10 Takeaways from the Seattle Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

I was fortunate enough to have the great opportunity to take part in the Seattle Search Marketing Expo held June 2-3. The event was organized by Danny Sullivan, one of the industry greats.

I think most of us left the conference wishing for a bit more ‘advanced’ content. More tactics and less conceptual/strategic knowledge… But regardless, it was an outstanding opportunity to listen to other’s perspectives, express concerns and ‘wants’ to the search engines themselves and meet the incredibly intelligent and creative people that are part of this emerging and ever-changing industry.

I attended mostly the paid track and managed to squeeze in a few organic sessions in Day 2. If I had to sum up 10 takeaways from the conference I’d have to go with…

1. With the coming of Universal Search, SEO’s MUST start thinking about how to optimize for Google News, Google Video, Google Local, Google Product Search, etc, etc. It is no longer relevant to only focus on optimizing text.
2. Social Media is here to stay, so jump onboard. The best minds in the industry strongly feel that if you aren’t embracing blogs, podcasts, social media sites, etc you will be obsolete in 5 years.
3. If you hate Google’s Quality Score, you’re not alone. This emerged as a top concern expressed in the paid sessions. There is much unhappiness by many advertisers about inflated minimum bids (though I must say I’m pro Quality Score with exception to the CTR element).
4. Automated Bid Management is not (or is?) dead? The big debate: is it ridiculous to think of bid management as only a mathematical/algorithmic task, given the qualitative factors that the search engines now factor into the equation (is dead); or do bid management tools actually free you up to focus more time on qualitative factors (is not dead)? Sorry, no conclusive winner on this one…
5. Some healthy competition is much needed in paid search. We’re all pulling for you Yahoo and MSN - but the quality of customer service and ROI just is not there yet. We’re throwing some money your way, but we’d love to throw you more if you’d make it make sense.
6. People fear Google more than ever. Google’s continuing rise to power continues to raise a lot of eyebrows and spawn conspiracy theories. Shocker.
7. Search Query reports are soon coming to Google. This was definitely one of those ‘write this down and go do it’ takeaways. If you’re using broad or phrase match this will be a useful means for refining your match types as you will now be able to determine exactly what queries are converting without having to parse log files.
8. Ask.com’s advertising platform is a viable alternative to check out. I heard several people say they’ve had some success. The fact that they were invited to participate is an indicator that they’re becoming a player.
9. Whether Matt Cutts likes it or not, buying links does work when they are relevant. Think of it as a media buy.
10. In terms of where search started and where it is going, we are still only in the 2^nd inning. This industry is changing at a rapid pace and if you’re going to stay in it be ready to be a lifelong learner and constantly adapt.