Many companies that have been focusing on search advertising are finding their budgets starting to be squeezed by the recent economic downturn. It may be time to pay more attention to SEO. In today's enterprise search marketing column, " Worried About the Economy? Why Not Try SEO? ," Aaron Shear shows that search engine optimization doesn't require a huge investment, but it can offer large rewards.

There are some individuals and companies who will provide SEO audits. But some of these folks look at this as an opportunity for them to earn new business or referral checks. So how do you get an honest opinion on whether your SEO efforts have a passing grade? In today's organic search engine optimization column, " Who Audits the Auditor? ," Mark Jackson offers some guidance on getting an honest assessment of your site's SEO activities.

The Web Analytics Association is asking for public comment on a new and revised standard definitions for metrics regarding visits, content, and conversion. The WAA is hosting a blog where the analytics community may give comment. They will be accepting comment through early 2009. Discussion of the new standards will also take place at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington, DC October 20-23. You can access the new and revised definitions here .

AOL's Platform-A is planning to launch a new self-service marketplace exchange for advertisers. Dubbed BidPlace, the platform will allow advertisers to dynamically bid and manage inventory for display ads across Platform-A's network. BidPlace will launch in the first half of 2009.

Tomorrow, Google co-founder Larry Page will keynote the "Broadband for the Future Event" in Washington, DC. The event is designed to advocate for white spaces, something Google has been adamant about for a long time. If you're unaware, white spaces are a unused airwaves between TV stations. Google wants them to be used for free nationwide wireless. Opponents say that it will interfere with the television signals. Here's the details on the event if you wish to attend.

The real Emmy story last night came near the end, when Tina Fey arrived on the stage for last time and received the 30 Rock team award. She reeled off all the places where the hit program could be seen online, including Hulu and NBC , and then said something like "and occasionally on TV" as well. Perhaps Fey sounded a bit promotional but it seemed, well, normal. We definitely live in a video-on-demand world and popular shows are viewed when they are convenient for viewers.

Moms are now packing more activity into their day, according to a new data released by AOL's Platform-A. A survey of 7,000 women found that the average internet-using mom reports conducting 27 hours of activities during the day. On average they spend: 2.6 hours on the internet 2.1 hours of television 1.2 hours a day listening to the radio 30 minutes with newspapers, magazines and games Parenting was the #1 online activity conducted by moms.

Online advertising company Yodle has announced the expansion of its technology platform to include franchise operations. YodleFranchise enables local franchises and corporate offices to coordinate online advertising campaigns. Local operations can target their areas and corporate can make sure the brand messaging remains intact.

As October approaches, and Google prepares to implement its advertising deal with Yahoo , more and more commentary is flowing about the pros and cons of the deal. The New York Times is saying there's nothing to worry about. But their argument is mostly full of talking points released by Google itself last week . )Their talking points were not bad, mind you.( Meanwhile, TechCrunch is so afraid of the deal ,

We here at Incisive Media, home of Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies ) SES (, are pleased to announce a few promotions within our event programming team. First off, Stewart Quealy has been promoted to VP of content development. Stew has been programming the Search Engine Strategies events since 2001, most recently as senior conference program director.

Yahoo has redesigned the SearchMonkey template. The new design features deep links horizontally underneath the title. The reason for the change is that testing showed the new format was more easily scanned by users and increased the click-through rate for app developers. Here's a before and after shot: What do you think of the change? Give your impression in the comments.

Back on July 20, 2008, I asked: " Is YouTube about to pass Yahoo in expanded searches? " Well, I've just had a chance to digest the latest data from comScore for August 2008 and its appears that YouTube has passed Yahoo - if you look at "expanded" search queries instead of "core" search queries. First, what's the difference between an expanded and a core search query? According to comScore,

Local SEO is a must for businesses that sell products locally to a specified geographical area. In today's vertical search column, " Getting to Know Local SEO ," local search expert Gregg Stewart shows how the channels consumers are using to search are changing. Is your marketing strategy adapting?

At the OMMA Conference in New York this week, Axciom is unveiling their new online advertising targeting tool. Dubbed Relevance-Xâ„¢ LifeStage, the tool was designed to help interactive marketers identify audiences based on life stage. Once the identification has taken place, advertisers can make a single media buy to reach publishers with a message coordinated with offline efforts.

Social sites FriendFeed and Twitter have )separately( updated the designs of their interfaces. You won't notice much by going to the homepage not logged in. But once you're passed the wall, you'll notice a few changes. Twitter's are largely cosmetic in nature , with the biggest change being moving the tabs for Replies, Direct Messages, etc. to the sidebar. They've also slapped some Ajax on there to just refresh Home or @Replies when you click on them. Thank goodness.

comScore has released their search market data for August 2008. Google saw 63% of the 11.7 billion core searches conducted in the U.S. during the late summer month. The number of core searches barely changed from July to August, so Google's 1.1% rise over July 2008 certainly stole a little share from someone else. Or rather, two someone elses. Both Microsoft and Yahoo took the hit, while Ask and AOL also added a bit of market share.

Microsoft's adCenter is introducing Dynamic Text Insertion into its offering. Similar to using {keyword} insertion, Dynamic Text Insertion works by using these placeholders: placeholders {param1}, {param2} and {param3}.

Ad widget company WidgetBucks today announced the availability of two new advertising verticals: local and travel. WidgetBucks already has a shopping vertical which serves a billion impressions per month worldwide. "We fundamentally believe that advertising should be more customizable, personal, engaging, and more measurable for publishers and advertisers," said Matt Hulett, chairman and CEO of Mpire and WidgetBucks. "Clearly,

Google has added Street View and walking directions to its mobile maps. This will be especially useful for those of you lucky enough to live in a walkable city. To explain the usefulness of this update, Google made a video on just one of the many ways Street View and walking directions could come in handy. Take a look: Related Reading: Google Maps for Mobile Adds Public Transportation Directions Google Makes "My Location" Circle Smaller, Larger Depending on, Er,

Google has made it optional for AdWords users to place the "Google Site Stats" logo on their conversion pages. Originally, the logo was designed to let customers opt out of conversion tracking. But advertisers told Google that the logo was often a redundancy of their site's own privacy policy. If you want to remove the logo, it will require action on your part. Click here to learn the steps to take. What do you think about the change? Are you planning to remove the logo?