The latest Google-killer's claim to fame is that it actually indexes more content than the search giant. "The debut of Cuil (pronounced 'cool' they say) comes with a boast of an index triple the size of Google's, at more than 120 billion pages," says David A. Utter. But in addition to depth of content, users need relevancy, and Cuil's team also says its results are more relevant than the other choices out there. Utter says that Webmasters can expect to see a crawler named Twiceler combing through their code as Cuil continues to index more sites. Currently, the engine …

The "go beyond the click-through" trend continues, as the MarketingSherpa team has crafted another article (based on survey responses from the research firm's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide) detailing oft-neglected search metrics that could be hindering your firm's (or client's) campaign success. "Measuring the success of a search marketing campaign starts with a fundamental metric: the click. But clicks alone don't tell you the real story," the team said. "Similarly, measuring conversion rate--the percentage of search-generated visitors who make a purchase or answer a call to action, such as registering for a white paper--doesn't give you enough insight to …

Excluding irrelevant or low-performing keywords (i.e., negative keywords) from your campaigns can greatly increase relevance (and efficacy), particularly when using broad and phrase matching. Linda Bustos offers some tips for negative keyword research using a trio of Google tools--the Keyword Tool, Google Suggest and Google Product Search. With Product Search, for example, you can find shopping-related terms, particularly brand names of products that you don't carry, that should be excluded from your campaigns. "When a search query involves a brand name, it's a strong signal that someone is looking to research or purchase a specific item, not check …

In a move that Barry Schwartz calls "one more step away from competing in paid search," Yahoo has announced that it is shutting down its Ambassador Program. The program offered search marketing training and certification, along with a Yahoo-endorsed logo that providers could display on their Web site. "This would give businesses the confidence they need to sign up with a SEM company to manage their Yahoo campaigns," Schwartz says. "Ambassadors also received extra support from Yahoo in terms of sales and education material." The company's official stance is that the Ambassador team tried to enhance …

Microsoft seems ready to really cash in on its $240 million Facebook investment, as the software giant announced a renewed, deeper partnership with the social network. Microsoft has been running paid search and contextual ads across Facebook for some time now, but the new deal will integrate Live Search as the network's official search engine (and pull in paid and organic results from around the Web--not just member profiles and apps). The news broke during an Analyst Day presentation, and Satya Nadella, head of Microsoft's search unit, said that the company was "excited about using [the deal] as …

Wil Reynolds was on the hunt for backpacking tips, so he ran a Google search for "how to backpack." In addition to being surprised that a Google Knol article showed up within the first three results--the pages have only been released to the public since Wednesday--Reynolds was also slightly alarmed to find a completely unrelated ad vying for his attention on the knol's lower quadrant. "This sounds like behavioral targeting to me in some way, shape, or form," he says. "Why else would a Google Knol page show an unrelated ad (I was on a backpacking page) for …

Bryson Meunier has postponed his honeymoon so that he can attend (and speak at) SMX Local & Mobile. Talk about a compelling conference! His logic stems from the fact that mobile SEO is still an aspect of the practice that "most SEOs at best don't quite understand, and at worst, ignore." And given the explosion of mobile Web usage (driven by the iPhone in particular), Meunier says "it's going to be difficult to ignore for much longer and still do your job as an SEO." Meunier also notes that since mobile will be the focus of …

Nick Stamoulis explains why blogging is an ideal way to generate high volumes of keyword-rich content, and outlines the blog elements that need to be tweaked for maximum SEO value. "A short carefully worded post every day is going to generate over 300 pages per year - that's allowing for the occasional day off," he says. "Unlike normal web pages, blog posts are easier to create and do not require extensive knowledge of HTML to create a search engine friendly page. However, each post still needs to include several SEO elements to help it rank." Those …

The YSM team has rolled out Ad Profiling, or a program designed to help advertisers improve campaign performance. "With Ad Profiling, we analyze high-impression keywords within an account that are performing poorly, relative to the marketplace," the Ad Quality team writes. "We then evaluate whether or not there are steps we can take to help improve their performance and the performance of the ad groups to which they belong." Some of the steps include tweaking an ad's alt text (replacing a broad term like "burning" with "DVD burning" to improve relevance, for example), revamping an entire ad's copy, …