Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conferences are the largest global conferences focusing around Search and Social Marketing, touching on topics ranging from SEO to Video Optimization to PPC Management. The conference, since its start in 1999, has been held in major cities across the world and brings together professionals from a variety of different industries. The extensive, three-day event encompasses over 70 sessions, within tracks such as SEO, Paid Search and Social Media, along with interactive workshops led by Marketers and SEO professionals from major companies.

SES recently hosted one of their conferences here in Chicago. Rise Interactive’s CEO and Founder, Jon Morris, was featured on Day 1 during the SEO track. Morris participated on a panel focusing on Metrics for SEO. He later went into more detail on the topic with his presentation entitled “SEO: How Understanding Your Analytics Gives You the Edge,” which emphasized the importance of Web Analytics when looking to generate the highest return for your interactive investment. Following the event, Morris participated in an interview hosted by WebmasterRadio.FM where he further discussed the concept and practice of Interactive Investment Management.

SES Chicago presentation: http://www.riseinteractive.com/webinars/understanding-seo-analytics/get-the-analytics-edge.pdf

SES Chicago interview: http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/search-engine-strategies-conference/2011/interactive-investment-management

Morris will take you on a deep dive into understanding the key data points that will help you move the needle with your SEO investment. This session will go beyond the basics of search engine optimization and will give actionable items around Prioritization, Content Development and the Analytical data points you should be monitoring.

Attendees will also learn about the growing practice of Interactive Investment Management and how to manage their online spend in a manner that will produce higher ROI. Morris will use real world examples drawn from his experience working with some of the world’s largest and best known brands on how to create your own SEO roadmap.

The Roadmap looks at 6 key factors in determining the appropriate way to prioritize your SEO efforts.

These factors include:

Analysis of a keywords by category

Current coverage in the category against all others

An understanding of content needs

Probability for ranking success

The relevance of the keywords to your business

Your estimated ROI

Register for SEO: How Understanding Your Analytics Gives You the Edge here.

So, you might be wondering… how do I motivate employees to write blogs?

Honestly, our blog started as a simple competition…yes, we started with a trip to Vegas on the line! We quickly discovered that this was a good motivator, but there was an even better finding from this competition:

Thought leadership and personal growth is the ultimate motivation.

I recently had the opportunity to see Kevin Ryan, former CEO of DoubleClick and current founder and CEO of Gilt Group. The topic that Ryan spoke about was, “Hirer’s Remorse? Why 80 Percent of Business is Choosing the Right People.”  At this conference, Ryan said,

“A people want to work for A people.”

This means a couple things to me:

1.  ‘A’ people seek out other ‘A’ people to surround themselves with. ‘A’ people want to learn and grow from other ‘A’ people.

2.  You’d better hire an ’A’ person for HR since they will be doing the hiring!

Rise Interactive is a group of ‘A’ people; we are thought leaders who seek to surround ourselves with ‘A’ people . Everyone at Rise quickly discovered there was a new excitement that went along with doing research and digging into a topic that may be outside of a person’s expertise. When you really took the time to pull your nose out of your expertise, listen and reflect on what is going on today—right this minute—you can come away with some incredible findings which can be applied to your clients.

The best advice: encourage thought leadership.

PPCR is updated daily from the client’s search engine accounts using API links to dynamically extract results.  In addition, PPCR retroactively pulls historical data so that latent conversions and search engine updates are accounted for in the reporting interface.  In this manner, PPCR is a clear advantage over static reporting, especially for clients who use a longer conversion window.

Upon logging into PPCR, the user is taken to the report home screen.  Paid search results from the entire list of a user’s enabled search engines are presented in an easy to use format.  Reports can be trended for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly time periods via a simple drop-down menu.  Hyperlinks on the left menu allow for selection among various criteria including the specific search engine, campaign/adgroup/keyword and branded or non-branded terms.  Perhaps the most insightful report is the Comparison report.  Users can compare results from two different time periods using one of nine predefined date ranges or by inputting a custom date range.

For those who are more graphically oriented, PPCR offers a variety of graphing options to best render data in the most insightful and user-friendly manner.  Trend, historical, individual metrics and daily data can all be graphed over the time period selected by the user.

PPCR offers a full complement of relative and sum metrics that users can view to assess their advertising performance.  All performance, cost, revenue, efficiency and allocation metrics that advertisers could possibly want to examine are available for report inclusion.  Report rendering can be customized to include whichever metrics the user wants in whatever order they wish to see them appear.  Metric order and selection can be saved as a default so that the interface is always in a consistent and preferred format.

Account creation is a simple process in PPCR.  Once a new account is created, the account owner has complete control and can create and delete new sub-accounts, users and passwords.  User access can be defined to limit entitlements to the data and materials the account owner determines is appropriate.

Data can be accessed in the user interface directly, through an excel download or in a printed hard-copy.

To sign up for a free trial or to learn more, visit the PPCR website.

We all know that social media is a valuable marketing tool—an opportunity to engage and interact with our customers. It is a new take on PR that allows us to manage crises and bad experiences in merely a few seconds.  But it’s also something that no one has quite figured out.

At Rise, we work hard to help our clients determine the best social media strategy for them, using trends, analytics and their own unique brand identities to craft specialized plans.  But one thing we emphasize to everyone, inside and outside of the company, is that social media – while most definitely solidly here to stay – is still an undiscovered frontier.  There are some guidelines (see our blog post “6 Simple Rules for Social Media Implementation” ) and even some hard studies to suggest best times to Tweet and post to Facebook and how quickly to respond to comments, but many companies are left scratching their heads when it comes to what exactly to do.

The rules of social media are constantly evolving, but one thing is certain: it does have value.  It’s a rare company that can get away without having some kind of presence there.  So it wasn’t surprising that so many people in the room were the ones in charge of their companies’ social media management.  Everyone in the room was wondering the same thing—a problem that Adobe was proposing a solution to:  How do you value social media?, How much is a ‘Like’ worth?, What’s the impact of a ReTweet?.  SocialAnalytics had some interesting ideas for figuring that out, but it was clear that a lot of social media is still a gray area.  For example, SocialAnalytics works retrospectively, but isn’t it important to know what kind of social media history your brand has?  And what about Google+?  “Too early to know its impact”, Adobe says, and they’re right.

In my opinion, social media is certainly not black or white – it’s not even gray.  It’s a chameleon, changing its colors by the day and challenging businesses to keep up with new developments, figure out how to implement them and finally, how to measure their impact.  My suggestion is to get comfortable with social media.  It’s here to stay, but it won’t be the same next month as it is right now (and not just because Google+ becomes available to business pages next month). But I wouldn’t say that SocialAnalytics or anyone else is particularly close to figuring out an exact algorithm for the value of it.  After all, if social media strategies are specific to each company, how could there be just one (or ten) ways of figuring out its value?  More than ever, it’s more important to stay up-to-date on social media developments and to embrace the marketing channel that has proven as powerful as it is unpredictable.

Even through the worst of the recession in 2007-2009, internet marketing budgets have continued to increase exponentially. Businesses have seen the light when it comes to these channels, which has bolstered the industry through tough times. In the chart below, survey results from Distributed Marketing describe how businesses plan to change their marketing budgets for 2012. Mobile, social media and SEO are at the top of the list for increases in budgetary spending, while traditional media like direct mail and print are decreasing in spending. (http://distributedmarketing.org/2011/07/25/2012-budget-survey-results-spending-plans-shift-toward-social-mobile/)

With more economic woes on the forefront, it seems an appropriate time to discuss why internet marketing is so effective, even for businesses struggling in a tough economy.

1. Results

Here at Rise, it is our mission to Drive, Measure and Optimize all marketing that we do for our clients. This means that not only do we execute all marketing initiatives to the best of our abilities, but we also strive to meet (or exceed) our client’s goals in a timely fashion. One of the best aspects of internet marketing is that businesses can see real, tangible results that are based on numbers. As opposed to some other channels of marketing, we are able to measure our successes (and improve upon our failures) nearly every day. Our clients are able to take the customized data that we provide them and make actionable plans based on performance and projections.

2. Flexibility

Another great thing about internet marketing is that there is a channel for just about everyone. Whether you’re a small, local business or a global corporation, there is probably some aspect of internet marketing that will be advantageous to your business. Some of our larger clients run with Email, Paid Search, Display and Affiliate, while we have some clients who ask that we simply help them set up their website for SEO. Whatever your business is, we can most likely help you market your business better and more efficiently with internet marketing.

3. Cost

Though this aspect depends on the company and what its goals are, the costs of internet marketing are relatively low compared to other types of marketing. While in some cases, a larger budget may be necessary to make an impact in a particular channel, the return that our clients typically get from their spend is much more efficient than what they spend in other more traditional channels. Even for our smaller clients, we try to ensure that every business gets as much of an impact from their internet marketing as possible for what they are spending.

4. Specificity

Lastly, one of the most important aspects of internet marketing is our ability to be as specific as we want to be. With new features and technologies allowing us to target specific electronic devices in paid search, and re-target users in display, we are able to drill down and reach the best and most-likely-to-convert audience. On the flip side, with this specificity, we can measure and report on what slight changes have the most impact and help us to predict what will work best for our clients. We are always pushing the envelope and have the power to make an impact with small changes.

In all, internet marketing provides many opportunities, for businesses small and large, even in the economy we’re currently stuck with. Evaluating the success of your business’s current marketing efforts is a smart practice to adopt. Many businesses out there are already making transitions in their budgets to increase spend in internet marketing. When the economy gets tough, we show our clients that we can squeeze a return out of every cent that we spend! You may want to consider if the same will work for your business.

While I can’t speak to the more senior employees’ experiences, I can shed some light on my—along with the other new hires’—first few weeks here.

My first day was, luckily enough, on Rise Interactive Day, a summer company picnic on the lake front property of Rise Senior Advisor, Jack Kraft. July 8^th marks Rise Interactive Day, or RID (as Rise employees refer to it). It is the one day of the year where Rise celebrates its start as a company and recognizes the hard work that every individual puts into creating Rise Interactive’s successes. Rise’s Senior Marketing Manager, Phil Corbett, discusses RID in greater detail here.

Knowing only the four people I had interviewed with, of course I was nervous and a bit intimidated, but my worries were quickly alleviated.  Every person I talked to was friendly, everyone who had interviewed me remembered my name and I was welcomed into the Rise family with open arms—even though I hadn’t even officially started.  What a great way to start a new job, right?

As I’ve mentioned, Rise is booming and my very first day was busy for everyone, of course.  But rather than being stuck in a corner and forgotten, they were ready for us with introductory meetings of all of the staff members, a thorough training schedule with job expectations and a general friendliness that put us all at ease.

But who wants to train all day long, day in and day out?  Likely nobody—and Rise realized that.  What they prepared for us was a balanced blend of training and hands-on experience.  Through our daily sessions, we gained the background education on the services and activities at Rise and were immediately given the opportunity to jump in and get our hands dirty, learning the ins and outs of our clients and common deliverables.  We were made to feel useful which, as many of you may now be thinking, is highly uncommon for new hires. It was a kind of welcome that was both genuine and empowering.

Even before training was completed, we were invited to contribute on projects.  Now, many of us are leading tasks to be completed on these projects, providing a challenging and dynamic daily experience.

One other aspect of Rise that the company does exceptionally well is its thought-leadership.  Everyone— from new hires to the most senior employees—is encouraged to participate in brainstorming sessions and has a voice that’s listened to (which is something not every business supports).  Everyone is also frequently invited to industry events to help each employee acquire a broader understanding of digital marketing services and practices. In this way, ideas are shared freely across the business, making everyone’s life a little easier and a lot more interesting.

Rise appealed to me because the company genuinely seemed to care, not only about its clients’ success, but also the success of its employees.  I am confident in saying that Rise Interactive will live up to its core values through its employees and outstanding culture.

An example of who we are at Rise was exemplified last Friday, or as it is known in our office “Rise Day.” This is a day where we take time to celebrate both individuals and teams and reflect back on the previous year’s accomplishments. Rise Day is a symbolic commemoration of the date our CEO and Founder, Jon Morris, launched our company out of a condo in in the Lake View neighborhood of Chicago. The bootstrapped company began with a focus on dedication to our customers, hard work and amazing individual efforts all without losing site of the fact that we all should have fun every day.

The small team that launched Rise and grew it to the 60 person company we are today created a culture that, like happens to most rapidly growing companies, could have easily been lost along the way. But as a company we are proud of where we came from and how we got here, and continuing to hold on to key elements that existed from day 1 is important in maintaining the identity that is Rise.

On the surface, Rise Day may have looked like a chance for employees to step out of the offices for a few hours and hang out on Jet-skis and participate in a bags tournament, but it was more than that. It was a day to recognize the individuals. From our dedicated interns to our employees that have gone above and beyond, we celebrated their accomplishments. It was also a day to make sure we do what we can to prevent a siloed culture where departments only interact with those they work with on a daily basis. And of course, it was a chance for all of us to have fun.

Creating and maintain a brand that has value in the marketplace is dependent on having a team that can align itself with who we are as a company. It is all of our responsibilities to make sure we remember where we came from on our path to where we are going. For us Rise Day is one way we try to accomplish this.

In future posts I will highlight other aspects on what it takes to create a world-class brand and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making it stick. If you have examples of things you or your company have done please share them.

   1. We Work Hard and Deliver Results

Not enough emphasis can be placed on how hard we work. We have a very dedicated team that takes pride in their work and strives to only deliver the highest quality of work. We measure every piece along the way and learn new ways to improve constantly.

   2. We work hard and deliver results all while having fun

While we work very hard, we have fun while we’re doing it.  It’s currently Friday afternoon, there are 7 of us sitting around discussing creative ideas for each of our accounts with the creative help of Michael Jackson jamming in the background. Even though we don’t each work directly with each and every account, we all have creative and unique ideas that could help another account. So, while this isn’t everyone’s idea of “fun”, we’re search nerds!

   3. We’re a bit competitive

Nearly everything is a competition. Internally we collaborate and work as a team on everything. Ideas are shared openly and we constantly brainstorm together. But, when it comes to winning for our clients, we consider ourselves an extension of their teams. We immerse ourselves into our client’s goals and work very hard to make sure our clients are not only competitive in search, but that they dominate!

   4. We are a team

We support each other’s creative ideas and work together to achieve the best results for our clients. We bounce ideas off of each other, we collaborate on new ideas, and ultimately we enjoy success as a team. The relationships that we have formed internally allow us to work together and better each other, which ultimately impacts our clients and the work that we do.

   5. We build people up

The sky is the limit at Rise. No one here will ever stand in the way of someone growing and moving up within the company. In fact, Rise even takes it a step further to focus on training. Rise wants every single team member to be an expert. We have time dedicated to learning and staying on top of the latest trends. The more we learn, the stronger of a team we have.

Although search engines might not directly punish a site if the same exact content is published on multiple URLs, the value of the original content could be diluted. Google states that they do not have a duplicate content penalty; however, if the website with the copied content has a higher page ranking than the originating page, then that original site might not appear in a search because Google doesn’t want to have multiple search results with the exact same content.

Google says when it comes across duplicate content they group all the URLs together. They then select what they think is the “best URL” to represent the content in search queries. In our case it is unlikely that the translated blog post ranks above ours for this particular topic, but it is possible for search engines to choose a site with copied material.

Other factors that help search engines determine the originator of the content is by backlinks, post date and respect of the site. A more powerful, respected site is more likely get credit for the content because they are unlikely to copy others.

Here are some ways that you can protect and help prevent your content from getting duplicated.

1. Add a copyright notice at the bottom of all your content and warn that you check for duplicated content
2. Perform internal audits has many Web sites have duplicate content across various pages throughout the site
3. URL canonicalization- have clean URLs

Copyscape is a great tool to use in order find out if any of your content has been copied. It lets you identify sites that have duplicated your content without permission and even shows you who is quoting your site. All you have to do is type your domain into the search box and Copyscape will tell you how many pages have your content on their sites. It will tell you how many exact words are used and the percent of similarity throughout the entire page.

If you discover that your content has been copied you can do a couple of things to resolve the problem. You can contact the person who copied your content and ask them to take it down. If you do not get a response or the person refuses to take it down, you can file a complaint with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). They will assess the situation and send the duplicate site owner a takedown notice.

Has anyone else had issues with their content being duplicated before?