To wrap up 2008, Bruce, Susan and Virginia look back at the big stories of the year. The recession of the past year forced out jobs and shifted marketing budgets. Yahoo almost merged with Microsoft but ended up struggling solo. Google released a mobile platform, Android, as well as a mobile AdWords program for the iPhone and Android devices. Social media also reached a new level of popularity this year and the search was on for a way to monetize social networks.

Barry Schwartz, editor of Search Engine Roundtable, news editor of Search Engine Land and CEO of RustyBrick, is today’s guest on the show. He talks to Virginia about the developments of 2008, including his favorite conferences, the ongoing black hat/white hat debate, link buying and engagement. Barry has reported on the search industry for more than five years and stands as an expert in the history and developments of search.

Bruce, Susan and Virginia finish off the show with Bruce’s industry predictions for 2009. During his PubCon interview with Mike McDonald of WebProNews, Bruce explained his theory of how personal, behavioral and intent-based search will cause a devaluation of rankings as an SEO metric. In his follow-up interview with WPN’s Abby Johnson during SES Chicago, Bruce stood behind his earlier statements and explained how the right tools can help in the changing search landscape.

This week’s episode of SEM Synergy features an extended interview with Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team. As a major spokesperson for Google within the SEO community, Matt often speaks at conference panels and is interviewed by industry publications throughout the year. As the New Year approaches, Virginia sits down with Matt to get a picture of search in 2009. They cover increasingly important algorithm factors, Web 2.0 technologies that Google is working toward indexing, how purchased links are handled, spam concerns, the dropping value of rankings, and upcoming online trends.

Bruce and Susan are very interested in Matt’s comments on spam, prompting Bruce to dedicate a show segment to spam in early January. Another standout is Matt’s interest in mobile search, with AdWords Mobile Ads, the Google iPhone application and voice search capability, and Google’s open mobile platform Android pointing to how necessary it is that SEOs embrace mobile search optimization.

Focusing on conversions and conversion tracking, Michael Terry, Virginia Nussey and Maryann Robbins discuss the importance of landing page optimization. An optimized landing page is essential to getting clicks, let alone conversions. First impressions have a big impact in whether or not the visitor will stay or leave. A strong call to action in an easy-to-scan format are key. Be sure to test, but don’t over do it. You also do not want to ask for more information than is necessary, because every additional piece of info you request could cause a user to bail altogether.

Lauren Vacarello, founder of Internet marketing consultant firm lvlogic.com, talks to Virginia about the challenges of turning traffic into conversions. From identifying abandonment points to effective design elements to the best tools available, Lauren gives listeners lots to consider when trying to increase conversions. Tracking offline conversions and starting your conversion tracking program are also discussed.

Then Michael and Maryann return to look at conversion tracking for SEO. When you find out where traffic is leaving your site, you can make changes to increase the time spent on the site and the number of pages viewed. Some conversion tracking tools include Google Analytics, ClickTracks, WebTrends, Urchin, SiteMeter and Extreme Tracking.

Returning last week from SES San Jose, Bruce, Susan and Virginia consider the highlights of the conference. Strong sessions, constant networking, and great opportunities for visibility were the norm. Whether listening to experienced SEOs debate tactics in the conference hall or over dinner, the Internet marketing action never slowed.

While at SES, Virginia got a chance to talk to Live Search Webmaster Center Program Manager Jeremiah Andrick. Jeremiah gave his insight into the improved functionality of the recent Webmaster Tools update and explained how by supporting the online publishing community Live Search is helping the end user gain access to the best content available.

Then Susan and Virginia give some suggestions for ways to direct search engine bots on your site. When search engine bots visit your site, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to crawl and index your pages. Effective bot herding can be achieved through a site map, robots.txt file, Meta tags and nofollow attributes.

The hosts of SEM Synergy report live from SMX Advanced in Seattle, WA. Bruce Clay, Inc. sent a group to the conference and exhibition, including blogger-extraordinaire Lisa Barone, new writer and radio show coordinator Virginia Nussey, senior account analyst Gary Luke, the director of the new East Coast office Chris Hart, and of course, Bruce Clay.

The SEO and blogger known as Graywolf, Michael Gray, took a few minutes out of his schedule Tuesday for an interview. Michael was a speaker on two panels at the conference: Bot Herding and Give It Up. On the show he shares his perspective on how NOT to implement social media campaigns and the common mistakes he sees in the field.

Then Virginia sat down with Derrick Wheeler, Senior SEO Architect for Microsoft, about how he oversees the thousands of Microsoft sites. He explains how his team manages best practices, selects tools, creates reporting guidelines, and maintains quality standards for Microsoft.com sites.

Bruce and Robert start off the show revealing some of the strategy applied to PPC campaigns at Bruce Clay, Inc. From conversion data to keyword selection, PPC campaigns should work together with SEO campaigns. Our hosts give away some of their tricks to avoiding non-converting clicks and choosing the words that bring your company into the users’ line of sight. Bruce explains what he sees as the conversion challenges of PPC, from branding to bidding.

Following up on this topic, Bruce talks to Dr. Ralph Wilson about his latest book, the third edition of “How to Develop a Landing Page“. Dr. Wilson is a veteran expert in the Internet marketing space, having edited and published the weekly email newsletter Web Marketing Today since 1995. His new book covers the customer research, copywriting, design, tracking and testing involved in crafting powerful landing pages.

In a special report to SEM Synergy, Bruce Clay, Inc. IT Manager Aaron Landerkin gives Bruce and the audience a rundown of the Omniture training he recently attended. As an authorized Omniture sales and support agency, our team prepares to master the full offerings of the Web analytics program and Aaron fills us in on some of the key tools and data offered by Omniture.