For search marketers wanting to branch out into display advertising, Abby compares Google's display network with Microsoft's to distinguish the similarities and the differences. Skip to the fourth paragraph. That's where she provides tips on how to decide it's time to advertise on a display network -- and tells us about each display network, partnerships formed with the respective companies, Google and Microsoft (Bing), to serve up the ads, and goals.

Sometimes gaining access and analyzing Web traffic information is not easy. Benjamin Estes provides insights on services and monitoring tools for organic traffic data. The tools include StatsMix, Geckoboard, and GinzaMetrics. He provides tips on the features, and a brief description of the pros and cons. For example, he tells us that Geckoboard offers the ability to customize the dashboard and a "cool" built-in widget. But it's not SEO-monitoring friendly, and needs a custom API for the user to explore the tool's full potential.

Nichola Stott provides a simple guide to what makes a good link. She explains how a good link should have the potential to deliver relevant visitors to the site through relevant audiences. Among the important points, Stott suggests the links should connect with "thematically similar content" to provide relevant traffic to the Web site, either national or local.

Professionals deep into supporting search engine optimization realize that it takes more skill than we may anticipate to understand and perform well. Krista LaRiviere provides a list of 10 things that stand in the way between you and a page-one rank for Web sites. The strategies range from content to social to local.

Erez Barak explains how to minimize the impact of Google's algorithmic changes and focus efforts on mastering fundamental tasks in SEO. Barak takes us through eight tasks that SEO professionals can perform to align Web sites with Google's "explicit statements and implicit motivations" surrounding SEO. They range from following basic on-page SEO rules to building inbound quality links to assuring fresh content on the site.

David Angotti tells us that the Script Kiddies, a group of online hackers, struck again Sunday night -- hacking into the @USAToday Twitter account. The tweet dared Twitter to block them again. The company blocked the group after the recent hacking of the NBC Twitter account. A keylogger Trojan has typically been the tool of choice for the Script Kiddies to hack accounts, according to Angotti. In the latest hack, the group asks USA Today followers what account to hack next.

With more than 160,000 new top-level domains being registered daily, it becomes more critical for sites to optimize content to rank high in search queries. Since there's a lot to remember, Rand Fishkin provides us with a checklist of SEO tasks that are valuable when optimizing new sites. Marketers with experience optimizing sites may already have a similar checklist, but it always helps to refresh to be sure strategies are on track. On that list, SEO experts will find tips to make content more accessible, keyword targeting, design quality, directories and more.

Microsoft Bing launched an Action Button that allows searchers to search across seven categories such as airlines, delivery couriers, restaurants, banks, rental cars, software downloads and hotels. These buttons take searchers directly to pages to complete a task. Based on how people search, Bing's algorithms determine top actions and corresponding links in the site for a given category, according to Deepak Vijaywargi, who provides a few examples.

Mobile devices have become a staple in daily living for many folks, making it more important for businesses to optimize Web sites for mobile searches. In fact, one in four users expect to access the Web from their mobile device daily. Optimizing sites can generate more traffic, boost customer engagement with brands, and increase sales both online and in physical stores.

For marketers with a few too many older ads in page search platforms sitting dormant, Lisa Raehsler shares some best practices to make over those stale and outdated ad campaigns. Among a series of changes, she suggests adding a product benefit, such as 10% off, and an updated call to action to give the old ad new life.