Keynote Address – Google’s Amit Singhal

You can thank Amit Singhal if you’ve ever been pleased with a Google search result. Amit is a Google Fellow, an honorary title reserved for Google’s most accomplished engineers, and he has spearheaded Google’s core ranking team since 2000. He’s also a key influencer of Search plus Your World, Google’s search experience centered around people, that lets you find personal results from your world — your photos, your friends, your stuff — in search. Join us for an engaging keynote conversation with Amit, with Search Engine Land editors Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.

New This Year: SMX Boot Camp

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can be overwhelming when you are just starting out. That’s why we created SMX Boot Camp — a one day conference experience featuring:

• Solid introductions to the key fundamentals of successful search engine marketing techniques
• Sessions that will prepare you to implement traffic- and revenue-boosting SEM techniques, right away
• Networking opportunities that will introduce you to others in the industry who will prove to be professional resources and personal friends

The SMX Boot Camp sessions include:

• Keyword Research & Copy Writing For Search Success
• Link Building Fundamentals
• Paid Search Fundamentals
• Search Engine Friendly Web Design

SMX Boot Camp sessions are taught by seasoned, highly-respected professionals who share the best practices and tactics for success they’ve honed over years of experience. And now, you can attend SMX Boot Camp for an incredible low price!

Something for Everyone

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or an advanced search marketer; whether your interests are specific to PPC, SEO, mobile or social media — there’s plenty of sessions to choose from. The search landscape is broad and deep, so we’ve brought together the most important topics featuring the strategies and tactics impacting search marketing success today.

Here’s a high-level overview of what you can expect.

SEO & Social Media

The world of search and social is both changing rapidly and converging. Traditional SEOs have to worry about how Google’s new emphasis on content quality will impact them, with ongoing Panda and Penguin updates. Social media keeps growing and becoming more important – both to people and search engines. At SMX London, you’ll learn about:

Why You Must Google+ify Or Die
Real Answers For Technical SEO Problems
King Content Vs. Panda: How To Survive & Thrive With The New Content Rules
SEO & Social Media Power Tools
Hardcore Local SEO Tactics

You’ll also have the opportunity to ask your own questions with our “search veterans take all questions” session where anything goes!

Paid Search & Analytics

It’s not just the world of organic search that’s changing – if you’re involved with paid search, or understanding how visitors interact with your site, your world is going through its own turbulence. That’s why these sessions will prove invaluable to you:

Maximizing Paid Search Campaigns With Google
Winning The Click: Creating Great Paid Search Ads
Winning The Conversion: Creating “Can’t Say No” Paid Search Landing Pages
Overlooked, Underloved & Unknown Analytics

Advanced Search Marketing Tactics

As said, SMX London has something for everyone, including experienced veterans. For those of you who’ve been around for years, you won’t want to miss these sessions:

Real Answers For Technical SEO Problems
Complying And Coping In The New World Of Regulated Global Marketing Environment
Mobile Trends: Search, Apps & Landing Pages
Life In A [Not Provided] World
Schema & Authorship: 1 Year Later
Retargeting & Remarketing: The New Behavioral Ads

Superior Knowledge, Great Networking

All of our speakers have proven track records, and are expected to share case studies, best practices and the knowledge and experience gained from working in the trenches and managing successful campaigns. So feel free to jump between tracks to attend those sessions that meet your own specific needs.

And be sure to take advantage of the networking opportunities between sessions, at lunch and at the networking reception. Networking is a hallmark of SMX and you’ll meet some fascinating and engaging people over the next two days. Most of all, enjoy the show!

Presentations from speakers who provided them will be posted to the conference web site. We will send you an email with a link and a password as soon as they are posted. This will be about a week after the show.

At SMX London, we encourage you to submit questions online. Simply use the online form we provide on site, select the session you’re attending from the dropdown menu, and type your question. Your question will then be entered into the queue for the Q&A session at the end of formal presentations.

Don’t delay – register now for SMX London,

Enjoy the show!

And once you have, be sure to make hotel reservations – at the two “official” conference hotels, the Marriott across from the Bell Harbor conference center is already sold out, and the Edgewater has only a few dozen rooms left. We can always help you find a room at another nearby hotel (simply call 877-242-5242 or email registration@searchmarketingexpo.com) but if you want to stay in the heart of the action with other SMX attendees don’t delay.

See you in Seattle in June!

The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at SMX Advanced 2012, Seattle, WA, on June 5-6, 2012. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please also be very specific about what you intend to cover. Also, if you do not see a particular session listed, this is because there are no openings for that session. Use this form to submit your request.

As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Danny, Chris and the session coordinators sift through thousands of speaker submissions to make their selections. Here are some tips that will increase your chances of being selected.

Pitch early: Submitting your pitch early gives you a better chance of being selected. Coordinators accept speakers as soon as they identify a pitch that they think best fits the session, just like colleges that use a rolling admissions policy. So pitching early increases the likelihood you’ll be chosen.

Use the form: The speaker pitch form (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/speaker-form) is the way to ask to speak. There’s helpful information there about how your pitch should be written and what it should contain.

Write it yourself and be specific: Lots of pitches come in that are obviously written by staff or not specific to the session. These are two of the most effective ways to ensure that your pitch is ignored. If you’re a thought leader, write the pitch yourself… and make certain that it is 100% focused on the session topic.

“Throw your best pitch:” We’re limiting the number of pitches to three per person, so please pitch for the session(s) where you really feel you’ll offer SMX attendees your best.

If you want to know what we aren’t looking for, see our The Best (Worst) Practices For NOT Being Invited To Speak At SMX.

The speaking pitch form will close on April 14, and we’ll notify everyone whether you’ve been selected or not by the end of April.

As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Danny, Chris and the session coordinators sift through thousands of speaker submissions to make their selections. Here are some tips that will increase your chances of being selected.

Pitch early: Submitting your pitch early gives you a better chance of being selected. Coordinators accept speakers as soon as they identify a pitch that they think best fits the session, just like colleges that use a rolling admissions policy. So pitching early increases the likelihood you’ll be chosen.

Use the form: The speaker pitch form (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/speaker-form) is the way to ask to speak. There’s helpful information there about how your pitch should be written and what it should contain.

Write it yourself and be specific: Lots of pitches come in that are obviously written by staff or not specific to the session. These are two of the most effective ways to ensure that your pitch is ignored. If you’re a thought leader, write the pitch yourself… and make certain that it is 100% focused on the session topic.

“Throw your best pitch:” We’re limiting the number of pitches to three per person, so please pitch for the session(s) where you really feel you’ll offer SMX attendees your best.

If you want to know what we aren’t looking for, see our The Best (Worst) Practices For NOT Being Invited To Speak At SMX.

The speaking pitch form will close on March 5, and we’ll notify everyone whether you’ve been selected or not by March 12.

As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Here are some tips that will increase your chances of being selected.

Pitch early: Submitting your pitch early gives you a better chance of being selected. Coordinators accept speakers as soon as they identify a pitch that they think best fits the session, just like colleges that use a rolling admissions policy. So pitching early increases the likelihood you’ll be chosen.

Use the form: The speaker pitch form (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/speaker-form) is the way to ask to speak. There’s helpful information there about how your pitch should be written and what it should contain.

Write it yourself and be specific: Lots of pitches come in that are obviously written by staff or not specific to the session. These are two of the most effective ways to ensure that your pitch is ignored. If you’re a thought leader, write the pitch yourself… and make certain that it is 100% focused on the session topic.

“Throw your best pitch:” We’re limiting the number of pitches to three per person, so please pitch for the session(s) where you really feel you’ll offer SMX attendees your best.

If you want to know what we aren’t looking for, see our The Best (Worst) Practices For NOT Being Invited To Speak At SMX.

The speaking pitch form will close on February 20, and we’ll notify everyone whether you’ve been selected or not by the end of February.

• Best Practices With adCenter For Bing & Yahoo
• Beyond The Google AdWords Tool
• Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping And Information Architecture
• Enterprise PPC
• Siri: Has The App Revolution Finally Arrived?

If you’re accepted to speak, you’ll receive a pass to the entire SMX event. Ready to pitch? Head over to our SMX speaker pitch form and submit your proposal. We’re closing the pitch form Monday, so don’t delay!

Acquisio’s existing clients will gain access to the Channel Intelligence Shopping Engines and Channel Intelligence Product Search solutions. ClickEquations clients will now be managed and supported by Acquisio and will have access to all Acquisio services.

More information about the acquisition and partnership is available in this press release.

As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Danny, Chris and the session coordinators sift through thousands of speaker submissions to make their selections. Here are some tips that will increase your chances of being selected.

Pitch early: Submitting your pitch early gives you a better chance of being selected. Coordinators accept speakers as soon as they identify a pitch that they think best fits the session, just like colleges that use a rolling admissions policy. So pitching early increases the likelihood you’ll be chosen.

Use the form: The speaker pitch form (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/speaker-form) is the way to ask to speak. There’s helpful information there about how your pitch should be written and what it should contain.

Write it yourself and be specific: Lots of pitches come in that are obviously written by staff or not specific to the session. These are two of the most effective ways to ensure that your pitch is ignored. If you’re a thought leader, write the pitch yourself… and make certain that it is 100% focused on the session topic.

“Throw your best pitch:” We’re limiting the number of pitches to three per person, so please pitch for the session(s) where you really feel you’ll offer SMX attendees your best.

If you want to know what we aren’t looking for, see our The Best (Worst) Practices For NOT Being Invited To Speak At SMX.

The speaking pitch form will close during the first week of January, and we’ll notify everyone whether you’ve been selected or not shortly thereafter.

UPDATE: Representative @DarrellIssa tweeted that the Judiciary Committee has scheduled the rest of #SOPA markup next Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 9 AM EST.

The delay is to allow more experts to weigh in with opinions and recommendations addressing technical, legal and first amendment issues.

SOPA proponents, including major content providers like the recording and motion picture industry, have argued that the new rules were necessary to combat “foreign” piracy and the sale of illicit goods like counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

SOPA opponents, including internet and tech giants and consumer and legal watchdog groups, say the proposed law is over-reaching, with the potential to “break” the internet and start a worldwide arms race of unprecedented censorship of the web.

If you’re involved with any type of online marketing, you should learn as much as you can about this proposed legislation, as the implications (mostly negative, unless you’re a large content provider or trademark holder) are huge.

Want to know more? Check out What All Marketers Need To Know About SOPA – The Stop Online Piracy Act over on our sister site, Marketing Land.

The results of this research present a good news/bad news scenario for search marketers. The good news: If you have a credible, trusted domain name, you’ve got an advantage, as searchers really do pay attention to the URL in search results before deciding to click. And this is true regardless of the position of the URL on a search result page.

The bad news, of course, is that it’s more difficult these days to acquire “credible” domains now that most single or even double word domains are in use or reserved. Add confounding factors such as personalization, Google changing its core algorithm more than 500 times a year, and the fact that most searchers don’t move beyond the first or second page of results and you’ve got a major headache for most SEOs.

Nonetheless, the study is worth a close read for anyone wanting to understand more about how to capture the attention and clicks of searchers, thanks to its wealth of data generated by observing real people and their search behavior. Probably the most significant conclusion from the study:

Surprisingly, we find that despite changes in the overall distribution of surfaced domains, there has not been a comparable shift in the distribution of clicked domains. Users seem to have learned the landscape of the internet and their click behavior has thus become more predictable over time.

In other words, even if search result rankings change due to factors like personalization or algorithmic tweaks, searchers don’t seem to care. They’re demonstrating a clear preference now for credibility and trustworthiness in a domain name now over simple ranking on a search result page. This is the strongest evidence yet that I’ve seen that an obsession with ranking is not only futile, it completely ignores the reality of how your site attracts users.

Key takeaway for bosses/clients: rank really doesn’t matter, if you’ve got a quality (trustworthy) domain name.

The study also has merit for anyone doing paid search, and considering what display URL is most appropriate for an ad. While advertisers are always limited to a display URL that corresponds with a top-level domain, the additional keywords shown in the display URL may be crucial in getting searchers to click. Also, even if searchers don’t have favorable “domain bias” for your main site, it may be possible to secure another more favorably-perceived domain for your paid search campaigns that serves as a microsite that ultimately funnels searchers into your main domain.

The report is thick with math and numerous citations to related work, but it well worth the effort for anyone involved in competitive search marketing.

Domain Bias in Web Search (pdf), Samuel Ieong, Nina Mishra, Eldar Sadikov & Li Zhang, Microsoft Research (Sadikov is now with the Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, but the study was done while the author was at Microsoft Research.