Happy Labor Day weekend to my U.S.-based friends and peers. Kinda strange posting in the middle of a long, holiday weekend, but it is the end of the month, so what can you do? Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts during August.

If you’re new to SBS, this is a monthly feature. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the archives. Only rule is that my own posts are not eligible.

Local Search

• Chris “Silver” Smith/SEL: Forming Good Title Tags for Local Businesses
• Steve Espinosa/SEL: Optimizing Google OneBox and Yahoo! Shortcut Local Listings
• Chris Tolles/iMedia Connection: Find the online opportunities in your own backyard

Link Building

• Bill Hartzer: 6 Ways to Get Nearly Instant Links to your Web Site
• Everett Sizemore/Wolf-Howl: Five Search Queries to Find Sponsorship Link Opportunities

Google

• Scott Clark: 9 Ideas How Google Suggest Could Change Search Marketing
• Michael Jensen/SoloSEO: How Google Suggest Changes SEO
• Aaron Wall/SEO Book: Free SEO Tips for Google Search Suggest

PPC

• Jim Gilbert & Mike Churchill/SEM Clubhouse: Google Automatic Match - Measuring the Cost of Skipping Keyword Research
• John Lee/PPC Hero: How to Use Google’s Insights for Search to Improve Your PPC Management
• John Lee/PPC Hero: What Makes Google AdWords Tick? 2 Quality Score Formulas You Need to Know: Minimum Bids and Ad Position

Blogs & Blogging

• Lee Odden/Top Rank: 5 Ways to Re-Purpose Content for Blog SEO
• Darren/Problogger: 11 Ways to Open a Post and Get Reader Engagement
• Darren/Problogger: 24 Things to do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About

Copywriting

• Karon Thackston: Do Article Sites Provide “Quality” Links?
• Karon Thackston: How Many Keywords Are Enough?

Social Media

• Shana Albert/Hobo Creative: How To Get Started In Social Media
• Chris Brogan: 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
• Jeremiah Owyang/Web Strategist: Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter
• Sugarrae: An Actual “Non Big Brand” Twitter Case Study

Reputation Management

• Brett Borders/Copy Brighter: Dealing With “Impossible” Online Reputation Challenges
• David Mihm: 5 Steps for 5 Stars: Reputation Management for Small Businesses

Viral Marketing

• Jennifer Laycock/SEG: The Fourth Commandment of Viral Marketing - Thou Shalt Tie in Your Message
• Jeff Sexton/Grokdotcom: One-shot Videos Miss Target While Campaigns Hit Bull’s-Eye

General/Online Marketing

• Diane Aull/SEG: Let Your Thank You’s Do Double Duty
• Dean Rieck/Copyblogger: How to Profit From Testimonials…Even With No Testimonials!
• Susan Getgood/Marketing Roadmaps: The secret sauce for the perfect pitch