About my visit to SMX 2009 conference

I was very pleased to attend SMX West in Santa Clara, CA. This was my first SEO conference. It was well worth the visit.

I met quite a few of the movers and shakers in the SEO business. The vendors at the show were a bit out of my league, though. They wanted to meet people with big scale customers, the ones with 50,000 - 3,000,000 on their subscriber lists. Alas, my customers are in the 100-1,000 range.

Even so, I soaked in their conversations and some of their presentations.

The main conference talks were good but more targeted to the beginner SEO crowd, I felt. That's ok, too. You always pick up on new ways and ideas listening to people who are in the trenches day in and day out.

It was fun to hear the Google guys talking about SearchWiki with Danny Sullivan moderating. I did not know about SearchWiki before that. I suggest you take a look for your own edification and business survival.

SearchWiki summary: using this new tool you can customize your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange results and comment on them. You need to be logged into your Google account to use this. Your personal changes will not affect how others see their search result (SERPs).

In my opinion, this product will affect SEO in the future, but not in the near future. To gain a foothold the product must become popular and that can be a long stretch or even failure. But SearchWiki is something you need to be aware of.

Here is the Google page on SearchWiki: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-searchwiki.html

Here is a video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-c7vQrOV0I&feature=related

With my always handy FlipVideo I created some videos. Here you can get a feel for what a large conference like SMX and others looks and feels.

The Google booth in the vendor area:

A free presentation by a vendor:

Greg Cryns
20000 Credit Card Debt

Local Search Marketing overview

Do you know what is meant by "local search marketing"?

Essentially, this term refers to using the search engines to make sure that people who are searching for local businesses will find your information as a local business.

Simple? Not exactly.

Google took a step a while back to make sure that people who were looking for a local business found just that at the top or near the top of the first search result page. Since then, Yahoo and MSN created their own local search results. There are quite a few hoops you need to jump through to get your business listed on the first page.

Let's say you searched in Google for "website design in Minneapolis" because you want your new website to be built by someone you can easily meet with and discuss the project in person. It is good to know your website person personally, right?

If you did that search today, 2.3.09, you would see what is shown on the picture above on the first page of Google search results page (SERP).

Go ahead. Type your own search for your business. Be aware that Google local results are not found for every search.

Now search for "insurance in paso robles". Do you see the Google balloons that indicate the locations of various insurance agencies? That is Google Local.

I will do a series of articles on Google Local. Stay tuned. It is important for the future success of your business.

Greg Cryns
The Complete Guide to Freelance Riches
The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion