Look to see if a site serves up malware before building SEO links to it, suggests Loren Baker. Get into the habit of monitoring the inbound links to "your potential linking partner's site, and see what kind of sites those links are coming from and whether or not they belong to obvious link swapping or reciprocal linking schemes." Baker's post provides a video on how to check if a site distributes malware. Noting that Google flags webmasters about sites, he provides a link to Google's Safe Browsing Diagnostic Checker.

Bankruptcy is no excuse for missing out on an SEM opportunity to gain customers, according to Noah Mallin. "A paid search ad directing users to Circuit City bankruptcy bargains would scoop up a good segment of those searchers and deliver them (and their much-needed cash) to Circuit City," he writes. Mallin notes the search term "circuit city bankruptcy" ranked in the top 10 on Google. While some searchers were no doubt looking for news stories about the bankruptcy filing, or concerned about their jobs, others probably thought what a great time it would be to pick up that …

Google announced a few upgrades Tuesday to improve media planning processes. Aside from making Ad Planner accessible to anyone with a Google account, AdWords now lets you define your audience by keywords and geography. Amanda Kelly provides an example. "You can find video game enthusiasts based on their likeliness to search for keywords such as 'video games' or 'video game codes,'" she writes. "You can also drill-down to specific states or metros (region or cities in geographies outside the U.S.)." The new features also let you manage site results and analyze media plans. The interactive bubble charts let …

More businesses realize the importance of organic search rankings on branding and sales for their business, according to Eric Enge. It's creating demand for SEO talent to help improve positions in Web search queries. So shouldn't they get paid their worth? "A talented and hard working SEO can bring good gains to a business," he writes. If a Web site generates $500,000 in sales before the SEOer gets involved, and their efforts result in increases close to $1 million, then there is plenty of room to pay the SEO something for their work. Enge serves up several examples …

Finding the actual search terms your PPC traffic comes from isn't always simple, but Richard Fergie gives you a few tips and tricks that Google Analytics users should know. It requires using filters that he didn't know existed until last week. Providing examples, Fergie emphasizes the importance of knowing the broad keyword queries that Google matches "either to negative match them or to reduce CPCs by using an exact match." He steps you through several clear and concise processes that should help find and apply the information. (Unfortunately, you cannot retrofit old data.) Be patient, Fergie writes, it …

Jonathan Mendez demonstrated a giant leap forward in relevance for display ads during a recent campaign for a client that uses RAMP, or Relevance Amplifiers. It involves providing "keyword lists to no less than 4 different display networks focused on understanding intent, affinity and sentiment (Facebook was not one of them)." The ad platform uses keywords "dynamically" to target and deliver content. "One of the most exciting things about the move to a Search OS in Display is the use of keywords for ad and content targeting," Mendez writes. The use of REST and Semantic APIs, along with …

Search engine optimization specialists, or SEOers, have a language all their own. They speak in industry-specific abbreviations and acronyms, expecting you to understand what they say on the first go-around. We all know that's typically not the case. So, Julie Batten compiled a list of the most frequently uttered search-industry terms, jargon, abbreviations and definitions to help you communicate better with the SEO specialists working to optimize your Web site. Some of the words Batten explains include conversion, CPC, CTR, organic ranking, quality score and SERP. She also points you toward glossaries of terms used in both search and …

SEO, the act of adjusting Web site code and content with the primary purpose of getting ranked high in search results, is on its way out. So says Micah Baldwin, vice president of business development at Lijit Networks, Inc., after moderating a panel on SEO and social media marketing at the Thin Air Summit in Denver, Colo. "If you do SEO for a living, you will be out of business or irrelevant in 3 years," he writes. Baldwin suggests companies need to drop their SEO agencies and take steps to write focused content and clean code, distributing the …

Two keyword match techniques may benefit your overall return on PPC investment, generating more traffic and improving targeted results for visitors, according to Matt. These techniques can work alongside traditional strategies to display exact matches in ads on your site when someone searches for precise words. Matt suggests adding a list of negative keywords to prevent an advertisement from being displayed for ambiguous search terms or when specific words are added to key phrases. Using broad matches is another technique that not only returns your ads on exact keyword matches, but for match results that display ads when …

Are you looking for a great link builder? Great content, site optimization and quality links can deliver high search results, but the person charged with optimizing the site isn't always the best one to build the links. You need a professional who knows the ins and outs of link building. This person tends to be more sales and marketing focused than the typical search engine optimizers, who tend to be more analytical and creative. Most people who build an effective Web site for their business understand Web development, but their grasp of SEO is typically hazy, according to …