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On Monday, June 16, 2008, before the start of the Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto, Canada, there will be four search engine marketing training classes. While each of the half-day SEM training workshops costs CAD 795, if you register for a full day, the cost is CAD 1,395.

That’s a savings of 195 Loonies – which is worth between 97 and 98 Toonies. (SES Toronto Conference Chairman, Andrew Goodman, has been trying to help me translate American into Canadian, but Search Engine Strategies Global Content Director, Kevin Ryan, thinks it’s a lost cause.)

Seriously, why would you want to take a search engine marketing training class or two – independently or in addition to registering for the SES Toronto?

There are three key reasons.

First, you’ll be provided with “guided, hands-on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment,” as it says on the Search Engine Strategies Toronto website. These SEM training workshops will be taught by Debra Mastaler, Todd Malicoat, Adam Goldberg and Liana Evans, and I can personally vouch for three of them. (While I don’t know Adam Goldberg personally, he’s an ex-Google Insider who started Google’s Inside Sales team in NYC in 2003. So, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.)

These search engine marketing experts will provide you with the tools and techniques you need to become (or remain) outstanding in your field. (I know there’s a joke about a guy who is out standing in his field, but I forget the punch line.)

In the end, you’ll not only walk away from the search engine marketing classes with the knowledge and skills you need to be a successful search engine marketer, you may also “jump-start your career and enhance your professional know-how,” as the SES Toronto website puts it.

Second, all four of this year’s SEM training workshops are brand new. Compare them to last’s year’s line up of search engine marketing training classes. There are absolutely no repeats.

In Track 1, Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link.com is teaching “Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques” from 8 a.m. to noon. And Adam Goldberg of ClearSaleing is teaching “Search Engine Marketing Metrics and Myths” from 1 to 5 p.m. (I love the use of alliteration in the titles of their SEM training workshops.)

In Track 2, Todd Malicoat of Stundtdubl is teaching “SEO Tools” from 8 a.m. to noon. And Liana Evans of KeyRelevance is teaching “How to Effectively Use Social Media for Search Marketing Campaigns” from 1 to 5 p.m. (Just because they don’t alliterate their titles doesn’t mean their search engine marketing training classes won’t be fun.)

I interviewed Todd and John Marshall of Market Motive at ad:tech San Francisco a couple of weeks back, when Market Motive announced it has teamed with Search Engine Strategies to provide online classes for training in search marketing, web analytics, and web conversion techniques.

Todd also talked about his SEM training workshop at SES Toronto. Check out the video interview below.

Stundubl’s Todd Malicoat’s Upcoming Session at SES Toronto

There’s a third key reason why you would want to take a search engine marketing training class or two – independently or in addition to registering for the SES Toronto. (There are always three key reasons to do anything. Hang on a second, I’ll remember it.)

You get a lunch break. (No, that’s not it. The lunches are getting better at all of the Search Engine Strategies events, but that’s not a reason to take workshops covering optimization and advertising strategies, analytics, tactics and best practices.)

Oh, now I remember. Whether you’re a consultant, site designer, website owner, or in-house marketing professional, you can’t afford to miss this opportunity to learn firsthand about the latest developments in search engine strategy. (I thought I was having a “senior moment” there.)

No matter where you are on the SEO or SEM learning curve, you’ll leave these intensive workshops with the necessary skills and tools to improve your business results and take your search engine marketing to another level. “Something that never looks bad on your permanent record,” according to Greg Marmalard in Animal House (1978).

See you at the Intercontinental Toronto Centre Hotel, which is a different venue than the main Search Engine Strategies conference, which is being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, which is attached to the InterContinental Toronto Centre Hotel. (Was that clear? Check Google Maps.)

See you at SES Toronto.

I just got back from speaking on a multivariate testing panel at eMetrics in San Francisco.

A conversation I had with Marshall Sponder triggered this post. Marshall was bemoaning the fact that web analysts can’t even get “a seat at the table” (i.e. serious consideration) within many companies. To me this was a statement of the obvious. There are three main reasons that web analysts are not taken seriously.

Trying to do too many complicated & custom things

Data mining and analysis is pretty open-ended. A smart person can think up many ways to slice and dice the data. The very word “analyst” conjures up images of complexity. This is “rocket science” and no amount of simplified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on a customized dashboard for your boss will change that. If you dumb down the data too much then others may jump to the wrong conclusions. If you let them peek under the hood, then the complexity comes roaring back.

Looking in the rearview mirror

Analytics pores over data that was collected in the past. No matter how detailed or insightful it is, it can not necessarily be translated directly into actions because the conditions now may have changed significantly since the data was collected (e.g. traffic mix, seasonal factors, actions of competitors).

Not speaking the language of business

Analysts speak the language of numbers - but unfortunately not the right ones. Management only understands numbers in the context of finance. Does it make more money for us? Does it cut down costs?

So what can a web analyst do to get some respect?

1) Focus on mission-critical projects only - unless it can make a big impact on the business you should not waste your time on it. Intellectual curiosity and “what if” open-ended idea exploration should be limited to a small proportion of your time.

2) Get proactive - You should be working on actionable forward-looking activities such as landing page optimization which can actually lead to significant changes, and will not be filed away and never looked at.

3) Learn to speak in the language of finance - The only numbers that matter to your managers are the financial ones. Once you start presenting your projects and priorities in terms of their contribution to business performance you will get a lot more respect and attention.

You must reinvent yourself - instead of being viewed as a passive “analyst” you should become a business process architect who is relentlessly driven to improve the economics of your company.

If you do these things then you will be much more likely to get a seat at the table.

Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder of Future Now Inc., will be giving the keynote presentation at SES Toronto on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. He was also a speaker at SES London earlier this year.

While in London, I interviewed Bryan about web analytics, Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo (MicroHoo), converting visitors into buyers, his new book, and where to find the best pizza in Brooklyn. The video below takes advantage of YouTube’s high-quality video toggle button to give you a significantly better view of that interview. Check it out.

Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now, at SES London 2008 on SEO

So, what will Bryan be talking about at SES Toronto? Well, he’s the publisher of Future Now’s award-winning blog, GrokDotCom, so you might want read some of his latest posts to get a sense of his point of view.

Bryan is also a columnist for ClickZ, so you might want to read “Recession-Proof Your Online Marketing” to get a sense of his scientific approach.

However, Bryan is currently working on his next book, Always Be Testing, due in September 2008. So, I’ll bet we’ll get a sneak preview of his latest insights at SES Toronto.

Then again, maybe SES Toronto Conference Chairman Andrew Goodman, will show Bryan where to find the best pizza in Canada and that will be the subject of his keynote presentation.

Now, let me think. Always Be Testing or the best pizza in Canada? My money is on the book.

Understanding how to analyze keywords using a waterfall analysis can give you a great deal of insight into what’s happening with your campaign, and bring a sharp focus to the nature of the opportunities available to you. In today’s Web Analytics and ROI column, “The Top 3 Reasons PPC Lead Gen Campaigns Miss Volume Targets - Part 2,” Eric Enge outlines the steps involved, and the opportunities keyword waterfall analysis can reveal.

In celebration of Search Engine Strategies’ 10-year anniversary, SES San Jose 2008 will host the first annual SES Awards ceremony. The SES Awards will be held Wednesday, August 20, 2008, hosted by Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies.

Winners will be selected in each of the following categories:

* Technology Platform Search Marketers Can’t Live Without
* Best Business-to-Business Search Marketing Campaign
* Most Innovative Use of Search Engine Optimization
* Search Engine with Most Relevant Search Results
* Best Multi-National Search Marketing Campaign
* Best Integration of Search with Other Media
* Best SEM Technology Platform for SMBs
* Best Social Media Marketing Campaign
* Most Advertiser-Friendly Search Engine
* Most Innovative Paid Search Campaign
* Most Effective Use of Web Analytics
* Most Innovative New Search Engine
* Best Search Engine Ad Platform
* Best Web Analytics Platform
* Best Use of Local Search
* Editor’s Choice

The mission of the SES Awards: to inspire innovation and encourage new ideas. The SES Awards honor 15 outstanding winners in the search universe. The awards will be judged by a panel of industry experts and the SES Awards editorial staff.

The Editor’s Choice award winner will be selected exclusively by the SES Awards editorial staff.

Can you guess who the SES Awards judges will be?

Questions? SES Awards FAQ has your answers.

Many small businesses are afraid of the perceived complexity of Web analytics. At the same time, they know they can make more money in less time with Web analytics. In today’s Small Business Search Marketing column, “Taking the Fear Out of Web Analytics for Your Small Business,” Carrie Hill simplifies the process by breaking down the four metrics you should be analyzing on your small business web site.

Yahoo has acquired IndexTools, a leading web analytics company. For another take on this, check out Eric Peterson’s post on the topic. As Eric notes, one of the interesting things about this is that IndexTools is a tool that arguably has the power of the top tier tools (see my review of IndexTools here), but has been offered traditionally at a much lower price point.

However, IndexTools has been slow to gain broad market exposure due to its headquarters location in Hungary. But now that has changed in a fundamental way. Yahoo can bring a new level of visibility to IndexTools, and could quite possibly take the E-Business edition of IndexTools away as a free product. Such a move would put a powerful stake in the ground in competition with Google Analytics and Microsoft’s Gatineau solution. You can also imagine what will happen when the IndexTools Enterprise edition gets pushed through Yahoo’s sales channels.

So congratulations to Dennis Mortensen and his team. I have gotten to know the IndexTools team quite well over the past year, and they truly have earned this new opportunity.

In a world where more Web transactions require multiple site visits, a measurement of satisfaction can tell you the likelihood of a visitor coming back to your site when they’re ready to buy. In today’s Web Analytics and ROI column, “How to Measure Customer Satisfaction with Web Analytics,” Eric Enge looks at a new survey tool that allows you to measure customer satisfaction.

At Search Engine Strategies New York this week, some of the best-attended sessions are about Web analytics. Two sessions I sat in on yesterday had standing-room only crowds. It’s clear that search marketers – like all online marketers – are finally realizing that it’s not all about getting people to your site. The volume game is fine when driving volume is cheap, but with concerns about rising keyword prices and a looming recession, it’s only natural that there’s a new round of belt-tightening going on.

Smart online marketers have been using analytics to squeeze better performance from the traffic they already have, instead of looking for new ways to drive low-converting traffic. From the looks of things, the idea is catching on, with the desire to learn about Web analytics spreading to the masses.

Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik noted in his presentation that there are four keys to Web analytics success:
1. Integrate or Die – Measuring basic metrics are the price of entry. To succeed, you need to apply those measurements to other events beyond your Web site, and see what’s making or costing you money.
2. Measure Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is your Web site visitor saying to you, “I came, I saw, I puked.” If they come to one page and leave right away, you’re not giving visitors what they’re looking for. Figure that out and fix it.
3. Go Beyond Ego Bidding – The definition of success for one site will be different than success for another. The key is to find your own success metric, such as conversions, or time on site, and measure your performance against that metric.
4. Experiment or Go Home – Most sites are designed by “HiPPOs”: The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. That often means the site is not designed around what users are searching for. You could be sending people to a less relevant page than you could or should be doing, or offering something different than what was promised in your search ads. Avinash calls this “Writing a check on a search engine that your site can’t cash.” Both are bad for the user.

If you missed the analytics sessions yesterday, there are still plenty of options. This afternoon, Google is putting on a session about Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, and Omniture is doing one on optimizing SEM campaigns. Later, Tim Ash will show you how to test and tune your landing page. For a deep dive into analytics, Matt Bailey is leading a four-hour training session on Web analytics on Friday.

It’s only Day 1 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications have already found more than 40 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference. If you want a comprehensive list, Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing for Incisive Media, will be posting one later this evening (or early tomorrow morning) on the Search Engine Strategies Blog – when he gets back from the Saint Patrick’s Day pub crawl.

In the meantime, I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts from Monday, March 17, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 1 of the event. While this list is no substitute for actually attending SES New York 2008, it will give you a quick summary of some of the highlights.

1. Yahoo! Cozies Up To Its Click-Fraud Critics
Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com says, “At Monday’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in New York, Yahoo! announced a partnership with click-fraud auditing firm Click Forensics to share pay-per-click advertising data and work together to identify fraudulent clicks–those designed to pump a Web publisher’s advertising revenue or drain a competing advertiser’s budget.”

2. Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy
Kevin Newcomb of Search Engine Watch says, “Despite an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, spending on search engine marketing continues to grow beyond expectations. Preliminary results of the 2007 State of the Market Survey were released today at Search Engine Strategies New York by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.”

3. Kicking Off SES New York 2008
Mike McDonald of WebProNews interviewed Matt McGowan about Search Engine Strategies New York 2008, which kicked off today with about 8,000 attendees. Matt explained what can be expected in the week ahead.

4. Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable covered the Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right. Barry says, “Jason Finger talks about his online food service. They link people with local restaurants and caterers. Steven Krein is from a human powered health search service. Bill Tancer gives the Hitwise line, love this guy. Josh Stylman from Reprise Media. Paul Forster from Indeed.com a Job Search site.” Barry adds, “This is a unique session.”

5. Analytics: Data Into Action
Lisa Barone of the Bruce Clay Blog covered the Analytics: Data Into Action session. Lisa says, “Kevin Ryan gets things started and says next time he’ll get a bigger room. Hee, seriously. And it’s not that the room is even small, it’s just there are about a gazillion people trying to get in. The SES conference series is alive and well, people.”

6. Neil Patel interviews Jason Calacanis, SES NY 2008

Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising interviewed Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who will be the afternoon keynote speaker on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. The two discuss issues such as spam, the search engine optimization (seo) philosophy as a whole and its problematic frictions between publishers and users in the battles for visibility and search relevance.

7. Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics at SES NY 2008

I interviewed Avinash Kaushik, author, blogger, and Analytics Evangelist at Google about the standing-room-only-crowd at the Web Analytics: Measuring Succession session, where he spoke. He also talked about trends in web analytics over the next 24 to 36 months, his highly-rated blog, Occam’s Razor, and his recently published book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.

8. Session: Organic Listings Forum
Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog covered the Organic Listings Forum. Lee says, “Organic Listings Forum with Mike Grehan moderating and Jill Whalen, Dave Naylor and Greg Boser on the panel. Here we have an all star SEO cast available to answer questions about organic SEO.”

9. SES New York: Video Made the SMB Star (Kelsey Group Track)
Li Evans of Search Marketing Gurus covered the Video Made the SMB Star session. Li says that Mike Boland of the Kelsey Group, who moderated the session, said, “Users are coming to expect Video as part of their search results.”

10. Ad Exchanges - What You Need to Know
Mona Elesseily of Traffick wrote a preview of the Ad Exchanges are Everything session, which will be held at SES New York 2008 on March 19 2008 (Day 3). Mona says, “To learn more about the changes in ad exchanges, I interviewed both Ramsey McGrory, VP of Exchange Development, Right Media and Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic products and business development, ContextWeb.”