Once defined as the sum of all customer experiences, brand in the age of social and search may be better described as the sum of all experiences and conversations.

Achieving search marketing results in 2012 requires more strategic execution than ever before. And, assessing those results requires more sophisticated reporting than just traffic and rankings alone. Optimization - and integration - of search, social media, and PR 2.0 channels is now essential for generating and measuring the ultimate campaign outcome: targeted, right-fit conversions.

How best to calibrate social media investment (time, talent, resources)? This diagram shows the basic social media building blocks of success — underlying strategy in support of frequency-minded posts (daily pulse), search-engine minded injections (social signals) and longer-range, brand-sensitive communication (campaigns).

Any good search marketing campaign has a multi-pronged approach to achieving top rankings. Blending such factors as site structure, content relevance, and online press releases will influence your site’s chances for success. Starting in 2011, engagement is a key metric that can be measured by activity in the social networks and how much time is spent by users on your site.

In the beginning being online and having a presence was enough. Then search introduced a new way of organization of the content found on the web. Today all sites must account for the way people use the web to find what they are looking for.

Gap still wide between where marketers spend
their money and consumers spend their time.

Search Engine Marketing turns traditional advertising efforts into online conversions and sales.

By publishing and then pulling content from social media, you increase the number of brand searches and drive more traffic to your website.

There are many ways known to gather information as to what is working for your search marketing efforts. By classifying them into easy to maintain categories, it's easier to take a methodical approach to realizing your conversions.

Tapping into what already exists online such as photos on Flickr and reviews on Yelp gives users a richer experience. From a search perspective, this infographic illustrates how including all the social media content on your site could also prompt other sites to link to your site. This in turn will help drive up your rankings in the search engines.

Once an SEO gets to a certain level of expertise, he or she can typically select a list of key phrases and map out exactly what steps are necessary to get those phrases ranked. This week's infographic demonstrates what that equation for ranking success may look like for a long-tail phrase.

Most likely, you've said it and heard it a thousand times. When it comes to SEO, content is king. But, have you ever really thought about how many touch points a well-written and well-optimized piece of content encounters on the web? This week's infographic demonstrates exactly how an optimized article can find its way to your target audience.

The strategy behind the addition of articles to a website is typically twofold: provide insightful information for current / potential clients and create valuable content for search engines. This week's infographic illustrates some simple tips for making certain your articles have the best potential for being found both by readers and search engines.

Getting your site ranked and persuading customers to click on your search result are just the first two steps towards achieving the end goal: getting the sale. This week's infographic details some quick tips for turning that click into a conversion.

As the opportunities to reach customers grow with new technology, so do touch points with your brand. When consistent messaging is developed, remember that search is an important component of that branding initiative. This week's infographic shows how search fits into the customer influence line-up.

Linkbait comes in various forms that can be used in creative ways to drive traffic to your site.

A lot of times paid and organic search campaign results can look very different. Especially at launch, organic conversion cost will seem much higher as rankings and, consequently, ROI take time to surface. This week's infographic demonstrates how organic search campaigns can show more cost-effective long-term performance.

A common misperception about search marketing is that it consists only of on-page optimization. In reality, SEM touches countless online channels with the ultimate goal of bringing targeted traffic to a web site. This week's infographic illustrates the number of channels that search marketing taps into - in addition to search engines - to deliver the right people to your content.

Perhaps the greatest benefits of organic SEO are the unexpected rankings a site can get by earning a top spot in the engines. This week's infographic demonstrates how, through solid search marketing, related phrases can get ranked without additional or intentional efforts.

Organic optimization brings more than just results in the search engines. This week's infographic illustrates the additional benefits and return on investment that comes along with properly optimizing a site and pursuing targeted keywords.

Don't make the mistake of thinking content that isn't html-based can't be optimized. A PDF document gives SEOs one more chance at ranking for targeted keywords. This week's infographic illustrates some simple tips for optimizing PDFs.

A search engine marketing campaign isn't complete without including some elements of social media. While engaging in social media alone can provide impressive results, this week's infographic illustrates how properly planned tactics can have a positive impact on your search results.

Search marketing strategies for large ecommerce sites can, at times, seem overwhelming, and important details can get lost in the shuffle. This week's infographic provides a reminder of which page elements shouldn't be overlooked in optimizing an ecommerce product page.

Search marketing campaigns for business-to-consumer websites need to address the issues of trust in the brand name as well as confidence in making a purchase. Third-party validation and "wisdom of the crowds" mentality rule the day. This week's infographic illustrates various pieces of content that can be created and optimized in order to build B2C credibility.

Search marketing campaigns for business-to-business websites can, at times, seem limited compared to business-to-consumer sites. But, optimization is just as critical and options are just as plentiful for a B2B site. This week's infographic illustrates various pieces of content that can be created and optimized in order to build B2B credibility.

Search engine results aren't realized simply from optimizing your website anymore. Gaining an understanding of the multi-channel nature of the Internet is key to successful online marketing campaigns.

With so much effort that is focused on writing great content, acquiring links and social networking, the search spiders are sometimes overlooked. If a site can't get indexed, it can't get ranked. This week's infographic displays some of the common ways the spider can get trapped and unable to maneuver through your site.

When brand awareness is the goal, it's sometimes easy to implement PPC as a "go to" for increasing awareness quickly and effectively. But, paid search is just one part of a broader, long-term brand awareness campaign. This week's infographic explores how SEMs can utilize all facets of search to achieve increased brand awareness.

With so much good content on the web, it's inevitable that the same information will be displayed many times over. Whether it's a blog post pointing to good statistics, an RSS feed pulled into a complementary site, or blatantly copied material, duplicate content can be an issue. This week's infographic shows how search engines make distinctions between original and duplicate content.

Redirects always inspire questions. Which type should I use? What will happen to all my links? Are they permanent or temporary? This week's infographic illustrates the differences between 301 and 302 redirects.

The Algorithm. If an SEO had a nickel for every time that phrase was mentioned in a day. Over time we've become more comfortable with the main triggers that affect search rankings. But, it's leveraging the sum of all factors that can really give you an advantage over the competition. This week's infographic explores the lengthy list of both well proven and somewhat subjective factors that go into a ranking algorithm.

Search engine optimization can extend far past domestic versions of the major search engines. Some globally-focused companies want increased visibility in country-specific search engines outside of the U.S. market. This infographic illustrates some tips and best practices associated with successful international optimization.

There are many aspects of the blogosphere that make it attractive to search marketers: the sharing and distribution of content, the potential for viral marketing and link bait, and the associated linking opportunities. But, so much more goes into the relationship we have with blog communities. This infographic describes both the tangible and intangible benefits of engaging with the blogosphere.

Not all links are created equal. Most search marketers already know the answer. But, how do you differentiate between links to figure out which ones are better than others? The above infographic visualizes the various site and link components that combine to form link juice.

There are many places and ways to get links to your site. While some are easier than others, it takes time to earn quality links. This infographic visualizes two link paths: one to the good neighborhood and one to the bad.

Just like you choose to buy products from companies you trust, search engines factor in levels of trust when determining which websites to include in their search results. Whether it's an issue of security, privacy, or just easily-accessible information, every little bit helps when it comes to the search algorithm.

Although occasionally used on its own, paid search can be a great complement to an organic optimization strategy. Research has shown that having a presence in both natural and paid results increases the overall likelihood of receiving a click. This infographic breaks down some of the main ways in which PPC advertisers can positively affect campaign click-through rates.

Search marketers know it's important to optimize company websites in order to be found on search engines. But, customers' trust can be grown through so many additional avenues. This infographic demonstrates how various SEM tactics - in addition to just SEO - allow buyers to find out about products, not only on companies' websites but also on other popular sites throughout the web.

As SEOs we know that a little creative thinking goes a long way in using social media sites to promote a business. In one way or another, these collaborative communities provide endless opportunities for viral and word-of-mouth marketing. This infographic provides a handy snapshot of the top social media sites, what purpose they were designed to serve, and what other types of user interaction they support.

Many cases can be made for different types of effective advertising. But what makes search engine marketing stand out from the rest? This infographic demonstrates the mindset of the buyer and their ability to easily convert while in the medium.

So much discussion in the SEO community today centers around social media because of its potential to drive traffic, increase awareness, and build links. The challenge of this new medium, though, is to marry social media tactics with real business goals. Here we explore some ways that a business can leverage specific social sites to achieve departmental goals.

It's hard to dispute that the Long Tail is an important concept in Search. A lot of times, though, we tend to think of the long tail as being a B2C concept by relating it to specific product names in ecommerce situations. But, it's just as relevant in the B2B world. One-word phrases bring businesses up against a lot of competition, but the benefit of increased traffic may outweigh the expense of ranking. On the flip side, credibility-building site assets like case studies can be optimized with longer-tail phrases in order to boost the probability of conversion. Where does your SEM campaign fit into the curve?

Having relevant keywords as the anchor text of a link is extremely beneficial to an SEO campaign. Because search engines depend on links as a sort of pathway around the Internet, anchor text helps categorize what a destination page will be about as well as what it may be relevant for in a search result.

When it comes to SEO, there are certain elements that need to be in place for any newly-designed or updated website. Have 301 redirects been put into place? Is the robots.txt file authored to allow adequate crawling? This infographic depicts a handy checklist that will help get you through any new site launch or transition.

With so many tactical options available to today's search marketer, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which approaches are best for achieving specific goals. Should press releases be optimized for increased brand awareness? Or, will a PPC campaign achieve better results?

Most Search Engine Marketers know how important inbound links are to a successful search marketing campaign. After all, links are widely considered to be the backbone of Google's ranking algorithm. However, inbound links can carry many different meanings beyond just a top ranking.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN have all agreed to support one method of submitting a site's pages: through an XML map placed on the root of a website. Search engine sitemaps provide a quick and easy road map for crawlers to follow in order to locate and index each of the pages on your site.

Compelling video content can potentially open the door to site traffic, targeted visitors, and increased brand awareness. Here are some basics that you should follow in order to enhance your rankings in the search engines for your videos.

Optimizing your audio files takes more than just recording your message. Be sure to follow these steps to ensure your podcasts have the best potential of being found by the listeners and search engines alike.

Keyword research involves so much more than just looking up search frequencies. Critical factors such as budget restrictions, competition levels, and business strategy must be considered in order to develop a results-driven search marketing plan.

Part 2 of our 3-part series infographic details an essential element of keyword research: exploring conversations that are happening on the web. By combing through competitive and industry websites, relevant blog postings, and popular tag sites, new phrases are discovered and search frequencies can be determined.

When you begin the process of keyword research, the first step is to think like your target audience and how they would enter the phrases for what they are searching for.

Collectively, segmented marketing initiatives will help increase your baseline traffic over time. The traffic bump infographic demonstrates the potential of gaining loyal readers with every marketing initiative.

Once you've identified and defined the target markets for your search marketing strategy, you can employ a number of different optimization approaches to reach those customer groups. Whether it's making use of individual press releases, case studies, or blog postings, utilize a page-level localization approach to reach multiple targets.

Depending on your search marketing strategy, the keywords you select should align with the areas that you are targeting.

The geo targeting search strategy you decide to use will impact your overall SEM campaign. By going after selected areas, your efforts will be guided by the areas you want to market your site to.

Local Optimization is a powerful way to leverage your presence in the real world to web search results.

The seo power of RSS feeds is realized through many channels, but it's greatest impact is the ease of use to the reader.

Image optimization is a powerful way to visually display your products in the results of search engine queries.

The Optimized Press Release provides multiple benefits to your site. From a traffic perspective, you gain a boost on the day of your release, and in the long term you'll increase your daily visitor count to your site by a few readers per day. From a search perspective, you can gain in-bound links, "buzz" and long-term rankings for less competitive phrases.

Cloaking is often used to gain rankings in the search engines by providing false sites to the engines. Humans see the real site, but the search engines see an entirely different version.

Most people still prefer listings found on the first page of results, but as users become more savvy, they realize that sometimes better results can be found by looking further into the search result pages.

Google uses 2 distinct "bots" to help index the Internet. The Deep Crawl bot comes about once a month and looks at all the known pages of a web site. The fresh bot comes on a more frequent basis, but only to the pages that are considered most important for a particular site.

Search Engine Marketing has many ways to impact the search results. When a web site offers a product or service, people tend to have different trigger points that they are looking for - and therefore use different phrases when they search based on their needs.

301 Redirects are used when you want to permanently retain the value of all the links pointing to an old site and guide them to a new URL.

Launched on May 16, 2007 Universal Search from Google includes the most relevant content from the web, whether it's a podcast, video, news release, image or web site in the search results page.

Link Baiting is used to get many in-bound links pointed to your site. Through great content or some humorous hook, you can create a viral marketing affect using this technique.

Strong SEO positions can be achieved by paying careful attention to three main areas: on-page factors, off-page factors, and URL factors. These forces, in combination, push pages towards the top of results pages.

Smart search marketers utilize eCommerce optimization to make every web page instantly accessible to searchers.

Tagging allows the user to label content they find on the web in a way that will be easy for them to remember.

Robots.txt file simply tells the search engine crawlers the places they are not allowed to index on your site.

When optimizing for highly-competitive terms, strategically clustering related phrases around the main keyword can cause a halo effect in the SERPs.

As a visitor refines their search criteria, there are certain patterns that emerge in their queries.

Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes your site’s importance in the eyes of Google.

Any good search marketing campaign has a multi-pronged approach to achieving top rankings. Blending such factors as site structure, content relevance, and online press releases will influence your site’s chances for success.

The strongest search marketing campaigns pursue rankings for a combination of high-traffic phrases that are likely to bring many visitors to the site as well as highly-specific, 3- or 4-word phrases that are more likely to convert a targeted buyer.

Search engine results aren't realized simply from optimizing your website anymore. Gaining an understanding of the multi-channel nature of the Internet is key to successful online marketing campaigns.

When it comes to the U.S. search engine market share, Google is the most dominant force, followed by Yahoo! and MSN. All other engines (AOL, Ask, etc.) make up the remainder of the industry.

The majority of search engine results pages (Google shown here) are made up of a combination of paid and organic listings. Heat map studies reinforce the value of top rankings by demonstrating where searchers' eyes land most frequently.