Search Engine Room: Search and Beyond

   

Bookings have now closed for the fourth Search Engine Room conference in Sydney on Tuesday, October 7. Australia's original search marketing and optimisation event offers comprehensive coverage of the online ad industry's fastest-growing sector through a vibrant program mixing issues with education, research with practicalities. 

EVENT OVERVIEW (see below) - PROGRAM AND TIMINGS (click here)

Building Website Traffic, Brand and Community. Australia’s best-known blogger discusses techniques websites can deploy to build online profile, traffic and community. Search is part of it, but there's so much more.... 

Trends, Issues, Opportunities: What are people looking for? How do they find it? What does the future hold? Also discusses search strategies that can be used during an economic downturn.

The Consumer Perspective (Power To The People):  This session examines consumer search patterns and habits, including the findings from a tracking survey involving 1000 Australians, that will help you plan SEO and SEM strategies. It will also address the new online brand search dynamic - it's social but not necessarily friendly!  

Testing, Testing, 123. Did you know there’s a precise way to learn how to make your website more effective? No guesswork, no surveys and no focus groups. This session looks at integrating Search Marketing with Landing Page Optimisation. Learn about the two most popular Multivariate Testing tools, Omniture Test and Target and Google Website Optimiser during a practical software comparison and road test.

Forget About Rank, Forget About Traffic – Show Me The Money! It’s easy to get turned on by volume (size does matter?) or getting to the top of Google. But, as in life, quality is really where it’s at. The point being, you want visitors to become customers, not fleeting acquaintances.

Your Search Traffic Sucks – A Practical Guide to Find Out Why and What To Do About It.  The game is changing, fast. Higher search costs mean numbers are no longer enough. You need to be getting customers not tyre-kickers.

SEO For Corporate Websites. The saying -‘Different strokes for different folks’ - also applies to websites. They all require specific SEO strategies. Find out what SEO tactics work best for big company sites while gaining an insight into conversion metrics.

Case Study – Hotels Combined. This session could be sub-titled: Gaining Traction In A Crowded Marketplace. Hotels Combined was launched 18 months ago into the intensely competitive accommodation vertical with what has proven to be an extremely effective SEO and SEM strategy. Find out how they did it.

Yahoo! Why Bother? A harsh but relevant question. Yahoo! has scant search market share, so what’s the point when most of the action is elsewhere? The same could be asked of MSN-owned Live Search, which has an even smaller footprint. Opinions vary. Get some views here.

Website Usability for Search Engines. Build a website that the search engines love. This session outlines key components of search-friendly websites (and some that are not so amenable) from two of Australia’s most passionate Web Usability experts.

Search And The Big Picture. What role should search play in the overall marketing plan? What proportion of the total online budget should search take? What are the alternatives? How does SEO work with SEM? Find out here.

Linking - Walking a Fine Line. This is where SEO gets just a little contentious. The hype is that building the right links leads to high rankings, while multiple links from the wrong sites can have the opposite effect as everyone tries to second- guess the Search Engines. This session will combine issues with practicalities.

Content Is King (aka Links are Over-Rated). Sure, many in the search game are somewhat, um, obsessed with links but there are others, such as Gary Ng, who reckon they’re over-rated and that smart content, and lots of it, is the way to go. Session covers content strategy.

Online PR – SEO for The Media Age. There are enormous SEO and search engine profile opportunities for companies that embrace Online PR. Session includes overview, tactics and case studies.

Universal Search and Video Optimisation. Includes an overview from Google on Universal Search followed by tips on how to optimise its various elements to improve search visibility. 

(Wo)man v. Machine. The world of paid search is getting increasingly automated with many agency pitches devolving into “my bid management system is better than yours” rhetoric. Yet there’s plenty – maybe more - to be said for the human touch. Get two different opinions here.

Under The Hood. Get the technical perspective on how search engines actually determine the most relevant results. Technical but certainly not dry!

Performance Marketing and Search - Maximise Exposure on Page One. Increase sales volumes, gain impression share, protect your brand, control marketing budget - advanced search strategies utilising performance marketing.

The Search Economy. Australian businesses last year spent more than more than $400m last year on search engine marketing. Around 90% went to a single company – Google. Get the latest here on the continuing evolution of Australia’s growing search economy.

Search Engine Room: Search and Beyond
Date: October 7, 2008
Location: Dockside, Sydney
Cost: Bookings Closed