SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

March 16, 2009

Come To IM Charity Party During SES NY

There will be a great charity event on Monday night March 23rd during SES NY. All money goes to charity and there is an open bar for 4 hours at the Heartland Brewery in Union Square. All are welcome.

Here is a creative video Greg Niland of GoodRoi did - he gives me too much credit since he really is the one that does all the work for this.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 10, 2008

A Special Message to the Ladies Attending SES Chicago: Woman to Woman

I see you at the keynotes. I see you at the sessions. I see you in the expo hall during the day.

But at night, when I go to the networking cocktails, it's a testosterone festival.

Maybe you're rocking it so much that you don't need to network. Maybe you feel so good about the economy that you're not worried about your job. Maybe you love working for the man so much that you never want to start your own company or become an indie consultant.

But on the off chance that you do want to advance in your profession, but you're curling up in your pjs and watch reruns of Sex and the City instead of hangin' at Kitty O'Sheas, we need to talk.

Sure, the sessions and keynotes are a great way to learn stuff, but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you don't have clients, are busting out a bunch of manual work instead of streamlining your process with awesome search tools, or are out of a job. All of those things could happen unless you get your butt down to the bars.

By networking alone, I am seeing the potential for my non-SEW 2009 work to bring in thou$and$ more. That's a different financial scenario than you'll hear by flipping on the cable news channels and crying in your Cheerios (no matter how cute you look in those flannel jammie pants!).

So, how do you do said networking?

Step 1. Go down to the bar. Step 2. Put a drink in your hand. (non-alcoholic is fine if that's how you roll) Step 3. Walk up to someone you don't know. Step 4. Stick out your hand for a shake and say "Hi, My Name is (fill in the blank) and I'm from (fill in the blank with your company). What's your name?" Step 5. Listen. Step 6. Ask questions about that person. Get them to talk about themselves.

What kind of questions, you may ask? Well, first you're off to a good start by just asking that very question to me. Here are more:

1. Where are you based? (i.e. Where do you live?) 2. How long have you been in your position? 3. How many people are at your company?

Pay attention to those answers and get curious. Turn your curiosity into more questions and you're golden.

If you're really drunk brave, you'll pull a harmonica out of your coat pocket and say, "I dare you to go up and play with the band." (What? That sentence seemed like it came out of nowhere? That's because you weren't down at the bar last night.)

Seriously, though, I'm not going to lie to you. Some people will be snobby. Not many, but a few. Wrap up your time with them and move on to more laid back people. Your time is valuable and spend it with people who make it worth your while.

Oh - and the more you do it, the easier you'll be. Once you've met a few people - you can look for them and hang out with them at future cocktails, lunches, etc. You'll inevitably meet who they know and expand your network.

You just have to get started. So get out of the pjs, into some jeans and down to the bar. Don't worry, Sex and the City will be on again tomorrow night. Same bat channel, same bat time.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 20, 2008

SEW Experts: Stop the Web, I Want To Get Off! Drop Me at the Global Village

Web 2.0? Web 3.0? It's time we take a bigger view. With all the innovations that are available to the online world, it's about time we dropped thoughts of categorization and departmentalization. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Stop the Web, I Want To Get Off! Drop Me at the Global Village," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs wonder, if the Web is an integral part of our homes and work, isn't it time we embraced it? And that means all of it, not just the parts we profit from.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 18, 2008

SEW Experts: Social Networks: We Are All Animals

People don't talk anymore. They misinterpret information, fly off the handle, and dehumanize the people around them. To them, people on the receiving on end of communications aren't people at all. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Social Networks: We Are All Animals," Kevin Ryan says that a lot of human complications could be reconciled by being forced to experience the tears, smell the anguish, and see the bloody devastation that one has created, live and in person.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

Go to Search Marketing Salon SF Launch Party

If you're anywhere near the Bay Area, Silicon Valley or Alcatraz, mark this event on your search marketing calendar: Search Marketing Salon. It's free. No cover charge. 21 and over to drink.

When: Thursday March 27, 2008 -- 6:00pm - 9:00pm Where: Otis Lounge, 25 Maiden Lane (bw Grant & Kearney) nr Union Square, downtown.

Wear your favorite hat...because if there's one thing SES has proved over the years: the industry boasts Awesomely Bad SEO Celeb Fashion.

Black hats, white hats, and grey hats all welcome.

Meet other SEOs, SEMs, and Web 2.0 social marketers, trade tips and share advice. In NYC, we had over 100 attendees at the SEMPO SEO Meetup last month.

Why Go? To meet:

Lorna Li (no relation to Li Evans), SEM Networking Maven, Web 2.0 blogger, Green activist and rainforest crusader. What's not to like? Plus you may meet cshel and Brian Solis.

When Lorna's not getting all Amazon with the Indians in the Amazon Basin, she can be spotted at SF Bay Area tech events, Green events, and conscious lifestyle parties.

That beats SES New York SearchBash: Webmaster Radio.FM's "Unconscious Lifestyle party" for SEOs and SEMs. (Yep, the party where Kevin Ryan officially became a RockStar with guys hi-five'ing him on the street outside the club, "Yo, Kevin Ryan, you rock. Love your sense of humor.")

The "Search Marketing Alchemist" AKA Jacob Morgan who works for an undisclosed marketing agency in SF and does marketing consulting gigs for private clients. Tell Jacob he needs to quit acting and start blogging more. (Just kidding).

The "Minister of LinkedIn Viral Marketing" Jose Nunez. He's an SEO consultant and PhD in Computer Engineering Technology. He's a dozen years in to SEO and the CTO of HiRank. Tell Jose to stop making the big bucks as a world-famous DJ and blog more. (Just kidding.)

Seriously, guys, seize the #1 position for your name in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. That's the first rule of "Search Marketing Salon."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:46 PM | Permalink

March 3, 2008

IM-NY SES Party Bash Info: Vote Which Charity Gets the Cash!

Each year coinciding with a major SEM conference, The Internet Marketers of NY throw a Manhattan party bash to benefit a deserving charity.

Last year they raised a prodigal sum for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a cause extremely dear to my heart. You see, I survived stage 3B Lymphoma a little less than 3 years ago and this charity helped save my life by providing resources, local support-contacts and critical information.

This year’s March 18th party, again generously sponsored by Best of the Web, coincides with Search Engine Strategies New York 2008. The party, open to the public, is likely be jam-packed with SEM luminaries, local NYC marketing community members, and tons of potential new friends. Everyone is welcome. The bar is open (be careful), munchies delectable and the cover charge is only $40.00, the proceeds of which go to charity.

BOTW is asking the community to vote from a list of possible charity recipients. I’ve been designated as the "advocate" for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each of the other charities are worthy of support as well. Please go vote for who you want to get the money now.  Full details are available on the voting landing page.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums

Posted by Marty Weintraub at 3:09 PM | Permalink

February 22, 2008

The Tao of Crafting Strategic SEM Partnerships

First, maybe you’re in-house, working for a CPG big-brand,  e-marketing multi-million dollar health insurance products, a solo designer, are president of a boutique SEM shop in Toronto, or perhaps your wild-thing is classic PR. This post applies to you.

Every professional needs someone. This timeless axiom is especially relevant to both those who consume and those who provide search marketing services. aimClear interviewed 21 marketing companies and solo practitioners for this article, in order to clarify our anecdotal understanding of how industry peers view strategic partnerships. Let the Games Begin In 1999 it was feasible to be a small search marketing shop or in-house team and literally cover all the bases: SEO, paid search, social media, link/traffic building, analytics, and content development. Now SEM has exploded on to the scene, becoming the most relevant skill-set in the entire marketing universe; the multi- headed hydra of interconnected disciplines which can’t easily be handled by a single small (or sometimes medium) SEM department or agency. In-house or out-house (always wanted to say that) healthy business things result from crafting strategic partnerships amongst specialized and trusted peers with complementary skills. Herein lays the golden path for many a marketing team to remain compact and efficient, whilst providing world class solutions to satisfy any client’s needs. "Although we position ourselves as a full-service SEM agency, we've been partnering (more than ever) with what I would have considered competitors in the past. For one company, we manage PPC while a partner of ours manages SEO. In another example, we provide strategic consulting for a content portal, while the current SEM firm will manage the launch and ongoing activities. I believe it's a win-win-win in most cases, as the client gets best-of-breed service providers while the vendors get a unique opportunity to learn from each other and share revenue.” Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc. Full Service SEM, Circa 2000 Back in the day, social media was a phenomenon looming intangibly on the horizon and required little attention. ” Socially informed search” meant humans maintaining the Yahoo Directory and community meant AOL chat rooms, IRC, and Yahoo Personals. Overture was easy to operate, dominated the paid search landscape (there was no Google AdWords) and organic optimization was easy for the well-informed.  Analytics were rudimentary, conversion tracking was an afternoon cookie-bake for the clever, and link building meant directories, exchanges, and cold phone calls. Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Aaron Wall, and other “old fart” SEOs hadn’t invented terms like “linkbait” and search engine algorithms were refreshingly easy to reverse engineer [sigh].   The search marketing industry was about to undergo an explosion of epic proportions, bringing the entire planet’s media empire paradigm to it’s very KNEES. Those were heady times indeed. A small SEM shop could make a massive difference for any client on any “best-practices” front.  We could literally do it all ourselves. “Our in-house SEM department is charged with targeting 15-24 year olds artsy types.  These days the young are incredibly savvy and demand that we serve them by publishing with increasingly familiar tools. Even with our [significant] in-house marketing resources, we delegate out design, some application development and even SEO projects.  The in-house/out-of-house hybrid approach results in better conversion and ROI, satisfies our customers’ expectations, and our team is always current with crucial SEM information. In the end it costs us less and we sell more.” Lance Sabin, Institute of Production and Recording Not Your Mother’s SEM Things have certainly changed! Social media participation permeates the very fabric of society. Organic optimization remains an intense mish-mash of authentic content, publishing technique and hundreds of distribution channels. Link-building has crossed over into social media. This is especially intriguing as organic optimization and SMO (even Social PPC like Facebook) fold into the realm of social media practitioners. “I’m a social Media marketer. That said, we social-side SEMS sure know we don’t live in a bubble, sweet as that would be. It’s in my best interest to have relationships to share with my clients… a diverse set of brilliant professionals. Then my clients can do anything, and I happily play my part. “ Shana Albert, SocialDesire Personalized and Universal search blew “old” SEO out of the water.  Client relationships begin with taking inventory of digital assets and highly complex PPC campaigns sport millions of keywords, where sharpshooters mine long-tail ROI.  Each specialized endeavor requires deep commitment to craft and have become cottage industries unto themselves.  It’s easy to understand why solo or small SEM practitioners often choose to focus, as opposed to attempting to do it all it all.  “Our focus is our agency’s organic search, paid search, and social media. We keep these functions in-house as we have the knowledge and expertise. Other activities where we don't feel we have as strong a competitive advantage (usability, email marketing, web design, and affiliate marketing) are outsourced to experts we view as being the market thought-leaders. Often our strategic partners bring us work that’s perfect for what we do best. In the end, it’s all about working together to get clients the results they expect in this incredible age of specialization and heightened expectations.” Jeff Quipp, SearchEnginePeople Should Relationships be Transparent? Some of the firms we interviewed transparently share subcontractors with their clients, even to the point of direct billing and no marked up fees. The advantages can include more efficient communications channels, clarity, and shared customer service responsibilities. Points of danger are sometimes fragmented communication, lack of a coordinated front, a confused client and more complicated communication.

Other strategic partners find it less complicated to remain in the background. In our interviews we heard repeatedly that a key advantage to having the partner-firm remain invisible was that the “originating” company nearly always has a better understanding of the client’s goals and makeup. Decisions as to the “transparency issue” are personal to every strategic partnership and should be embarked upon intentionally. “We’re an advertising agency that specializes only in pay per click. That’s all we do. Maximizing conversions is critical for our clients, so we partner with web designers analytics firms and a range of others. Reciprocally we also partner-out, usually transparently, to agencies who subcontract PPC work to us, so they can provide top service to their clients without maintaining an expert staff in-house. It’s just easier’. David Szetela, ClixMarketing PR agencies are all over the SEM revolution and have learned to partner with SEM shops. Social media is such a huge component of the “new” PR and so makes total sense that “traditional” practitioners appreciate the benefits SEM-type thinking brings to the arena. Savvy PR practitioners embrace social and are partnering more and more with SEM shops  "SEM agencies and PR agencies are usually 180 degrees apart on the spectrum of measuring results of their efforts.  To SEMs, immediate feedback means spreadsheets with detailed analytics. PR clients are more used to clip-books with column inches counted months later. These days, clients want immediate feedback and statistics as to their efforts. We’ve learned to embrace this conundrum and partner to capitalize on the advantages of both PR and SEM. Using strategic partner-vendors helps us link PR results with the magical measurement capabilities of the modern SEM.” Janet Johnson  “Search marketing is expanding and becoming much more of a specialized field. We've found it highly beneficial to partner with key providers and concentrate on our areas of specialty. Our entire approach to the web is to unify the various components of marketing under a strategic umbrella, so it often makes sense to augment our strong points with complimentary solo consultants directly for specific projects. This is the model we're working with and it's been successful.” Adam Audette, AudetteMedia  In-House, CPG, big pharmaceutical, independent designer, local SEO or up and coming carpet cleaning company -- everybody needs somebody else sometimes. The timeless reality of the interdependent corporate web has never been more obvious than in the field of search marketing. Paid search, organic, social, PR, email, and every classic node, there’s work enough for everybody. Specialization, as the SEM universe expands, is inevitable.  Many of our peers reach out to forge strategic relationships.

Posted by Marty Weintraub at 10:07 PM | Permalink

February 7, 2008

SEOs of the World, Unite!

January was a bad month for SEO reputation. Will February be SEO Groundhog Day?

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, along comes "SEO Expert" the world's most evil cartoon character.

We don't know whether we should sue, or just let him do battle with Cartoon Barry. Danny calls these attacks "SEOs are scumbags" incidents. He says, "I find myself with little energy to push back against them with yet another defense of the industry."

So SEOs of the World, Unite!

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:40 PM | Permalink

January 16, 2008

Hugo Guzman: Ode To Search Optimization

Guest SEOBook blogger Hugo Guzman of Zeta Interactive wrote an inspiring ode to our industry today. He inspired me who is launching his own interactive agency next month.

I will not try to paraphrase and take away from the article. It is a must read.

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:02 PM | Permalink

November 14, 2007

Vanessa Fox is on the Move

Vanessa Fox, formerly the driving force (and friendly face) behind Google Webmaster Central, is on the move again. Vanessa left Google in June to join real estate search startup Zillow. Today, she announced that she's leaving Zillow to become entrepreneur in residence for Ignition Partners, a Seattle-based VC firm. She'll also keep active in the search world, as the new features editor at Search Engine Land.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:29 PM | Permalink

April 26, 2007

The Search Neighborhood is Changing

The search industry is changing at a rapid pace, that's clear. Many people and companies that were relevant just a few years ago are now gone or acquired, and many of the important people and companies of today were not around just a few years ago.

Greg Jarboe compares the changes to gentrification of old neighborhoods, where a working-class area becomes suddenly trendy and all sorts of new folks move in, often pushing out the old inhabitants. In today's SearchDay, The Gentrification of the Search Industry, Greg looks at the many changes in the Search Engine Strategies New York event that have taken place in just the last three years to illustrate that the old neighborhood is indeed changing.

Have you seen similar things going on? What can old-school search residents do to stay relevant amidst their new neighbors? Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:47 PM | Permalink

April 12, 2007

Moaning at the Bar

As any attendee at SES will vouch, one of the reasons to attend is to gather and chat with others who understand the peril of a 302 redirect, how to construct a good Title, and that a quality score isn't related to a sporting event. In the past, large numbers of attendees would gather in the hotel bars and move in crowds to a series of very large parties and then return like a herd to the watering hole of choice – host hotel bar.

As the conferences have grown larger and the parties have become smaller, moaning has been heard at the bar as to where is everyone. It seems that crowds are less predictable as start and close times at parties have shifted, but there is no shortage of people, however, who just want to get together and “talk search.”

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:29 AM | Permalink

April 2, 2007

Search-Related April Fools' Round-Up

I've never been a fan of April Fools' jokes. Some people can pull them off and make them funny. Other people don't pick a topic that's obviously ridiculous, so it's hard to tell if it's a joke, and then it's not funny. I won't begrudge you if you enjoy these types of things, though. I was planning on collecting them all in a post for you, but Barry Schwartz has already done the April Fools' Round-Up at Search Engine Land. Feel free to go check them out, if you're into that sort of thing.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:04 PM | Permalink

February 27, 2007

Is Social Search All About Consumer Conversations

Adotas columnist Adam Broitman gives an interesting overview of effective marketing methods in social search.

His discussion of new industry catch phrases such 'consumer conversations', the 'speed of search' and 'monitoring buzz' is worth a read.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:40 PM | Permalink

February 19, 2007

Bill Wise Leaves Did-it

Bill Wise has resigned his post as CEO of the primarily Paid Search management agency Did-it.com. Bill joined the company in 2005, coming over from Ask.com (which was at the time AskJeeves), and will be reportedly leaving due to differences in opinion as to how Did-it should move forward.

Until a new CEO is found, Co-Founder and current President Dave Pasternack will act as CEO. Not much more information is currently available, according to Media Post (subscription required) and WebProNews. Bill also posted about it at his blog.

Posted by Chris Boggs at 2:17 PM | Permalink

Google Groups Becoming a Gold Mine for SEO Information

Google Groups recently relaunched with a new look and feel. One of the most popular groups in the search engine optimization community is the Webmaster Help group. This area features literally hundreds of questions about Google's crawling methodologies, as well as Web site design and its relationship to the ability to be indexed in Google. Although not all questions are useful, and responses in any community should be taken with a grain of salt, the best thing that this group has going for it is the actual participation by Google engineers and members of Matt Cutts' team.

Just in the past few days, the topics of 301 redirects and server downtime have led bloggers to cite discussion going on at Google Groups. Barry and others commented on the 301 redirect comment by Adam Lasnik, which has actually led to more questions. Both Barry and then Loren Baker commented on Vanessa Fox's statement in a response that being "down" for a few Google crawls can lead to de-indexing.

So if you have some time to spend asking SEO and other site design questions and looking for answers, Google Groups might be one of the best "forums" out there, due to the increased chances of an actual Google person being involved. If that floats your boat.

Posted by Chris Boggs at 1:48 PM | Permalink

February 13, 2007

Search Marketing Is...

A recent thread on the Web Analytics Forum on Yahoo Groups asked members to provide an explanation for what they do that would be suitable for a 6-year-old.

Suggestions include: Web analytics is like the speedometer on your car Web analytics is making Web sites better Web analytics is like being a detective, or a spy

Jason Burby takes a stab at an explanation in his ClickZ column today, "How Would You Explain Web Analytics?"

Do search marketers have a similar problem explaining their jobs? I know I've seen this discussion before, but it may be worth bringing it up again, if only to force everyone to step back and think about what they're doing in a clear, simple way.

So here's the question: How do you explain what you do to your children, nieces/nephews, or assorted acquaintances that have no idea what "SEM" or "SEO" stand for? Share your explanation in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:49 PM | Permalink

February 7, 2007

Rand Fishkin, the SUPER Man

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz comes clean with a super secret... he was "that guy" who wanted to propose to his girlfriend during a SuperBowl commercial. Yes folks, the blogger behind MySuperProposal.com was in fact Rand Fishkin, and with a lot of help from Joseph Morin, CEO & Founder of Storybids.com, they almost pulled off the best play of Superbowl XLI. And it probably would have had the most talked/blogged about Superbowl commercial of 2007.

When the inital plans to raise money for a commerical slot or find an advertiser to sponsor the proposal fell through, CBS almost stepped up to the plate to air the 15 second proposal for FREE, based on the viral buzz the MySuperProposal blog had created. By the halftime show, (hello, who would have preferred to see this over Prince?) Rand knew it wasn't going to happen during the big game. So Plan B followed: air this simple spot locally during his long time girlfriend's favorite TV show, Veronica Mars, and drop the clip on iFilm.com, followed by a torturous wait for Geraldine's response.

Watch Rand's Video Proposal Now:

So that's not the end of the story, of course - here's the video of Geraldine's exciting reaction, which was also posted on iFilm.com, two hours after the proposal clip:

Danny Sullivan & I also discussed the impending proposal, earlier in the day on the Daily Searchcast, where you may catch me *nearly* letting some of the secret slip!

In addition to the details on MySuperProposal, SeattlePI.comhas much of the local scoop and backstory on how the project evolved, and I'm sure the SEO blogosphere is going to buzzing about this, but let me (and the team at SEW) be the first to say: Congratulations, Geraldine & Rand!

Posted by at 1:49 AM | Permalink

January 12, 2007

A Search Engine For Search Marketers

Lee Odden recently released a list of search marketing blogs, which he plans to update every Friday. The article has received well-deserved accolades for its nearly exhaustive collection of links related to search marketing.

The list and its accompanying OPML file has led to the creation by Alister Cameron of a Google Custom Search Engine to search specifically within the listed blogs. Ideally, this could be used by search marketers to create a well-rounded view of search expert opinions on particular subjects. To conduct a search, see Alister's post Introducing The Search Engine Marketing Search Engine or the SEM Search Page. Following is a review of a few searches conducted today, and a link to the SEW Forums thread to discuss the idea.

The first search conducted on 1/12/06 for “301 redirect” yielded the following top 5 results (descriptions omitted):

Permanent 301 Redirect - High Rankings Search Engine Optimization www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5644

David Naylor » DaveN » 301 Redirect on page code301 Redirect. www.davidnaylor.co.uk/archives/2005/12/22/301-redirect-on-page-code/ - Similar pages

URL Redirect www.seocompany.ca/seo/url-redirect.html

301 Redirect Help! www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/11903.htm

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » SEO advice: url… (tsk tsk Matt Cutts for that long title) www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/

By Comparison, a regular Google search yielded the following top 5:

301 Redirect - How to create Redirects301 www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

Giving search engine spiders direction - 301 redirect www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm

How to Do a 301 Redirect www.internetbasedmoms.com/seo/301-redirect.html

How to Redirect a Web Page Using a 301 Redirect www.isitebuild.com/301-redirect.htm

301 Redirect - 301 Permanent Redirect by Brian V. Bonini www.gnc-web-creations.com/301-redirect.htm

My Score: SEM Search 1, Google Search 0 Perhaps I am biased, but the 5 top results for that particular search yielded far more answers and thought-provocation that the Google results. However, the Google results may be of more use to “regular searchers” that do not have as much skill in SEO as SEM's may have. Note also that this search only yielded one Paid result when I conducted it. (Hmm wonder how many there will be in a few days after some SEM's read this?)

The next search for “duplicate content” yielded far more Sponsored results – 4 on top and 4 more on the side. Note also if you are concerned with every impression that an ad may receive, the Paid listings are repeated on the subsequent results pages. The top 3:

Duplicate Content Issues www.seroundtable.com/archives/003398.html

» Duplicate Content - Penalize Me, Please (yes the >> is in the Page Title…nice trick) www.pandia.com/sew/169-duplicate-content.html

Duplicate Content - Get it right or perish www.webmasterworld.com/google/3060898.htm

Regular Google results:

Duplicate Content Issues www.seroundtable.com/archives/003398.html

Avoiding Duplicate Content Penalties www.elixirsystems.com/seo_tips/avoiding-duplicate-content-penalty.php

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Deftly dealing with ... (ahem perhaps Webmaster Central Blog should get shorter Titles too?) googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/deftly-dealing-with-duplicate-content.html

I would give this one a tie. It is probably due to the fact that the term “duplicate content” is so often used by bloggers and in forums that the top three are all SEO-related in the regular results of each of these searches. It seems interesting and also a good sign that Google's Webmaster Central Blog does not show in the top three on the SEM-search feature (they are on the list). Obviously Google is not trying to manipulate any results in favor of their own blog.

I feel very confident that I will be using the SEM search blog almost exclusively to search for SEO and Paid Search topics in the near future. Thanks for this great tool, Alister, Lee and Google – I am pretty certain that you better get ready for lots of traffic from search marketers and students interested in the subject as well. In fact, if I was to advertise, student-populated sites would probably be my first target. After all, this will probably end up getting blogged failry heavily so those in the SEM community should find out very rapidly.

Please share your thoughts on this search function at the thread at SEW Forums, Google Custom Search For Search Marketers and Search Students

Posted by Chris Boggs at 10:13 AM | Permalink

January 10, 2007

Philly Marketers Meeting January 25th

Lianna Evans - of HatBait and SearchMarketingGurus fame - is helping to organise a group get together on January 25th for marketers in the Philly area.

Thursday January 25th - 6:30 p.m. at Bennigan's in King of Prussia PA. Address and map link below:

Bennigan's

160 North Gulph Rd King Of Prussia, PA map

I am going to try and get there from NYC.... hey I will take Friday off and enjoy the city of brotherly love....

Hope others come and join the fun.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:00 PM | Permalink

December 13, 2006

Video: Rebecca Lieb Speaks About Search Engine Watch

Mike McDonald of WebProNews was hot on the SES Chicago circuit, getting a ton of terrific inteviews with a variety of search marketers and conference personalities.

Here, Mike sits down with ClickZ's own Rebecca Lieb, after it had been announced she would be responsible for the editorial direction of Search Engine Watch post Danny Sullivan. Watch the video now:

Discuss Rebecca's comments in our forum thread, Search Engine Watch, Version 2.0 now.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 2:09 PM | Permalink

December 1, 2006

Blog Coverage During SES Chicago 2006

I'm happy to announce that two of our long-time Search Engine Watch forum moderators, Chris Boggs and Frank Watson (aka AussieWebmaster) are stepping up to provide headline and conference coverage on the Search Engine Watch blog during SES Chicago next week. In addition to being SEW forum moderators, both are regular speakers at SES events.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 5:24 PM | Permalink

WWSD? (What Would SEOs Do?) The Future of Search Engine Watch

As I said in my earlier post, we're committed to reshaping the future of SEW with the help of the search engine community, as anyone involved with search marketing has significant potential to make a contribution within the industry itself. It takes a village...

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about -and a little shameless self-promotion, please excuse, but it's Friday after all, and there's a really good point to be made about community shaping outcomes. Those of you that know me well are aware of my passion for skiing and snowboarding. Right now, I would much rather be out in the fresh Utah powder that dropped this week, but I digress... what you may not know, is that I've had a tiny little ownership stake in this start-up ski company, PM Gear.

We were recently featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, putting the spotlight on our unique process for developing a signature line of skis, utilizing the valuable input of a community comprised of serious skiers. For anyone that is interested and contacts me first, I'll send a free copy of the book, Spark: Be More Innovative Through Co-Creation, mentioned in the article, where we were also used as an example of co-creation.

We're excited by the challenge of taking SEW forward, and the prospect of the community having a greater role in this process. The industry is growing up and the site with it but we are still a community offering and want to make sure our plans stay in tune with what you, our readers, value.

I would also like to reiterate Chris Sherman remains Editor till the end of the year, but we do plan to make further editorial announcements during SES Chicago.

We would love to hear your feedback via e-mail - please use newera@searchenginewatch.com to send your thoughts on what SEW should focus on for the future, ranging from editorial influence to site usability, and beyond. We'd also love to hear your suggestions on thought leaders in the SEM community who you would like to see as columnists.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 2:18 PM | Permalink

November 30, 2006

End of an Era… Beginning of a New Chapter

Today marks Danny Sullivan's last day at Search Engine Watch, 10 years after beginning the industry's leading publication for search engine news. Danny's undeniable passion, knowledge, and dedication to the growth of the search engine industry is well ingrained within the archives of Search Engine Watch, and will carry on long after his departure.

Danny Sullivan will continue to organize and host several major Search Engine Strategies events for Incisive Media within the upcoming year, including next week's SES Chicago, SES NYC in April, and SES San Jose in August 2007. Chris Sherman, Danny's ‘partner in search crime', will gradually take over Danny's programming work and remains Search Engine Watch Editor until the end of the year.

Danny's final Search Engine Report for Search Engine Watch will be published on December 1. Danny's new editorial venture, Search Engine Land, will launch shortly. In our opinion, we are happy to see any and all enterprises that raise the profile of this growing industry & wish him the best in his new venture.

At Search Engine Watch, our commitment to the search marketing community remains strong, with continued in-depth coverage of search engine technology, search marketing products, industry events and happenings, related news and community discussion. While the underlying mission of Search Engine Watch remains the same, there will be some exciting changes in the coming weeks and months, including the creation of a new reporting staff, bringing fresh perspectives from various search analysts, as well as upgrade in site usability and functionality.

Head over to the Search Engine Watch Forums to share your thoughts, well wishes for Danny Sullivan and support for the remaining SEW staff.

Stay tuned for what's next at Search Engine Watch, and expect some additional announcements during the SES Chicago conference next week, and shortly thereafter.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 10:58 AM | Permalink

November 29, 2006

Name That Search Marketer Game

David Wallace at SearchRank.com has a game; SEO/SEM Trivia - How Well Do You Know It's Stars? Basically, he took pictures of well-known SEMs and SEOs and blacked out some features from the pictures. He then asked you to name the person in each picture. I know all but one, I won't say whom. I will give you a hint, I am not in any of those pictures, but I did take one of those pictures.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:13 AM | Permalink

September 13, 2006

The Vice Presidents of Search

A sure sign that search marketing is maturing is the emergence of high-level executives responsible for the search marketing function in larger organizations. Who are these people? What do they do, and how do they jostle successfully in their jobs? A recent panel at SES San Jose explored these and other issues with several vice presidents of search, and guest writer Sara Holoubek covered the session for today's SearchDay article, Your Search, Your Way.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 1:18 PM | Permalink

August 4, 2006

Gary Price, Former SEW News Editor Gets Engaged!

I am honored to bring you the news that Gary Price has plans to get married to his long time girlfriend, Lisa. Gary Price was the news editor here at Search Engine Watch and left on February 9, 2006 to work at Ask.com. Gary continues to run ResourceShelf and DocuTicker while holding the title Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com.

It is worth noting that Gary has worked with Danny and Chris for years. He wrote the The Invisible Web with Chris Sherman. Bottom line, Gary has given so much to our industry, mostly behind the scenes and he deserves so much.

Mazol Tov Gary & Lisa! Join the discussion at our Search Engine Watch Forums thread named Gary Price to Get Married!!!

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:57 AM | Permalink

June 23, 2006

Technorati Betting: New Link Bait Idea

Omar emailed me that he has posted a Technorati Blog Betting competition. Basically, you bet as much as you like, on the chances that a particular blog will be at the number one spot. As Threadwatch notes, Matt Cutts has 6 to 1 odds in this competition. They currently have Matt Cutts, Robert Scoble, Engadget, and some others in the competition. This site, nor is my site in the running. Currently, the Technorati top 100 shows me at #35, Philipp at #29, ShoeMoney at #52, John Battelle at #63 and Danny (SEW) at #69.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:00 AM | Permalink

May 29, 2006

Mazeltov Barry & Yisha! If all seems quiet from hard-working chief news correspondent Barry Schwartz, that's because he's off on his honeymoon. Barry married Yisha yesterday, concluding the engagement he started with a wedding proposal on Ask last year. Congrats from all of us at Search Engine Watch to the happy couple! If you'd like to send your best wishes, pop by our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Rustybrick Getting Hitched This Weekend!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:01 AM | Permalink

March 24, 2006

Vote For The Most Annoying Forum Personality

ThreadWatch is throwing a different kind of SEO awards contest. They are running a contest for you to pick the five top most annoying personalities at the search marketing forums. I have to admit, only a few of the people listed, I would consider annoying personalities, within the forums. You can vote yourself at this form.

Does this have anything to do with DaveN gaining fifty-percent ownership of ThreadWatch? That I do not know.

Postscript: The winner has been announced here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:03 AM | Permalink

March 15, 2006

whoisaGAP Organizes Google AdWords Professionals By Geography And Entity Type

whoisaGAP has reorganized its Google AdWords Professionals database to be broken down by geographic location and by type of entity (individual or company entity). It is interesting to note that the companies' list shows that there are 21 Google AdWords Professionals accredited companies in the U.K. and only 13 in the U.S. But when you look at the individuals' list of Google AdWords Professionals, there are 87 from the U.S. and 28 from the U.K. More statistics on this data is broken down here for you.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:20 PM | Permalink

February 26, 2006

Search Marketer Dax Herrera On Broadway

A group of us headed out to Spamalot before tomorrow's SES show in New York, and search marketer Dax Herrara got a big surprise. Dax, known to many SES attendees for his great preformance in our Pimp My Site session, found himself on entirely new session when he was pulled on stage to join the Spamalot. They provided him with a Polaroid picture, made worse by me sending a copy by camera phone to Flickr here. But you can make out his flaming red hair, which made the audience believe he had to be a plant!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:05 PM | Permalink

January 13, 2006

What's Your Typical SEM Day Like?

How do you begin your day in search or search marketing? A Typical SEO Daily Routine over at our Search Engine Watch Forums covers "A Day In The Life Of..." many people. Hey, I contributed -- come add your own stories! It's always fun to learn about what other people are doing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:58 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2006

Being A Big Voice In SEO

How do you get to be a big voice in SEO? There's a series of posts out there now offering such advice, which I'll recap below, along with some thoughts on generations in SEO.

5 Tips to Make it in the SEO Community from Andy Hagans at Search Engine Journal puts it down to sucking up to the right people, getting a good niche, publishing, blogging and befriending rivals (ie, saying you love something even if you don't). And all of that guarantees to get you to speak at one of our SES shows within 20 years. OK, he's sort of joking, but I will give you some serious advice on that below.

Andy's advice kicked off Todd over at Stuntdubl to do SEO Community Advice from Andy Hagans - 2nd Generation SEO, which is basically a thanks to all the first generation SEOers that gave a second generation a start.

Rand gets in on the act with SEO A-Listers & B-Listers and how to move yourself onto a list, such as having a sense of humor, being self-depreciating, being even-tempered, friendly and thoughtful.

OK, so Rand puts me into his A-List, plus I'm entering my 10 year of actively writing about SEO. So I'll chime in with some thoughts from my perspective.

In terms of generations, I think we're into a third if not fourth generation at this point. I'll put myself in the first generation. When I first starting covering SEO and search in 1996, there weren't many others. Webmaster T was out there, John Heard I think was doing stuff for Planet Ocean at that point, Northern Web had a now defunct set of search engine tips and maybe Fredrick Marckini had his ebook going that year.

Not long after that, maybe it was 1997, we had the I-Search mailing list get going I think. Detlev Johnson certainly made a name for himself in moderating it, as did Marshall Simmonds. Shari Thurow was a regular participant who grew through that. Cat Seda the same. I think both Jill Whalen and Heather Lloyd Martin were also active participants, but certainly when they kicked off their RankWrite newsletter, that helped grow their stature. And Chris Sherman in his pre-SEW days was plugging away over at the Mining Co/About.com.

All of those people, I'd lump them all in first gen. Second gen to me probably came about with the emergence of search engine forums, from JimWorld to the monster site of WebmasterWorld, around the 1998-2000 timeframe. You had many people active in forums developing names for themselves based on the quality of advice they were giving. Brett Tabke is a great example as the founder of WebmasterWorld and a long-time SEO but whose voice really came out as his forums grew. Moderators such as Greg Boser or Todd "Oilman" Friesen are just two of many.

Note that some of these "second gen" people might actually have been doing SEO from 1995 or 1996. They may have been first gen SEOers but they were second generation SEO commentators or educators. Forums especially made it easier for anyone to start publishing, compared to setting up a web site, producing a newsletter and so on. But that wasn't exclusively how people get going. Mike Grehan jump in around this second gen time and grew his rep through his ebook and newsletter. Andrew Goodman was doing Traffick and his own ebook on Google AdWords.

Third gen came about as blogging grew. Like forums before them, blogs have made it even easier for people to share, comment and in the process, get noticed. Andy Beal's a good example here of a third gen commentator. He started blogging early on. Before that, to my knowledge, he pretty much wasn't looked at as a search commentator. Barry Schwartz is another good example of this, as is Philipp Lenssen. John Battelle, while not really an SEO commentator, developed his reputation not through his book that only came out this year but by blogging about search issues via blogs.

Fourth gen to some degree are the continuing numbers of people entering the space, starting up their own blogs or whatever. As I said earlier, they might even be first, second or third gen SEOers. They just are fourth gen in terms of being commentators.

In my SES Chicago keynote, I touched on all of these venues as ways we have a multitude of communities in SEO, and I'm probably going to write that all up in more depth. But it's also important to remember that if we do have A-Lists, B-Lists or whatever, no one's really going to completely agree on them. There are people at WebmasterWorld who simply live in that space look up only to those in the community there. Pick another forum, and you'll find the same. An "A-Lister" wading in isn't necessarily going to carry that A-List reputation earned in other places over. They'll either earn it anew or gain it because some in the "new" community they've entered with uprep them to others, because they feel it is deserved.

Beyond this, you've got people who have never, ever been to a search forum at all -- yet they can be successful search marketers. Life does not revolve around the forums. You've also got people who haven't been to a single search conference, or not read a particular blog, newsletter, whatever. Who is important to them may be completely different than someone else. Overall, as I explained in my keynote, we have a variety of SEO communities and leaders within those.

It's also worth noting that there are different generations of SEOers as opposed to SEO commentators. When the Google Florida update of 2003 hit, I was simply amazed at the number of people who clearly had no recollection of not being entirely dependent on Google. I remember Greg Boser, who moderated the Google forum at WebmasterWorld, telling me of being frustrated when people assumed something was a "Google issue" rather than a general SEO issue.

Back to being an SEO commentator, my advice on getting noticed? Share. Share interesting, unique things especially. Share however you like, on forums, in newsletters, especially in blogs, as surfing that wave remains very effective.

Suck up as Andy says? Yeah, I'm sure that helps in some quarters. But it's not a foundation for success. I'd say rather than suck up, reach out. If you are doing interesting things, don't sit there and think it will just naturally be discovered. Reach out with some of your best stuff to those who read, give them a heads-up, and that's a good way to go.

Get a niche, again as Andy said? Yep. Great advice. But if you're going to get a niche and write on it, stick with it. Too many blogs over the past year have promised to do good niche search coverage and just stumbled. You get one or two chances at most to make an impression. Make it a good one and stay with it.

Befriend rivals? Sure, I completely believe in that to some degree. I could run a site where I never link to anything but our own SEW material. Instead, I think it's a better site if it is inclusive in pointing people to the best stuff wherever it is. Being a good guide in pointing is as important as being a good guide in terms of doing your own content. And only a foolish person believes they know it all.

Bad advice is scratching someone's back for something that doesn't deserve it and figuring the "dumb readers" won't know it. Sure, some won't. But I think -- or at least hope -- many readers do see through that type of stuff. At least for me, those types of patterns are glaringly obvious. When I see it happening, my respect for those doing it begins to drop.

As for being guaranteed to speak at SES, here's the very best way to ensure that. Read The Flippin' Manual! Here's our upcoming show. Honestly, if you want to speak, how difficult is it to miss the How To Speak link? Not hard, because I know people are then reading the advice. What I also know is they ignore it.

I'm getting pitches for new sessions right now when I've asked people to no longer do that. I've got people who are pitching for returning sessions that aren't even posted or open to pitches. I've got people pitching ideas that have nothing to do about search marketing despite this being a conference about, hmm, search marketing.

Read the page. Pitch unique idea that you don't think are being covered. I have plenty of speakers who speak not because they run a blog, comment on a forum, have a newsletter but simply because they are "rank-and-file" people with interesting ideas who want to contribute to the overall SEO community via a conference presentation. I love that! Some of my very best speakers were simply audience members who in open forums at the show were expressing interesting ideas or ways of doing things.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:10 AM | Permalink

November 11, 2005

Black Hats Going White?

A reporter asked me recently if the black hat and white hat branches of SEO are getting further apart these days. I replied I thought things were coming more together.

More white hats seem to feel things they might have deemed wrong in the past to be more acceptable, while some black hats are deciding some aggressive tactics might not be worth continuing with. Meanwhile, "bad" techniques like cloaking suddenly don't seem so black hat when Google itself fully cooperates with some sites to allow it. The world of SEO just getting more gray, to me.

A Whiter Shade of Black from Gord Hotchkiss over at MediaPost is a good piece on this, looking both at how white hats can enjoy the "guilty pleasure" to talking with "these dark magicians" but how his dark hat dinner companion conversely found things getting harder and wanting to go "legit."

One point of dispute. While Gord feels the Nov. 2003 Google Florida Update was the biggest blow to spam and dark hats, I have the exact opposite view. In the wake of Florida, many, many people I talked with and read commenting on forums felt like they had been trying to go the good content route.

When Florida hit and Google stayed quiet about the mystery "signals" in place, I felt like that made it an open season for some people to feel like "anything goes" with Google, not less. Just my take.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our forum thread, Is SEO Getting More Gray?

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:57 AM | Permalink

November 10, 2005

Who's A GAP? WhoisaGAP Helps You Find Google Advertising Professionals

Are you a Google Advertising Professional? Want to find one? While Google certifies them, it doesn't give you a list of them. No matter. Teddie Cowell over at Neutralize tells me they've knocked together a directory containing over 200 Google GAPs. Wait, that would be Google Google Advertising Professionals. I guess it's over 200 Google APs. Nah, that sounds silly. Anyway, check it out at whoisaGAP. How they get the list? Searching the web, baby, searching the web and seeing who says they're a GAP. If you got left out, you can email them for inclusion.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:01 PM | Permalink

Mike Grehan's Son Attacked, Recovering

Mike Grehan's a popular search writer that many know. Sadly, his son was recently attacked by someone with his knife and seriously injured. He's slowly recovering, and Mike gives an update to those who may have heard in a thread over at our SEW Forums that Barry pointed out on his SE Roundtable blog.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:14 AM | Permalink

November 9, 2005

Search Marketer Lucas Morea Makes BusinessWeek Young Entrepreneur Finals

Lucas Morea is one of our regular SES speakers, and Nacho Hernandez tells you more about him in this post at Search Engine Roundtable, sparked by Lucas making the BusinessWeek Top 20 Young Entrepreneurs List. You'll find his profile page here, though I was having trouble getting it to load. Think he should be the winner? Well, cast your vote here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:14 AM | Permalink

October 18, 2005

SEOs Around The World Our SEW Forums editor Elisabeth Osmeloski decided it would be fun for SEOs and SEMs around the world to shout out where they are on a map. And thus this map was born. There are already nearly 30 people on it, and adding yourself is easy. Give it a go! Want to comment or discuss? Visit our forum thread that kicked it off, Map the SEO Stars.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:29 AM | Permalink

October 14, 2005

Brett & I Embrace ... Ah ... Put The Squeeze On Spam

Matt Cutts notes that long-time search marketer Joseph Morin is now blogging, kicking off with a photo proving that I and WebmasterWorld's Brett Tabke embrace spam. Such misinterpretation. Anyone can clearly see that Brett and I are putting the squeeze on spam, not embracing it :)

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:18 AM | Permalink

October 3, 2005

Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz Proposes Via Ask Jeeves Search Results

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable is getting married. He proposed to his girlfriend by getting her to type her name into Ask Jeeves, where the Ask Jeeves team kindly helped long-time Ask Jeeves-watcher Barry by rigging up a custom answer. Hmm -- perhaps something that could even be a future product offering? Barry tells you more here: First Ever Wedding Proposal via Search Engine. Congrats, Barry and Yisha -- and Happy New Year, as well! Want to send your congrats? Drop them a note at in the thread at our SEW Forums, Wedding Bells For Rustybrick, As He Proposes Via Ask Jeeves!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:50 AM | Permalink

September 28, 2005

Search Marketer A Candidate On The Apprentice

Member Promediacorp (Avi Wilensky) at our SEW Forums dropped me a note to say one of the contestants on the current series of The Apprentice: Martha Stewart hails from the world of SEO. The contestant is David Karandish, who is described on The Apprentice site as "owner and creator of an internet advertising company." His company is over here, where SEO is the first solution listed. Aaron at SEO Book jokes "please take note to how & when he spams the show with product placement, keyword density, and the like." But seriously, it will be interesting to see if SEO and search marketing gets a nod as the show progresses.

Postscript: David writes with word of his blog, which you'll find here. So far, only one brief entry about the show, but keep an eye on it.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:48 AM | Permalink

September 8, 2005

Dispatch From Search Marketer Dazzlindonna, Hit By Katrina But Safe

Via SEO Book, search marketer Dazzlindonna  -- as she's known on search forums -- shares her experiences of having survived Hurricane Katrina. She lives a few miles to the north of Lake Pontchartrain. While her area wasn't part of the mandatory evacuation order, she helped family depart, leaving her no time to escape herself. Despite what she says were terrifying winds and sounds, she and her home escaped damage. She was without power for nearly two days and terrorized by a gang of teenagers running down the streets at night. She later evacuated the area and is now in cramped quarters of a tiny trailer with family, but with power, water, air conditioning and safety.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:11 AM | Permalink

July 1, 2005

Good News -- Ian Turner Found!

Search marketer Ian Turner, missing since last Sunday, has been found. More details to be found on this Threadwatch thread, as they emerge.

Postscript: Dave Naylor has details sent via Ian of what happened here: Ian Turner Last Update.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:14 PM | Permalink

June 30, 2005

Have You Seen Ian Turner?

NOTE: Ian has now been found safe. More details as they emerge here.

Search marketer Ian Turner, pictured above, has been missing since Sunday after attending the WebmasterWorld Conference in New Orleans last week. -- contact details now removed, as no longer necessary --

Where is Ian Turner? at Threadwatch is where Ian's wife Ali Turner is providing updates and news.

Ian Turner Missing has discussion at WebmasterWorld, where Ian is a moderator.

Ian Turner Missing has discussion at our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:32 AM | Permalink

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