Rank checking is still useful. So says code name Vanillacoke, who runs through the formula to determine ranking--"Traffic + Conversions = $" and provides screen shots to demonstrate the point. There are many attributes factoring into an SEO campaign, but basically it is about getting traffic and monetizing it through sales and marketing tools, and more.

Want to know the "dirty little secrets" of conversions? They may seem simplistic. Stoney deGeyter lays them out in a post about building relationships through content, email, phone, and online conversion. Knowing and giving site visitors what they want through these tools helps create a lucrative business.

Erez Barak points to a few recent reports suggesting small businesses continue to lean toward social marketing rather than search marketing. One reason is social media campaigns cost less. Video networks such as YouTube provide a cheap way to create viral marketing that can produce better than average results. He tells us what this means for search marketing, and how to reassess budgets and campaign strategy mix.

The Russia-based search engine Yandex has integrated a platform acquired last year called WebVisor, an analytics tool for tracking user behavior on Web sites. Yandex generated 64% of all search traffic in Russia last year. The homepage attracted 21.5 million monthly users, according to the company's Web site.

Susan Esparza offers some advice on hiring in-house SEO experts. Before starting the actual hiring, he suggests establishing if your business can support an in-house SEO team. Begin by determining if the company has the budget and the physical space to put a full-time staff member, as well as the ability to give up control and trust the expert. Esparza outlines a checklist to help companies get started.

Bill Slawski tells us Google's efforts to develop a self-driving car may have gotten a "jumpstart from IBM patents" that addressed various safety issues, such as a system for sensing objects on the surface of vehicles, and collision avoidance systems. He outlines more than a dozen, providing screen shots from drawings included with the filings.

For marketers who thought about buying links, here are 10 ways to make the purchase "ethically." Well, that's according to Jason Acidre. He tells us Google may not like the practice of SEO professionals buying links, but describes a variety of "risk-free" and "indirect" link-buying techniques marketers can use.

Pete Meyers serves up eight fixes to on-page SEO problems he sees surface regularly. For starters, don't leave it up to Google to choose the correct version of a page to index if there are duplicates on the site. Meyers tells us how Canonicalizing pages helps. He also delves into title tags, direct product and low-value links, and rewriting internal anchor text.

Yahoo plans to keep user search data for 18 months -- reversing its decision to reduce the amount of time it stores the information, according to Kate Kaye. She provides a timeline of Yahoo's decision, tells us why it's important, and what marketers and Internet users can expect within the next four to six weeks.

Successful campaigns take more than picking a few keywords, writing ads, entering a credit card, and watching sales skyrocket. Paid search has become complicated, but not too complicated when following best practices. Melissa Mackey provides a few tips for beginners in paid search to get the best results from campaigns. She outlines how to get high quality scores, bid on brand terms, test ad copy, track conversions, and more.