Online Marketing Blog

Who doesn’t like when secrets are given away? I know I do, and I can’t be the only one who thrives on search engine tips, rumors and gossip. This afternoon the expert panel of David Rodnitzky, Terry Whalen, Chris Knoch, Vinny Lingham and Chris Zaharias, we in the audience learned some new, exciting and potentially scary tips from these industry experts.

Debunking 5 current SEM assumptions - the continued growth of the long tail, the 1,001 things to do in SEM, that everyone should do SEM, listening to the search engine and the opaqueness of search - the panel addressed the following realities of the SEM world.

When performing a search on Google, there are two different types of results that show up: the organic listings and the paid, or sponsored, listings. Organically ranked sites are those which Google finds most relevant for that search query. The paid listings show up because an advertiser is paying money to be ranked that highly for those phrases. When a searcher clicks on one of those listings, the advertiser is charged the cost per click price for that ranking, so hopefully the searcher will convert into a sale for that advertiser.

This sponsored session was an entry level overview of what websites should be doing on their website to get visibility and rankings in search engines.

Here are the 7 Proven Ways to get Your Website on Page 1 Organically & then Convert as stated by the presenter Shawn Moore.

1. Content is King
   What your content says, what your images and video show not only give users a first impression, but those items are also important to how a search engine is going to interpret your website.

If pay-per-click ads are the welcome mat to the house of your business, landing pages are the entryway. The welcome mat may get people in the door, but the entryway convinces them to stay. The look and feel of your ‘entryway’ needs to be inviting and interesting to get your visitors to move forward in their relationship with your business. A good, engaging landing page is critical to gaining the conversions that are the meat of your pay per click ad, whether your defined conversion metric is driving traffic to your site, selling a product or gaining prospect contact information.

Satya Nadella is the SVP of the Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group for Microsoft. In this session, Satya discussed the evolution of search and outlined strategies to help prepare for success. Specifically, he brings light to how we think about the evolution of search and the unique assets that will take it to the next level.

The evolution of search:

We can categorize the history of search by looking at 3 dimensions:
1. Core technology of search
2. Business model
3. Expectations

Today the Expo Hall at SES San Jose opened. Time to collect astronomical amounts of swag and drop your business card to win a free iPhone! The expo hall every year is full of some of the best products and services available for any online marketing team, and this year was absolutely no different.

This year they are giving away a pretty sweet Mazda3. If press were allowed to enter, I would definitely be taking this car home with me.

So, you’ve launched a search marketing campaign. You spent time and energy putting it all together and now it is live. So how do you track results of the campaign? The panel this morning at SES San Jose shares their knowledge on measurement and tracking in the communicative world of Web 2.0.

What better follow up to our impressive list of internet marketing conference tipsters during SES San Jose than sage advice from one of the most visible people in the search marketing industry, Danny Sullivan. As co-founder of Third Door Media, parent to Search Engine Land, Search Marketing Now and the Search Marketing Expo series of conferences, Danny Sullivan is one of the most often quoted experts in the search engine industry.

Online marketing Blog readers may remember this interview with Danny Sullivan and Neil Patel before a SMX Social Media Conference. You can also find him on Twitter and his personal blog, Daggle

Online Marketing Blog published a record breaking 14 blog posts on the first day of Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. Congratulations to Thomas, Ashley, Dana and Jessica on a great job on what was a very busy day.

• SES San Jose: Search Industry Update - Jessica
• SES San Jose: Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) - Ashley
• SES San Jose: The Next Wave for Online Video - Ashley
• SES San Jose: Search Around the World - Part 1: Asia/Pacific & Latin America - Ashley
• SES San Jose: Keynote with Lee Siegel - Jessica

We’re really picking up steam with our tips on Iternet Marketing Conferences, appropriately enough, during SES San Jose. Our next tip comes from Robert Scoble, Managing Director of FastCompany.TV and blogger extraordinaire.

I caught up with Robert at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and he agreed to play along and answer a few conference tip questions. The insights below are transcribed from the video interview I did with him during the event.

Paid search not only accounts for nearly 45% of the global online ad spend, but it is also one of the fastest growing online ad formats.

I’m currently enrolled in the Advanced Search Advertising course through the SEMPO Institute and am excited to learn about the new trends in search marketing, shared by industry experts like Heather Dougherty, Research Director for Hitwise, Kevin Lee, Executive Chairman & Co-founder of Didit, Sean Walsh, VP Online Marketing for LuxuryLink.com and Jaideep Singh, CEO & Co-Founder of Spock.com.

Online advertising spend reached $35 Billion in 2007 and is projected to continue to reach $44 Billion in 2008 and $54 in 2009.

Earlier today, I attended the session “The Next Wave For Online Video,” which covered some high level insights into video advertising and online video trends. This session focused more on practical tips to get videos ranking in both video search engine and universal search results. Joseph Morin of Boost Search Marketing monitored this session in which five online video optimization experts shared their inside tips and tricks for launching your video to the masses. Each expert had a wealth of knowledge to share, so what follows are some highlights from each speakers’ presentation.