Web Guild organized an event last week where some of the thought leaders gathered to discuss the various Search related topics such as Search Marketing, Social Search, Web Analytics etc.
The Keynotes included representatives from Google, AOL etc. About 400 people attended the session and discussed the value of SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing).
For any hot startups out there its a no brainer that you have to rely on google to make your product known to the world. Marrisa Mayer (below) shared what google is doing going forward to mix languages and images as search results.
There were good discussion around Social Networking, User generated content and the impact of social phenomenon changing how people search. Though, I did’nt hear clearly a business model where one can fuse Facebook and Search to create value. You Tube and Meta Cafe reps showed basic functionality but basically evangelized what they have and provided no new guidance on whats on the horizon.
AOL’s Melanie Mitchell shared some interesting challenges of getting SEO implemented at larger corporation and the key takeaway was to have a centralized SEO approach and core to product development and budgeting. AOL of course implemented SEO and are reaping the benefit of discovery by doing so.
If you are new to SEO and SEM … do some searches and figure out how you can make you or your product known to the world … there are some simple techniques that can make your page rank better.
In the end .. its all about Google in the Valley lately.
