Brent Payne recaps the latest interview with Matt Cutts (by Eric Enge, SEO and author of the Stone Temple blog) and distills Cutts' "Google-speak" into a few useful tips. For example, paying for links outright is still a no-no. But paying a social media consultant to help you craft articles that snag a first page spot on Digg (and the ensuing links) is not. "Google's algorithm likes Digg and will like Digg for the foreseeable future," Payne says. "Googlebot sees Digg as a clean source of link authority. Hire social media marketers, people!" As for working with widgets as linkbait, …

Marios Alexandrou seems like one of the few search pundits that hasn't jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. And while he acknowledges that his industry counterparts have promoted (and sometimes proven) Twitter as an essential social media marketing tool. "I find myself more and more inclined to shut down Twhirl and move on," Alexandrou says. First, he argues that most of the Tweets people send are not valuable to the community (of followers). "I'm not saying that there has to be a money-making idea in every message, but a message to your network should at least be of value/interest to more …

The latest version of the AdWords Editor tool was released about two weeks ago and Page Christenbury reviews some of the newly upgraded features. The most significant change is the Editor's newfound compatibility with the Conversion Optimizer tool. Previously, you had to shut off the optimizer if you wanted to make any campaign changes with AdWords Editor. The new version also allows you to find duplicate keywords in multiples, as opposed to going in and deleting them one-by-one. "For example, you can choose to select all the duplicates with the lowest CTR, then delete them," Christenbury says. Meanwhile, AdWords …

So your client's better-than-average homepage has slipped from fourth or fifth place on the first SERP to first or second place on the second page for a particular keyword, and they want you (or your copywriter) to tinker with the copy. Before making any changes to keyword density, image or title tags, or even the "About Us" section, Karon Thackston says you should ask your clients some questions first. Are conversions suffering? If so, then perhaps a change in copy is necessary. But it could also be due to a new shopping cart or other usability changes that degraded the …

Ian Lurie offers a step-by-step guide to creating a "great" 404 not found page, including how to build it (via HTML or a Web page editor), upload it and get your server to point to it--whether via Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) or the open-source Apache server. He also lists the three components a quality 404 page must have, including a clear statement that the visitor is in the wrong place, advice to help get them back on track (via either links, a search box, etc.), and an option to contact the Webmaster. What a 404 error page shouldn't do …

Snagging the No.1 spot in paid search may not be the coup you think it is--particularly if your ad is in a broad category during a high volume-low quality click season. So Noah Belson offers some tips for determining when to bid for the top spot and when to aim for a lower position. "Though it's always nice to be number one, if you use up your entire daily budget with three clicks, is it really worth it?" Belson says. "When you're managing a limited budget, you may want to set your bids at reasonable levels that will stretch your …

Much of the discussion around the pros and cons of the proposed Yahoo-Google search deal centers on whether (or how much) it will affect bid prices. While there's no doubt that it will likely increase demand (and pricing) for advertisers using AdWords, many are on the fence about whether it sends prices up or down on Yahoo. Aaron Goldman lays out those scenarios, arguing first, that prices could go down on Yahoo if smaller advertisers in particular shift their focus (and their demand) over to Google, and just hope to catch some wayward Yahoo traffic. On the other hand, prices …

Michael Learmonth's short post is long on search executives--as it's about paid search management tech firm Clickable's roster of new hires. The New York-based startup has poached Jonathan Betz and Sandeeep Sahi, former techies from Google and Microsoft respectively, and made them both senior directors of engineering. For senior director for sales, Clickable has snagged former Google group manager for direct sales Bill Masterson. And Maxine Friedman, former vice president of media and marketing at BrandIntel joins as director of business development. Clickable's new hires also include execs from Boeing, Leapfrog Online and Viget Labs.