Evan Britton echoes what I have been writing for months: It's time to give Microsoft a closer look when it comes to PPC ads. She says stats from a variety of data channels suggest less competition on adCenter creates better conversions at a lower price compared with Google. Providing tips for optimizing on Bing, Britton notes that advertisers focusing solely on placing paid search on Google should change their strategy.

NASA has begun to tap social media to reach kids with the message: dream big. Meghan Keane caught up with Stephanie Schierholz, the organization's social media manager, to talk abotu NASA's digital strategy. The two talk about everything from using Twitter to communicate the astronaut's tweets to social media as an educational tool.

Too many ads and not enough clicks on paid search ads could mean there aren't enough searches for the keyword phrases you love most, according to Kevin Lee. He explains what to do when there's a significant volume of searches on the words, but competitors who either have high budgets or high quality scores make it impossible to maintain top position across the target audience. Lee offers a variety of options, including considering other publishing networks.

Jennifer Horowitz believes keywords are the foundation of marketing campaigns and will either make or break success. So, she provides an outline of seven steps marketers may want to follow to get started, along with examples of broad and focused keyword matches, methods to handle keyword research to ensure a fresh strategy, and ways to identify bonus keywords that can help boost results.

Rand Fishkin points to a post from Jason Cohen, who shares business tactics on how SEO can become a competitive advantage. Cohen suggests marketers need to start by admitting there's a problem. (That's always a good first step.) He explains the difference between good and competitive SEO, and how the entire process is related to timing.

Google wants to squash misconceptions about the way AdWords works, so the AdWords support teams has begun a blog series to help separate the myths from the facts. Among the myths covered: spending money on Google AdWords will influence Web site ranking in Google's search query results, and Google AdWords declines credit cards.

Reputation management has now become important, especially for the young, according to findings from a Pew Internet & American Life Project. 57% of adult Internet users have used a search engine to do a vanity search, according to a blog post that points to a study released in May. The study suggests search engines and social media sites play a central role in building one's reputation online, and many users are learning and refining their approach as they go. They have begun to change profile privacy settings, customize who can see updates and delete unwanted information about them that appears …

Understand how users see your page before optimizing it, suggests Erin, explaining that people read a landing page as they would a book or magazine, from left to right. Based on that assumption, she reminds us that people don't actually read landing pages, they scan. So she walks through a strategy to help marketers place copy, images and other content in sections that will reap the most benefits and conversions.

Stoney deGeyter steps through a 12-section post on link building, covering everything from not being responsible for those who link to your content, to the idea that everyone violates Google's rules. Some do it unknowingly. Does that means you're guilty by association? Well, deGeyter tells us "'Guilt by Association,' extremists work to keep themselves squeaky clean." Some avoid online relationships to keep clean, but that might not always be the best way.

Google launched a new ad format for images, complete with a scroll feature that lets people sift through up to 1,000 images on one page. Nate Smith explains the "dense tiled layout" allows people to view more images at the same time. He runs through other features in the new version.