Blended Search is Hot | Fuze reporting from SMX West | Day 1

Arrived a little late so that i could hang an extra night at home with Lori & Cole. Lots going on at the homestead.  More on that later.  Reporting from the floor [literally] from SMX West 2008 in Santa Clara, CA.  Since these are mainly my shorthand notes, some of it will make sense, some of it will be Greek to most. I'm sure some of this will end up in someones "hack-ie" presentation slides - i just hope i get to heckle them with questions about the source when i see them.  Anyway, here are some topics that are pretty hot...

Blended Search Revolution - When 4th place Ask.com started their ad campaigns showing off that they got rid of Jeeves (something i will never forgive them for), they introduced something more profound than i think they imagined.  They introduced the concept of blended search.  Blended search is nothing more than a mashup of data on a search result screen.  This lets people see local results, combined with video (YouTube), with images (flickr), with reviews (yelp), and alas, with paid and organic search results.  This is VERY logical and for the last 10 years has never really had any attention.  Now it is getting attentions it aptly deserves.  Here are some thoughts...

• People use search in 3 primary ways:
  • In & out - answer a question, settle a bet, move on
  • discover - research, spend time looking to buy something, monitor a concept, etc.
  • Explore - Browsing with no specific goal, surfin the net, etc.
• To accommodate these very TYPICAL search results and keep people on their sites longer, this mashup/blended result is their answer.
• What this finally means for the industry is that what we know now as the concept of "search engine optimization" (and the one that all those jackass "SEO Experts" call to solicit you about), is GOING TO DIE.  Pack your bags snake oil salesmen.
• SEO experts wont be able to influence or exploit results through "service" it will require companies to get involved in the conversation, put their information everywhere, and let natural search take their course.
• What's this mean for web users? This makes search engines USEFUL again.  Once again, the playing field is going to level.What this means for monitization and the Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...companies building and evangelizing their powerful social tools...your space is on RED HOT fire.  You own a concept, you get rich.
• Watch for UI changes from Yahoo, Google, Live, and refinements from Ask.
• I think i like search again.  :-)

Search Marketing and Persona Models

• Decision process factors: knowledge, risk, reward, emotion - low to high
• Objectives - criteria, candidates, budget/scope, research (basic), research (detail), options, decision
• Humans can only consider 4-5 chunks of information, decide what meets their criteria, and move on.
• Use REAL PEOPLE on your site to identify faster with your visitors.  Stock images are USELESS to show you are approachable.
• understanding the way men and women differ in their browsing, navigation, and selection criteria is critical to success.
• All great marketing requires empathy
• Establishing personas - practical personas - view 37signals.com/svn
  • research (demographics & psychographics) - adlab.msn.com, quantcast.com, compete.com, trellian for keyword discovery, wordtracker, claritas.com
  • NOTE: you cannot build personas based on keywords
    
    • brainstorm - narrow from 5-10 to 1-3 focal personas.  Some may need to be driven away.
    • write
    • create campaign
    • segment audience
    • measure, adjust, repeat

More Blended Search - Focus on Local

• Blended local search differs on Live, Yahoo, & Google
  • Live - getting started, varying results based on relevance and distance
  • Yahoo - looks like google present
  • Google - new local one box, added 10 listings, varies display wise depending on how they interpret what you are searching by. Same amount of space
• overall - the closer you are to any city center, the better you will show up in local search
• good strategy to run your blog on a separate domain that is keyword loaded - interlinking will add to your link popularity.
• create a review function - part of link building
• verified listings - business profiles
  • manual verification - small number of businesses (google, yahoo, live)
  • feed based verification - reach local, localeze, infousa
  • trusted sources - internet yellow pages, feed providers, social review & niche sites
• strategies
  • cross link contact pages

Blended Search Results - ecommerce/retail tactics - What works?

• dont forget about how to's
• ratings and votes - are relevant
• who links to you in important
• research what people search for
• keep your profiles up to date
• re-energize forums
• implement ratings and review
• analytics
  • track referrers
  • add paramaters to URLs
• build relationships with customers - it is ABSOLUTELY not about SEO anymore
• Optimization
  • product feeds need keep titles tied to what people search for
  • each engine will represent product based searches different (currently Live does it best)
  • brand name is very important for search results from feeds
  • use long tail terms in title, especially for highly competitive products
  • always include photos! - no photo = no show! in MS Live
  • insure photos are available through image search
  • seller rankings matter in google - manage ratings at contributor sources
    • dealtime, nextag, shopzilla, etc.
  • other important factors
    • page rank, prices, popularity for keywords, click behavior & time on page, quality scores based on keyword density
  • Chris from NetConcepts was an excellent speaker
     
  • Getting products into results
    • optimize prod feeds
    • optimize yahoo ssp

• Blended search is a work in progress - its mostly experimental until things settle out
• Organic's goal is a research and brand vehicle,alternatively, SEO refocuses from keyword user relevance
• search results, universal search anyway, have changed the users eye patterns from
  an F to an E pattern
• Other tips
  • respect sources
  • become a reference
  • test now
  • embrace the new dimensions of search

I think that about covers day one.  I can sum all this day up with a quote I heard at a session: If Starbucks can learn to make coffee again, we can also learn a new way to optimize search. All of it left me thinking this should be a great conference. More to report on day 2 & 3.

BL