SES Chicago conference attendees enjoyed the give and take at the question and answer session, where search expert Danny Sullivan led an enjoyable and spirited group in discussing the world of search.
Danny Sullivan Cutts Up
What questions would you have for experts like Sullivan? Why not ask the members of WebProWorld?
One of the regular features of the Search Engine Strategies conferences has host Danny Sullivan working a question and answer session like a master showman, eliciting laughter from the audience while directing the conversation to knowledgeable folks beside him.
At one point, when asked by a member of the audience if there is a way to create a search engine validator, Sullivan solemnly intoned “allow me to channel Matt Cutts” to the crowd’s delight. He then noted that even Matt has said “we are looking at moving closer to this with SiteMaps and its Webmaster console.”
“Google did a pilot program where they started dropping webmasters notes with feedback on the problem … Yea … blog about it… because nothing makes a complaint more serious than if you blog,” Sullivan quipped.
murdok provided Murdok with a few of the choicer questions and answers exchanged between the audience, Sullivan, and some of the other search experts in attendance.
Q: What do we do with some of the conflicting information?
Danny: “Sometimes we have a session called I’m confused.’ We probably should bring it back.” (Laughter) “There are lots of different opinions and you really have to sort out which advice will work for you. It often has to do what your needs are.”
Q: I’m confused as to why search engines attempt to prevent SEOs from succeeding…. why do they?
Danny: “Why are they pissed at us when we help deliver better content for our clients?” (Looking to Tim Mayer from Yahoo) “He’s practically worked for every search engine but Google. Hey Tim … why are you so mean?” (Laughter)
Tim: “We balance the needs of users, publishers and advertisers. We are looking to rank appropriately for the user and for you… so you get qualified leads. No one thinks they have bad content.”
Q: If they were serious about wanting to provide the best content … the search engines would just provide the standards.
Danny: “They have been asked to publish a rule book but then people would take it right to the edge of the rule.
“There are a lot of consumers who want to know who to trust. The search engines are hesitant to post a black list because they don’t want to get sued. So the solution is to issue a whitelist of who to trust. It isn’t the role of SEMPO to sort this out.”
Q: How many search engines treat site copy differently?
Tim: “We basically treat it as plain text. Use common HTML if you want the search engines to know what is on your site … but that needs to be consistent with CSS. A lot of it is about intent … there isn’t a black and white. If you are giving different signals to the search engines than the user then that is a problem. H1 Tags signal the search engines that something is important on the page.”
Q (Bill Hartzer of Search Engine Guide): “Another major concern is pay for content and duplicate sites. Tim…what are you doing about duplicate content?”
Tim: “It depends on the sector you are in … we measure the amount of spam in your index … there is a constant battle to detect search spam … it is always evolving.”
Danny: “There is a rising concern about duplicate content for many reasons.”
Q: Who is hiring … what is the state of SEM industry. Is the industry growing?
(The audience indicated that the SEM industry is strong and growing.)
Q (Audience member; furniture manufacturer in Green Bay): “People can’t buy our product online. Our traffic is not that great … Only 20% of people who come to our site come from search engines. People are not searching for commercial furniture online. We have an architectural furniture line too.
Danny: “You should have went to the “Pimp My Site” session.” (Laughter; Danny took a business card from her)
Q: Is Google a good analytics tool?
Danny: “I’ve got good news for youthe price of analytics is about to plunge. If you want heavy-duty analytics that probably won’t.”
Q: Where’s the party?
Danny: “It has been an unusual conference because most of the time the search engines are fighting to hold a party.” (Laughter)
(murdok noted that a Search Bash – put together by WebmasterRadio.FM, Bruce Clay Inc., PositionTech, TrueLocal and the New York Times – came together at Buddy Guy’s Legends.*)
(*754 S Wabash, and Buddy’s new album Bring Em In’ came out Sept. 27th, why not pick one up for someone special this holiday season? – David)
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
