Search Engine Strategies, San Jose 2004
Day 4 at San Jose
Wednesday night was Yahoo's turn to throw a party, and it certainly was fun. They held their event at the Tech Museum: a highly recommended attraction when in San Jose. Thursday, the final day of seminars and panels at SES, was another opportunity for Chris Boggs to interact with the leaders in the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) industry. The exposition had ended on Wednesday, yet there was still outstanding attendance at the days events. Topics attended included "Outsourcing SEM," "Advanced Search term Related Issues," and "Cleaning Up Scam and other messes."
"Outsourcing SEM" was a session aptly moderated by Chris Sherman, the Associate Editor of searchenginewatch.com, and members of the panel included a representative from Jupiter Research as well as two companies that had been helped by outsourcing SEM, including a Fortune 100 communications company. Jupiter Research started the session with some statistics that emphasized the importance of SEM. According to their statistics, online advertising efforts (including display, search, and classified advertising) will account for $8.4 Billion in 2004. The projection is for that number to nearly double by 2009 to $16.1 Billion. The numbers for search advertising alone were $2.6 Billion in 2004 jumping to $5.5 Billion by 2009! With these kind of budgets being projected, many organizations will likely look to outsource their SEM management efforts to industry professionals.
Also according to Jupiter, the overall agency-type industry presence of SEM is still "immature." Currently, only one half of large agencies offer SEM, with about one third outsourcing such efforts and roughly 13% not offering any SEM at all. These companies will certainly need to provide their clients with this service, especially considering the growing importance and value of properly representing and branding organizations within the Internet medium. Jupiter recommended that it is very important for SEM's and agencies to emphasize strategy and planning, as opposed to the actual technology, when pitching online efforts. An effective initial presentation will not discuss the "nuts and bolts" of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Advertising (PPC), instead focusing on budgets and goals.
A representative from AT&T Wireless Communications, Les Kruger, gave an interesting and valuable client's perspective of dealing with SEM companies. He outlined the five-step methodology that AT&T has employed in deciding how to proceed with an SEM plan. The first step was to define needs, a subject that Jupiter had touched upon. Secondly, an organization should do research on the SEM industry in order to know what type of questions to ask. Thirdly, goals and expectations should be clearly defined before any contracts are signed. Fourthly, a trial period should be negotiated as an incentive for the SEM to perform. Lastly, as with all marketing efforts, research must be conducted. Campaigns should be reviewed, optimized and iterated.
The last speaker, Kevin Ryan, a respected columnist within the SEM community described the three choices that an organization has when they decide to institute a program to increase their web presence. They can either hire an expert to do the work in-house, hire an SEM, or force their agency to adapt. Kevin gave an example of a case study where a large fitness company decided to do a sixty-day test to see if they could perform better in-house than with an SEM company. The results of the test clearly indicated that the SEM performed better. Although the in-house efforts resulted in staying within budget and achieving a return on investment (ROI) of 425% using 47 keyword phrases, the SEM effort increased the ROI to 1700% with the use of over 500 keyword phrases-also staying within the same budget!
The "Advanced Search Term Issues" session was moderated by Danny Sullivan, and also provided great insight into the future of search engine usability. Briefly, the session concentrated on statistics related to the way that people search, including valuable insight into methods of performing keyword research when initiating SEO efforts and creating PPC campaigns. Instant Position and other SEM providers will certainly use these statistics and new tools available when performing analysis. One interesting trend presented by Andy Beal showed that one and two-word keyword phrases were experiencing a decrease in use as searchers become more aware of the importance of location or product-specific queries. Although two-word keywords still accounted for the highest percentage of overall searches (30%), three (26.8%), four, and even five-word searches were increasing in popularity.
The last session of the day (and SES) that Chris attended was one that he had been looking forward-to the most: "Cleaning Up Spam and Other Messes." This focused on what a company can do if they have been the victim of overzealous or even calculatingly dishonest SEM's. One particular company's tactics were proof that there do exist within our industry some "bad apples." The SEM has been the subject of countless Internet forum attacks and is currently the target of a class-action lawsuit being brought by organizations whose URL's were banned altogether. The consensus within this session is that "buyer-beware" must be the credo when a company is considering SEM and SEO outsourcing. The Better Business Bureau has the ability to search for complaints within the industry, however it is still not close to an exhaustive list of problem companies.
There are a few guidelines to follow when considering doing business with SEM's. Anne Kennedy provided some excellent suggestions regarding questions to ask and flags to look for when choosing an SEM. The main suggestion was to implicitly follow the webmaster guidelines found at search engines. Trying to trick search engines will sometimes work in the short-term, but can easily get a site banned from inclusion (sometimes FOREVER). Link farms are a big red flag as they are construed by Google and others as merely "web-fodder" designed to increase link popularity. Various buzzwords such as "guaranteed placement" (no one can guarantee inclusion within search engines or directories), and "one page version of your advertising content" (doorway pages) should certainly draw skepticism.
Overall, SES San Jose 2004 was an outstanding experience. The caliber of professionals that Dave and Chris interacted with will undoubtedly help to build a valuable network within the coming months. Instant Position's new SEO Doc was very popular, and G3 Group as a whole will certainly benefit from the knowledge gained in San Jose. Within the next few weeks, another newsletter will be released that will summarize the experiences.
