How do you find creative ways to gain links from reluctant targets after being denied time and time again? Rand Fishkin provides five tips, ranging from how to develop in-person connections to reciprocating the favor by providing the site owner with missing content.

Guillaume Bouchard tells us how to use social media to boost search rankings. However, while social media provide an opportunity to gain links from authoritative domains, there are drawbacks. So, Bouchard explains why this strategy could mean trying to work around nofollow links and redirects.

It appears the Top 10 Guidelines To Establishing Web Credibility from the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab are just as relevant today as they were when first published in 2002. That's according to Stoney deGeyter, who suggests it all really comes down to getting back to basics. He highlights the first five guidelines, while throwing in his own perspective.

Ann Smarty tells us about three Firefox add ons that make copying anchor text and links easier. These tools, at the core, allow SEO professionals to quickly copy all or selected URLs with anchor text to the clipboard. So, Smarty walks through the process for using the tools and provides numerous screen shots to help visualize the steps.

For those not seeing higher conversion rates after testing changes in product and photo placement, copy, headlines and call-to-action buttons, Sherice Jacob tells us about "10 little-known factors" that could improve success. They include everything from "choosing the wrong background color" to "not changing your call to action based on the user's behavior."

What do marketers want to know about paid search? For an answer, try looking at this post on the most-viewed stories on PPC Hero in December. Most-popular topics included getting Google product extensions and PLAs to work to your advantage, improving quality scores, and optimizing tips.

Searching for those football or hockey tickets just got easier on Bing. The search engine added a feature that lets searchers compare tickets from more than 50 ticket sites, check out the view from the seats and find a selection of tickets from multiple providers. The engine incorporates FanSnap's venue maps and event catalog to see seat selections and prices.

Companies need to integrate SEO and paid search marketing into all aspects of their business, from engineering to human resources. Rob Weatherhead give us a list of what he believes are the top seven departments and why they might be missing an opportunity. For example, he explains, the legal department isn't typically the first business unit to collaborate with other departments, but in some industries legalities and regulation are widely debated topics.

Lou Kerner tells us why Goldman's $450 million Facebook investment will benefit both companies. He explains the way it will double revenue in 2011, and how the funding positions the social network to build and acquire technology, as well as attract talent -- all at a "pace the world has never seen." To support his point, Kerner points to stats from search platform provider Covario demonstrating that 95% of search marketers are advertising on Facebook.

Here are traps to avoid in content, content management system, and site architecture when redesigning a Web site. Jill Whalen not only describes the possible SEO mishaps, but how to escape them if you misstep and end up down the rabbit hole. The bonus trap -- The Booby Trap!"-- is a potential problem with title tags.