Quirky, but intelligent, Marty Weintraub steps through the process of applying analytic mashups for advanced keyword research, as well as spreadsheets to steer advanced techniques for API automation. Beginning by defining keyword research, Weintraub provides examples of sorting and aggregating keyword predictions, organic analytics and pay-per-click datasets into one spreadsheet. He serves up a partial list of sorting features that you can apply to get more information from the data. For instance, the High Organic Traffic / Low Organic Conversion report can help you "identify where organic traffic intersects with low conversion."

Planning to launch a new Web site? You might want to call in a SEO expert before developers start coding. Jennifer Laycock likens a public service announcement from her local utility company to the warning she wants to send all businesses thinking about first building and then tapping the SEO expert. "Call before you dig," the public service announcement says, warning home owners to call the utility company to mark water, gas and other underground lines so you can avoid creating a mess, she writes. Rebuilding costs more than building it right the first time, so she …

The topic of yields has become popular of late. Loren Baker explains how the new service YieldBuild can help Web publishers make more money on ads by finding the optimal combination of ad networks, ad sizes, visual formats, and characteristics. He describes the activation process in detail and provides a video to demonstrate how the ad publisher optimization system works. YieldBuild offers a free 30-day trial, Baker writes. When the time is up, the company takes 3% of impressions, but you can stop the service at any time. And as YieldBuild learns more about your traffic, it refines …

Bounce rates due to redirects. An event sponsorship seems to bring more new visitors. Conversion rate fall to zero. These are the kinds of activities that can cause traffic spikes, according to Jessica Hullman, who explains how to analyze them through motion charts in Google Analytics. Hullman shows how to navigate the motion chart and look for sudden movement through keywords. She emphasizes her points with a link to a video on YouTube that explains how it all works. "With a little practice, motion charts can become the backbone of all your visual analysis, saving you time and …

It's important to remember "why" searchers come to a search engine to query. Ramez Naam reminds us searches don't occur in isolation and they are often part of a longer task. Remembering that searchers search for something specific, click on multiple results, perform follow-up searches and then come back in the following days to search on the same topic can help you do a better job at optimizing your site. Live Search analysis reveals that "46% of the time customers spend on search tasks is on tasks that last half an hour or longer," he writes. What does …

Yahoo oneSearch Shortcut for mobile launched earlier this week to provide one-click access on mobile devices running Windows in the United States, according to Joy Ghanekar. He explains that the service integrates voice search. It lets you speak or type the query from the home screen. Ghanekar describes several other features Yahoo added, such as auto-locate on select devices to deliver local search results based on a combination of cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi hotspots. You no longer need to type in your address or zip code to access local listings. Similar to the technology Google uses for …

Andrew Goodman discusses the second edition of his book "Winning Results with Google AdWords" with Aaron Wall. Topics include what prompted the switch from publishing ebooks to print. About halfway through the post, Wall starts asking about search-related subjects, such as when it make sense to create ads that get a high click-through rate, to predicting failed business models and staying competitive in pay-per-click for the long term. Goodman also divulges a PPC secret not shared before in a public interview.

Who owns the copyrights for the SEO and meta-tag data? Lahle Wolfe warns Web site owners that the company you hire might own the rights, but in most states if you hire someone under a "Work for Hire Agreement," the rights are yours. Wolfe also provides insight into laws and tips on retaining your rights, and how signing away your rights could become a costly mistake. Not all companies are unscrupulous, but Wolfe tells what happened after a company paid thousands of dollars for SEO work and thousands more for the monthly right to use the …

Andrew Goodman discusses "three inconvenient truths" about bid management automation he believes might make a few "vendors squirm," but help advertisers select the correct tools. Among them: "Delivery control (or budget allocation mechanisms) might be superior, strategically, to bid management." Goodman dissects how the claims companies make mislead and "underrepresent the depth of strategic insight and experience required to manage an account." The post links to an earlier column on shaky assumptions behind bid management automation tools and the "often incorrect" fundamental assumptions.

Some may ask: Is social media more powerful than search? Rand Fishkin says no. He admits that social media has emerged as the "next big thing," but reminds us the medium has been around for years in eBay, Craigslist, and Friendster. Fishkin compares the benefits of both social media and search campaigns, noting that while social media is "great for connecting with your users," it can't do what search does: "Answer a direct need precisely when it's requested in a scalable fashion." His list can be helpful when deciding the direction to take your campaigns.