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December 4-7, 2006 • Hilton Chicago • Chicago, IL
Event Hours:
Registration Hours
Dec 4: 7:30am – 5:30pm
Dec 5: 8:00am – 7:00pm
Dec 6: 8:00am – 6:30pm
Dec 7: 8:00am – 12:30pm
Conference Hours
Dec 4: 9:00am – 5:30pm
Dec 5: 9:00am – 5.45pm
Dec 6: 9:00am – 6:30pm
Dec 7: 9:00am – 1:45pm
Expo Hall Hours:
Dec 5: 10:00am – 7:00pm
Dec 6: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Training:
Dec 8: 8:00am – 5:00pm
Premier Sponsors:
Media Sponsors:
Official News Distribution Service:
Association Sponsors :
Hosted By:
Some of the organizations that have sent delegates to previous SES events:
1-800-Dentist
1800flowers.com
Adobe Systems, Inc
Alaska Tour & Travel
Allstate Insurance
Amazon.com
American Airlines
American Greetings Interactive
American Heart Association
Auto Europe
Babycenter.com
Bank Of America
Budget Truck Rental
Carfax
Cathay Pacific Airways
Charles Schwab & Co
Cingular
Circuit City
Citysearch.com
CNet Networks
Coca-Cola Enterprises
Countrywide Home Loans
Deloitte & Touche Llp
Deutsche Bank
Drugstore.com
Ebay
Edison Group
E-Loan
Eluxury
Ernst & Young
Esurance
Experian
First Franklin Financial Corp
Fujitsu America, Inc.
Goldman Sachs
H&R Block Mortgage
Hallmark Flowers
Harpercollins Publishers
Intel Corporation
JP Morgan Chase
Macy's
Mckinsey & Company
Mitsubishi International
MTV Networks
Nielsen//Netratings
Nokia
Office Depot
Oracle Corp
Overstock.com
Plantronics
Qwest Communication
Royal Bank Of Canada
Sephora
Shopzilla
Sony Pictures
Sun Microsystems
The Children's Place
The Vermont Country Store
Timberland
Toshiba
Travelocity.com
Walmart.com
Walt Disney Internet Group
Washington State University
Wells Fargo
Xerox
Zappos.Com
Search Training Classes
December 8, 2006
Hilton Chicago, Chicago, IL
There is an additional cost to register for training. Full–day registration cost: $1,295. Half–day registration cost:
$695. Seats are limited in order to provide personal training to all, so please register soon to ensure that we reserve a
spot for you.
Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received on our first ever Search Training classes in San Jose this year, we have decided to expand SES Chicago to include another day of dedicated intensive workshop training. We will be conducting four half–day classes and one full-day class at the Hilton Chicago on Friday, December 8th. These classes can be taken in addition to the conference or independently. The added training day has been created to provide attendees with guided, hands–on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment. These workshops are conducted by the industry’s top experts and provide you with the practices, applications, and hands–on exposure you need to become (and remain!) a top performer in your field. In the end, you will not only walk away with the knowledge and skills you need to be a successful search engine marketer, you will also jump–start your career and enhance your professional know–how. This in–depth training in a small class setting means that your instructors are readily accessible for informal one–on–one or small group discussions. Whether you are a consultant, site designer, website owner, or in–house marketing professional, you cannot afford to miss this opportunity to experience firsthand the latest developments in search engine strategy. No matter where you are in the SEO & SEM process, you will leave these intensive workshops with the necessary skills and tools to improve your business results and take your search engine marketing to another level.
During this intense, intimate and informative day of workshop training, world acclaimed search engine marketing gurus Shari Thurow, Matt Bailey, Andrew Goodman, Mona Elesseily, Greg Jarboe, Nan Dawkins and Robin Steffek demystify the complex art and science of SEO/SEM by sharing authorative personalized advice, insider perspectives and hands-on demonstration.
Each of our workshop providers
is a leader in their respective field and have achieved top ranking results for their sites and those of their national and international clients. Join us on December 8th and take advantage of their seasoned expertise by going
behind-the-scenes in a high impact learning environment that demonstrates how SEM really works.
A search–engine friendly Web site is a user–friendly, search–friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into
buyers.
In order for a site to be search–engine friendly, it must meet the terms and conditions set forth by the search engines
(Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, Ask, etc.) Additionally, the site must satisfy the needs of site visitors. Ultimately, the
site must be profitable for the Web site owner. Can a single site satisfy all of these groups?
This presentation will how these skills are essential for building a user–friendly, search–friendly, and persuasive site
that converts visitors into buyers.
Who should attend
Everyone who promotes Web sites as part of their work should attend these workshops! Web marketers should understand all
parts of a search marketing campaign – optimization, shopping search, paid inclusion, and pay–per–click solutions.
For new and experienced marketers
Whether you are a new marketer or a seasoned veteran, our search engine marketing workshops will help you take your
campaigns to the next level of effectiveness.
For new and experienced web designers
Minimize advertising expenses by creating search–friendly and cost–effective site designs. Learn how to avoid common
pitfalls early in the design process.
Attendees come from many different industries, including:
Web site designers and developers
eCommerce
Business development
Web site usability
Direct marketing
Media buying
Affiliates
Public relations
Web analysts
Sales and marketing consultants
Non–profit agencies
Or any job that requires site development and promotion.
Benefits
Many search engine marketing speakers are new to the industry or merely repeat information disseminated by more
experienced professionals. Why learn search–friendly design from speakers who do not design for a living?
Learn from the leading industry expert on search–friendly and user–friendly interfaces in the field of search
engine marketing industry.
Build a Web site that satisfies your both site´s visitors AND the search engines
Design dos and don´ts
Successful Web site information architecture – learn what search engine marketers don´t know
Avoid costly copywriting and design mistakes
Link development research: tips and tools
Learn proven techniques and strategies for long–term results
Agenda
Understanding search engines
8:00 – 8:50 a.m.
The major search engines and how they work
Anatomy of search engine results pages (SERPs)
Types of search engine marketing
Questions and answers
Break 8:50 – 9:00 a.m.
Search engine optimization (SEO) process 9:00 – 9:50 p.m.
Defining the full SEO process:
Keyword analysis
Site optimization
Submission
Monitoring – managing expectations
Web positioning vs. Web analytics software
Questions and answers
Break
9:50 – 10:00 a.m.
SEO Process – Site architecture and page design 10:00 am to 10:50 am
Site architecture vs. page design (interface)
Why architecture and design are important for search engine visibility
Components of an optimized site:
Site navigation schemes
Other types of page links
Types of Web pages and how to optimize them
Web address
Questions and answers
Break 10:50 – 11:00 a.m.
SEO Process – Link development 11:00 am to 11:50 am
What is popularity?
Why link development is important for search engine visibility
Characteristics of effective link development
Competitive link development strategies
Submission guidelines
Questions and answers
About the Instructors
Shari Thurow is a sought–after speaker and trainer on the topics of search engine–friendly Web site design and Web site
usability. A popular speaker at Search Engine Strategies, web site design, and online marketing conferences worldwide,
Shari´s sessions are very popular and four–star rated.
Shari is the Webmaster and Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs. She has been designing and promoting Web sites since
1995, and is outsourced to many firms throughout the U.S. She has a 100% success rate for getting client sites ranked at
the top of search engine and Web directory queries.
She is the author of Search Engine Visibility and a regular columnist for Clickz and SearchDay. Shari is currently a
graduate student at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, specializing in human/computer interfaces for the
Library and Information Sciences Department.
Grantastic Designs, Inc. has designed and successfully marketed Web sites for a wide variety of industries. Clients
include Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, HSBC, National Cancer Institute, WebMD, Reader's Digest, and many other well–known brands.
Paid Search Advertising: Fundamental Principles & Tough Problems
Event type:
Paid Search Advertising Training
Date:
December 8 , 2006
Status:
Spaces Limited
Time:
Full Day (8:00a.m.–12:00 pm & 1:00pm 5:00pm)
Description
Many marketers say that nothing matches the control, measurability, and ROI they get from paid search marketing campaigns
using programs such as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Buying targeted clicks isn´t just the "next best thing"
to attracting free "organic" search referrals to your website – many say it´s actually better!
If you count the parallel "content targeting" options available by enabling some settings in the same advertising
interfaces, paid search now accounts for 50% of all online advertising spending. Developing expertise in this area is
rapidly becoming a must for any serious online marketer.
In this full day seminar, Andrew Goodman, author of winning Result with Google Ad Words and Principal of Page Zero Media will cover key principals that drive campain results. In addition, attendees will be introduced to "hard Problems" that can lead marketers to take "wrong turns." Group exercise and live examples will allow us to customize the session to be a “working day” tailored to your company’s needs. (It’s also a lot of fun!).
Who Will Benefit
Any company or organization needing to generate cost–effective leads or sales through their website will benefit from this seminar, but you’ll benefit most if you have some background in search marketing and if you have a current AdWords or YSM campaign. Some familiarity with the user search experience, and an interest in measuring the results of marketing campaigns, is helpful. This is considered an intermediate level seminar which will tackle some advanced problems when we get into specific discussion and problem-solving. To get into the spirit of the session, the instructor recommends consulting any of the following information ahead of time:
“Resource List” (sources of additional information) to be distributed to attendees in advance (consult before or after seminar as preferred). Just the meat -- no fluff.
Tactics for most efficiently managing campaigns on paid search platforms, including how to test ads, how to best exploit ad ranking formulas, how much to bid and why, how to measure performance, how matching options work, selection of related third-party tools, decision-making on targeting and
Outline
Part 1: Fundamentals
Intro: Where Paid Search Fits in the Advertising Landscape
Understanding how much priority to place on paid search
The User Search Experience and How it Looks/Feels
Eye tracking studies: do you need to be in "premium" ad positions to attract clicks?
Stepping back: why eye tracking studies are not *fundamental* to advertising results (and what principle *is* fundamental)
Where your ads show up, and why
The "scenarios" concept (Eisenbergs)
and how to use it to build your campaign from Day One
Planning, Forecasting, and Campaign Setup
What should I budget?
Looking at key campaign settings: looking at budget settings, ad rotation, dayparting, geotargeting, and more
Basic background on your sector search seasonality, trends in purchase behavior (live expamples)
Writing Better Ads: Basic to Advanced
What elements of ads can be tested
How to test, how to interpret a test
Is it only about performance? (no, not 100%)
New ad formats: banners and video
Group Excersie:prepare Alternative, Ads, Rate Your partner's Ad
Bid Strategy
Bidding to ROI
Bidding to establish position
Competitive jockeying and bid management
Pitfalls of bid management and bid management
Dayparting: what it is, whether it´s for you
Keyword Resarch and the Long Tail of Search
Not all accounts warrant 20,000 keyphrases – which do?
Specific examples of large keyword groups that work
Key concepts in keyword expansion
Guerrilla concepts in keyword expansion
Tools you can use
Special Topic: Trademark and Keyword Advertising
BREAK
Exercise: Tailoring Your Strategy to Your Business Model. In this group exercise attendees will be asked to map specific objectives and to help one another with strategy.
Live Campain Clinic/Time for General Q & A
PART II : HARD PROBLEMS & CUSTOM SOLUTIONS
Measurement Issues – Tracking ROI, Choosing Analytics Software. Occam’s Razor vs. Data Overload. Setting a tracking “regimen”. Should you use Google Analytics? How do you measure phone conversions?
Choosing a Bid Management Solution -- Or Should You Use One at All?
Landing Page Testing, Site Architecture, and Conversion Rates. What´s a landing page? What is the best one to send visitors to? What are some common myths and best practices in improving conversion rates from a click to a sale?
Advanced Trend: AdWords Quality Scores. Google´s new auction format is complex and may negatively impact some businesses
more than others. Case examples and a broader explanation of trends in Google´s approach to relevancy.
Advanced Strategy: Search Engine Relations and the Search Engine Marketing Ecosystem. Dealing with your account reps & customer service. Group discussion included.
Contextual Advertising: What Is It, How to Buy It, What to Avoid. A brief overview of contextual ad programs, and some settings that may help you control, measure, or opt out of this kind of traffic. (partial contribution from guest speaker)
Combatting Click Fraud: A Balanced Perspective. Examining the main sources of click fraud and the leading tactics for
discovering and documenting it, and seeking refunds. Are weak web analytics limiting your potential to act? Group discussion.
Alternative revenue ideas for your business & site. Presenter anecdotes + group discussion. these marketers do to improve the bottom line? (Selected cases.)
Exercise: what could these marketers do to improve the bottom line? (Selected cases.)
Live Campaign Clinic cont’d; Q&A
About the Workshop
Leaders
Andrew Goodman is founder and principal of Toronto-based Page Zero Media, a marketing agency which focuses on maximizing clients’ results from paid search campaigns from the planning stage, through the first click, right through to purchase or lead. He is also co-founder of Traffick.com, an award-winning industry commentary site, and author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005). He speaks frequently on search marketing topics at events around the world and his paid search insights are often cited in the business press. Prior to embarking on the entrepreneurial path, Andrew earned an M.A. in Political Science at York University, Toronto, and honed his research and Kraft-Dinner-eating skills further by nearly completing a Ph.D. at the same institution. He no longer eats Kraft Dinner. His latest hobby is brick-and-mortar social networking – that is to say, meeting people face to face.
Mona Elesseily
Mona Elesseily is Internet Marketing Strategist at Page Zero Media, focusing on paid search campaigns and conversion improvement. In her Internet marketing career she has achieved measurable campaign performance improvements for a diverse portfolio of large brands such as Capital One and Cathay Pacific as well as small retailers and high-tech B2B-enterprise niches. She is author of the world's only guide to Yahoo Search Marketing (a.k.a. Overture) the comprehensive Yahoo Search Marketing Handbook (currently working on a 2nd edition),available at page-zero.com. Mona is based in Vancouver , British Columbia. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University and has been active in industry bodies such as the International Internet Marketing Association, and a speaker at Search Engine Strategies. She enjoys West Coast activities such as yoga and hiking.
Press Release SEO Workshop
Event name:
Press Release SEO Workshop
Event type:
News Search Engine Optimization Training
Date:
December 8, 2006
Status:
Spaces Limited
Time:
8:00am–12:00pm
Description:
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 50 million Americans get news online on a typical day. And, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, Yahoo! News is the top online destination for current events and global news, with a unique audience of more than 27.4 million in June 2006. AOL News had a unique audience of 16.0 million and Google News had a unique audience of 8.5 million in June 2006, respectively making them the #4 and #13 online news sites.
When people conduct a news search, they often find recent and relevant press releases along with articles in the results. And, according to a report from Outsell, press releases have leapfrogged over trade publications to become the top news source of knowledge workers.
If your company’s marketing and public relations strategy includes the Internet, your press releases should be optimized for and distributed to the major news search engines.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is for executives, managers and professionals in public relations agencies, corporate communication
departments, and search engine optimization firms. Participants should bring a wireless laptop computer.
The hands–on portion of the workshop will also be more valuable if each participant can submit a recent press
release or a draft press release in advance.
How will I benefit?
After attending this half-day workshop, you will be able to measure the success of optimizing press releases by:
Rank in major news search engines
Press and blog mentions
Page views of press releases and clicks on links.
Rise in site traffic after launch
Conversion to leads and sales.
What will I learn?
In this workshop, you will learn how to optimize press releases, distribute them to news search engines, and measure your results.
Some of the best practices that will be covered in this workshop were mentioned in an article by Steve Lohr in The New York
Times on Sunday, April 9, 2006, entitled, "This Boring Headline Is Written for Google."
Search engine experts told Lohr that news search engine algorithms "scan the title, headline and at least the first hundred
words or so of news articles," so it "would be wise to do a little keyword research to determine the two or three
most–searched words that relate to their subject – and then include them in the first few sentences."
So, during this workshop, you will learn how to:
Conduct keyword research to find 2 to 3 relevant news search terms that your target audience is likely to use;
Make sure your release actually includes your target terms – particularly in headline and first few sentences;
Add hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable;
Use press release distribution service crawled by Yahoo! News, AOL News and Google News;
Measure results of your campaign – whether your objective is to build brand awareness, increase web site traffic, generate sales leads, or sell products online.
About the workshop leaders?
Greg Jarboe is the president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization and public relations firm specializing in press release SEO. The firm’s clients include The Christian Science Monitor, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), Southwest Airlines, Symmetricom, Verizon SuperPages.com, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. SEO-PR recently won the Golden Ruler Award from the Institute for Public Relations for “using new media and new techniques to tie public relations to sales.”
Greg is also a partner in Newsforce, a developer of news search engine optimization software, which recently announced a strategic partnership with Business Wire to provide Newsforce’s integrated suite of press release SEO tools to Business Wire members. Newsforce’s SEO software suite combines a keyword research tool, press release SEO tool, link building tool, and news search engine ranking report with Business Wire’s news release distribution and NewsTrak internet traffic report.
Greg is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies, a guest writer for Search Engine Watch, and the editor of SEO-PR’s News Blog. Gord Hotchkiss has called Greg “the guru of cranking up Web visibility through effective optimization of press releases and leveraging news search.” Lee Odden has called Greg “a pioneer in the field of using search engine optimization in combination with press releases.”
Greg has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, marketing, and search engine optimization at Lotus Development Corp., Ziff-Davis, and other companies. He graduated from the University of Michigan, attended the University of Edinburgh, and worked on his Masters at Lesley College. He lives in Acton, Massachusetts, is a former Chairman of the Acton Board of Selectmen, and won two New England Press Association awards as editor of The Acton Minute-Man.
Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness
Event name:
Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness
Event type:
Search & Analytics Workshop
Date:
December. 8, 2006
Status:
Spaces limited
Time:
1:00pm–5:00pm
Description:
Unless there is a goal for the site, there is no sense measuring anything.
70% of website owners and managers do not track anything beside ‘hits’ to their website.
Most website managers want to track, but aren’t sure what or how.
Analytics are a gold mine of information, just waiting to be uncovered. The results of your campaigns, effectiveness of the website, and the efficiency of your rankings can all be measured with a good analytics program.
Unfortunately, many site managers do not make changes to the website without prior measurement, nor do they measure after the changes. As a result, there are many changes to sites that are not based on facts, merely assumptions. Similarly, if changes are not analyzed, then there can be no clear understanding of whether or not improvements made a difference on the site or to the bottom line.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is for anyone who is responsible for a website or for reporting on website activity, success or failure. Site owners, marketers, managers and SEO firms wishing to add analytics to their services will all benefit from this instruction
How will I benefit?
Rather than simply getting a checklist of “How-To’s”, you will learn the “Why?” Understanding the “Why” will enable you to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers in your analytics program.
Practical lessons include:
Understanding the differences and common points among web analytics programs.
Establishing common terminology.
Establish Key Performance Indicators for your website.
Establish a regular reporting program.
Learn segmentation techniques for users, campaigns and keywords
Establishing primary and secondary conversion rates and for your website.
How to measure and report the important factors.
How to report website success ‘up the ladder.’
Who are the workshop leaders?
Matt Bailey is the president and founder of SiteLogic, a web marketing consulting firm. SiteLogic specializes in consulting and educating clients in analytics, usability, accessibility and effective web site marketing using search engines, viral techniques, and blogs.
Matt has been in the search marketing industry since 1996. As early as then, he was evaluating websites based on brand protection and ROI. Matt started speaking in the late 1990's at Bed and Breakfast seminars, teaching website marketing and search engine optimization.
For more than six years, Matt worked in development agencies, which enabled him to gain a complete view of the website process, starting from the hosting and architecture. Using this knowledge with his background in marketing, he brings a unique sense of perspective to the entire web marketing process.
A sought after speaker around the world, Matt is a regular speaker at the Search Engine Strategies Conferences, DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Conferences, and the American Advertising Federation. He is known for his fun, conversational style of presenting technical topics in an understandable and clear method.
Blog and Feed Search SEO
Event name:
Blog and Feed Search SEO
Event type:
SEO Training/Blogs and Feeds
Date:
December. 8, 2006
Status:
Spaces limited
Time:
1:00pm–5:00pm
Description:
If the Internet is part of your marketing or public relations plan, you can’t afford to ignore Blogs and RSS Feeds. Recent studies from The Pew Internet and American Life Project indicate that 39% of Internet users (57 million Americans) read Blogs. And while RSS usage is still estimated to be relatively low, Yahoo found in a 2005 study that twenty-seven percent of adult Internet users access RSS feeds through personalized start pages even though they don't know that's what they're doing.
Effective optimization of Blogs and Feeds means more traffic – not only from regular search engines, news search engines, and Blog/RSS search engines, but also from sources such as social search and social bookmarking sites. This workshop covers how to optimize your blog and RSS feeds from both a content perspective (e.g. choosing the correct keywords, writing sticky posts, writing anchor text, tagging, and gaining external links) and a technical perspective (e.g. blog coding and full text format, internal linking and text emphasis tips and tricks, tagging, RSS feed formats, pings, RSS directories, and engines, and more). You'll also learn about measurement and tracking as well as tools to make Blogging and RSS more effective and time efficient.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is for executives, web managers, and technical professionals in corporate internet marketing, communications and IT departments. Participants should bring a wireless laptop computer. The hands–on portion of the workshop will also be more valuable if each participant has a blog and/or RSS feed example that we can critique and optimize during the workshop.
How will I benefit?
After attending this workshop, you will be able to:
Optimize your Blog/Feeds from both a content and technical perspective
Increase or attain higher SERPs in regular search, news search and Blog/RSS Feed Search as well as other search channels
Use your Blogs/Feeds to increase traffic, generate brand awareness, leads, sales, donations, memberships, etc.
Measure and track results
Who are the workshop leaders?
Nan Dawkins is an online communications strategist with over twenty years experience in marketing and public relations. She is the founder of RedBoots, an interactive marketing agency specializing in search engine and word of mouth marketing, Blogs and RSS, digital PR, and online media & advertising. She is a frequent public speaker on topics of interest to her wide range of clients (from advocacy organizations to national retailers), and is a regular panelist at the Search Engine Strategies conferences. Nan is an Ironman triathlete, raising money each year for RedBoot's nonprofit clients by competing in extreme endurance sports events.
Robin Steffek has more than 6 years of web marketing, SEO, and web analytics experience in the BtoC and BtoB segments. Her expertise in SEO includes Bruce Clay’s SEO Toolset training. She is an active member of the Web Analytics Association (WAA) and has over three years of experience as a WebTrends web analytics administrator and trainer.
Before joining RedBoots Consulting, Robin served as web marketing manager for the American Chemical Society, a premier membership organization for chemists, and SciQuest, an e-commerce services company for the scientific research industry.
If you have questions or would like to register for the supplemental training sessions, please email our
Registration Department at registration@incisivemedia.com or call (203) 295–0050. There is an additional cost to register for
training of $1,295 for a full day or $695 for a half day.
