After 8 months away from the microphone, Bruce Clay, Inc. is excited to be back on WebmasterRadio.fm with our weekly broadcast and podcast. In the time the show has been on hiatus, Bruce Clay, Inc. has remained an active member of the Internet marketing industry, servicing clients, attending conferences, and providing training around the world as interest and understanding of SEO continues to grow. Still, much has changed since SEM Synergy last rode the airwaves, and to start the show, Bruce examines recent news stories effecting the industry, including ICANN opening generic top level domains to all options.

For our first special guest of the show we welcome Bryan Eisenberg, conversion optimization thought leader, technology and marketing analyst, conference speaker and best-selling author. Bryan and Virginia discuss a framework for thinking about CRO that Bryan calls the conversion trinity. By optimizing relevance, value and call to action, a marketer can increase the rate of conversions. A characteristic all three concepts have in common and a common theme in marketing today, Bryan says, is the focus on the users’ interests, desires and needs. Users are in charge and their needs should lead your decisions as a marketer — not your competition’s and not your own. Google seems to have hit upon this strategy in developing Google+, it’s first seemingly successful social network. Bryan believes that Google+ will find popularity because it allows users to share and gather social content in a way that they understand intuitively. He likens Facebook to AOL in an illustrative and illuminating analogy that speaks to privacy and openness demands online.

Then, Aaron, Virginia and Susan (in one of her final appearances on the show) further discuss the evolving expectation of privacy online. With Google requiring all Google+ profiles to include publicly viewable information, have we reached an age where consumers should abandon the hope for privacy on the Web? Over time there has been a gradual move toward openness on the Internet, and today the majority of users are comfortable sharing contact information and personal details in public spaces. Those who embrace the public nature of social media can build a powerful and positive online persona.

In this week’s SEM Synergy, we’re joined by Crosby Noricks, senior social media strategist for Red Door Interactive and creator of the award-winning blog, PR Couture. Bruce also talks about the new changes rolling out on Google with its Place Search, which could severely rock the search industry. In the final segment, Susan and Jessica sit down to talk about some of the things that have helped make the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog successful over the years.

In the first segment, Bruce, Susan and Jessica talk about the recent changes that are slowly rolling out by Google in the way of Google Place Search. While Google’s intent continues to be to make the SERPs more relevant for users, this update could mean big changes for search marketers, as organic listings are pushed down past the fold and replaced by local listings. What’s more, PPC ads are also being pushed down in favor of the local results map that’s typically found in the middle area of the SERP.

The guest segment welcomes Crosby Noricks of PR Couture/Red Door Interactive. Red Door Interactive is an Internet presence management firm that offers strategy for all aspects of Web marketing. PR Couture is an award-winning blog launched by Crosby in 2006 after she identified a niche that was lacking online while putting together her master’s thesis centered on public relations for the fashion industry. Crosby talks about some of the things that have contributed to the blog’s success, including social media and offline factors. She wraps up with closing remarks on what’s next once a blog has reached a certain level of success.

The last segment piggybacks off the blogging conversation with Crosby, as Susan and Jessica discuss how the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog has developed over the years and what tactics have and have not worked in making it an effective voice to be heard.

In this week’s SEM Synergy, we’re joined by Mark Knowles, president and CEO of Pixelsilk, a company providing an SEO-friendly content management system for websites. Bruce talks about the conference mayhem this time of year in the first segment, and then we sit down with some Bruce Clay, Inc. analysts to talk about recent changes to the Google AdWords keyword tool, and what that means for search marketers.

In the first segment, Bruce talk about his recent appearances at some of the more popular conferences this time of year: SMX East and SES Chicago, and his upcoming trips to ad:tech NY and PubCon. Jessica and Bruce chat about all the great feedback Bruce Clay, Inc. has been receiving on its one-day SEO training at the conferences, and then they wrap up with some special discount codes for listeners.

The second segment welcomes Mark Knowles of Pixelsilk. Mark just wrapped up Bend WebCAM in Bend, Ore., which is another newer industry conference that he was very instrumental in putting together. Now in its second year, Bend WebCAM is already attracting VIP speakers and guests. Mark tells us some of the reasons why an SEO-ready CMS for websites is so important to use in conjunction with SEO efforts. He talks about the freedom that Pixelsilk offers in its design functionality, and who is best suited for this product. In the hilarious last couple minutes of the segment, Mark tells the story of being locked out of Pixelsilk’s Twitter account, and offers a $100 gift card to Apple or Amazon to anyone who can help!

The last segment features Bruce Clay staff Susan, Scott Fowles, SEO analyst, and Bradley Leese, senior SEO analyst, discussing recent changes to the Google keyword tool. Recent changes to the tool strips the traditional data available to search marketers. Scott, Susan and Bradley discuss the impact this might have on search marketers and what other options for keyword research exist.

Search marketers are always looking for new optimization opportunities, be it through keyword research or search trends or newly identified personas, and more. Google has started a video series called Google Beat where they explain the week’s trending searches, using data from Google Insights and Google Trends. These tools are available to the public and can be used at anytime to identify upcoming popular topics worth optimizing. The videos are also further evidence of the increasingly critical need for video content online.

Google’s also on the cutting edge of SERP speed with the release of Google Instant. A predictive search engine results experience that displays results based on each additional letter typed by a searcher, Google Instant has an effect on SEM. Search suggestions will cause new keyword optimization opportunities and PPC campaigns will gravitate away from the long-tail terms. Google Instant may also reduce ORM needs as negative suggestions seem to be censored in the search enhancement.

Then Paula, Susan and Virginia return to the topic of online video to discuss technical implementation from hosting to on-page optimization. YouTube is a powerful platform for getting your video in front of viewers, but YouTube has been blamed for cannibalizing a business’s site traffic by adding additional steps to the conversion process. Some tactics to make YouTube work for a business include making the URL for the company website copyable and including an easy to see link in the description as well as posting a shorter version of a video on YouTube in order to entice viewers to see more and then including the full-length video on the business site.

With Bing now officially powering Yahoo!’s index, the question of how the partnership affects users and search engine marketers is pressing. However, there is evidence that Yahoo! will retain its own algorithm as the BOSS API remains available and the engine has maintained that it has not quit the search business. Analysts have also raised the difference between search market share and search engine yield. While Yahoo! and Bing’s partnership may consolidate the pair’s search engine market share in the engines’ competition with Google, a combined search engine yield may actually drop.

Bruce Clay and Brent Rangen at SES San Francisco

Brent Rangen, owner of Optimize Guyz and the winner of the Small Biz Discovery Contest, then talks to Virginia about his recommendations for small business SEO and his takeaways from SES San Francisco. His entry to the contest was an SEO primer that covered off-site and on-page optimization, keyword research and analytics. At SES he reported on an SEO Lab with Google’s Maile Ohye. He shares his thoughts on the multiplying effect of social media on marketing efforts and why a blog is one of the most powerful tools a business can leverage to improve their online presence.

Finally, Susan, Paula and Virginia discuss Google’s algorithm change which seeks to deliver on a user’s intent to receive multiple results from a single domain. Ian Lurie warns that webmasters should not be confident as the update only affects the strongest brands. David Harry notes that the change seems to have wiped out negative results and suggestions when brands are searched for.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt shared his vision of the future of the Internet in a keynote address for the Guardian’s Activate Summit in June. In agreement with Schmidt, Bruce, Susan and Virginia launch the show by looking at the role of mobile devices and personally targeted search and advertising and how these technologies are shaping the Web. They also dissect Schmidt’s point that personalization may narrow readers’ social views by shaping the news delivered to them and biasing their information input.

Virginia then sits down with BCI senior SEO analyst Bradley Leese to talk about his research into the differences and correlations between Google’s algorithm update Mayday and infrastructure update Caffeine. As both hit the scene around the same time, the results of each are often considered together. Whatever recent indexing and ranking changes can be attributed to, the total effect is that performance, engagement and brand consistency across the Web are more important than ever before.

As search has evolved, engagement has become an increasingly powerful factor in ranking and SERP placement. Video is a highly engaging medium that can afford brands real estate in blended SERPs. E-commerce businesses have much to gain from videos as they instill confidence and credibility in products. Video has become the second-highest priority behind social media tools for online retailers, with more than 42 percent of respondents to a survey reporting plans to add video to their site over the next 12 months.

On location at SMX West in Santa Clara, Virginia interviews three prominent personalities in the search world: Ian Lurie, Marshall Simmonds and Scott Garell.

Ian Lurie, president of Portent Interactive and co-author of Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, kicks off the show. Ian is a presenter during the session Analytics Action Plans for SEO & PPC, and he explains how to predict and pick what terms and pages to optimize for based on analytics data. He also talks about how his agency establishes trust and introduces his services to clients with his 10things small business program.

Then Marshall Simmonds, chief search strategist at the New York Times and co-founder of Define Search Strategies, then talks to Virginia about the topic of his Ignite SMX West presentation, where he muses on how history would have been different if major figures had the Internet at their disposal. He also shares a preview of his presentation on the Industrial Strength SEO panel and the challenges of enterprise search.


Finally, Scott Garell, president of Ask Networks, joins the show. As the number one brand charged with answering questions on the Web, Scott explains that Ask.com is a strong platform for advertisers. He also hints at the Q&A social community that Ask.com will be launching in the second quarter of the year. The community aims to connect experts with searchers, pointing to the abundance of information that hasn’t been published on the Web. Combining innovative technology and connections between people is Ask.com’s strategy.

At the beginning of December, personalized search was rolled out to all Google users, not just those signed in to their Google accounts. Now Web history is being gleaned through an anonymous cookie, and search activity of non-signed in users will be stored for 180 days, thereby having an effect on search results. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey consider how personalized search results affect the job of an SEO and shape users’ expectations of search results. Bruce gives his recommendations for search engine optimization in a world of personalization and intent-based targeting.


David Harry, blogger and founder of the community forum and discussion hub, SEO Dojo, has performed three rounds of research to gather data on result ranking flux due to personalization. Dave shares his analysis of the latest round of testing, and among his observations he notes the difference of results for informational and transactional searches. He also explains how SEOs might go about optimization in light of personalization. Finally, Dave puts the personalized search piece of the puzzle into a broader point of view, including the way a more powerful infrastructure like Caffeine allows broad customization of search results to occur.

Then Susan, Virginia and Michael Terry look at another recent Google implementation — real-time search results. The question of spam and low-quality information is raised, as is the shift in information gathering and consumption. Some seasoned search marketers expect real-time search results to disappear from Google in the coming months, while others see real-time search as a valuable tool for mining data online.

Ask.com is pursuing the real-time and Q&A segments of search with a new strategy and contagious excitement. In a post titled The Next Frontier in Search: Questions & Answers, Ask.com U.S. president Doug Leeds announced that the company was developing technology to better extract existing answers on the Web as well as to better find and index the source of answers not yet published. The latter will be achieved by identifying human subject matter experts that can be called upon to answer questions when they arise. Bruce Clay expresses concern over how Ask.com identifies an expert. What qualifications must be met by experts? How can webmasters and SEOs optimize their odds of being considered expert?


Doug Leeds then joins the program to answer those very questions and to explore the need for evolving technology in the question and answer space. Doug looks at the shortcomings of search in delivering answers and the different ways people approach search when looking for an answer and when researching a topic. He explains what people can do to prepare their site for Q&A search and for being considered a subject matter expert by Ask.com. Real-time question and answer capabilities through human editorial and participation is part of the strategy Ask.com is taking to evolve their search results.

While Ask.com will seek to extract answers from Web pages as they are today, Susan Esparza, Michael Terry and Virginia Nussey consider whether or not microformats could help the process. Microformats are conventions used to indicate common types of content on a Web page, such as info on events, companies, products or reviews. If a standard could be agreed upon for Q&A pairs, would search quality be improved? They consider the solution in theory but are aware that the standardization and technical requirements of new microformats aren’t a quick or nimble fix.

The third quarter of 2009 is over and many companies have released their quarterly results. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey examine the results reported by Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and IAC for a measurement of the health of the search engines and a reflection on consumer behavior. Google reported revenues of $5.94 billion for the third quarter, an increase of 7% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Yahoo!‘s net income nearly tripled to $187 million in the third quarter. Microsoft Corp.‘s stock fell 14% to $12.9 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $12.3 billion. IAC, which owns Ask.com, reported a year-over-year revenue growth of -9%.


Topher Kohan, SEO Coordinator at CNN, then talks to Virginia about the news organization’s newly redesigned Web site. One of the most notable enhancements to the design is the prominence of video, and Topher shares his thoughts on why video is such an important site element today. He also gives his tips on how to involve SEO in online initiatives from the ground up as well as how he has been able to evangelize on behalf of SEO within the large media organization.

While CNN is one of the first to focus on video integration on the site, they aren’t the only one that has prioritized videos online. TurnHere, an online video advertising and production company, recently conducted a survey on trends in online video among brands and marketing agencies. Susan doesn’t take the survey at face value because TurnHere provides online video marketing services. However, useful lessons are contained in the insights about top reasons brands develop online video and what prohibits some companies from creating online videos.