These are my notes from Danny Sullivan’s keynote address to SEMpdx’s 2009 SearchFest on March 10, 2009.

Danny Sullivan’s All Request Keynote at SEMpdx SearchFest 2009

Definitions

SEO = Organic

PPC = Paid

SEM = Everything, both paid and organic

What type of SEM are you? Link builder? Social Media? There are a lot of sub-types.

What type of SEO are you? SEO may need rebranding. Then Danny shows the Dorvak snake oil quote. Then the Seth Godin, Mary Hodder, Jeremy Shoemaker, AmEx Open Forum…all negative quotes about SEO. Does SEO need a name change? Part of Danny does not want a name change, but it may be too late.

In 2005 people coined the term “Content SEO.” More recently people coined “Technical SEO.” Whatever the case, there continues to be a huge demand for SEO services.

Don’t be a “crap-hat.” Danny does not care about the black hat/white hat thing.

– Off topic link drops

– Automated link insertion

– Computer generated content

– Empty directory pages

Even if people get away with it, it’s still crap. Just say NO! (Crappy mp3 sites, comment spamming, etc. et. al.)

Is SEO plateau-ing? Danny has no idea. The financial crisis will probably hit search, but people will continue to spend. Danny is hearing conflicting reports.

Danny says he is not an SEO. He covers the SEO industry. To learn how to grow your SEO business ask Rand, Adam and Anne at their session today.

To show that clients are getting value use metrics. Track and show return. Compare cost of organic search and paid search. Ask for a small percentage of traditional budget and demonstrate that you can produce results.

Danny shows image of SEO enlightenment curve. It looks like The Dip on steroids.

SEO never had a peak of inflated expectations. It’s still fighting the slope but gaining wider acceptance.

PPC == same as SEO hype but with higher adoption

Social Media hype == higher peaks and lower disappointments.

Is social media the new link development?

Social media is important to search marketing because it builds links, leverages authority sites, impacts search engine results.

Danny shows different types of SM sites. News, bookmarking, etc. [Tom: Go see the Web 2.0 Awards for a list]

Social News: high traffic, medium demand, medium branding

Social Boomarking: high traffic, low demand, low branding

Social Networking: low traffic, low demand, low branding

Y=Branding X=Demand

Social Knowledge: medium traffic, medium demand, medium traffic

Social Sharing: medium traffic, high demand, high branding

Who powers who?

Google powers Google

Yahoo & Microsoft power themselves and they both thank Google for allowing them to be on the chart that shows the different search engines. That last part was a joke.

There will be no Google killer.

People use Google like people smoke cigarettes, but Google doesn’t kill you.

There are killerettes…UrbanSpoon, Yelp, Eventful & more.

Google has its own Googlettes…Blog search, maps… these all belnd with/compete with Google regular search listings.

Danny runs out of time… :(