Every wonder how or why Google would drop out content from search results for a few hours, after it had been there for at least a day? I have. I saw it happen. It made me think I was going crazy. Thank you, Ben Hendrickson, for providing some sort of explanation in this post. He said Google likely works with two indexes. One hypothesis is that Google removes a page from the small index only after it is in the big index. Then both indices would have the content for a while until the small index was …

Don't forget about testing to improve the effectiveness of text in your ads relative to PPC campaign performance. It could lead to better CTRs and quality scores, which means driving CPCs down, and/or lets you buy more clicks per dollar. David Szetela believes testing a variety of different text in ads can help fine-tune messages visitors see on your PPC landing pages, helping you improve conversion rates even further. Szetela provides examples, graphs and suggestions on taking the correct course of action, even after realizing that you didn't choose the best keywords, or because the clusters of words …

Yahoo has unveiled precise geo-targeting options for search advertisers. Users can target specific campaigns to cities and ZIP codes, whereas previously they could only hit entire states and designated market areas. The feature comes with an interactive mapping interface that marketers can use to choose cities and Zip codes. The city menu includes about 3,500 municipalities in the U.S and Canada. Geo-targeting let you analyze a users' search queries, their Internet Protocol (IP) address and other user information to determine where they are and what ads to serve to them. The blog post contains basic guidelines to get …

The ultimate goal of keyword research is to end up with tightly focused groups of keywords you can effectively use in your Web site. Depending on your keywords, a search for core terms could produce results ranging from 0 to 1000 different keyword search phrases, according to Stoney deGeyter. If it produces zero, then scrub that core term, or maybe set it aside for a day or two to see if it gains in search popularity. If you break down your core terms correctly, you will get a list between 10 and 300 keyword phrases returned. Now that …

How to increase low search traffic? For starters, it is helpful to understand your ads impression share, a Google metric that represents the percentage of impressions your ad received out of the total available impressions in the market you're targeting. Google makes the Impression Share report available through the Report Center. With this information in ad, you can can begin to ask pertinent questions like: Am I losing impressions due to low ad rank? And: Am I losing impressions due to a low budget? Answering such questions, you can make more effective changes to your campaigns and boost …

You might want to keep this list of Firefox browser plug-ins handy. Josh Dreller highlights about 17 very cool tools that can save time by making you more efficient. Morning Coffee, appropriately named, lets you open a group of Web sites, from AdWords to adCenter to management tools, with one click. Then there's IE Tab, a tool that embeds Internet Explorer in Mozilla/Firefox tabs. Use it when working in Web solutions that seem to work better in IE. Download Statusbar is another. Use the tools when downloading stuff, such as white papers, brand guidelines, manuals, from the Internet. …

What can White Hat and Black Hat SEO teach us about social media optimization? Brian Carter makes a gallant effort to explain by first defining the terms and then providing examples. Through a combination of Web sites, numerous blogs, and social networks, Carter holds six of the top 10 rankings for his name, and 10 of the top 20. So, Carter considers himself a "White Hat," meaning he's earned the rankings with hard work, quality content and maintaining a good reputation. No small deal ranking six in the top 10. After all, "Brian Carter" is a common name. …

How many times have you searched and found a link on Digg, Reddit or any other popular UGC/social media site only to click on it to find the server unresponsive? I have, countless times. The servers can't deal with the amount of traffic, so they practically come nearly to a crashing halt. Pier-Luc Petitclerc notes several solutions, though none guarantee your server will withstand a Digg push. They should help, however. In the examples, Petitclerc uses a traditional popular setup: PHP 5, Apache 2, MySQL 5 running on a Linux server. One of the best ways to ensure …

Learning from your competitors isn't easy, but it can move you to the head of the line. For starters, know what works for your competitors, and what doesn't. Taking time to analyze and compare several of your competitors' on-page and off-page keywords can make your list much better and help you choose your keywords more carefully. The key isn't to copy other sites, but develop an effective way to compete and move ahead. Tips in this post help you identify how your competitors rank and use PPC keywords. It also discusses backlinks and social media. Analyze how social …

Yahoo has released a tool that integrates social networks, social graphs, social bookmarks, social news, social gaming, and other sites across its network. Available in beta to all, Yahoo Profiles provides a central destination, also known as the "control panel," allowing users to pull information on them from across the Web and manage their identity, activities, interests, and connections from one location. Yahoo calls the tool a key element in the Yahoo Open Strategy, which aims to make services open and social. As the search engine begins to add capabilities to services like Yahoo's homepage, Mail, and Messenger, …