Google's AdWords' Placement Performance Report provides detailed information on where your ads have appeared in the Content Network and how they performed on each URL and Web site. While the report provides tons of great information, you need to know how to interpret the data, according to Joe, who provides tips. For instance, SEO experts who optimize their Content Network performance to better target ads will want to remove sites that are under-performing. The Placement Performance Report provides stats at the URL level, and not just the domain, breaking down the information from each site by providing …

SEOmoz.org launched Monday the retooled Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer, powered by Linkscape and only available to SEOmoz.org PRO members. The new tool adds to previous functions such as anchor test distribution. The most common anchor text includes "here," "visit our blog," and "my blog," according to Nick Gerner. Gerner writes that along with Linkscape data from mozRank, SEO professionals can see both which Web sites are and are not contributing most to their site's popularity. In the example Gerner provides, the tool found 88 backlinks.

The idea of wrapping several programs into a neat little package has increased in popularity since the economy began to sour. According to Debra Mastaler, more of her clients are willing to cut back on the number of link building techniques her company, Alliance Link, has been using -- but not the quality of the links secured. The volume of requests prompted her to look at ways to trim some programs without "sacrificing quality or effectiveness." Mastaler explains how she tweaked her company's directory submission program. "Securing directory links is still worth it in my opinion, but …

A controversy brewing between link-bait generating editorial buzz, white-hat marketing/PR tactics, and "sponsored conversations" spurred from a recent Forrester Research report and articles in the press drove Adam Singer to write a long post (nearly a novella) to try and set the record straight. Sponsored blog posts and articles can tie into organic SEO strategies to raise awareness, but at what cost? Singer summarizes the long Forrest report, stepping through what he calls "the unfortunate reality emerging" around sponsored blogs. For instance, in the post's summary he writes that search engines will discover illegitimate cash-for-link disruptions and take …

A "conversion efficiency tool" from Demandbase lets marketers identify site visitors and reach out to them, according to Eric Enge. He writes that while companies invest in SEO teams who design and run PPC campaigns, around 90% of the incoming traffic on B2B Web sites never convert into business or leads. Enge explains how the tool works. He writes that it relies on a variety of databases such as ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers. "Using the IP address of the incoming visitor, ARIN can be used to determine which company (if any) that user is coming …

Google Base gives marketers another tool. Ryan Frank calls the product "Google's mash up of eBay, Craigslist, and Shopzilla." Unlike Google's online shopping search engine Product Search, Google Base is a free Google service that lets you publish information for inclusion in search results, even if you don't have a Web site. Google Base creates and hosts unique URLs for, say, a particular product. Frank serves up information on listing products and tells us the difference between using custom listings and data feeds. He suggests using standard data feed attributes such as title, description, and price for all …

Broken links, errors and duplicate content on your site can throw search engines for a loop, making them think your site is under construction. Loren Baker suggests using a tool called Xenu's Link Sleuth to help find and fix problems with broken links that can send visitors error messages, broken images and multimedia content that doesn't load properly. For duplicate content problems, he recommends the free Virante Duplicate Content tool.

Study your competition to discover where they have local link groupings -- an Internet page where all, or most of, your competitors get incoming links, according to Ron Jones. "Then focus on bundling your site into that grouping of local links." Jones also suggests working Twitter and mobile into your local search campaigns. He provides a link to a site with a list of those who tweet about local search. He also shares Kelsey Group stats on mobile you might want to consider when mapping future campaigns. For instance, "the percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will …

What it means for search to become the display OS. How to value search impressions. The slow and painful transition of ad dollars from offline to online. These are some of the topics Jonathan Mendez discusses as he's interviewed by Aaron Wall. Mendez has been working at SEO and PPC for many years. He's passionate about the Web and trying to make the content more relevant. The interview reflects his love for learning and optimizing the delivery and presentation of information. "As an industry we tend to divide the web into vectors but we often lose sight that …

David Harry writes that he has discovered a Google patent containing a "language component" that can identify geographically targeted keywords -- that is, considering dialects and related languages (for example, Spanish and Portuguese) from a particular region. The patent is "a workable template for geo-targeting in SEO," Harry writes. "Much of it really solidifies what we already know, while other nuances may be that tweak you were looking for. We should bear in mind that the usual suspects from the ranking line-up still apply." In the post, Harry tells us how this can help serve up more relevant …