Google may throw an awesome hoedown at SES, and you may have a great relationship (and sometimes even great cocktails) with your Yahoo rep--but Craig Danuloff wants to remind you that your contacts at the search engines are not your friends. "It's hard to not think of them as friends, corporately or personally," he says. "But from a business perspective, they're vendors who want your money. Powerful vendors who work with levels of secrecy you'd accept from none of your other vendors." With a post aimed at keeping search marketers on their toes, Danuloff digs into …

Jon Rognerud suggests asking at least 20 questions before handing your $10 million or even $10,000 business over to a search firm or consultant. The queries are aimed at helping you determine whether the firm's knowledge base, cost efficiency and ability to deliver results are worthy of your account. "And as the search engines are continuously updating their own methods of providing accurate search results, it's even more important to find a search marketing agency that's up-to-date on the latest strategies," Rognerud says. The questions range from fundamentals like "Do you guarantee top search engine rankings?" …

Google is closing its offices in Dallas and Denver. The two locations were AdWords sales support hubs, according to Bill Hartzer. And the Dallas closure in particular has members of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM) up in arms. The trade organization released an official statement questioning Google's decision to close down. "With all of the brand power, brain power and money that is controlled in Dallas, it is absolutely a mystery to me why Google would choose to close this office," said Tony Wright, vice president and spokesperson for DFWSEM. "I just don't think the …

Outside.In, the company focused on hyper-local news and community Web sites, has rolled out a number of personalization tools. For example, there's Radar, which pulls in Twitter alerts from local sources and allows you to "tag" local spots to stay updated when they post new content. Meanwhile, there's My Feed, which locates the places and neighborhoods mentioned in various blog posts and adds them to the Outside.in database.

BrightLine iTV Marketing Specialists has crafted a campaign for Unilever's Axe that incorporates keyword search into TV spots. The ads are aimed at promoting Axe's new Proximity line of personal care products, and will run on interactive TV networks (like Verizon FiOS and Time Warner's Movie Trailers-On Demand). On Verizon, viewers will be able to bookmark their favorite Proximity ads (among other content), and then search through it using specific keywords. "Consumers are able to search keywords like 'comedy' or 'digital shorts' and the Proximity shorts will be at the top of the list," said …

Establishing credibility is key to getting a searcher to convert after visiting a landing page. And Jeff Sexton says that there are five copy components that are necessary for crafting a credible landing page--scent, transparency, specificity, proof and readability. Scent means making sure that the keywords users began searching for are featured prominently on the landing page, as well as images or videos of said product or service. Transparency is about telling it like it is. For example, if a company can offer coats and scarves at deep discounts, but only because there are limited sizes available, …

Marios Alexandrou makes the case for why the addition of search trend data makes Google's Keyword Tool much more valuable. For example, with actual search volume data, marketers don't have to worry about the inaccuracies of some of the more popular, ISP-based keyword research tools. The enhanced Keyword Tool also makes it easier for PPC and SEO teams to work together to snag rankings and traffic for expensive, competitive or otherwise problematic (but valuable) keywords. "This kind of collaboration just became easier since search volume and CPC data are now shown side-by-side in the AdWords Keyword tool," …

B-to-B marketers face the same--and sometimes even greater--challenges that B-to-C marketers face in the midst of a sluggish economy. So Tom Pick has posted a recap of a recent MarketingSherpa Webinar aimed at helping B-to-B companies draw in more qualified leads while spending less at the same time. With search, there are cost-saving tactics for both SEO and SEM. With SEO, B-to-B marketers should reevaluate their target keywords and Web site copy to better address their target audience's needs. "If your website is still optimized for the same keywords as 18 months ago (or longer), now is …

Jennifer Laycock's SEM Bootcamp articles are for search newcomers in need of straightforward info that cuts through the clutter surrounding new tools and advanced techniques on other blogs and discussion boards. This post focuses on the five tenets of organic search--building an indexable site, understanding how to choose keywords, content development, on-page optimization and basic link building.

In three hours, you can assess the major strengths and weaknesses of your Internet marketing strategy using nothing more than an analytics program. Ian Lurie explains how it's done--noting that it's about finding out what your visitors are after, where they're going to on your site to find it, and making it easier for them to get there. Use the first 15 minutes to find out your top 10 organic search traffic drivers with a program like Google Analytics. Take the next 45 to find out which pages those searchers see when they enter those keywords on Google, …