Workshops @ SMX

In-House SEO Exchange  |  Bruce Clay SEO Training  |  Advanced AdWords Training
aimClear^® Facebook Marketing Intensive @ SMX West  |  International Search Summit @ SMX West

SMX Meet & Greet

Start your SMX West experience off right! Arrive early and join us for an informal evening reception with fellow attendees, speakers and invited guests. This event is open to All Access Pass holders. Stay tuned for details and location.

SMX Boot Camp Track

SMX Boot Camp: Keyword Research & Copywriting For Search Success (#smx #11A)
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. And though it sounds obvious, 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 which also pleases your human visitors.

Trends In SEO Track

Getting Personal, Part 1: How Google & Bing Personalize With Social Connections (#smx #11B)
The “new normal” search results are personalized. By default, both Google and Bing tailor results based on things they know about the searcher. This session looks at how Google taps into Google+ for its new Search Plus Your World service and how Bing uses Facebook to create “Liked Results” and in other ways. The session will also explore how other social signals may be used, including the importance of social authority.

Paid Search Track

Maximizing Paid Search Campaigns With Google’s AdWords Extensions (#smx #11D)
Ad extensions expand a standard text ad and provide additional information such as:

• an address and phone number (location extensions and call extensions)
• more page links (ad sitelinks)
• product images (product extensions)
• and recently new social extensions that associate an AdWords campaign with a Google+ page.

Local & Mobile Track

Hardcore Local SEO Tactics – Driving Online & In-Person Traffic (#smx #11C)
Successful local SEO is largely a matter of proper blocking and tackling. But what can you do to gain an edge beyond following the boring "claim your Places Page, make your address and phone numbers consistent, etc." advice? This session offers creative approaches to local SEO and tactics that go beyond blocking and tackling.

SMX Boot Camp Track

Solution Spotlight by Raven Internet Marketing Tools (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

SMX Boot Camp: Link Building Fundamentals (#smx #12A)
Ever since Google created PageRank more than a decade ago, every good search marketer’s motto has been "I link, therefore I am." Though linking seems easy, it’s a far more subtle art than most realize, and there are right and wrong ways to conduct your linking campaign. In this session, we’ll look at how to reach out and get quality links, how to craft anchor text to build authority, and how to avoid commonplace mistakes that will hurt your web credibility (and search engine rankings).

Trends In SEO Track

Solution Spotlight by Searchmetrics (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Getting Personal, Part 2: How Google & Bing Personalize With Search History & Geography (#smx #12B)
Our look at the "new normal" of search personalization continues, examining how both Google and Bing use search history and geographical location as a way to customize the results that searchers see. Learn how making a good impression may help make a lasting impression in both search engines.

Paid Search Track

Solution Spotlight by Quantcast (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Best Practices With adCenter For Bing & Yahoo (#smx #12D)
Now that Bing and Yahoo have a combined estimated 30% market share, you know you can’t ignore this appealingly large source of traffic – but you’ve also heard that you can’t just clone your AdWords campaign and expect to get good results. What are the key differences between AdWords and adCenter? What adCenter features are unique and powerful? What kinds of features should you be taking advantage of to maximize your ad campaigns on Bing and Yahoo? How does your campaign on Bing differ from what appears on Yahoo? Come to this session to find out.

Local & Mobile Track

Creating Conversion Friendly Mobile Landing Pages (#smx #12C)
Most mobile searches are for places or things people want right now. But if you’re not creating and optimizing landing pages for mobile searchers, you’re more likely to generate frustration and anger than to get a conversion. This session looks at how to create effective mobile landing pages and the nuances that make them different from conventional landing pages.

SMX Boot Camp Track

Solution Spotlight by 7Search.com (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

SMX Boot Camp: Paid Search Fundamentals (#smx #13A)
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.

Trends In SEO Track

Solution Spotlight by Page One Power (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Does Google Favor Brands? An In-Depth Look (#smx #13B)
Does Google love brands so much that they almost seem guaranteed top rankings, even if they sometimes violate Google’s publisher guidelines? Some believe so. This session looks at the issue and how anyone might be able to prove themselves as an important brand to Google.

Paid Search Track

Solution Spotlight by Mongoose Metrics (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Power Tools For The Paid Search Pro (#smx #13D)
Building great PPC campaigns takes a lot of time, creativity and tools. In this session, we’ll look at free, nearly free and homegrown tools used by expert PPC managers, and examine 15-20 simple tools that solve a particular task and can save hours/days. We’ll also review some fairly unknown tools which help you every step through creating/managing PPC campaigns – from discovering and selecting keywords, building word lists, analyzing competitors, creating and managing both text and display ads, charting, bidding, ad testing and reporting.

Local & Mobile Track

Solution Spotlight by Bruce Clay, Inc. (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Solving Problems & Seeing Success In Google Places (#smx #13C)
For local businesses, Google Places can be really beneficial, but there are a host of challenges to overcome – duplicate listings, bulk uploads, spam reviews from competitors and other issues. This session explores the tools that exist to help overcome these road bumps, and case studies where marketers have successfully figured out how to use this powerful offering from Google.

SMX Boot Camp Track

Solution Spotlight by Optify, Inc. (3:30-3:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

SMX Boot Camp: Search Engine Friendly Web Design (#smx #14A)
"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. Attend this session and learn how to create search engine friendly sites that are equally appealing to human visitors.

Trends In SEO Track

Solution Spotlight by Covario (3:30-3:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Don’t Panic! A Hitchhiker’s Guide To Surviving SEO Changes (#smx #14B)
The SEO’s life isn’t easy. In addition to major updates like Panda, Google says it’s now making as many as 500 changes to its algorithms each year. Apart from algorithmic changes, personalization means different results for everyone, sometimes in non-subtle ways. Attend this session and you’ll learn to adapt and thrive in the constantly changing search engine optimization (SEO) universe.

Paid Search Track

Solution Spotlight by Acquisio (3:30-3:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Retargeting & Remarketing: The New Behavioral Ads (#smx #14D)
Some call it retargeting; others call it remarketing, but if you aren’t doing it you’re squandering both money and opportunity to build stronger relationships with your customers. Retargeting involves understanding user intent via search, and then subsequently advertising to each individual with a combination of search, display or other online ads beyond search, reinforcing your messaging and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Sounds complicated, but recent developments have made it relatively easy to launch and run remarketing campaigns. Our panelists will show you how.

Local & Mobile Track

Doing Check-ins & Offers Right (#smx #14C)
Check-ins and social offers can be great for raising awareness, gaining new customers and boosting loyalty among existing customers. But they can also be disastrous to the bottom line if not implemented properly. This session explores the mechanics of check-ins and offers, when they’re appropriate for a business (and when not) and who the key players are, with plenty of time for Q&A about these burgeoning new channels for marketers.

Trust us. The SMX Expo Hall Reception is the most fun you can have in an Expo hall. Join us to talk, relax, have a drink and snacks while you visit with all of the market leading solutions providers in the Expo Hall. See the full list here.

Keynote with Susan Wojcicki, SVP Advertising, Google, Inc.
Join us Wednesday, February 29th for featured keynote with Susan Wojcicki, Senior VP of Advertising at Google. Susan is responsible for the design, innovation and engineering of all Google’s advertising and measurement platforms including AdWords, AdSense and Google Analytics. The San Jose Mercury News called her “the most important Googler you’ve never heard of,” and Forbes Magazine ranked her #16 on its list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011. During this keynote conversation, SMX West co-chairs Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman will join Susan to discuss the growth of search advertising, integrating search into your overall marketing strategy and a peek at upcoming Google product releases.

Search & Social Track

Solution Spotlight by Round Sky (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

SEO For Google+ & Google Search (#smx #22A)
It hasn’t even been a year since Google launched Google+ and associated +1 buttons, but they’re already having a dramatic impact on Google’s search listings. Google’s new social network affects search rankings as well as how listings appear. In this session, the latest knowledge and tips on how you can’t ignore Google+ if you’re hoping to do well with Google Search.

New Thinking Track

Solution Spotlight by blekko (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Search Marketing & Competitive Analysis (#smx #22B)
It’s not enough to be brilliant with your own search marketing efforts. You also need to have an intimate understanding of your competitors – their keywords, optimization techniques, linking tactics, campaign management efforts – everything that they’re doing to enhance their own visibility and jostle you out of position. It’s relatively easy to apply the time-tested techniques of competitive intelligence to give yourself an edge, and this session shows you how.

Technical SEO Track

Real Answers For Technical SEO Problems (#smx #22C)
Some technical SEO issues can be really tough to troubleshoot and fix. We’ll dive deep into how to diagnose the root cause of issues and how to get them fixed once and for all.

Paid Search & In House Track

Solution Spotlight by Trada (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Search Ads: Taking Your Ads From Good To Great! (#smx #22D)
The difference between a good ad and a great ad is like the difference between a pair of jacks and a royal flush. The great ad wins every time! In this highly-interactive session, you will learn the best practices for creating great search ads and sharpen your copywriting skills. Our presenters will show you their favorite tips and tricks, and cover all the new text ad formats and extensions. You are guaranteed to take home dozens of powerful ideas guaranteed to improve your ad performance and conversion rates!

Search & Social Track

Solution Spotlight by Brafton (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Building Buzz On Twitter: Getting Followed & Retweeted (#smx #23A)
Twitter isn’t just for fun. It’s big business, being used to drive traffic and generate buzz and conversions for companies. Aside from driving direct traffic, tweets can also be links that search engines measure for ranking purposes. Tweets also are social signals that may be taken into account for rankings. In this session, tips on how to become an authority and how to get others to retweet what you put out.

New Thinking Track

Solution Spotlight by Textbroker (1:30-1:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Differentiate Or Die (#smx #23B)
For virtually every topic, product or category, you’re competing with thousands of other sites for search visibility, and searchers rarely click past the first result page. Much tactical SEO advice is practical, but won’t help at all unless you have a higher-level understanding of what might work in your category. This session looks at big picture strategies that can help you stand out, focusing on brand building, social media influence and viral techniques that go beyond the tactics that many people try (and fail) in their SEO efforts.

Technical SEO Track

Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging Best Practices (#smx #23C)
The search engines have been kind to SEOs recently, adding a number of new tools that when used properly promise to improve visibility and rankings for certain types of content. Schema.org, a joint alliance between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo provides a common foundation of support for a set of microdata types. Google’s rel=author tag enables content sites to help identify their authors on the site and across the web. And other meta tags have either gained prominence or become less important. Come find out how to take full advantage of all of these new goodies.

Paid Search & In House Track

Best Practices For Paid Search Testing – Case Study Panel (#smx #23D)
Design, implement and measure results of paid search tests after attending this session. Key topics will include what can and cannot be measured, how to design robust tests and identify the biases and underlying challenges of testing PPC campaigns. Our panelists will illustrate with case studies how to design a test for most effective bid levels, messaging and landing pages.

Search & Social Track

Solution Spotlight by aimClear (3:30-3:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Building Buzz On Facebook: Getting Liked & Shared (#smx #24A)
If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. That’s a huge amount of potential traffic. Getting your content "liked" and shared is critical to getting found on Facebook. Knowing what’s acceptable promotion is key to successfully leveraging Facebook’s 800 million strong community. The Facebook experts on this panel will show you how to most effectively drive traffic from this social phenomenon.

New Thinking Track

Solution Spotlight by ClickPath (3:30-3:35)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Beyond The Google AdWords Tool: Advanced Keyword Research Tactics (#smx #24B)
Doing keyword research? Chances are, you went straight to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find answers. It’s a wonderful tool, but there are a range of other options out there you can – and should – consider. This session looks at some and how to use them to perform better research.

Technical SEO Track

Making Data From Google Webmaster Central & Bing Webmaster Tools Actionable (#smx #24C)
The search engines make more and more data available all of the time, but how can you determine priority and impact to use that information to influence your overall marketing and technical development roadmap? Learn what the data really mean and how can you use it to your advantage.

Paid Search & In House Track

In-House SEO: Organizational SEO Challenges & Solutions (#smx #24D)
In this session we’ll talk about SEO operations (the systems, templates, worfklows, etc.) when doing SEO in-house. This session will be less about SEO tactics and tools you hear about, and more about the integral workings of in-house SEO from idea to launch, and how the nitty-gritty details don’t get lost along the way.

Search & Social Track

Solution Spotlight by BoostCTR (5:00-5:05)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Creative Facebook Ad Tactics (#smx #25A)
Familiar with Google AdWords or Microsoft’s adCenter? You’ll love Facebook’s self-serve image and text-based ads that let you advertise your own web page, your Facebook page or Event page. Other cool features? Social actions, targeting, real time reporting. Make time to "friend" this session at SMX.

New Thinking Track

How Siri, Search By Voice & Search By App Are Changing The Mobile Landscape (#smx #25B)
The world of mobile search keeps shifting rapidly. Recently, more people were found to be using mobile apps than their mobile web browser. Siri has also introduced the masses to the concept of voice search, building that into the iPhone 4s, as voice search was already built into the Android and Windows Phone platforms. As mobile continues to gain share and importance, how will voice and apps change search and SEO? Panelists will offer practical tips for marketers as well as their thoughts on how these mobile-centric innovations could reshape the search experience for the long term.

Technical SEO Track

Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping And Information Architecture (#smx #25C)
We’ll sort through the bewildering world of near duplication due to issues such as manufacturer feeds into your site, syndication to other sites, international sites, aggregation of data sources, boilerplate content, and pagination. How can a well-planned information architecture minimize the search obstacles and how can you best handle unavoidable duplication to avoid PageRank dilution, being classified as “thin affiliate”, “thin content” or low quality site by search engines? What’s the best way to implement complex, paginated sites for effective indexing and ranking? We’ll talk through all the options, including rel=canonical, rel=next/prev, noindex, nofollow, faceted navigation, and URL parameters.

Paid Search & In House Track

In-House PPC: Organizational PPC Challenges & Solutions (#smx #25D)
In this session you’ll hear from enterprise-level PPC in-housers who will talk about the nuances of managing PPC. Speakers will cover items such as managing at a large scale, managing multiple business units, what to do when campaigns that compete against each other for the same keywords and how to effectively compare programs and report progress to the execs.

Plus Session & Clinic Track

SEO Site Clinic (#smx #25E)
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.

SEO Track

The "New" Killer Content (#smx #31A)
Many people were surprised when Google’s Panda update "pandalized" their rankings. Google has made it clear that quality content is key – but what exactly does that mean? And how do you create panda-proof content? This session explores the various types of content sites should be creating, including sales pages, blog posts and white papers; how to repurpose existing content and slice it up for social media; and many other techniques that will help your overall visibility and keep your sites out of trouble.

Analytics & Tools Track

Justifying The Investment: Analytics For Social Media (#smx #31B)
It won’t be long before management and clients are questioning the value of your social media investment…if they’re not already. So how do you demonstrate the ROI of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media marketing opportunities? This session takes a deep dive on emerging social media analytics methods, how to establish and document social media key performance indicators (KPIs), and measure conversions even when engagements don’t result in transactions. We’ll also suggest the tools you can use to measure ROI on your social media marketing activities.

Vertical Track

YouTube Success Stories For Marketers (#smx #31C)
YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web after Google, so you definitely need to have search-optimized videos. But there are many other opportunities available to marketers who want to reach customers via online video. This session offers case studies, tips and tactics for easy ways leverage your online video assets.

Enterprise & Paid Search Track

Solution Spotlight by Marin Software (9:00-9:05)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Maximizing Enterprise PPC ROI (#smx #31D)
Managing enterprise paid search campaigns can be a nightmare, especially when different departments think they should "own" the responsibility. This session explores the challenges of running an enterprise-level paid search campaign, and how to get all stakeholders in alignment to assure the maximum return possible.

Clinic Track

PPC Tune-Up Clinic With The SMX Mechanics (#smx #31E)
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!

SEO Track

SEO Essentials For Migrating Websites (#smx #32A)
It’s an SEO’s worst nightmare: for whatever reason, you need to migrate your website to a new host, CMS, or (horror!) a new domain name. But don’t panic – there are proven techniques that can help minimize the impact on search visibility caused by a site migration. Panelists on this session share best practices and tactics to ensure all of your hard-fought SEO efforts aren’t for naught.

Analytics & Tools Track

What Search Data Reveals About Customer Needs & Desires – And How To Use It (#smx #32B)
Marketers often focus on keyword research tools to select a portfolio of keywords. But there’s another, often overlooked source of keywords that’s possibly more valuable: your own search logs and analytics search activity reports. These rich troves of data reveal exactly what people are looking for, can help you tune your SEO and PPC efforts, and also reveal "holes" in your site where people are looking for something they aren’t finding. Bonus: this data also serves as a virtual focus group that can be significant in guiding product or service development.

Vertical Track

How To Play In The Exploding Mobile Ads Universe (#smx #32C)
eMarketer predicts that mobile ad spend will surpass $17 billion in 2012. Haven’t done mobile search ads yet? Stop missing out! This session looks at mobile paid search opportunities and how search marketers can get ahead of this tsunami of opportunity.

Enterprise & Paid Search Track

Solution Spotlight by BrightEdge (10:45-10:50)
Solution Spotlights are brief introductions to relevant products and services offered by SMX exhibitors and sponsors.

Enterprise SEO – Challenges & Solutions (#smx #32D)
Large organizations face unique challenges when it comes to SEO. Multiple websites, perhaps running on multiple content management systems, in different countries and languages…the list goes on. And with increasingly strict content guidelines, it’s crucial for organizations to coordinate their SEO efforts across the enterprise. In this session, speakers with hands-on experience managing large-scale SEO efforts share best practices and offer practical advice for maximizing site visibility and achieving organizational harmony.

Clinic Track

Analytics Clinic (#smx #32E)
Analytics provide insight and actionable information about the performance of your search marketing campaigns. The accomplished marketers conducting this session will share their favorite reports and how to interpret them. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about analytics and get advice from our experts one-on-one.

SEO Track

Ask The SEOs – Open Q&A Forum (#smx #33A)
We’ve assembled a panel of experts with more than 200 years of SEO experience combined. They stand ready to provide answers to any of your questions relating to organic search. There’s no PowerPoint, just plenty of time to answer your questions on a range of SEO topics.

Analytics & Tools Track

Life In A [Not Provided] World (#smx #33B)
Google no longer passes the search terms visitors used to get to your site…in some situations. So how can you know what’s working in your SEO efforts if the keywords are “not provided?” You’ll leave this session knowing the implications of this very recent Google change and tactics for coping.

Vertical Track

Driving Ecommerce & Retail Sales Through Search Marketing (#smx #33C)
Online retailers have unique and challenges when it comes to search marketing. Attend to learn paid search and SEO tips and tactics for retailers and ecommerce merchants.

Enterprise & Paid Search Track

Ask The Paid Search Buyers – Open Q&A Forum (#smx #33D)
Imagine sitting down with the internet’s equivalent of legendary advertising "mad men" David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, and Mary Wells. Now imagine asking them to describe the secrets of their success:

• how do you create effective ads with a few words and call to action;
• how do you entice searchers to buy with carefully crafted landing pages and appealing "information scent";
• what tactics and strategies do you use when scrapping with sharp-elbowed competitors and strictly-business search engines so they can keep costs low and profits high?

Clinic Track

Link Building Clinic (#smx #33E)
This 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.

SEO Track

Ask The Search Engines – Open Q&A Forum (#smx #34A)
You’ve heard plenty of discussion about SEO issues, what the search engines like, dislike, tactics to consider and so on. In this session, you’ll hear directly from the major search engines themselves. Bring your questions and get answers to topics about crawling, indexing, ranking and other organic search issues.

Analytics & Tools Track

Industrial Strength SEO & Analytics Power Tools (#smx #34B)
This session takes you on a whirlwind tour of industrial strength SEO & analytics tools you’ll want to consider adding to your toolbox, many of which are free or moderately priced.

Vertical Track

Extreme SEO Makeover: The Final Results (#smx #34C)
Is it really possible to take a site from nowhere to top rankings in 3 months? That’s the challenge we issued to each intrepid speaker on this panel, who volunteered to work on a small business or charity website, each in a different niche, that was ranking on page 5 (or worse) on Google for the site’s main search term. Each speaker has worked with a website to improve SEO rankings, traffic and revenue. Our speakers will reveal what advice was offered, the changes made-and most importantly, the end results for each makeover.

Enterprise & Paid Search Track

Ask The Paid Search Reps – Open Q&A Forum (#smx #34D)
Successful search engine advertising requires more than "five minutes and a credit card." Masters of paid search know you need to invest the time and money to be truly successful. Get face-to-face answers to your paid search questions from the search engines and major search ad networks at this session.

Clinic Track

Social Media Clinic (#smx #34E)
Got questions about how to deal with Google+ Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites. We’ve got experts on hand ready to take specific questions from the audience.