The small tweaks you make to your Web site to improve performance for users such as a new host or domain name may appear invisible to users but Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will see these changes as major, according to Mike Grehan. Still, e-Consultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein decided to switch to a new host, country and domain name by dropping the hyphen in its name. In a question and answer interview with Friedlein, Grehan goes through the steps eConsultancy took to migrate the 80,000 page Web site. One of the more difficult projects was to make sure …

Jill Whalen shares answers to eight SEO questions. Among them are, how quickly will Google re-index my pages after I've SEO'd them? What should I do if my rankings drop by 10 pages in the SERPs? And, should my Title tag exactly match the main headline on my page? Whalen recently appeared on Vanessa Fox's new Webmaster Radio show, "Office Hours," where she discussed increasing search traffic to Web sites. In this post she provides short and insightful answers to make it simple for someone with no previous SEO knowledge to understand.

Split-second decisions made by searchers looking for quick answers are more often driven by visuals in search engine query results, according to Anne Aula and Kerry Rodden from Google's User Experience Research team. People often make decision so rapidly that they are made unconsciously. The findings come from an experiment using eye-tracking equipment in Google's usability lab. Google knows that people tend to scan the search results, starting from the first result and continue down the list until they find one they consider helpful and click it. The team provides insight into the research, supporting the theory with …

Free browser add-ons can help make search engine optimization easier, enhance pay-per-click campaigns, and aid in achieving more from your analytics program. But, it's important to remember they are scripts, and similar to all scripts, security vulnerabilities are possible, according to Lynne Pope, who steps through ways to mitigate risk from bad browser extensions. Pope reminds us to download scripts from reputable sites and provides details on running add-ons through a security check. So when you're searching for that perfect browser add-on, remember to practice "safe computing," she writes.

Ron Jones provides insight on "off-page factors" vital to building links. He believes it's important to start by identifying keywords you want ranked in your Web site copy, especially in the anchor text of your links. An key point, which some beginning SEOers overlook, is: link to the keyword or phrase you want to optimize. Jones also steps through the process of submitting links to directories, adding a blog, writing articles and press releases, posting on social networking sites, and submitting videos. He provides links to sites such as DMOZ, which he believes is a great resource …

If you own a business and rely on search marketing chances are you target a specific geographical location. But Leah suggests "it's best to bid on non-geographical keywords for your services like 'lawn care' or 'landscaping services' and geo-target your campaigns to your coverage area." Leah provides basic advice for setting up national targeted campaigns focused on geographic keywords such as "Dallas lawn care services" or "Dallas area landscaping." Her tips aim to help you define best practices and techniques to attract people "searching for your services in your coverage area, but are not searching within your geo-targeted …

Don't build your search engine marketing strategy solely on blog posts filled with advice, suggests Chris Boggs. "A person without any SEM experience shouldn't trust any single online authority as guidance," he writes, warning that misinformation, outdated guidance, and the unconfirmed reliability of SEO tools could get you into hot water. Many companies are looking for the magic bullet to reduce expenditures and cut costs. But similar to buying stocks and investing hard-earned savings in your future, Boggs writes that it's important to research guidance from professionals, too. He makes suggestions on blog posts to read and types …

Google has made 1.5 million out-of-copyright books, complete with illustration, available to Apple iPhone and Google Android G1 users through Google Book Search. The works of William Shakespeare, and Mark Twain were configured for consumers to read on a small screen, one challenge the Google Book Search team called "daunting." The team explains the books were already available on Google Book Search. They provide instructions on accessing the link and downloading the books. The process top make the text accessible to mobile phones is called Optical Character Recognition, or OCR for short, the team explains, providing sample images …

Brick-and-mortar retail stores lag when it comes to implementing search engine marketing campaigns, but they have begun to better understand and use pay-per-click strategies. Armando Roggio suggests a few tips and tricks on deploying a new coupon policy to increase PageRank, especially as consumers search for coupons and deals online. Roggio's strategy applies to other types of marketing campaigns, too, not just coupons. Advice includes building a landing page and distributing a press release to drive inbound links. He provides a checklist to follow. "All of those banner links will help boost your landing page's PageRank, so that …

Classifying brand and generic keywords may seem elementary for some search marketers, but you will find it's an important process when strategizing a campaign. While some search marketers fail to classify keywords into buckets, from brand to generic, others add unrelated keywords to the content on the Web page, according to Kevin Lee. Not a good move, Lee writes, because you will lose searchers on the first visit to your site if they don't find what they seek. Keyword terms and phrases are more than the foundation of any paid search engine advertising campaign, so Lee provides steps …