Andy Beal has translated the "Google-speak" from five statements made by Eric Schmidt, which offer insight (albeit opaquely) into the search giant's future plans for mobile, working with Yahoo, and being evil. For example, in an Infoworld interview, Schmidt said that Google prefers an "independent Yahoo," because it would be better for industry competition and innovation. Interchange "independent" with "weak," Beal says, as a combined Yahoo and Microsoft would dampen Google's money-making plans. Meanwhile, in a New Yorker interview with Ken Auletta, Schmidt echoed statements by Marissa Mayer earlier this year alluding to Google moving away …

You can pay for Web site traffic with PPC ads, and possibly even affiliate networks, but for Willie Crawford, the best ways to generate traffic for you (or your clients) are free. And it starts with getting a tool to alert you to when there's dialogue (be it via blog, forum, or even a video) going on about the chosen subject matter. "I use automated software to monitor and notify me of active blogs, forums, and communities in my niche," Crawford says. "When I discover a new resource, I then analyze it, and if appropriate, I interact with …

Google quietly continues to try to gain traction with Chinese searchers. The latest move is the purchase of 265.com, a "daohang," or startup page full of links that searchers use to navigate the Web. Daohangs direct users to sites like portals, other search engines, forums and communities--and Google has been a 265.com partner since last year, when the giant's search box was first integrated in the site. According to Gordon Choi, Google will leverage 265.com's traffic through contextual and search ads placed on the page. The acquisition follows Google's less-successful attempt to launch its own daohang last …

Often, there's no middle ground when newcomers to SEO (and even some seasoned vets) work with meta description tags. As Stoney deGeyter says, "They are often either considered to be more valuable than they really are, or dismissed as near irrelevant." But while meta description tags are a less important on-page element than say, a title tag or keyword density, they can definitely affect the way a site appears in the SERPs. "For many searches performed, the meta description on the page will display just below the clickable title," deGeyter says. "This gives you a bit of …

Rishi Lakhani outlines the keyword discovery process she uses for her small business clients--and notes that keyword discovery is actually the cornerstone of a simple, cost-effective SEO strategy for clients that don't have the industry knowledge or hefty bank accounts to warrant more in-depth proposals. First, ask the client to choose the one word they'd use to describe their business--then do the same with two words and on up to a total of five. With these questions, you're covering the most common keyword, and then some long-tail variations. Next, ask the client how they'd search for …

You can now port Google Trends data onto your desktop and peruse it in a spreadsheet offline. Google Trends provides insight into what's "hot or not" as determined by search volume over time. But beyond the fun factor, Web site owners can use the tool for preliminary keyword research, or even as a market research barometer. "Single or multiple terms generate a look at Google's view of where the searches come from, and who received more interest from searchers," says David Utter. "The activity of searches over time may help a business know when it might be a …

Richard Burckhardt takes Asif Anwar to task for a recent prediction (in an article dubbed "13 Prophecies of Internet Marketing") that on-page/on-site SEO is headed for extinction. "It will just take some time to identify ways to evaluate each site irrespective of Web development language used," Anwar wrote. "But, they will eventually get rid of the need to optimize your site for the Search Engines." While Anwar may be right about the engines developing ways to evaluate pages regardless of whether a site is built in HTML, all Flash or some other, new development code--Burckhardt says …

Barack Obama's advantage over Hillary Clinton may have stemmed from their (very different) track records as Senators. But according to Peter Greenberger, manager of elections and advocacy at Google, the Obama camp (and John McCain's camp, for that matter) also used search marketing more wisely than the Clinton team. "Through sponsored links in search results, the McCain and Obama camps have driven users seeking information on the candidates to their official Web sites to register for newsletters, volunteer or to donate money," says Kate Kaye. And in her Q&A with Greenberger, he sheds light on some of the …

Well, the typical engineer gets a combined salary/bonus of about $112,000. That's according to Glassdoor, a startup that lets users search for and share stats on how much people are making and where. "The idea is to collect as much detailed salary information and feedback for every job title at a company so that job seekers can know how to evaluate an offer, and current employees can see how they are doing relative to their peers," says Erick Schonfeld. Users can also write anonymous reviews of their company (and their upper management), and Glassdoor shows …