So the next few posts I’ll be talking about last week’s Search Engine Strategies Conference (highlights: video search engines, ask.com 3D launch, social media impact, blog pages outpacing web pages for the first time probably by the end of this quarter, SEMPDX Karaoke of Love Shack on YouTube at the Google Dance…) But I want to start with a practical and simple strategy. Start a blog for your business. We recently created a blog for a client, they’ve only written a handful of posts, but already they’ve had user generated content on their winery site regarding a food and wine pairing recipe, “The recipe came out perfect and the wine was a great touch” and an event “So glad I found your site and came to the Diva Wine Picnic”. Many businesses don’t ask for user content, fearful they may not like what they have to say. User generated content (UGC) is a great way to begin having a dialogue with your customers. Worse case scenario, you learn about how to improve your business and customer experience, best case scenario, you get comments like the ones referenced earlier and it really doesn’t get any better than that. The blogsphere is full of comments about companies who shut the door on UGC and suffer the consequences. If you don’t start allowing dialogue online between you and your customers, they may just start without you. So how do you get started, did I already mention this? Start a blog for your business. Plan to post at least twice a month, plan to get involved in the conversation, comment (thoughtfully) on other blogs within your industry. Spend time reading a blog that you like so you get a feel for the interaction. Read a book about blogging, “Naked Conversations” has some great insight and case studies. Happy posting!

What is Google Universal Search? Search Guru (the Lance Armstrong of the SEO world) Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land notes, “Google is undertaking the most radical change to its search results ever, introducing a ‘Universal Search’ system that will blend listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines among those it gathers from crawling web pages”.
Though this rolled out a couple of months ago, the roll out will take place over time and search marketers are just starting to see the impact. As video and other results take page one placement, traditional text entries will be pushed further down the list. What does this mean for your business? Prepare to communicate with your customers via video. When faced with a choice between text only option for a search query and a text option with video, it’s the theory that searchers may prefer rich media to help them with their search query.
We’ll learn more about Google Universal Search at Search Engine Strategies-San Jose, CA
The Wednesday Keynote Presentation will be from Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google. We’ll learn about Google’s moves in search, including recent changes to add more personalized and “universal” search results and we’ll tell your more about it after the show!