It's difficult to tell SEM and SEO amateurs from professionals, but one clue for George Michie has been those who talk about their "life experiences" and take little action. The more they talk up the topic without outlining a solid strategy, the less he suspects they know. "A good PPC analyst will instead talk about their approach to the complex problems presented by search, how they strike balances between competing objectives, and what problems they're still working on because they're really hard," Michie writes. Google and Yahoo both offer SEM certifications, but Michie tells us there are several …

How many Web pages can -- or should -- one site support? Eric Enge lays out a handful of problems related to throwing up 100,000 Web pages on a 20,000-page site. While most marketers don't add that many pages all at once, there are times when retailers need to post many pages simultaneously -- to promote new clothing lines, for example. Or perhaps a company begins offering services in several new towns and builds pages specific to each. Enge suggests scrutinizing the content you post, since adding quality content will likely draw quality links back to your site. He …

Bloggers using WordPress won't gain links back to their blog post unless they check the "dofollow" box. Nick Stamoulis explains that dofollow links pass link juice, so your site gets credit from search engines when other sites link back to yours. The WordPress default is nofollow, unless you change it. Stamoulis notes that remembering to change the default can translate into a higher PageRank, which could lead to higher rankings in search engines, namely Google. He explains the benefits gained from the WordPress plugin, Dofollow Plugin, and how it can turn your WordPress blog into a dofollow blog …

How much money do you waste if you don't carefully plan out pay-per-click campaigns, specifically AdWords? Jon Rognerud provides advice on executing a successful campaign, by identifying 11 AdWords mistakes that can cost you big bucks. Some of those mistakes include leaving out keywords that appear in ad text, and sending visitors to your home page where they can get bogged down and overstimulated with too much information. We've moved past trials and tribulations of building Web sites that make it easy for Google's, Microsoft's and Yahoo's crawlers to index content and return query results high on the …

Happy New Year! I realize we just entered 2009, but hey, you should have already started thinking about online marketing campaigns you plan to explore this year. A "sizable number of firms" still haven't tapped the potential of search engine marketing and search engine optimization, so Stuart Tofts counts down five online marketing resolutions to help you make 2009 a great year. For starters, successful campaigns require marketers to always remember it's all about the customers. Blogging, link building, email marketing and SEO all require ongoing commitments to give site visitors and customers ongoing quality support and information, not …