Gyutae Park provides insight on how to optimize content to maximize benefits from both social media and search engine traffic. Don't hesitate to build "shocking or controversial" words into title and header, Parks writes. He tells marketers to do whatever it takes to create interest and gain attention. Then promote the article on social media sites such as Twitter StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious and Reddit. After the traffic subsides in a few weeks, "change the title tag on the article to be more SEO friendly by incorporating descriptive keywords with high search frequency."

Taking a cue from the movie "Monsters vs Aliens," Conversion Rate Experts asks marketers if their Web site contains "Nuke buttons," easy-to-make mistakes in the structure of the Web site or features that can destroy conversion rates. The post lists the most common types of mistakes marketers make. Take the "Empty Cart" button, for example. "The Internet is riddled with shopping carts that have 'Empty Cart' buttons in them," according to the post. "Can you imagine a supermarket in which half of the checkouts are 'trap' ones, at which a member of staff would grab your shopping cart …

How SEO experts choose and group keywords, create landing pages, write ad copy and define target and key performance indicators determine when consumers see the results in search queries. Brain Carter believes it's the "actionable" keywords and phrases that can grab the low-hanging pay-per-click (PPC) opportunities. In a lengthy and informative post, Carter provides advice on how consumers structure search queries. It depends on how far along they are in the decision-making process. For example, when someone is thinking about going to Myrtle Beach they type in "Myrtle Beach." When they are ready to book a hotel room …

Marty Weintraub sat down with search engine guru Jeff Quipp to talk about some of the most important developments marketers can expect to see in SEO rankings this year, and how the industry has changed in the past dozen years. For starters, search engines consider user behavior patterns and ingrate the variables back into ranking algorithms to serve-up results. Citing Quipp, Weintraub writes "SEO used to be about trying to fool or trick search engines! Times have changed though. I like to joke that Google now has more PhDs than NASA."

Knowing and monitoring what's being said about you is the key to reputation management, according to Sean Egen. He gives us six ways to SEO your personal brand by offering tips from industry experts on how to exercise more control about what turns up online when someone does a search on your name. While the post focuses on reputation management, SEO professionals and marketers can take Egen's advice and easily apply it to managing business brands, too. For example, own your name such as "yourname.com" whether you use it or not. Marketers need to become more aware of …

Marketers sitting on the fence about integrating search engine optimization for mobile into their SEO strategy might want to give it another look. More consumers now have a smart phone in their pocket or purse, and they use it to call up local listings on the Web browser to find a local Starbucks coffee house or an ATM bank machine. Citing stats from both comScore and ABI Research, Julie Batten says that the increase in use of mobile Web browsers has caught the attention of the major search engines. For example, Google in February announced it will offer …

Craig Danuloff asks if the hype about quality scores is justified. He suggests it puts the focus of paid search on Google AdWords and makes SEO professionals more dependent on what drives numbers through Google. br> But it turns out quality scores are a "big deal," according to Danuloff, warning this is one factor SEO professionals shouldn't ignore. So, he focuses on two formulas that Google uses to determine where the PPC ads appear and how much marketers pay for clicks. The first formula focuses on Ad Rank; the second on cost per click.

Should SEO professionals worry about best practices? Kevin Gibbons believes AOL, Google, Phorm and Microsoft Advertising do. He writes that these companies have signed up to follow the Internet Advertising Bureau UK's recently developed set of best practice for online promotions, aimed at helping companies collect and use data for behavioral advertising ethically. Companies agreeing to abide by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK's guidelines must begin September 2009, according to Gibbons. Providing perspective on the issues, he serves up some insight from some companies that have agreed to follow the rules.

Mary Weintraub shares 35 "totally free" API resources for Google Analytics. He provides links to the resources packed with ideas and technical information to help SEO professionals and Web developers get started. APIs have historically been associated with paid search (PPC) applications and keyword research, but that will change, says Weintraub. More mainstream search marketing API tools will impact methods and applications used by SEO professionals to publish content and measure organic SERPs.

Lisa Barone tired to ignore the launch of Google Profiles that has created lots of buzz across the blogosphere because she found the idea of "gift wrapping your online thumbprint and then hand delivering it to Google completely absurd." In fact, Barone believes the promo ad for the feature that pops up when you do a vanity search in Google is downright creepy. "They're connecting MY NAME with MY SEARCH and using it against ME," Barone writes. "Do I get that box if I do a search for someone else's name - my brother's, Rhea's, various boys that …