SMX Advanced Wrap Up
Having attended the inaugural SMX Advanced a couple years ago, I could tell this was going to be a different show. Sans newbie SEO’s (God love ya;) and business community looking to understand and leverage SEO, this show was created to serve the needs of the SEO professional. It’s now my favorite of the search marketing conferences for a few reasons:
The on-the-prowl marketer in all of us is a little subdued. We’re not here as much for client acquisition as we are for knowledge. It makes us a little less competitive and a little more cooperative.
It brings the best of the best. Having attended my first SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference in San Jose in 2001, I’ve seen the industry go through a lot of changes. From little known web tactic to full blown, kick ass, best ROI of all the marketing disciplines when done correctly. This is big business. Agencies are managing Fortune 500 accounts and hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns, paid and natural. That kind of upside tends to bring a lot of talent.
Speaking to some of the speakers and attendees and learning about their business process is exciting. As an industry we’re developing protocol and expectation for real business infrastructure.
Search Marketers are a lot of fun. There’s a sense of passion, excitement and urgency for search marketers. This isn’t a “wait and see” industry. The strategies and tactics you used 5 years ago don’t always continue to drive results. SEO’s are forced to embrace the strategies that support the algorithm today and be prepared for changes tomorrow.
Matt Cutts, a lead engineer at Google, answered questions at the show during a You & A session and I’m always surprised at the number of people who want to change the rules, game the guidelines, pimp the position and they get angry when they realize that a truth of the algorithm has evolved. It’s a part of the job, don’t get too comfortable or reliant on a single strategy. Good SEO is many things done well, if you’re doing it right your dynasty won’t crash with a change in the algorithm. Google’s job is to provide the best possible search result for a query. Play to that and there’s really no reason to get huffy.
Though we’re competitive, we’re great sharers of information. I’m always inspired by the level of comraderie between search marketers. I serve on the SEMpdx (Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland, Oregon) Board with some of the brightest SEO’s in the business. they are one of my best sources of intel as well as being great fun.
Launch Parties Are Fun. Microsoft launched their new “decision engine”, Bing.com at SMX with a fabulous party. Great venue, fun product demo, great staff, classy drinks and great schwag, I love my “I Bing. You Bing?” T-shirt;)
SMX Advanced is where you hear it first. This ain’t your mama’s search conference. Frankly, Seo/Sem is still a relatively new industry. You hear a lot of stuff from people trying to get in on the search train. I actually had a respectable marketer I know tell me they’re doing WordPress blogs because they’re the coolest new thing. Wow, WP is cool but it’s been around for a long time. The big value for marketers as well as the business community is that search marketing waits for no man and things change quickly and the only way to keep up to speed is through education. That said, one of the better sources for education is SMX Advanced. So next year, pony up the $1,600 and get educated, you might even get a cool T-Shirt;)
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