Duane Forrester provides a list of questions that search marketers should ask themselves before creating search-friendly content. Building a templete provides a repeatable process that removes the guesswork. Keyword research and Twitter trending topics can help provide guidelines to focus on. Don't overtarget keyword phrases, for example. He tells us that Bing doesn't "condone link baiting," but hooks (topics) that resonate with an audience can drive traffic, links, views, shares and more.

Paddy Moogan serves up eight link-building techniques that search marketers can do in eight minutes. He describes how to mine competitors' backlinks and pull out good links, search for the word "blogger" on Meetup.com and refine the results by your area to share links, and learn how to build good infographics quickly, among others. Along with each tip, Moogan provides instructions.  

When former Google employee Marissa Mayer took the position as Yahoo CEO, many said she would bring along Googlers. Patricio Robles gives us five tips on how to hold on to knowledgeable and trusted employees, especially experts in search engine marketing. Most tips that Robles provides are common sense, such as don't hire job-hoppers and be careful of promising too much or something that is not easily attainable. While there's no foolproof way to keep employees from "greener pastures," companies can increase the odds that they will stay on.

Google told a judge that it did not pay journalists, bloggers, or others to write about the copyright and patent lawsuit it had with Oracle, after being ordered to fess up. Oracle claimed two relationships -- one with blogger Florian Mueller, and another with Stanford University Prof. Paul Goldstein. The trial centered on Oracle's claim that Google owed it about $1 billion in compensation for the use of its technologies in the Android system.

Microsoft revamped the search experience on Bing for Windows 8. The Bing team touts an immersive experience for users related to travel, news, finance, sports and more, but marketers and advertisers should find that better features increase conversions. The product begins shipping Oct. 26. It will turn PCs into touchscreens, and marketers will need to adapt search campaigns to the changes.

The MediaPost Search Insider Summit has opened submissions for speaker proposals and sessions. The event takes place on Dec. 5, 6, 7, and 8, 2012, in Deer Valley, Park City, Utah. The post notes that nominations will remain open through Nov. 21, but I guarantee that positions will fill up long before that date. We're looking for experts and ideas related to search and mobile, social, video, attribution, retargeting, and more.

Retargeting reaches consumers, some of whom abandon shopping carts. In fact, Virginia Nussey tells us that 84% of users are reached monthly through the strategy. She provides a list of beneifts for auto-optimized bidding, and remarketing lists for search ads.

Microsoft adCenter has revamped Agency Enablement features in adCenter to enable advertisers to add or change agencies without losing account history. The changes make it easy to link and unlink or onboard new clients or existing accounts, control billing preferences, and tailor account management to the needs of clients. Tina Kelleher explains the changes.

Average revenue per user, subscriber churn, lifetime value, and customer acquisition cost are four metrics tools that marketers won't find in Google Analytics, according to Alex Cohen. He explains each in detail for those who work at a subscription-based ecommerce company and might need what he calls a "visit-based" analytics tool, rather than a person-based tool.

Susan Kuchinskas sits down with Avinash Kaushik to discuss how "chasing the wrong metrics" can lead marketers in the wrong direction. The two talk about smarter ways to retarget ads, new set of skills for online marketers, and how advertisers can better connect with the person behind the screen.