Managing client expectations for what success means in an SEO campaign is a vital but difficult task, says Mark Jackson in his case study of a disappointed client. Jackson was careful to itemize all the tasks his company would do beforehand, as well as explain what the client had to do himself, like maximize the copy on his Web site. Still, because the client failed to rank on several competitive keywords, he said the SEO firm had done "nothing." Jackson runs the numbers and concludes that "Their investment was worth every penny," especially since the client had almost gone …

From PubCon South in Austin, Texas, Abby Johnson interviews Amanda Watlington to get her views on Universal search and the impact it will have on SEO. Watlington calls it "a game changer" because it will force SEO experts to expand their skills and think "outside the site." They will need to consider the effects posts on Twitter, YouTube and other social network sites will have on their branded site. Watlington said SEO experts have become much more closely involved in search marketing efforts. In the early days, SEO experts worked closely with IT and marketing departments, but now …

Yahoo has added three new targeting features -- demographic targeting, ad scheduling, and enhanced ZIP-level geo-targeting -- to give marketers more control of "sponsored search" campaigns. These tools will let marketers target specific audiences on Yahoo sites for both Sponsored Search and Content Match, explains Jeff Sweat. "If you can get an ad more frequently in front of the people you want to see it, who are disposed to respond favorably to it, it's likely to give you a better return on investment," Sweat writes.

It's the job of the SEO expert to monitor relevant client content that ranges from brands and products, to C-level executive names, intent phrases and competitors' keywords. So, Marty Weintraub show you how to build a "reputation monitoring dashboard" to monitor your clients' reputation. He writes, "You'll be able to easily build a tool where nobody can even whisper your business keywords, in a positive or negative light, without your awareness." It all starts with Google Alerts. Add some SERP notifications by RSS feeds and you're on your way. Weintraub tells you how to monitor any newly …

Warning potential clients to hire reputable SEO experts, Conrad Saam takes us through a scenario of less-than-kosher SEO tactics -- "reciprocal link cloaking" that relies on a cookie. In this example, he received an email that said "I am trying to add as many informative Web sites as possible to my site, which in turn will benefit my users." Several "red flags" set off warning signals as Saam read through the email. "The point here is not to warn you against link exchanges with [the specific company mentioned], but to encourage you to be very, very careful …

SEO experts believe you need to combine the strengths of organic and paid search campaigns to gain the most benefit from budgets. Google has a free search-based keyword tool that lets you do just that. For starters, it gives you a list comparing the keywords that have high organic rankings alongside the keywords in AdWords campaigns. Seeing that list gave Josh Dreller about two hundred new terms he considered adding to his client's AdWords campaign. The list already had around ten thousand keywords, he explains. The positive results gained from using the tool also prompted this interview with …

What if a search engine crawling your site read the content and determined the "top phrases" that describe the concepts about your site, but got it wrong? Would you want the option to make changes? William Slawski tells us about a new patent filing from Google that describes a way for Web site owners and site administrators to view top phrases assigned to their sites by a phrase-based indexing system. The feature would allow site owners and administrators to add related phrases. This would help Google better index the Web site's pages. It's one of several Google …

If you don't have a lot of experience setting up pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, Ron Jones offers advice on getting started with Google AdWords. He believes it's the easiest PPC tool to work with. Once up and running on Google AdWords, you can tie in to other networks, he writes. Jones provides advice on content structuring, finding the correct keywords, and setting up campaigns. "Be careful not to fall into the trap of dumping all your keywords into one or two broad campaigns," he writes. "This will dilute the value of each of the keywords in the campaign, …

Understanding the language of potential customers is crucial to improving search traffic and your marketing message. Gyutae Park looks at six ways to optimize your Web site to most effectively take advantage of Twitter and its search features. Park suggests branding yourself and your Twitter profile, building relationships to gain more followers, adding to the conversation, and more. He also refers to a post from Patrick Altoft titled "If Google did Twitter Search," which explains how Twitter might improve its search algorithm to increase the relevance of its search results.

Ben McKay tells us how he made the transition from freelancing for three SEM agencies, to working for the agency Mediaedge:cia, in hope of providing insight to those considering making the move, too. Now that he's having frequent contact with planners and managers, he's been learning, for example, how SEO is integrated into other marketing services, and that SEO requires buy-in from multiple people at the client. "One thing that has surprised me is that SEO in many ways does appear to be totally scalable," McKay writes. "Resource-wise too, it does seem that as the client gets …