Posted on: May 21, 2008 by Syzlak
The long anticipated Hot Seat with Matt McGee was held last night at Hotel deLuxe. Although SEOHack had asked me to live blog the event, I will stick to my tradition of tape-delayed live blogs:
5:50pm – We’re allowed into the banquet room. One of the nice things about SEMpdx Hot Seat events is that they’re catered. Which means that for $40 you get to learn some SEO tips, sometimes hear a speaker and get some catered food, a damn fine deal.
Tonight it meant fish…raw fish to be exact. Fish really are the bane of my existence. I find them to be quite despicable in odor and taste. In addition, I am a vegetarian and do not eat the meat of the sea. Those that know me will say that they have seen me eat the delectables of a pig or a chicken, to them I say “you certainly have, but just as there are ‘vegetarians’ that eat fish, I am a vegetarian that eats the meat of the land.” So, the night’s off to a great start, let’s see if we can improve this eve.
6:07pm – Ben of Amplify Interactive is hosting the evening and conducts a raffle…and one of Ben’s employees wins the SMX Advanced pass. I’m not going to pass judgment, I’m just saying is all.
6:09pm – M2 starts to speak. The most entertaining part of the first 10 minutes is watching the Hotel deLuxe employee running back and forth as M2 kept creating feedback.
6:15pm – Will the Bulls take Beasley or Rose with the first pick? Rose may be a “smarter” pick, but I’m leaning towards Beasley. They could trade Thomas (and maybe Gooden) for some more help and walk away a much better team. Rose would only replace Henrich, which isn’t as big of a weakness…Matt’s talking commitment, saying that the whole organization has to be committed to the SEO project. That’s a good point, and one that I don’t think a lot of big businesses or Agencies really comprehend. He also said something to the effect of Mom & Pop shops being committed to wood…pens 
6:25 – M2’s recommending knowledge centers. Sphinn? Really? I’m not sure I’d recommend Sphinn to newbies…too much repetition and petty cliques for newbies to sort through. That, and I don’t think too many small businesses need to know THAT much about Twitter.
Patience! Yes Yes Yes! So far my favorite part of the (ahem) triangle. SEO (even PPC, SMO, …SEM) is always demanded from clients as a simple request. It’s not simple. It takes time. Time to plan, time to prep, time to implement and time to change.
Design and Usability. Shit, Matt’s on a roll here! Favorite quote of the night
It’s not your website it’s your customer’s website
Brilliant.
The “Y” looks odd on the Keyword Research slide.
6:40pm – Matt talks nuts.
6:50pm – Sobriety is odd. Especially since most events that I’m tied to involve drinking. I know that people have been thinking I’m joking when I say that I’m sober now, but I am…at least for the time being. I don’t know how long it will last, nor do I know why I did it. Life hasn’t been going down the shitter like it was in college when I had to quit drinking for awhile. I just woke up a few weeks ago and didn’t drink that day or the next. That being said, David Mihm’s beer looks really good right now.
Man, M2 already knows the type of car he’s going to buy next…I suppose I know the type of guitar I’ll buy next.
6:55pm – Mihm and I both scramble to write down placeblogger.com
7:10pm – Steve from the Internet Strategy something or other starts name dropping in order to build some buzz about some event I won’t be attending
Hot Seat time
The first site tonight is Clowns Unlimited (clownsunlimited.com).
Seriously. The rep is worried that (sigh) Clowns Unlimited has become…limited. The next 15 minutes of my life will be the “stuff you just can’t make up.” I’ll now abandon “writing” in favor of a list format
- Wants corporate leads
- They have fluctuating rental fees based on seasonality…makes sense
- The rep became militant when the panel tried to help him…this struck me as rather odd, I would not want these guys as my client. Then again, I’m scared shitless of two things in life: 1) eye drops B) clowns
- Apparently his poor blog posts are not his fault (it never is, is it?). He had an ESL Filipino write those (natch)
- There’s a different price scale for birthdays compared to corporate functions. This bothers me. Why stick one or the other with a higher price for the same rented Rocket Turbo Slide?
Useful Takeaways – Don’t try to sell in your blog, keep it clean and conversational. Work on having paths of action that would make sense to the user. Listen
Up next J&M Homes (jandmhomes.com)
- The loud man that talked through some of Matt’s presentation was apparently here for a site review…fantastic. Let’s just have a short intro and then let the panel review your site.
- Sprague’s an odd name. Especially when you consider that there’s a city in Washington and a High School in Salem that share said name.
- This guy’s dragging me down, every time the panel gets on a roll, he stops them with inane comments. We know you need help with your site, we know you’re redesigning it – let them talk. Lord, I’m starting to want a drink…
- Oh fantastic, now the clown guy is helping out. The Hot Seat is falling apart!!!
- Then again, maybe that’s what the Hot Seat should be once in awhile: a round table. Get 2 sites, 1 moderator/expert and let the audience lead the discussion.
Useful Takeaways – Optimize your home site for cities not states (ie Portland not Oregon) because people don’t just want to live somewhere in the state. Have pages for the homes you offer in each city.
Poster Garden (postergarden.com)
- These guys seem to have a game plan.
- They need a cleaner/simpler site. Like some of the panelists, I was very confused/disoriented by their site upon arrival. CD replication sites might be a good place for layout ideas for the future site, as they’re a similar user based experience. Some of my faves:
All in all, a fun and informative night.
Posted on: May 19, 2008 by Syzlak
Tomorrow, SEMpdx will host yet another installment of the outstanding SEM Hot Seat series. The evening should be rather informative as the organization has managed to score another big name personality in Matt McGee to sit on the panel. The Hot Seat is the best event SEMpdx offers and is a great experience for people who are new to SEO, as well as SEM veterans.
The evening is entitled: SEM Hot Seat + Matt McGee & The SEO Success Pyramid. I know it sounds kind of like the second (and worst) of the Indiana Jones trilogy, but rest assured there’s a lot of useful knowledge here. McGee is a consummate professional, and his SEO Success Pyramid has been widely heralded for it’s unique presentation of the SEO “gameplan.” Even though it’s more of a triangle than a pyramid, the knowledge within is beyond reproach. For more on Matt, check out David Mihm’s interview from earlier this month.
If you can’t make it tomorrow (which, is really hard to believe if you’re in the Portland area. It’s pretty easy to go, and rather affordable. I mean shit, the lessons learned are worth more than admission), expect a recap of the event from me later this week. However, if you’ve ever read one of my recaps, it might be advisable to go ahead and attend the event for yourself
Additionally, if you’re a Portland area business or SEM professional, why aren’t you a member of SEMpdx yet? The organization has regular meetings and events, and offers discounts to various SEM conferences. There’s nothing to lose (aside from the nominal fee to sign up…), so sign up today.
Posted on: April 1, 2008 by Syzlak
I get pinged this morning by a former co-worker asking whether “[I'd] come across any blogs that say running homepage & branded terms in ppc is a good thing?”
It’s getting old people.
What’s getting old? Two things:
1) Asking around for answers instead of figuring it out for yourself (whether it be running tests or looking it up on some sort of universal encyclopedia…we need to get access to one of those)
2) Thinking that for any reason, bidding on brand name keywords would be a bad idea.
I know that I come at this industry from a different direction now that I work at an agency. The main focus of our agency has been building brands. So, whilst drinking the Kool-Aid (mmm, cyanide flavor!), I apply branding to everything I do online. Sure, some of our clients don’t have branded terms that generate much traffic, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Building a presence in the SERPs is half the battle sometimes, especially for small clients.
That being said, did I learn this from running small accounts at the agency? No, I learned the value from running branded keywords and homepage ads on Best Buy – not really a small business.
So, in response to my friend, go run a test and figure it out for yourself. While I love how open this industry can be at times, and admit that I’ve learned a lot from some of the bloggers out there and the conferences, I hate how lazy it has made some of us. Shit, on average it takes 20 minutes and a week to find out how a new concept will work, and only 5 minutes to convince the boss man that it’s worth testing.
Posted on: March 26, 2008 by Syzlak
The power house that is the SMX Advanced conference just got more…power…housey?
SMX Advanced announced their agenda yesterday, and gee-whiz if it ain’t the most swell thing I’ve ever seen. As it was last year, SMX A will focus on trying to provide new and advanced information to attendees. While I was very vocal about how poor the Paid Search sessions were last year, I no longer care. See, I’m pretty good at Paid Search. Could I be better? Shit yeah, but I’m not going to sit in a room of 200 people to get better at it. I know that it’s a good strategy to have multiple ad copy and to track each separately, I understand the importance of converting a sale after the click and I get the dangers and advantages of 2nd and 3rd tier search (half this blog is about that topic).
What I’m excited about is that the SEO sessions look to be much more informative than last year. Oh and that there’s a third track this year – SEM Business. This will hopefully be an invaluable track for anyone. From the descriptions, this seems as though it is tailored to the self-employed and the heads of search firms. However, I have a feeling that anyone at any level within any type of business that focuses on search will benefit from these sessions. I’m already having a hard time trying to sort out my schedule…if I get a chance to go.
Oh shit yeah, almost forgot-they’re including a different track on the second day. Yep, that’s right, a track just for Developers. Now, I don’t know if they’ve done this before at other conferences, or they just got the idea from their developers coming back raving about SXSW, either way I’m happy.
Developers are cool, and unfortunately they never really get to understand why some of the things they do hurt everything we do. At my agency there is 1 – 1 developer that understands in the most minuscule sense, what it is that we do. The rest think I’m a snake oil salesman or that there is “totally a way to optimize for Flash.”
“Really how?”
“We’ll just put the text you want behind the Flash. No one will see it! You want like the same words over and over again right?”
“Bite me.”
So, I’m looking forward to this year’s SMX Advanced, and I’m looking forward to seeing y’all there.
Posted on: March 13, 2008 by Syzlak
It all stemmed from this test. Streko had tweeted (is that the past tense verb of one who has logged into twitter and posted) the test, so I decided to take it. The first question asked me to identify the phase that is commonly attached to the owl in…here’s the pic:
I had to know that the owl’s caption was O RLY? I did, and then I moved on to answer all but 2 questions correctly (207) on this test about various web memes. Since I did so well and because I’m arrogant (207), I sent this off to a friend of mine, who is also in the business. The conversation follows:
Luke: what the hell?
Syzlak: ?
Luke: what caption is this owl known for?
Syzlak: yeah. It’s a test.
Luke: WTF?
Syzlak: The idea is that you answer based on the options they give you
Luke: is horrible, this quiz
Syzlak: it’s a little slow yea
Luke: i am done with it
Syzlak: wow that was fast, what’s your score
later…
Syzlak: …too embarrassed?
I then assumed that he got through the first 3 questions and then bailed…if he got that far.
So, why do I care? Are memes that interesting or important? No, they aren’t, well, at least they shouldn’t be. I mean, outside of my web personality as Syzlak (that’s right) does any of this shit ever come up in conversation? Actually, yes. I do verbally say “O RLY” and I have uttered the phrase “I can haz [insert inanimate object]?” I find myself referring to online personalities by their handles not their names, I comment on forums like I’m replying to tweets. I’ve sang the bananaphone song, the minute our team got back from SXSW I watched the infamous Facebook interview. And yes, every once in a while, I am the man now dog.
Should my friend have known what was going on the minute he saw that owl? Not necessarily. There are many people in our society that simply do not follow culture. I’m sure a coal miners’ view of the world is a bit smaller than mine. However, when it comes to coal miner culture (starting to regret this example), I’m sure there’s quite a bit that they would consider to be important cultural knowledge. So, do memes matter? Yes, I think they do, and thinking that they don’t only limits one’s scope as a search marketer, social marketer, etc. Traditional marketers would watch cartoons to learn what’s hip for kids; therefore, web marketers should watch the web.
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