Rafi Farber gives two health search engines a test run when he finds out that a dear friend has psoriasis. In search of alternative remedies to the "very goopy" and "excessive" shampoo and ointment her doctor has prescribed, Farber starts his quest with iMedix. Israel-based iMedix offers articles on a plethora of diseases and ailments, complete with a correct-as-you-go spellchecker, to boost a user's chance of finding the info their after. "Secondly, iMedix gives you a network of people who are interested in the same disease," Farber says. "It's like Facebook for diseases." Meanwhile, Trusera is more community-focused, as it …

Web site owners keep hearing/reading/seeing "content is king," so it's no wonder that more than a few have been duped by content scraping services shilling syndicated articles. But the problem with these articles, Christopher Carlson notes, is that they've likely been posted all over the Web already--garnering the purchaser little-to-no SEO benefit, and possibly even scoring them duplicate content penalties. So what do you say when your client suggests buying syndicated articles, in an attempt to adhere to the "content is king" mantra? Carlson suggests explaining that content is king, but unique content is better. And while the process of …

Most link-building articles focus on ways to generate inbound links from other sites--as the quantity and quality of external links play a big part in a site's overall rankings. But as Scott Allen notes, "contextual internal links can also be effective in helping to improve a site's rankings for targeted key phrases." The logic behind internal link building (called "PageRank sculpting" by some) is that each page in a Web site has a given amount of link juice it can transfer. By directing it, you can strengthen a particular page's overall ranking (i.e. your homepage or a particular product …

Google Maps has added snippets of reviews to business listings, so now users can quickly gain an impression of a business--and either decide to find out more or move on. Innovative and interesting, yes. Beneficial to businesses and searchers? Perhaps not, according to Chris Silver Smith. First, most users make decisions based on the average impression from a number of reviews--weeding out the excessively bad or good experiences, until a holistic picture emerges. One review is effectively useless, particularly when there's a limited amount of space available in a listing already. And how is Google determining …

What's the No. 1 rule a small-business owner should follow before choosing a domain name (and a business name, for that matter)? According to Mitch Joel, they should run a search first to see if the name is already taken. That way, there's a diminished chance of picking the same as an already established business, and facing the ensuing intellectual property protection and trademark infringement battles. "We all need to run every name we're thinking of using (including mis-spellings and different versions) through the Search Engines," Joel says. "It seems simple enough, but I am constantly amazed at …

Shefali Singla serves up a checklist of quick optimization tips to try when you're experiencing less-than-stellar PPC campaign results in adCenter. For example, when faced with low CTRs, run a test of multiple ads (including the poor performers) and keep the ones that show potential. Try adjusting match types from broad to phrase (and vice versa), and don't forget to exclude negative keywords. If it's the ad's positioning on the page that's the problem, try increasing your base bid, and of course, make sure that your keywords, copy and landing page all match up in …

U.K.-based Aegis Media is set to acquire a significant stake in Communicate 2, a Mumbai-based search and contextual advertising firm. The firm serves mostly financial clients, including Reliance Money and Standard Chartered. "Search engine marketing is one of the key components of a successful campaign today," said Nigel Morris, CEO of Aegis' Isobar. "We've realised [sic] this early. Keeping this as a central philosophy, we globally acquired about 32 specialist agencies in the last four years." Communicate 2's services will be integrated into Carat (the media planning and buying division), and the whole package will allow …

Why are the search engines so reluctant to reveal the rationale behind their keyword matching options? Perhaps because advertisers would revolt if they found out the random terms their ads were being matched to. Such was the case when Google released the Search Query Report last year. It showed how broadly queries and ads were being thrown together, and advertisers responded by building long lists of terms they didn't want to be matched to. Enter the Yahoo Search Query Report--an eye-opener that may or may not be available, depending on which YSM account rep you speak to. Bonnie …