#SES, beloved shorthand for Search Engine Strategies, is one of those industry events that holds a special place in our calendar’s heart. Last week, scores of professionals and luminaries from all walks of the online marketing industry ventured to the Moscone Center in sort-of-sunny San Francisco for the west coast arm of the mainstream conference and expo. For three days, attendees soaked up killer tactics, tips and takeaways from a colossal swath of case studies, site clinics, keynotes and of course, casual shop talk during session intervals.

Weren’t able to make it this year? No worries. From the aimClear team, Erica Sendros, Manny Rivas and yours truly, Lauren Litwinka, were a part of that crowd, tweeting and blogging like mad men. And mad women. Noteworthy coverage poured in from other reputable resources across the web. We’ve culled 55 definitive coverage posts from #SESSF 2011 and shared them here, should you find yourself with 183 hours of some spare time. Whether you’re looking for high-level takeaways or end-to-end session transcriptions, read on.

Search Engine Strategies San Francisco 2011 | aimClear Blog Coverage

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Social Media Solutions for the Wallet-Conscious: Two Cents from #SESSF
Day 1 of #SESSF kicked off (post-keynote) with Social Media Solutions on a Budget, and a team of social-savvy pros ready to share their two cents. Moderator Christopher Heine, Staff Writer, ClickZ News, introduced speakers Nathan Bransfordt, Social Media Manager, CNET/CBS Interactive, Jeffrey Harmon, Chief Marketing Officer, Orabrush, and Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR, and kicked things off. This session was brimming with actionable tactics and inspiring case studies of companies getting things done with social media, despite the constraints of a tight budget.

Bill Hunt Blueprints Mastermind Keyword Modeling @ #SESSF.
In this solo session on Advanced Keyword Modeling, Bill Hunt, President of Back Azimuth Consulting, looked at using keyword research data oftentimes pinned against organic and/or PPC keyword performance to determine success and opportunity. He examined several reporting formats and concepts that showcase keyword data in a way that yields results. At a very high level, this process is about conceptualizing how the data you have available whether from keyword suggestion tools, historical PPC performance or the recently altered search engine result pages (SERPs) can be organized, segmented and classified to best give insight into new opportunities.

Search PPC at 20,000′: #SESSF Stats, Tactics & Takeaways.
This year’s Introduction to Paid Search session at #SESSF was delivered by Brad Geddes(@bgtheory), founder of Certified Knowledge. Jam-packed with oodles of stats, titillating trivia, actionable tactics & tips of the trade, this session was must-attend for entry-level PPC marketers. Brad offered up valuable information from various big-wig providers and offered great advice on how to successfully implement a paid search program of your own.

Gussy Up Your Content! #SESSF Tips for Making Stale Content Sexy
As a brand, getting your content shared is important. And content that gets shared is often sexy, in some way– whether it’s entertaining, informative, or just fun to pass along. But not all marketers have the luxury of writing copy for lingerie and foxy sports cars. What of those marketing home insurance and funeral parlors and B2B medicinal equipment? Gussying up such content so that it excites people is no easy feat. And doing it on the cheap? Pfft. Like Me! Social & Viral Content Tips for Making Your Brand More Sexy featured moderator Noran El-Shinnawy, Director of Marketing, BoostCTR, speakers Liana Evans, Author and Co-Founder & CEO, LiBeck Integrated Marketing, Jeffrey Harmon, Chief Marketing Officer, Orabrush, Mike La Rotonda, CEO and Co-Founder, Votigo, and Jeff Revoy, Chief Product, Marketing & Strategy Officer, iContact. The team took turns sharing case studies that showcased… arguably less than sexy brands… and how they were able to gain meaningful traction by means of social media in a cost-effective manner.

Prepare for Battle! Online Brand Protection Tips From #SESSF
Breaking news: You can’t really control whether or not negative feedback about your brand exists on the web. But! There are actionable tactics you can execute to not only save your skin in the face of an online reputation crisis, but help prepare for a similar flare up in the future, should one arise. Andy Beal, CEO of Trackur, was at Search Engine Strategies San Francisco 2011 to deliver a solo presentation filled with tools, techniques & expert advice for Protecting Your Brand Online.

WordPress SEO: Embrace the CMS, Empower the People #SESSF
Moderated by Matthew Bailey (@sitelogic) and featuring speakers Christopher Auman (@sanctuarymg), President and Senior Strategist of Santuary Media Group, and Paulo Pessanha (@treetweet), Director of Search Marketing at TREE, WordPress: Power to the People offered in-depth looks at the SEO capabilities of sites like WordPress. The trio truly empowered attendees, stressing that anyone can use WordPress, and dolled out a list of mind-blowing plug-ins to prove it. The expertise flowing from this panel touched everything from WordPress applications to the seeming ease with which SEO is managed and implemented on a WP-powered site.

Landing Page Optimization Tactics: Show That LP Some TLC! #SESSF
A well optimized landing page can make the world of difference between regular old eyeballs on your site and true blue conversions. If you’ve got a low conversion rate on (because of?) your landing page, you are seriously missing out. Landing page pro Bryan Eisenberg was ready, willing and eager to lead panelists Nathan Richter, Strategic Services Director, Monetate and Joe Weller, Marketing Director, RealNetworks through a crash course in Landing Page Optimization. The case studies delivered pulsed with actionable takeaways and stimulating statistics pulled from sweet A/B case studies.

Get Exposed! Deep Content Marketing Optimization Tips from #SESSF
A true content wizard, Lee Odden’s (@leeodden) Content Marketing Optimization session reminded the audience that content can make or break your website. When you’re looking to optimize, you have to take everything from rich media to web pages to digital assets to PDF documents to both created and shared content into account. Always remember: “If it’s searchable, it’s optimizable.” With so many people looking to break into the already well-established online marketing realm, brand marketers have to go after the Holy Grail of content marketing optimization – that is to say, they must be efficient and improve the impact of their SEO and social media efforts.

PPC Quality Score: Cracking the Code @ #SESSF
The ever-elusive PPC Quality Score, often regarded as enigmatic a mystery right up there with the ancient sphinx, has attracted, baffled, bewildered, and haunted many a marketer since the dawn of paid search. The Ads in a Quality Score World session welcomed moderator Matt Van Wagner and panelists Fred Vallaeys from Google, Paul Corkery from Microsoft, and Craig Danuloff, Founder of Click Equations and author of the book Quality Score in High Resolution, who dropped some serious Quality Score knowledge.

Additional Noteworthy#SESSF 2011 Coverage

Bruce Clay Blog | #SESSF 2011 Live Coverage, featuring…

• SEO 2.0: Less is More
• The Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing
• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
• SES San Francisco 2011 – Automating Social Media
• Search: Where to Next?
• Search on Mobile Devices, QR Codes, Mobile & Social: The Next Mobile Frontier
• SES San Francisco 2011: Getting More from Google+ and the Google +1 Button
• SES San Francisco 2011: View from the Top Keynote
• SES San Francisco 2011: Google Ad Innovations
• WordPress: Power to the People
• Protecting Your Brand Online
• SES Live: Protecting Your Brand Online - Search Engine Roundtable
• SES San Francisco 2011: Bringing SEO In-House
• HTML5: A Cowpath on a Cliff
• Global Opportunities in PR, Social Media & Mobile
• SES San Francisco 2011: Social Media Metrics
• SEO is Dead. Long live SEO!
• Conversion Tools of the Master Craftsman
• Conversion Triggers: Persuasion Strategies for Digital Marketers
• Social Media Solutions on a Budget
• Advanced Keyword Modeling
• Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers

Search Engine Roundtable | #SESSF 2011 Live Coverage, including…

• SES Live: Automating Social Media: Creating & Distributing the Message
• SES Live: HTML5: A Cowpath on a Cliff
• SES Live: SEO Competitive Analysis
• SES Live: SEW Labs – The Use of Video in Social Media
• SES Live: Place Search & Facebook Ads: an Eye Tracking Story
• SES Live: SEO is Dead. Long live SEO!
• SES Live: Information Architecture for the Modern Website
• SES Live: Landing Page Optimization
• SES Live: SEO 2.0: Less is More
• SES Live: Content Marketing Optimization
• SES Live: Social Media Signals in Search
• SES Live: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion
• SES Live: Social Media Solutions on a Budget
• SES Live: SEW Labs – Social SEO
• SES Live: Search: Where to Next?
• SES Live: Search on Mobile Devices, QR Codes, Mobile & Social: The Next Mobile Frontier
• SES Live: Advanced Keyword Modeling- Search Engine Roundtable
• SES Live: Advanced Link Building, Panda Solutions, SEO Tools, and More!
• SES Live: User Generated SEO
• SES Live: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
• SES Live: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button
• SES Live: Like Me! Social & Viral Content Tips for Making Your Brand More Sexy
• SES Live: Killer Facebook Targeting Tactics
• SES Live: Google + Facebook = Success: Getting More Lift With Social Media

Phew! Well that about does it. Congrats to the entire SES crew, and a big thanks to all the speakers, vendors, and attendees who made this #SESSF 2011 totally rock. Until next year… cheers!

Association with domains perceived by Google to be in bad neighborhoods can get your domain blown out of Google or seriously crippled.. This reality has spawned a favorite tactic amongst malfeasant black hats, who use the wormhole to destroy competition. It’s happened to our friends and it can happen to you.

As the story goes, simply purchase a bunch of good ol’ fashioned India porn links anonymously to your competitor, a bucket load at once. Then turn in the target to Google for buying links, in the “report paid links” program and …you know the rest. Goodbye competition. There are other techniques to use in tandem, to practically insure that the target is destroyed. Obviously Google’s system is rife for abuse.

Before lovely Lisa Barone calls me out, we don’t DO this, but speakers at both SMX Advanced and SES San Jose (about as mainstream as it gets) highlighted the tactics for us all to gape at. Some were pretty upset. We’ve tested to confirm if it’s true, with throw away domains Google will never know we had anything to do with. Because good websites are vulnerable, it’s about time that Google gives webmasters the ability to disavow links in WebmasterCentral.

No Skin Off Google’s Nose
How could giving us that input possibly be bad for Google’s noble spam fighting efforts? We would simply log in to WebmasterCentral and, much like our ability to request URL removal, repudiate an inbound link by removing the “credit” from the index…no link juice, no bad Karma, no dolphins killed. The sacred algorithm remains intact. Gosh-gee Matt, isn’t the India site selling links the real problem? How can Google allow this tactic to exist?

We can’t help it if rouge idiots link or buy links to a site. We can’t help it if content is truly popular with the unscrupulous. If we’re going to pay the price for bad kids who admire us from afar or attack, then webmasters deserve the right to say “NO we don’t sanction their bad neighborhoods.”

Google kingmakers, while you’re trying to decide how much money to let us earn at Christmas, please consider this idea over braised beef tips and asparagus, with your pals at the ‘plex.

PPC and organic search alike serve classic functions in the marketing mix. However Google is effectually forcing many advertisers into buying more AdWords PPC by systematically setting out to neuter SEOs, who are increasingly going underground.

We all know Google’s been eviscerating organic paid link-building tactics which historically have been a vital component of attaining prominence in natural (unpaid) search results. Let’s take a closer look at how Google’s organic linking policies are as much about selling AdWord as preventing spam.

Though aspects of Google’s paid link guidelines seem inherently unfair to some, give Google credit. This may be one of the most successful corporate profit-strategies in marketing history. AdWords is the center of what is becoming the primary dashboard for global media placement. It’s not in Google’s best interest to allow SEOs to influence organic SERPs with paid link-building, no matter how holistic.

Marketers are forced to buy AdWords because Google promotes anarchy’s unpredictability in the organic linking universe. The strategy is obvious and flat-out brilliant: If you want to be guaranteed that customers see your sales pitch, Google wants you to depend on paying them for AdWords.

Sacred SERPs, Huge Profit
In the holy name of relevant organic SERPs, Google’s apparent model is to hold your business hostage with an unveiled threat: attempt to influence Google SERPS by any financial method but Google AdWords PPC and they’ll kill you. It’s such an insidious strategy because no reasonable person could ever argue against their stated intent of offering users ever-more relevant SERPs.

Of course relevant SERPs are crucial and no one argues that point. However Google’s intertwined objective is to ship massive buckets of money home to shareholders. This does not make them bad. If you own Google stock you’ve invested in one of the most amazing companies ever. If you want to market anything without spending oodles on AdWords PPC, making huge investments in universal search or going underground to build links then you’re totally screwed. It’s the perfect business plan.

The Company Line
Matt Cutts, Google’s affable anti-spam ambassador describes links “likely to stand the test of time” (read “survive Google handcheck “) as those links that “are typically given voluntarily. It is an editorial link by someone, and it’s someone that’s informed. They are not misinformed, they are not tricked; there is no bait and switch involved. It’s because somebody thinks that something is so cool, so useful, or so helpful that they want to make little sign posts so that other people on the web can find that out.”

Wake up people! The entire professional marketing universe has always included one party spending money to gain someone else’s “voluntary recommendation.” It is not “bait and switch” for marketers to approach a local business partner or community member and ask that they accept valuable consideration (read cash & schwag) to recommend a client’s product with one of Mr. Matt’s “little sign post” links. It’s always been the way of the world.

Call it what it is: Google would just rather we all write checks to Google for THEIR little paid signpost program-AdWords. How funny is that! What the hell do you think AdWords is anyway?…moderately vetted PAID prominence that anyone can buy- if not completely game.

Whilst Google’s motivation is ostensibly centered on cleaning up a flawed system of reputation and recommendations with relevance as the primary objective, ultimately their jihad is about profit. Fear not! Only advertisers who are not socially adept and/or without classic business acumen will be fully frustrated. Everyone else will do what it takes in the boardroom, on the golf course, over 6 course meals with wine and at all expense paid weekends in the Catskills for A-list bloggers.

Now that Google has neutered many SEOs, some of the walking wounded follow like sheep and still others more brazen have taken link-building underground and offline. As expert after expert professed @ SMX Advanced, “all the old stuff still works.”

Google’s terms of services (though notably holistic on their face) are impossible to enforce, hypocritical within themselves and won’t succeed in shutting off the time-tested art of businesses procuring paid recommendations…not unless they join business folks at Chamber of Commerce meetings where they barter for links or on cruises on the intra coastal.

Don’t Mess With Big Brother
Finally, there’s been some high-profile buzz about the danger of expressing anti-Google-guidelines thinking in public and I’d hate to think the anecdotes are true. Maybe it is I who is Pollyanna after all, because I’d truly like to believe that Google is not evil.

That said we’ll be watching the PageRank of aimClear Blog (& the few sites we’ve let remain in our agency Webmaster Central account) to see if Google sends us a signal of some sort as a result of the SMX “Give it Up” session I participated in or recent posts. I’d like to take this opportunity to invite Matt Cutts for an interview in the future. Our conversation @ the SEOmoz party in Seattle was all too brief.

Online Marketing Blogs Give the Gift of Links
In a blog “meme” among top ranking online marketing blogs, SEM firms are lending their link authority to charities. Links from top ranked websites are valuable assets for any website because incoming “link love” is a crucial attribute search engines use to evaluate a site’s relevance. High quality inbound links are important to achieve top rankings in organic SERPs. Therefore the result of these online marketing blogs banding together, for charity outbound linking, is truly the giving of gifts.

Our online marketing blog is relatively new. Still the aimClear search marketing blog homepage has achieved viability in some circles including links from well known trade blogs. We’re totally honored to share our fledgling link juice by adding some sites to the “charity meme” started by Skitzzo over at SEO Refuge. The power is in posting the whole list on as many websites as possible. First I’ll share some new charity links for the list. At the end of the post we’re putting up all the links we’ve found so far from online marketing blogs participating in the meme.

Non Profits that Helped Save My Life
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services. The Society’s mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

The Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) is the nation’s largest lymphoma-focused voluntary health organization devoted exclusively to funding lymphoma research and providing patients and health care professionals with critical information on the disease. LRF’s mission is to eradicate lymphoma and serve those touched by this disease.

These are links so far from participating SEM firms including those from SEO Refugee Blog, Search Marketing Standard, anonomous donors, and Top Rank.

Service International – Disaster Relief

Pujols Family Foundation – Children with Down Syndrome

National Alliance to End Homelessness – Homelessness

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research – Parkinson’s Research

Ecotrust – environmental conservation efforts.

Humane Society of Canada – protecting animals and the Earth.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund – searching for a cure for a deadly disease.

Room to Read – helping build schools and libraries.

Sick Kids – hospital for sick children (Canada).

The National Arbor Day Foundation

Compassion International

World Wildlife Fund

The Humane Society

Global Refuge International

The Challenged Athletes Foundation

Aids Research Alliance – Aids Research

Wildlife Conservation Society – Wildlife Protection

Cancer Research Institute – Cancer Research

Second Harvest – End Hunger

AARP Foundation – Helping Senior Citizens

Doctors Without Borders – Humanitarian Relief

American Red Cross – Emergency Preparedness

AMREF – African Medical & Research Foundation – African Health Development

DOROT – Programs for Elderly

Feed the Children – Protect Children

Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Doctors without borders

Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust

National Enviromental Trust

SOS Children’s Villages

American Red Cross – disaster relief

Raleigh Rescue Mission – homeless raleigh

SOS Children’s Villages – sponsor a child

Samaritan’s Purse – emergency relief programs

St. Jude Children’s Hospital – cancer research

Medical assistance on disaster / war – Mercy

HIV/AIDS education – PT Foundation

Liver Foundation – MLF

Orphanage – Darul Izzah

Disabled asscociation – Mobiliti

Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program – Child Healthcare

Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders – Humanitarian Relief

American Red Cross – Emergency Preparedness

AMREF – African Medical & Research Foundation – African Health Development

DOROT – Programs for Elderly

Feed the Children – Protect Children

Time to tag others to keep this going:

Cartoon Barry Blog

SEOsk.com

Search Matters Search Marketing Blog

SEOptimise | PPC & SEO Blog

Cornwall SEO

liewcf

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