Ask has added Compete data feeds into its search results, so users can see how much traffic a given Web site has had in the past month and its relative rank before they click through. The logic is simple, according to Sven Rossbach, product manager at Ask.com. "Knowing how popular a site is, for example, can give an idea of its influence and trustworthiness or it may be helpful in various types of research," Rossbach says. To keep the SERP uncluttered, Ask has tucked the Compete stats away in the binoculars feature, so only users who mouse over …

So your search firm isn't quite enterprise-sized, but it's no longer a fledgling start-up either. How do you keep on growing? According to Marios Alexandrou, successfully scaling out takes a combination of new hires, outsourcing and automation. The new hires come in to fulfill the more junior or entry-level roles; this way, the "experienced employees are able to increase the number of projects they can handle by delegating tasks to more junior employees," Alexandrou says. Keep in mind that the senior-level team member should still have enough time to be involved in his own project work--and not …

"As more and more companies turn to organic search to gain a competitive advantage, it can be increasingly difficult to achieve high rankings for the generic terms that everyone in your industry is pursuing," says Scott Buresh, CEO Blue Medium. So separate yourself from the pack with keyword differentiators that turn generic terms into highly targeted traffic sources. For example, instead of aiming for "e-mail marketing" try optimizing for "business to business e-mail marketing" or "Web based e-mail marketing"--two phrases that narrow the focus and will likely draw in more qualified traffic. "Suddenly …

Poland-based Argos Translations kicked off 2006 with a Web site redesign that garnered a whopping 240% increase in traffic. But by 2007, the company needed a new strategy to help maintain that traffic and generate more qualified leads at the same time. Using four tactics, Argos ended up increasing leads by 58%, page views by 34%, time on-site by 46% -- and decreased the site's bounce rate by 12%. The company started by developing more content--creating two new language versions of the Web site to attract non-English speakers. The marketing team at Argos optimized the content by …

Perhaps there are images on a client's site that they'd rather not have indexed, either because they draw in the wrong kinds of traffic, increase bandwidth costs or strain the servers. Philipp Lenssen outlines the steps you can take to prevent the engine's crawlers from accessing those images, with the first strategy to include the "noimageindex" tag in the header portion of a page's HTML. But the "noimageindex" meta data may not be enough if other Web sites can still link to those images (as the crawler will be able to access them through the link). So …

Debra Mastaler has seemingly found the consummate example of how Wikipedia pages can be erroneous, outdated or otherwise misleading--the entry titled "Methods of Web site linking" she found while doing a search for "link popularity." The entry contained sections on tactics like "incestuous linking," "link doping," and "free for all linking," as well as references to paid links and link exchanges. Mastaler points out that there was no info on Google's recent changes to its paid links policies--nor were there any disclaimers or links to the engine's official guidelines for "safe" link building strategies. There …

Jennifer Osborne uses a real client example to illustrate how search marketers can go beyond the linkbait to measure the value of online PR--starting with the number of headline impressions generated. Of course the number of links factors into the equation, but Osborne says that she also focused on the increase in site traffic (as measured by an analytics suite) and metrics like time spent on-site, number of pages viewed and bounce rate. Taking note of the sites that helped drive the traffic is also key, as having it picked up by influential bloggers and authoritative sites in …

The Presidential candidates can use Google Checkout to collect donations from their supporters--and even allow supporters to place a Google Checkout button on their own Web page, blog or social network profile to help solicit more donations. But Kaitlyn Smeland brings up the issue of the wealth of data that Google could mine from these donations--including contributor's names, addresses, employment and other demographic info, past purchases and buying patterns if they had an existing Google Checkout account, and search history if they had an iGoogle homepage. While Google should be commended for helping to make …