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June 25, 2008
Q&A with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages GroupSearch engine marketers in the US tend to look West when trying to spot new SEM trends. As Frederick Jackson Turner first observed back in 1893, the frontier has always had a significant influence on American perceptions.
But, if you stare into the sunset too long, you might not see the other “new frontier” North of the Canada-United States border that’s also shaping search engine marketing trends. While Search Engine Strategies Toronto ended last week, I’m still sorting through some of the new SEM trends that I spotted by looking in a different direction.
One of the more intriguing trends that I noticed was this one: More than 80 employees of the Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest directory publisher, attended SES Toronto. YPG also owns and manages Canada’s most visited online directories, YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, so the company is no stranger to local search or Search Engine Strategies Toronto.
Now, I’ve often encouraged SES alumni as well as first time attendees of Search Engine Strategies to “bring a couple of colleagues along with you” to an upcoming SEM conference. And I’ve seen companies send teams of more than a dozen people to other SES conferences. But, I’ve never seen a group quite as large as the one I saw at SES Toronto last week.
So, I tracked down one of the key players behind this new trend. His name is Darby Sieben and he’s the Director of Online Services at the Yellow Pages Group. You can watch my interview with Darby on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.
Yellow Pages' Darby Sieben at SES Toronto 2008
Or you can read my interview with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group below. He has some very interesting insights into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Q: The Yellow Pages directory story started 100 years ago by connecting Canadian buyers with sellers. YellowPages.ca went online in 1995. Has the Internet dramatically changed the way people approach the shopping experience?
A: Yes and No. By this I mean, the need of connecting buyers and sellers has not changed and never will. The way in which they go about doing it has changed and will continue to evolve and the Internet is only one way. Consumers are more complex today and depending on the need and particular circumstances will connect using a combination of ways including print, internet, voice, mobile, etc. The key piece of advice to a SME in this evolving world is to understand that this is about syndication of their information across multiple media platforms.
Q: According to comScore Media Metrix, the Yellow Pages Group reaches 41% of all online Canadians -- and ranks #8 out of the top properties in Canada. In the United States, the SuperPages.com Network reaches about 16% of all online Americans and ranks about #21 out of the top properties in the United States. What's going on in the Great White North? A: The main difference between Canada and the US is the fact that the Yellow Pages brand in Canada is trademarked; we are the sole owners and users of the brand. In the US, the value and strength of the brand has been diluted as there is confusion. Second, I believe we are a very progressive directory player. We were the first to sign a deal to license data to Google, we work with all the major search players and we continue to push the envelope on technologies such as our 411 voice services, SMS, IM and our mobile platforms. Syndication of our advertiser’s information is very important. We believe in the anywhere, anytime and on any platform to get information.
Q: The content and keywords found in a print advertisement in the Yellow Pages Group and contained in a business profile on YellowPages.ca are fully searchable on the web and made available to your online partner network including Google, MSN and Yahoo! Isn't that that a strange brew?
A: We don’t think so. If we examine a key barrier to search, that would be content. YP.ca and the search players are only as good as content that is digitized. The issue is that half of Canadian SME’s don’t have a website. We view print as the start of a very incredible journey for a SME because it contains very important pieces of content that consumers look for in the buying process. Those ads get digitized; keywords extracted, bucketized and distributed on YP.ca for our users as well as being pushed to search engines who index. It creates some incredible synergies and creates an ROI for our advertisers. To add one point here – a few years back we launched an initiative called the WebNumber. This is where we have mapped every phone number in our directory to a URL. For example – http://7804517857.yp.ca (this is the phone number for a Harley Davidson Dealership in Edmonton, Alberta). If you type that URL in – you land on their merchant page and can see their video and a host of rich content about that business. Many of our clients will register a domain name and simply point it to their page instead of investing in expensive design services.
Q: More than 80 people from the Yellow Pages Group attended Search Engine Strategies Toronto last week. Why did you bring everyone except the McKenzie brothers to the conference?
A: Well Bob and Doug are launching a cartoon version of their hit from SCTV to be aired this fall, so they were unavailable. On a serious note it is all about further learning’s and understanding. In 2007 we signed Canada’s first reseller agreement with Google and have bundled AdWords with our print and YellowPages.ca advertising. We also launched last year full customized search marketing solutions based on a budget spend and have been testing and continue to sell a guaranteed clicks product. To really become the CMO for small businesses you need to understand all sources of generating results for your customer. Q: You mentioned that you are bundling Google with your print and YellowPages.ca advertising – isn’t Google considered a competitor? A: We are definitely in a world of cooperative competition. You referenced ComScore earlier; here is a key fact that best explains the strategy. If we examine the unduplicated audience between Google Maps and our properties – what you realize is that there is a significant boost in audience reach. Both of us have around 31-32% reach and combined we reach over 50% - that is incredible for any SME who is looking to be placed in the path of consumers when they are making buying decisions. One thing I would like to add is that in terms of the purchase funnel – YellowPages.ca generates a very high ROI because by the time users come to us they tend to already know what they want to buy or are very close to a buying decision and need to do some comparisons. We tend to be further down the purchase funnel than search engines and the measurement for SME’s has to go beyond clicks to include phone calls and store visits. As we often say, nobody comes to YellowPages.ca to surf they come to buy and this remains a key focus for us.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 19, 2008
Top stories and blog posts from SES Toronto Day 2Search Engine Strategies Toronto wrapped up yesterday. I’ll be analyzing some of the new trends that I spotted in Canada over the next couple of weeks. But I wanted to share the top stories and blog posts for SES Toronto Day 2 this morning, so you can get a sense of the highlights from the SEM conference.
Fredrick Marckini, the Founder of iProspect and Chief Global Search Officer of Isobar, gave the opening keynote. Mona Elesseily, the Director of Marketing Strategy of Page Zero Media, interviewed Marckini for the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo Channel on YouTube right after his keynote.
Fredrick Marckini of Isobar on Tracking Offline Conversions
Accordion Guy Joey deVilla provides a full set of notes from the keynote in a post entitled, “Fredrick Marckini’s Keynote at Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto.”
Bryan Eisenberg, the Co-Founder of Future Now Inc., gave the keynote presentation on Day 2 of SES Toronto. Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image, interviewed Eisenberg about the impact of the economy on search engine marketing.
Bryan Eisenberg on Site Metrics and Optimization
Jennifer Laycock of the Search Engine Guide Blog says, “If you only read one link from today's Puppy's Picks, you should check out Chris Winfield’s fantastically creative Twitter presentation from SES Toronto.” Winfield made his presentation at the “Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster or Great Tool?” session.
Rahaf Harfoush, aka The Foush, also weighs in on this session in a post entitled, “SES Toronto - Is Twitter A Time Waster?”
Chris Ragobeer of The Toronto Marketing and Technology Blog covered “SES Toronto 2008 Day 2 : Web 2.0 & Search Engines.”
Lisa Tarticchio of the aimClear Blog covered the “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing” session in a post entitled, "SES Toronto: Essential Return To Basics."
Jim Crocker of the Boardroom Metrics CEO Blog “took a break from reality” to attend the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto and reports his observations in a post entitled, “SES Toronto Day 2.”
Naoise of NVI’s Blog also provided some perspective on the conference in a post entitled, “SES Toronto - There's something sticky going on here.”
Stephan Spencer shared some Social Media “Hacks” (at SES Toronto) in his presentation on the “Social Media Success” panel and commented on them in his Scatterings blog.
Meanwhile, south of the border, The Austin Business Journal reported that Austin-based Apogee will open an office in Toronto, Canada, in an article entitled, “Apogee Search sees big potential in Canadian office.”
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 17, 2008
Top stories and blog posts from SES Toronto: Day 1Weather delayed my arrival in Toronto for the start of Search Engine Strategies, but I was able to catch up quickly by reading what other journalists and bloggers were saying about the SEM conference. Here's a roundup of the top stories and blog posts that I found this evening:
SES Toronto Day 1: State of Search Marketing in Canada Andrew Goodman of Traffick provides a brief update from conference-land.
Hello from Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto! Joey deVilla, aka The Accordion Guy, covered Fredrick Marckini’s Opening Keynote and the best thing in the goodie bag given to attendees.
Notes From SES Toronto 2008: Day One Toronto Mike’s Blog threw down a quick entry with some thoughts about search engine marketing.
Going to Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 08 nicolask7 of Montreal Social Media covered some of the panels as well as the other Montrealers at SES Toronto.
SES Toronto 2008: Opening Keynote Louis-Dominic of Adviso covered the opening keynote.
SES Toronto 2008: Universal and blended search Simon Lamarche of Innovation Web is covering the SEM conference in French: "Nous sommes actuellement à Toronto pour le SES Toronto 2008."
Updates - Exciting News on the Foush!! Rahaf Harfoush is live-blogging the Toronto Search Engine Strategies Conference.
David Snyder As a result of both Twitter and SES Toronto 2008, Mike of Drop the Mike Blog had the pleasure to meet up with and spend some time with a very good up and coming Internet Marketer, David Snyder.
Getting Authoritative Online Mentions (SES Toronto) Stephan Spencer came in late to the "Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions" session, but he did have notes from Jim Hedger's presentation for Scatterings.
SES Toronto - Day 1 Evan Carmichael of the YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog outlines the sessions that he's selected to follow at SES Toronto.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 13, 2008
Two dozen search blogs buzzing about SEM conferenceIf you’re getting ready to go to Search Engine Strategies Toronto next week – or still on the fence about whether to attend SES Toronto June 16-18 – then check out the buzz from more than two dozen search blogs that has been leading up to the SEM conference.
If fact, the buzz in Canada has been louder this year than the one coming from the periodical cicadas that emerge every 17 years from underground haunts on Cape Cod. (Hey, I’m not making this up. Just read “Cape is again abuzz” from The Boston Globe.)
What Google calls “the buzzing blogger community” has been blogging about the speakers who will be speaking at Search Engine Strategies Toronto. I should know. I was among the first bloggers to start buzzing about “Why search engine marketers should attend SES Toronto 2008.”
But, I haven’t been alone.
More than two dozen other search blogs joined the chorus. Here’s a list of the posts about next week's SEM conference that I was able to find today – and I’m sure that I’m missing more:
An Analytic Approach to SEO and PPC Entrevue - Eric Morris de Google Canada Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto Speaking Schedule for June: Millennial Financial, DM Days & SES Toronto
Interview with Eric Morris from Google Portrait Québecois des moteurs de recherche
Search Engine Optimization - Toprank’s CEO shares tips and Tricks
Interview: Jane Motz Hayes on SEO and Usability
SES Toronto 2008: Interview with Jill Whalen on SEO Donts, Myths, and Scams
Metamend Speakers at SMX Advanced and SES Toronto
Mission Critical for Non-Profits to Make the Search Connection
My interview with Matt McGowan, VP of Marketing - Incisive Media
SES Toronto - Combine Professional Development with Family Fun
SEO Myths with WestJet's Lyndsay Walker
Urban Mapping to Speak at SES Toronto 2008
Is There A Need For More Search Conferences In Canada?
So, “the buzzing blogger community” has really been abuzz about the SEM conference that gets underway on Tuesday, June 17, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Bldg.), in Toronto, Canada. It’s not too late to register to find out what all this buzz is about for yourself.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 9, 2008
Q&A with June Li, Founder and Managing Director of ClickInsightWith SES Toronto coming up June 16-18, 2008, we interviewed June Li, the founder and managing director of ClickInsight. June will be one of the speakers at the “Giving Credit Where It's Due: Which Campaign Sold What?” session, which will be held on Wednesday, June 18, from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m.
June has over 20 years of e-business, marketing, manufacturing, logistics and sales experience. She is also an associate instructor for the web analytics program at the University of British Columbia, as well as an instructor for a web analytics course at the University of Toronto Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information Studies.
June has spoken and moderated at the Emetrics Summit and is a contributing writer to OneDegree.ca and the AIMS blog.
Q. You founded ClickInsight, a business that creates successful strategies for clients to multiply their online leads and sales. Can you provide SEW readers with a sample of some of your latest Web analytics projects? What is the latest “buzz” in the field of Web analytics? A. We use web analytics to help businesses accelerate their results from marketing initiatives. Almost all of our business breakthrough projects involve an analysis of search marketing, either organic or paid. And since Canada is a net exporter of goods and services, with the Canadian dollar as strong as it is, there’s been increasing interest in using search to get more qualified leads. Cold calling is such a probability game, why not attract the buyers who are need your goods and services and are looking for what you have to offer? Analytics is a necessity for defining baselines for improvement. Businesses that have not optimized their site for search or are not using paid search should look at their organic search keywords using their web analytics system. What searches are driving traffic to their site? More often than not, the search keywords include just the company name in some way. This means only the people who already know about your organization are coming to your site, and you’re not reaching new prospects. And if you are getting generic, non-branded searches, don’t stop there? You may not be visible to your target market, and unless you drill down to see who your visitors are, you won’t know what you’re missing. What’s the latest buzz? Social media measurement and mobile analytics. Both have great linkages to search and positioning on the search results page. Q. How does your company make use or not make use of Google analytics? A. We and many of our clients make use of Google Analytics (and other tools) to assess the impact of marketing and site changes. We want to see whether our changes have the intended impact on where our visitors are coming from, what’s driving them to our sites, and what’s not. Google Analytic’s new benchmarking availability is interesting and has definitely triggered some very interesting discussions. We also use Google Analytics to mine and analyze onsite search to see what people think you should have on your website. Perhaps what they’re looking for isn’t present or is difficult to find. But Google Analytics can’t tell you what might work better. So we also use and recommend Google Website Optimizer for testing alternate options and 4Q (4Q.iperceptions.com) to “listen” to the voice of the customer. Without listening, you won’t have the insight on what might be improved or the reason why people behave as they do on your site. And if this still doesn’t provide what you need, surveys and usability testing might be next. Q. What got you fascinated about Web analytics to begin with? Did you ever suffer any of the experiences that so many of your clients come to your company for to help solve? A. Since I started with web analytics on the client side, I’m quite familiar with the issues companies have managing web analytics data, reports and analysis. Without analytics, you’re guessing as to what’s happening on your website and with your online marketing initiatives. And who can afford to guess, particularly now that we’re seeing the economy slowing down and in Canada, coping with a stronger dollar. Web analytics won’t solve everything (it’s not magic and it’s not perfect) but you’re much better off with the insights analytics can provide than none at all. Web analytics practices continue to evolve, integrating with data mining and expanding to include social media and mobile analytics. Q. What excites you about Search Engine Strategies Toronto? What do you look forward to most? A. This will be the 4th Search Engine Strategies I’ll have attended in Toronto, and they get better every time. Last year, I was happy to see there was much more discussion “beyond the click” and about landing page conversion, the money-making “value event”. I’m sure this year will bring yet another advance in the community. SES is a great place to gauge the pulse of the search community, where businesses are at with search, learn what leading organizations are doing, and have fun discussions about the current myths of search and what the crawlers are up to now, where they’re going next. Q. You teach a Web Analytics Training course at the University of Toronto. Do you plan to draw upon any of it for your presentation at SES Toronto? A. Absolutely. The Web Analytics training course at the University of Toronto is an introductory course intended to help those who need to show value from website content understand not only the technical basics but also the management and organization pre-requisites for success. Key to using web analytics is a clear understanding your goals. Only then can you set up your analytics plan to properly (and sanely) assess performance and progress towards attaining your goal. I’m really looking forward to the panel I’m on. We’re tackling the topic of Multi-Channel Measurement. Goal setting is critical to ensuring you don’t drown in multi-channel data and can actually make sense of what you’re measuring. Q. Put on your prognosticator helmet: What is the future of Web analytics? Say over the next 10 to 20 years? A. 10-20 years? We’re having problems with 2-3 years! Web analytics will become “analytics”. With new online and integrated technologies proliferating, the tools to measure will evolve, perhaps not fast enough but they’ll evolve. For sure things will get more complicated, and that’s what keeps it interesting and fun!
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 6, 2008
Q&A with Ken Jurina, President and CEO of EpiarSearch Engine Strategies Toronto is coming up June 16-18, 2008. To give attendees a sneak preview of some of the trends in search engine marketing that will be discussed at the event, we’ve interviewed Ken Jurina, the President and CEO of Epiar.
Ken will be one of the speakers at the “SEM Toolkit: Marketers Share” session, which will be held on Wednesday, June 18, from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m. And Epiar and Yahoo! Canada will be hosting The Official Search Engine Strategies Toronto After-Party on Tuesday, June 17.
But, we interviewed Ken primarily for his expert opinion. Scoring tickets to his party was only a secondary consideration. (As Maxwell Smart would say, “Would you believe I’m from New England, which still thinks the term ‘party’ means Boston Tea Party?”)
Seriously, as president and founder of Top Draw and Epiar, Ken has more than 15 years of expertise in traditional advertising and Internet marketing. And I’ve heard him speak at SES New York, Chicago, San Jose, and Toronto.
Q. Can you give me a brief overview of some of the trends the search marketing industry is seeing this year and what the next 5 to 10 years might look like? A. The Microsoft bid for Yahoo! accompanied by the subsequent bid withdrawal, along with the much talked about Google-Yahoo! search advertising partnership have certainly resulted in much speculation regarding the future of search marketing as we know it. I also don’t think the deal is entirely off the table just yet. Ask’s withdrawal from mainstream search as it abandoned its efforts to compete against the search giants in March has also affected the search landscape. Over the last 12 months Google’s search share has increased slightly, Yahoo! search share has remained stagnant in aggregate, and Microsoft’s share has fallen. If we look at trends from the perspective of consumer behavior we continue to see increasing growth in the use of image and video search. Another consumer trend significantly affecting the search marketing space is the astronomical increase in the influence of social media marketing, in the form of consumer feedback and reviews, on brands, ecommerce conversions and tactical refinements of on-page content. Google’s Universal Search results have been seen to have an impact on the traditional F-shaped heat maps generated by eye-tracking studies as eyes are now first drawn to image and video search results. The inclusion of the OneBox, as well as Sitelinks and ‘Search Within a Site’ search box features, are all affecting the usability of the results in the organic listings. User interaction is facilitated by these features and the probability is that the trend in click-throughs will skew towards increased searcher interaction with more ‘visible’, usable, graphic listings – assuming the relevancy factor is retained. Google has also recently revised its display URL protocol in AdWords, and has been experimenting with the inclusion of video results in the paid search listings. As to what the future holds, I think current behavioral trends and further improvements in the relevance and universal appeal of results provided by the search engines will continue unabated. However, based on the dramatic events in the industry in the last few months alone, at this stage I think it would be fool-hardy and irresponsible to attempt to predict anything more specific. Q. How will marketers have to adjust their budgets to compensate for the upcoming changes?
A. Marketers should seriously consider budgeting for continued SEO initiatives, particularly regarding Internet market research on consumer search behavior. Assigning marketing dollars to image and video production and optimization is imperative, as is integrating with relevant social communities. Brands need to aggressively begin to empower brand proponents and embrace reputation management (RM) tools. RM has only recently gained the recognition it should have attained years ago. With the huge growth in both social influence and social media marketing, and the impact of reviews and consumer feedback on online purchase decisions, the need for brand transparency is becoming ever more important. Consequently, the need to facilitate consumer feedback and interaction is key to future success in the search and ecommerce space. Q. How important is it to understand all the online touch-points of your visitors?
A. This answer is basically an addendum to the previous one. Understanding where and how your online market interacts online, what they do, and what they want, need and expect to achieve at each touch-point is imperative.
Meeting them on common ground in forums, on blogs, and in the social space is very important. Openly dealing with detractors and embracing and supporting evangelists is best done in this space.
Consumer exposure to your brand and online offering is unlikely to be limited to the information housed without your official web site. Review sites, feedback consumer forums and blogs are going to discuss businesses with or without official permission – freedom of expression online has reached previously unimagined new heights as regards the impact of this freedom on brand reputations. Proactively embracing the social space via RM tools and facilitating interaction on your own blog or site is no longer something to merely be considered, it has become a necessity. Advertising these social – touch-points via paid search is also something to be considered. Q. When we talk about “tricks of the trade” used by search marketers, can you share a bit on what kind of “competitive intelligence” is required and what exactly is “exotic analytics?”
A. RM tools allow you to see what’s being said about you and your competition in the online space. Internet market research allows you to see how your consumers are behaving online and what terms they are utilizing when searching for your offering.
By understanding what your online market is really looking for – not what you think or want them to look for – can provide competitive intelligence on brand awareness and market share. It can also identify new product or service opportunities, consumer feedback and trending data, and a host of other factors that will allow you to refine your online offering.
As for “exotic analytics”, different web analytics software packages offer different levels of service and different features. Some are highly advanced for sure – trying to predict visitor behavior based on trending for example. However, a wealth of information is available through the basic measurement standards if it is analyzed properly and thoroughly. Q. What excites you about Search Engine Strategies Toronto? What do you look forward to most? A. The Epiar / Yahoo! Canada Party on Tuesday June 17 of course! There will be more details to follow closer to the event but you can expect it will be a party to remember like we are known for. Q. Are there any advantages to being a Search Marketer based in Canada rather than any other place in the world?
A. Numerous advantages: • 85% of Canadians have high-speed Internet access (one of the top ten levels of broad band penetration in the world); • 94% of online Canadians interacted with Google and Microsoft sites in February; • Canadian online business reaped $62.7B in 2007, an increase of 26% year over year, but the proportion of private sector companies who sold goods and services online remained relatively stable at 8%.
The market is big, it’s relatively untapped, and the returns are obvious. The future of search in Canada is promising. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that online ad spend will grow faster in Canada than anywhere else in the world over the next 5 years for two primary reasons: 1. high broadband penetration 2. lower online market saturation
It’s great to be Canadian, eh!
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 22, 2008
Who to see at Search Engine Strategies HamburgCheck out these headlines from Google News Deutschland the other day:
Steuereinnahmen übertreffen Schätzungen Financial Times Deutschland (English translation): Tax revenues exceed estimates Financial Times Germany
Google klebt News auf die Weltkarte Spiegel Online (English translation): Google sticks news on the map of the world Spiegel online
"Harrison Ford ist in großartiger Kondition" WELT ONLINE (English translation): “Harrison Ford is in great condition” WORLD ON-LINE ONE
That right. Except for tax revenues exceeding estimates, the top stories in Germany are similar to the top stories in other parts of the world.
That’s why search engine marketers from outside as well as inside Germany should consider attending Search Engine Strategies Hamburg June 23-24. The German market is too big to ignore and it is worth understanding the similarities as well as the differences of this spot on the globe.
Of course, it will help if you speak German. Only one of the 21 sessions (Search Around the World) will be in English. But, most of the German SEOs and SEMs that I’ve met are bilingual. So, don’t worry that you won’t be able to network if your German is as limited as mine. (My favorite expression is “Nicht verstehen.”)
If you go to the SES Hamburg website, you’ll see that there’s an English as well as German version. Look over the Conference at a Glance and see that there are two tracks: Fundamentals and Advanced. So, you should benefit from attending, whether this is your first Search Engine Strategies conference or you are an alumnus of other SES events.
The keynote presentation will be given by Martin Sinner, the Founder and Managing Director at Idealo Internet GmbH, a Berlin based company which runs product and flight price comparison websites within Germany, France and the UK. Idealo.de is one of the top 50 German websites. Axel Springer AG, Germany’s leading publishing company, acquired Idealo in 2006. So, Martin is now responsible for several SEO and SEM activities of Axel Springer companies.
Now, I confess that I’m not familiar with about 80% of the speakers on the agenda. I haven’t been back to Germany since I helped to launch PC Professionell, PC Direkt, ZDNet.de and Yahoo! Deutschland for Ziff-Davis Verlag, GmbH back in the 1990s.
But, there are some colleagues that I’ve seen speak at SES events in Canada, the UK and the US that I encourage you to go hear. This includes Andy Atkins-Krüger, Managing Director, WebCertain Europe Ltd, who I interviewed at Search Engine Strategies London back in February.
Andy Atkins-Krueger, WebCertain, at SES London on YouTube
Another colleague that I can vouch for is Thomas Bindl, Founder and CEO of Refined Labs GmbH, who I interviewed at Search Engine Strategies New York back in March.
The German SEM World from Thomas Bindl at SES NY 2008
A third colleague that I can vouch for is Richard Zwicky, Founder and CEO of Enquisite, who was one of the first to volunteer for our “Escalator Pitch” at Search Engine Strategies New York.
Enquisite Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008
I can also vouch for 80% of the panel of speakers in the Search Around the World session. This includes: • Massimo Burgio, Founder and Chief Strategist, Global Search Interactive • Anne Kennedy, Manager, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink • Erica Schmidt, Global Director of Search, Isobar • Mona Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy, Page Zero Media The only speaker on this panel that I don’t know is Anders Hjorth, Research & Production Director, Relevant Traffic Europe. But, he should do just fine – as long as he remembers to compliment Mona on her “nice shoes.” (Anders, trust me on this.)
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 21, 2008
Search Engine Strategies Toronto Adds 3 Conference SessionsSearch Engine Strategies Toronto has just added three more conference sessions to the agenda. While attendees can only attend one of the three sessions, because they are being held concurrently, each one is aimed at a different point in the learning curve.
For Beginners: The "Get Me Up to Speed" Track
If you have never attended a Search Engine Strategies event before, plan on attending the "Get Me Up to Speed" track. Then, from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, consider going to the "Meet the Crawlers" session.
Okay, so the title of the session sounds like a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But, we're not talking about those kinds of creepy crawlers.
We're talking about the search engine spiders that crawl around the internet collecting information about Web sites to insert into their index. Come to think of it, that does sound pretty creepy.
Nevertheless, this session will feature representatives from major crawler-based search engines, who will cover how to submit and feed them content, with plenty of Q&A time to cover issues related to ranking well and being indexed.
Intermediate: The "Practical & Actionable" Track
Alumni of last year's Search Engine Strategies Toronto will want to attend this year's "Practical & Actionable" track. Most of the sessions are brand new.
And, even ones like "Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions," which is back by popular demand, will feature content that is 83% new.
How can I be so certain? Well, Joe Thornley, Chairman and CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications & 76design, will be speaking at this session for the first time. And, while I spoke at this session at SES Toronto 2007, only four of the dozen slides that I'm planning to present will be repeats.
In fact, the session description says, "Link building is crucial, but linkbait tactics that worked this year may not be as effective next year." How true.
That's why this session will focus on the underlying quality, as well as ingenuity needed to get other Web sites to link to you early and often. And it will also explain how you should approach journalists, bloggers, and other authoritative sources to enhance your company's online reputation – whether or not you get links.
Now, the panel at Search Engine Strategies Toronto will have to work overtime to top some of the success stories that were shared during a similar session at SES New York back in March.
How can I be so certain? Because I was in the audience – with my jaw on the floor – when Sally Falkow of Expansion Plus told the story of HerRoom.com, which had a series of videos on their site that show how effective various makes of sports bras are at reducing breast movement while exercising.
Rather than get into trouble trying to explain what Sally said, just watch my video interview with her below.
The Sports Bra Test - Beyond Linkbait With Sally Falkow
For Experts: The "Advanced" Track
Finally, even if you're already an expert link builder who has attended every Search Engine Strategies conference held in Toronto since 2004, there's a new, new session for you in the "Advanced" track.
It's entitled, "Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster, or Great Tool?"
With micro-blogging taking the world by storm, should you be incorporating Twitter? Is it worth it? And, even if you do Tweet, how many followers do you have? How many do you want?
You can hear from experts in the field on the latest in social connecting and marketing. The speakers will be:
- David Snyder, Search Strategist & Marketer, JRDunn,
- Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing, and
- Chris Winfield, President, 10e20, LLC.
I know, I know, this session looks like the perfect candidate for "buzzword bingo." But, remember this: It is being held at SES Toronto first. Attendees of Search Engine Strategies San Jose will just have to wait for their turn at this new topic.
So, now there's an extra reason to attend SES Toronto, which is being held June 16-18. And, if you decide to register before Friday, May 30, you can save $150 CAD on a Platinum Passport through the Early Bird Special.
That's 75 Toonies, which – as Yogi Berra would say – "is just as good as money."
See you at Search Engine Strategies Toronto.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 12, 2008
Search Engine Marketing Training at SES TorontoOn Monday, June 16, 2008, before the start of the Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto, Canada, there will be four search engine marketing training classes. While each of the half-day SEM training workshops costs CAD 795, if you register for a full day, the cost is CAD 1,395.
That’s a savings of 195 Loonies – which is worth between 97 and 98 Toonies. (SES Toronto Conference Chairman, Andrew Goodman, has been trying to help me translate American into Canadian, but Search Engine Strategies Global Content Director, Kevin Ryan, thinks it’s a lost cause.)
Seriously, why would you want to take a search engine marketing training class or two – independently or in addition to registering for the SES Toronto?
There are three key reasons.
First, you’ll be provided with “guided, hands-on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment,” as it says on the Search Engine Strategies Toronto website. These SEM training workshops will be taught by Debra Mastaler, Todd Malicoat, Adam Goldberg and Liana Evans, and I can personally vouch for three of them. (While I don’t know Adam Goldberg personally, he’s an ex-Google Insider who started Google’s Inside Sales team in NYC in 2003. So, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.)
These search engine marketing experts will provide you with the tools and techniques you need to become (or remain) outstanding in your field. (I know there’s a joke about a guy who is out standing in his field, but I forget the punch line.)
In the end, you’ll not only walk away from the search engine marketing classes with the knowledge and skills you need to be a successful search engine marketer, you may also “jump-start your career and enhance your professional know-how,” as the SES Toronto website puts it.
Second, all four of this year’s SEM training workshops are brand new. Compare them to last’s year’s line up of search engine marketing training classes. There are absolutely no repeats.
In Track 1, Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link.com is teaching “Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques” from 8 a.m. to noon. And Adam Goldberg of ClearSaleing is teaching “Search Engine Marketing Metrics and Myths” from 1 to 5 p.m. (I love the use of alliteration in the titles of their SEM training workshops.)
In Track 2, Todd Malicoat of Stundtdubl is teaching “SEO Tools” from 8 a.m. to noon. And Liana Evans of KeyRelevance is teaching “How to Effectively Use Social Media for Search Marketing Campaigns” from 1 to 5 p.m. (Just because they don’t alliterate their titles doesn’t mean their search engine marketing training classes won’t be fun.)
I interviewed Todd and John Marshall of Market Motive at ad:tech San Francisco a couple of weeks back, when Market Motive announced it has teamed with Search Engine Strategies to provide online classes for training in search marketing, web analytics, and web conversion techniques.
Todd also talked about his SEM training workshop at SES Toronto. Check out the video interview below.
Stundubl’s Todd Malicoat's Upcoming Session at SES Toronto
There’s a third key reason why you would want to take a search engine marketing training class or two – independently or in addition to registering for the SES Toronto. (There are always three key reasons to do anything. Hang on a second, I’ll remember it.)
You get a lunch break. (No, that’s not it. The lunches are getting better at all of the Search Engine Strategies events, but that’s not a reason to take workshops covering optimization and advertising strategies, analytics, tactics and best practices.)
Oh, now I remember. Whether you’re a consultant, site designer, website owner, or in-house marketing professional, you can’t afford to miss this opportunity to learn firsthand about the latest developments in search engine strategy. (I thought I was having a “senior moment” there.)
No matter where you are on the SEO or SEM learning curve, you’ll leave these intensive workshops with the necessary skills and tools to improve your business results and take your search engine marketing to another level. “Something that never looks bad on your permanent record,” according to Greg Marmalard in Animal House (1978).
See you at the Intercontinental Toronto Centre Hotel, which is a different venue than the main Search Engine Strategies conference, which is being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, which is attached to the InterContinental Toronto Centre Hotel. (Was that clear? Check Google Maps.)
See you at SES Toronto.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 7, 2008
Bryan Eisenberg Giving Keynote Presentation at SES TorontoBryan Eisenberg, co-founder of Future Now Inc., will be giving the keynote presentation at SES Toronto on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. He was also a speaker at SES London earlier this year.
While in London, I interviewed Bryan about web analytics, Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo (MicroHoo), converting visitors into buyers, his new book, and where to find the best pizza in Brooklyn. The video below takes advantage of YouTube's high-quality video toggle button to give you a significantly better view of that interview. Check it out.
Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now, at SES London 2008 on SEO
So, what will Bryan be talking about at SES Toronto? Well, he's the publisher of Future Now's award-winning blog, GrokDotCom, so you might want read some of his latest posts to get a sense of his point of view.
Bryan is also a columnist for ClickZ, so you might want to read "Recession-Proof Your Online Marketing" to get a sense of his scientific approach.
However, Bryan is currently working on his next book, Always Be Testing, due in September 2008. So, I'll bet we'll get a sneak preview of his latest insights at SES Toronto.
Then again, maybe SES Toronto Conference Chairman Andrew Goodman, will show Bryan where to find the best pizza in Canada and that will be the subject of his keynote presentation.
Now, let me think. Always Be Testing or the best pizza in Canada? My money is on the book.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 7:00 AM | Permalink
April 30, 2008
Fredrick Marckini to Give Opening Keynote at SES TorontoFredrick Marckini, chief global search officer of Isobar, will be giving the opening keynote speech at SES Toronto on Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Fredrick also gave the opening keynote at SES London back in February.
While he was in London, I interviewed him about his keynote speech on search engine marketing trends and his duties at Isobar. You can get a pretty good idea of Fredrick's perspective by watching the YouTube video below -- which has just been posted in its entirety. (A portion of Fredrick's interview was included in our Day 1 roundup.)
And, as you'll see, YouTube's recent site updates now enable you view the high quality video by just clicking on the television icon below and to the right instead of using the format 18 code.
Fredrick Marckini at SES London on Search Engine Marketing
You can also get a sense of Fredrick's point of view by reading: Fredrick Marckini iProspect Exclusive SEO Interview with Dan Horton.
Fredrick Marckini founded iProspect in 1996 and is recognized as a leading expert in the field of search engine marketing. He has authored three of the SEM industry's earliest books, including Secrets To Achieving Top-10 Positions (1997), Achieving Top-10 Rankings in Internet Search Engines (1998), and Search Engine Positioning (2001). He is considered one of the pioneers of search engine marketing and was named to BtoB Magazine's Top 100 Marketers 2005 and 2006 lists.
Fredrick is a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the country including: Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, the iMedia Summit, Search Insider Summit and the eMarketing Association Conference. He has written bylined articles for Search Engine Watch, CMO Magazine, BtoB Magazine, iMedia Connection, ClickZ and numerous other publications. He has been interviewed and profiled in a variety of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times of London, Inc., Investors and Business Daily, Internet Retailer, National Public Radio, and others.
Fredrick serves on the Board for the Ad Club of Boston, and was a founding Board Member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). He earned a bachelors degree from Franciscan University in Ohio.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 7:00 AM | Permalink
April 28, 2008
Clinton, McCain, Obama: Drilling Down on Local in Campaign '08Seattle is the place to be for Drilling Down on Local Marketplaces this week (April 30 - May 2). For the first time, The Kelsey Group will provide a deep dive into how local search and local media buys will impact political campaigns. ClickZ Campaign '08 editor Kate Kaye (just promoted to ClickZ senior editor), will speak on two panels during the Kelsey Drilling Down Local conference.
Kate's going to discuss why Buckeye and Lone Star news sites scored big. Of the three main primary contenders, she also found Senator Barack Obama’s campaign has done the most local online advertising, some of it especially innovative. A more compelling local Web effort involved big multimedia ad buys on local news homepages.
Obama is also leading the pack in innovation with expandable video billboard ads.
A few savvy congressional candidates have started to place online ads for this year’s election. You'll also learn why the majority of congressional, statewide and local candidates lag far behind presidential campaigns when it comes to even considering advertising online.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:35 AM | Permalink
April 15, 2008
PPC Search Engine ABCSearch Partners with AdWatcher on Optimizationad:tech San Francisco 2008 gets underway today and a whole slew of announcements are expected to be made at the event. ("Whole slew" is a journalistic term meaning more than I plan to cover.)
Among this morning's announcements is one that will be of interest to search engine marketers: ABCSearch, a PPC search network, is partnering with AdWatcher, a third party service that helps small to mid-size businesses track and optimize their online advertising campaigns.
Through the partnership, advertisers in the ABCSearch network can receive extra, independent feedback on the quality and conversions of the traffic to their sites. Adwatcher will assist ABCSearch to monitor and boost traffic quality for advertisers on its network, improve campaign conversion rates and provide greater transparency.
In a social media press release, Daniel Yomtobian, president and CEO of ABCSearch, is quoted as saying, “Our intent with AdWatcher is to help our advertisers get a better picture of their campaigns and further improve their results on our network.”
It's also worth noting that ABCSearch’s proprietary technology, ClickShield, identifies and removes suspicious PPC traffic across the network. ClickShield has been certified by ClickDefense, a leading tracking, optimization and click fraud detection company.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:32 AM | Permalink
April 9, 2008
Why search engine marketers should attend SES Toronto 2008Search engine marketers on both sides of the Canadian – American border should attend Search Engine Strategies Toronto, which is being held at Metro Toronto Convention Centre June 17-18, 2008.
Why?
If you are one of the 1,250 alumni who attended SES Toronto in 2007 from Canada, the United States or another country, then you will find that more than 70 percent of this year’s 28 keynotes, panels, sessions, workshops and training classes are brand new. And, since more than 70 percent of the 27 sessions in 2007 were “different” from the ones in 2006, even industry veterans like me – who have attended every Search Engine Strategies Toronto since 2004 – need to keep coming back year after year to keep up with the latest developments.
If you have never attended a Search Engine Strategies conference before, then plan on going to SES Toronto 2008. There is no better time to start learning the key strategies for maximizing the search visibility of your web site. As I mentioned in “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing at SES New York 2008,” the most popular method used to improve search engine rankings back in 2000 was “changing metatags.” Today, Google uses over 200 signals for ranking. And that doesn’t even count the complexities of their paid search program, Google AdWords.
And, if you register before Friday, May 30, you can take advantage of the Early Bird Special, which will save you $150 CAD on a Platinum Passport.
Whether you are an SES alumni or a first time attendee of Search Engine Strategies Toronto you may want to bring a couple of colleagues along with you to this year’s conference.
Why?
A quick look at the conference at a glance will show you that SES Toronto 2008 features 21 sessions and workshops in three concurrent tracks. Since no one person can attend every session and workshop, can your organization afford to miss two-thirds of what the marketing team needs to know to compete successfully in the coming year?
And, if you sign up together, you can qualify for the Special Group Discounts. While the first conference registrant pays full price, the second and subsequent person from the same organization, registering at the same time qualifies for 50% off their registration fee (of equal value).
As you can see from the conference agenda below, each of the sessions has been designed for different members of the marketing team. There are three tracks: Get Me Up to Speed, Practical & Actionable, and Advanced.
SES Toronto Conference Chairman, Andrew Goodman, and SES Global Content Director, Kevin Ryan, have created tracks for those who have never attended a Search Engine Strategies event before, those who want become – and remain – a top performer in their field, as well as SES Toronto alumni who are search engine marketing experts.
Day 1 - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:00-9:00am Morning Coffee
9:00-9:15am Conference Welcome & Orientation
9:15-10:00am Opening Keynote
10:00-11:00am Expo Hall Grand Opening
11:00am-12:15pm Get Me Up to Speed: Introduction to Search Engine Marketing Practical & Actionable: Search Around the World: UK, Europe, Asia Pacific & Latin America Advanced: Universal & Blended Search
12:15-1:15pm Networking Lunch
1:15-2:15pm Orion Panel: All Star Analytics Team
2:15-2:30pm Session Interval
2:30-3:45pm Get Me Up to Speed: State of Search Marketing in Canada Practical & Actionable: Getting Found in Maps & Local Search Advanced: Paid Search - Advanced Issues
3:45-4:15pm Afternoon Break in the Expo Hall
4:15-5:30pm Workshops
5:30-6:30pm Networking Cocktail Reception in the Expo Hall
Day 2 - Wednesday, June 18, 2008
8:00-9:00am Morning Coffee
9:00-10:00am Keynote Presentation
10:00-10:30am Morning Coffee Break in the Expo Hall
10:30-11:45am Get Me Up to Speed: Search Advertising 101 Practical & Actionable: What's Different About B2B? Tailored Strategies Advanced: User Search Behavior
11:45am-12:45pm Networking Lunch
12:45-2:00pm Get Me Up to Speed: Keyword Research: Purpose, Tools and Tactics Practical & Actionable: SEM Toolkit: Marketers Share Advanced: Social Media Success
2:00-2:30pm Afternoon Break in the Expo Hall
2:30-3:45pm Get Me Up to Speed: Link Building: The Basics & Beyond Practical & Actionable: Accessibility, Usability & SEO Advanced: Web 2.0 & Search Engines
3:45-4:00pm Session Interval
4:00-5:15pm Get Me Up to Speed: SEO Don'ts, Myths & Scams Practical & Actionable: Site Clinic Advanced: Giving Credit Where It's Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
If you want a second opinion about why you should attend Search Engine Strategies Toronto, check out my interview below with Andrew Goodman, SES Toronto Chairman and founder of Toronto-based Page Zero Media.
Andrew Goodman, PageZero, SES London 2008 Universal Search Andrew is also co-founder of Traffick.com, an award-winning industry commentary site, and frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, National Post, The New York Times, Globe and Mail, Marketing Magazine, New Media Age and other publications. He is author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill), with the 2nd edition due out in July 2008. He lives in Toronto with his wife Carolyn.
Andrew insists that I disclose that I was one of the top-rated speakers at last year’s SES Toronto – among other top-rated speakers such as last year’s keynote, Seth Godin. Hey, if that’s his idea of “arm twisting,” then I’m looking forward to being there again this year. It’s always a great experience and you’re always in great company.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:15 AM | Permalink
April 1, 2008
Dana Todd and Sarah Holoubek on SEMPO at SES NY 2008Anne Kennedy, Manager and Managing Partner of Beyond Ink, interviewed Dana Todd, the CMO of Newsforce, and Sara Holoubek, a Free Agent Consultant, about The SEMPO Survey: 2007 State of the Market. Kevin Newcomb also covered the results of the survey in a post entitled, “Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy.” And ClickZ Expert Kevin Lee added his two cents in a column entitled, “It’s the PPC Search Economy, Stupid!”
This year marks the fourth year of SEMPO's “State of the Market” survey and subsequent report – a bellwether of search market trends. The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) released these findings of the latest survey at SES NY and Dana and Sara presented the top-level findings from the 2007 report during a session at the Search Engine Strategies conference.
They highlighted key market indicators such as budget growth, search engine optimization (SEO) versus advertising allocations, price elasticity and market mix tactics. SEMPO also outlined recent implications of market contraction versus marketers’ opinions and key differences between the 2006 and 2007 data.
Dana Todd and Sarah Holoubek on SEMPO at SES NY 2008
Dana Todd is one of the most passionate and entertaining voices of the search marketing industry today. A highly sought-after speaker for international conferences such as Search Engine Strategies, DMA, Ad:tech, OMMA, and the Online Marketing Summit, Dana regularly takes on the industry's hottest topics and goes head to head with search heavyweights.
With more than 10 years of experience building brands online, Dana is considered an SEM pioneer. A search evangelist, she helped found the industry’s largest trade organization, SEMPO. She served two terms as president of SEMPO starting in 2005 and currently is chairperson of the board of directors. She also serves on the board of advisors for YPA and Ad:tech. As a co-founder of SiteLab International, a full-service interactive agency, Dana’s extensive knowledge of search engine marketing has helped grow the company into a top U.S. interactive agency.
Sara Holoubek is a free agent consultant, advising growth firms and investors in the interactive technology and advertising sector for the past 2 years. She is also contributing editor of the DM News' SearchBuzz column and a general contributor to Marketingprofs: Daily Fix. In 2008, Sara was elected to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) board of directors for a third term where she co-chairs the Marketing Committee. From 2003-2005, Sara served as iCrossing’s Chief Strategy Officer, building the firm’s New York office, repositioning the iCrossing brand and critical to raising a VC round of $13 million. Prior to this experience, Sara held posts in client strategy with interactive agencies Organic and Blue Dingo. Her vertical expertise covers over 10 sectors and includes names such as Levi Strauss & Co, Bloomingdales, LexisNexis, Texas Instruments, Colgate-Palmolive, Century 21 Real Estate, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Symantec and Genworth Financial.
SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) is a non-profit association with over 780 members in 30 countries, representing thousands globally, working to increase awareness and promote the value of search engine marketing worldwide. Member benefits include research, SEMPO Institute and event discounts, job board, networking opportunities, webinars, membership committees and regional working groups, and more.
You can watch dozens of other YouTube videos from SES NY 2008 at the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo channel.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:41 AM | Permalink
Yahoo! Open Search Platform Recap with Andrew TomkinsAt last month’s SES New York, Kevin Newcomb covered the Thursday morning keynote by Andrew Tomkins in an article entitled, “Chief Scientist at Yahoo! Search, Where's Search Heading? Ask Yahoo's Chief Scientist.” In addition, John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Tomkins right after his keynote speech on Day 4 of the event.
Yahoo! Open Search Platform Recap with Andrew Tomkins Andrew Tomkins joined Yahoo Research in 2005 from IBM. His research over the last eight years has focused on measurement, modeling, and analysis of content, communities, and users on the World Wide Web.
Prior to joining Yahoo Research, he managed the "Information Management Principles" group at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, and served as chief scientist on the WebFountain project. Andrew received bachelor's degrees in mathematics and computer science from MIT, and a Ph.D. in CS from Carnegie Mellon University.
Check out scores of other YouTube videos from SES New York at the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo channel.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:37 AM | Permalink
March 20, 2008
Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 4It’s Day 4 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications found more than 20 stories about the Search Engine Strategies conference that had been written before 1:45 p.m. when the press room was closed. So, I may be missing some of the additional coverage of the event that appeared later in the day.
Plus, Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, SES & Search Engine Watch, added a morning keynote to the schedule along with new sessions like “My Search is Better than Your Search.” So, there were plenty of sessions to cover.
Plus, there are so many search engine marketing news sites and SEO blogs that have been covering SES New York that I’m sure I’ve missed some of stories from the event – because its been called “SES New York,” “SES NY,” “SES NYC,” “Search Engine Strategies New York,” “Search Engine Strategies NY,” “Search Engine Strategies NYC,” the “Search Engine Strategies conference,” and the “Search Engine Strategies expo.”
So, while watching the NCAA Mens Final Four in my hotel room, I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts that I could find from Thursday, March 20, 2008. Here’s the best list that I could assemble of the top ten stories on Day 4 of the event:
1. Yahoo Wants Sites to Play Ball on Semantic Web Kenneth Corbin of InternetNews.com says, “In his keynote address here at the final day of the Search Engine Strategies conference, Andrew Tomkins, chief scientist of Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) search division, described an industry at a tipping point. The search engines are only now beginning to adapt to the explosion of content and the increasing complexity of the tasks people perform on the Internet, he said.”
2. My Mahalo preview at SES New York Jason Calacanis of Calacanis.com says, “Had a blast at SES New York this week... at the conference we previewed some new features called My Mahalo that build semantic relationships between our users and object in our database (fancy way of saying you and the thing you own, have seen, want to see, want to read, etc.).” He adds, “We also spent some time doing interviews with the SES team. I’ll post a couple here.”
3. WSJ Digital Network gets aggressive with search: SES NY Keynote Ellen Keohane of DMNews says, “Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, spoke at Wednesday morning's keynote session at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, sharing insights about the network's efforts to grow its site traffic and search presence.”
4. John Battelle on Google Universal Search at SES NY 2008 John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media, is interviewed by Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board and Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, General Business, IBM Corporation.
5. Search Goodness in Bite-sized Chunks Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews summarizes the highlights from the Search Engine Strategies conference, “Or, SES you can put in your pocket.” He says, “There’s a ton of information pouring out of the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City, but we’ve done our best to bring you the best of it so far, via text and via video. Below is a representation of all of that knowledge, boiled down until each little bit fits into its own little nutshell.”
6. Live from Search Engine Strategies New York 2008 Andrey Milyan of Search Marketing Standard summarizes the 16 sessions that his The SES conference in New York has begun and our correspondent, Kent Lewis, is on the scene, bringing you the latest from one of the biggest events of the year.
7. My Search is Better than Your Search Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines says, “The entrepreneurs and those who dare to do things differently have shaped the web and search as we know it. Is innovation dead? We at Search Engine Strategies and AltSearchEngines don’t think so. Though most experts agree there will be no 'Google Killer,' there will be several emerging technologies that will shape the way we search, find and retain content.”
8. Blogging Boogeyman:WHAT Is Social Media Good for? PART 2 http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/03/20/blogging-boogeymanwhat-is-social-media-good-for-part-2/ Charlene Jaszewski of the aimClear Blog says, “Are you afraid of bloggers? Sleep with the light on? You’ll find reasons to sleep above the covers after you read the next installment Social Media: What Is It and What Is It Good For? from Search Engine Strategies New York.”
9. Search Engine Strategies NYC 2008 Recap - my own thoughts Marshall Sponder of The Analytics Guru says, “Many people are already familiar with Search Marketing and SEO and there needs to be a way to present material satisfying to all levels, but that might not always be possible.” He adds, “The Social Media/Social Search Tract was the most interesting for me this year and was more expanded than in the past.”
10. Totally Plugged In @ SES New York: 13 Undeniable Symptoms Marty Weintraub of Search Engine Watch says, “Search marketing conference attendees seem to be the most plugged-in-public group of techno-comrades on earth. We rove in packs of iPhone and laptop-totting pied-pipers evangelizing link love, holistic patterns, authentic participation, conversion tracking, and good will.”
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:33 PM | Permalink
March 19, 2008
Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 3It’s Day 3 at SES New York 2008 and today the folks from Pan Communications have found more than 80 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference.
I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts from Wednesday, March 19, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 3 of the event. It’s getting much harder – particularly after returning from the WebmasterRadio.FM SearchBash, which was still going strong when I left.
1. Mahalo adds user reviews to search site Elinor Mills of CNET News.com says, “Mahalo is adding user reviews to its human-powered search site in a new feature dubbed ‘My Mahalo.’ So, when you search for books, movies, music, places, and products, a box appears on the right with reviews and comments from people in your Mahalo social network, as well as an average rating for whatever is being reviewed. Underneath the results is a section for user-recommended links related to the search and user reviews from other Mahalo users, as well as a link to discuss the page with others.”
2. Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New York John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Jason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who gave a product demo of My Mahalo, which was unveiled at SES New York today.
3. SES Keynote: Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You by Gordon McLeod Kent Lewis of Search Marketing Standard says, “Wednesday morning at SES kicked off with a keynote by Gordon McLeod from Wall Street Journal Digital Network entitled “Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You.” McLeod initially outlined the size and shape of the current WSJ network of financial news sites, then took us back to the 1996 WSJ.com site, which had 50,000 subscribers and four firewalls.”
4. Uncovering the Real Universal Search Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Watch says, “Ever wonder just how fast universal search is being adopted? How about the number of searchers that include a universal result? Perhaps more importantly, what's the real impact of search result multiplicity? You asked, and we found out. This week's SES New York saw many new things, but Tuesday's Orion Panel on universal search finally shed some light on the biggest change in search since Idealab launched paid listings.
5. Google Transformation from Just Search to Destination Om Malik of GigaOM says, “Almost a year ago, writing for GigaOM, Robert Young posted a piece that billed Google as a media company and eventually more a destination in the classic media sense. Some statistics released by comScore at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York support Young’s assertions.”
6. Web Analytics Tips – SES New York Style Mel Carson of the adCenter Analytics Blog says, “I’m at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 conference in New York, working the Microsoft booth, meeting customers, spreading the word about adCenterCommunity.com and going to as many of the sessions as I can. For any of your not familiar with the conference it has a global footprint and is totally dedicated to search engine marketing, both PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO (search engine optimisation).”
7. SES New York: Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO) Andrew R H Girdwood says, “Rookie mistake! I didn’t get to the room early enough for the popular Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO) track and all the power sources for my laptop are already in use. No batteries left. No choice... I’ll have to try and take notes by hand.”
8. Search Engine Strategies Expo Mike Corso of Cool Site of the Day says, “Big day yesterday. I was interviewed at the Search Engine Strategies trade show in New York City (see clip below). Also, tune into WebmasterRadio.fm for an interview I did with them at SES as well.”
9. SES NY: SEM Blitz On Small Business David A. Utter of WebProNews says, “You have to spend money to make money, but sometimes the best way to market a business means spending common sense.”
10. Link Building Basics Session at SES NY Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal says, “Allan Dick of Vintage Tub and Bath is moderating the session on Link Building with Debra Mastaler, Dixon Jones and Degrelle.”
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:17 PM | Permalink
Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New YorkJason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, unveiled My Mahalo at SES New York today. For more details on the announcement, read Kevin Newcomb's story, Mahalo Adds New Social Search Tools.
Or, check out the video interview with Calacanis and product demo of My Mahalo below, which has just been posted in two parts to the Search Engine Strategies conference channel on Youtube.
My Mahalo Launch with Jason Calacanis
My Mahalo Launch with Jason Calacanis Part 2
Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health. Prior to Mahalo.com's launch in alpha in May 2007, he was an "Entrepreneur in Action" at Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firm, a position he held since December 2006.
Calacanis cofounded and was the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a network of popular weblogs that was sold to AOL in November 2005. Upon joining AOL, he was appointed SVP. In addition, he was named general manager of AOL's Netscape and was responsible for the July 2006 relaunch of the iconic browser as a social bookmarking news site. Prior to forming Weblogs Inc., Calacanis was the founder of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published the magazines Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter. The flagship publication later became Venture Reporter, a venture capital database, and was sold to Dow Jones.
And earlier today, Kevin Keisler of Search Engine Watch conducted a Q&A with Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO, Mahalo.com, about the future of the Internet, social media, and SEO.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:48 PM | Permalink
SES NYC Day 2 Keynote - Nick Carr "The Big Switch"SES New York is in full swing. The energy level of the show is very good - with a buzz reminiscent of a few years ago. I really like the way the new format is shaping up. The sponsored session about Google Analytics and Website Optimizer were packed, with people covering every inch of floor space. There seems to be a lot of interest in unfiltered information from the leading companies in the space. The solo session (versus panel) format is also holding its own, with high attendance and positive response from the audience.
Nick Carr's keynote kicked off the day with a discussion based on his new book "The Big Switch". He draws strong parallels between the electrification of industrial countries in the 1800's and the creation of the "worldwide computer" being ushered in by the Internet. Power generation used to be a necessity for every business, and needed to be developed locally within it. As soon as large-scale generating plants and distribution via wires made it possible to get power to the end-customers, local power generation plunged (to its current 5% levels). The "grid" had won via its scale and efficiencies and allowed all kinds of "innovations at the socket". New appliances and devices like the refrigerator, and television transformed our daily lives.
Computers are next. A similar transformation is happening with the Internet. Like the electrical grid, computer networks are both "general purpose technologies", and in fact are the only two that can be supplied over a grid or network.
Currently most companies maintain local data-centers to support their operations at an ever increasing cost (with I.T. labor growing from 5% to 45% of total capital equipment budgets between 1968 and 2000). Each business is in effect producing local power - much in the way industrial companies did 150 years ago. This enormous drag on productivity can be freed up as soon as computing power, storage, and bandwidth become commodities that can be supplied by the worldwide "cloud". The cloud taps into the efficiencies of the large centralized data centers being built by the likes of Google. With increases in bandwidth, and the "virtualization" of hardware (emulating hardware in software to deploy server configurations of arbitrary scale efficiently), it finally becomes possible to efficiently draw computing power and data storage from the cloud.
Several trends were predicted by Mr. Carr as a result of this transition: - Software as media - The line between the two will blur as entertainment and technology companies battle for turf - Continued consolidation - The percentage of total pageviews for the top-10 Internet properties has actually risen from 31% in 2001 to 40% in 2006 (while overall volume grew 75%) - The worker-less company - Large worldwide enterprises built on cheap infrastructure can spring up overnight based on increasing retunrs-to-scale, global reach, and free user-generated content (Skype, YouTube, CraigsList, and PlentyOfFish)
But everything is not perfect and rosy. One of the implications of these trends is the continued concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the "digital elites", and the corresponding stagnation or actual decline of middle class quality of life. There are also significant privacy implications as our personal data is stored centrally and aggregated. Increasing polarization and balkanization of viewpoints is a growing problem as people get only the information that supports and reinforces their pre-existing point of view. The emerging "world wide computer" both liberates us (giving us choice) and controls us in gross and subtle ways (often without our knowledge). This tug-of-war is inherent, and should be consciously fought and debated by everyone.
Posted by Tim Ash at 11:30 AM | Permalink
March 18, 2008
Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 2It’s Day 2 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications have found nearly 70 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference. If you want a comprehensive list, Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing for Incisive Media, will be posting one later this evening on the Search Engine Strategies Blog.
In the meantime, I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts from Tuesday, March 18, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 2 of the event. With five concurrent sessions, no one individual can see everything. So, even those of us who are at SES New York this week are relying on the news and blog coverage (as well as word-of-mouth) to keep up with all the latest developments from the event. (Trade shows and conferences are an off-line form of social media.)
1. Carr: Google Offers 'Animal Sacrifices' in Datacenters Clint Boulton of eWeek’s Google Watch says, “Nicholas Carr discussed the past, present and future of computing during a keynote at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 show in New York this morning.” He adds, “Carr covered so much ground in the 60 minutes, touching on everything from the first water wheel used to generate electricity, to mainframes, to cloud computing and Google's datacenters and the future of distributed applications and search engines strategies.”
2. Nick Carr Keynote You can listen to Nick Carr's opening keynote at SES New York on WebmasterRadio.FM. Nick discusses how computer systems and software algorithms are at the center of business today, and the implications for privacy.
3. Nick Carr at SES NY 2008 on The Big Switch Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner of Beyond Ink, interviews Nick Carr, the opening keynote speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City and the author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the Word, from Edison to Google. Nick gives a recap on his New York keynote speech about Microsoft’s unsolicited bid for Yahoo, net neutrality, and the implications on human thinking.
4. YouTube: Damon Wayans Pay-to-Play, Paid Inclusion or Pay-for-Placement? Kevin Heisler of Search Engine Watch says, “At SES NY, John Battelle outted Damon Wayans, Google and YouTube. Battelle said Wayans spilled the beans on his YouTube deal as a “platinum partner” for WayOutTV.com. Wayans shared he was guaranteed 6 million impressions by YouTube. Those 6 million impressions -- guaranteed -- sounds very much like the structure of a MySpace-style minimum revenue deal. Plus, Wayans shared his YouTube rev share number. Wow.”
5. hakia licenses OntoSem technology to third parties Paul Miller of ZDNet’s The Semantic Web says, “New York-based semantic search company hakia will today use the Search Engine Strategies Conference to announce that their Ontological Semantic technology, OntoSem, is available for licensing. Illinois-based RiverGlass, Inc. is the first licensee, and will work to enhance their existing real-time analytics solutions with OntoSem.”
6. SES New York: Converting Visitors into Buyers Jolina Pettice of the Online Marketing Blog says, The conversions track at SES New York continues to be packed with those wanting to increase the performance of their search marketing campaigns.”
7. The Long Tail Not Always Good, If Quality Score is Your Thing Andrew Goodman of Traffick says, “I had the pleasure of moderating the panel on Ads in a Quality Score World at SES New York today. Along with two advertiser-side speakers (Joel Lapp and Jon Kelly), Frederick Vallaeys of Google and David Miller of Yahoo weighed in.”
8. Earning Money from Contextual Ads Tamar Weinberg of Search Engine Roundtable says, “This session looks at the way publishers can generate revenue by carrying contextual ads offered by major networks. Learn about some programs out there and tips on getting more from the ads you carry.”
9. SES New York: Live Search "Tips And Tricks" By Doug Caverly of WebProNews says, “Although people sometimes forget this fact, there are search engines outside of Google. At SES New York, two Microsoft managers walked an audience through ways to do well with Live Search.”
10. SES New York Day 2 … Start Your Engines! Jeff Quipp of the aimClear Blog says, “Day 1 of Search Engine Strategies New York certainly lived up to expectations. The sessions were excellent, the city is spectacular, and I was fortunate enough to meet up with a large number of new and old friends. The day ended for most with a St. Paddy’s day pub crawl, primarily through Irish bars :).” He adds, “Day 2 is shaping up to be equally exciting. I’m personally live blogging some of the Local search sessions, which I’m really looking forward to.”
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:14 PM | Permalink
Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 1It’s only Day 1 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications have already found more than 40 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference. If you want a comprehensive list, Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing for Incisive Media, will be posting one later this evening (or early tomorrow morning) on the Search Engine Strategies Blog – when he gets back from the Saint Patrick’s Day pub crawl.
In the meantime, I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts from Monday, March 17, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 1 of the event. While this list is no substitute for actually attending SES New York 2008, it will give you a quick summary of some of the highlights.
1. Yahoo! Cozies Up To Its Click-Fraud Critics Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com says, “At Monday’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in New York, Yahoo! announced a partnership with click-fraud auditing firm Click Forensics to share pay-per-click advertising data and work together to identify fraudulent clicks--those designed to pump a Web publisher's advertising revenue or drain a competing advertiser's budget.”
2. Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy Kevin Newcomb of Search Engine Watch says, “Despite an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, spending on search engine marketing continues to grow beyond expectations. Preliminary results of the 2007 State of the Market Survey were released today at Search Engine Strategies New York by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.”
3. Kicking Off SES New York 2008 Mike McDonald of WebProNews interviewed Matt McGowan about Search Engine Strategies New York 2008, which kicked off today with about 8,000 attendees. Matt explained what can be expected in the week ahead.
4. Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable covered the Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right. Barry says, “Jason Finger talks about his online food service. They link people with local restaurants and caterers. Steven Krein is from a human powered health search service. Bill Tancer gives the Hitwise line, love this guy. Josh Stylman from Reprise Media. Paul Forster from Indeed.com a Job Search site.” Barry adds, “This is a unique session.”
5. Analytics: Data Into Action Lisa Barone of the Bruce Clay Blog covered the Analytics: Data Into Action session. Lisa says, “Kevin Ryan gets things started and says next time he’ll get a bigger room. Hee, seriously. And it’s not that the room is even small, it’s just there are about a gazillion people trying to get in. The SES conference series is alive and well, people.”
6. Neil Patel interviews Jason Calacanis, SES NY 2008 Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising interviewed Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who will be the afternoon keynote speaker on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. The two discuss issues such as spam, the search engine optimization (seo) philosophy as a whole and its problematic frictions between publishers and users in the battles for visibility and search relevance.
7. Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics at SES NY 2008 I interviewed Avinash Kaushik, author, blogger, and Analytics Evangelist at Google about the standing-room-only-crowd at the Web Analytics: Measuring Succession session, where he spoke. He also talked about trends in web analytics over the next 24 to 36 months, his highly-rated blog, Occam's Razor, and his recently published book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.
8. Session: Organic Listings Forum Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog covered the Organic Listings Forum. Lee says, “Organic Listings Forum with Mike Grehan moderating and Jill Whalen, Dave Naylor and Greg Boser on the panel. Here we have an all star SEO cast available to answer questions about organic SEO.”
9. SES New York: Video Made the SMB Star (Kelsey Group Track) Li Evans of Search Marketing Gurus covered the Video Made the SMB Star session. Li says that Mike Boland of the Kelsey Group, who moderated the session, said, “Users are coming to expect Video as part of their search results.”
10. Ad Exchanges - What You Need to Know Mona Elesseily of Traffick wrote a preview of the Ad Exchanges are Everything session, which will be held at SES New York 2008 on March 19 2008 (Day 3). Mona says, “To learn more about the changes in ad exchanges, I interviewed both Ramsey McGrory, VP of Exchange Development, Right Media and Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic products and business development, ContextWeb.”
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:06 AM | Permalink
March 14, 2008
SEW Experts: Making the Most of a Search Marketing ConferenceIf you're heading to SES New York next week, you should be preparing your questions for speakers now. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Making the Most of a Search Marketing Conference," Chris Boggs explains how being bold, creative, and persistent, will help you get the most you can out of the conference.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink
March 13, 2008
Andrew Goodman Talks About SES Toronto at SES LondonIn this video interview at SES London 2008, Andrew Goodman, the Principal of Page Zero Media, talks about the implications of Google's increasing ability to drive traffic to YouTube and other vertical search sites that it owns, as well as his plans for Search Engine Strategies Toronto, which will be held June Jun 17-18, 2008.
Goodman, who was a speaker on the Orion Panel about Universal Search at the SES London event, will also be a speaker at the session on Ad Testing: Research & Findings at SES New York. Recently, he also weighed in on the subject, "What Would a Yahoo-Microsoft Merger Look Like? Part 3."
So, this short interview covers only some of the serious issues that he's tackled lately.
Andrew Goodman, PageZero, SES London 2008 Universal Search
Andrew Goodman is founder of Toronto-based Page Zero Media, a marketing agency which focuses on ROI-driven paid search and custom online marketing plans. He is also co-founder of Traffick.com, an award-winning industry commentary site.
In addition, Andrew is author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005; 2nd ed. October 2007); and frequently quoted in publications like The Wall Street Journal, National Post, New York Times, Globe and Mail, and New Media Age. He has spoken and moderated at some 20 Search Engine Strategies conferences around the world.
His spare-time eccentricities include rollerblading without kneepads and naming his Japanese maples (Bob and Cindy). He's also recently undergone a naming conundrum, working as chief content producer for a startup in user-generated content (currently named HomeStars). He lives in Toronto with wife Carolyn.
You can check out other interviews from SES London on YouTube at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conferences & Expos channel.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:19 AM | Permalink
Matt Bailey Discusses SEO, SEM and OSU at SESMatt Bailey of SiteLogic found a way to work OSU into a discussion of SEO and SEM at SES London last month. Now, I don't object when he gets feisty about topics like Search Engine Visibility and Site Crawlability, as he did at SES Chicago last December. But, he knows I'm a Wolverine from the University of Michigan. And, when he gets feisty about the Ohio State Buckeyes, I have to draw the line.
And redraw the line. And then wear a Buckeye sweatshirt whenever my team loses the annual Big 10 football showdown. Hey, people are starting to say I'm "sartorially challenged."
So, ignore the part of the interview about what I'll be wearing again this year. Instead, listen to what Matt has to say about the Search & Analytics Workshop that he'll be teaching at SES New York next week. Despite (or because of) the fact that he's from Ohio, he actually does have a lot of interesting things to say about using analytics to increase search effectiveness.
Matt Bailey, SiteLogic, at SES London 2008 on Networking
Matthew Bailey is president and founder of SiteLogic Marketing and an internationally-recognized authority on search engine marketing, website analytics, usability, and accessibility. As a consulting and training company, SiteLogic focuses on helping organizations take control of their websites and their web marketing plans.
Sought after worldwide as a seminar presenter and teacher, Matt speaks regularly for The Direct Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies conferences and training classes, the American Advertising Federation, and many private training seminars. Matt is known for his conversational, entertaining speaking style and his ability to make technical topics both understandable and practical.
Matt oversees The Direct Marketing Association's SEO training program and is the trainer for the DMA's web marketing seminar. He has consulted with hundreds of companies, including Goodyear, Hilton International, JCrew, Gradall, Moen Faucets, American Greetings, and Samsonite.
And Matt may not even be a Buckeye. I think he just enjoys giving me a hard time. So, to keep our interview from becoming one of the most viewed on the SESConferenceExpo's Channel on Youtube, let me encourage you to view the many other fine video interviews that you'll find there -- early and often.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:44 AM | Permalink
Video interview with Bruce Clay at SES London 2008I did a video interview with Bruce Clay, President of Bruce Clay, Inc., at SES London 2008. Bruce talked about how the changing world of search is also changing the requirements for SEM and SEO toolkits as well as driving the need for integrating those tools with web analytics.
And, as I mentioned in my post, Schedule optimization for SES New York, Bruce discussed why he was providing conference attendees with free access to his Bruce Clay tools. He also talks about why the Bruceclay.com Blog, which is written by Lisa Barone, doesn't try to create link bait, but does end up getting lots of links.
Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay Inc., at SES London 2008 on SEO / SEM
Bruce Clay has operated as an executive with several high-technology businesses and comes from a long career as a technical manager with Boole and Babbage, Amdahl, Convergent Technologies, Acer America, and, since 1996, in the Internet business consulting area. Bruce holds a B.S. in math/computer science and an MBA from Pepperdine University, has had many articles published, has been a speaker at over 100 sessions, and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, PC Week, Wired Magazine, Smart Money, several books, and many more publications. He has personally authored many advanced search engine optimization tools that are available from his company websites as well as from his booth at the Bruce Clay, Inc. booth at SES New York 2008, where his firm is a Premier Sponsor.
Check out interviews with other speakers at SES London at the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:20 AM | Permalink
March 12, 2008
Interview with Andy Atkins-Krueger at SES London 2008I interviewed Andy Atkins-Krüger, managing director of Web Certain Europe Ltd, at the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo in London last month.
Yes, yes, we talked about serious issues, like the challenges of optimizing pages or running paid search campaigns for multiple languages across Europe. But Krueger topped anything that I could have asked him with a tale about the Tongue Twisters Multilingual team at WebCertain.
To prove his team is ready for multilingual tongue twisters in German, English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Czech and other languages, Andy introduced Kia from his PR team, who provided a flamboyant Finnis