Search Engine Strategies is the event for search marketing and optimization. It’s one of my favourite conferences and I’m disappointed that my schedule doesn’t allow me to attend this year.
But if you are going, I’d love to have notes or feedback on the conference.
And if you’ve never gone before and are going to San Jose, here’s what I would do.
August 10 – Monday (Training Day)
9:00am-12:00pm
SEO and Direct Marketing Tactics for Ecommerce Websites with Matt Bailey, SiteLogic
Half-day $645
The world of ecommerce is fascinating to me and Boxcar Marketing is starting to work on a number of ecommerce projects. I’m interested in how principles of Search Marketing and Direct Marketing can increase the sales rates, impression and visibility of a site.
1:00pm-4:30pm
Search and Social Media Tactics and Case Studies with Aaron Kahlow, Online Marketing Summit, and Hallie Janssen, Anvil Media Inc
Afternoon Session Only $495.
Social media gets a lot of attention but I don’t think that Search should be left by the wayside. This session promises lessons on Integrated Search, Social Media and Website best practices from the trenches of the world’s leading brands to the local business. Stories and case studies are always interesting to me.
9:00am-10:00am
Keynote Speaker, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, is great to listen to and inspirational. Get up and go to the keynote.
10:30am-11:30am
Search & Measurement Track
Always be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times
Rising costs and shrinking marketing budgets are never going away, nor is increasing demand for accountability. This means you can’t afford not to test, whether it’s A/B or multivariate testing. If you don’t know where to begin, Bryan Eisenberg is the perfect guy to tell you. I find his work exemplary and would love to attend this session.
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc, go look him up. Trying searching (lol).
11:45am-12:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Successful Site Architecture
I spend a lot of time talking about site architecture with designers and developers. Successful architecture, such as specific page elements and design technologies, affect organic search rankings. Directory, file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage—do you know how these affect the ability for customers to find your site?
1:45pm-2:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Turn Brain Science into Bucks: Incorporating Persuasive Messaging into Your Content Strategy
Oooo, who doesn’t like the brain and its inner workings. At Boxcar Marketing we are constantly thinking about Twitter, white papers, optimized web pages, blog posts, and any other possible opportunity to help our clients capture the attention of prospective buyers, open up communication with customers, build strong b2b and b2c relationships as well as c2c relationships. I think the showcase of online content campaigns and strategies would be very interesting given the social proof, neuroscience, and psychology twist the speakers will provide.
Moderator: Greg Jarboe, President & Co-Founder, SEO-PR
Speakers: Graeme McLaughlin, Manager Digital Marketing, British Columbia Automobile Association and Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO, SuccessWorks
3:00pm-4:00pm
Search & Community Track
Stop the Presses! How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry
Publishers absolutely need to know how to leverage SEO and drive traffic to their sites. I can’t talk about this enough so it would be great to hear someone else’s perspective.
4:30pm-5:30pm
Search & Measurement Track
Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition
Bryan Eisenberg, I’m a fan. I’d be back to hear Bryan speak in this session on metrics, usability and persuasion. Plus it ties into the A/B test in the earlier session. The big sell: “This session will instruct you on how to identify the critical barriers to success on the sites selected and how this team of experts would go about fixing them in less than 48 hours.” I hope someone will share notes here.
Moderator: Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO, http://Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.
Ethan Giffin, CEO, Groove Commerce
Day 2 and 3 thoughts coming up …
