What do you guys have planned for April Fool’s Day? I have always hated April 1st – as a kid I dreaded going to school that day and walked around braced for stupid pranks. Wait a second, I’m really setting myself up to get punked here, aren’t I? I’m just going to assume that most of you don’t know where I live.

This April 1, don’t be made a fool of! Take this opportunity to study up on our top 10 most popular, happening blog posts from the past month:

1. PPC Bid Management Guide: The Best Bidding Tips from 18 PPC Experts [6] – I crowdsourced this guide, which is chock-full of awesome bid management tips, from some of the best (and nicest!) PPC practitioners I know. It’s can’t-miss.
2. 5 Lessons from A/B Tests: Improving AdWords CTR with Smarter Copy [7] – In this post I looked at some of the A/B tests Ryan Healy has analyzed in  his copywriting series and pulled out five key takeaways. (Hint: Use exclamation points!)
3. Over-Optimization: Oops! Have You SEO'ed Your Site to Death? [8] – Matt Cutts recently wagged his powerful finger, warning SEO’s about an upcoming penalty that will punish “over-optimization.” According to one video, techniques that Google itself previous advocated could get you flagged. Should we be scared?
4. Spending Too Much Time on AdWords? Here Are 3 Ways to Be More Efficient [9] – Tom recommends some simple strategies for making your PPC management more efficient.
5. SEO vs. Inbound Marketing: Battle of the Brands [10] – Is SEO what we do or is what we do inbound marketing? For some this is a necessary debate; for others, a nonissue or a dumb distraction. Get back to your link building!
6. International Women's Day & The Worst Google Doodles of All Time [11] – Guys, the Google Doodle for International Women’s Day (March 8) really sucked! Turns out Google is bad at the gendered holidays in general.
7. Google AdWords Reporting: How to Use AdWords Reports [12] – On overview of the reporting options available in AdWords’ left navigation bar.
8. How to Manage Automated Rules in AdWords [13] – Learn how to edit, activate, pause and delete your automated rules.
9. How to Use the Google AdWords Shared Library [14] – Are you sick of AdWords yet?! Too bad. Here’s Tom again, reviewing the elements in the AdWords Shared Library and what the heck they’re for.
10. The Dangers of SEO Keyword Stuffing [15] – Meg offers a timely reminder, in the light of the over-optimization scare, that is possible to overuse your SEO keywords.

More Web Marketing Highlights

Earlier this week I wrote about using search suggestions for reputation management [16]. At SEOmoz, Gabi Andrei provides a strategy for changing the autocomplete suggestions [17] if you don’t like what you see.

Conventional wisdom is conventional for a reason, right? Not necessarily. Brad Geddes names four common PPC recommendations that might not work for you [18] – for example, always keeping the call to action above the fold.

Danny Sullivan wonders if the so-called over-optimization penalty is Google’s “jump the shark” moment [19] – in other words, the degree to which Google “is trying to improve the quality of its search results through penalties and filters” is “getting crazy now.” I agree: Google should “fundamentally improve the ranking system, rather than patching it up.”

Brian Carter asks, “Is AdWords Express Hurting Your Small Business? [20]” One user found that AWE misspent 79% of his money.

At Search Engine Watch, Alex Cohen has a good article on the importance of negative keywords and how to use them [21].

The Success Works blog pays homage to all the smart women who have made SEO great [22].

Workaholics, take heed: After putting in 40 hours a week, you’re not getting anything done [23].

And now for some fun:

Read the story of one clever programmer [24] who countered her coworkers’ “That’s what she said” bot with a bot of her own.

I always knew what “Wherefore art thou” meant, but some of the top 10 most misunderstood lines in literary history [25] were quite a surprise to this reader.

And finally, enjoy (if you can) these funny-sad screenshots of despair [26].

Have a great weekend, folks.

Image via Mr. Thinktank [27]