The past two days have been spent juggling the SMX Advanced Search conference, putting out campaign fires (2000 miles from home, and we can still do our job…the internet is great), phone calls and email via hand held. I will say that this event has been, on the whole, attended by truly more advanced search marketers. I tried to bounce between the paid and SEO tracks, so likely missed some good stuff on both sides. That said, here are some observations:
Q & A with Matt Cutts
I will say that this is the first open discussion where I found myself having to process the discussion. Normally, the dialogue simply triggers memories of past sessions with little or no new information. While the topics this time were similar, the direction was a bit different and deeper.
I was reminded of how mainstream Google has become for advertisers. There was a question related to the detailed implications of Google's notoriously vague guidelines from Patrick at feedthebot.com. Matt explained that there is a number theory in mathematics around the idea that if you can satisfy / explain four questions then you can derive virtually all answers to subsequence questions. Therefore, web masters could answer their own questions based on what Google does provide. Now, there is recognition that explicit answers are needed for the new breed of online marketers who are good at marketing, but not necessarily mathematics (you can tell by the way I butchered the premise on the number theory that I definitely fall into the ‘Marketing’ group).
Personalization
Personalization discussions brought some healthy banter between the MSN, Yahoo! and Google. However, the bottom line, and common theme: develop good content and relevant linking partnerships. What defines good content has expanded with universal search (though I think this may not be necessarily true for all SEO. I mean expanded…some are already there), but the base concept continues to be sound. I am often flustered by the comments that suggest the world has changed dramatically as a result of either personalization or universal search.
BTW…“&pws=0” at the end of the search URL in Google removes personalized search results for the particular query, leaving the general results that most people would see. So, if you’re in your Google account you don't need to log out.
Is Bid Management dead?
This discussion was formed as a debate. 2 people argued that is not dead, and 2 that it was not. The upshot, it is not dead. Both teams agreed that it is still used at some level. By definition, if it is playing a useful role, it is not dead. It has however evolved from its central point of SEM to a tool in a much broader effort.
Paid search
I did, to my chagrin, hear an audience member try to get one of the panelists on the paid search track to tell her if it was worth it for her bid to first position. No matter how he tried to get her to focus on ROI, She kept saying, "if I have budget left at the end of the month...". I was glad to hear him, and others, be so heavily focused on the post dick metrics. While a few people were stuck on the CPC / position metric most were well beyond that. I heavily advocate for ROI metrics, going so far as to suggest SEMs abandon budgets altogether.
The fact that so many were well beyond the standard, and some much more advanced, may present Danny with an issue for the paid side of SMX advanced. The engines didn't have the answers to many of the questions that were being asked. Either they don't know, or they won't say (I imagine for competitive reasons). At times it even went so far as attendees knowing more about how the engines worked than the representatives. Both on the floor and in the presenterions, the engines are going to need better informed representatives or just say up front, "we won't share that."
SEO
During one ask the expert session I was pleased to see that most of the panel members advocated the position that good results ultimately stemmed from hard work. We all face the same issues (on paid and SEO) most of which revolved around too much work, too little time. Thus, questions were around the theme of more efficiently gaining links. Overall, Good content, hard work will get results. Don't short cut it.
Bottom line
Well worth attending. However, the presenters and floor / expo participant will need to push themselves. The reality is that all the stuff we talked about these past two days will not be “advanced” for long. If the same information is regurgitated at the next advanced session, the value will be lost.
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