Day One of Search Engine Strategies New York

Posted on March 17, 2008

This is my first trip to the Big Apple. As a history major in college, I have a deep appreciation for the architecture and history of this amazing city. Attending the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York is an amazing experience of witnessing a city rich in history while learning from cutting-edge marketing and technologists teaching about current and future trends.

Once again Search Engine Strategies holds-up to its reputation as a valuable resource worth the time and money. So far today I’ve focused two sessions on regional search and a basic session on web analytics. I’m rounding-out the day with a panel discussion called "Getting Vertical Search Right" and a final session on "How to Train Your Pets to Search".

Attending these types of conferences, more than answering my questions, lead me to know the right questions and information I need to research. For instance, I heard some interesting statistics on some specific countries in Asia and Europe regarding user search patterns and how to reach audiences in those markets. There were some common themes in most countries such as the prominence of Google as the primary search (aside from China where Baidu is king). But other stats such as the prominence of mobile search varies greatly from Japan being a huge market in contrast to France on the other end of the spectrum. These individual country statistics lead me down the path of compiling a matrix for user stats and patterns for each country. The end result then provides a metric for resource allocation in regards to issues such as mobile site development, language translation, localization and local search.

The Search Engine Strategies in New York is a much larger show than the Chicago show I attended in December 2006. It also, perhaps due to its location seems to draw a more international crowd. That may be due however to the maturation of the SES conference as a whole, I’m not sure.

The conference venue is at the Hilton New York which is conveniently located half-way between Times Square and Central Park in Mid-town Manhattan. It is a top-flight hotel with excellent facilities. I am fortunate to have a room on the 33rd floor with a partial view of Central Park.

Beyond the speakers and sessions, the event provides a wonderful opportunity to talk with the major search engines, consultants and pier professionals. I teased out some interesting online marketing budget from other manufacturing companies similar to ETS-Lindgren that they spend around 10% of their budget in online advertising. This by-the-way jives with the overall national average for online advertising. Networking returns some very valuable information to leverage with corporate leadership for substantiating the potential ROI on a larger budget for instance.

Filed Under Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Optimization, Reviews |