aimClear Search Marketing Blog

SES Chicago 2008 was a wonderful experience for our team and it was great for them to meet so many friends in person.

I’m uber-proud of Nam, Peter, Manny and Marc for their hard work, thoughtful and detailed session coverage. Thanks to our buddies at Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch.  Here’s a sign-off & roundup of their posts from SES Chicago 2008.  See ya’ll @ SES NYC 2009! Read the rest of this entry »

[Marty note: This interview has a terrific primer on duplicate content] Eric Enge has an an extensive background in the SEO industry and is a well respected figure in the search world.

He’s the President of Stone Temple Consulting, located near Boston, and Co-founder of Moving Traffic Inc. You can find most of his published content on the Stone Temple blog as well as Search Engine Watch and SearchEngineLand.

After meeting up for the interview, Eric shared his path in the search industry, offered a cool introduction to duplicate content as well as a taste of what we could expect from the long awaited and controversial session “Black Hat, White Hat and the Best Kept Secrets to Search.” [SES session coverage] Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Gray (follow him on twitter) has certainly earned his stripes in the internet marketing world. Next time you see someone yell @ Matt Cutts (Google’s affable anti-spam executive) from the audience at an SEM conference, there’s a good likelihood it’s GrayWolf.

Always buttoned down with ducks in a row, this guy goes out on a limb for the good of our community and has well-researched goods to back them up. I was pleased to chat with him @ SES Chicago this week by PocketCam Interview. Read the rest of this entry »

[This post is our continuining coverage of SES Chicago 2008] Proper execution of the basic, proven and successful models is necessary for success in any business endeavor. Search Marketing is no different. After spending the past 3 days listening to excellent people extol us to further develop and exceed current practices and performances, it was time to stop for a moment and “Get back to the basics.”

Search Advertising 101 was just the elixir and this baby was a cool tall drink. Covering basic tenets and language surrounding keywords, online ad creative, placement and campaign management processes provided an accelerated  learning curve.

Moderator Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner and Founder of Beyond Ink did a great job setting the pace and handing over the podium to Matt Van Wagner, President of Find Me Faster and Mona Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy at Page Zero Media.

Read the rest of this entry »

[This post is our continuining coverage of SES Chicago 2008] Kimberly Krause Berg is considered a pioneer in the relationship between usability and SEO. She has an extensive background in SEO, design & usability & is the owner of UsabililityEffect.com (2002), Cre8pc.com (1996) & cre8asiteForums (2002). It’s also pretty clear who her favorite blogger is . Read the rest of this entry »

As snow flew sideways on the chilly frontier, SES Chicago 2008 participants waited to be regaled yet again with insight and information. Eisenberg did not disappoint.

This session focused on shifting the mindset from “Pay Per Click” to “Pay Per Conversation.”  Clearly it is imperative to remain cognizant of the current state of the economy, where every click and hence every dollar matters.

Every click is a potential customer trying to engage you and their choices are limited.  Will the customer continue the dialogue through to a purchase funnel or will they bounce immediately off your landing page?  In order to continue the conversation, the value of the product and service needs to be demonstrated.

This session helped  identify missed conversations and then how to woo them back.  The introduction was given by Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink.  Presenting valuable insight was Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder, Future Now Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Hedger  is a writer, producer & broadcaster for Webmaster Radio and hosts the weekly show “Webcology.”

He is a well-known SEO consultant, head blog writer & lead copywriter for MetaMend Search Engine Marketing. After the day’s sessions, I was able to see Jim in action broadcasting the “Drunken Webmaster Roundtable” at Kitty Osheas. It was a riot!

When I sat down with Jim, he was gracious enough to share his blazing path along the SEO trail. He also revealed some embarrassing moments he’s had in live broadcast. One of these anecdotes had to do with mispronouncing one of the guests names. Wouldn’t you know it, I got to witness it first hand! Anyway, here’s my PocketCam video-conversation with the man himself. Read the rest of this entry »

SES Chicago Day three had me digging deep into my vernacular and coining the new word “SMAnalytics” which combines analytics and SM, A.K.A. Social Media. Where is this intersection of Social Media and Analytics?

In the session, “Social Media – Measuring the Business Value,” presenters sought to dig into the subject of measuring this business value. Through the use of search and web analytics, social media programs can be shaped and results can be measured. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday at SES Chicago 2008 I met up with Jordan Kasteler a.k.a Utah SEO Pro. Not one to miss a cool opportunity, I whipped out my pocketCam to ask him a few questions. At age 26, Jordan has made quite a name in the search community and consistently contributes valuable content and thought-leadership that can’t be overlooked. Read the rest of this entry »

Take time to research the overwhelmingly huge list of SEO tools out there, and you’ll quickly see there are hundreds (if not thousands), all sorting the very same data. Some cost arms, legs and sometimes skin off the back, but many are appendage-friendly (free).

This SES Chicago session, succinctly titled “SEO Tools,” was moderated by Sage Lewis, Search Engine Watch Expert & President of SageRock.com Read the rest of this entry »