SEO copywriting assignments may require you to wax poetic about subjects you barely know (or care) much about. So to avoid mashing your keyboard in frustration, or crafting paragraphs full of fluff, try these tips from Jared (as cribbed from late English professor and linguistics expert Paul McHenry Roberts). First, find facts to bolster your content. "At times, copywriters avoid the meat and potatoes of a subject; they become lazy and opt out of creating tangible writing for writing that's general and unspecific," Jared says. "Uncovering and sharing useful facts can help when you run out of things …

Google and Mozilla have added another three years to their search partnership, meaning Google will still be the default search engine for Mozilla's Firefox browser, and Mozilla will continue to earn a significant portion of its overall revenue from the deal. Doug Caverly digs up the most recent figures that illustrate just how important Google's search revenue is for Mozilla's bottom line. In 2006, "Mozilla received about $56.8 million--or 85 percent of its revenue--thanks to the deal," he says. Numbers like that are what enable Mozilla to keep developing products like the Firefox browser, which has gained favor …

Jim Gilbert and Mike Churchill offer some examples of how well (or not so well) campaigns that have been optimized using Google's Automatic Matching have been performing, along with some best practices for making use of the feature. In one case, Automatic Matching increased the cost of a particular ad group by 600%. About 88% of all resulting clicks came from the automatically matched keywords--and yet only about 30% of the traffic the ad group generated was actually relevant. All those wasted, poorly targeted clicks "effectively made the CPC of the keyword buys in this AdGroup 3.5 times …

Ask has gone live with a revamped Ask Kids section, offering kids a search engine that's easier to navigate (more clicking than typing) and safe. And while the improved navigation and indexing make it great for kids on the hunt for info for upcoming projects, etc., Bill Hartzr notes that there are some discrepancies when it comes to sponsored content. For example, a search for "Texas" yields info on the state's population, state bird and song, but also features sponsored links right in the middle of the screen. "I know Ask.com needs to monetize their search engine, but …

Ann Smarty reviews 10 meta-search engines, including newcomers like Clusty and IxQuick, as well as old-timers like Mamma and DogPile, highlighting some of their unique features and the value that they can add to a searcher's experience. For example, FuzzFind combs regular search engines and social media sites for query responses, while Mamma crawls all the engines and multiple content types, including video, images and IYPs. Still, while the idea of a search engine aggregator seems good, Smarty notes that "most (if not all) meta-search tools are no better than an individual search engine as neither of them …

Kate Newton takes a U.K.-based look at pre-holiday PPC preparation in this post, but notes that the overlying themes would also work stateside. First, use a service like Hitwise (or tools that plumb the engines' historical data) to find out when the searches for holiday-related terms start to spike. If it's early October, you may want to start running your targeted campaigns. Then, comb the news to find out which products and services have been generating the most hype. "Encourage customers to pre-order and buy early to avoid disappointment through your ad copy," Newton says. And don't forget …

The Google Suggest feature helps eliminate searcher misspelling, letting users hone in on what they may be searching for. But as Jaan Kanellis notes, the feature could actually have a negative effect on the long tail and the keywords that you find directing traffic to your site. "I think the biggest change will be losing long tail keywords," Kanellis says. "Where you would usually see 4-5 keyword phrases, searchers may opt to try the short tail version Google Suggests. Even if the user stays with a long tail query it more than likely will be one from Google …

Bill Hartzer delivers the rundown on six ways to get "nearly instant" links to your Web site. And why might you need inbound links ASAP? "Perhaps it's a blog post," Hartzer says. "Perhaps it's just a new web site and a brand new domain name and you 'want to do something' to jumpstart it somehow." First, submit your site to OneMission.com or Easy Link Directory, two sites that quickly establish links. You could also add link-back to the site through one of your (many) social media accounts, including StumbleUpon, dropjack.com and spicypages.com. Or go one better and craft …

Forestle is an alternative search engine that's green at heart, as the company purchases and protects rain forests with the profits generated from each query. "It costs around $200(US) to buy one acre (4,047 m² or 4,840 yd²) of rain forest," says Rafi. "On average Forestle earns around 0.5 US cents per search. Thus, you can save about 0.1 square meter (0.11 yd²) of rainforest with every search at Forestle." And while that may not seem like much on its own (it's about the size of an average computer screen), the average Internet users does about …