So here we are, aren't we? It's 2011, SEO is still not dead )despite a decade of claims to the contrary(, but the landscape is very, very different in this post-Panda world. Most sites that have been hit by Panda )inclusive of all iterations( are still on ice some 7 months after the initial roll out. Businesses have been destroyed, livelihoods ruined, and the future of a once thriving business is seemingly on the ropes for newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.

Not many spy tools out there do what MixRank does. MixRank is a tool that gives you the ability to peek into the contextual and display ad campaigns of sites advertising with Google AdSense. Uncovering successful advertising on the AdSense network can give you all sorts of ideas on how to increase your site's profitability.

Bing's Webmaster Tools recently got a nice refresh and update. There is a lot you can do inside of the tools so we figured you'd want to know all about it :( Also, we've included some free advertising coupons at the end of this guide to help get you started. Account Dashboard Bing's webmaster tools are fairly easy to use and the interface is quite clean. On the main account dashboard page you can select whatever site you want, in your account,

You need links to rank, period. We can talk all we want about great content, social signals, brand signals, and all that jazz but quite a bit of that is subjective. If you practice SEO, and have success with it, then you are well aware that a claim of "you need links to rank" is an objective, true statement without a bunch of false positives. The gray areas come in to play when we talk about things like anchor text, quality, volume,

Am I the only one who gets a warm, fuzzy feeling from a well-crafted, super-targeted landing page? Right, I didn't think so :( Landing pages tend to suck more often than they inspire.

The SEO tool space is a pretty crowded one )and growing one!(. Tools are helpful, there is no doubt about that. However, tools are generally only as good as the person using them. We'd love to know what tools you use and why, so please let us know in the comments after the post :( I am not "house" handy by any means, I can barely hang a picture frame straight. So if you gave me the best construction tools in the world I'd still make extra holes and screw something up.

In his book, Origin of Species , Charles Darwin says that: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." This is typically used by proponents of Intelligent Design to state their case against evolution by invoking the principle of Irreducible Complexity,

Recently, we did a post on the benefits of using PPC for Local SEO . In this post, we are going to go through how to structure a local PPC campaign for a small business. This post is designed to show you how really easy it is to get a local PPC campaign up and running. If you want to streamline the campaign building process, choosing the right tools upfront can be a big help. Landing page creation can be a time-consuming and expensive task, but it doesn't have to be.

We love free stuff, especially when it comes to SEO tools and SEO data. Recently, we published a post on how to do a good bit of competitive research with free tools and now we are going to do that for competitive research on domains. There are a number of tools we can use here.

Insurance is a popular, profitable area for some SEO's. Trying to find reputable insurance for an SEO business is not so popular because many insurance agents do not have the experience to make the distinction between what a web design shop does versus what an SEO or PPC business does. Prior to entering this business I was an insurance agent and before that I was an underwriter and I still have my agent license )hey, you never know!!(.

The term "competitive research" conjures up all sorts of imagery like expensive tools, shiny buttons, cute charts, and fancy )sometimes foolish( language about precise insight into a particular site or marketplace. In reality we know that such claims are usually best taken with a large grain of salt. Most competitive research data is scraped from search engines and then has custom filters applied to it. Such filters can actually be a detriment to the data because,

There's not a complex mathematical formula that is needed for one to understand the basic math associated with SEO. It boils down to something like: Traffic + Conversions = $ That's a pretty easy way of looking at it, and it sort of ignores some of the variables that might go into it like: targeted traffic no so targeted traffic conversion rate volume However,

Pretty basic question for an SEO right? It would be nice if the answer were equally as basic or simple. It's an important question, even more so since a sweeping update by Google knocked out unsuspecting webmasters. Beyond the stuff we know got hit )some RIGHTLY so(, we probably will never know the true ramifications with respect to how many "little guys" had their livelihoods or potential livelihoods destroyed by a heartless, unforgiving, and sometimes inaccurate algorithm.

We are all aware of the importance Google has been placing on local search over the last couple of years, we touched on it in a recent blog post . Google also has some interesting statistics on local numbers pertaining to small business stats and Google's local stats ) 20% of searches have local intent (. As a local advertiser, starting an SEO campaign in your local market is typically built on the strength of your keyword research. Say you are an insurance agent,

We have certainly seen a trend over the last one to two years where Google is focusing on more personalized search and an increasing focus on providing local results . As you know, a searcher does not even have to be burdened with entering a local modifier anymore. Google will gladly figure out, for you, whether or not your search has local intent. :( Google's Investment into Local Late last year Google moved one of their prized executives over to local services,

There are so many competitive research tools on the market. We reviewed some of the larger ones here but there are quite a few more on the market today. The truth is that you can really get a lot of good, usable data to give you an idea of what the competition is likely to be by using free tools or the free version of paid tools.

If the Google Farmer update doesn't show you the unfortunate amount of low-quality noise in the SEO industry then there is no hope for you young jedi. :( It's not unlike the unbelievable noise that surrounds an upcoming Apple product launch. In the interest of full disclosure I happen to be an Apple-ite but the coverage is even nauseating to me.

I'm going to tell you why an SEO Book subscription, for many small businesses, is a much better investment than just hiring a firm or a freelancer. We, as business owners, all realize that we need an online presence and the backbone of that presence is a top-notch SEO campaign. Whether it be straight out SEO services, or help with Google Places, or help with reputation management,

Starting the Process Cash )lots of it(. Work in PJ's from Home. Fame. Fake Twitter Friends. For many folks who decide to give SEO the good ol' college try those are likely some of the major reasons why they decide to dive into the industry. Those same tenets are typically reinforced by slimy internet marketers most new entrants run across in their travels around the SEO world. They are strong selling points, no question about it,

Influence Finder is a new link analysis tool that aims to make link research more targeted and less time-consuming while producing better results. Despite how SEO has evolved over the years one aspect remains crucial to the success of any SEO campaign, links. So just about any tool that claims to make the process faster, smarter, and better quality is worth taking a look at.