Do you think you are a Search Engine Marketing expert? If so, you will now have a chance to prove it.

Marin Software along with Search Marketing Expo-SMX West has launched the Biggest Search Geek Contest.
 

Edgy bloggers using Google’s Blogspot might have been miffed already—but likely also understood—at Google slapping content warnings over their adult-oriented material and demanding age verification. But what might deter (poorly) minors from viewing is also preventing search crawlers from accessing the content at all.

Recently, during a live chat Q&A, Googlers Matt Cutts and Maile Ohye, among others, faced the burning questions of webmasters around the world. Together, they put to rest some fears and myths, and confirmed some speculations.

For every abolition an underground emerges. Google’s not exactly the law, and bootleggers during Prohibition didn’t exactly offer seminars about avoiding the revenuers. Todd Mailcoat, Rand Fishkin, John Lessnau, with six middle fingers between them, offer no such discretion and invited PubCon attendees under the table in a session titled Linkfluence: How to Buy Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk.

This session had the various speakers highlighting the SEO/SEM strategy their companies have employed, the challenges they have faced in the field as well as the areas that need to be worked upon.

Moderator:

• Joseph Morin

Speakers:

A lot has been made about quality scores for Google ads. Rated on a scale of 1 to 10 per keyword targeted, the quality score is the ultimate determinant of ad placement on the search results. As webmasters experiment, tips for how to achieve a perfect 10 are emerging in the forums.

Do you have a brand? If not, your site is part of a "cesspool." In AdAge Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt explains the AdWords quality score and organic ranking algorithms in laymans terms:

What is it about web analytics that that intrigues and yet scares companies at the same time? Everyone want to understand analytics, yet once one starts digging in, it can get complicated. In Identify, Analyze, Act: SEM by the Numbers, they gave tips on what you should be looking at and what you should be paying attention to.