SEO and PPC should be considered children of the same parent: search marketing. Their strategies should be considered together for best results.

There is some debate in the industry if running PPC and SEO can cause cannibalization of traffic; and there have been studies suggest both a positive and a negative result. You should, therefore, monitor both initiatives closely to prevent cannibalization if present.

There are some great benefits however, including:

• Shared keyword data. Data from your PPC campaigns can help you identify your best converting keywords which can be applied to your overall strategy.
• Informed content strategy. As with keyword data, converting content from PPC may also convert well for your SEO campaign.
• More comprehensive ecommerce data. Ecommerce landing pages can also be used in your PPC campaign to move visitors directly the page where they can purchase a product.

Again, if you do run PPC and SEO programs together, monitor them closely to assure positive results from both. Using both programs can enable you to share data between campaigns making both more effective.

By using AdWords Express, potential customers will be able to find a business’ website or Place page much easier. This will give advertisers a quick and simple way to connect with customers and grow their business. All it takes is providing some basic business information and creating an ad, and the campaign is ready to go.

After sign up, the campaign is automatically managed for users. AdWords Express will determine which searches should trigger a specific ad to appear and display it when these searches happen. The ad will show up in the Ads section of search results pages – either in the top or right hand side – and in Google Maps with a blue pin. Advertisers will only pay when a customer clicks on their ad and AdWords Express will optimize ads to get the most out of all budgets and advertising campaigns.

For more information or to sign up visit www.google.com/awexpress.

Poor Link Requester

Three years ago, I remember hearing that 3-way link exchanges would be the new wave of linkbuilding. Unfortunately, those who still request these types of link exchanges are behind the curve. Many SEO idiots who request these link exchanges, ask for a link from your main homepage and only offer you a pathetic link on their affiliate site’s links page.

Submitted by Jim Rudnick

1997 SEO

These SEOs had their glory days in the late 90s. They were able to game even the best of search engines. However, getting SEO results in the late 90s has no bearing on the ability to achieve rankings today. Many of these SEOs focus on meta keywords and keyword stuffing. Stay away from these old-timers.

Submitted by Jill Kocher

Blackhatter Who Continuously Raises SE Flags

I’m not out to bash any particular SEO company here, especially in lieu of recent events. But, let’s be honest, blackhat or greyhat practices don’t just hurt the reputation of the offending SEO company–poor practices also hurt the entire SEO industry.

Submitted by Gary Young

Garage SEO with a Confidential Client List

If no client list exists, that can only mean 1 of 2 things. Either he/she signed a confidentiality agreement with his/her clients or he/she doesn’t have any clients worth mentioning. I’m going to guess it’s the latter. Lack of a company website should be a good red flag that the individual has no idea what he/she is doing.

Submitted by Eric Miltsch

The “I won’t come to your office for less than $5000″ SEO

Evidently, there are some pompous individuals in the industry. More power to them. Even if an SEO can provide incredible results and charge high prices, that doesn’t give him permission to treat others with a “holier than thou” attitude.

Submitted by Warner Carter

Backlink Buyer

Much like the Blackhatter above, the Backlink Buyer makes a living from buying and selling links. While this SEO may be good at staying ahead of Google’s spam net, his tactics will eventually be discovered.

Submitted by Bill Bolmeier

Future SEO

These SEOs are thinkers but never doers. They’ll talk your ear off about new, innovative techniques and how they could pull off the “perfect” campaign. But when it comes to actually doing the work, they never perform.

Submitted by Jonas

Web Designer SEO

These yahoos are similar to the Conversion Expert who thinks that conversion optimization will somehow result in higher rankings. Admittedly, I used to be one of these SEOs. If someone is making design recommendations to improve SEO, this person is probably a web developer who has merely dabbled in SEO.

Submitted by NatC

Moon on a Stick SEO

These SEOs are great. They can make huge ranking promises with unbelievable guarantees or warranties. However, their contracts’ fine print usually mentions that they’ll only get rankings for long-tail or obscure keyphrases.

Submitted by theWebalyst

Off Page Only SEO

Contrasting the Sparkling, White Hat SEO, this SEO prefers to do off-page SEO only. In fact, this SEO probably has no clue how to perform on-page optimization. Good luck trying to get him to do keyword research and on-page SEO.

Submitted by Afzal Khan

Packaging SEO

Because SEO is one of those things that can be compartmentalized into specific packages (NOT), this SEO has taken the packaging syndrome to a whole new level. He makes it easy on you by allowing you to choose from an internet marketing menu of sorts. Don’t get me wrong, many SEO ‘tasks’ can be packaged, but SEO as a whole, is too complex and constantly changing to be easily segmented into basic packages.

Submitted by Daniel Dessinger

PPC Guy

The PPC Guy SEO has never learned what the word, “organic,” means. Hey, PPC is basically the same as SEO, right? At least that what he thinks. He believes his expert PPC skills fully qualify him as an SEO expert as well.

Submitted by Rasmus Himmelstrup

It’s been a little more than a year since the Yahoo/Bing merger was announced, and a couple months ago, Yahoo began testing Bing search results. A lot of talk has been made about how this will influence organic search, but what about paid search? This deal could be an instant boom for those doing PPC. Following are 7 possible advantages:

1. Market Share Gets Instant Boost

Yahoo and Bing reach more than 154 million searchers. This equates to a volume of 4.4 billion monthly searches and a 28.6% search share in the U.S.

The expanded market place will improve scale of reach. Previously, volume was an issue with both Yahoo and Bing. With their combined forces it does add a certain appeal since the opportunity for volume is greatly improved.

2. Harmony Between Yahoo/Bing

Rather than competing with each other, they will now join forces. Together they can both take aim at their more handsome brother, Google. This unified focus should help move the meter on increased market share.

3. One Login

I think we are all looking forward to having all data in one login. Managing both Yahoo & Bing via one platform should boost efficiency and performance. This will cut down on the time it takes to toggle between both engines. It should allow for more opportunity for data analysis and optimization improvements.

4. Innovation

Now that the minds from Yahoo and Microsoft have been brought together, we expect new cutting edge ideas and strategies. (At least, I hope this is the case) Personally, I’m hoping this merger succeeds. At the moment, Google is still the 700 lb gorilla. We all know that.

This will always be the case until Yahoo and Bing give people a reason to choose them over Google. I highly doubt Google executives are losing any sleep over this merger. But if this merger does accomplish what is hoped for it will at least force Google to step it up even more. This will be good for all of us.

5. Simplified Reporting

I will admit that I actually liked the Yahoo reporting. The good news is, Bing still provides adequate reporting necessary for effective optimizations. While the Bing reporting interface is much different compared to Yahoo, I have found the reporting in Bing to be just as effective. All it really takes is to get into the reporting center and get your hands dirty.

6. Standard and Advanced Match Dies

I was never crazy about Yahoo matching. We always had a fun time explaining just how Standard and Advanced matching truly works to clients. It almost felt like a gray area. Fortunately, Bing already uses Broad, Phrase, and Exact match. I certainly prefer these match types. They open the door for additional keyword iterations and traffic opportunities. These match types also help filter out unwanted clicks and can improve account efficiency.

7. Microsoft AdCenter Desktop Tool

In case you haven’t heard of this, its Microsoft’s version of the AdWords Editor. This tool actually works quite well. I have been using this tool for about three months. It has saved our PPC team a large amount of hours. It’s a good thing Microsoft got this tool working prior to the launch. Yahoo has a desk top tool. I used this one for a short time and always had trouble with it. I’m sure the focus was shifted to the Microsoft tool. Fortunately it appears to have paid off.

A fool and his money are soon parted. This old time Idiom has never been truer especially when it comes to poor PPC management.

For those who don’t know, ad extensions are features that can be added to your AdWords ads. Some of these include Ad Sitelinks, Product Extensions, Video Extensions, Location Extensions, and Click to Call Phone Extensions.

Upon logging in to AdWords, you will probably not see this tab unless you have enabled ad extensions in at least one of your active campaigns. When clicking on the tab, you will be able to see the stats for any of your campaign ad extensions. You can also decide which data you want to see. You can see everything or filter out deleted ad extensions, or just filter the results by extension type.

Here is a screenshot right from the AdWords blog:

Being in a relationship can be tough. If you use Google Adwords it might feel like you’re dating Adwords, and not in a good way.

Imagine dating a person who remembers all your faults, who places a lot of weight on the first impression and then equally as much weight to every subsequent experience. That can create an uphill battle before you.

Sounds bad right? Too bad there’s more. Communication is generally poor and infrequent. If you have a problem, you can’t really talk to this person directly. To find out where you stand in the relationship you have to turn to, what would be, no better than their MySpace friends who may or may not be in contact with the party in question or even be “in the know.”

One little thing can cause this fragile relationship to fly off the handle, considering the near-ridiculous standards to which you are being held. Oh, and you can’t make plans without running them by your significant other … and it’s safe to say you’ll get shut down a lot if your suggestions are “questionable.”

There will come a lot of days where you feel like you’ve had enough and you can do better. You don’t deserve this type of relationship right? If you decide to pull the plug then beware! Your nights, weekends, and even the days become very empty because there are only 2 other dating possibilities…and they’re both worse. In short, you can’t do any better even if you think you deserve it.

This is the relationship that every Adwords user has with Google. It’s a fickle one-sided relationship where the user is always in the dark about their account. The only ways to get answers about the status of your campaigns are with Google Adwords representatives who can be difficult to contact. If you are able to reach one, getting more than just a canned response from them is a near-impossible feat.

Unless you are a major retailer, or have a world-renowned brand name, your only other options for paid search marketing are the offerings from Yahoo and Bing. While both can be utilized profitably by some businesses, there are a lot of pitfalls for even experienced users. Additionally, there are generally fewer opportunities for relevant traffic.

So, we’re left with Google. It can be a very profitable arm of your marketing campaigns if executed correctly. There are volumes written about how to do it right and thousands of instances how to do it wrong. Flying solo might be the easiest way to get yourself into a bad situation since managing a PPC campaign can be a time-consuming practice. Hiring a professional PPC Company is an efficient way to manage your time and maintain a successful Adwords campaign.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is arguably the most important element of your Adwords account in relation to costs and Quality Score (as outlined here, here, and here). If you can achieve a high CTR, your Quality Score improves, your Costs per Click (CPC) decrease and your overall Return on Investment improves.  Sounds awesome right? The trick there is improving your Quality Score, which all ties back to having a high CTR. It’s quite the conundrum.

There is a lot that can be done to improve CTR. One of the most important aspects is to make sure that your keywords and ads are nearly mirror images of one another. This means that if you’re bidding on keywords like “Bay Area landscaping” your ad headline should say something like “Bay Area Landscaping.”

What about a phrase like “Bay Area lawn mowing?” Is that close enough to be in the same ad group as the landscaping keywords? Don’t even think about it. They’re related but not nearly close enough to group together. It should go in its own ad group.

Make your goal for each ad group to have less than 20 keywords to start. If an ad group appears to be growing to more keywords than 20, look for ways to separate the keywords into individual ad groups. If you write ads to be representative of the keywords in each ad group (NOT a generic ad for the entire account/campaign) I would be shocked if you didn’t have a good Click-Through Rate.

If you’re going to do PPC then do it right. This begins with research about your costs per click for whatever you’re advertising. While the resources are limited and can be somewhat inaccurate for determining costs per click (See Google Keyword Tool) it can give you estimates.

When you’re ready to set your campaigns live, don’t be afraid to overbid. If you set your bids high it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to pay that much per click. However, it sets the stage for your account because by those bids you make your first impression with Google … and Google doesn’t forget any of your errors or screw-ups. They are forever etched in your account’s history, which you cannot see or change.

It’s important to start out your campaigns with a high CTR. That is the first thing recorded in the history of your account. Relevant keywords and ads show Google that you’ve done your research and you are truly trying to provide a valuable product/service to those searching for it.

Conversely, if you start off without keyword research and underbid you’ll ultimately see a low CTR in your account.  As a result, you battle uphill to get your account to where it could have been had it started on the right foot.

After your account has been live, be mindful of adding very broad keywords to your campaign because they typically see a low CTR and can drag the account down. For example, if you sell baseball training videos, adding the keyword “baseball” to an ad group will cost you … literally and figuratively.

Someone searching for “baseball” could be looking for a hundred different things: rules, player bios, stats, team schedules, etc. More importantly, they are probably not in a position to buy anything. If they come to your site, they will almost certainly browse and leave. You pay for it though, not just the click cost, but also from your account’s declining Quality Score. It’s not worth it.

This brand new mobile interface is only available on Android, iPhone, and Palm Pre devices. For Blackberry users, I guess we will just have to wait. For some reason Google didn’t get the memo that 40% of smartphone users are running a Blackberry OS.

Now, when users log into their AdWords account from one these devices, they will automatically be directed to the AdWords for mobile interface. Unfortunately, this is only available for accounts that are being managed in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australian English.

For more information, you can watch the video released by Google below:

One of the biggest is a change in name. In early 2004, Google launched “Google Advertising Professionals Program.” As of today, it will be known by the “Google AdWords Certification Program.” This change will offer more training materials, more challenging certification exams, and other advanced exams that will test search, display, and reporting/analysis. It will also provide a certified individual or company a redesigned Certified Partner badge.

There are a handful of us at SEO.com who are currently certified. What this means for us — and others who want to be certified — is we now need to pass 2 exams. Companies that want to be certified need to have at least one person in their organization who is certified and have a minimum spend of $10,000 per quarter.

Another welcomed change is one that was previously known as the “AdWords Professional Search.” The AdWords Professional Search went live in December of last year without much notice. Google is now relaunching this service under the new name of “Google Partner Search.” Here you can search for Google AdWords Certified organizations to manage your PPC campaigns.

Lastly, Google has also changed the pricing for the AdWords API usage structure. The new preferred pricing section will take you through a process to see if you qualify. This, however, will not be available for another month and will launch May 26. This means some developers will get free API units based on the client spend they manage. A company is eligible to apply for the preferred pricing program if it is a Google AdWords Certified Partner and their AdWords API-based tools is in full compliance with the AdWords API terms & conditions that are set forth. More information about this can be found at the AdWords API Blog.

It is great news that many companies are seeing value in SEO and SEM. It makes it easier for companies like SEO.com to persuade people to let us do what works. But the basic nature of some SEO services has led some to question whether or not the investment is worth it. It is tempting to view SEO as simply a task that once achieved by a first page ranking can be eliminated or at least outsourced for cheap.

So why is this misguided thinking?

SEO has become something much bigger than most people realize. This is why some use the term ‘SEM’ (search engine marketing), or ‘online marketing’, instead of SEO. SEO plays a very important part in what we do, but when you take into account our people who run PPC campaigns for clients, optimize site layouts for better conversion rates, re-design websites for better usability, and whatever else we do, you have something resembling a full-service web marketing firm.

More than building a link or two

Consider the advantage that comes with expertise. For example,did you read Greg Shuey’s post about building links from relevant sites? If you didn’t know any better, you might think all link building was created equal. Turns out, there is a direct correlation between link building and on-page site structure. Go back and read up to find out more.

Or how about Rick Hardman’s discussion about Twitter? As social media continues to evolve, will you have anyone to consult with about its direction? Chances are, what you know about social media’s strategic relation to SEO is already a bit dated. You could study up, but you’ve got a business to run.

Maybe you missed David Malmborg’s post on why you shouldn’t send PPC traffic to your home page. Would you have continued to send all your hot leads to a poorly laid out page if you didn’t know that it was costing you money? Maybe, maybe not. But unless you had somebody on staff that had tested a landing page versus a home page for PPC traffic, you might never even think of something like that.

Pardon me for being a bit sales-pitchy there, but when you understand what SEO/SEM entails, it becomes clear that interns won’t cut it. Because while the business world got web savvy, online marketers were moving ahead. Some simple SEO tasks became commoditized, but web strategy became more complicated as social media, video, etc., gained acceptance. In sum, it takes more now than it ever has before to get the results you want. You could do some link building and content creation yourself, but your resources would be better spent on strategic search engine marketing.