This month, world news has intersected with the search engine marketing industry more than usual. Bruce Clay, Susan and Virginia start off the show by reviewing recent search headlines with far-reaching implications for Internet marketers. A devastating earthquake in Haiti last week catalyzed a global effort to provide relief and rescue to the rubble-stacked nation. Relief organizations were able to raise funds with unprecedented success by allowing people to make donations through text messages and by spreading the word through social media channels. In other news, Google and the Chinese government have been publically at odds this week after Google announced it had been attacked and robbed of intellectual property, with the Chinese government being the primary suspect. Google has said that it will pull its services from the country if it can not come to an agreement about censorship.


Then Bryan Eisenberg, best-selling author of several books on Internet marketing and number five on Invesp.net’s list of the most influential online marketers of 2009, talks to Virginia about his recommendations for Internet marketing in the new year. Bryan shares his prediction for the marketing skills that will be crucial in the coming year, as well as his observations of the increasing mainstream recognition of conversion optimization. If you like what you hear from Bryan, be sure to check out his new conversion optimization certification program with Market Motive as well as his keynote presentation at SES London next month, 21 Secrets of Top Converting Web Sites.

As Bryan sees it, the copywriter is going to be an irreplaceable part of any marketing team over the next decade. Susan, Virginia and SEO analyst Maryann Robbins take a look at ways to brainstorm new content ideas as well as ways to identify content holes on a site. Maryann suggests repurposing correspondence with customers when answering frequently asked questions. Virginia likes to expand upon the company story in order to convey personality and connect with the audience. Susan recommends including basic or introductory content that helps researchers and those new to the product or service.

Bruce Clay’s annual SEO preview features impressively accurate predictions for the year ahead. Bruce’s predictions for Internet marketing in 2010 will be published in the January edition of the SEOToolSet Newsletter. On today’s episode of SEM Synergy, Bruce gives a sneak peak of his 2010 predictions. Bruce expects to see the online sector leading the way to economic recovery in March.

Update: Bruce’s predictions for SEO in 2010 are now available.

Then Paula Allen, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey look at the 2010 digital marketing trends compiled by Last Exit. Some trends excite the hosts, while others terrify them. Will social media come to replace e-mail? Will social media become integrated around the Web? Are info graphics the big thing in 2010? Time will tell.

The co-hosts wrap up the show with advice on fighting for and setting an SEO budget for the new year. One of the first steps is getting executive-level buy-in. By doing showing the potential for return on investment and by pulling in as much data as is available, the need for a company to invest in SEO can be made clear and compelling. Company data about the benefit of current PPC marketing can also help to demonstrate the advantages of search engine marketing.

There are a number of programs unique to each search engine — each offering their own advantages to marketers. At Yahoo!, Search Submit gives search marketers a paid inclusion method with many benefits. Paid inclusion and submission is the topic of the show, and Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off by looking at why marketers will appreciate the advantages of Search Submit Basic and Search Submit Pro with Yahoo! The high level of control in listings, the guaranteed findability of pages and the built-in analytics reporting are just a few of those unique benefits.

Amy Figliuolo, vice president of sales at search marketing firm Position Technologies, talks to Virginia about the Search Submit programs. Amy previously worked at Yahoo! Search Marketing as well as Overture, so she has an experienced view of the way SSP can be leveraged for best effect. Her company is also the only marketing firm to offer Search Submit Pro Self Serve. Amy explains to Virginia what marketers can expect from the program, what kinds of companies should consider each program, as well as the limitations of SSP.

Closing out the show, Susan, Virginia and Michael consider Web site submission at locations across the Web. Best of the Web and the Open Directory Project are two common Internet directories to consider. Local listing services require the authentication of submitted sites, and are among the most important submission opportunities available to small and local businesses.

Real-time search is a buzzword that’s been getting a lot of action in the search industry lately. Bruce, Susan and Virginia discuss what real-time search is, how it can be used as a tool, and whether or not a real-time search optimization strategy exists. They also look at real-time search in the spectrum of search engines and whether or not Web search might be influenced by real-time search.

SEO and social media marketer Dana Lookadoo then talks to Virginia about how to use real-time search as a marketing advantage. She explains the value of real-time search for individual users as well as businesses and gives her tips on how to optimize content for real-time search. Dana has also written about the usefulness of lifestreams on her blog. In a similar way, a lifestream is a window into the interests of an audience and can also help businesses attract engagement.

Along with real-time search making the news of late, some other headlines have also made a search splash. The FTC is modifying its guidelines to require bloggers to disclose any payment received. Yahoo’s new product Search Pad lets users take notes, save and share searches. And the announcement that several Google Apps were coming out of beta was the source of a few chuckles.

A reputable marketing intelligence agency, Interpublic, has forecasted that search advertising will be the only major marketing channel to make gains in market size this year in its report MAGNA Media Advertising Forecast (pdf). Today’s show is about online advertising with a focus on pay per click (PPC). Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show with a look at some recently launched online ad opportunities, Google Affiliate Network Product Ads and Yahoo My Display Ads.

Heather Lutze is the author of The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing. With the search advertising industry expected to grow, it’s helpful to have a plain-English resource that can help SEM students hit the ground running. Heather talks to Virginia about organizing campaigns to target consumers at various stages of the buying cycle, preparing for seasonal PPC campaigns, and some other lessons, rooted in more than a decade of experience, that Heather shares in The Findability Formula.

At Bruce Clay, Inc., SEM analyst Jim Stratton troubleshoots and manages PPC campaigns everyday. He sits down with Susan and Virginia to explain his strategy for theming keyword ad groups. By theming ad groups within campaigns, a marketer can better see the performance of individual ad groups and more easily identify areas for improvement. Siloing is a cornerstone of BCI’s SEO methodology, and a theme-aligned structure can also work for paid search campaigns.

Last month a Microsoft executive made a prediction. “From a Microsoft view, we don’t believe budgets will go up any time soon, and I’m talking the next three years,” said John Mangelaars, vice president, EMEA, consumer and online, Microsoft. In deliberating this possibility, Bruce, Susan and Virginia agree that ad budgets are still in flux, however, they’re not convinced that online ad spend will drop over the long term. Giving Mangelaars the benefit of the doubt, the hosts concede his prediction may be possible if he’s speaking about one particular online channel. To gauge the direction of online ad budgets, they take a look at a report of expected ad budgets in the next year.

Colby Atwood, president of the media research company Borrell Associates, talks to Virginia about his organization’s findings the subject. Earlier this year, Colby wrote that local online ad spending is expected to “level off and then start declining.” But it’s not because businesses are abandoning in the medium. Marketers are still very interested in the online space, but advertising isn’t the only way to reach consumers. An ad can act like an initial introduction, so once both parties know each other, introductions aren’t needed. Relationship building and keeping customers happy remain the long-term areas of focus. Another report they review is Economics of Search Advertising, which examines how the search ad sales model can be improved.

From the Economics of Search Marketing

In all of this, it’s important to look at a metric that helps search marketers make informed decisions about ad spend: a customer’s lifetime value. Bruce Clay, Inc. SEM analyst Jim Stratton talks to Susan and Virginia about analyzing the lifetime value of pay per click (PPC) customers — a metric that can help a marketer optimize their search ad budget. If you know your average customer’s lifetime value for your business, you’ll know how much you can spend on an ad that caters to him. If a customer comes to your site from a search ad and leaves happy, there’s a good chance he’ll be back in the future.

Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, was launched June 1, and in the weeks since its release, Bing has been the source of much discussion. Bruce, Susan and Virginia talk about Bing’s growing search share, findings of an eye tracking study on Bing results, and some initial analysis on the quality of Bing results. Based on Bruce, Susan and Virginia’s initial experiments, Bing results have improved since the days of Live Search. The name of the new engine also conjures up some interesting images and ideas from the hosts.

Bing director Stefan Weitz is today’s guest, and he talks to Virginia about how webmasters and SEOs can optimize for Bing, Microsoft’s strategy for growing search share, and why Bing was developed as a “decision engine.” Webmasters and SEOs will be pleased with the fact that sites have a better chance to rank for broad terms since Bing’s categorized results allow users to refine queries from the results page.

Then Susan, Michael and Virginia look at some news stories because Bing wasn’t the only thing making headlines in the search space. Google Squared gets a rather low review from the hosts, while Google Wave merely confuses them regarding what it will be used for. Then they discuss the newly reported behavior of the nofollow link element, the sole subject of next week’s episode, which premiers June 24.

Search Engine Optimization All-In-One For Dummies has hit book store shelves. Bruce and Susan authored the desk reference guide that combines ten books in one. They explain the purpose of the book and share their experience of working on a comprehensive technical guide. New and experienced search engine marketers alike can benefit from this easy-to-read guide to search engine optimization.

Christopher Hart, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s director, Eastern Region Operations, then talks to Virginia about SEOToolSet Training on the East Coast. During April, Chris and Bruce presented the course on the East Coast for the first time. Chris discusses the complementary nature of SEO All-In-One For Dummies and the training course material, illustrating the many ways the company shares its methodology and knowledge. SEOToolSet Training will return to New York June 9-11.

To showcase the content of the book with a little more detail, Susan, Maryann and Virginia take an in-depth look at one of the subjects covered in the book. One of the ten books is dedicated to competitive analysis, a corner stone of search engine optimization. Researching your competition will give you an idea of keywords to target. You can also see what they’re doing right that you may want to do as well, and what they’re doing wrong, which you should avoid.

Trends are a useful gauge which help observant businesses adjust their strategies to the current times. Bruce, Robert and Virginia look at a report by Efficient Frontier that analyzed Q1 2009 for changes in consumer search behavior and the performance of key metrics, such as click-through-rates, cost-per-click and return on investment. While not disputing the underlying data, Bruce and Robert are suspicious that the analysis is based on a false assumption of cause and effect.

Tim Kendall

Another trend Internet marketers can’t ignore is the growth of social networks. Virginia talked to Tim Kendall, director of monetization at Facebook, about Facebook Advertising. Tim explains the benefits of a demand generation ad platform compared to the demand fulfillment model of search advertising. He also talks about Facebook’s ad serve algorithm, how the quality of ads mean both advertisers and users are winners, and how the company is working to scale the ad platform in the coming year.

We’d be remiss if no mention was made of the current economic trends and the effect they have on our industry. Consumers are paying close attention to the value they receive through their purchases and partnerships. It’s worth considering how you can add value to your services so that you stand apart from competition and keep customers happy. Be proactive in getting client feedback and consider additional services you may be able to provide that would add value to your relationship.

Photo by Bas van den Beld

Live from the search marketing industry conference Search Engine Strategies New York, Bruce and Virginia are in the WebmasterRadio booth on the expo hall floor. They open the show by giving listeners a feel for the energy and expectations of the conference. Bruce also gives a teaser of what attendees can expect at Friday’s SES affiliated SEO Training.

Then Bas van den Beld of SearchCowboys.com sits down to talk to Virginia about his perceptions of the show from a blogger’s perspective. As a search blogger based in the Netherlands, Bas has blogged search industry conferences in the past but SES New York was the first event he attended in the United States. He explains how the New York conference compares to international conferences such as SES Amsterdam and SMX London.

Wrapping up the live show, Virginia talks to Mark Knowles, CEO of Pixelsilk, an SEO-friendly CMS. Mark talks about the necessity of customizable content management systems and the feedback he’s gotten on Pixelsilk. They also talk about the after-hours events at the conference and the expectations he has for the show.