How much traffic do company Web sites gain from search engines? Typically, most contribute nearly half. So it's difficult to understand why companies don't build search engine optimization into their "DNA." Ray Comstock suggests communicating successful strategies and training tactics to decision makers across the company. SEO can have a financial impact on the company's bottom line. Teach and test best practices and get IT involved, he writes.

The Russian search engine Yandex, barely known to U.S. consumers, went public this week. Shares surged more than 55% Tuesday. Arkady Volozh, who spoke at OMMA Global earlier this year, cofounded the search engine with geophysicist Ilya Segalovich in 1997. The two invented the engine to scan the Cyrillic scrip of the Russian Bible and classical literature.

Google this week gobbled up Sparkbuy, a consumer electronics search engine and comparison shopping startup. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, except that the three-person team -- CEO Dan Shapiro, Scott Haug, and Isaac Myers -- will join Google's Kirkland, Washington office, according to Danny Goodwin. He gives us a few other details, but not much more to go on with this one.

Microsoft has released the Bing Vision feature. Similar to Google Goggles, it allows users to search for things using the camera. Unlike Google Goggles, only tangible objects like books and movies, or visual codes such as QR or barcodes, are recognized. Bing Vision also integrates with Amazon's Kindle app.

Geoff Kenyon gives us a technical site audit checklist to help with the research. The list works for most sites, but in many cases marketers will need to customize the checklist for their own needs. Rather than write a document detailing incorrect processes on the Web site, create a document for things that need to be done and explain why they're important. It helps keep all those who are active on the site in the loop.

Google now serves rich media ads from DoubleClick into the AdMob network. This feature in beta also enables advertisers to create and measure rich media ads from DoubleClick Rich Media. Ben Chung explains that the beta paves the way for advertisers to build, serve, manage and report on rich media ad units using the DoubleClick tools.

Matt Cutts answers a rel=canonical question via email, and believes others may benefit from the information as well. For those not familiar with rel=canonical, he includes links to a paper and video to provide background. The question asks about the difference between rel=canonicals vs 301 redirects and whether Google prefers one over the other. While Cutts acknowledges the question, he answers it in a slightly different way.

Abby tells us about some custom insights marketers can gain from custom alerts in Google Analytics Intelligence. This can be especially helpful for paid-search marketers with ecommerce clients who have campaigns they want to track. While most marketers use these alerts for SEO, Abby explains why marketers may want to use them for custom alerts aimed at ecommerce and conversion tracking.

How should marketers persuade a boss to embrace digital, rather than fear it? Chris Lake provides several ideas that could explain the benefits. There are low barriers to entry for digital, so start small and inexpensive. He suggests beginning with proof that the business case will work, along with benchmarking and evaluating the competition.

Cyrus Shepard serves up insights on how to keep Web sites optimized for mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets without breaking the bank and the brain, or making visitors squint and scroll to find information buried in the site. He filmed last week's Whiteboard Friday and designed a mobile optimization strategy after realizing that 60% of SEOmoz employees have an iPad.