The Big Wave Blog

Reporting from Santa Clara, where Big Wave Bloggers are having a radical time! We’ve attended some very education sessions, toured Yahoo, socialized with fellow searchers… and we’re just getting started. Here’s a recap of the official experience so far.

Keynote:
Search in the Past, Present and Future

The event was off to an exiting start with AC/DC blaring from the speakers. Danny Sullivan began SMX West 2008 by focusing the keynote on how search, searchers and SERP pages have evolved over time.

Here is the breakdown according to Danny:

Search 1.0 focused on keyword research and including targeted keyword phrases in meta tag and website content.

Search 2.0 introduced the importance of off-page factors, such as link analysis and user click-through rate (CTR).

Search 3.0 (which we are currently in) displays blended results on the SERP, meaning that search engines are now including images, video, blogs, and product search listings for every search.

Search 4.0 will be the era of personalized search, with results based on your past and present search history, as well as CTR history.

Session 1:
Blended Search Results

Blended Search was up next. Blended search results are a combination of video, images, blogs, and news listings displayed on the SERP. Traditional SERPs offered only traditional webpage listings. Blended search, together with local search, changes the scope of traditional SEO campaigns.

Each engine has unique elements associated with its blended search results. Here are the tips given by each search engine on what to do to gain maximum exposure:

Google:

• Caption website images
• Submit sitemap to Google video
• Create a local business listing
• Upload inventory into Google Product Search
• Use Google Blog Search

Yahoo:

• Create Local Business Listings
• Use Yelp.com to boost local search rankings
• Upload inventory into Yahoo Shopping, Travel, etc.
• Caption website images

MSN/Live:

• Create a local business listing
• Upload product catalog

Session 2
Pay Per Click: Decrypting Quality Score

PPC has matured beyond setting up an AdWords account and getting clicks. Google is not only controlling spam in web results, but also is serious about cleaning up PPC spam.

Here are some of the Quality Score highlights we picked up from this session:

• Reasons for low quality score are page factors, such as misleading content or irrelevant pages.
• Placement and CPC are based on quality score.
• Your minimum bids are determined by your ad quality and relevance.
• Google can “kill” your campaign by increasing your CPC to unbearable levels.
• AdWords sandbox is here! Your campaign is not going to take off if it is not set up and maintained properly.

Google is serious about its SERP quality on both the organic (SEO) and paid (PPC) sides. Ways to game the system using PPC are getting fewer by the day.

Google has to defend their online revenue and keep search results healthy. Shareholders want results, dammit! What would you do in a situation like that?

Session 3:
Creating Personas to Better Target Clients

This session concentrated on creating personas for paid search and website conversion.

Since emotions are the major driving force behind human search patterns, creating personas is increasingly important in determining the psychographics of a client’s target market. Personas include detailed information about your potential customers. The following is a simple example.

Persona Code Name: Jane
Jane is middle-aged mother of 2 living in the Midwest. She works full-time as an Account Executive for a medium-sized ad agency. She makes $55,000/year and needs to find balance between family and work. Her children attend public school and are very active in after-school extracurricular activites, which include basketball, music lessons and church groups.

Here is a list of sites that will help you create client personas:

• compete.com
• quantcast.com
• adlab.msn.com
• prizm: charitas.com