At PubCon last month, Bruce was interviewed by Mike McDonald of WebProNews. The topics Bruce talked about covered the importance of personalization, the devaluation of ranking as the prime metric for SEO, and the role of engagement objects on rankings going forward. There were a lot of people talking about Bruce’s comments, so Bruce, Susan and Virginia address the interview subjects on the show.

Then Virginia talks to Matt Inman, a Web designer and marketer who specializes in creating engaging Web content. Matt gives listeners a window into his work process for developing ideas, illustrations and quizzes. He says that quizzes are the most requested form of content that clients ask him for. He also explains how he gets his projects buzz on social media platforms like Twitter and Digg, as well as his strategy of giving designs away for free.

Susan, Michael, Maryann and Virginia then talk about engagement objects and how they play into people’s desire to see visual and interactive content. Images in search results have been found to draw more attention, and having images, videos and other non-text content on a site will improve the chances of showing up in blended search. Also, videos, games and widgets, which give users something to do on your site, may attract users to come back. Content is king, and content is more than just text.

Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show by taking a look at a recent FCC ruling to open the unused frequencies between television channels for use as a national broadband network. The fight to open the unused frequencies, known as “white space”, was championed by companies including Microsoft, Dell, Motorola and Google. The ability to extend broadband penetration to under-served areas of the company could help bring U.S. Internet users up to speed. In 2007, the U.S. was ranked fifth in the world as far as high speed Internet access.

Jon Kelly, president of SureHits, then talks to Virginia about managing PPC bids and the challenges faced by large companies. SureHits manages ad accounts within publisher networks as well as on search engines. He shares a number of recommendations, including those from his PubCon 2008 panel Large Scale Bid Management. He says that keyword buckets are not a good method of management because they don’t allow for the necessary level of granularity. He also talks about the three actions that should be part of any PPC campaign: calculate the click value, reward the user’s choice, and watch the campaign data.

Wrapping up the show, Michael joins Susan and Virginia to review industry news. The big news of the week was that Jerry Yang stepped down from the position of Yahoo CEO and will be returning to the position of chief Yahoo. Baidu was in the spotlight for including unlicensed pharmaceutical companies in results and possibly accepting money in return for boosted rankings. And in a popular move Gmail rolled out themes.

Hosts Susan Esparza, Michael Terry and Virginia Nussey open the show with a look at some of the recent search industry news. A major spam ring, thought to have at one time produced as much as one-third of email spam, was shut down last week. While Yahoo’s revenues came in flat for the third quarter, causing the company to announce it will layoff 10 percent of its staff, Google’s revenues beat expectations. The redesign of iGoogle got mixed reviews, but the addition of a broken backlinks tool in Webmaster Tools and the upgrade to Google Analytics were well received.

Then Mike Moran, co-author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, talks to Virginia about the new edition of the book and the changing online marketing space. Mike discusses many of the business aspects of implementing search marketing, such as making search marketing operational and getting buy-in. He also talks about one of the major changes in the search space that has happened since the publication of the first edition — a new opportunity for communication — social media.

Susan, Michael and Virginia discuss business strategy of search marketing. Choosing the marketing mix, having clear objectives, reporting metrics, dividing-up tasks and having a strong central team are all important to search marketing strategy.

Today’s show is all about widgets, and to start us off, Susan Esparza, Michael Terry and Virginia Nussey look at how widgets can help your business. From desktop widgets to Web widgets to mobile widgets, these portable snippets of functionality have become increasingly popular during the last year. They can generate viral buzz for your brand, creating links by entertaining consumers.

Patrick Sexton, SEM manager at We Build Pages, is a widget developer and strategy expert who writes about leveraging the medium on his blog SEOish.com. He talks to Virginia about creating a cross-platform widget strategy and the best ways to go about branding widgets. Patrick will be speaking on the Wonderful World of Widgets panel at PubCon.

Then Susan, Michael and Virginia examine some of the potential downsides of widgets, an opinion that centers on security issues and distraction tendencies. By embedding outside code into your page, users are susceptible to the third party’s prying eyes. Furthermore, as widgets become more commonplace, it’s important to remember that ad blindness symptoms can apply.

Following SMX East, Scott Polk and Virginia Nussey sit down to talk about what they learned from the conference. Scott was in the booth and found that a smile and a hello went a long way. In the session rooms, Virginia heard a lot of great information regarding personalized search, the dreaded Google monopoly and the insights into human behavior provided by searcher data.

Then Virginia talks to Brent D. Payne, SEO specialist and manager for Tribune Interactive. Brent explains his tactics for evangelism and getting buy-in, pointing out that the time and way you approach management is critical. He also points out the strengths and drawbacks of working on SEO for a large enterprise company and the social media efforts he has seen his traditional media company embrace. Before signing off, Brent talks about the Big Watah grassroots campaign and some of the lessons he took away from SMX East.

Susan Esparza then joins Virginia and Scott to take a further look at how the Big Watah event highlights the power of viral marketing. From a small buzz to a conference phenomenon, the viral tactics that took place in spreading the Big Watah meme hold lessons that companies can learn from. While this example took off almost effortlessly, it may take companies many tries before they find that perfect concept, but such an effort is more than likely worth it.

Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show with a look at the search industry news. Google recently readdressed their paid search agreement with Yahoo, claiming that the deal will not harm competition, that ad prices will not rise, and that the two search companies will not have access to the other’s user data. Yahoo is in the midst of testing a makeover to Yahoo.com and has added a music feature to search results pages. Finally, Live Search has begun integrating Powerset into search results through Freebase Answers, enhanced Wikipedia captions and improved related search suggestions.

Virginia then speaks with Martin Bowling, CTO of Vec3, about integrated marketing strategies and the strength of social media. Martin will be speaking on the Protect Your Rep panel at the Scary SEO mini-con this month, and will award the winner of a contest a free two-night stay and registration for the conference. Martin shares some of the reputation management tips he will be making on the panel, as well as his findings on Google Suggest and how the feature could be harmful to online reputations.

Following up on some of Martin’s social media recommendations, Susan, Michael and Virginia talk about some of the social media don’ts. Don’t ignore or avoid social media. Don’t keep a bare profile or fake involvement. Don’t try to control the conversation. And don’t be pushy in promoting your product or services. In social media, the key to success requires being transparent, up-front and honest about your intentions.

Visiting the Bruce Clay, Inc. offices, Kevin Ryan, global content director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch, sits down with Bruce for a conversation about highlights and lessons from SES San Jose, speaker submissions for SES Chicago, and upcoming webcasts on Search Engine Watch. Kevin also explains how the Orion panels cover high-level strategies, which help in gaining buy in from the top levels of a company.

Susan, Virginia and Michael use Kevin and Bruce’s conversation as a springboard to discuss the difference between strategy and tactics. While strategy is the overall plan devised to achieve a business goal, tactics are the tools used to perform the strategy. Susan uses the analogy of a battle, saying that if the goal is to win the war, the strategy is to send troops, and the tactics include parachuting down soldiers. Strategy is most often overlooked, even though the success of tactics may depend on a sound strategy.

Then the group takes a look at the issue of net neutrality. Net neutrality refers to the claim that everything on the Web (email, videos, Web pages) should be treated equally. Net neutrality advocates argue that ISPs should not be able to degrade or block any content or access to it on the Web. Net neutrality detractors argue that ISPs should be able to manage the Web content as the providers of Internet infrastructure. An instance of where the net neutrality debate is playing out in real life can be seen in the case of ComCast’s blocking of torrent seeding. The little-known issue of net neutrality legislation could have far-reaching effects that include changes in the way the Internet is accessed, how fast it will be, who will have access and what can be accessed.

Many of the hosts of SEM Synergy are attending SES San Jose. Live from the expo room floor, Virginia interviews three of the presenters.

Chris Winfield, President of 10e20, sits down first to talk about his presentation on Igniting Viral Marketing Campaigns. He explains what viral markeing is and the main places conversations are taking place online. He gives some ideas of good content and his tips for someone trying to start a viral marketing campaign.

Then, Cindy Krum, Director of New Media Strategies at Blue Moon Works, stops by the WebmasterRadio booth to talk about her session. Presenting on panel Death of the ‘.mobi’, Cindy explains why marketers should be interested in mobile. She talks about how mobile rankings differ, even among different mobile devices. And then she touches on the different site architecture solutions for addressing mobile search.

Wrapping up the show, Dave Snyder, Search Specialist at JRDunn.com and co-founder of Search & Social, talks about his session Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization. He explains what it is that companies can get out of SMO and where people should focus their visibility efforts. He then shares what he’s looking forward to in the search mini-con he’s organizing in October, Scary SEO.

Unfortunately, due to technical issues, this program is no longer available.

Bruce, Robert and Susan start off the show discussing link building best practices. With marketers clamoring to gain inbound links, it is important to keep in mind proper decorum when searching for linking opportunities. Basics — like being courteous, developing a relationship, and keeping messages short and sweet with proper spelling and grammar — can go a long way when requesting links from other sites.

Later, Virginia talks to two members of Bruce Clay Japan, Inc. about the Asian demand for SEO and SEM services. Harry Miyamachi, CEO, and Yoshi Akari, Strategic Planner, discuss the trade between and online transactions within Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea and India. The office, opened in May, primarily serves Japan-based global companies and international companies targeting Japan.

Then Susan and Virginia look at some of the things to keep in mind when launching an international SEO or SEM campaign. The first topic to consider is whether or not global search is a worthwhile investment, considering the extensive resources required for success, and whether your campaign will focus on SEM or SEO. They also discuss some of the technical elements of how a search engine determines the relevance of regional search results.

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.