SEO Blog

Danny Sullivan used to program the Search Engine Strategies conferences, but he’s been less involved recently–his only shows in this year’s lineup were the New York and the upcoming San Jose events. Maybe that’s because he’s busy this year with his new conference series: the Search Marketing Expo.

The Search Marketing Expo is powered by Third Door Media. This company owns Search Engine Land, where Danny is currently editor-in-chief. Danny’s move from the SES series to the SMX series makes sense, since he recently left Search Engine Watch and has been saying he’s planning to stop working on the SES conferences for some time.

SMX is running three shows this year:

SMX Advanced: Seattle, June 4-5

SMX Advanced is geared toward experienced search marketers. It’s got two tracks; one for SEO’s and the other for paid search advertising. The topics covered are as follows:

On the organic search track:

Duplicate Content Summit
SEO, Meet SMM
Personalized Search: Fear or Not?
Penalty Box Summit
Better Ways to Do the Boring Stuff
Give it Up!

On the paid search track:

Paid Search Roundtable
Paid Search & Tricky Issues
Inside the Auction Black Box
Pump Up Your Paid Search!
Paid Search: The Giant Focus Group
Beyond the Majors

SMX Local and Mobile: Denver, Oct. 1-2, 2007

Their agenda isn’t up yet, but this conference is geared toward local search issues and mobile search. These are upcoming frontiers in search, and this conference is designed to help you prepare for what’s coming.

SMX Social Media: New York, October 16-17, 2007

Again, no agenda so far–but we do know that this conference will cover how social media sites are affecting search; how their audience shares information, how search engines are using human response to modify search results; and what tools measure response on social media sites.

The SMX Advanced show is $100 off if you register by May 8: $1,195 instead of $1,295. Danny Sullivan will be there, of course. You’ll also see Vanessa Fox, Frederick Vallaeys, Rand Fishkin, Matt Cutts, Bruce Clay, Todd Friesen, Shari Thurow, Jill Whalen, Christine Churchill, and Greg Boser, among others.

When Google recently bought DoubleClick, it also bought Performics–Doubleclick’s SEO and affiliate marketing subsidiary. There’s been plenty of speculation about what Google will do with Performics–from selling it off to running it as the purest white-hat SEO company ever.

In its FAQ on the DoubleClick deal, Google originally said that it had no plans to drop Performics. Now the tune has changed. If you check out the FAQ now, you’ll find that Google is saying it will “evaluate all strategic alternatives for this business” and assures customers that “we are committed to continuing to meet the needs of Performics clients, and we expect no interruption in service during this transition.”

So, essentially, it’s considering its options and Performics’ existing customers shouldn’t worry; they won’t feel any turbulence. It looks like Google may be moving closer toward announcing plans to let Performics go.

Performics, however, doesn’t want anyone to think it’s in an unstable position. Kris Jones made a recent post discussing the possibility of Google dissolving Performics. The president of Performics, Stuart Frankel, responded with an email emphasizing that “it is business as usual” at his company.

It still doesn’t make sense that Google will continue to own Performics–there are too many conflicts of interest involved in that scenario. In a postscript to Barry Schwartz’s report in Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan states that the situation seems “like an afterthought…the conflicts have simply not been carefully thought out, and I feel it is almost a certainty that Performics will significantly change or be sold off.”

Some believe that Google’s off-hand treatment of Performics indicates that it’s not particularly interested in the company–and there’s a good chance it will get sold or spun off. The new addition to the FAQ makes it seem as though Google is moving in that direction. It makes sense that the president of Performics would try to control the rumors until it’s ready to make an official announcement.

So will you be able to hire Google to do your SEO? I don’t believe so. But the DoubleClick deal isn’t quite finalized yet–even that could take an unexpected turn. Performics is doing what any smart company would do: keeping up a strong front while its fate is uncertain. Who knows? It just may land on its feet.

Google announced on the 14th of April that it has acquired ad software giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion cash. Google claims that this merger will benefit both advertisers and users. The search community, however, isn’t so sure.

One interesting development is that DoubleClick owns a subsidiary SEO/SEM firm, Performics. Performics does affilliate, SEO, and natural search engine marketing. Now that Google owns it, it’ll be one of the most “natural” SEO’s out there.

It’s not clear what it will do with Performics at this point, but Google says it’s keeping it. Andy Beal suggests it’s a bid to take over the SEO industry. Danny Sullivan says in his comments to this Search Engine Journal article that he thinks Google will have to sell. Google’s ownership of Performics raises too many unfair competition issues.

It’s true the interests of the user, as defined by Google, can sometimes conflict with the interests of the client. The merger raises lots of questions: how would Google balance these two competing interests? Will Performics become the only Google-affiliated SEO firm? And how will that affect the industry?

But Performics isn’t the only issue here. There are also some antitrust and privacy concerns.

Among the first to object to the deal were Microsoft and AT&T, both of which have been anti-trust targets in the past. Both companies are concerned that Google already controls the paid search and contextual ad market, and that the DoubleClick merger will put the competition at a serious disadvantage in the display advertising arena as well.

Time Warner, which owns AOL and Yahoo, are joining Microsoft in calling for closer scrutiny of this deal by antitrust regulators.

Privacy advocates are also raising concerns about the deal. DoubleClick sells DART, software that tracks users’ Internet surfing behavior. Companies use that information to target their ad campaigns. It also offers an ad exchange that connects advertisers with publishers.

Google claims that DoubleClick’s powerful tracking software will help it make its own advertising more relevant and less obtrusive to users, and says it will protect consumer privacy. But the scary thing isn’t what Google says it will do, but what it’s capable of doing.

DoubleClick’s software patents give it the ability to closely track data about where individual users go online, and use that data to target the online ads the users see. Google already collects information every time someone uses the search engine, including the search query and the user’s IP address. DoubleClick’s software will make it extremely easy for Google to keep profiles on individual users’ interests and search habits without their knowledge.

So far, the deal between Google and DoubleClick isn’t 100% solid. Competitors may still file formal objections on antitrust grounds, and it’s likely that regulators will need to take a closer look. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out in the next few weeks.

The Search Engine Strategies conference in New York has started. Here are some key places to get coverage:

Bruce Clay’s Blog
SE Roundtable
WebmasterRadio.FM
Pandia
Inside Google
Search Engine Watch
DMNews

Lots of exciting things are happening in New York. Steve Berkowitz, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President of Online Services, is giving the keynote address. Eric Ward, one of the top search marketers in the world and king of link building, is presenting on link building strategies–the price of the conference is worth it for this class alone.

Other high points include an intro to SEO with Danny Sullivan, keyword research with Dan Thies of SEO Research Labs, search engine copywriting with Jill Whalen and Heather Lloyd-Martin, and a contextual ad clinic with Jenn Slegg of Jensense.com and Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney).

Check back here for continuing conference news and links to other coverage on the web.