Google has made Conversion Optimizer, the AdWords cost per acquisition (CPA) bidding feature, available to any campaign with at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days. Providing an example on how to use the tool, Austin Rachlin points to recent analysis showing some campaigns that adopt Conversion Optimizer achieve a 21% increase in conversions, while at the same time decreasing their CPA by 14% on average, in comparison to similar campaigns.

Have you thought about where to allocate your SEO budget? Peter Da Vanzo suggests setting clear objectives when allocating capital. Among the common areas for SEO companies that you may want to consider include equipment, staff, advertising and marketing, and calculations based on percentage of sales, Da Vanzo writes. New SEO business won't have any past sales data to consider, so it's important to be aware of what other SEO companies spend when it comes to considering calculations based on sales, Da Vanzo writes. He suggests keeping in mind past earnings might not be indicative of future …

Jennita points to a recent post on YOUmoz by cyberpunkdreams who wrote about misconceptions that developers have about SEO professionals. "Developers are thinking we're a bunch of spammers," she writes. This prompted her to research what developers feel are the top five changes they could make to a Web site to improve SEO with little effort. The list of the top five changes came from the responses Jennita received via Twitter, Facebook, IM and email from 13 developers. The list details ways developers think they can optimize Web sites for highest impact, with the lowest amount of …

Low bids and low budgets for Google AdWords campaigns can reduce the chance of ads serving up in Google search result pages, Amber writes. She reminds marketers to watch out for those keywords that fall below page 1 in the Google SERPs. She suggests increasing bids for important keywords that don't show up on the first page. Amber reminds marketers to check settings for each campaign. Those who want ads to serve up many times throughout the day can set the default from "'standard - show ads evenly over time' to 'accelerated - show ads as quickly as …

Ann Smarty details three Google gadgets to SEO iGoogle home pages. Although there are too few worthy gadgets to add to the home page, Smarty has found three-- SEObook gadgets, RankQuest Gadget, and ExactFactor Position Checker--that SEO professionals might find noteworthy. She provides insight into functions and features for each tool.

Garrett French writes that without a thought-out approach, careful research and custom tools, it's difficult for link builders, writers and content strategists to know what content will attract links in a target market. So, he serves up a detailed list with instruction on developing and distributing linkable content. Start by identifying the top information sources in your keyword space, extracting resources from the top 20 results, and spotting the linkable content from the top resource domains, French writes. Later you can move on to identify who links to topics similar to content you've already created.

Have you heard Google wants to rank brand Web sites? Mark Jackson explains. More often than not, big brands have informative Web sites with lots of other sites linking to them. In Google's view, these two important "signals" imply the site has "authority," a major factor in calculating the "quality score" that determines how Web sites rank in SERPs. Jackson discusses something he calls the "new realities of SEO," and what you need to do to build your brand online. Making your Web presence special will carry a lot of weight in the new SEO reality. A …

Google's Webmaster Tools aren't magic, though sometimes they may act a little mystical when sorting through the numbers and data points. Erik Daffron thinks the tools can access a "trove of analytical and diagnostic data for your sites." But sometimes too much data can be overwhelming. So, Daffron attempts to demystify some of the sub-categories in Google's tool, such as Sitemaps, Crawler Access, Sitelinks, Change of Address and Settings. Daffron explains, for example, the "Settings" subcategory lets you control three separate functions of Google's crawler, index feature and page ranking. The "Geographic target," recommended for geo-targeting, focuses on …

Do you make clients sign a contract for SEO services? Often signing on the dotted line gets overlooked. A scenario summarized by Search Engine Roundtable makes clear whey it's important. Basically, SEO Gal got stiffed for payment. She optimized a site for a Web designer. The client's site ranked on the first page of Google for five of the keywords within a few weeks, but the client refused to pay because the site was not listed above his competitors'.

"Relentless" optimization is the key to success, according to Steve. It's all about combining text, products, videos and photos in SERPs, which takes a little more thinking when mapping an SEO strategy. All these elements will impact search results and rankings. Steve writes that as different forms of content become more prevalent across the Web, and as the demand for this content in different media continues to increase, search engines are faced with the ongoing challenge of finding, organizing and serving up the content. Understanding how each search engine works will become the key to ranking your clients' sites …