Search Engine Tigers

Tomorrow marks the start of the Kelsey ILM show, which is also doubling as SES-Local, I’ll be there on Thursday morning, and will be speaking in the afternoon. Next Monday marks the start of SES-Chicago, I’ll be there on Wednesday, speaking on Thursday morning.

So what about the changes in the title? Well, it seems as though the structure of the presentations at these 2 conferences is going to be different to the structure in the past. At previous SES conferences, the presenters would each get 10-15 minutes, with the last 10-15 minutes being Q&A. Starting with SES-Local, each presenter is going to only get 5 minutes, what then follows will be a 20 minute or so panel discussion led by the moderator, which will then dovetail into the Q&A portion of the session.

What does this mean to the audience? Well, firstly it means that they’re assured of getting new presentations, as presenters will have to rework any previously given presentations to fit into the new format. It also means that they’re going to get less structured content up front. However, this also means that the job of the moderator is now much more important as they’re going to be more responsible for shaping the flow and direction of the conversation. It has the potential to make each session ‘fresher’ and unique, but it’s going to play havoc with those of us who can’t quite type so fast when we try liveblogging (we’ll just have to sit back and watch Tamar & The Lisa’s fingers travel at lightspeed across their keyboards).

If you’re going to be at either of these conferences, make sure to say hello, and if you want to go to Chicago, but haven’t booked it yet (that’s a true procrastinator), you can use code: 20SPK to get a 20% discount, and you can then spend some of your savings on a cider for me at Kitty O’Shea’s.  

How would you like to subscribe to Search Marketing Standard at cost? Well, now you can. For the holidays Boris and the crew are offering a 1 year subscription for only $4.95, that’s a 67% saving on the regular subscription price (for new subscribers only). What’s more, there’s a charity aspect to it, for every person that signs up using the coupon code “HOLIDAY67″ they’ll donate $1 to Toys for Tots.

So that’s a magazine with great search marketing articles at a huge discount, and a donation to charity that gives you a warm glow, where can you go wrong? (and no, I’m not getting anything out of this)

From XKCD.com

Ron Paul has by far been the most popular politician on the web for this political cycle. For some reason his message has resonated with the Digg crowd, and the like. Mike Huckabee has seen this and obviously decided to compete for this demographic. To that aim he’s tapped into the popular Chuck Norris Facts that have been floating around for a year or so, and backed by the man himself, he’s put out this video on YouTube.

Thanks to Paul for the heads up.

Today I wrote a post on Duplicate Content issues over on the RBDRodeo.com blog, it talks about the issues that I encountered when working with one of our client sites.  I was thinking of reposting it over here in it’s entirety, but that would defeat the purpose wouldn’t it?

Good question.  Here’s what’s been happening over the last few weeks, and what’s going to be happening over the next few, hopefully that’ll explain to you the temporary slowdown over here.

2 weeks ago I was over in the UK for SMX-London.  Prior to the show I got to see my family (it had been 3 years since I’d been over), and such cool things as the Dr. Who exhibit and my Grandfather’s DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross – RAF Medal earned during WW2).  At the show I got to meet a great bunch of people, and with the show being in the UK it was a different bunch of great people.  The show kept it’s Lisa quotient, despite Lisa Barone not being there, through Lisa Ditlefsen.  Her husband to be – Rob Kerry was also in attendance, with his company funding the last night party at a local Swedish pub.  Other people I met, in no particular order, were Lyndon Antcliff, Darren Maloney, Matt Paines, Judith ‘deCabbit’ Lewis, Tiffany White, Jane Copland, Kelvin Newman, Dean Chew, Jon Myers, and Edward Serrano (who I actually met on the plane ride back to the US).

On the RBDRodeo work blog I put up some notes for some of the sessions that I attended – The Keynote, The Global Search Universe, Leveraging Social Media Networks, Cutting Edge Linking Tactics, and a brief overview of the session I spoke at – Brand and Reputation Management.  2 further sessions were written up for SearchEngineGuide, and should go live on Monday.  Outside of the conference, I also had my regular SearchEngineLand article to write, so I cheated and let others write it for me – Inside Information: Interviews with In-House Search Marketers.

As for the future, well this week I’ll be heading out to Los Angeles for the Kelsey ILM \ Search Engine Strategies Local show.  I’ll be speaking on Thursday on the topic of Best Practices for Using PPC for Local Targeting. Exactly one week later I’ll be back in Chicago (3rd year in a row), where I’ll be speaking on the topic of Dealing With Difficult Clients (not that my company currently has any).

So, with actual work thrown in there it’s a busy time of year.  I will try to be more diligent about getting posts up here though, I don’t want to have this blog taken out of the Big List of Search Marketing Blogs for lack of posting as has happened to the blog of a certain evilgreenmonkey…

I’m currently sitting (ok, leaning against the bar holding my blackberry in my hands and a pint of cider between my teeth) in a sports bar in London. London isn’t my city, despite numerous Americans, upon finding out that I’m English saying ‘oh, you’re from London’, it’s not somewhere I’ve spent much time. So tonight was fun.

I had decided to attend a Toastmaster club in London, and had prepped by going to mapquest.co.uk to find my 3.2 mile route. After about 1.2 miles I was lost. So I did what any guy would do… I continued walking in what I assumed was the general direction, turning down any street that is featured on a standard UK monopoly board. Hey, it was a plan, in hindsight not a good one, but it still qualified as one.

Eventually I found a taxi with his light on, and was deposited at the meeting place (a pub) 5 minutes late, but the meeting hadn’t started yet, so all was fine.

After the meeting, one of the toastmasters walked me back to the underground. I was confronted with a ticket machine that asked me whether I was going to stay in zone 1 or go to another zone. I had no idea, it was a completely different system to that I am used to in DC, where the fees are based on your starting and end point. Eventually I figured it out, and made it back to the hotel, and the warmth of this bar (although at 11pm I still haven’t had my evening meal yet, and I doubt I will).

So what does this all have to do with Search Marketing? 5 points if you guessed by now that today’s topic was usability. Every now and again you should step back fron your site and think about how a user that hasn’t been to your site before will react when they land there. Will they be able to navigate how you expect? Will they understand your terminology? Will they flow through the funnels that you anticipate they will?

Analytics and usability studies can work hand in hand to help you identify any concerns that you may not realise that you have…  So every now and again, take a step back.  Look at your site through the eyes of a new visitor to your ‘city’, remove your preconceptions, and you may surprise yourself…

I’m heading over to SMX-London to do a presentation on Reputation Management.  Currently I’m sitting at the Lufthansa gate at Dulles airport, waiting for my first flight, which will be taking me to Frankfurt.  On the way here I stopped off in the Duty Free shop to do some browsing.  One particular display caught my eye, and in fact had me do a double take.

Yes, American Candy, with Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Nestle Chocolate and Nestle After Eights…  Ok, Cadbury’s is English, and Nestle Swiss.  Maybe they were made here?  Nope, in fact the Dairy Milk was made in Singapore???  If they’re blatantly providing misinformation such as this, how can I trust them about anything else in their store?  Were I to be purchasing a ‘designer’ handbag or perfume as a gift, 2 items which I wouldn’t know much about, how could I be assured that their claims of authenticity were correct?  I couldn’t… so I left empty handed.

After looking at the organic results for the next Presidential election, I thought I’d take a look and see what’s going on PPC wise with the campaigns. Looking at the SERPs for each of the Democratic candidates, there’s no competitive bidding going on against those names.  With Bill Richardson being the only candidate bidding on his own name.
On the Republican side it’s a different matter. A search for Mitt Romney displays a PPC ad for John McCain. A search for John McCain displays an ad for Ron Paul, a search for Rudy Guiliani has just John McCain, and a search for Sam Brownback has ads for both McCain and Paul (with the McCain one being about the Brownback endorsement of McCain). Searches for Ron Paul and Fred Thompson have no PPC ads from other candidates.

So it looks like the Republican candidates are starting to grasp hold of PPC as part of their campaigns, placing ads on candidate names that they feel they may be more ideologically tuned to, so they have a greater chance of converting their supporters. As the races heat up over the coming months, it’s going to be interesting to watch and see exactly how this changes.

Since other sites have critiqued the candidates sites, and their social media strategies, I thought I’d come in from another direction and look at what’s ranking for certain campaign 2008 terms on Google.

First up is “President 2008“. Ignoring Wikipedia, and other informational, non-candidate sites, here are the 5 names that display in the top 10.

1. Christopher Walken
2. Mike Gravel
3. Hillary Clinton
4. General Zod
5. Mitt Romney

So out of the 5 ‘people’ listed, one is a fictional character (no, not Mike Gravel, General Zod), and one an actor who, unlike Fred Thompson, isn’t running.

How about if we amend the search to include the word ‘for’? So now the keyword is “for president 2008“, every candidate should have that on their website, shouldn’t they? Well, there are many of the same people in the top 10 as in the above (which you’d expect with the addition of one word), plus a few more:

1. Christopher Walken
2. General Zod
3. Hillary Clinton
4. Mike Gravel
5. John Kerry
6. Macguyver
7. Mitt Romney
8. Mark Warner

What about PPC? Well for both of those results – the only candidate running ads is Bill Richardson, which is a great idea given that his site doesn’t show up organically for those searches.

Lets go partisan. “Democratic Candidate for President“. Page 1 is all news & opinion sites, the first candidate site that displays is in the 11th spot… and which candidate is the one that ranks highest out of all candidates for “Democratic Candidate for President”? Yep, Republican Mitt Romney, followed by Republican Michael Charles Smith, Republican Jim Mitchell, Republican Tom Tancredo, and Republican Ron Paul. The first actual campaign site for a Democrat for that phrase is Joe Biden in 49th position.

How about “Republican Candidate for President“? Mitt Romney and Michael Charles Smith show up on page 1, and Jim Mitchell and Tom Tancredo on page 2.

So where are the Democrats? Where are the big candidates? Hillary? Obama? Edwards? Let’s try “Presidential Campaign 2008” and see if that works out better for them… Well there’s only one candidate website on the first page, and that’s Republican Ron Paul. The first mention of the big 3 democrats is Obama’s site in 26th position, 2 behind our old pal Christopher Walken, but 2 ahead of Mitt Romney, and 3 ahead of John McCain. As for Hillary and John Edwards, neither of them are in the top 100 (although a Hillary blog shows up in 55th). Other major candidates – Rudy shows up in 31st, Fred Thompson in 70th, and Chris Dodd in 71st.

So what are the others ranking for? Well, it’s their names, or the searches aboves modified with their names. As far as the generic terms, it really looks like the Republicans are doing a better job, even for Democratic terms. What does this mean as far as the election? Not much, The only ‘big’ candidate ranking well for any of these terms was Mitt Romney, not ranking for these terms doesn’t really seem to have hurt Hillary, Obama, etc…