Rosetta and SEMPO President

Getting Stuff Done – How to Increase Implementation Rates and Grow ROI in 2011

Implementation = Success

+ Greater rate of implementation yields greater successes (as defined by stated goals).

+ Measurement methods must be trusted and backed up, strategy requires full understanding of goals, delay of implementation yields diminishing returns, not refreshing strategy can be costly.

+ Need to be nimble!

+ Performance is best measured over time for large scale strategy and more rapidly for granular changes.

Establishing Connections

+ Networking never ends, especially in complex organizations.

+ Small business has an advantage over large orgs due to centrality of leadership and consistent oversight of most tasks

+ Knowing someones and sharing the same goals with them increases implementation rates

+ Truly integrated marketing requires consistency across all channels

+ The state of many current organizations – although things are getting better, many orgs still have fragmented communities and lack harmony between marketing campaigns

Training for Executives and Teams

+ Training is NOT one size fits all

+ Business owners shouldn’t be involved in the granular tactics but they should understand the importance of these activities

+ Establish the key elements required to run on all cylinders

+ Empower influencers to become decision makers for the granular tactics and learn the most important ways to measure success

+ Influence reporting dashboards

+ Establish ongoing training opportunities for all levels – executive track (goals and KPIs), content track (ad copy, press releases, keyword research, managing social media accounts), promotion track (leveraging PR, display retargeting, leveraging social media for PR, monitoring tools & strategies).

Utilizing Customer Intelligence

+ Leverage all target market research used to develop offline marketing and website

+ Use the demographics, psychological profiles and segementation/personas in developing and testing search

+ Use PPC to test for organic and display and mix/match A/B with multivariate efforts

+ Leverage internal search and bounce rate by page/keyword entrance

+ Use surveys and monitor reviews/social sentiment

+ Finding the “hidden keyword” is key throughout the funnel – for example people needing “personal loans” may more likely be searching on “home improvement loans” vs. a generic query such as “personal loans”

Leveraging the Environment

+ Know your SERP!

+ Most keywords will yield different styles of universal search results, which vary greatly when environmental changes occur

+ Understanding both the SERP and the autocomplete (formerly “Google Suggest”) for primary brand and non branded keywords

+ Protect your turf using Local, PPC, News and DAO

+ The other environment: Performance Management (tie implementation to responsible sources, all the way up the ladder)

+ Digital asset optimization – a must for most industries and paid search opportunities exist as well.

Acting on Analytics

+ Use your data, don’t let it use you

+ Don’t be driven by rash judgments based on incomplete data BUT don’t be afraid to test with smaller samples

+ Never expect analytics systems to match up closely

+ Don’t over trust competitive intelligence tools, but don’t ignore the RELATIVE differences they report

+ Test and test again, using all your marketing vehicles

Wrap Up

+ The book of laws is always unique to each business

+ Acceptable level of implementation only occurs when team work together towards a common goal and within a reasonable time frame

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Today’s major search networks are constantly introducing new relevancy requirements and technical features, which means that you have to stay ahead of the curve. This advanced session features insight into the latest PPC strategies for Google Adwords, Microsoft AdCenter, and others.

Joanna Lord: Google… You So Silly
+ Disclaimer – skipping the basics
+ Things have changed, so many new features and tests rolling out and being added to AdWords platform
+ What is Google investing time into? Ad formats, display network, remarketing/audiences, opportunities tab, automated bidding

Ad Formats
+ Now have longer headlines – make into format of a sentence to expand. This drops the barrier between paid and organic as these appear more like organic listings.
+ Enhancements to sitelinks – taking best performing sitelinks and showing more often
+ Display URL changes – to all lower case
+ Product ads (listing and product extensions). Google is testing ways to increase CTR for us by giving us more options to utilize.

Display Network
+ Simplifying (bye bye default bids)
+ New contextual targeting tool (amazing) – first time Google actually saying it’s thematic. Beneficial for SEO as well.
+ Display campaign optimizer (limited) – relatively hands off
+ Updated display ad builder
+ Updated display resources

Remarketing
+ Target people that have visited your site and show them related ads other sites on Google Display Network (GDN)
+ Strengthen brand recognition, increase conversions by keeping your brand/services in mind

Opportunities Tab
+ First page CPC notifications
+ Advertiser goals (increase spend? decrease costs?)
+ Ideas and increased export options – most of your competitors aren’t using this yet and take advantage
+ Analyze competition – be aware of categorization
+ Purpose? Stop management paralysis, keep expanding without help of 3rd party tools, data dumps for research purposes

Automated Bidding
+ Change budgets, increase/decrease bids, create rules for ad groups, ads, etc automatically
+ When to use: transitioning managers, during holidays, for promos, optimize for performance, when you get sick of starting at PPC, when your client doesn’t have time

Bonus Round
+ Local PPC – local extensions, local extensions with multiple locations, promoted places/Google Boost. WATCH FOR: Google Voucher/Offers (Groupon anyone? Users can download coupons)
+ Mobile – mobile ads forever ago, set ads to just serve to mobile, manage AdWords campaigns on your mobile, preview what your ads look like on mobile, click to call phone extensions (location and phone), keyword tool enhancements just for mobile.

General Things We Are Seeing and What it Means:
+ Customization, campaign set up tools (set your campaigns up right from the start), Improved targeting, more customer support (auditing, consultation, etc)

When we say advertising on AdWords in 2011 we mean:
Contextual targeting, beyond the initial search intention, lower barrier to entry, automated management, more pressure on us (attribute everything). This will change format options, pricing models and our metrics. Social search advertising? Expect it. AdWords right now has about 70% share on spend, it will go down as Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads and others gain more traction.

Questions for Joanna:
+ Attributing conversions through remarketing? SEOmoz uses Retargeter and they do a great job at that. In terms of remarketing messages be sure to hit them with different types of messaging.
+ Thoughts on modified broad match? Seen great success with companies that weren’t taking of exact and phrase in the past. For those that were, helpful for refinement.
+ Have you noticed any trends in mobile search? Numbers in ad text seem to catch eyes, not adjectives. Higher engagement and CTR but less conversions at this point.

Dan Sundgren – Are You Missing the Golden Ticket?
+ NOTE: Mary O’Brien was supposed to be speaking however she got snowed in and could not make it. Dan is presenting Mary’s material. This presentation is focused on adCenter opportunities.

Why You Should be Using Bing
+ 2nd largest share of search market
+ Growing market share, great value and returns are phenomenal (take advantage in early stages)
+ CPAs are lower with the alliance, however volume is lower (many seeing a 20-30% decline due to heavy filter on algorithms for quality vs. quantity)
+ Why is CPA better? Less competition. Geotargeting. Demographic targeting.

How to get results
Upload Google campaigns, stay out of content and some of the noisier places in the beginning, test networks in separate campaigns.

Demographic Targeting
+ Bid more for age groups or day part / geo target

Network Bidding
+ Monitor bids by network, set up campaigns correctly, utilize negative keywords

Match Types
+ Match types are slightly different in Google vs. Bing and constantly retooling. Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI)

Tools You Can Use: adCenter Desktop (like AdWords Editor), Microsoft Advertising Intelligence Excel plugin, Ad preview tool, import campaigns from AdWords, shopping feed

Key Findings: Bing is gaining ground, most advertisers are seeing higher conversion rates and lower CPCs but volume isn’t there yet. ROAS better for Bing, CPC higher on Google, Reporting better on Google, Editorial tools and UI better on Google.

Tactical Tips
+ Match types on adCenter – if you pause phrase match you are also pausing broad and exact.
+ Budgets in adCenter – two settings: divide across the month or spend until depleted – recommended spend until depleted if performing well.
+ Do Google GAP analysis to see where you are missing opportunities in adCenter
+ Separate campaigns
+ Device targeting – look at these and decide what battle you want to pick
+ Track conversions with simple code snippet
+ Site exclusions – can exclude only about 500 domains but it’s a good start.
+ Get API access if you can – not yet available to public, no fee
+ SearchAlliance.com – info on merger

Questions for Dan:
+ What kind of volume drop have you seen? From maybe 100 clicks to 70 clicks for same keyword after merger.
+ Are they planning to make the desktop tool on a mac? Who knows. Assuming at some point. Consider a 3rd party management tool like Clickable.
+ Best practice to delete keywords with many impressions and no clicks – consider these as “dead weight” and can certainly impact quality score

The post Advanced PPC appeared first on SEMpdx.

Allison Hartsoe from Semphonic

Measurement Framework
+ Passing data into web analytics tool requires configuration, doesn’t always give data you need by default.
+ In order to create measurement framework, need the full picture
+ For retail sites usually not a problem because most carts are relatively optimized and metrics are straightforward
+ Use proxies for success for softer conversions such as time on page – relevant for media, government, etc
+ Total value of pages viewed a good proxy for success OR a measure of engagement such as time on site
+ Measure to lifetime value – not just looking at visits, need to understand what visitors are doing over time
+ Tracking to lifetime value can be very difficult – can take a very LARGE set of data or look at sales cycle to look for key metrics that signal conversion behavior. This is essentially creating a segment.
+ Once segmented, understand and test to see how early users will eventually convert
+ Branded Search –> directed product research; Non branded search –> Early stage research

Coding for Measurement
+ To effectively use the analytics tool you need to ensure key variables are getting passed from your search program. This may take the form of a campaign code (such as utm parameters for Google Analytics). Can deconstruct traffic source, campaign name, keyword, etc.
+ In Omniture you can upload a decoder to translate query parameters
+ Omniture: pull the s campaign variable by the GetQueryParam plugin. Set tracking code id in admin.
+ AdWords Inside Google Analytics – ensure accounts are linked; recommends Tatvic GA Excel plug in that allows you to automate advanced query requests and populate charts.
+ Integrated report data – aggregating data from various sources and calculating metrics for a more comprehensive view of campaign performance and tracking lifetime value.
+ Key SEM capabilities – for broad match consider tracking actual in addition to the keyword that converted, for ad networks track content match source, for long tail – collapse search terms and group them (branded vs. non branded for example).
+ Site behavioral reports – ability to path over time at the event level (x visitors entered on PPC search and Y entered on visitor searched); Over time report (behavior of PPC visitors during a particular time period in a subsequent time period)
+ Types of Analysis – SEM traffic, Organic vs Paid, Traffic by Engine, Traffic Trends
+ Traffic by Search Engine example – understanding organic effect on PPC. When you look at source by engine it shows that certain engines are underrepresented. What is the identification of the SEO problem by engine? Do we need to better optimize better for Bing?
+ Analyze by Channel – organic cannibalization example: shut down PPC altogether (dark period) to assess organic traffic and PPC traffic cannibalization. Are you overspending on certain PPC terms?
+ Analyzing Quality – engagement example: different qualification rates for the visit (submitted lead form vs. download whitepaper). Reviewing drop off rate to optimize performance of campaign.

Things to Remember:
+ Make sure you are optimizing to the RIGHT metrics
+ Carry through as much info as possible through proper configuration
+ Range of analytics prospects to ensure success

Questions:
+ Campaign stacking and how to easily set up – set up as custom evar to allow to track event; insert easy separator to stack and be able to separate out. Be careful how long campaign names are, usually limit is 5 or less.
+ How long would you turn off PPC for “dark period”? Minimum of 2 weeks however possible to do less for clients that have a TON of traffic. Need enough volume for a reasonable measure.
+ When do you see Google Analytics not being adequate and you have to use Omniture for example? GA is an amazing tool however it falls apart in terms of sampling. Omniture and Webtrends have a limit in tables of about 500k. For Google, their sample is about 50k per table however it is boosted when running AdWords. The other area is the fact that you can’t aggregate data the way that you can with Omniture. Although they have custom variables, it’s usually not sufficient considering the amount of custom information often needed to integration. In short – data sampling and robust conversion tracking.

Conrad Saam from Avvo

+ Coming from in house perspective vs. agency
+ Ranking Report Rant: personalization, local, query variations (ranking reports for one targeted keywords can result in missed opportunity for great keywords that are ranking and driving traffic), the long tail (ranking reports don’t capture)
+ Think about your ranking reporting structure: 1. ubercompetitive keywords and online reputation management – track rankings, 2. Head terms – measure traffic, 3. long tail – think about traffic, # keywords, # of entry pages and # of indexed pages

KPI Questions
+ How much SEO traffic do i have? MUST separate branded from non branded traffic. Direct traffic and branded usually perform quite similarly.
+ Is my site what I think it is about? Not necessarily – check Google Webmaster Tools for most common keywords, is there a disconnect from what you expected?
+ Is my site authoritative? There are tons of metrics to help determine and track (SEOmoz is great but so many numbers – consider choosing just a couple and stay consistent); look at log files and track number of pages crawled.
+ How does my site’s authority stack up to competitors? Your site’s data alone with no comparison doesn’t mean much. Look at the total number of links and number of domains linking (diversity).
+ A data warning: many link counting tools report inconsistently which ends up comparing apples to organges data. Graph % of links and % of domains over time which is great but sometimes data is skewed, however no good solution so far.
+ Am I a good link builder? Calculate % of links that go to home page. If you have really valuable content more links should be deeper within the site.
+ Was that a valuable link? Look at the traffic it generates. Basic but true.
+ Have I lost some links? In GWT, are links going to 404 pages? Check these and fix!
+ How spammy is my link profile? Look at the difference between your mozRank and mozTrust – if big discrepancy then maybe a problem.
+ Should I give up on this keyword?
+ Do I Nail the Long Tail? Track the NUMBER of keywords and landing pages driving traffic. Also track how many pages are being indexed. Search engines may be crawling but not necessarily indexed – this represents the possibility of wasted crawl budget.
+ Does my site look fat in these jeans? Site performance in GWT as one of ranking factors, also YSlow is an amazing tool for this.
Will prospective partners take my call? Using PageRank to determine authority of your site doesn’t mean much however everyone takes a cursory look at this metric so it does matter on some level.

Audience Questions:
+ Are there any commonly overlooked methods to increase your site’s authority? Think about your PR agency as your best link building friend. Finding ways to marry PR with link building can be surprisingly effective.
+ Why do you have to separate branded data when many product sales are based on that? Because behavior is extremely different (friends vs. strangers) and they will not convert the same.
+ How did KPIs change over time? Yahoo Site Explorer was garbage – too much data fluctuation. For a long time obsessed with ranking reports until realized correlation between ranking reports had nothing to do with traffic and engagement.
+ Pages crawled vs. pages indexed, how did you get pages indexed? Work on authority and link building, realized that certain template pages weren’t providing that much value – worked to increase content and value of those pages to get them indexed.

The post Advanced Analytics appeared first on SEMpdx.

Speakers:

Rand Fishkin – SEOmoz

Richard Zwicky – Enquisite

Moderator:

Scott Hendison

Liveblogger:

Live blogging by Rachel Andersen of Anvil Media, a Portland SEM Agency.

Session Details

10 Problems SEOs Face – and the Tools to Solve Them (Rand)

Find all tools mentioned here: https://www.seomoz.org/dp/10-seo-tools

• Indexation Data: ignore site command – the “about” number is useless. Webmaster Tools is better. Best data is Google Analytics – look at the # of landing pages getting organic visits.
• Identifying Crawl Errors: GWT is excellent for 404 and 500 errors. Top Pages is good for 302s and robots blocking. Xenu Link Sleuth (desktop download)
• Valuing Sites and Pages for SEO: how well would content rank on this domain vs. that domain. If I were able to get a link on this domain vs. that domain. Ignore Google Toolbar PageRank – this not worth your time. Instead, track relevant traffic! Domain and page authority tool.
• Real Time Tracking of Social Activity: track progress and success with PostRank. How many people tagged on delicious, tweeted, etc. One caveat is that you need a feed but ties into Google Analytics. Cool! Backtweets is also great for tracking tweets regardless of URL tracking service used. Bit.ly is good but obviously only tracks URLs shortened by Bit.ly… BUT if you put the plus (+) sign at the end of the shortened URL you can see user and competitive data. Trendistic – tracks tweets by topic, enter any keyword and see activity.
• Competitive SERP Analysis: best thing you can do at this point is custom build your competitive analysis. Root domains linking to page vs # of keyword match anchor links. SEOBook toolbar is also decent. mozBar SERPs Overlay.
• Efficient On Page SEO Analysis: DaveN Keyword Analysis (Density) Tool – a plug in that provides a deep analysis. Also mozBar Overlay is pretty bomb for a quick and easy page analysis.
• Identifying Search Engine Penalties: Check Historical Google PageRank, compare PageRank vs. mozRank – if there is a major difference there could be some sort of penalty, may want to dig deeper here. Unique keyword phrase rankings.
• Competitive Link Acquisition Tools: HubFinder on SEOBook, LinkIntersect, Link Acquisition Assistant
• Optimizing Keyword Clusters: using synonyms to create a “cluster” to create a stronger page theme. Google Wonder Wheel, Google Related Searches, MSN AdCenter Entity Association Graph (can only do one term at a time).
• Comparing Website Traffic: Quantcast is best for Quantified Sites, Compete.com slightly more accurate but not as accurate as Google Trends for Websites. Google Reader Feed Subscribers – shows actual number of feed subscribers!

Stuff You Possibly Might Not Already Know about Tools and Stuff (Richard)

• Cool Tools with API’s – Alexa (numbers cant be trusted, but look at relative data), Compete, scoring tools like mozRank, Forecasting tools such as Epiar, MajesticSEO is good for links. A balanced approach offers true value.
• At the end of the day it’s all about accountability.
• Every day customers tell you exactly what they are looking for and what they are interested in but we’re ignoring the (analytics) data. Improve your business through proper segmentation.
• Data can be really valuable, getting consensus on numbers can be hard
• Back in late 90’s early 2000s – lack of meaningful data to provide accurate and consistent data.
• Predictive analysis allows you to capture high value customers
• Where Tools Fit – invest, execute, monitor, report and then re-invest. This process requires a set of tools to be strategically.
• How to use tools to build applications – Akamai, Aster Data (database management software) and Enquisite. Take different tools and use them in conjunction with each other.
• Enquisite Suite – API driven apps from tools
• Enquisite Optimizer – social, search and links. Uses Yahoo API for maps. Akamai for 2 levels of geo-verification – need to understand online and offline activities which Akamai does this with fantastic granularity. Adobe has layers built to transfer data to connect various APIs to create meaningful data.
• Enquisite Campaign – predictive analysis. Because analytics tells you what happened yesterday and not what is going to happen tomorrow. Predictions, Insights and ROI.
• How APIs Flush out a Product – Linker. Very cool opt in network for link building. Submit information to be connected with relevant sites that could be a link opportunity.

The post Advanced SEO Tools, SearchFest 2010 appeared first on SEMpdx.

Stefan Weitz discusses the shift in the behaviors of searchers and how marketers will need to adjust their strategies. Gone are the days of searchers doing a simple keyword search, where a URL is pulled up in the results. The new interaction with search is more task centric where users are coming to search to get something done in the real world rather than just find information in cyberspace.

Bing

• 84 million users, 60% increase since launch
• 5 in 10 know Bing as a search engine
• 8 months of consecutive growth
• When thinking about Bing – is search “solved”? Have we hit the pinnacle? Answer is no. Only about 1 in 4 queries actually result in a satisfactory algorithmic result. People are scanning results and hitting the back button. Back button most commonly used feature of search.
• 40% of all queries we see end up with some level of refinement. This means people are engaging in a conversation – trick the engine to give more relevant results through query refinement. People are performing lengthy tasks online.
• Half the time people spend in search is generally over a half hour. People are using search to get things done.
• Decided to call Bing a decision maker because people are using search differently. Goals of Bing: 1. Nail the basics – still working on it but getting close. 2. Focus on the organization of results. 3. How to actually build a product that responds to the INTENT of the user.

Where is Search Going?

• Web in 1996 a collection of static links and mainly text based information. 4 big areas: web is moving away towards text and towards “a web of objects”. How humans are interacting in a way that is more natural. Semantic modeling. Emerging modes of technology and access.

Web of Objects

• Real time information generating a massive amount of data being pushed into the search results. These are unique bits of data that traditional PageRank models won’t know what to do with. Multimedia, video, flickr, etc pushing info out with interesting characteristics that contribute overall to the web experience. Devices: how you are accessing data with a very structured set of attributes. In general, text based data migrating to be more varied to give people information that they need and want.

• Shows examples of the progression of search results over past 8 years. The point is that the landscape has changed so much but in search we’re still fairly locked into the text based model of search results. Why? We are so accustomed to interacting with search in the same manner, we’ve become to expect that engines can only help with a certain sub set of tasks. We need to change this expectation/reality. What does this look like? “To deliver knowledge by computationally understanding user intent” – this is Bing’s mission statement. How to do this? Linda wants a home gym – what does she want to do with this home gym? Knowledge is about assembling a web of objects plus refinement and context …
• Example: search for “chicken recipes”. Rather than just giving a bunch of links, structure search results in a unique manner. How do we “pivot” the user experience to help accomplish a given task?

Spacial Search

• Hicks Particle example. There is a chance to blow up earth. The last thing on earth Claire does is Tweet. The problem with this is that the Tweet lacks context. Think about information and reassociate information with actual context so that Rachael Ray finds out and can get in her Ray-Copter and escape in time. .
• Translate from virtual world to physical world. How to take data and revisualize it and put it into the real world. Create layers of information by reassociating objects into a digital campus. Example he shows is geo specific Tweets – point is to take Tweets and bring them into the physical location. Another example is to reassociate Flickr photos with the physical world (maps). Very powerful when you think about events, time of day, etc.

Semantics

• Probably the most overused concept in history of computing. But this is the year. Semantics is simply understanding how words and objects relate to each other. Helps in parsing queries and understanding the web. Take natural language, and go across the web corpus to pull information that makes sense for that given queries. Subscribe a meaning to a query.
• Halo Project. The cognitive agent that learns and organizes. Allows an agent to respond to queries in a natural language.
• Example: uses Siri – your virtual personal assistant for getting things done. Like make reservations, get a taxi, etc. An example of semantics.

Emerging

• Mobile and augmented reality – allows us to take web of objects, notion of spacial search and actually get things done. Now taking all this rich information and bringing together to complete specific tasks. Taking real time video and overlaying it onto a street side image within maps. Create an indoor environment using images and video to understand the world as a real place rather than simply a collection of bits.

So What Does This Mean?

Text web is like acid wash jeans. Sure they work but not really good enough. The opportunity we have to think differently about the web allows us as marketers and search geeks to change the way we think about optimization. Because there are more services and engines are smarter about how they are displayed. Prepare yourself, your clients, your business, your thinking. Search is a broker to a collection of objects that can represent tasks that people are doing in the real world.

The post SearchFest Keynote: Stefan Weitz of Bing appeared first on SEMpdx.

Moderator: ISITE Design’s Steve Kemper

Microsoft.com: Taming the MSCOM Beast
Derrick Wheeler
Senior SEO Architect

+ Microsoft’s SEO definition – the process of influencing the structure of content and authority of a site to increase the number of quality visits (Structure > Content > Authority). But always make sure you have compelling offers.
+ The Beast – 100’s of websites each having own goals and managed individually. Completely decentralized with over 1.2B URLs. Actually they have infinite muahhaa…
+ Who’s hands do you want your success to be in? Yours or the search engines? Um, I’m assuming the former.
+ MSCOM SEO Framework – create a process to attack all sites.

Sitewide SEO initiatives which included many “audits” to find biggest issues for biggest bang for the buck…
1. narrowed down to duplicate content
2. excessive use of redirect
3. improper error handling

Site Specific SEO Program
Page level guidance
+ Common page level scenario – keyword usage, free tagcrowd.com to visualize most important keywords for optimization strategy.
+ Biggest challenge from agency to in house – now actually accountable to getting things implemented. If you are going to budget for SEO, be sure to include budgets for implementation.

Investments to help ID top 5 issues. Easily helps to clean up millions of non valuable pages.

Beyond Theory
Marshall Simmonds
NYTimes.com
Chief Search Strategist

+ Goal is to lessen the load that marketing budget may have.
+ Build foundation for lesser competitive keywords – looking for long term benefits to eventually lessen PPC costs down the road.
+ Where does SEO department fit? At About.com and The Times – dedicated department.
+ Evangelize the service and best practices.
+ Rocky movie: underdog, trained relentlessly, he LOST. Much to be learned from this.
+ NYT challenges: 11 million docs, email registration wall, paid subscription wall, jounalists/editors to train, marketing hates IT and IT hates marketing, company ego, resistance to change, interdepartmentlal issues.
+ Crawl barriers, content moves/expires, limited CMS, massive duplicate content, lots of URL parameters.
+ About balancing editorial integrity – never say the word “change”. Enhance. Maximum SEO with all other integrity points.
+ Basic Training – keyword research, basics of on page SEO, title tags and headers
+ HTML and XML Sitemaps
+ Annotated links = Awesome.
+ Ability to divorce headline from the title. Gives more freedom to writers.
+ Measure as much as possible. SEO progress, ID potential problems, targeting new opportunities, etc.
+ Developed proprietary network diagnostic tool to go back to the team to help real time issues. (SearchClu)
+ Mistakes to avoid: undercommunicate success, don’t wall off content, not checking in with IT, lack of editorial insight, excessive expectations and timeframes.

SEO Tactics for the Job
Jeff Quipp
Search Engine People

+ Agency perspective
+ What is SEO? process of getting desired results from organic search using whatever tactics you feel comfortable using.
+ 5 main levers to affect desired results: the defined objective, site structure, amount/quality of content, power of site (authority), anchor text utilized.
+ What does Google say? Increase number of quality links.
+ Implications of interest: site structure can be an impediment, link power potential infinite?, quality content buils links but takes time and resources, the less competitive the industry is online the less need for content and vice versa. A serious committment to achieve desired results.

Tip #1: Make sure site and pages are well optimized and not an impediment.Utlize key areas of placement.
Tip #2: To improve overall site ranking/performance – build quality content routinely, build a reward system for quality content ideas and production from in house staff or agency, promote content online.
Tip #3: Ranking for specific uncompetitive keywords – submit to quality directories, syndicate articles, get links from suppliers and clients, ensure targeted keywords are in anchor text.
Tip #4: Getting business from more competitive keywords – guest blog on other (relevant) sites and link back to your site, hold a topic specific contest, build content to answer questions about the topic, SEM PR to promote new content, optimized anchor text, widgets, publish unique research, do something remarkable…sausage marketer? create the biggest sausage ever…

Conclusion: Wikipedia and NYT are powerful because of quality content; links are crucial; the more competitive the goal the more quality content is needed.

SEo Tips and Real Life Examples
Laura Lappay
Yahoo
Director of Technical Marketing

+ What does the in house SEO look like? Most of audience here reports into marketing over development or product.
+ Report into marketing – challenges are that there is no engineering accountability. Must make friends within the department, build relationships and execute training.
+ Report into engineering – typically works well especially in terms of the CMS.
+ Reporting into product – accountability is good but search marketing disconnects are more obvious.
+ Split into marketing and engineering – strategic.
+ When Laura first started they reported into business intelligence for SEO reporting. Then search moved under marketing which was advantageous because much closer to paid search. Now split SEO into strategy and technical subgroups.
+ Risks and the Hard Times. In house risks – retaining talent (slower pace, tough to influence), no accountability (many teams responsible), not producing results (set expecations and make small wins first), not broadcasting results.

Q&A Session
1. Category Killer Comment – ideas and strategies?
2. Multiple title tag strategy for NYT – much for internal search, no thoughts on whether or not symantic web has anything to do with that. Hasn’t really hit their radar yet.
3. SEO gaming the system? NO. Engines want you to organize content in a way that they can access it.
4. Keyword research process? At site level for Microsoft because of range. Jeff uses paid search for data.
5. Web 3.0 and symantic search – what’s in the future? Day to day outlook… let’s master the basics. Yahoo is taking on social media…being able to measure brand in other places and connect to traffic.
6. How do you measure a page against another that has identical content? Just focus on main body of the page, can typically ignore navigation and boiler plate info. Big variance between 90 and 95% similarity.

Rachel Andersen is an Account Executive at Anvil Media, Inc.

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