SEMPDX, our local search marketing organization, held their new SEM 6-Pack Series last night. This innovative learning event was created to meet the needs of local search engine marketing (SEM) professionals and the business community. The event featured 6 different speakers presenting on 6 unique topics relating to SEM techniques and trends for 15 minutes each. The most helpful sections included case studies that demonstrated bottom line success using SEM strategies. Here are a couple of take aways:

*Kent Lewis-Anvil Media recommended creating a press room to encourage keyword rich content in one place as well as a way to organize your press materials for easy access for the organization as well as media players.

*Benjamin Lloyd-Amplilfy Interactive
Great content is only helpful if the engines can find it. Make sure to create site architecture that supports easy access to the bots.

*Scott Hendison-Search Commander
Research Wordpress plug ins for your blog, easy to implement and helpful to the engines.

*Scott McMahon-Engine Works
Create enticing content to raise awareness on social media sites, start with a great idea that engages the community, then create the strategy for sharing that content.

*Stan Davis-Striaght on Consulting
Remember to give respect to the basic foundation of good SEO-relevant title tags, meta data, header tags, alt+image tags, etc.

*Tom Hale-Thomas Creek Concepts
When doing PPC, track your efforts, use Google Analytics and pay attention to the metrics.

These items may seem basic, but many sites are ignoring these foundational elements of good SEO/SEM and suffer the consequences. One of the successes of SEMPDX is that they are helping raise awareness about search marketing for professionals as well as for business owners. As a search professional I would encourage clients to begin participating in education and this is a great start. Here are a couple of upcoming events. SEM Hot Seat is a chance to get real search marketing advice from a panel of experts. The panelists will critique actual sites and address specific SEM questions / issues.

SEMPDX has a great selection of articles and they also host a forum for search marketing questions. MEDIA forte marketing will be presenting a 6-part series for our local Community Education program. Email me at lisa@mediafortemarketing.com if you’d like more info.