Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- MSNBot Reverse DNS Test Fails Requirements
A year ago, Microsoft promised to enable Webmasters a method of verifying MSNbot. Way too often, rogue spiders mask themselves as official spiders from Google, Yahoo, Live Search or Ask.com. The search engines have enabled methods to conduct reverse DNS lookups on the fly, so that you can allow those spiders that pass the reverse DNS test in and the others, deny at your gate. I opened up my log files for rustybrick.com and found - Google Misprints AdSense Checks
If you are a Google AdSense publisher that opts for the checks to be mailed to you as opposed for an EFT (direct deposit) solution, like me, you may notice a misprint on your November checks. Google sent me and other publishers emails with the advanced notice: It’s come to our attention that the messaging printed on your November AdSense check was incorrect. Please be assured that this issue is purely the result of a - Google 2007 Holiday Gift Arrives: 2GB USB Memory Card
Google AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers were eagerly awaiting a package in the mail from Google this year. And now they have started receiving their gifts. Typically, I am one of the last to get the gift, so I have to rely on images from the forums to show you what it is. This year, Google gave out fancy 2GB USB Memory cards. Here is a picture from V7N Forums: There are more
December 2007 Conference Coverage::
- Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDF's, and Blog SEO
Rick Klaus - Feedburner/Google - SEO for Blogs and Feeds - Google does not index RSS/Atom content - social netowrks encourage feed distribution - Feedburner's "pro" features are free - one of the large upsides to being bought by a large company - includes TotalStats and MyBrand - Sitemaps support feeds - RSS feeds work as a poorman's sitemap Evolution of Feed Publishers 2003 - Blogs and RSS overlap *visual* 2007 - Feeds today are - SEO and the Big Search
SEO and the Big Search Moderator: Joe Morin Speakers: Melanie Mitchell, AOL Dave Roth, Yahoo Maile Ohye, Google Melanie Mitchell from AOL is up first. She says that AOL has a search engine but when they look at SEO for the site, it's not about the search engine itself. It's more about how they manage the large scale effort and for the content and product areas. How do you optimize a site for search when - Last Minute Holiday Search Tactics
Moderated by Kevin Ryan, the conference’s organizer. He welcomes people and provides a brief introduction to the topic. He discusses that search is great since you do not have to have the campaign “in the can†months in advance. He cites the Aquadots story and how they are being recalled, and that many ads on Black Friday still featured the product in their creative since they could not remove it in time. First up will - PPC Advertising on Influential Blogs and Social Media
Speakers: Todd Parsons, Co-Founder and CPO, Buzzlogic Jay Sears, SVP, Strategic Products and Business Development, ContextWeb, Inc. Jason Weisberger, COO, Federated Media Blog Statistics 65 million Americans read blogs 60% of those readers access blogs to explicitly get an opinion 65% of online “power shoppers†say they always read consumer generated reviews and spend more than 10 minutes engaging with UGC before they buy. 3.5 billion brand-related conversations per day Who is directing traffic and - SEO Design and Organic Site Structure
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson – VIZION Interactive, Inc. I will cover getting your site to do well and traffic – not the end of the game; you need to convert and be successful on all browsers. I will cover keyword research, creating a SE friendly architecture. I won’t get into details, just highlights, and content. Keyword research – you may use your tool and build strategy around most searched for keyword. At this phase you - Web Hosting Industry Overview
A web site cannot exist without hosting. This is an area that is often poorly researched by site owners. This session reviewed current issues with the web hosting industry and touched upon on hot topics including shared hosting, shared IPs, DNS issues, up time, speed, reliability, dedicated servers, server farms, redundancy, back up options, email options and other added value services. Brett Tabke - Moderator By George Roberts – Interjuncture Corp – produces anti spam - Effective Domaining Strategies
Brett has each person give a background on themselves. Each quickly does so. Monti plugs the domain auction @ 3PM later today. Domain names as a marketing tool Mark Klein - Sedo Background: - descriptive "direct navigation" - this is where people type a domain into the search bar and not google About 10% of PPC traffic is "direct navigation" type traffic Shows a Comscore study. Why should marketers buy domain names? - brand - - Domain Names and Trademarks - Legal Issues
Clark Walton, Esq. - Domain Name Law Diffe cant hide - Domain privacy services between UDRP and ACPA Register your trademark - stay away from trademarks of others You cant hide UDRP - uniform dispute resolution policy - binding arbitration - less formal rules - no hearings Benefits - fast process - works well against international registerants - fixed costs, can estimate what it will cost to get a domain - 2500-5000 for laywer Downside - Calling All Clicks: PayPerCall and You
Speakers: Marc Barach, Chief Marketing Officer, Ingenio, Inc. Dan Hight, Director of eCommerce Sales – Agency Division, Superpages.com Pay Per Call is paid calls from search. Calls: A performance based advertising service and network that drives calls instead of clicks. Cost-per-action: Advertisers only pay for tangible results Bidding: An auction based marketplace where advertisers compete for top placement Targeted: A service that allows advertiser to target ads to specific categories and geographic locations Accessible: a - Your Marketing Program in Context
Speakers: John Squire, SVP, Product Strategy, General Manager, Search Services, Coremetrics Bob Heyman, Chief Search Officer, Mediasmith Isabel Sopoglian, VP of Search Marketing, Cars.com John Think about your marketing in terms of how we get the right visitors and what the right pages are to land on. Also how do we get the right measurement to validate our decisions? Think about where you should invest your marketing dollars. Over 50% of customers interact with more - Managing Automated PPC Bid Management
Kevin Heisler, Executive Editor, Search Engine Watch moderated the panel. Managing PPC without automation is becoming impossible to do by hand. Tools at different price points are becoming more prevalent and require serious expertise. This SES session discussed using API bid management applications to increase ROI and gain a competitive advantage. Anton Konikoff, Founder and CEO, Acronym MediaEduardo Llach kicked off the discussion of automated bid management. “Automated bid management is outdated†and is just - Case Study: Moving from Paper to Online
How ThomasNet reinvented itself after 100 years A little history ThomasNet was a print directory company who turned into a giant online marketing force. They connect industrial buyers and suppliers. They’ve been online since 1995; 100% focus on industrial marketplace. They cover a wide array of areas and Linda assures us that the lessons they’ve learned will benefit all of us. There are new authority sites popping up like Travelocity, Amazon’s and Expedia. Years ago
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- My 'SEO' company wants to remove my Google verification code, WebmasterWorld
- A Guide for Liveblogging a Search Conference, Sphinn
- A Phone Call Works Better Than Waiting For Google To Take Action, Sphinn
- Adsense to drop on-site advertiser, DigitalPoint Forums
- Alternative Names to "Sponsored Links", DigitalPoint Forums
- Definition for "SEO" (you vs. your customer), SitePoint Forums
- Google forms partnership with state officials, DigitalPoint Forums
- Google looks to ad partners beyond DoubleClick deal, DigitalPoint Forums
- Listing Competitor Names In Keywords, HighRankings Forums
- Microsoft adCenter Add-in Beta for Excel 2007, WebmasterWorld
- No Follow And Being A Link Buyer, HighRankings Forums
- Sphinn: Sporting a New Save Feature, Sphinn
- The Art of Personalized Search Optimization, Sphinn
- The Death of Do-Follow, Sphinn
- Why isn't my phone ringing?, Google Groups
