Welcome everyone to SearchFest 2009 at the Oregon Zoo in Portland!
My name is Tyson Braun, and I’m a Search Engine Specialist at EngineWorks here in Portland. This is my first SearchFest, and I’ll be live blogging the Keynote, and along with a few other presentations throughout the day.
Seems like a great crowd here. I’m looking forward to meeting as many people as I can and putting faces to blog bylines.
Danny Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land, is going to start off the day with his keynote presentation. He is introduced by Ben Llyod of Amplify-Interactive and President of SEMpdx. Ben welcomes the sellout crowd, thanks everyone for their help, including a small shout-out to the live bloggers!
On to Danny Sullivan:
Danny’s presentation is titled ‘The (Almost) All Request Keynote,’ as he crafted the speech from our requests on the SEMpdx forum. Danny points out Portland is a thriving niche for the SEM community, other small ‘hotbeds’ include Bend, Maine, Ohio, and Dallas. Who knew?
First Topic Request: What does SEO include?
Danny thinks of the SEO ‘umbrella’ is generating unpaid traffic from search.
Paid Search/PPC: generating paid traffic
SEM: Combo of both
Search Marketers should now expect to take on: Link Building, Social Media, Conversion Analysis, and Usability. SEO is not just about re-writing Title Tags anymore, it is big business. Danny goes on to highlight quotes from hateful observers, suggesting all SEOs are evil spammers screwing up the objective ideals of the Internet. So maybe we should just change the name: ‘Content SEO’ maybe ‘Technical SEO.’ Just don’t be a Crap Hat. If you are one of those people who puts all that junk on the Internet, just stop, burn your crap hat, and let’s get rid of all the…well…crap.
Second Topic: Is SEO industry slowing down?
Nobody knows. Some reports see the industry still trending up, some down, we just have to wait and see.
Third Topic: How to open client’s eyes to SEO value
C’mon! You can measure your results! Search marketers in this room can relate with convincing old-school marketers the incredible ROI of search marketing. Danny suggests to continue showing results and they’ll come around. Check out the ‘Growing Your Search Business’ presentation later today.
Fourth Topic: SEO Hype
Danny takes us through the wild SEO-Hype ride from the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ and suggests we all just calm down and travel the ‘slope of enlightenment.’ SEM is an exciting marketing forum, but it’s not black magic.
Fifth Topic: Relationship between SMM and SEO
Social Media includes a lot of diverse sites, and is subject to the puzzle of searcher intent. Surfers (sometimes known as people) visit these social sites for varying reasons. Figure out what they are looking for and take advantage of opportunities to incorporate your brand when appropriate.
Sixth Topic: Who Powers Who? Chart
Google rules our world. It’s not complicated anymore. But there are some chinks in the armor: twitter search-essentially ‘real time’ news and reactions, also specialized search, and mobile search. Main takeaway: there is more to life than just Google Web Search.
Times Up! Enjoy the rest of the day.
Tyson Braun, Search Engine Spealist, EngineWorks
Graduated from the University of Iowa in the Summer of 2008. I moved to Portland shortly after and am now a Search Specialist at EngineWorks. I’m Loving Portland and Search Marketing. Drop me a line if you ever want to talk SEO.
Search marketing is growing in ways that will draw a definitive line between spam and actual marketing.