Chris , Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Another SES Toronto down.

Seth Godin performed extremely well for his keynote. Here are a few little points i jotted down:

• We are dealing with noise by making more noise. Over branding, over pushing.
• The web is now seen as a place to yell more.
• Everything online is now seen as the same.
• Nobody cares about you. They dont even know you exist.
• If the market talks about you, you are remarkable.
• Love it, so its talked about.
• Its all about the extras.
• Make something thats remarkable, and worth talking about.
• Sell to people that are interested in what you have to offer.
• Talk to people that are interested.
• Do something to be the best.
• If you cant be the best, dont do it.
• Make stuff that builds relationships.
• Earn trust.
• Talk to customers.
• People like doing what everyone else is doing. So why not do something different and break out.
• Targeting is a hunting term.
• Make it easy for people to talk about your offering.

I attended the “Perfecting paid listings” session. Some notes from it:

• Collect enough data to decrease errors.
• Branded ads could convert better, even if not clicked on, and an organic one is clicked instead. Having it there is an assurance in your business.
• People tend to buy more when branded ads are present.
• Use AdWords Editor for bulk ads, its a real timesaver, and easy after you figure out how to use it.
• Pinpoint regionally or locally for better conversion.

Some notes from the “Are you Findable” session.

• Start a YouTube channel, you could be surprised at the traffic that could come out of it.
• Optimize product data feeds.
• Quality score is what people obsess over, its not the be all and end all.
• If the ad is good, and the absolute best fit for the search term, Google will place it above all of the other search results, and not in the right column. Landing page text is considered in this decision.
• Focus on the best content ads.
• Dont be afraid to make changes in your campaign.
• Speed up your page loading. Compress images.
• Page speed is a major key to converting well.
• Use the Google search query performance report.
• Use the keyword analyzer page in AdWords.
• Use Google Local business search.

Notes from “Linkage Campaigns” session:

• Why should you be at the top?
• Apart from you, who thinks you are the best?
• All about quality authoritive links.
• Get links from the same community.
• Quality content sites.
• Anchor text matters. As well as what is around it.
• Search Engines have already decided what sites are important.
• Look who is linking to competitors.
• A well run affiliate program could help.
• Be selective in your linking.
• Dont fake linkage.
• Ask for links.
• Aquire links.
• Mostly, focus on building your content, and your business.
• Go after topically relavant links.
• Focus on the content and the end user to get the best links.
• Build some buzz on blogs. They have more outgoing links than mainstream sites or PR sites.
• Check out the BuzzLogic tool created by some X Technorati folks.
• Icerocket blog trends for measuring.
• Compete.com

Notes from “Get Dugg – Social Network” session:

• Make a link worthy site.
• Link love from viral.
• Link to other popular pages in your site from the popular page.
• Try out Yahoo Search Site Explorer.
• Market yourself on LinkedIn.
• Announce a new site or service on LinkedIn, drive traffic to blog.
• Tell people a story that matters.
• Reach out to key influencer’s that matter.
• Be Authentic.
• Join the conversation.
• Be exclusive and personal.

I will have some additional insight into the event after I catch up…. Actually, I will throw some notes up from day 1 too!
But here are some key takeaways from the event: Local Search requires major improvements, and everyone knows this. Search is all about providing THE BEST possible content for your audience….And marketers are slow to catch on to emerging trends.