When Bruce issued our Year in Preview way back in January he predicted several things for the industry: a strengthened focus on local search, legal action brought to the forefront, a new demographic-focus for PPC and a myriad of other issues that would ultimately affect search in 2006. Looking back at the year and all that has happened; I realize why Bruce's name is on the door.
Much of the time when we take on a new client, one of our recommendations is that they increase the amount of unique, keyword-targeted, text content on their site. We generally recommend having at least 250 words of content per page, a number that continues to grow as the years go by. Ten years ago our minimum was 75 words. However, as competition on the Web becomes greater, the barrier to entry gets higher as well. Search Engines are seeking even more expert content as a way to determine the most relevant sites for a particular keyword.
SES Chicago was all we could talk about in December. Before the show the industry was all aflutter figuring out which sessions they would attend, who was making the trek to Chicago, and what parties were happening when. During the show, we compared session notes, gossiped about the night before, whispered about the mysterious "French Connection" and piled into Kitty O'Sheas for some good 'ole industry "knowledge transfer".
A smaller show known for working under fourth quarter rules with first quarter projections, a number of themes emerge from the snow in Chicago.
Doing things right from the beginning: During the Organic Listings Forum and the Big Ideas for Small Sites & Small Businesses panel, attendees were focused on doing things right and doing them differently. The Working with Clients panel highlighted the trend of marketers now being held accountable for their actions. It's not just about rankings anymore. If you use spammy techniques and your company's site gets booted from the engines, it is you who will have to do the explaining. Marketers came intent on learning how to create an expert site that would rank for the right reasons.
Search Marketing Includes Web 2.0: Community sites have received a whirlwind of exposure this year and that growth was in full effect in Chicago. Even the most traditional marketers attended panels like Social Media Optimization panel, Link Baiting and Viral Search Success and the Social Search Overview to learn about the benefits of tagging, video optimization, mobile search and sites like Flickr, Reddit and TechMeme. Search marketing is more than just search engine optimization. It's also about creating brand loyalty, reaching out to consumers and finding ways to bring unprecedented levels of traffic to your site.
Strategizing your efforts: Theme number three focused on combining your search marketing campaigns to get the most bang for your buck and avoid stepping on internal toes. The In House: Big PPC session specifically discussed what to do when you discover your campaigns are engaging in competitive bidding wars with each other.
Will You Be at Kitty O'Sheas?: If you were in Chicago you spent four solid days asking those six little words, because when the sessions ended, the parties began. Whether it was another packed night at Kitty O'Sheas with the industry's A-list, a lavish gathering hosted by Google or Yahoo, or just a Chicago pizza party, the fire and craziness inside more than made up for the below freezing Chicago temperatures outside. Much documentation of this madness can be found on Flickr.
Jake Baillie announced that he will be leaving TrueLocal. He and "several employees" will be forming STN Labs, a company which will "manage a small internet fund that incubates and provides funding to seed-stage new media and technology companies." We wish him and his team the very best.
In international shuffles, both Google China Co-President Johnny Chou and AOL Europe President Carlo d'Asaro Biondo resigned and Sam Sethi was forced out of TechCrunch UK after he found himself on the losing side of a political battle
As we mentioned earlier, all of search's top players gathered in Chicago this month for another round of Search Engine Strategies. Bruce spoke at the Organic Listings Forum with a stellar panel that included experts Mike Grehan, Dave Naylor, Todd Friesen, and Detlev Johnson. Again, if you weren't able to make it to Chicago this year, or if you want to relive it all again, there are full session recaps in our SES Chicago Session Archive.
Looking ahead to 2007, Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet training course will land in the UK on 8-9 January 2007, while the Australian course will hit on 12-14 February 2007. If you haven't registered yet, the time to do it is now: UK Training and AU training.
Also hitting Australia will be Ad:Tech Sydney on 7-8 February, and SES travels across the pond to London 13-15 February.
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