I thought I would take a moment to label what I see as the top giveaways at Search Engine Strategies 2007 in San Jose. These are based on my opinion of what is the 1) coolest giveaway 2) the most effective giveaway in terms of exposure and 3) the most buzz generated by a giveaway.
#1 - abcsearch magnets - Throw them in the air and they make some crazy noise, these were definite attention-grabbers.
#2 - revenue.net ball - This is not some bouncing ball you buy at the store. It is a bouncing ball you buy at the store that also lights up! The sports fan in me is guilty of rating this higher than many probably would thanks to the coolness factor alone.
#3 - finology bags -The bags were branded with “Findology Interactive Media” and I think they got their money’s worth as these bags were seen all over the conference. Note to Findology staff, when I searched on Google for your site, your description was lacking. Optimize your META description so that you don’t look bad, okay? If you need help with that we should talk…
#4 - Google Analytics - Right behind each conference attendee’s name tag was a Google Analytics card that sticks out and shows more when flipped around. Good work Google marketing!
#5 - GenieKnows.com - Provided a well-placed advertisement on the strap around the neck of each attendee’s badge-holder.
Honorable Mention: goecart bag - goecart’s Search Engine Friendly Ecommerce Solution was well-represented on red shopping-style bags all day Tuesday.
That wraps up what I saw as the top giveaways at Search Engine Strategies 2007 in San Jose. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you will join me at future conferences!
Hopefully Matt Cutts will not shut me down since I accepted gifts in exchange for these links. In case Matt reads this, I promise made no such promise to the companies mentioned above of blogging about these.
I was able to sit in on the keynote speech from Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask this morning, to hear him discuss Ask, Google, the search industry and more. One interesting thing that was brought up was Ask’s new commercial which features the Ask 3D search results; their way to include images, blogs, video, audio and more into Search Results. The idea from Ask is that a list of 10 sites is not good enough for their 50 million users.
The commercial literally ’shows the product’ as it was described; it starts with a “can your search engine do this?” statement then shows a search query being performed. The query for ’san francisco’ is shown followed by results, browsing through results, looking at maps, weather, images, video, blogs, topic suggestions, etc. all above-the-fold of the Ask search results. The user clicks on one of the areas and more options are available and highlighted. The commercial then cuts to a statement “or does it just do this?” showing just the top 10 search results as text links. The end statement says “Ask.com Experience Instant Getification.”
Very creative work on the part of Ask.com’s marketing if you as me. I noticed that Search Engine Land even picked up the video on their sit. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Well here I am at SES 2007 in San Jose and I thought I would let you all know that Search Engine Roundtable is providing live updates from SES on their blog. While I’d love to provide live updates, I will be adding my notes to the blog throughout the conference. In the meantime, follow Search Engine Strategies 2007 from San Jose online at SE Roundtable.
When discussing Search Engine Optimization, I used to view anything other than sparkling white hat SEO as wrong or bad. Then I learned more; a lot more. My perspective on SEO has evolved a lot during my time in the industry thanks to some of the brilliant minds around me on a daily basis; thus causing the evolution of my views on what is and what is not acceptable in the world of Search Engine Optimization.
I now see those that push the limits with grey-hat techniques as similar to the guy who constantly switches lanes in rush hour traffic, passing more cars with each move. Some view this guy as a jerk, others are jealous, and others just realize he was a little smarter than everyone else. Nobody wrecked due to this driving, and now he’s 5 cars ahead of the semi that you are stuck behind. Who looks smart now?
Another parallel I found is to the breaking of the Home Run record in baseball by Barry Bonds. When Barry was (allegedly) using steroids there were no rules in Major League Baseball saying that steroid use was not allowed. So, assuming Bonds did use steroids to enhance his performance, is he a big jerk or just smarter than the rest? From looking at his $15.8 million dollar contract for the 2007 season, I’d say Mr. Bonds was rather smart.
This brings me back to my initial point. If someone is smart enough to find an advantage due to their aggressive techniques, is this really wrong, or are they just smarter than the rest of us (assuming great results come as a result of this work). Like anything, it takes hard work to get results. But some choose to work hard at finding ways to get around the system. Many refer to these SEOs as “black-hatters;” I am beginning to think they may just be smarter than the rest of us.
Even though I am not usually a big fan of her blog, Dazzlin Donna at SEO Scoop recently posted about a program she uses for directory submissions. In the post she mentions that “some SEOs tell us that directory submission is a waste of time and money.” That statement got me thinking about the importance of directory submissions. Personally, I have seen directory submissions take younger sites to a new level in rankings. I’ve also seen directory submissions take an existing, trusted site into a strong competitor for one of the most competitive keywords on Google. While neither of these examples were exclusive to directory submissions being the only efforts on behalf of the site, I do see the value in submitting to online Web directories.
So what do you think? Are directory submissions worth it? And better yet, which submission method is the best? A few of the options include:
- in-house directory submission by hand, no software assistance
- in-house submissions with an automated program to fill out details while allowing the user to hit submit (such as SubmitEaze which SEO Scoop’s Dazzlin Donna actively promotes)
- outsourcing to India or other countries
One of these days we will get into the pros and cons of each, but for now I am curious to know what others think about each of these options. Feel free to leave your comments.