Rae Hoffman provides step-by-step instructions on customizing the 404 page. The tutorial shows you how to open your custom_functions.php file in your favorite editor and place the code to customize the message. She believes it's your only change to turn lost visitors into site users, "so you want to make sure you serve up something that makes a good first impression. Aside from the tutorial, Hoffman serves up some links if you need a little 404 message inspiration. She links to a page providing the 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages, including "Wanted, Web page required. …

Poking a jab or two at the attention the media gave Burger King's online advertising efforts, TheFounder did a post on the SEO and the ad campaign created by Tribble Ad Agency, the fast food joint's fictitious agency of record. Sacrificing 10 Facebook friends gets you a free Whopper. "Perhaps they should next time offer a free Whopper next round to who ever deletes their MySpace account," writes TheFounder, suggesting a full Meal Deal for taking out Twitter accounts, or free medical care for every fifth Whopper consumed. Burger King pulled its Whopper Sacrifice campaign from …

Sebastian Tonkin takes an in-depth look at some new custom reporting features in Google Analytics. You can choose any metrics to build custom reports. No need to pair them with dimensions, which Tonkin explains have no restrictions on the metrics used. (Google defines "dimension" as a characteristic of a visitor or a page on your Web site that you can use to organize your metrics.) "However, when they are paired with dimensions, …

Return on investment should become the basic measure of success for your paid search campaign, according to Richard Fergie, who explains measuring success through ROI methods to seek sustainable goals. He also cautions against using paid search in isolation, suggesting the need to bounce investments off organic campaigns, too. Throwing in a few display ad campaigns couldn't hurt, either. And while you're in the process of setting up a winning strategy, don't forget the analytic tools to follow metrics and monitor keywords. "Not using the various analytical tools on offer is like not reading the instructions that come …

Blogger Shaun doesn't advocate buying links at all for the majority of his clients. That's because he believes building links like crazy gets you few keyword phrases at No. 1. Many SEOers think organic links are best, but some believe they are inadequate to compete. "Natural links are invaluable for building trust and authority, that's for sure, but domain authority needs to be 'unlocked' with fresh new content targeted to a visitor's needs and at specific times to target specific trends," Shaun writes.

Does Twitter pass link juice? Mihaela Lica provides Twitter tips to SEOers who want to use all possible channels to drive more traffic and gain customers. Lica focuses on calculating risks vs. rewards, creating and promoting content, and quality scores. Since Google, Yahoo and Microsoft don't operate by the same rules, Lica points out the importance of knowing the nuances for each search engine. While using Twitter for juice links is a lost battle to gain rankings on Google, that's not the case for all search engines, she notes.

Anyone looking to hire an SEO company to improve site indexing on search engines might want to heed Tom Pick's warning on rogue SEO. SEO delivers results, but can backfire and hurt business if done wrong, so it's important to hire someone who knows their stuff. Pick provides insight on "how to avoid being victimized by SEO spammers and scammers." He backs his assertions with finding and hiring recommendations from OrangeSoda blogger Janet Thaeler, as well as SEOmoz's Rand Fishkin, Marketing Pilgrim's Roderick Ioerger and others. And if you're a reputable SEO consultant struggling to convince cynical prospects you're not …

The latest survey from Internet Retailer suggests retailers are busy updating Web sites, improving search engine optimization and adding video features. SEO is the top priority for 72.9% of merchants, followed by clearly organized home, category and product pages at 62.4%, better navigation at 49.4%, improved site search at 47.1% and faster checkout at 40%. The study suggests retailers are "making videos and customer reviews a permanent fixture on their Web sites." Retailers have begun to incorporate video, customer reviews and other advanced features in ways that drive more business. More than 78% of retailers post customer reviews and …

Hugo Guzman explains how to navigate the tricky task of handling external SEO for a company that also has an in-house department. For example: Before getting started, set clear goals. If you plan to spilt tasks, determine what function both the in-house and the outsourced teams will handle. Build relationships and manage them well, Guzman writes. And listen carefully: failure for the in-house and outsourced teams to communicate can doom the project to failure.

The price for advertising on Web sites dropped by about 53% from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008, according to Douglas Quenqua, citing the Pubmatic AdPrice Index. The numbers show every vertical category suffered steep declines, with business and finance leading the way at 61%. Prices held up better on sites focused on technology, sports, entertainment, gaming, and music. Price drops had been expected, but not the rate and amount of declines. Quenqua explains that the news is slightly better for sequential results and provides some analysis. Prices declined slightly from the third quarter in 2008 to the fourth, compared …