SMX East Agenda – Day 1 – October 5, 2009
Expo Hall Hours: 1:00pm – 7:00pm

SMX Boot Camp Track

SMX Boot Camp: Paid Search Fundamentals – Paid search allows you to generate traffic from search engines by purchasing ads, usually on a cost-per-click (CPC) / pay-per-click (PPC) basis. This session covers the basics of how to purchase placement from the major search engines, including best practices for success with your ads.

Analytics & Conversion Track

Web Analytics You Should Know – This session covers top items you should be tracking in web analytics as they relate to search marketing, along with tips and tools.

Local & Mobile Search
Track Sponsor: 15miles

Mobile Search Ads – Haven’t done mobile search ads? You might be missing out on a growing market! This session looks at mobile paid search opportunities that exist and how search marketers may want to approach them.

SMX Advanced Track

Revisiting PageRank Sculpting & Siloing – In June, Google stated that using nofollow to "sculpt" or flow more PageRank to links you favor no longer worked. Always a debated tactic in terms of usefulness, the change still has some advanced SEOs wondering if they need to reduce links on all their pages overall, to make up for nofollow no longer working as in the past. This session examines the issue.

SMX Boot Camp Track

SMX Boot Camp: Keyword Research Tools & Techniques – The first step to success with any marketing campaign is to know your message. With search marketing, that means knowing the search terms that are being used by your target audience. Understand what they’re searching for, and you can tune-in to their traffic via search engines. This session covers tools and techniques of performing keyword research.

Analytics & Conversion Track

Actionable PPC Insights From Analytics Data – In this session, you’ll learn how to tap into your web analytics data to get more out of your paid search campaigns.

Local & Mobile Search
Track Sponsor: 15miles

Mobile Search Apps & Opportunities – Need to search for something? There’s an app for that! A large variety of them for a wide range of needs. This session looks at popular search apps on different devices, how they gather data and opportunities they offer to marketers.

SMX Advanced Track

Duplicate Content Issues: The Search Engine Edition – What’s the best way to deal with duplicate content issues? In this session, search engine representatives offer direct advice including tips on the new canonical tag.

SMX Boot Camp Track

SMX Boot Camp: Copywriting For Search Success – It’s pretty simple. Want to be found for certain words? It helps to actually use those words in your web pages! This session covers the importance of textual content to search engines and how with some forethought, you can create HTML title tags and body copy that works to generate search traffic yet which also pleases your human visitors.

Analytics & Conversion Track

Actionable SEO Insights From Analytics Data – In this session, you’ll learn how to tap into your web analytics data to get more out of your SEO efforts.

Local & Mobile Search
Track Sponsor: 15miles

Ranking Tactics For Local Search – This session looks at cutting edge tactics that work to drive traffic from local listings, plus highlights research to predict where things may be going.

SMX Advanced Track

Amazing PPC Tactics – What’s hot and happening with paid search? This session will wow you with some new ideas for your PPC campaigns!

SMX Boot Camp Track

SMX Boot Camp: Link Building Fundamentals – Links are the way search engines made the great leap forward from Search 1.0 to 2.0. They remain one of the most important factors influencing rankings. This session covers how search engines perform link analysis to rank pages and how to increase your traffic by building quality links in an appropriate fashion.

Analytics & Conversion Track

Increasing Conversions Through Better Usability – Are you missing out on sales because of poor usability? This session looks at how improving your site visitors’ experience can increase conversions.

Local & Mobile Search
Track Sponsor: 15miles

Maps, Maps, Maps! – This session looks at how the mapping & local seach services work from the three major search engines. Search representatives will share insights and tips for performing better.

SMX Advanced Track

Trademarks & Paid Search: How Have Things Changed? – Google’s shifted its policy recently to be more liberal about using trademarks in search ads. Meanwhile, new lawsuits and concerns have also been emerging. This session revisits the trademark landscape to see what’s allowed, what’s changed and what might come.

Keynote – Ben Huh, CEO Cheezburger Network
The Cheezburger Network runs more than 20 sites, including I Can Has Cheezburger? and FAIL Blog. Their network is a poster child for how to take a viral site and build it into a sustained business. Ben Huh "Chief Cheezeburger", talks about tapping into memes, viral content and crowd-sourcing for long term success. With minimum of FAILing.

Internet Marketer’s Charity Party

Join us for the internet marketing charity party and help support a great cause.

An open bar will be provided as well as a raffle and the opportunity to meet internet marketers from around the world! All money donated will be given to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. 100% of your $50 entrance fee goes to this charity.

General

Keynote – What’s Next In Search: The Bigwig Crystal Ball Panel – You’ve survived the economic meltdown, and now the search landscape is consolidating and transforming with seismic changes on both the paid and organic sides of the equation. Will Google’s “caffeine” update radically alter the way you approach SEO? Will the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft open up a new, viable alternative for search advertisers? Will privacy advocates succeed in enacting legislation that limits targeting options? Treat yourself to one of SMX’s world famous breakfast buffets and join us for this no-holds-barred, no-subject-taboo romp through the hot-button issues with some of the sharpest minds in search marketing.

SEO Track

SMX Boot Camp: Search Engine Friendly Web Design – "I’m not designing my site for search engines," is a common designer objection to SEO suggestions. But when search engines collectively have more users than either Internet Explorer or Firefox, how can you afford to ignore how they interact with your site. Search engines are like the third major browser, and if your site breaks for them, it breaks for all those potential visitors from search engines. Search engine friendly sites aren’t hard to create and can be attractive to both search engines and human visitors at the same time. Learn more in this session.

Real Time Search & International Track

Real Time Search: Opportunity Or Hype? – Everyone seems to be talking about "real time" search, but what does that really mean? This session sets some definitions, looks at leading players and outlines opportunities for marketers.

Video, Ecommerce & Blended Search Track

Ecommerce Search Marketing Tactics – This session looks at a variety of tips and tactics to help retailers and ecommerce merchants do well in search results.

Ad Agencies Track

When An Agency Just Won’t Do – For some companies, the search challenge requires building sophisticated systems far beyond the typical agency competency. Learn how these companies build an internal competency and scalable technology infrastructure to service thousands of small and midsize businesses.

Research & Reviews Track

Proven Tactics For Targeting Local Searchers – Shoppers continue to use a variety of online and offline resources to find local business information, according to the third annual TMPDM/15miles Local Search Usage Study conducted by comScore. This session explores the findings of that study, confirming that consumers do a majority of research online, but continue to make purchases offline. Key insights include where and how search marketers should focus their local marketing campaigns for maximum impact.

SEO Track

Ask The Search Engines: Best Practices Edition – In this session, search engine engineers and representatives share their most important takeaways and tips for those hoping to do better in traffic, plus there’s lots of time devoted to open Q&A.

Real Time Search & International Track

Iran & Michael Jackson: What Marketers Can Learn From How Consumers Search For Current Events – A major news event is unfolding. In the old days, you’d do a web search and get back stale results. Today, there are many choices. Twitter can give you "real time" results; news search gives you a delay but a more coherent picture while web search blends news content along with fresher web listings. How are consumers reacting, and what’s the opportunity for marketers, when it comes to breaking news.

Video, Ecommerce & Blended Search Track

Pumping Up YouTube – YouTube is the leading online video destination for the web, which makes it in turn the leading video search engine. Plus, YouTube content is widely distributed in search results elsewhere, including those of its owner, Google. This session looks specifically at tips and tactics for doing well with YouTube.

Ad Agencies Track

Search Marketing & The Ad Agency – Search marketing remains the relative newcomer to the ad agency world, and not always a welcome one. This session look at how agencies are integrating search into their operations — or outsourcing for support.

Research & Reviews Track

The Interplay of Social Media & Paid Search – It seems obvious that consumer exposure to social media has affected search behavior, but until now no formal research has confirmed this. This session presents the results of a study of paid search and social media, examines the correlation between such exposure and the purchase funnel, and offers further insights for marketers into the interplay between the two.

SEO Track

Ask The SEOs – PowerPoint Free! Put your questions about SEO to our panel of experts and get answers about ranking and crawling issues.

Real Time Search & International Track

Paid Search & International Issues – There are customers for you outside the US, and this session provides an overview of key tips and tactics for reaching out to them through paid search.

Video, Ecommerce & Blended Search Track

Video Search Marketing Beyond YouTube – Our "Pumping Up YouTube" session focused on the most popular video search service, but it’s not the only one. This session looks at other types of video search marketing opportunties out there.

Ad Agencies Track

Case Study: Integrating & Measuring Search As Part Of The Marketing Mix – Talk, talk, talk about the need to integrate search into a regular marketing campaign. This session gets past the talk and shows you how it was done the right way, in a case study.

Research & Reviews Track

Social Media Clinic – This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their questions about reaching communities at social media sites by going live to the web to seek answers and examples.

SEO Track

Ask The Link Builders – PowerPoint Free! Put your questions about link building and external linking issues to our panel of link building experts.

Real Time Search & International Track

SEO & International Issues – TBA

Video, Ecommerce & Blended Search Track

Universal & Blended Search Opportunities – One of the most popular ways people encounter “vertical” or specialized search results is through “blended results” or “Universal Search,” as Google calls its system. Blending mixes in results from news search, blog search, shopping search, local search, video search and more into the “regular” result page. This session looks at how to tap into that opportunity.

Ad Agencies Track

The Cross Media Attribution Battle – Did that lead come from search? Or whas it PR driven? Or did it come from a traditional branding campaign? Who gets the credit? How do you divide it up? This session looks at the challenges in apportioning credit, necessary to better apportion budgets.

Research & Reviews Track

Social Media Clinic – This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their questions about reaching communities at social media sites by going live to the web to seek answers and examples.

Evening Forum With Danny Sullivan
The audience is the panel in this session. Search marketers share thoughts, ideas and knowledge. The session is moderated by Search Engine Land editor-in-chief Danny Sullivan, and the audience shapes the agenda.

Social Media Track

Facebook Marketing Tactics – This session takes a close look at Facebook and how search marketers can tap into the opportunties it offers.

In House Track

Bringing SEO In House: How To Be Successful! – Thinking about bringing SEO in-house? Learn what it takes, challenges you’ll face, how to structure the team, the resources to use and how to ease the transition.

Technical SEO Track

Diagnosing Technical SEO Issues – Site isn’t being indexed fully? Experience a huge drop in rankings or traffic? This session provides a step by step checklist to help developers or others diagnose site issues and ensure they’re following best technical practices in SEO. Programmed by Jane & Robot.

Paid Search Track

Search Meet Display; Display Meet Search – Search and display ads are two entirely different creatures, yet web surfers see them both — and they’re getting more connected. This session looks at ways each are being used to reinforce each other.

Clinic Track

PPC Tune-up Clinic with the SMX Mechanics – Just like your favorite old car, PPC campaigns can use a tune-up every now and then to keep them running well. In this hands-on clinic, our certified (and certifiable!) SMX PPC Mechanics will offer you their best expert advice on your PPC ads, bidding tactics, or anything else on your mind. Bring your toughest PPC questions! Based loosely on the hilarious jovial NPR radio show, Car Talk, this session is guaranteed to be as fun as it is informative!

Social Media Track

Twitter Marketing Tactics – This session takes a close look at Twitter and how search marketers can tap into the opportunties it offers.

In House Track

Bringing PPC In House: How To Be Successful! – Considering in-house PPC at your company? In this session you’ll hear from the people who do PPC in-house, what works, the resources they use and how bring PPC in-house without a hitch.

Technical SEO Track

Dealing With Domain Names, URLs, Parameters & All That Jazz – Subdomains or subdirectories? Are tracking parameters a problem for search engines? Keywords in the URL make a difference? How about the "level" of a page — is "deep" in a site bad? This session focuses on technical SEO questions of this nature and provides answers. Programmed by Jane & Robot.

Paid Search Track

The PPC Buying Cycle & "Head" Versus "Tail" Terms – Do people search more broadly at first and then narrow down to specific terms? If so, are you crediting "head" terms appropriately? This session looks at the buying cycle from a keyword and paid search perspective.

Clinic Track

Link Building Clinic – his interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their questions about link building by going live to the web to seek answers and examples.

Social Media Track

Social Media, Search & Reputation Management – Trying to deal with a reputation management issue? Social media sites offer a key opportunity to influence search results. This session looks at the role they can play.

In House Track

Managing Search Across Business Units – Enterprise level organizations have unique search marketing challenges; one of them is managing SEO and PPC across many business units and on a large scale. Learn how to manage the different stakeholders, gain buy-in, evaluate SEO across the organization and more.

Technical SEO Track

Pumping Up WordPress For SEO – WordPress is an incredibly popular blogging platform and CMS system. This session shows you how to quickly tune WordPress with plugins and settings to get the most out of technical SEO. Programmed by Jane & Robot.

Paid Search Track

Ask The Paid Search Buyers – In this session, search marketers take questions from the audience about paid search.

Clinic Track

SEO Site Clinic II – This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their web sites live to provide general feedback about improving them to gain more traffic from search engines. This Clinic is also offered at 4:45pm – 6:00pm on Oct 6.

Social Media Track

Analytics For Social Media – Trying to understand how your social media campaign is going? Standard web analytics tools might not be enough. This session looks at some specialized tools to consider.

In House Track

How To Solve Your Top In House Challenges & Obstacles – In this session, you’ll learn how to deal with some the biggest challenges in-house search marketers face by people who have been in your shoes and have overcome those challenges.

Technical SEO Track

CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & SEO – This session looks CSS, AJAX and Web 2.0 dynamic design techniques that can cause search engine indexing and ranking issues, with solutions to consider. Programmed by Jane & Robot.

Paid Search Track

Ask The Paid Search Reps – In this session, representatives from the major search ad networks take questions from the audience about paid search.

Clinic Track

Twitter Clinic – This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their questions about reaching their audience and the opportunities available at Twitter by going live to the web to seek answers and examples.