If your business is online, chances are that you've heard about search engine optimization (SEO) and how it's designed to improve your site's rankings for major keywords. What doesn't get talked about as much, however, is that a good SEO engagement will work on how your results appear, and not just where. So, let's take a look at exactly what shows up in a search result on a search engine results page (SERP), and how you can improve it.

Kodak has been breaking new ground in its use of multiple channels to promote their cost-saving printer line. Most notable is its use of short- and long-form infomercial segments touting the benefits and savings of the products in a way that pays homage to the late Billy Mays.

Search is generally the recipient of any online budget's "dollar one." It generates strong, measurable ROI and influences important factors like brand metrics and later sales. However, search can hit a point of diminishing returns from an ROI perspective.

Barbara Coll, CEO of Webmama.com, sat down with DMNews at the 2009 Search Engine Strategies Conference to discuss the latest trends in search marketing. In our five questions, Coll covers why you can't do search in a vacuum and the reason search needs to be a strategy rather than a tactic.

In difficult economic periods, online advertisers are tempted to slash pay-per-click budgets. But PPC doesn't act in a vacuum — it also influences online traffic and conversions from other channels.

Bing, the new search engine — sorry, decision engine — from Microsoft, launched in June with a slate of TV spots, print and online ads. Consider for a moment the challenge the creative team faced. Google has become literally synonymous with search, having beat out the other contenders, including Microsoft's own Live Search, simply by being better. So it was far from obvious that the world was looking for a new search engine.

By now, most marketers know the drill for 2009: Trim budgets and focus on effectiveness. For search marketers, there are several ways to meet this challenge. In fact, you can often wring more ROI out of your paid search campaigns without sacrificing much traffic. Wister Walcott, co-founder and VP-products for Marin Software details three clear steps you can take.

Last month, TechCrunch published an anonymous post, "The time has come to regulate search engine marketing and SEO." The author made an appeal to the government to regulate both Google and the search engine marketing industry. Statements and accusations flew back and forth in the comments section of the post, as well as across the Web. Now that the dust has settled a bit, contributing editor Sara Holoubek reached out to a few industry leaders to separate fact from fiction, with the end goal of informing direct marketers how best to interpret the key points.

Hitwise reports that medical searches made up 45% of total online traffic from all categories last year, and eMarketer says online ad spend by the pharmaceutical industry is expected to reach $2.2 billion in 2011 — up from $1.2 billion in 2008. Search engine marketing (SEM) is growing within the pharma arena.

The launch of Bing in June was Microsoft's latest volley in the battle for market share against Google. But it is working? According to a new report from search optimization firm SearchIgnite, not yet. Bing has had little impact on Microsoft's share of U.S. paid search advertising in the second quarter of 2009, the study found. In fact, Microsoft's search has remained at 6% of the ad pie, where is has been for years, according to the report.