MSN's Live Search has a reputation for driving traffic, with some of the highest conversion rates of all the engines--so if you're having trouble ranking for terms on Live, then you could be missing out on leads, sales and eyeballs. There are a plethora of reasons for failing to gain good placement on Live, the first of which is lack of quality content. The Live Search Webmaster team suggests the usual content creation and optimization tips (keeping it unique, effective keyword research and correct use of tags and meta data) and provides links to examples of sites with …

Yes, it is, says Brian Chappell. The second edition of MarketingSherpa's Landing Page Handbook contains more than enough info to justify its seemingly heavy ($500) price tag. Instead of just providing strategic guidance and tips for testing and optimizing landing pages, the handbook uses case studies and statistics to back up its findings. In addition, MarketingSherpa offers insight into crafting landing pages for various types of online channels--including Webinars, e-mail campaigns, blogs, podcasts and even mobile landing pages. Chappell gives a few examples of some of the more concrete learnings that come from the handbook as well, like …

Using a list of 10 auto insurance info Web sites, Patrick Altoft aims to illustrate that Webmasters are still using paid links to drive traffic and boost PageRank--and that this technique may be one of the best (or only) ways to compete in such a particularly competitive niche. Some may call it "outing," and others may call it plain old investigative journalism, but Altoft includes the link analysis (via the "-site:" search parameter) of each site, and points to the fact that some of their inbound links come from properties with no good reason to link to them--other …

So you've done a thorough SEO evaluation for a new client, and while there aren't any glaring errors like a horrible URL structure or a corrupt robots.txt file, the site could use a few front and back-end upgrades. For non-search types, an exhaustive checklist of changes might seem daunting, so Shimon Sandler says to take it easy at first, and give them a list of the top priorities. For on-site performance, make sure to tell them about title and H1 tags, as changes to those will often garner some of the most visible improvements. Address issues with body copy …

Since most PPC ads max out at about 20 words over two or three lines of text, every word counts. And given the uber-competitiveness of paid search, Gordon Choi says that it's no longer enough to have just the account manager oversee keyword and ad copy selection--you need a professional copywriter. To justify adding to the department headcount, Choi cites the myriad ways a pro copywriter can pump up the bottom line, including increased CTRs and conversions. The right copy not only can boost clicks, it can entice searchers to follow through and make a purchase on the …

Loren Baker reports that Yahoo is serving images alongside sponsored text links on its Yahoo Directory property, possibly a testing ground for future image-based ads on Yahoo's core search page. The images themselves (served by imageAdvantage) are not clickable and are seemingly not chosen by the advertisers themselves. Although there are no indications that Yahoo plans to test these ads on its contextual network, Baker notes that using images would violate the Web giant's own terms of service.

WordPress may be one of the most popular blog platforms, but the content management system (CMS) doesn't automatically tweak things like post titles, filenames or slugs for maximum search exposure. So Michael Gray offers a step-by-step rundown of how to optimize WordPress blog entries for search, using a post about teen celeb Jamie Lynn Spears being pregnant as the example. By default, WordPress would craft the same sentence for the page title, post title and page slug: "Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant." Gray suggests making minor changes that would correspond to the way people would search for such juicy …

Yahoo has finally brought its FareChase price search engine out of stealth mode, making it one of the default options on the Yahoo Travel homepage. Users can search for flights, hotels and vacation packages and compare prices right within the main window It's a calculated move that was likely spurred by the industry buzz that surrounded Kayak's recent acquisition of rival travel search engine SideStep, as Yahoo has had the FareChase technology since 2004. Yen Lee notes that Yahoo is already a formidable player in the travel search game, with only the trio of Expedia, …

Local advertisers may have the option to insert addresses into a new, fourth line of ad copy in AdWords, according to Greg Sterling. Sterling received an inside tip via screenshot that showed a local search ad with the business' address nestled under the URL line. While this new feature is not widespread, Sterling thinks that it's legitimate (as opposed to a crafty advertiser pulling a fast one), and that we'll likely see more of these kinds of ads in the future. And it raises the question of whether these kinds of ads will be sold on a CPC …

Finding a great search pro is a lot like searching for a soul mate--you want someone who's got the knowledge and experience, is gonna stick around for the long haul, and is consumed by a burning desire to make it work. It's an important process, so Jennifer Osborne serves up some tips for hiring your own SEO Rockstar. First, you should clearly define what kind of candidate your organization needs. It's not enough just to say SEO anymore--will they need to craft a social media strategy and handle paid search too? Will they be the point person for …