I’m curious to know who is going where…
Category: Search Engine Optimization
SEO, Search Engine Optimization
SES San 2007 Jose Day 1 – Universal & Blended Vertical Search
Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Co-Chair, SES San Jose
Search Engine Marketing Speakers:
Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder, SEO-PR
Sherwood Stranieri, Search Marketing Director, Catalyst online
Bill Slawski, seobythesea.com
Erik Collier, Director of Product Management, Ask.com
David Bailey, Engineer, Google
Tim Mayer, Vice President of Product Management, Yahoo! Search
Quite likely the busiest session of the day to the fullest house. One can’t help but notice that if Greg Jarboe had gone to Google and designed Universal Search himself he likely couldn’t have designed it to play into his strength areas in news and pr related issues. The implications and transformation for universal search are still evolving, but they are clearly changing the landscape. One other thing that became clear from this event was that Ask is becoming a serious contender in this marketplace.
Greg Jarboe –
Universal search is the biggest event since “Florida” update. 70% of what I used to know is now obsolete. The patterns are not yet clear in personalization.
News results ranked #4 if you searched for the term iPhone on June 29
In the #8 position, was a Youtube video. We don’t know if it was done on purpose.
July 17, Rupert Murdoch – news with image – brings up a whole new reputation management – be prepared to optimize images.
Early chapters of Henry Potter were leaked, the blog results are on page one of results
Investor relations now is moving to the front page of Countrywide. Few companies have complete control of their brands now on Google.
Unflattering images of Hillary Clinton and that vast right wing conspiracy is building links to unflattering results.
Blogs on Hurricane Dean already on front page. Images will likely come next.
All of the rules have been rewritten – how do I research this? Focus on the upper left links. News seems to be on the top left all the time. Search remains #1 way journalist find information about a company.
Newsknife and Google News Report – be checking this. Your PR people aren’t ready for that yet. If you are not giving a jpg file in a release, start now.
Google News right now doesn’t do video news. Likely to create that.
Social mapping tools can help identify most influential bloggers. In certain categories they show up.
A couple of years ago there was vertical creep session here at SES – I now rank for that term. Not a good thing.
You can’t afford to ignore Universal Search Today
Google is making specialized or vertical content more visible through Universal Search
Sherwwod Stranieri, Catalyst Online
This throws a lot of curves into the theme. Ask 3D and Google cut new paths.
Conventional web pages that once rank well are going to move around maybe down. Other things will move updates.
Number of videos is significant in the Youtube world. Are the search engines using comments as an indicator?
We are looking at it as search marketers. Showed client example.
How to look at it: Google PR, Y! Page links, keyword phrases in tags.
Videos ranking correspond well with views, comments, etc.
Bill Slawski
Why does news, images and video show up there.
I’m not sure I see this all as a revolutionary concept. How do we get out content into our results.
Showed examples of screen prints from each engine for the word spider.
Showed the Google patent, oddly looks quite different than Google’s universal search does now.
Google acquired several Infoseek patents.
Discussed Onebox and log file data.
Ranking in Vertical databases – how do you rank for that vertical?
User behavior – key value pairs, be certain definition and being defined. Questions and Answers work the same way. Html formatting may play a role.
Enhancing the user experiences.
David Bailey – Google
Technical lead for the vertical search.
What are our goals?
Make google.com the search box of first resort.
Display special features for special results
Keep it fast. Keep it simple. Above all, keep it relevant.
Showed example: origami crane
This will continually improve and extend to more result types.
It’s still about the web.
But: think about creating quality content in other forms. Expect similar SEO guidelines to apply.
Create quality content, describe it well and we’ll see what happens.
Tim Mayer, VP Product Management
We are transitioning to a better optimized user experience
Freshness and user intent became relevancy issues.
News, local and other verticals – the possibilities are infinite. Federation plays a role.
Some implantation examples:
Music Artist Shortcut
Movie Shortcut
Hotel Shortcut Inline
Consumer Electronics Shortcut
As we go forward, it’s going t be more about the intent of the searchers.
Eric Collier, Director of Product Management
“We are the scrappy innovator of search.”
Ask.com 3D: SERP Design
We moved the content up top and removed the top links.
Large jumps in user satisfaction seen in both the site analytics and surveys
Increase in vertical channel usage
Starting to see a reduction of multiple query sessions around the same keyword term.
Expect to see a larger percentage of SERPs with blended results
User location will play a larger roles in SERPs
Expect to see fewer web results in SERPs
Blogs, Images and Video results will take online reputation into account when ranking
Pay attention to other search drivers
Other coverage of this important session:
Bonus coverage:
Lee Odden interviews Tim Mayer
Search Engine Strategies San Jose – Silicon Valley August 19-23
I look forward to seeing all of my wonderful search engine, mobile search and mobile advertising friends next week at Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose! While I’ll definitely be in Mountain View for the Google Dance (hopefully they won’t run out of XL t-shirts in 2 minutes like last year), I’m unsure whether I’ll make it to Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Oakland, Monterrey or Santa Cruz to visit and see some other awesome things. I do hope to make it to Barcamp Block.
Who else will be there and what spontaneous events, product launches and parties are you looking most forward to? I’m getting very close to some of my goals! I look forward to seeing you.
adtech Chicago: Redefining Search to Realize Its Full Potential
August 1, 2007
MODERATOR:
Jeffrey Pruitt, President, SEMPO, and Executive VP, Search, iCrossing
PANELISTS:
Kelly Graziadei, Senior Director, Agency Development, Yahoo! Search Marketing
James Colborn, Group Marketing Manager, adCenter Communications Group, Microsoft
Kevin Willer, Central Region Development Manager, Google
James Colbourn, Microsoft
Kelly Graziadei, Yahoo!
Think about the many different faces of search.
– The Researcher – look at Yahoo! Buzz to create an audience pyramid. Look at other content. Miller Beer Run. Showed a campaign with getting the beer – Yahoo! created the game and got excellent results
– The Reputation Manager – geo-targeting, ad testing, etc. Jet Blue built a campaign to respond to negative news.
– The Brand Manager – 79% introduced to new brands in search and 61% expect brand leaders to be consistently in the top of search results.
– The Great Integrator – TV, web, games, mobile all at the same time.
– The Advocate – Searchers are advocates that build brands through social media – significant in the pre and post purchase mode.
Kevin Willer, Google
– Information silos in the past. You almost needed a search engine for the search engines. Now all the silos are in one universal search.
Google Promotion – search for Bourne – showed how the site with Youtube
Search for PR. – You need to be ready to answer those searches
Search the New Performance Link – showed Motorola example and Presidential campaign data for Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney (He said the
We want to start thinking about search in different ways.
James Colbourn, Microsoft
Search Today: A Performance Tool
– To increase brand awareness
– To Sell Products
– To Generate Leads
– To Drive Traffic To Company Website
How do advertisers measure success?
– Traffic
– Conversions
– Impressions
– ROI
Brand, Awareness, Acquisition Tool and Lead Generator
Search as a research tool is a leading indicator for:
– A Business
– An Industry
Beyond Search
– Media Buying
– Budget Allocation
– PR Activity
The potential for search is higher than current usage…
Did Google Update Backlinks Everywhere?
My backlinks increased substancially in the past day or so.
Anybody else see the same changes and are we in the middle of a pagerank update?
Potential Chicago Cab Strike July 31 – How to Get to adtech(ad:tech) via CTA
With today’s possible cab strike in Chicago, I thought it would be a good idea to post CTA bus options to arrive at the west end of Navy Pier. Please note that even with these bus options, it is a10 minute walk to the east end of Navy Pier where the Festival Hall is located. I highly suggest taking the bus instead of walking the entire distance and wish the actually CTA stopped at Navy Pier East Entrance #2. Please check out my current question on Yahoo! Answers regarding Navy Pier.
Here are some tips on how to navigate via CTA to Navy Pier. Cash fare on the CTA is currently $2. This is a pdf map of the areas described below.
From the Sheraton: the #29, #65 and #124 buses stop in front of the Sheraton on Illinois and terminate and 600 East Grand Avenue, this will save you three blocks of walking.
The number#124 bus starts in the West Loop at Union Station, Ogilvie Transportation Center and terminates at 600 East Grand Avenue.
If traveling from Midway Airport, take the Orange line to Roosevelt, walk down the stairs and travel one block west to State Street. Take the#29 State bus northbound to 600 East Grand Avenue.
If traveling from O’hare Airport, take the blue line to Monroe, walk up the stairs, then walk one block east to State Street. Take the#29 State bus northbound to 600 East Grand Avenue.
For those staying at a hotel a bit further north, the #66 bus travels east on Chicago Avenue, then south on Fairbanks to Grand to 600 East Grand Avenue.
For those of you attending ad:tech, I have the following high level networking objectives and look forward to speaking with you (please drop me an email contained on my Bio page):
1) I’m seeking anyone with senior contacts at major search engines
2) Anyone with ideas or connections to publishers, advertisers or investors regarding mobile search and mobile advertising.
Have a great show!
Google KeyWord Sandbox is Now Google Keyword External
I went to use Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool this evening via a Google query. The page in the search results was this: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
Upon clicking the page, it redirected to this page: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Did I miss an announcement on this moving out of beta?