Anyone working in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) knows that this industry travels at warp speed. If you're trying to market your web site or the web sites of your clients via search engines, chances are your time is limited - severely limited.

To squeeze as much into my schedule as possible without resorting to self-cloning, my daily routine involves the use of a range of time-saving tools and software. I use such tools on a daily basis and I truly don't know how I'd function without them. I'm not the only one. I've talked to other SEM experts and they also rely on various tools to help them through their hectic schedules.

Here is a list of 20 must-have tools used by busy SEM professionals..

In my previous article I discussed the best tactics for achieving rankings in Yahoo, the web's number 2 most popular search engine. Now it is time to pick on the third most used search property – MSN, which has 6.6% of the search market and is currently found at www.live.com. MSN's ranking algorithm has its own nuances which will be noted in this article..

With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google's 64.4% for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today's useful tools and tactics..

There seems to be a lot of bad-mouthing about reciprocal linking nowadays by SEO "gurus" and amateurs alike, most notably in the various internet forums. Reciprocal links, according to the naysayers, are virtually worthless because they supposedly do not help your search rankings or pass Google PageRanks to your site..

It's a dilemma that many web site owners face. They don't want to have too little words, but they don't want to have too many words, either. It's a delicate balance that every web site owner has to know in order to have a site that is search engine optimized and visitor friendly..

Firstly it should be noted that SEO is not something performed with a blanket approach it is an individual set of actions performed page by page to suit that page's particular goals. Here at Kanga Internet we break up a clients website into specific and important pages based on the keyword terms we have identified through research and then write the first few pages to suit those terms. We associate page titles, page file names (buy-blue-widgets.html), H1 tags, description and keyword Meta tags and in page content to tell the story that match those identified keywords. It is also important to ensure your pages are W3 compliant and have no errors..

Finding out what's going on with you website no longer needs to be a complicated task. With so many quality free tools available, it takes little effort to get your head around site analytics and optimization..

One of the most important aspects of running a website is monitoring the site and its progress. By monitoring your website you will be able to see how it is performing and how it can be improved. This article covers 10 free tools that can help you to optimize your site for maximum results..

The past few years have seen a huge increase in the number of search engine optimisers preaching about the vital importance of W3C Compliance as part of any effective web promotion effort. But is compliant code really the 'Magic SEO Potion' so many promoters make it out to be?..

It is best to plot out how you'll use meta tags on a particular page before even writing the content for the page. Lots of people will write the content of the page and then try to sprinkle in keywords in the meta tags. This is an ineffective way of doing things, as it usually makes your page confusing to visitors.

Before writing content, take a minute to pick out 3-4 primary keywords. Then take another minute to write phrases from those words. Once you've done that, you can begin writing your content around the keywords..