Search Marketing Gurus | Search Marketing Tips, Advice, Strategies & Tactics From Internet Marketing Professionals

Fun Photo Fridays: Cindy Krum Doing a Tea Trick at SES Denver Training

At the beginning of this week, I had the pleasure of doing the Social Media training in Denver for Search Engine Strategies Training event there.  It was a lot of fun, and was also my first time in Denver.  Those of you who follow me on twitter, saw how I was shocked about how far off in the "boonies" the airport was!

While there, Denver local, Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works, entertained a few of us.  The first night we met at the Blake Street Tavern - formally the Flying Dog Brewery.  For anyone going there, try the Scratch Ale, it's great!  Then, Tuesday night Cindy took us to Mataam Fez, a Moroccan restaurant that was just a great experience.  Cindy even did a tea trick for us - Cindy, not only are you brave, but you rock! :)

If you like this photo of Cindy Krum doing a Tea Trick at SES Denver Training, feel free to comment and favorite it as that's how we'll be judging the photos at the end of the year! Check out the rest of the fun at SES Denver Training, there's over 60 photos to view.

Fun Photo Fridays: SEO Rapper Chuck Lewis Performs the "PageRank" at Unleashed

Well I'm a day late today, with posting our Friday photo, but I think waiting for this post might be well worth it.  Not only do I have a fun photo, but I have a fun video too!

The folks who ran Search Engine Guide's Unleashed Small Business Marketing Conference treated the conference goers to a live performance on the night before the conference started.  Chuck "SEO Rapper" Lewis of PopLabs entertained the crowd with his newest rap entitled "Code Design".  Chuck also showed us a few of his own dance moves, which I captured here.  In this photo, Chuck's demonstrating the "Page Rank".

If you like this photo of SEO Rapper Chuck Lewis Performs the "PageRank" at Unleashed, feel free to comment and favorite it as that's how we'll be judging the photos at the end of the year! Check out the rest of the fun at Unleashed Small Business Marketing Conference, there's almost 200 photos total!

So I also promised a video!  I shot this video of Chuck's live performance at Unleashed.  If you are interested in seeing his other videos check out Chuck Lewis' m0serious YouTube Channel, he's got all his SEO Raps out there.  Hope you enjoy!

Jason Calacanis - Why I Didn't Throw Veggies At Him At SES New York

I wanted to, I really, really wanted to.  Everyone knows I really did not have a "love" nor a respect for Jason Calacanis.  The man took every opportunity he could to bash our industry (and my livelihood) for the past year and a half - and people still continued to give him a stage, and the free reign to pretty much say whatever he wanted.  This is a guy who has pissed off more of us than he can likely keep track of.  I took offense to everything Jason was spouting, because I'm not one of those "snake oil salesman", I'm one of these online marketing professionals that believe a sound online marketing strategy is the best practice for a client's success.

So, with that in mind, it's why I called out SES for putting this guy on stage for a 3rd time.  It's also why, when offered the opportunity to see if this guy really knew his stuff, I jumped on it and asked for all of you to send in questions.  I got a lot of questions, and you all really submitted some great stuff.

There was some tense moments, apparently some rumors were floating around people intended to "heckle" Jason.  I think that was something that was just "miscommunicated", or taken the wrong way from some of the comments that were on Sphinn about the post I wrote.  We didn't need to bring in the NYPD, Kevin Ryan did a fine job at keeping things on an even keel, and getting the questions asked and no one heckled Jason ... nor threw veggies.

That all said, showing a bit of humility, is always a good thing.  When you can say "perhaps I was wrong", in front of an audience of more than 1,000 people, credit does have to be given.  I still don't totally agree with Jason's methods or tactics, but I do have to say that I think enough people in this industry have worked at giving him insight into what we do, that he seems to have a different opinion of us than he did back in 2006.

So now onto all of the questions that were submitted & asked from the keynote audience at SES, and those that were answered (answers in red):

9 Networking Tips To Use at SES NYC or Any Conference

Everyday we're all caught up in the world of online marketing, that we tend to forget about that real, face to face type of marketing.  Alex (my analytics guru/friend and writer here at SMG), called me the "consummate connector" in his article this morning, I never thought of it that way - however, I guess that's what I'm always striving to do.  I'm always trying to make a connection, so maybe one day I can help someone out, perhaps give someone a hand, make someone smile.

Any of the conferences are great for that.  Whether its rounding up a group of friends to go out for dinner or grabbing a bite to eat for lunch, or heading off in a group to one of the many search events, it's great to see new people "connecting" or networking - for real, and face to face.  Don't get me wrong, I love social media, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and forums, but nothing replaces that face to face connection you can make.

So if you're an online marketing professional and you are thinking "Man, I've seen these sessions 100's of times before, what am I going to do at SES NYC this time around?"  Well, maybe I can help you with a few tips to use at SES NYC:

• Take a good look at the schedule, seriously, I mean it.  There's some new sessions on tap, and there's NEW SPEAKERS.  That means new content, new points of view, nuggets of information from another person's perspective.  It also means, the chance to go up and meet/connect with/introduce yourself to these new speakers.  Just as Gab Goldenberg what I did at his session at SMX West.

SES NYC - 3 Women Spotlighted at Search Engine Strategies

As SES attendees, we've had the delight of having Marissa Meyer of Google keynote, but before that, I can't readily remember when a woman was really a spotlight at any sort of search conference.  My how things have changed!

Next week at SES New York City, not one, not two, but three women have been "spotlighted".  How's that for progress?  I think that says a lot for how this industry really respects women and is going beyond "gender lines".

The three women are Kendall Allen, Erica Schmidt and Lyndsay Menzies.  These three women are playing key roles in both the companies they work for and it's great to see them getting the spotlight shined in their direction.

So what do we know about these three great online marketers?

Kendall Allen is the Managing Director at Incognito Digital.  During the three years preceding her joining the team at Incognito Digital – Allen presided over regional Client Services operations for two Search Engine Marketing firms, first as founding executive team member at Fathom and then industry pioneer, iCrossing. It is during these years that Allen met the founding partners Gray and Hoydich of Incognito Digital, collaborating to serve the marketing needs of VOOM HDTV.

With critical periods of her career spent in the SF Bay Area and now on the East Coast in New York, Allen has consulted with, launched and staffed engagement teams against the digital marketing efforts of marketers including Ask Jeeves, SF Examiner, Chandon, Intel, Intuit, VOOM, American Express, Fairmont Hotels, McGraw-Hill and Colgate-Palmolive. Allen now has teamed with her partner, Elizabeth Bleser, to truly evolve the agency Incognito Digital and the brands it serves.

Erica Schmidt is Global Director of Search for Isobar.  Erica is primarily responsible for helping Isobar search agencies across the globe increase their revenues from search engine marketing, and she assists Isobar agencies in launching iProspect-branded search engine marketing practices. Schmidt also ensures that each agency is delivering their services according to the best practices developed at iProspect in the U.S. Prior to joining Isobar, Schmidt was client services director at iProspect, responsible for overseeing a number of client-facing search teams, and focused her attention on delivering superior strategies and proactive account management to iProspect’s clients.

A polished speaker, Schmidt has presented at various conferences around the globe, including Search Engine Strategies. She has also authored articles for industry publications, including Pharmaceutical Executive   Magazine and Direct Magazine.

Lyndsay Menzies is Managing Director of Big Mouth Media. At bigmouth since 1999, and with 100 bigmouths under her watchful eye, Lyndsay's remit can be summed up as 'Responsible for developing and keeping the happiest clients and teams in the industry', whilst growing bigmouthmedia UK into the clear leader in its field.

Lyndsay heads up the 3 UK offices, as well as the NY office. Bigmouthmedia has the highest client and staff retention in the industry, and is a 2007 FT 'Best Place to Work'. A real 'people person', Lyndsay is a pioneer in integration of search within marketing strategy, offering a no-bull, can-do attitude crucial for the success of her clients in a fast-changing medium.

I found her bio on the Big Mouth Media site really funny too (this company certainly has a sense of humor!):

Bigmouthmedia's much loved Managing Director. Complete workaholic. Once went to have her wisdom teeth taken out over lunch and went straight back to work. Finalist in "Scotland's Most Eligible", when asked what her unique fact was, Lyndsay disclosed that she once spent 12 hours in the back of a truck in Cambodia with a dead pig... like we said, she's been working very hard.

Wow, these are some really impressive resumes aren't they?  All three of these women are "take charge and get it done" and that attitude has propelled them to the top of not only their companies but this industry as well. 

I got curious as to why SES & Kevin Ryan selected to highlight not just one, but three women and asked him these questions:

Li:  Kevin, could you tell me why you have them featured?
Kevin Ryan:  They are incredibly talented people that possess thought leadership characteristics along with and “feet on the ground” knowledge.

Li:  What’s their role for this conference (SES NYC)? 
Kevin Ryan:  Women at SES take on a number of roles. From Orion panels to day one’s strategic thought leadership to our week-long tactical sessions. We have a number of nationalities represented and they represent multiple levels in the companies they represent.

Li:  Why were they chosen?
Kevin Ryan:  SES does not discriminate or select speakers on the basis of race, creed, gender, social media platform usage or socio-search engine alignment. Sincerely, the selection process was very simple; they were the most qualified candidates. 

Kudos to Kendall, Erica & Lyndsay, and thanks to Kevin Ryan for selecting to spotlight them at SES New York!

Mike Grehan Joins Acronym Media as Global KDM Officer

Fresh off the success of a awesome conference, SES London, my good friend Mike Grehan has some rather great news to announce.  Mike's joining Acronym Media, based out of the Empire State Building in New York City. 

Mike's taking on the position of Global KDM Officer, a newly-created senior executive position with worldwide management responsibilities.  Mike's also been appointed to Acronym’s five-member Executive Board and given broad responsibilities to drive the Agency’s global growth and strategy development for key clients.

“I may be the first to have the KDM acronym in my title, even though I’ve always been ‘keyword-driven’,” Mike quipped. “The idea behind Keyword-Driven Marketing™ is elegantly simple yet powerful. Keywords are truly the basic building blocks of integrated marketing campaigns, online and offline. I share Acronym’s vision and will work hard to build upon Acronym’s already stellar reputation and breakthrough thinking.”

I normally don't post a lot about people moving from one company to another (it happens a lot in this industry), but Mike Grehan is probably one of the foremost people in search today and this is pretty big news.  Mike's got his finger on the pulse of this industry like no one else I know, and thus I consider him a mentor as well as a good friend.  Acronym and Anton have snagged one heck of an executive in Mike!

“We are thrilled to have Mike join our global team of search and keyword marketing experts,” said Anton E. Konikoff, Founder and CEO of Acronym Media. “Mike has been a leader in the industry for over a decade and I know he will be a terrific evangelist for our Keyword-Driven Marketing™ framework, with search at its core and keyword intelligence as the basis for decoding customer intent and crafting powerful messaging.”

Working for another of the world's foremost thinkers on keyword research, Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance, I couldn't agree more with Mike's quote.  It's people like Mike & Christine that have really brought this industry forward, while also knowing what the fundamental building blocks are.

Congrats to both Mike and Anton ... maybe now that Mike's going to be in NYC a little more, I can finally get him down here to my hometown area here and take him on a tour of America's oldest brewery!

*(Picture on top right features (from left to right) Mike Grehan, Jon Myers and Christine Churchill)

SES NYC: You Get to Ask Jason Calacanis the Questions

Remember back in January when I asked the question Why Jason Calacanis for a Third Time at SES?  Well it seems that the kind folks at Search Engine Strategies were listening to us Search Marketers.  How is that you wonder?  Well let me explain.

While in London, I had a conversation with some of the people responsible for programming SES.  Kevin Ryan had read that post and asked "What If Search Marketers Could Ask the Questions for Calacanis at SES NYC?"  What a great idea, I thought!

So, Search Marketing Gurus will be the vehicle that will drive most of the questions during the Calacanis keynote.  We will collect the questions here until 8 p.m. EST - 5 p.m. PST on Thursday March 13th.

There is a few stipulations with submitting questions, so please 'follow the rules':

1. You cannot ask "Jason why are you such an jerk?" or any other type of questions along those lines.  That means, no "why are you a "*insert any other derogatory comment here*?" type questions, and also no "why do you think SEO is bullshit" questions.
   
   I know, I know - where's the fun in that, right?  Well folks, we all know why he is what he is, and why he thinks what he does - he's said it 3 times before.  That being said, lets get creative with this and really ask some tough questions that might make him show his "true" depth of knowledge of this industry!
   
   *Why do you think SEO is Bullshit - why do I say, don't ask that question?  Well that will be asked, we just don't want 50 questions all coming in asking that same thing!
2. Don't post your questions in the comments.  Email them to searchmarketinggurus -a-t- gmail DOT com and put in the subject"Calacanis Keynote Question".
   
   Why?  Well, we don't want J.C. to be prepared, plain and simple we want this to be a unique experience for both him and the audience.
   
   
   
3. When you email, let us know if you want us to state whom the question is from.
   
   We want to give credit where credit is due, but of course if you'd rather ask anonymously, we will still consider the question for the keynote.

If Jason Calacanis is going to park his butt on that stage again at another Search Engine Strategies, why should his hour there be cakewalk like it was the past two times, and not to mention the additional hour a week ago at affiliate summit?  Isn't it time, we as an industry ask this guy some serious questions, instead of letting him slide by with calling our industry "bullshit" and push Mahalo?

* ok, Danny's got a point - it wasn't a total cakewalk when Danny had him on stage (but I don't think Danny expected the F bomb to be dropped nor SEO to be called bullshit).  My point is, is if they want Calacanis on stage, and they are giving us the opportunity, why not hold this man's feet to the fire a little more?  I know there's some great questions out there - I've heard them in conversations!

Come on, send in your question!  I know there's quite a few out there, send the on in! 

Remember send the questions into searchmarketinggurus -a-t- gmail DOT com, put in the subject "Calacanis Keynote Question".

Does Your Mother Know What It Is You Do?

Tell me... does it ever occur to you that there may not nearly be enough hours in a given day to address all the things you wanted to? Or, is it just me? I'm thinking a few of you readers out there are feeling my pain. I've been juggling a few side projects since the New Year began, and keeping up with them as well as trying to maintain some sort of personal life with friends and family has really become quite difficult. In any event, I've managed to find a little breathing room tonight and so I thought that I would reach out to you all, and put down one of these half-thoughts that I've been holding onto for quite a while now.

Today's post brings me back to this past December when I was attending SES in Chicago. I was sitting in on the "So you want to be a Search Marketer" session, and Kevin Ryan, who was moderating the panel, mentions that this would be the perfect panel for his mother to sit in on, because she's still waiting for him to get a "real" job. Obviously, his mother, much like my parents, family, and friends, doesn't quite understand the nature of search marketing.

It was then that I first began thinking about all the times I've personally stuttered through a conversation with a friend, family member, or those I was meeting for the first time. Answering the "what do you do for a living" or "what kind of work are you in" question is a tough time for me, and honestly it's one that I've started to dread. In fact, I started hating having to explain search marketing to people so much that I simply gave up on it. Instead, I'd much rather say that I am web site designer or involved with marketing than having to explain the mere complexities of how I utilize search engines to rank websites and get paid for it.

As it sits now, my entire family is under the assumption that I am a web site designer, while many of my friends who are more up with the times understand that I not only design web sites but market them via search engines. Of course, there are a few people out there that have the idea that I work for Google or Yahoo! – don't even get me started on that.

My reasoning for this post, is to find out how you address these, often awkward, situations with your parents and other non-industry folks, and what, if anything, do you say to help avoid the "deer-in-the-headlights" look and move the conversation forward? Do you simply opt to be a "web designer" or do you use some other well-recognized occupation to explain your career?

SES London 08: The Best SES in a Long Time

There's still a full day of conference sessions to go to, but I have to say with the two that have past, this SES conference has been the best in a long time.  It's miles above SES London last year, and not just because of the location.

Mike Grehan has put together a spectacular show with Kevin Ryan.  The speakers are top notch, and I can actually say for the first time in a long time I've taken more than one "nugget" away.  I've met some really great search marketers this time out, as well as some great new people, passionate people and intelligent people. 

That's not to say that I never met them before at a conference, but there is just something different going on here.  It is nearly electric as you walk around and converse with people, maybe it's the potential of Yahoo-Microsoft, maybe it is people freely speaking about linking while Adam Lasnick is in the room, maybe it is the kick-ass keynotes, and maybe it is the enthusiasm of the attendees  - I honestly can't tell you what it is, but I'm actually sad that SES London 2008 ends today.

For those of you who've missed this great conference, there's a ton of coverage and photos, and I plan on doing a more in depth post about my experiences here in London.  I don't agree with one of the reviews that was mentioned to me, there wasn't a sales pitch in any of the sessions I was in (and trust me, if there is I let Stewart know).  I just really wanted to convey that the quality of this show has really ratcheted up,  Mike Grehan has put together one awesome show.

SES London 08: Video & Podcast SEO

Speakers:

• Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit
• Onil Gunawardana, Vice President / General Manager Advertising, blinkx
• Tim Gibbon, Account Director, Elemental Communications
• Joseph Morin, Partner, Boost Search Marketing and CEO, Storybids, Inc.

Moderator:  Anne Kennedy

Amanda Watlington
Adding video and audio is compelling for brand marketers.  Helps to create engagements, loyalities.  Search marketers are challenged to create results with this medium.  This creates a direct medium to connect and communicate with the audience.  You can convey emotional content that you cannot do otherwise.  An approachable means to relating the approachableness of the company.

Video presents challenges.  Most users don't know where to look for it.  YouTube grabs the most attention.  Professional competes with consumer generated video. 

Tips:  offer in multiple formats, use tags, individual landing pages, user rss to distribute.  Create video with branding in it.  Avoid pop up players.

Podcasting:  success is based on planning.   is it a scheduled weekly show.  are you a full out entertainment site or just a blog?  Before you set out, name your show and research it.  Distinguish the show from the episode name.  Transcribe or abstract - transcript is better for SEO.

Come up with a keyword list before the show.  Build your infrastructure in advance.  Download and test tag editorers in advance.

Distribution is the SEO.  It's a 4 step process.  Optimising the sound (ID3 Tags).  Optimising the page.  Validate RSS Feeds.  Track and Monitor Submissions  Promote the podcasts!

Optimising Tag:  Album Name is the Show Name, Artist, Year, Episode #, Genre, Comments.
Make sure the file name is unique but makes sense, use words that make sense.

Optimising the Page:  Have a page for the show and then a page for each episode for each the episode.  Provide information on how to subscribe.  Include a player for people to listen online.

Onil Gunawandana of Blinkx
Blinkx has over 18 million hours of video.  Started in the UK but headquartered out of LA.  Public company.  They power the video player and video search of Ask.  They've had 50 million uniques world wide and 12 million uniques from UK in the past year.

When it comes to video, users expect be able to find a video easily and be able to watch it on the same page.  Goals for Video SEO
Advertising
    In-Video - Preroll or Invideo
    Out-Video - Banners, text ads like adwords
Traffic to site
Distribution for Promotional Video

They take the meta data, then speech recognition to convert the audio to text. 
SEO Tactics
    Metadata use it - sometimes it is often lost during conversion, metadata cleaning
    Key elements:  title and description.  filename.  category.  tags. 
    Sitemap / MRSS File
    Format - in format meta data
    Where to Submit - user generated video sites (YouTube MetaCafe), Video Search Engines (blinx)

Tim Gibbon:
Video is important as a marketing tool, engages with your audience, encourages interactivity.
Attracting users to your site:  make sure its RSS enable, title and keywords with each page.  Offer multiple download forms.  Allow users to embed the video on their own sites and blogs.  Have only one video per page, ensure your URL's are friendly.

Uploading to sites.  Descriptive and attention grabbing.  If the video allows you to select a still frame, ensure that it is one that captures attention.  Tags used are vital, ideally between 5-10.

Sites to use:  Blinkx, Fooooo and Truveo.  There are niche sites out there that we call gems look to find those.

You can input meta-data into the video itself.  Search Engines read the properties for video, word, pdf.  Some services allow embedded urls.  Can search on the content of the video rath than just the keywords associated with it.  Allow you to tweak keywords.

Dos/Don'ts - name properly, create video sitemaps, have only one video per page, rss enabled.  Don't stuff title, tag and descriptions.  Post poor quality and irrelevant, post pur commercials, cloak and flame your own content to boost hits, make content a one way dialogue.

Joe Morin of Boost
Video strategy - what is it?  Video optimization is SEO too.  It's necessary to have some kind of strategy.
Google has 51% of the market with YouTube.  Comscore stated the December was the heaviest video consumption month ever.  Convergence of Online & Offline advertising.

Just having the video isn't enough.  Distribution and Syndication of your video will draw so much more traffic and brand awareness.  Make sure social media channels are in place as well.  There's video crawlers optimization and uploaded optimization.

Don't use a stand alone player that loads up in a popup.  Make use of social media tags, comments & ratings.  For best results use metadeata during encoding.

Posted - use video overlays for branding.  Many hosted sites transcode the video so metadata may be stripped ou but encode anyway this may change over time.  Use the word "video" in the title.

TubeMogul - you can upload to 13 video aggregators with one upload.  Analytics can track views, ratings and comments.
VisibleMeasures - video measures.  views, pauses and rewinds.
Ooyala - Ex-Googlers that publishing and analytics.

Video Monetization
PreRoll, PostRoll, Pay per download, Contextual, In-Video advertising
   

SES London 08: News Search Optimisation

Ann Kennedy introduces the panel of Tim Gibbon, Greg Jarboe and Lee Odden for the News Search Optimization Session.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR:
Last year's SES London, he told you somethings about press release optimization.  Everything has since been turned upside down.  This is bigger than a bread box and impacts all of us.

On 2/1/08 queries for Microsoft Yahoo spiked.  Google's Hot trends will show you the top 100 trends over the last 24 hours.  This is where hot keywords can surface.  This is where "the fish" are.  Brand new term "microsoft yahoo", somewhere around 7 a.m. in the morning.  Something happened.

If you went to Google and typed in that new term, what comes up first, it's news results not the typical blue link.  Shows Microsoft has bid on Yahoo!  If you had scanned down the results, you find "blog posts" at the bottom of the page.  Those blogs listed there were not on MS's blog relations list.  But it was hard to find what triggered this, but the end was a press release and letter from MS, he had to work hard to find "Microsoft Yahoo".  But this story triggered over 10k stories.

Everything you knew a year ago is wrong.  Press Release optimization is a tactic in a long strategy.  But everyone is doing it now, you need to take it to the next level.  Where you want to take it next is into a new realm, new relations - blogger relations.  You can focus on media relation.  The news sources for Google don't include the usual suspects. Google news is important, in December 3 million in the UK.

Focus on BBC News, Google UK News, Times Online, Google, Reuters UK, Guardian Unlimited, Google UK Image Search, Press Association.  Press Association was not part of Google News until Aug of last year.  Their content is now hosted in Google News.

90% of journalist say that visuals are important to their stories.  41% surveyed visuals could dictate content.  A release e-mailed with a jpg or tif file has a much better chance of making it into our newspaper. 

In many industries, blogs have become the new trade press.  Blog post generated 30 times more visitors than identical news articles. Articles and posts referred 34.4 times more visitors than releases.  Google is filtering press releases, they don't appear in the results.  The art of schmooze has turned news search SEO upside down.  If you think beyond the press release there is a world of benefit.

NewsKnife.com can give you a listing of all the news sources used by Google.  News sources also seem to take the "hard leads" first.

Lee Odden of TopRank Blog:
Intersection of SEO and PR - Pull PR.  Push being outreach, this is turning the news optimization world upside down.  Pull PR - standard search, news search, blog search, media search. Pull PR = SEO.

Why Optimize News?  Make sure whoever your intended audience is it's easily available to them in the formats they prefer.  Ranking on search engines brings credibility not unlike media coverage.  PR tactics used to improve search rankings.  Optimizing press releases and newsrooms are good tactics.

64% of journalists report they use the either Google or Yahoo! news at least once a week.  85% visit at least once a month.  Optimizing news makes it easy for users (journalists to find).  You are creating a wider footprint on the web.

PR content to Optimize - new releases, op-eds, media kits, corporate PR content, blogs, white papers, reports, webinars and demos, email newsletters, interviews, podcasts.  Optimize both onsite and offsite content.  Onsite - press releases, etc.  Offsite - social media profiles.  Inventory your digital assets and identify the appropriate channels of promotion.  Start with the outcome in mind, do keyword research.  Publish on your version first on your site and link back to it using "originally posted at" or "source of release".

Tim Gibbon of Elemental  Communications:
More people are using search to find what they need.  We need to communicate and challenge the way we meet media and bloggers.

Services like aggregators, news wires, news sites, portals. Each site offers different services and reach different audiences.  Evaluate them - who are they, how credible are they, where will your news appear, how did other releases do on their site, who are they affiliated with?

Manage your content, take control of it, optimise it, build quality content on your site, manage it.  Submit to generic and niche resources and sustain your efforts.  Fundamental SEO tactics should be applied to press releases.

Tim then shows some successful PR initiatives with clients.  Do's and Don'ts... Do's - implement measurements before you begin, prepare variations of the release, time releases for off and online communications, reach out to vendors and ask questions.  Don't - overload press releases with key words and phrases, expect online PR and social media to be a silver bullet, ignore offline media.

SES London 08: The Changing World of Search, Keynote Roundtable

Moderator: Kevin Ryan,  Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

            

Introduction by: Nick Carr, Author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google

 

Speakers:

• Mike Grehan, SES London Co-Chair and Founder and CEO, Searchvisible Ltd.
• Steven Kaufman, SVP Media Director, Digitas
• Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder, Future Now Inc.
• Erica Schmidt, Global Director of Search, Isobar
• Paul Doleman, CTO & Head of PPC, iCrossing and SEMPO UK & Europe

Nick actually isn't here, but recorded a video for the audience.  Nick fell and broke his ribs and has a collapsed lung and was advised not to fly.

Kevin is showing a couple of headlines - "Microsoft vs. Google".  "Google weighs in against Microsoft".  "Microsoft to Target Yahoo! Investors".  "News Corp Joins the Yahoo! Battle".  "Yahoo Tells Shareholders They are Better Off With Current Managers".

Video from Nick Carr: 
It is a very important time in computing and history of communication.  Everyone in Search Marketing is playing a crucial role in this change.  He thinks one of the clearest indications something is going on is MS's bid to purchase Yahoo!

On one hand MS's motivation is tactical because of its lack of success in Search, and Yahoo! offers a quick fix.  Bigger story though is the change in the way computing and content is being delivered to our homes.  It use to be decentralized mode of supply, where we produced ourselves to centralized where there's a central place its made and supplied from. 

Up until the end of the 19th century, if you wanted to run a machine, you had to build your own electricity generator.  As soon as the electric grid was made, suddenly we had a new option, efficient supply at great distances.  We are seeing a similar thing happening in computing.  The world wide web is turning into the world wide computer. 

We are seeing this change quite quickly in the home and small business area.  Young people are running most of their software online, they aren't buying their own software in the store and installing it on their computers.  They are going to sites like Wikipedia, Flickr, MySpace - everything is happening online.

The software industry is starting to look like the media.  They don't make money from directly selling the software, they make it indirectly.  They have to figure out how to act like media companies, by supplying advertising to support the software development. 

On the business side, things move more slowly because of the investment into the data centers.  Also no one knows if this data model will work there or not.  However we will likely see it rise on a subscription model rather than what happens on home side.

Microsoft is still making money on the "old" side, however they are seeing this switch happening and if it wants to keep making money, they have to move to this new model.  Yahoo! gives to MS the ability to support this model.  It doesn't say it's going to happen (the merger), it says MS sees this and recognizes this and it's a world that Google is dominating this arena.

This is going to change a great deal about economics and society.  We've seen the rise of effecient companies such as Craig's List, Skype - these employ a small work forces, but serve more people than big companies that aren't on the web right now such as British Telecom. 

Search Marketers play a crucial role in privacy.  As more and more comes online by people and their personal data, the danger comes from data mining and SEO techniques.  It will eventually bring about the ability to monitor people and what they are doing online.  The challenge to Search Marketers is to figure out the standards and the ethics of what we offer up information wise while still giving people all the information they need. 

Panel Discussion:
Kevin points out Google is the clear leader, Microsoft is clearly behind.  Yahoo! dominates email and news.  Now asks the panel to introduce themselves.

Paul: He's spent 8 years at MS, 20 years in technology management.  He's currently CTO of iCrossing.  When he first heard the news he thought "at last", he doesn't think its competition for Google.  When Yahoo! and Microsoft work together, amazing things happen, he points to Flickr.  Its a small incremental growth, nothing of significance.

Erica: Global Director of Search for Isobar.  Her first reaction was "excellent". In the US its a "search game"  MS has not been able to get their game together on search.  Yahoo! has missed out too.  These two can align and maybe give Google a run for their money.  Who knows if they can actually merge these two distinct companies together.  As consumers it's good as well.

Bryan:  Co-Founder of Future Now, Inc.  His view is different.  MS has come to the realization of duality.  They know they are loosing it to Yahoo!, with Yahoo! they could be a solid "2" instead of "3".  It will be fun to watch if they can come together

Steve:  His first reaction was "wow".  How is this going to affect the search world.  Much bigger deal than search.  There's a lot of moving pieces to what each brings to the table.  It's not an easy thing to make this happen if it does because both companies are about culture.

Mike:  He thinks it would be best for humanity if he ran search so he's going to buy them both - crowd laughs.  What does it mean to the consume.  Google's like a utility, they are a technology company that can provide this easily.  Yahoo! and MS are more like media company.  If you think about Yahoo went on a spending spreee bought AltaVista,etc.  Pulling these two together culture wise is tough, but if its about search, its easy they did it before.

Kevin:  Do you think that Yahoo!'s has conceded Defeat?
Bryan:  Defeat no, that they ever will regain dominance, yes.  Their focus is on everything else but search.
Steve:  I agree, and Jerry came and spoke to us when we were there.  Yahoo! has the largest display advertising server on the planet. 
Bryan:  They are a media company not a search company
Mike:  If you take a look at Yahoo! land they are focising on social media and media, its not just about search.

Kevin:  Analyst are so ill informed.  As we look at search, Yahoo! should just outsouce search and call it a day do you agree?
Paul:  No, they should focus on giving the consumer the best experience they can.  Things can grow and form very quickly.  They can't really do it with search, maybe more with social, "web 3.0"
Erica:  Google doesn't have this ability.  If Yahoo! and MS can come together on this, they can give Google a run for their money
Bryan:  There's never been a business that has the scale like Yahoo!  There's been other leaders in the past that have come and gone.   What we're going to see in search in the future is getting on the phone and "saying" i want this and getting it.  That's an open ball game no one has captured yet.

Quetions from Audience:
Yahoo! seems like the unwilling prom date.  What about the other potential partners?
Paul:  The Fox move is interesting.  Appears to be a good fit.  But I get nervous about Murdoch.  But it's a very good fit between them
Bryan:  Interesting, but a so-so combination.  They are talking about swapping Myspace - that's a waste.
Kevin: Why?
Bryan:  Its like the old Geocities, its dying a slow death.

Erica:  Privacy issues that Nick pointed out in the video, people are hesitant to give to Google, but Yahoo! is more trusting.  People are bashing Google for privacy.
Mike:  But Google isn't evil - I saw it on their homepage!   Google can crawl a lot of different types of documents types.  Do a search for "business plan" find type .xls.  We're feeding all of this to Google.
Steve:  There's a lot of education that needs to take place.  Data isn't being used for "evil" it is fore relevancy
Bryan:  At the end of the day people just want good content
Paul:  I want to control my information, and be able to release it to the right people.  My medical records, my personal information, my shopping behavior etc.  Yahoo! has been looking at this.
Bryan:  Its all about transparency.  Lets not just focus on search, old media is looking at this too. Its across everything that touches you every day.

Greg Jarboe:  Stock market has weighed in.  MS's shareprice when down.  If MS would have taken that money and bought different companies rather than all their eggs in the Yahoo basket, what would you ahve advised?

Bryan:  Market is very reactive.  As far as buying 44 different companies you still have that culture issue of combining.  But investing it into the companies, yes.
Kevin:  Erica you are integrating companies very well.  Do you think these companies will have the wear with all to put a series of teams in place to orchestrate a change like this.
Erica:  Could they do it?  MS is the dinasour when compared to Yahoo!, AOL, they are very young companies.  My concern there's a culture class.  Management style - Balmer vs. Yang - completely opposite.  Yang is "one of the guys" they are pioneers of the web.  MS is an old company when you compare it to Google and Yahoo!.  They seem to try, but just can't "get" it.  They respond it's a 10 year game, but they aren't moving quickly enough and that's the issue.  That's the nice thing about Google, they buy companies and integrate them quite rapidly.  MS & Yahoo! trememdous amount of issues to get their.
Mike:  Neither one is a stranger to acquisition.  Depends on what you want to integrate first.  But going back to Greg's question, that would be a good idea.

Kevin:  Google is delving into media acquisitions.  What happens when the ad exchanges are open.  How much of the money for advertising is going to Google?
Steve:  I think the offline media doesn't have a lot of scale yet.  Its a tough sell to our clients. You get some early market learning.  No scale, but it will continue to grow.  Advertisers want to know where their brands are going to show up.  Clients aren't willing to put ads and logos where they don't have control.

Does the panel have any thoughts on if the deal went through, what would happen over the next year, would the engines remain separte?
Mike:  One of the strongest points of the deal.  Yahoo! has the bigger subscriber data - Google has users base that is higher.  Yahoo! and MS could do a good job of integrating
Paul:  MS and Yahoo! are doing it alrady with the messenger clients.

Can Search be Too Personal?
Paul:  I'm with you.  I like to search and discover new things.  But why should just one company own that shopping data?  Why can't I own it and give it to who I want too.
Bryan:  If you think there is such a thing as privacy, think again.  Credit bureaus know everything.  There are disadvantages.  They'll sacrifice convenience to not give up some privacy.  Its all about a balance.

If not Yahoo! who?
Mike:  It's just another change the industry is just evolving
Steve:  Google's not conceding any time soon
Bryan:  Who know what will be in 10 years, we don't know, roll with the punches today.
Erica:  Baidu.  We need to keep their eyes on Baidu.  They can move quickly and cheaply.
Paul:  Obama, Hillary or ... everyone just laughs now.  :)

SES London 08: Impact of Universal Search, Orion Panel

Kevin Ryan opens up the panel showing how universal search is affecting the way the world searches.  Value propositions of search improving, re-trained on how to view search.  All of us on the web search at least 1 time during a month but most on average search 74 times.

From a marketers perspective universal search is doing some pretty interesting things.  Users are now clicking on the ads more in universal search.  Search results pages as destinations how do you measure success.  More creative options in search marketing, more view-thru value to search marketing, today's engines raising barriers to entry.  Consumers are warming up to universal search.

Mike Grehan showing how maps were integrated with a search for "Seattle airport".  Local results are being blended in.  Then show "dove beauty workshop", shows the video and how everything else is also commercial.  If there's video, and other interesting things, less click the paid.  Now shows Bourne ultimatum videos.  This is a really exciting time for us as marketers.

Jeff Revoy from Yahoo, Mike Grehan, Andrew Goodman from Page Zero, and Adam Lasnik from Google are on this panel. 

Kevin asks Adam what a search evangelist does.  His focus is on webmaster communications.  He takes what he learns from all of us back to the engineers.

Kevin:  Where are we headed with universal search?

Mike:  Ten blue links have to go, there's so much more you can do.  The world of web 2.0 the broadband era, there's so much more going on.  You can produce richer content.  There is all this interactivity going on.

Adam:    How do we decide what videos to show and from what sites.  It's primarily a technical consideration.  We can trust YouTube because we own it.  They chose MetaCafe because they know they could support it.  It's got to work so the experience is good for the user.

Jeff:  First off we know our own properties can handle it and its a starting point.  We're trying put relevant results out there for the user.

Mike:  More people are paying attention that they can provide this interactive material for their customers.

Andrew:  You are lucky if you find a company who already have this content readily available.  But most of the sites are still broken.  The challenge is to be visible in search.  There's 8 or 10 places now, not just 1 or 2.

Kevin:What percentage of results are universal/blended?

Adam:  All queries are going through universal.  It's still a small percentage that are showing universal, and it depends.  Esoteric concepts are much less likely to show universal results.

Jeff:  Yahoo is trying to understand intent.  They want to get where there destination is.  Giving users the information they need/want, and varies with query class.

Kevin:  What are the top considerations when it comes to considering what countries this should be rolled out to?

Adam:  It has been rolled out over globally.  One good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that as the indexes for each country get larger, more universal search results will appear.

Mike:  I see a lot more of it in the U.S.

Jeff:  Search assist is global.  Varies by market and language but it is all about relevance, markets & experience.

Kevin:  Mike what do you expect to see by 2010?

Mike:  If your listed in the results as just a "blue link" and your competitor is listed with rich media, everyone is going to want the rich media.

Andrew:  Advertisers want rich media results

Adam:  I can imagine the folks who work on adwords want to make their results to be most relevant.  Just as the natural search folks want theirs to be relevant, so these efforts will definitely remain separate.  Also, for clarification, no one pays for google local listing (natural ones that appear in the top 5 or 10 listed next to a map)

Jeff:  No doubt advertisers want it.  It comes down to relevance for the user.

Kevin:  Lets talk about social components and how they affect search?

Mike:  Has created a new breed of spam.  However, these social components are now becoming more relevant.

Andrew:  How do you measure converstaion? It can be taken to far, but it needs to be managed.  Its discounted until you can find a measurement.  It's fuzz but companies need to be on top of it, especially to respond to issues.

Kevin:  How do you filter out the garbage?

Jeff:  Social search adds tremendous value.  Yahoo! uses FUSE (Fine, Use, Share, Expand) to help w/ filtering out the garbage.

Adam:  When you give people the opportunity to contribute you get a lot of junk.  However, you also get diamonds and nuggets of gold.  There's a lot to be said about the wisdom of crowds, what are they most interested in?   Google will use any means necessary to protect the quality of search results.  They also send out experiments to understand what users say is "good".

Jeff:  There's no secret sauce, but they put a lot of value on the "reputation" of the user.

Kevin:  Still a lot of testing going on, what do you see with the next generation of how to filter these results?

Mike:  Search Engines have to provide the most relevant results.  Google and Yahoo! will need to support showing results that use multiple platforms.

Andrew:  I hope they don't become too internal (i.e. Google only displaying Google Video and YouTube videos)

Adam:  We are going to do what we can to keep the results relevant, however they want to be open to multiple platforms.

Jeff:  Yahoo! is all about openness.

The session then opened up to questions from the audience.  Overall this was a great discussion hearing from both sides of the industry, people doing the work and the search engines.