Early wrap up on SMX Sydney

In case you didn’t get the flurry of tweets on my account this week, you wouldn’t know I have been at SMX Sydney 2009. SMX stands for Search Marketing Expo. This pretty much sums up the conference.

I have been working in the web for a rather long time now, and pretty much from the beginning, there has been a need to find relevant content. It is a constant that hasn’t changed; just the ways we get to it has changed.

Before there was Google there were other engines, and since then optimising content has been necessary to get your content found. Note I say content not sites.

One of the important elements from SMX this year is the prevalence of the new windows to content that exist, and that change is always occurring.

Does it mean traditional Search practices are dying?  Definitely not. In fact, with all the Social Media hype about at present, one could not be blamed for thinking Search had dropped of the relevance radar.
It hasn’t.

Search matters. Both organic (results from unpaid listings) and Paid (PPC and other) are still highly relevant and important.

What stood out to me?

• Lack of businesses represented there getting deeper into search
• That the Search industry in Au is not that big.
• That much has not really changed in the last 10 years of search, but what has changed is important.
• Content and relevancy is still the most important thing.
• Mobile search is coming fast.
• Yes, twitter is truly dominating the landscape.

Of course, there was a lot more but that those are some of the important items.

Which presenters stood out to me?

Greg Boser (@gregboser) was probably the big stand out for me. Greg’s ‘real world’ practical understanding of search, approachable and down to earth nature and fact he doesn’t hide behind a purist view was very good. Nice guy, lots of good practical information and feedback.

Stephen Pavlovich (@bonytoad) provided a great rich presentation on conversion optimisation. His first big presentation, which means he will only get better. Again highly practical approach and on a subject that mattered. He highlighted how offline and online are both dealing with the same humans, and thus triggers are very similar just medium that isn’t.

Cindy Krum. Mobile search. Fast and furious, one of the highlights for me. Information Ocean in this presentation and she is very knowledgeable and presents well. Highlights how quickly mobile search is coming.

Rand Fishkin (@randfish) As expected keynote was good, although I preferred his other presentations than the keynote. Rand is more clean cut and purist in his approach but obviously highly knowledgeable and is all round nice guy. Very approachable.

Darren Rowse (@problogger) who provided a good realistic overview on twitter. Nothing earth shattering but given how much nonsense you hear at present on twitter, his information was on the money, very well delivered and good for the audience. And of course he has a pretty big understanding of things web . Mind you, it was a twitter rich group!

That isn’t all just probably the ones that stood out for me. If you want to get the whole round up follow the blogs and tweets of the presenters from searchmarketingexpo.com.au

I will start blogging more on Search over coming weeks.

Note to everyone. Search still matters. Why weren’t you there?

Well that’s what ireckon!

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