Stoney deGeyter serves up a little encouragement and some insightful tips for those who feel SEO-challenged and want to make a go of it on their own. Keeping things simple will at least get you started, he writes, providing instructions on custom title tags and content, writing blogs and linking to links. Leave the .htaccess, robots.txt, 301 redirects and absolute links to an SEO professional, deGeyter suggests. "Don't get caught up in all the complicated issues that go beyond your knowledge or ability," he writes. "The more difficult technical tasks may still be necessary down the road, but …

For marketers looking for more information on how to set up a social media account or campaign, this post from Ron Jones will prove insightful. Jones explains that understanding social media will help you build a strategy. He defines the various kinds of social media sites, breaking them down into social news, sharing, networks and bookmarking sites. Even if you're a power user, the list of sites will come in handy as you plan and set up campaigns. Aside from the links, Jones also offers up some (unsourced) staggering statistics about social media, like: 45% of adult Internet …

Bidding on branded pay-per-click keywords costs less, provides more control on messaging and links, and pushes down the competition, according to this post in MarketingSherpa. Data from the MarketingSherpa 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide provides guidelines on keyword costs. The post also provides suggestions on handling such situations as bidding on branded keywords, outsourcing PPC campaigns, and working with distributors that sell your products. In the last instance, if the distributor has a PPC campaign, it will likely bid on the same keywords as you.

Through an interview with WordStream founder Larry Kim, John Dreller provides insight into the company's new SEM tool aimed at helping to raise productivity when handling, assembling, and segmenting keyword lists. Dreller spotlights key features of the tool such as the ability to continually generate new keywords, as well as helping SEM experts sift through huge lists and quickly segment them into campaigns and ad groups. Using the tool for a sample campaign, Dreller identifies some of the biggest search marketing "trip-ups," and makes several suggestions to keep you on the error-free track.

Providing perspective on Google's decision to "can print and radio" from the search engine's portfolio of services, Aaron Goldman thinks the decisions were a "bit short-sighted." He believes Google caved to "investors' insatiable demand for increasing immediate profits, rather than riding out the recession and readying to rule the traditional ad roost." Backing his assertions, Goldman suggests the real problem could have stemmed from neither division having "secure sustainable sources of prime inventory." Perhaps, publishers and networks made it impossible for Google to procure the type of space that would hold up against the mass budget cuts we …

When two right-leaning advocacy groups wanted to influence Internet users that could push lawmakers to vote for or against certain legislation, they relied on search engine marketing to get across the message. Amy Harder suggests the tactic has become a tool for lobbyists to reach millions of Web users around the country. Harder tells us how the groups analyze public opinion and that they get the message through organic and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. "This latest round of online advertising suggests a future for lobbying that's less about cocktail parties and K Street and more about reaching as many …

Dylan Morss details the increase in spam related to the Valentine Day's holiday, tracking the top 20 Valentine's Day-related spam subject lines for February. The first three are St. Valentine's bonus, Casino St. Valentine's Day, and St. Valentine's Casino. Morss has seen a 700% spike in spam messages with a Valentine's Day theme since the beginning of February. The biggest increases by percentage were seen in the phrases "February 14," with a 200% spike; "Valentine's Day," with a 500% increase, and the term "Valentine," with a whopping 9,000% rise.

Rand Fishkin calls the "hash" or "pound symbol" a "powerful SEO tool" that many experts rarely use. Demonstrating ways to use it in his video series Whiteboard Friday, Fishkin says that "search engines don't index anything after the hash" sign in a line of code. "The hash is essentially a stopping point, an on-page anchor." You can use the hash sign in applications including canonicalization and affiliate URLs, and when you want to show limited content on a page. The video provides reasons for using the hash sign in these applications, as well as the proper ways to insert …

Bill Slawski believes search engines are attempting to understand the intentions behind search phrases, to show searchers the pages they believe will match the intent of the search. He points to a few patent filings for products that focus on this and suggests search engines could try to match intent through analysis of query logs. Analyzing two patent filings from Yahoo, Slawski explains that while it's difficult to know the extent of the methods incorporated in Yahoo's search results, it's evident "the intent behind some query terms in a search can influence the types of results we receive …

I've heard the question repeatedly these days: Should Google buy Twitter? After all, Frank Watson writes, Open Social and Friends Connect demonstrate the company has a commitment to social media, but efforts haven't proven as popular as Google Search or Gmail. Watson takes us through a few hypothetical scenarios. For instance, Watson writes, Google could integrate a similar Twitter technology into Gmail, where it could become much more viral with a simple click. But most Twitter users want to see the tweets remain "real" and "free," both monetarily and from bureaucratic strings often found in corporate environments (yes, …