SMX West Day 3 - marathon day

Last day of SMX West i am spent both from full day sessions, paired with martini-based client dinners, and the next leg of travel ahead. Only 3 more days of this fun stuff to go.  This post i went ahead and weaved my thoughts into the post a little tighter. Hopefully my 10s of readers will follow along.

Keynote
Interesting (moderately) session on how search will be used as it evolved.  Reps from Google, Yahoo, and Live were on hand with Gord and Chris Sherman as part of a panel of experts.  I personally believe that they are right regarding their take on Mobile search (that GPS based search would be very powerful, and that the experience on the small screen needs to improve).

My take on most of this keynote and the conference in general is that search is obviously evolving, but has been VERY SLOW in terms of features and functions. Needed improvements to search (way more long term) will include some much better presented results (vs. the same 10 blue links we have all been seeing since 1996). Search engine technology development has been very much based around ways to exploit ad revenue (for good or evil (your call)).  As humans continue to expect more, and with more mediums having relevance, search engines results need to be much more fuzzy and comprehensive and all reaching.  Its an interesting pattern and topic i have seen resonate here since day 1 here at SMX.

I also sincerely believe that Mobile mashups and Local search are areas search engines do absolutely HORRIBLY. Everything with a city qualifier pulls from city center. LAME.  If you are on your mobile, and you do a search for something in a city (ex. san francisco sushi restaurants near nob hill) why cant a search engine see your GPS location, and match that with the query, and realize a more accurate search result may be based on a combination of that, vs. word match globally across the webisphere.  One other space that is RIPE for improvement is integration of live data integrated into auto nav systems - live traffic, simple searching, all using hot, live data.  That would be a much welcomed change and the data & technology to do both are here today.

Not really cool how search engines treat "mom & pops" as being on the hook to provide them all the data.  They claim thats the only way to improve local, and i call this a cop out.

one great thing about search both now, and in the future is that Search and Search Marketing are 100% quantifiable.  That makes it better than almost ANY other form of media and advertising.  Search will continue to grow and evolve and we can thank social networks and social media for this new set of eyes on how people search, interact, and research online.

Attended a session on: Growing Your SEM Firm
Moderated by Chris Elwell
Panelists: Fionn Downhill, Damian Finley, Lisa A. Williams

was only moderately engaged in the discussion for several reasons, but didn't hear anything overly compelling (to me).  Ahem...next.

Analyzing the competition

Its pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised. - Frederick The Great

Christine Churchill - Key Relevance

• do searches for key terms (paid & organic)
• Determined how competitive sites are optimized
• look up WhoIs information to get information about the competitor
• archive.org is also a useful history tool
• Study their backlinks, how many, what sorts of relationships
• check their traffic estimates - compete, hitwise, alexa, comScore - great for seeing what terms your competitors are getting traffic from and where people go before/after
• PPC review - what engines they are using, phrases, bid strategy, quality of ads, SEO effort
• Tools in the PPC space - keywordspy, keycompete, adgooroo, spyFu
• Reputation management - google alerts, forums, blogs, etc., bbb, d&b, epinions

HitWise

• bill tancer, GM Global Research
• New book - CLICK
• not much to say other than talking about how he and HitWise have the best tools on the planet for uncovering stats, research data, competitive analysis, keyword analysis, etc.
  • cheaper alternative is trellian or competitious.com

Jake @ STN Labs
Loose informal conversation on the realities of the visible web and how to research and more important, protect yourself from spys.  My guess is that 90% of the folks in the audience thought Jake was advocating hacking madly, but what he was trying to point out is our false sense of security that our websites are just securely chugging along and that all our information is safe from inquiries and prying eyes so nobody needs to mind the shop. Peoples answer that "my host takes care of that" is an absurd false sense of security. Almost as mad as having life vests on commercial airlines...whats the point?  The only way you're escaping a commercial airline "water landing", is if you have jumped out of the plane with your own parachute before impact. Wow, that's a tangent...i digress.  Here are some of his thought provokers.

• If you are doing research...
  • good webmasters are already researching their competitors
• whois.sc is the best whois research
• regional IP databases - first step to social engineering
  
  • find the ip, pump it into completewhois.com and find their ISP.
• social engineering - getting someone to tell you something they're not supposed to
• allinanchor - can be your friend
  • will return webpages linked to that target them
• protecting yourself
  • watch for unnatural traffic - allinanchor, link:, cache, whois.sc
  • track them and send them on their way with 301redirects
  • serve 403 pages, send to differnt pages with different pricing, send them to their own site, serve midis and wavs to piss them off, or just silently track them

Search Marketing B2B Style
Slightly different slant on SEM which is a big element of our business, we are vested in the B2B space.  Tactics are different, distribution of ads and optimization activities are also different than B2C.  Some outlets that are interesting for B2B clients.

• Ben Hanna @ Business.com went through their offers and advantages. They have a simple ad network and paid inclusion model.  We tried this at IDWholesaler a while ago, but it just didint work for their audience...almost NO conversions. But Business.com ads may work better for our clients like Graylift who are selling forklifts, or clients like Entrust Group who targets a professional influencer audience like Estate Planning Attorneys and CPA's.  Both clients search terms could be supported by articles and placement in the Business.com directories.
• Patcicia Hursch - SmartSearch Marketing - focused more on tactics and things to do
  • she stresses getting beyond lead gen to things like: visibility, traffic, in addition to Lead Gen
  • also stressed the post click behavior that needs an effort.  These could include site UI optimization, landing page optimization, and/or microsite optimization.
  • have to get to buyers at the start of the process so you can influence their decisions
  • advertising in the tail is a valid concept that emphasizes the important of targeted long tail terms.
  • using ad copy to pre-qualify clickers - being specific will help you weed out lookie-loos that you don't want clicking your ads (ex it outsourcing vs. national it outsourcing service provider for companies with 15 to 300 employees)
  • align ad copy with query - depending on the type of search based on your sales lifecycle, your paid ads should adapt as the process moves.  learning > research > narrow options > buy
  • microsites focused on specific industries - or focused on specific solutions
  • test all your page elements on the landing pages
    • page layout
    • images
    • benefit statements
    • action triggers
    • names of downloadables
    • etc...
  • offer action options
    
    • trial
    • seminar
    • buy
    • not always one size fits all
  • simplify reg forms
    • 15 fields 5 %
    • 5 fields 9%
    • 2 fields 15%
• Galen deYoung - Francis SEO - Organic search for B2B - focused purely on b2b seo
  
  • business purchasers - are different
  • matters what they search for and it matters what they type in...even if seemingly insignificant:  healthcare consultant, health care consultant, healthcare consultants
  • people search by:
    • subject, problem, person role, product, industry, geo
  • each distinct set of keywords needs a distinct landing page
  • see acousticsbydesign.com for one of his clients
  • page strategies
    • know keyword target and 3-5 long tail term modifiers
    • could be 3-5 words or even up to 7-8 words
  • great slides with good points.  fingers tired and cant keep up the typin.
• covered some interesting tactics regarding lead management and lead nurturing

Okay, thats it for me.  I am off to the bar for a pre-flight round and then its off to San Diego for the Miva Developers Conference. No rest for the weary.

BL