Launching multiple microsites geared toward a number of new products may seem like a sound online marketing plan--particularly for companies that are willing to experiment with funky URL titles, user-generated content, and even fake products that ultimately promote a real brand. But as Dr. Naveel notes, brands like Converse that have tried the strategy tend to see weakened organic search results for said microsites overall. The problem stems from the fact that the engines are less likely to trust new microsites because they typically suffer from a lack of inbound links and have a young domain age. "It …

Raul Vasquez is president and CEO of Walmart.com, the e-tailing subsidiary of Wal-Mart, and Bryan Eisenberg recaps his keynote speech from Shop.org's Merchandising Workshop. Vasquez shed light on Walmart.com's continuous optimization strategy, noting that there are four elements the Webmaster team focuses on--value, assortment, ease and content. Vasquez said that visitors needed to see the value that a retailer offers from the moment they land on a retailer's homepage. Site owners should feature the best products they offer most prominently, but still show shoppers that there's a wide variety. Meanwhile, the Walmart.com team constantly worked on …

Shane Richmond, communities editor at Telegraph.co.uk, responds to a recent article (by satirical pub Private Eye) claiming that the Telegraph was forcing its reporters to write stories based strictly on keyword popularity. The piece also said that writers were instructed to cram as many keywords as possible into each article's first paragraph. "Normally I'd chuckle and move on but the Private Eye item seems to have caused a little confusion, which I want to dispel," Richmond says. He argued that having reporters use keywords--choosing "Fallujah" instead of "a city west of Baghdad," for example--was key to helping readers …

"Call it osmosis, link transference or what you like, the fact remains that 'what other sites say about you' meaning 'how they link to you' (or how you build links) matters," says Jeffrey Smith. "Search engines, much like in real life, need someone to vouch for the character and quality of the target site." He digs into the rationale of why the engines rely on links so much to determine a given site's reputation, as well as outlines tips for building link equity using anchor tags. Smith also offers advice for figuring out which sites in your niche …

Google faces a tough challenge in the coming months with regards to its ads quality initiatives. In previous quarters, the search giant dialed down the number of ads it displayed, as well as scaled back on the number of publishers it allowed within its AdSense network. "Google has reduced the number of keyword ads on results pages by more than 40% in the past 6 months from an average of 6.5 ads to 4 ads," according to AdGooroo's Richard Stokes. And while the measures were taken to improve the quality (and ultimately CTRs) of search ads, the …

Google has added new targeting capabilities to AdWords. Now advertisers can choose to run campaigns that are both keyword- and placement-targeted, bringing more precision to ads running on the AdSense content network. Advertisers can set custom bids for placements on specific sites. For example, you can set an overall minimum bid for the word "laptops," but raise or lower that bid accordingly to attain placement on specific sites (chosen based on performance) within the content network. You can also make sure that an ad runs only if both the keyword and placement choice match.

If you're trying to reach the gamer set, Eric Anderson suggests launching a search marketing campaign before you look to in-game ads. What's the rationale? It's simple, really. Gamers are engaged in their game, and don't have time or impetus to respond to ads. Searchers, on the other hand are on the hunt for game-related info like cheats, demos, release dates and store locations. While Anderson acknowledges that in-game ads can be useful for branding, he argues that there's still a significant amount of clutter to cut through. "The gamer audience is growing," he says. "However, the best …

Greg Meyers is an SEO who's been on diaper duty since the recent birth of his son, so naturally, the decision of which diaper brand to choose (Huggies or Pampers) sparked his curiosity about each brand's search marketing strategy. In terms of Web site usability, Pampers won hands down. "Pampers wins for their 'quick and easy' homepage navigational structure which targets a typical parent who is most likely interested in their products and identifying with the age of the baby (Prenatal, Newborn, Baby, Toddler, Preschooler)," Meyers says. "On the other hand, Huggies' homepage starts with Playing Games, Watching …

P.J. Fusco offers some tips for tuning up your holiday campaigns and landing pages now (you've never heard of Christmas in July?) for better performance come December. Most e-tailers develop holiday-themed landing pages with a plethora of product info and targeted calls-to-action. And since the engines have to cope with indexing hundreds of thousands of new pages of content, attaining top rankings becomes more difficult. So instead of negating all the SEO efforts that go into those pages by killing them, see if you can maintain the links--or at least redirect users to other sections of …