SES Chicago 2011 Articles & Expert Advice

Content Marketing Optimization

November 17, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter Leave a Comment

Image representing Lee Odden as depicted in Cr...

Image via CrunchBase

Solo presentation by:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

Every 2 days we create as much information as from the dawn of time to 2003.

How findable is your content? Where does content come from? It’s not just marketing. There are audiences for content from HR, finance, IT, etc.

Content generation is one of the most effective SEO tactics, but also one of the most difficult.

If you already have content, set it free!

There are all types of content that can be optimized, from PDF files to news to corporate info to video and office docs. Embed links in all of your externally available files and documents.

CMO & SMO framework

research customer segments
keywords, topics, messages
content & promo plan
optimize, socialize and promote

customer segments & personas

Read the rest of Content Marketing Optimization

Filed Under: SEO

Search on Mobile Devices: The Next Frontier

November 17, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter 2 Comments

Moderator:
Sundeep Kapur, Digital Evangelist, NCR Corp.
Speakers:
Lynne Kurdziel, Founder & CEO, Luminate Marketing
Angie Schottmuller, Founder, Interactive Artisan

Lynne Kurdziel of Luminate Marketing

how mobile is changing content and what it means to business

Lynne Kurdziel

Top 5 impacts of mobile on business and non-profits

localization
immediacy – we can provide timely content that would be less useful if you had to wait
shareability – you can share anything with anyone at any time
media mobility
divergent platforms – challenge of variability in what users have available

You can use mobile to streamline business processes and and create quick marketing media. User generated content and a streamlined data collection process creates freshness for SEO. What does conversion look like for ministries and non-profits? Donations, support, partnerships.

Non-profits are using apps to be able to share their mission and receive donations anywhere.

Read the rest of Search on Mobile Devices: The Next Frontier

Filed Under: Mobile

Enterprise Level SEO

November 17, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter Leave a Comment

Moderator
Mike Grehan, Global VP Content, SES, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ
Speakers:
Bill Hunt, SES Advisory Board & President, Back Azimuth Consulting
Russ Mann, Founder & CEO, Covario

Russ
SEO is more than tips and tricks, it’s a group effort. You can’t do it all yourself. The more successful approach for enterprise SEO is to be the team captain who manages the many contributors to the cause. The ultimate goal is to become the general (c-level) who promotes the greater cause.

SEO function requires many skill sets, but enterprise SEO requires so much more because of strategic and management responsibilities. You have to work with strategy, structure and systems.

No single technology is a silver bullet.

mastering your enterprise strategy
you should make sure that your SEO strategy is in line with the corporate strategy. Have a press alway available to show c-levels how your current SEO strategies are helping the corporate goals

Read the rest of Enterprise Level SEO

Filed Under: SEO

Morning Keynote Panel “Search: Where to Next?”

November 17, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter Leave a Comment

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Eli Goodman, Media Evangelist, comScore, Inc.
Zephrin Lasker, CEO and Co-founder, Pontiflex
Alan Osetek, President, Resolution Media
Dana Todd, Vice President of Performance Innovation, Performics

Eli: Brand marketing has been mainly offline, but is moving more and more online, especially in search and especially for big brands.

Dana: Want it to be measurable and see ROI. Branding is not just exposure to a brand over and over. There is no funnel. People don’t suddenly go into buying mode just because they’ve been exposed to something. We need to test with search, it’s not just about the next big idea.

Alan: it’s all about people and where they’re spending their money. The CMO doesn’t want to see huge changes in structure, but it can change slowly over time, naturally. Probably in the next 3-5 years.

Read the rest of Morning Keynote Panel “Search: Where to Next?”

Filed Under: SEO

SEO is Dead: Long Live SEO!

November 16, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter Leave a Comment

Moderator:
Dana Todd, Vice President of Performance Innovation, Performics
Speakers:
Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
Thom Craver, Web and Database Specialist, Saunders College (RIT)
Sam Michelson, Chief Executive Officer, Founder, Five Blocks

Regardless of what you think about Panda, it made site owners think more about content.

SEO has changed because what used to be about ranking is now about traffic. Local results have changed the game. Local results are now 35% of results and will be up to 70% in the next year. The rate of change within SEO has increased greatly.

SEO has become more complicated and one person can’t do it all anymore. If you can put the team together to do great in SEO, this is a great time for you.

Read the rest of SEO is Dead: Long Live SEO!

Filed Under: SEO

Local + Social: the Future of Promotion

November 16, 2011 By Jonathan Jeter Leave a Comment

A giant QR Code linking to a website, to be re...

Image via Wikipedia

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles

local + social
Gregg Stewart

importance of local search
Online retail only represents 7% of all spending. Most research is done online, but purchases still occur offline for the most part.

Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information. 1/3 of Facebook users use Facebook on a mobile device. Social networkers are frequently finding local business information through recommendations from connections and consumer reviews.

Consumers are looking for businesses in a variety of places and expect the information to be easily available and accurate. 49% of social network searchers are looking for address/location and other basic business data.

Best Practices for local search.

business names do not:

Read the rest of Local + Social: the Future of Promotion

include marketing tag lines in your business name

Filed Under: Web Development

Moderator:
Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board & President, Site Logic Marketing

Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board & President, Page Zero Media
Kevin Lee, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Didit.com

Kevin Lee

The good news is that if you follow the rules, you can pull off all sorts of site architecture pandemonium. They had a scenario where they had to simultaneously change subdomain and 301 redirect 16 million URLs and were able to pull it off successfully.

Google’s algorithm is tweaked almost daily. Once or twice a year the changes are significant and get a name, like “Panda”.

Panda was a zero-sum game. For each site that lost rank and free organic position, another site took its place. The business directory site that is a Didit subsidiary doubled in traffic, then dropped and came back. Be patient and take all also changes with a grain of salt. Changes can occur from day to day.

Read the rest of Navigating “The Dip”: Planning a Successful Site Re-launch

Speakers:
Greg Nudelman, CTO, Design Caffeine Inc.
Jaimie Sirovich, CTO, SEO Egghead Inc.

Sliders for ~~Robots~~ Pandas

Instead of sliders, use a single-level tree
Create hierarchy of values based on string prefixes, numerical ranges, etc.

K-I-S-S
Use the simplest form of search refinement

BOOK: Designing Search

Search landing pages from Amazon.com shows products, but also refined search

Show pandas and humans both products and facet filter states

Create Facet enabled landing pages

Yoast landing pages for magneto – blog post. ECommerce platforms that support facet enabled landing pages: endeca

Don’t make me ~~think~~drill

Don’t force user to make ambiguous and frustrating category decisions

Faceted allows

Avoid useless, superfluous content

Humans have intent, robots don’t.

Read the rest of Panda vs. Human: Advanced eCommerce SEO & UX

Moderator:
Rob Garner, Vice President Strategy, iCrossing
Speakers:
Andrea Fishman, VP of Global Strategy & Managing Partner of BGT Chicago, BGT Partners
Jim Yu, Founder & CEO, BrightEdge

How Can You Achieve Social Success?

Andrea Fishman from bgt

Lots of different new tools for social/search integration.

google+ pages
tablets, apps & mobile
facebook open graph
social gamification

The game is now not just the creation and distribution of content, but optimizing it for the different social distribution channels.

The shift that has occurred is that you now have to think of how the audience will have an impact your content and figuring out ways to encourage interaction and promotion by your users.

You have to be aware of how your content appears on third party distribution channels. You have to figure out the right metrics via web analytics and social monitoring.

Read the rest of Social Media Signals in Search