As many advertisers are probably now aware Google have been testing a new set of functionality within the paid search ads whereby products associated with an advertiser can be retrieved via clicking on a plus icon next to the paid search ads – refered to (you will be amazed to know) as the Google Plus Box. Currently this is in beta in the UK, and was in the US until recently however I understand this has now been pulled.

Google plus box on entry

On entry, paid search ads which incorporate Google plus box results, show as normal bar a + icon and link to click for the enhanced results. Users clicking on this link will then be presenting with around three results taken from the advertiser, which have a significant impact on browser experience and obviously the impact of any organic results which may be appearing on the page as a result.

Google plus box result activated. Note the impact of the result

So how do you optimise for these results. As you may know Google Product results are often ‘populated’ by XML feeds from Google Base.

1) Have a high quality Google Base Feed (and obviously remember to submit it). Make sure this is accurate, comprehensive thus ensuring you have current prices, no out of stock items, real images etc)

2) Within your paid search campaign, ensure you have a range of product related terms, not just brand, core generic and long tail terms. Google Plus box results often appear on these types and terms, and above all are likely to be far more successful in terms of conversion.

3) Use analytics such as GA to measure your conversions on product pages. By doing so you can focus your attention on those keywords that really drive you the conversion/visibility.

4) Make sure your campaign receives a lot of search impressions. IF your campaign is not receiving a high volume of impressions, it is unlikely you will get much traction from this.

I would add to conclude, this has already been stopped in the US, and one would suggest that it is only a matter of time before this is stopped in the UK (although knowing Google it is likely this will be back at some point in the future. Thus I would suggest any work on this should be considered, however with Google Product results already incorporated into main blended (product-related) searches and thus this is really an extention of any Base related optimisation.

Maybe I should have expected given the nature of the newspaper, however it is always disappointing to see this type of stuff written (regarding SEO) in public forums with big followings. In the Penland and Sommerlad series on the Mirror blog, Nick Sommerlad discusses a ‘new businesses’ email received a company called Leadbank offering him their ‘ethical’ SEO services, and report to have “achieved over 90000 1st page positions and over 27000 number one positions for our clients across all industries and on all major search engines.”. To be honest (on a personal note) any company that throws those figures in a new business email deserves to be flamed publically (my rationale being you can have all the “desert snowman Vietnam” type terms in the world, but ultimately one ’secured loan’ result is far more impressive).

This leads me onto the second point. The company above got flamed not for the above, but for the fact they didn’t appear in the first page (or even the next four) for the term ’search engine optimisation’. I would add at this point – perhaps controversially that anyone that does choose a company for the reason they are top of SEO or search engine optimisation is taking a chance – use it as a research tool to find potential search partners however don’t base a business decision of it.

I will use the top five of the current Google results for ’search engine optimization’ as an example. This isn’t an outing session, so I certainly won’t be mentioning any names, however there are two organisations tactics in their whose tactics are a likely to come awry at some point due to the questionable nature of particularly their link acquisition. I would also add there are a number of good search (and SEO) agencies that do not come in the first couple of pages of results for terms such as SEO but have delivered a number of quality projects and campaigns.

However if you are looking what should you do , I would suggest a REACH type approach is probably worth taking.

R – Research. Probably the most important thing you can do. If you don’t have a miniscule understanding of what SEO is or what is involved, you are more expose. Further to that research the market, place like SEOVendor (from Andy Beal) and SEOMoz both have areas which which you can look at potential search partners, and publications such as NMA in the UK have both the editorial and the marketplace section which will give you an idea of players in the market.

E – Evaluate. Do a bit of homework on them (don’t just look at whether their first page for SEO, Search Engine Optimisation etc). Ask them for examples of their previous work, and results achieved for their clients. I would suggest the old saying ‘cobblers shoes’ applies to a lot of agencies, hence why I would always suggest you looking at client results rather than previous results. This to me means too much time on your hands ….

A – Ask questions. Don’t ever go into a SEO contract blind. My favourite clients are the ones that ask questions right from the beginning. I personally often find an educated client is more likely to buy into new ideas or changes far easier, as they understand the rationale and timescales. The types of questions you should be asking should be along the lines of

• What sort of results can I expect and can you give me potential timescales. Here I would be looking for two answers. One – any mention of guaranteed results and I would generally run a mile. Two, Significant results in Google in a very short time period (ie We will get you top in four weeks), I would always be wary of.
• What happens if I can’t implement something you recommend. Are you going to carry on sending it through, or not doing anything. Any decent agency should work with you, and any limitations you may have – or at the very least explain the implications
• Ask for references and testimonials. Who better to ask than people they have previously worked with – oh and actually follow these up
• How do you develop links. Do they undertake any paid linkage for seo purposes only (if you are Ok with taken a chance with paid links that is your own prerogative – however it is worth understanding the role and thus the risk)
• Expect them to ask questions. SEO is a two way thing. It shouldn’t be a case of just going away and giving you a list of high trafficked keywords. At the end of the day, you (as the client) understand your product far better than we do, however we know how we can get that product found, so it needs both parties to work in harmony. Make sure you know answers to questions such as Average Order Value, Target Cost Per Lead/Acquisition etc. This will ultimately help you get a solutions that is targeted towards your requirements.
• Ask about KPI’s. A campaign without KPI’s is just flying blind – they should have an objective whether this is ROI or traffic led.
• Tracking. What tools does your agency have in place to measure the effectiveness. Have they got any ways of deduping data so you get a clearer channel breakdown. Is their any form of search path analysis in place?

C – Contracts. Make sure you understand your contract. Many agencies don’t work to defined long term contracts, others do. Thats not to say there is anything with being tied into a longer term contract, but just make sure you have some caveats (built into the contract), should contracted hours not be done, or agreed KPI’s not be hit. It is possibly worth understanding as well as to what happens when you leave, going back to the examples above, should you leave I would suggest the vast majority of your linkage is likely to disappear as well.

H – Have an understanding of whats happening. Don’t let the evaluation process end, when you sign the contract. Make sure you understand what your agency is doing for you via regular reports and reviews (monthly should do). Take an interest in the SEO campaign – theres nothing worse from an agency perspective than merely just being thrown something with little or no client support. Te best campaigns have total client buy-in = and with search becoming more and more intertwined with more traditional marketing (lets use PR which can be used for SEO purposes) buy in and involvement is more important than ever.Flip side to this, make sure your agency is pro-active, and suggesting things which are suitable for you.

Like any sector, there are good search agencies and their are bad search agencies. However if you do your homework, and take an interest in your SEO you will be very surprised at how effective it can be.

SES London is coming, in just a smattering over three weeks time. SES London is always a good mix of Search Engine Marketing professionals from both the UK and the US, including (but not limited to:)

• Jon Myers – Head of Search/Associate Director – MVi  (MediaVest Manchester) – If anything his landing page talks are always worth catching – however I think he is on just the 5 panels this year.
• David Naylor – Bronco/DavidNaylor.co.uk – Always worth listening to if you get the chance – the ‘Brand and Reputation Management’ session in particular will be worth attending
• Rand Fishkin – SEOMoz – The people over at ‘Moz have had a great year, and Rand has been involved in search since year dot. Well worth catching his talk on Day 2
  
• Frank Watson (aka AussieWebmaster) – Again day 2 – and a name I don’t remember seeing last year – saying that he has always been AussieWebmaster to me
• and a range of others including Mike Grehan (does Mike have  a Twitter account), Brett Tabke, Mel Carson, Fellow SearchCowboy Lisa Ditlefsen, Jill Whalen, Judith Lewis, Brian Turner, Dixon Jones and  Andrew Goodman – however it doesn’t look like Girdy (Andrew Girdwood) or any of the BigmouthMedia team will be talking this time round.

So what do you need to remember for this years SES London

1. Business Cards – Whilst I doubt for the vast majority of you that any significant business opportunities will come out of SES (very much more OM bods attend these events), it is still a great place to meet not only the SEO ‘weblebrities’ (such as those mentioned above), but also other peers in the industry. Lunch between the late morning and afternoon sessions is always great to meet new people
2. Pen and Paper – or even better your laptop – These events are getting more and more coverage thanks to the advent of things like Twitter, however they have always been well covered in terms of online coverage. Many of the sessions have a fantastic array of SEO talent, and I would be suprised if you didn’t pick up a think or five from one of the sessions. At the very least you may see a spike in traffic to your blog (should you be covering the event – I seem to remember there is wireless there – however someone may want to confirm that)
3. Agenda – In my opinion, to get the best out of SES (from a learning perspective) , you need to know what you are doing before you go. Most panels are often crowded – and as such getting a good position is essential. Do your research and know which panels you want to go on. There is that much on – and so many people round that it will help you get the maximum out of it.Its also worth knowing the places to go. Last year, Will Graham (the Online Manager at Connectpoint (my previous agency) – now at Lake Star Media) and myself ended up in some dingy hotel near Kings Cross – not something I plan to do again….
4. Money – After a hard day at the conference, there is often the opportunity to join other search marketing peeps for a drink (or five – more if you are lucky/unlucky enough to be with Rob Kerry (Ayima). Mines a Mojito if your offering
5. Your ticket/Yourselves - Just go and enjoy. We only have the two dedicated SEM conferences these days – although Ad-Tech, TFM and the Internet Marketing Show are also worth attending should finance etc allow

Whatever your reason/agenda SES always delivers a good show, and I doubt this year will be any different.

As the second part of the Twitter series here on Holistic, I thought I would suggest some of the people I am, and would recommend following on Twitter, and being a SEO in the UK, obviously all these are UK based.

Dave Naylor (DaveN)

Company: Bronco

WHO?: One of the ‘big dogs’ of UK search marketing, Dave started working in the SEO industry over 10 years ago.

WHY: Hugely popular, highly respected and well worth following

WHERE: http://twitter.com/DaveNaylor

Company: MediaVest/MVi

WHO?: Head of Search at MediaVest. Industry veteran (sorry Jon)

WHY: Widely respected and a regular speaker on both the SMX and SES speaking circuits. Amongst other things – he’s my boss.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/JonDMyers

Company: BigmouthMedia

WHO?: Head of Search at Bigmouthmedia.

WHY: Hardcore Search Marketeer – and ‘face’ of Bigmouthmedia (erm ). Passionate about all things search, and if that bores you, theres always his gaming.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/AndrewGirdwood

Company: Blogstorm/Branded3

WHO?: Director of Search at Branded3.

WHY: Been a magic year for Patrick and the Blogstorm blog.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/patrickaltoft

Company:

WHO?: Marketing Expert @ jimsmarketingblog.com

WHY: Hugely experienced marketeer and VERY well connected (Over 16000 followers on Twitter)

WHERE: http://twitter.com/Jimconnolly

Company: Altogether Digital

WHO?: SEO and Social Media Director at Altogether Digital

WHY: Entertaining blogger, and if that fails theres always the music commentary.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/ciaranj

Company: SEOptimise

WHO?: Director of Search at SEOptimise

WHY: Some great posts coming out of SEOptimise at the moment. Worth following for that alone.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/kevgibbo

Company: Microsoft/MSN

WHO?: Microsoft Adcentre’s Community Manager

WHY: Works for Microsoft apart from anything else (Who would turn down the chance of winning an ‘I’m a PC tshirt). Apart from that his regular commentary is hugely entertaining

WHERE: http://twitter.com/MelCarson

Company: Distilled

WHO?: Founder of Distilled with Duncan Morris

WHY: His involvement with SEOMoz is well known, however the site itself is a wealth of information.

WHERE: http://twitter.com/willcritchlow

Company: Ayima Search Marketing

WHO?: One of the Ayima Gang

WHY: Entertaining Blogger, and hugely entertaining twitter read not just in terms of latest on hangovers….

WHERE: http://twitter.com/evilgreenmonkey

Matt Sawyer – DataDial -Online Marketeer, SEO and Social Media Junkie – http://twitter.com/mattuk

Rob Watts – Latitude – SEO – Stephen Pavlovich – Bonytoad – http://twitter.com/bonytoad

Jane Copland – SEOMoz/Ayima – Only here as she isn’t 100% in the UK yet- http://twitter.com/coplandmj

Judith Lewis – I-Level – Search Director at I-Level – http://twitter.com/JudithLewis

Lisa Ditlefsen – Base One – Head of Search at BaseOne – http://twitter.com/LisaDitlefsen

George Hopkin – Johnston Press – SEO Evangelist – http://twitter.com/GeorgeHopkin

Paul Walsh – Various – http://twitter.com/PaulWalsh

Nikki Pilkington – http://twitter.com/nikkipilkington

Dave Davis – RedFly Marketing – http://twitter.com/daveredfly

Dan Alderson – Amaze PLC – http://twitter.com/pinje

and the final one

Peter Young

Company: MediaVest / Holistic Search

WHO?: SEO Manager at MediaVest.

WHY: Why not?

WHERE: http://twitter.com/peteyoung

Thats just some of my recommendations, Please feel free to add yours…

According to a recent Specific Media study using Comscore data, Display Advertising and Search Marketing are directly correlated. In particular brand and segment related searches jumped by over 100% in a number of areas where consumers were exposed to both display ads and search ads.

The impact of display ads on search – emarketer.com

The report went on to say that search clickers exposed to brand advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those that did not view a display ad. It should be noted that such increases in performance are not merely limited to areas where just display and search are used. The recent Enquiro/Google study suggested that where priority visibility on both paid and organic search were occupied – brand association and purchase intent increased by circa 16%.

Further to this Microsoft’s Young-Bean Song said in a recent article on Clickz that the study results highlighted that search alone was not a standalone solution to customer acquisition

“The issue we have with navigational search is that it completely obliterates the value we’re creating from other digital marketing we’re doing,” Mr. Song told ClickZ. “The idea that search is this magical fountain of customer acquisition—in many cases it’s not.”

There is no doubting that search is reliant on other forms of advertising, one only has to look at other bits of research published over the last couple of years, such as the iProspect Search influencers study, which highlighted that two-thirds (67%) of search engine users are driven to search by an offline channel (37% of them because of TV advertising), and 39% of those offline-influenced search users ultimately make a purchase from the company that prompted their initial search – to see how much more effective search is as part of a multichannel marketing mix.

As budgets become tighter, marketing spends will have to work far harder – however online does have a significant advantage in terms of accountability, key in an environment where ever bit counts. That doesn’t mean however that other channels should be ignored…

Brand Reputation is becoming a big word in marketing circles. Warfare is taken place on the search engine results pages for many brands, and is becoming an important part of the Search Marketing professionals armoury. However what should you have in your brand reputation toolkit.

1) Know where you stand

It is very difficult to understand how and where to react to an issue if you do not know what is being said about you, and there is really no reason why you shouldn’t be able to setup even the simplest of monitoring tools without spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on brand reputation software.

Simply implementing a Google Alert on your brand will give you some sort of idea of who, what and where your brand is being talked about. I would add however there are some fantastic brand reputation monitoring tools out there that do pick up a wide variety of content, across a range of different channels, and if you are considering some of these tools some of the better ones are:

• Magpie Brandwatch
• Radian 6
• Market Sentinel
• Sentiment Metrics
• Asomo
• and even Trackur from Andy Beal.

2) Dominate your brand search.

Thomas Cook - Dominating brand

There are various ways of doing this, however it is imperative you make it as difficult for a potential brand detractor to influence any searcher, by reducing visibility below the fold. The example above shows an organisation that does this very well by utilising a mixture of subdomains and domains to dominate the top 10 of searches for ‘Thomas Cook’.

3) Use your paid search tactically

Often a lot of brand reputation issues will arise in public forums such as blogs and forums. A large proportion of these sites will carry various forms of online advertising such as Google Adsense advertising, or other forms of online advertising as a way of monetising their sites.

Use of sponsored search for brand reputation

Where particular issues may arise on a suitable site, it is possible to tailor adverts to particular sites – such as Google Adwords – site placement. These ads may carry creative developed particularly for a particular issue advising browsers of where they may be able to find more applicable factual data.

4) Use your offline channels online

Modern day search pages allow search marketeers to influence a far greater proportion of the search engine results page than ever before including

• Video
• PR
• Product Feeds
• Local Listings
• and Images

Blended search allows greater brand infiltration than ever before

Using the example above, for the iPhone, advertisers are able to use a variety of channels to attract potential custom, including

• the traditional organic listings – where Apple (as you would expect dominate)
• the Paid Listings – allowing advertisers such as Carphone Warehouse and Vodaphone to advertise on these terms

but also

• PR – Taken from Google trusted news sources
• Products – taken from advertisers who have submitted Google Base Feeds.

All these channels allow a far wider variety of usage outside of pure search results, for example the video used above is obviously pulled from Youtube – and has already received nearly 6 million views since it went live.

They also tend to dominate key areas of the page, for example

• Google Products – often visible between positions 1-4 (above the fold of the screen)
• Local – Generally the first result – and highly prominent in terms of eye catchment
• PR – Often within positions 1-5
• Video – Depends but normally anywhere between 1-10

They are in many cases ‘eyeline breakers’, often breaking the natural browse of a results page, and meaning users spend more time on search pages – something Enquiro looked into recently.

5) Use Your affiliates

This is obviously going to be more pertinant to some advertisers more than others, however it is worth noting how much real estate can be taken up by affiliates. Whilst this may be a more expensive way of taking up search page real estate, it can result in some significant coverage, all of which is likely (as long as you treat them right) to result in good brand (and sales focussed) coverage.

The role of affiliates on brand searches

And more:

• Use social media (Will cover this in a later post)
• Is Wikipedia relevant – WHilst you aren’t likely to get any link juice – this does take up valuable real estate
• Create a Squidoo lens

One thing is for sure – don’t just ignore the problem. There are a number of high profile examples out there in, that highlight what happens if things are simply left to fester. Certainly people like Dell have developed a brand reputation response learned from the ‘Dell Hell’ days.

No, your eyes do not deceive you.

Google has released its very own guide to SEO, the aptly named ‘Search Engine Optimization
Starter Guide’. Developed by Google’s very own search quality team, it goes into a lot of the on-page SEO considerations such as:

• Title Optimisation
• Page Naming
• Navigation
• Content
• Page Structure
• Image Optimisation
• Robots Management

All in all a decent starting point, however it is interesting to see one major aspect of modern day SEO missing or more precisely hidden and not at all prominent.

Surely some more detailed referencs to linkage, and the role it plays in the optimisation process. The only real references to ‘promotion’ in the document are:

Good practices for promoting your website
• Blog about new content or services – A blog post on your own site letting your visitor base
know that you added something new is a great way to get the word out about new content or
services. Other webmasters who follow your site or RSS feed could pick the story up as well.
• Don’t forget about offline promotion – Putting effort into the offline promotion of your
company or site can also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site, make sure
its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead, posters, etc. You could also send out
recurring newsletters to clients through the mail letting them know about new content on the
company’s website.
• Know about social media sites – Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made
it easier to match interested groups of people up with relevant content.
Avoid:
-  attempting to promote each new, small piece of content you create; go for big,
interesting items
-  involving your site in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the
top of these services
• Add your business to Google’s Local Business Center – If you run a local business,
adding its information to Google’s Local Business Center will help you reach customers on
Google Maps and web search. The Webmaster Help Center has more tips on promoting
your local business.
• Reach out to those in your site’s related community – Chances are, there are a number
of sites that cover topic areas similar to yours. Opening up communication with these sites is
usually beneficial. Hot topics in your niche or community could spark additional ideas for
content or building a good community resource.
Avoid:
-  spamming link requests out to all sites related to your topic area
-  purchasing links

Source: Google Search Engine Starters Guide

Whilst it does refer to a number of methods of acquiring linkage to the site, I can’t help thinking this may provide a slightly lobsided view of the importance of off-page in the SEO process to beginners. Yes on-page is important but lets face it MoneySupermarket would be nothing without the million odd links it has pointing to it, neither would Tesco etc etc, and thus anyone reading this could be forgiven for thinking merely implementing such tactics without any offpage would give them a reasonable chance of competing (which on non-competitive terms/sectors – such as rarest baseball cards – may be the case – but not likely when we are talking casino, car insurance or the like). I guess the real worry here is many DIY-SEO’ers may (continue) to look at SEO as merely an on-page exercise with little consideration to the promotion/off-page aspect of the process.

I will finish with the fact It is a good document, and certainly worth a read (would suggest if you are a intermediate to expert SEO there is very little you will get out of it). Its not really going to tell you anything amazing, however it is good to see Google out there, and at last having more of a say in SEO.

Twitter has become the new bloggers playground, with Andy Murray (Tennis Player) and even Obama twittering on a fairly regular basis (although I would suggest the Obama postings may become slightly less frequent ). However it has also become a commercial tool recently with brands like ComScore, Dell and even the likes of Oracle and IBM getting to grips with the Twitter phenomenon.

However, why do so many brands suck at Twitter?

Size

As many of us know, large organisations often have more defined rules and regulations than smaller organisations and individuals. This lack of flexibility often restricts brands from either

• Responding quickly to potential issues
• Corporate guidelines can sometimmes restrict the level/tone of response particularly in larger organisations
• Senior decision makes sometimes don’t have the familiarity with new technologies and can sometimes be wary of new technologies, and thus slow to adopt

Late to the show

As highlighted on the above point, larger organisations in particular are often slow to react to new technologies, and thus often can be beaten to the punch by competitors or just keen admirers. For example @disney is owned by Cherie Thomas from Los Gatos, California – https://twitter.com/Disney

Those that do adopt, come in two guises

1. Those that embrace, brands such as Dell and Comscore are perfect examples of this and…
2. Those that merely sit and do nothing, reserved with little or nothing to say, unsure on how to deal with the new guest to the party – such as Microsoft – twitter.com/microsoft

Intention

Lets face it, nearly all of us hate being preached to. Thats one of the beauties of the web. We invite who we want in, in particular search. Twitter is a very personal channel, if people don’t like you they will just stop following you – and thus your Twitter activity will go unnoticed. This lack of direct business return, can often restrict just what activity occurs – and for those that do go down the direct sales channel, can often end in disappointment unless done correctly (The Dell outlet example being a reasonably good example of this.

The Big Brother aspect

There are a number of brands out there following individuals, some as a direct response to previous follows (Starbucks for example returned in kind a follow for me), however others go out directly and follow indivuals in the hope of getting a follow recipricated. However there are a lot of Twitterers who do not like bing followed by corporate followers, and thus such tactics can fall on deaf ears.

Lack of familiarity with brands

With some brands such as IBM and Oracle, individuals have created so called hybrid profiles, such as RichardATDell. Whilst Dell do actually have a brand persona, there are a number of brands out there where hybrid accounts operate, and where these operate without brand compliment, can potentially mean a disassociation with the brand.

The other potential issue can be job migration. People don’t stay in jobs forever and these hybrid accounts can often become obselete very quickly – OracleJulio being one such example.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound

With big brands it is likely that people will naturally search for that brand, however this isn’t often the case with smaller brands. For this reason, active commercial use of Twitter in these instances can merely result in lots of effort with little or no return.

Lack of buy-in

Whilst brand monitoring is become more popular by the day, there is still a long way to go. Many brands do not follow what is being said about them online, even by simple devices such as Google Alerts. Without knowing what is being said, it is unlikely some brands will have a justifiable reason to operate in the Blogosphere, let alone Twitter.

There is no doubt the effect Twitter has had within search circles, one only has to look at the people using it (most of the UK and US search welebrity circuit (term coined from Ciaran Norris) are on there including Matt Cutts, Jill Whalen, Jason Calacanis, Danny Sullivan, Lee Odden, Will Critchlow and Richard Scoble,

As an individual, are you on Twitter – if not, why not?

If you are a brand – what are you doing on Twitter. Its not for everyone, however if you are going to enter the brave new world, take your time, do your homework and enter it with your eyes wide open

Further to my post last week regarding a busy week for many search marketeers, it seemed appropriate to follow it up with a beginners guide to getting the most out of whatever conference you are attending. Most conferences these day are not cheap affairs, so heres my guide to getting the most out of them.

Have a clear motive.

There is no point in attending any of these conferences without a clear objective. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the attendance of a key speaker, it could just as easily be:

• New Business – This obviously depends on which conference you are attending however many of these conferences provide a wealth of new business ops whether they be:
  • Speed Dating sessions – For example Business NorthWest at the GMEX in Manchester is providing a number of speed dating sessions for potential new business or business partnerships
  • Interaction with key decision makers – This will depend on show to show however these events can be great for making contact with a key new business target – for example SES tends to more industry focussed, whereas AdTech/InternetWorld show often see a higher number of client types in attendance
  • Displays – Many of these conferences allow vendors to highlight their goods and services. Certainly the likes of InternetWorld can be a great place to get your suppliers into line – whether it be your 3rd party bid management tool, analytics or even recruitment.
• on that note – Recruitment. SES and some of the other more focussed conferences and shows can be a great place for recruitment. Whilst this is sort of unwritten, there is no doubting it goes on – and it can be a good time for getting the foundations in place for potential collaboration at a later date. (Just look what happened to me )
• Learning – Probably why 90% of us go to manyof these conferences. If you learn one good thing from the conference it can often be worth the attendance fee alone. Certainly there are some conferences that are better than others, certainly I was very impressed by the level and tone of the presentations at SES in London this year and the SMX line up is looking very good too. On that note I would highly recommend the following speakers
  • Bryan Eisenberg – FutureNow Inc
  • Jon Myers – MediaVest Manchester
  • any of the ComScore/Hitwise stuff – Normally some good titbits in there
  • Kevin Ryan
  • Matt Cutts or any of the other Google lot tbh – Mylie at SES was very good
  • Dixon Jones (Receptional)
  • Dave Naylor – never seen him personally but many people seem to talk very highly in terms of speaking
  • Erica Schmidt – Isobar
  • ….and please feel free to suggest any others below….

Don’t just focus on what happens during the day.

Think Rob Kerry put this best in his post “The Search Engine Groupie”

The majority of conference pass paying punters that attend these events are purely there to learn; many unaware of what’s happening in the background. The quiet whispers of idea exchanges over pints of black gold, and games of business card top trumps. For beginners, Search Engine Strategies offers a valuable selection of sessions to learn more about search marketing. For those who have reached the next level up though, such an occasion is even more valuable.

Thousands of Black Hats, White Hats, PPC Pink Hats and “Suits” gather in one place to get drunk together and network. I’ve still learnt things at the sessions of each SES I’ve attended (such as Video Search SEO tips at SES Chicago); but casually discussing new ways to build links, harness social media and further our part in keeping Matt Cutts’ team busy (Black Hat SEO = Googler Job Security) is worth the price of a conference ticket alone.

At many of these conferences many of the attendees will often congregate in the same places, certainly SES London and Hilton are always synonymous – however I would add dont just go harrasing who ever it is you want to talk to – be focussed, brief and polite. Certainly you will knmow if they want to continue the conversation further.

Be Prepared

Maybe its just the Boy Scout in me coming to the fore, however it certainly helps to be prepared at the conferences. This will help you get the best out of the conference and help you reach whatever objectives you may have

• Random attendance probably isn’t the best approach – knowing which speakers you want to see, when you want to see them is probably a better course of action, and will ensure your trip doesn’t end in disappointment.
• If you can try and leave a days grace either side of the conference dates when booking a hotel and flight. The best networking events tend to be on the day before the conference and on the last day.
• Check the forums and blogs regularly and well in advance. Each major conference event will usually have an official thread or even Twitter trail detailing what parties are happening and where.
• Mingle with major and niche search engines in the expo hall, they may have an invitation-only party for existing and potential clients that you could attend – (thanks rob)
• Enjoy it – These conferences are not all business.

There have been a number of these top ten tips recently in various guises, so given the new blog I thought it time we started the Ten Tips section to the blog, where we will cover a range of topics from SEO, Tools, PPC and the like

First up however is Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ), as that is whereand the two other Pavilion Communications lads have our heritage.

1) Do you Keyword Research properly

Probably the most fundamental part of SEO. Good keyword research is essential before going ahead with any campaign. Research should be focussed around:

• Relevance – The amount of misfocussed campaigns out there is staggering. Yes the main focus is often about getting traffic into the site, however SEO is often used as a direct response tool rather than a brand awareness tool (and hence tactical usage is going to be affected accordingly) – and thus your use of keywords should reflect this. High volume often means generic phrases and loss of relevancy. This is not to say don’t go after them – but keyword choice should be based on ROI, rather than just traffic.
• ROI – Mentioned above – however a good target keyword list should include a combination of generic and product/service specific. To use the process of conversion for a recent LCD TV I purchased. Initial searches focussed around what LCD/Plasma TV’s I could buy. This involved searches such as plasma tv, lcd tv with little or no consideration for brand. By the next stage of my buying stage – I knew I wanted a 37′ LCD, meaning that the focus of my search was that much more focussed, and the propensity to buy that much higher.By the time I puchased a shortlist had been decided on, and we ultimately decided on a
  Toshiba 37XV555DB- 37″ Widescreen 1080P Full HD LCD TV – With Freeview.
  By this time my propensity to buy is at its highest. However by having visibility at all points in this buying cycle I am increasing my chance as a TV vendor to sell my product to you (all other things being equal). It should also be noted that 36% of searchers associate top listings in search engines with brand leaders – so whilst there is a direct response angle here – it is worth noting the brand angle here.

2) Tailor your SEO round your requirements

Possibly could have put this one in the option above, however its a question I often ask clients – that is.

What do you want to get out of your SEO campaign ?

• Increased conversions
• Increased traffic
• Increased rankings

Yes increased rankings can and often do result in increased traffic, however this may not necessarily result in increased conversions – thus the motive behind any SEO campaign needs to be established early in order to guide the SEO activity in the right direction

3) Understand the channels at your disposal

Blended Search (or universal search) has significantly increased the amount of different assets at a marketeers disposal. New channels such as

• Video
• Images
• PR
• Products
• Books
• Finance
• Flight information
• Local Search/Maps
• Merchant Search

are all part of the mainstream SERPs and thus should be considered alongside your traditional search engine optimisation activity. The activity of integration optimising with these channels in mind has been dubbed digital asset optimisation or DAO

These channels are often used in particular contexts for example

• Maps results are often returned on geographic searches -’advertising agency manchester’ will return MVMediagroup or Mediavest Manchester as one of the searches.
• Products results will be returned on more specific product searches. For example LCD TV, Toshiba TV etc. These results are pulled from the Google Products section of Google and are populated via XML feeds
  

  Google Products Page

• Video/Image results often returned on more generic or Brand focussed terms. I used to do some work with Lexus Cars and this was one area where considered during initial planning in particular.

These results when included in the SERPs have a considerable effect on user behaviour, as highlighted during the Enquiro research from earlier this year (Gord Hotchkiss (one of my favourite bloggers). However it is not just the effect these have had on CTR and SERP behaviour, but also the effect it has on time spent on the Search engine results pages themselves. Time spent on blended search pages can be up to 3x times higher effectively meaning your landing page starts on the SERP’s themselves.

4) Know what your competitors are doing

This can be important in a number of ways.

• Know what your competitors are focussing on – you will have a steer on where potential keyword opportunities may exist.
• Understand where there activity is focussed. Generally I would suggest most campaigns have a weakpoint whether it is the on-page or the off-page activity. Understanding where these factors lie will give you an indication of where, where and how much activity needs to be focussed.
• Understand if they have any weakpoints. If your competitor is using blackhat/greyhat techniques its best to understand this now – and plan accordingly..

5) Benchmark, compare analyse and re-optimise

Possibly going more long term on this one – however at the start of your search engine optimisation campaign

• Benchmark your current performance – this gives you a basis for future analysis (dont forget to logout for these – or at least have a commonality for measurement
• Set KPI’s and try and stick to them.
• Analyse your performance against your benchmark and KPI’s.
• Adjust your campaign accordingly if required.
• Be creative – if your campaign has stagnated be creative try new channels or alter the focus

Above all enjoy it. Search Engine Optimisation is not a short term win – it takes a long time, however if you do the initial steps well, you give yourself a far better chance of succeeding