Twitter has slightly tweaked its title tags to make its pages appear at the top (or, on average, in the first five results) of search engine query result pages, according to Robin Wauters. The changes were made yesterday -- and "the implications are not to be underestimated," writes Wauters. "If Twitter can dominate the number one spot for queries on people who have a public profile on the social micro-sharing service, that is one more entry point into Twitter which should help it continue to grow visitor traffic exponentially."

Popular goals such as gaining higher search engine query rankings, increasing traffic, or adding new links to content on the site might not prove profitable for all companies deploying SEO, according to Eric Enge. Enge provides time- and money-saving alternatives to rankings, traffic and links. When it comes to adding links to a Web site, Enge tells us he can "contract that work out to India for $500 or so, give them 100 links per month, do no work at all (because our contractors doubled their goal), and look like a hero (for a while)." Tie SEO goals …

Would you be surprised to discover that most PPC managers stick to the "big 3" search engines when planning campaigns? Not me. So when PPC Hero did a survey of second-tier engine use, 31% of respondents revealed they had not tried any of the search engines listed in the study. Oh, well. Joe writes that 115 respondents participated in the study, in which the search engines receiving the most votes were Ask.com and Business.com.

What lies ahead for black-hat and white-hat SEO, dynamic delivery, Flash, Google index updates, and universal search? Manny Rivas summarizes a panel discussion of "thought leaders" during Search Engine Strategies 2009 in New York. The blog format, a bit choppy, offers good information on whether search engines want to teach crawlers to spot h1 tags, and how to inform clients about conversions, referrals and analytics. Microsoft's Duane Forrester, who participated in the panel, still believes "wholeheartedly" the basic elements of textbook SEO are "critical, and the bigger the site the sooner you have to nail it. You're gonna …

This comprehensive guide compiled by Angela West provides serves up the basics on setting up profiles, but also provides links to a host of plugins such as Tweetbacks for Wordpress. I'm quickly becoming a Twitter convert after seeing the innovative marketing campaigns brands have launched, and learning of small SEO tweaks they have applied to attract people searching on engines like Google. West tells us that businesses can form instant direct relationships with existing and potential customer simply by signing up and using the service regularly.

It comes as no surprise to me that cybercriminals have found a SEO technique that allows them to rake in up to $10,800 a day. Matthew Harwood, who cites a report by Finjan, a security company, explains that cybercriminals are compromising legitimate Web sites by injecting SEO-targeted pages with typos. These misspelled popular words include "fone," "Gogle," "liscense" and "Obbama." Users who click on an infected search result are directed to a malicious page that tells them their computers are infected with malware, so they need fake anti-virus software -- a way for scammers to get the scammed …

Aaron Wall interviews SEMRush.com's CEO Michael Goldfinch to discuss the company's software projects and how he got into SEO. About halfway through the interview, Wall hones in on one specific feature not seen in similar competitive research tools: the ability to cross-compare organic rankings for one site and AdWords ads for another site. Other topics the two discuss include ways to boost business, versions of the tools for German and Russian markets, analytics and SEO-related tools underdevelopment at SEMRush.com, and the possibility of the company adding support for sub-domains.

The practice of requiring a jack-of-all-trades -- both PR and SEO -- has become more common as companies bring the SEO function in-house, but may not always prove the best solution for companies wanting to reduce budgets. "What makes a successful technical SEO isn't always the same talent as what makes someone successful at PR, copywriting, and marketing strategies," notes in-house SEO expert Jessica Bowman in an interview with poster Mark Jackson. Jackson suggests putting together a team of experts who can support both SEO projects and public relations and marketing.. In the perfect scenario, you might have …

Barry Welford sends a personal message to Google's guru Matt Cutts, suggesting that the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google.com's search engine has proved "a poor use of screen real estate," which could even cause Google to lose advertising revenue by linking directly to the ad page rather than possibly forcing the searcher to conduct more than one search, he writes. Given the tough economic times the ad industry and the search engines face, Barry thought it time to share his ideas to change the "classic page." He writes that this would not only help Google reevaluate the …

While Web sites that have been around for years attract a substantial number of links when well promoted, how do you move new sites up the ranks of search engine queries? Dana Larson has five link-building tips to get you started. For starters, Larson writes, don't forget about your community. Links from local organizations such as the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce are helpful for geographic-specific terms and topics. She also suggests locating other local businesses and organizations that maintain lists of businesses to request a link from them. "Focus on attracting links that add …