a quick shout-out to fellow twin cities seo sarah bernier who presented today at ses latino in miami. sarah, a spanish language search marketing consultant, was on the search term research & targeting panel, live-blogged by dave rohrer at search engine roundtable. the panel shared tips on conducting effective keyword research to attract spanish language search users to your site.
by now, you’ve read the mozzers’ smx diaries twice over. you’ve watched the video of rand fishkin getting down at the google dance a few dozen times. but there’s still one thing you didn’t know about smx: an infamous pioneer of the urban exploration underground was among us in seattle.
in self-described web 1.0 fashion, max action has finally updated the action squad site (website, he’s quick to point out - not blog), retelling his adventures above and below seattle two weeks ago. he describes it thusly:
- 1 part action squad trip log for the usual site visitors,
- 1 part vacation blog for friends and family,
- 1 part synchronicity tale, and
- 1 part seo conference blog.
i’d also add ‘3 parts cultural juxtaposition.’ if you’ve never heard of urban exploration, here’s a place to start: max action at smx seattle. as a personal endorsement, max action is the kind of guy you’d follow down the side of a steep limestone cliff in la jolla while wearing cheap flip flops. in the moment, it would never cross your mind that this might not be a good idea.
*note that action squad follows a strict, self-imposed code of conduct. that said, many of their adventures are potentially dangerous and somewhat less than legal. disclaimer, etc.
though you’ve spent the better part of a couple days revelling in utterly thorough live-coverage provided by the lovely lisa barone and susan esparza at bruce clay blog, jane copeland and rebecca kelly at seomoz, and others, i wanted to share some impressions after the wrap of the first smx conference.
first report: not a box lunch in sight. if you win over the stomachs, hearts and minds follow closely behind. clever planning by danny and company.
networking events: excellent. microsoft threw a great kickoff party with live music. the dj at the google dance played a mix of the 80s’ greatest hits (journey + bangles mash up = awesome). yahoo fed us proscuitto. free drinks all around. i met a bunch of great search marketers, including a few from my neighborhood back home.
the sessions: i attended the organic track. in many cases, session q & a’s led to the most interesting discussions. day 1 reflected the strongest programming - you&a with matt cutts (featuring a danny sullivan strip tease - no lie), seo meet smm, and personalized search: fear or not? were all pretty fruitful. on day 2, the session-of-which-i-swore-not-to-speak produced some, er… stuff, but i dare not speak of it.
was it “advanced?”: attendees expressed some mixed feelings about this. the speakers for this debut conference faced a significant challenge in creating high level presentations. who or what is advanced, and what meaning does that word carry as we discuss an industry of professionals with widely varied practical experience and fractured specialties? the lack of definition creates a fundamental problem. you may be a pro at exploiting social media, that doesn’t preclude your status a technical guru. you may be a cloaking superstar, but that may not make you a usability specialist. when danny sullivan mentions Universal Search, then pauses and asks the question, “does everyone in the room know about Universal Search?” some hands raise up.
overall, the speakers were up to the task. some material erred on the side of caution, but each session at search marketing expo produced something worth the time.
for tonight, that’s the quick summary. more to come tomorrow from minneapolis.
i’m headed to seattle this weekend to attend what promises to be one of the best conferences in recent years. danny sullivan’s first smx agenda raises the bar: duplicate content issues, social media marketing, better ways to do boring stuff, and an early morning group interrogation of matt cutts. let’s hope he’s still in that sleepy, lucid-dream state: able to tell us everything he knows, but too groggy to realize he shouldn’t.
among these session topics, one stands out: personalized search: fear or not? i can’t wait to hear some perspectives on this one, especially since i’ve been going around the country for the last few weeks (both physically and webinar-ly. ever been in the hartford, ct airport? not pretty) in attempts to smite the fear out of some concerned parties. isn’t it a good thing that search engines serve relevant content to individual users based on their behaviors, patterns and preferrences? don’t advanced targeting tactics mean the users who see my clients’ sites in the search results will be even better-qualified?
the real problem? while things like personalization, geo-targeting, and google’s universal search get us all ’cited, they throw a big wrench our clients’ pre-conceived concept of search engine success: you get a medal and a gold star and the number 1 (or 3…or 8 ) pinned to your vest. in a climate where rank is relative and fluid, it can be quite a challenge to convince clients that their sites aren’t ‘broken’ if they don’t appear in the serp slot on every computer.
rank re-education camp, anyone? it’s summer - all we need is a lake, some tents, and canoes. and a bunch of laptops. and a very powerful wifi signal.