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San Jose SES News |
SES
2006: Schmidt on Privacy, Proprietary Algos
The sensitivity of search string data is suddenly on everyone's mind due to news
of the AOL data leak on a research site this week. Search Engine Watch editor
Danny Sullivan is set to interview Google CEO Eric Schmidt in the premier event
of San Jose Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose.
SES
2006: Two Peas in a Pod: Usability and SEO
Moderated by Rebecca Lieb of ClickZ with presentations by Matt Bailey of SiteLogic
and Shari Thurow of Grantastic Designs. First up is Shari who answered questions
about usability and search.
SES
2006: Pimp That Site!
Most sites could benefit from a little nip and tuck, and when that can increase
their search engine visibility from nil to above-the-fold in the SERPs, the impact
on a site can be dramatic.
SES
2006: It's Hard Out Here For A Blogger
Mike McDonald found himself in a room with a larger A-list than a Nathaniel Hawthorne
character sketch. San Jose (or thereabouts) is where the big search engines and
their famed bloggers live. The only thing better than this, says Mike, would be
Danny Sullivan in lederhosen.
SES
2006: SE Algos - Can You Please Them All?
Search engine specialists use to spend inordinate amounts of time creating pages
that ranked well at just one search engine due to algorithmic weighting of known
and very specific ranking factors.
SES
2006: Optimizing Your Feed
This is a continuation of an earlier offering about blog and RSS feed optimization.
Because the information is dense, we thought it best to present it with another
spray of bullets. Managing editor Mike McDonald is one heck of a note-taker.
SES
2006: Google, Yahoo & MSN Research Labs
The Research Laboratories session at SES San Jose 2006 brought representatives
from the top 3 engines to talk about how projects emerge from their labs to become
actual search tools.
SES
2006: Search Engines, Friend Or Foe
The best thing about search engines is how they make it easy to find relevant
content out of millions of web sites; that may be the worst thing about them too.
SES
2006: SERP Sharp-Shooting
Earlier we reported that presence was an essential part of the online shopping
process. It's not so much about the clicks as it is about branding. Our man about
San Jose, Doug Caverly, continues this theme, reporting from the Search Behavior
track at the Search Engine Strategies Conference. Further eye-tracking studies
shows that position is everything.
SES
2006: Blog/Feed SEO: Watch Out For Bullets
The information flooding out of the Blog and Feed Search SEO session at SES San
Jose was so rapid and powerful it knocked all of Mike McDonald's hair off. Because
the information is so plentiful, we'll cut the right to the bald and shiny of
Mike's notes.
SES
2006: A Case Of Duplicate Content
Site publishers worry about being penalized for having duplicate content; the
panel at SES 2006 in San Jose took on that topic in a session today.
SES
2006: Searchonomics
Speakers at the Searchonomics: Serious & Fun Stats panel on day one of the
Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose covered ad spends, prom dresses,
and the eternal surprise in retailers' minds.
SES
2006: Fiery Click Fraud Session
The potential for click fraud to drain an advertiser's budget requires those entrepreneurs
to audit their paid search ads and be aware of the impact click fraud can have.
SES
San Jose 2006: Leveraging Social Media
Attending morning SES (Search Engine Strategies) sessions after a 4am wake-up,
airport crowds, public transit shuffles and schlepping luggage all morning - I
was a bit cranky by the time I finally arrived at the San Jose Convention Center
for morning sessions.
SES:
It's Not Persuasion; It's Presence
Our trusty Doug Caverly woke up this morning on California time and hoofed down
to the Search Behavior Research track at the Search Engine Strategies conference
in San Jose. After grooving a little too much to the Radiohead intro...
SES
2006: Demographic Targeting
This session focused on demographic targeting. It has become a serious issue for
online advertisers who want to find higher quality customers online.
SES
2006: Social Search Overview
Search Engine Watch executive editor Chris Sherman hosted the session on social
search, which covered the impact of human knowledge...
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Friday August 11, 2006 |
Creating link bait, or Web content so compelling it spreads faster than a stomach
flu on a cruise ship, is a lot like developing a sense of humor - or like figuring
out when its okay to use a metaphor and a simile in the same sentence. Good link
bait is not really something that can be taught, but that doesn't keep online
marketers from trying to stuff the concepts into neat little boxes for analysis.
Editor's Note:
Doug Caverly diligently relays his notes from the Link Bait and Viral
Search Success session at SES 2006 in San Jose. Share your thoughts with us at
WebProWorld.
 SearchEngineWatch's
Danny Sullivan brings in heavy hitters Rand
Fishkin of SEOmoz.org, Jennifer
Laycock of Search Engine Guide, and Cameron
Olthuis of Advantage Consulting Services to help spread the gospel of viral
marketing.
Fishkin begins the presentation with a baker's dozen of link bait steps (the entirety
of which will be provided at the bottom of this article). As discussed before,
Fishkin emphasizes the power of social networks, like Digg.com, Del.icio.us, and
Slashdot, to overload your servers if just the right content tickles (or enrages)
their respective fancies. Fishkin's overall message is akin to the Boy Scout motto:
be prepared. Research, target, shoot, and wait.
Part of that social targeting may (and probably should) include setting up a blog.
That doesn't mean just throwing it out there into the nebulous that is Blogspot,
however. Fishkin advises to host the blog on your site instead.
Doug |
When brainstorming about how to set up a viral campaign, he told the crowd to
look at examples of "brilliant" ideas. Last year's round-and-round of the notorious
GPS-enabled
panties, which fooled even the Associated Press, comes to mind, as does the
campaign's competitor CryingWhileEating.com.
Cameron Olthuis follows with a bit of reputation and buzz monitoring advice, as
viral doesn't necessarily mean completely uncontrolled. Keep an eye on your brand
through the blog search engines. Employ conversation tracking and message boards
to track buzz about your campaign. He recommends Yahoo! Site Explorer, Google
Trends, and Opinmind.
Whether what people are saying is good or bad, says Olthuis, "it's important to
join the conversation."
Olthuis mentions the recent Mentos/Diet Coke ghettofied volcano demonstrations
that made it from the Web to the Today Show and David Letterman. While Mentos,
perhaps a bit hipper company, understood that the viral component of the event
was a boon for the brand, Coca-Cola didn't like it one bit.
"It doesn't matter if it's good, bad, ugly, whatever," said Olthuis. "You've got
to embrace [the buzz].
Laycock joins the conversation, warning that just "any [link bait or viral marketing]
idea isn't going to do. It really has to be something worth talking about." It's
also important to remember that it isn't always about sales. It's about brand
awareness.
Whether or not Burger King's "Subservient
Chicken," a webcam broadcast of a guy in a chicken suit and lingerie that
responds to audience commands, sold more chicken is irrelevant, says Laycock.
The site received hundreds of millions of visits.
A viral campaign can backfire. Depending on the nature of your business, the lack
of brand control can come back to haunt you. General Motors knows from experience
that giving free range to visitors to create online video ads for SUVs was a
bad idea. Anti-SUV activists had a field day creating environmental promos.
The success of a viral campaign, says Laycock, is always in the hands of the consumer.
Because of that, giving away products and services can be a good way to get started.
"Humor is probably the easiest way to get something to spread," she said.
Fishkin interjects to poop the party. "Humor can backfire," he said, "and so can
controversy. I would stick to content if you're worried about safety."
So if you've made it this far, you may ask, "is there a right way to virally market?"
Well, no. And yes. Well, there's definitely a wrong way anyway. Just to cover
our bases, here's Fishkin's Guide to Link Baiting:
Step 1:
Researching a Sector's Link-Worthiness
Step 2: Discovery of ‘Big' Players in Your Field -- do a search
at Technorati with your keywords.
Step 3: Targeting YDDS (Yahoo!, Digg, Del.icio.us/Popular, Slashdot
Step 4: Targeting Offline Media
Step 5: Selecting a Content Focus
Step 6: Melding Branding & Viral Elements
Step 7: Targeting Keywords/Search Traffic
Step 8: Look at Examples of ‘Brilliants Ideas'
Step 9: The Value of a ‘Web 2.0' Look & Feel - "The look
and feel oftentimes is critical."
Step 10: Elements that Encourage Linking
Step 11: Pre-Launch Public Relations
Step 12: Managing Launch Traffic - "Be careful not to be suckered
into a debate you don't really need to be part of."
Step 13: Continuing to Get Value from Linkbait -"Update it with
timely information."
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
|
SES
2006: The Lighter Side Of Link Buying
 By
Jason Lee Miller
The discussion on buying links at SES San Jose got a little more philosophical
than Doug Caverly might have expected. Conference attendees were greeted with
a band of Linking Jedi Knights expounding on the light and dark side of the link
buying Force. Yes, on Day Four of the conference, I'm reaching.
Perusing Doug's notes, I was met with this gem on the subject:
"Your
choices determine your intent," said Eric
Ward, CEO of EricWard.com.
Ah, yes, I see.
Snatch the link from my server.
What is the sound of one link clicking?
Publicist and link building aficionado Ward had no answer for that. Doug didn't
ask him. But Ward went on to pose questions of his own. Why are you buying the
link? Is it for a rank or audience/direct click traffic?
"If you're going to buy links to try to improve your rank, you're playing
with fire," he warned.
Read
the Full Article
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
|
Making Search Algos Happy
When you are developing your site, or implementing SEO-related changes, what search
engine do you have in mind? More than likely, it's Google. However, do you consider
the other search engines and their ranking algorithms as well or do you just ignore
them in favor of all things Mountain View? And if you do consider all the ranking
algos, does it make your design job harder, what with search algos always being
in flux? Let us know where
you stand at WebProWorld.
|| Chris||
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SE
Algorithms: Can You Please Them All?
Search engine specialists use to spend inordinate amounts of time creating pages
that ranked well at just one search engine due to algorithmic weighting of known
and very specific ranking factors.
But with duplicate content penalties and increasing complexity and number of strongly
emphasized factors converging, most SEO's are moving toward using tweaks to important
pages, rather than what were once known as "Doorway pages" or alternately, "Hallway
pages" meant for just one engine for dozens of search phrases per engine.
Most SEO firms now realize that the vast majority of referred search traffic comes
from Google and that it is followed only (often at less than one-third the referral
traffic) by Yahoo and then half as much again from MSN (with Ask trailing far
behind at just fractional percentages of the referrals brought by the others).
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WebPro Question: |
In my product page I plan on using the same description for each grill that I
have. Is this considered duplicate content if I apply it to all my grill products?
Would it benefit or make my site worse?
- SES
Trims
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