I try to teach my mom SEO stuff from time to time, and often do so through the use of analogies. Some analogies perhaps oversimplify the SEO process, but are good for helping get the basic concepts across. On Page Content fish and a fishing pole - when explaining how text heavy sites often outrank thin ecommerce sites, I like to call searchers fish and each word on the page an additional fishing pole in the water.

The Value of Improving Ad Position The following best practices for ad position , or ad rank, help maximize the efficiency of search campaigns. The more relevant the ad, the greater the probability of achieving a high position or rank. Greater relevance.

by Jennifer Laycock I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From made up social media profiles to online reputation management to shifting paid search campaigns from Google to Yahoo, check out a roundup of seven posts I classify as "must-read" for the day. When it comes to brand building and generating buzz, the best ideas don't always happen online. In fact,

First Starbucks . Now this. With out so much as a word of warning, Bennigan's Grill & Tavern has thrown in the?laminated menu. The chain filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy today and immediately closed all its company-owned stores. (Independently owned franchises will remain open.) The reaction to the eatery's sudden shuttering has rattled casual diners everywhere. Demand for " bennigans " boosted the chain into the top spiking searches for the day,

Adding to the list of Yahoo shareholders who are " furious " about the failed Microsoft-Yahoo deal is billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens who has to sell his Yahoo shares at a loss? because he was tired of waiting for the deal to materialize. Interestingly, Mr. Pickens bought his share last May with the hopes that he would gain from the stock purchase once Microsoft acquires Yahoo at the original price of as much as $41.

California Assemblyman Joel Anderson wants the state's Attorney General to inspect the Google/Yahoo search ad deal. It's already stalled by the U.S. Department of Justice . According to a CNET report , the San Diego Republican wrote the following to the AG: "I am writing to urge you to direct your office to take quick and decisive action by launching a formal investigation into the proposed business transaction between Google and Yahoo's search-advertising business.

SearchViews dealt with behavioral targeting a few weeks ago but the tide of bad publicity has now well and truly rolled in. There's nothing like an election year to bring on the misplaced outrage ??" in this case towards behavioral marketing and targeting online. What's even worse is that one numskull company has helped to paint everyone else with a broad brush. But first' Cast your mind back to 1985 (if indeed you were sentient back then),

In this season of testosterone-fueled superhero movies?("The Dark Knight," "Ironman," and?"Hancock") and strong female leads?(in "Sex and the City" and "Mamma Mia!"), you'd think Hollywood would do the math and put out a superhero flick starring a woman. A Wonder Woman. You evidently agree, since searches have spiked in the last week for " wonder woman " and " wonder woman movie ." Additionally, interest in " wonder woman movie 2009 " spiked 9,

Yahoo, Intel and Hewlett Packard announced an alliance to advance "cloud computing," backing a global trend that threatens Microsoft's iron-fisted grip on packaged software installed on computers. Earlier this year Google and IBM teamed up to advance research into providing SAAS (software as a service) on the Internet hosted by data centers. Cloud computing isn't as futuristic as it sounds. Web-based email (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail) offered by Google, Yahoo,

Reto Meier is a software engineer in London. He blogs about technology, programming & Google, and is author of the book Professional Android Application Development . (Please note this post appeared at the Radioactive Yak blog first.) I'm a big fan of Knol , and I seem to have been spending an undue amount of time defending it from critics who, I believe , have the wrong end of the stick. But. Just because most people are judging Knol using an inappropriate comparison,