bottom local search listings, the second spot in the righthand-side sponsored links, as well as two organic listings (one of their own accord and the other via CitySearch) …

Microsoft set the blogosphere abuzz with the announcement of its intention to acquire FAST, an enterprise search company based in Norway--but most of the attention focused on what inroads the software giant would be able to make with enterprise search. Now fellow Norwegian company Pandia has the inside scoop on how some FAST staffers took the news--as, it seems that a sizable number of them hate Microsoft. According to Bjorn Olstad, FAST's director of technology, there are quite a few developers that "have a negative religious relationship to Microsoft." Olstad went on to say that while most …

You may not always have enough time to dive deep into SEO projects, but according to Derek Edmond, you can take care of one or two little things once a week that will combine to have a powerful effect on your Web site's search success. His extensive list of quick tips include using a free keyword research tool to find new, longer tail terms that you can develop content and optimize for, as well as answering one or two questions on a Q&A site like Yahoo Answers. He also suggests writing a positive, unsolicited recommendation for someone in your …

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a project aimed at getting college students to understand and be interested in search marketing through experimentation with AdWords. With $200 and three weeks, the students will manage a client's AdWords account--from keyword research, to crafting copy and performance tracking--and Google will judge them based on various criteria like CTRs. There will be global and regional winners--with the grand prize being a week-long trip to the Googleplex. Janet Driscoll Miller notes that in addition to grooming college students for future jobs at the 'Plex, the search giant is also helping to further …

Kalena Jordan runs her blog advice-columnist style, answering user questions with each post. Today's post features Peter and his questions about optimizing a site for its geographic location--like whether to strategically include the city name in multiple places on the homepage, and if the Distribution Meta tag is important. Jordan notes that Google recently launched a new feature that automatically allows Webmasters to associate their site with a specific region or country, and also says that creating geo-targeted sub-domains is also an option. It's less complicated when optimizing for a single location, and Jordan says to treat the …

Mike Grehan says that SEO firms as we know them now are headed for extinction. While he extols the virtues of bringing in a team to deal with the "heavy lifting" of getting pages indexed, link-building and plugging in meta data, he notes that once taught, members of the in-house IT team (or perhaps even a dedicated SEO strategist) can handle the upkeep. And that the outside firm no longer needs to be on the payroll. Search has become the dominant way users navigate the Web, and as such, has evolved to encompass the many ways that the …