Bill Slawski points to a published Yahoo patent application that explores the process of predicting clickthroughs on search results to reorder images, videos and other multimedia based on how well or poorly they perform at different locations in the search results. At one point, the patent filing uses images as an example, but Slaswki writes the approach can be used with videos, word processing documents, computer code and plain text, too.

SEO experts need to move from focusing on services to serving up a complete "experience," according to Kevin Gibbons. "Go for a haircut and you get a massage and a latte," he writes. "Businesses recognise that it isn't just the end product people care about, they want a package. That doesn't mean just extras... the entire interaction needs to be positive." So, Gibbons offers up such advice as: become personable, be good at what you do and exude confidence, make yourself available, and give existing and potential clients easy access to your location. Clients want to know their …

Most PPC advertisers should know the Quality Score is based largely on how well keywords relate to ad text and landing pages, according to Amber. It may mean going back in time and looking at the data to reassess when to pause or delete under-performing ad text. The more data you have, the more results will reflect accurate performance. Amber details a process to reassess ads. She suggests going back more than a week in the stats to get a better view of how well an ad performed. Analyzing short data ranges can skew the seasonal ebb and …

Title tag optimization, semantic structuring for page text, and anchor text optimization are a few tweaks SEO experts can do to produce fast results, according to Ben McKay. Those fast results typically occur during the "honeymoon" phase, when Web sites typically experience quick growth, he writes. Don't think the honeymoon is over when the site becomes more accessible, or after tackling duplicate content issues and when keyword research starts paying off. McKay provides tips to extend the honeymoon and see better results.

Geographical targeting can boost PPC results for national advertisers, helping them to expand their reach. Melissa Mackey explains how. For example, national brands can find existing and potential customers online who may not have the funds to take that the trip to Kona, but want the goods the island offers. This is one way geo-targeting can turn national brands into local brands. Other tips including syncing the online message with TV, radio, and outdoor campaigns, which are often regional.

Young-Bean Song discusses the importance of bringing traditional media metrics to online advertising. Although brand advertising budgets represent nearly two-thirds of the $186 billion overall advertising market, only 5% of their overall marketing budgets are spent on the Web, Song writes. Song believes the Internet has been unsuccessful in attracting significant investments by brand marketers because the ratings and circulation metrics they use when planning and analyzing traditional campaigns have not been effective in translating into online metrics. He writes that once digital advertisers and publishers can quantify the audiences' reach, frequency, brand advertisers will begin investing more …

If Tim Ash hears one more person talk about "learnings" from a landing page test, he will scream. In landing page optimization tests, people often want to learn from results. But trying to rationalize results after a test is dangerous, because it may cause you to fixate on site design elements that had nothing to do with the performance improvement, he writes. He suggests retesting best practices already known, and offers advice on keeping an open mind about processes you don't. "Otherwise, you're simply working based on assumptions," he writes. "And as they say: When you 'assume' you …

In an interview with Aaron Wall, the spunky SEM diva Rae Hoffman, aka Sugarrae, answers questions ranging from her personal to professional life. She talks about beginning her career in affiliate marketing and gaining an expertise in SEO, to her view on cultish behavior throughout the SEO industry. Dubbing AdSense "webmaster welfare," Hoffman tells Wall about trying her "damndest to keep AdSense at less than 20% of our revenue. I don't like being dependent on one company, who doesn't even tell us what rev-share we're getting." When Wall asks Sugarrae what brought her back into consulting work …

Gab Goldenberg tests the "six degrees of separation" theory with Web sites, rather than people, to demonstrate how anchor text can help to rank a site higher. More trust means higher rankings, he writes. So, he outlines how to measure the trust factor of a site using TrustRank and HillTop, two search engine algorithms based on trusted sites. Providing an example, Goldenberg writes the best scenario is to be Maclean's or Time magazine. But getting a link from either site means one degree of separation. Getting a link from a site that links from Time is two degrees …

It's all about "intellectual curiosity," rather than formal SEO training, according to Erik Dafforn. He points out the SEO firm he works for has hired people with little or no SEO education or industry experience. While you can get a formal SEM education now at many schools, Dafforn wouldn't prescribe a digital marketing curriculum to any potential new hires. He's a "big proponent" of a liberal arts education and has applied plenty of related learnings to SEO prior to installing NCSA Mosaic for the first time several years ago. So, he suggests a curriculum to get started …