Well, when you normally walk into a session with lots of expectations. But I went to a place, where I didn’t ever think to go and to a session about something I knew nothing about. What did I think?? All I knew was that I’d meet some SEO/SEM buddies, but all those I met were those who did not flaunt about their achievements and guided everyone around. Well all I did was to listen to them and try to learn from them.

There were lots of sessions… I wanted to listen and learn and also want to live-blog. I have attached my Mobile Phone & my new Digi Cam to my laptop & try to cover most of the things.

The introduction began with Kapil Nakra, of OmLogic, who started off very well and raised the enthusiasm in the crowd.. And then came running Kiruba who jumped up on the stage and raised the energy to the highest level.

This followed by a session on “How SEO/SEM is doing well in the recession times” by Vivek Bhargav from Communicate2. This session spanned from 10 AM to 10:45. Vivek contemplated on why recession is not being felt in India as it is in the US or UK and how employees are working their best out in these tough times which actually get their company gets going very well. Relating it to SEO and SEM, he suggested that in the tough times one should concentrate on minimizing waste and maximize efficiency. He suggested many methods on improving conversions on how SEM works effectively compared to conventional marketing methods like the print media. He elaborated that specific usage of keywords targets the users who are potential customers more accurately than the conventional media. He wrapped up his informative session by saying what inspired most, “See the opportunity in crisis!!”

Next in the row was Abdul who works as an SEO Project Manager at Convonix. He showcased his presentation on the “Keyword research - tools and techniques” which was an eye opener to an SEO-dumb person like me. He gave us a lot to carry about in the field of Keyword research. He wrote on our mind, the mantra to Keyword research - Identify and Optimize! There was an interesting debate about tertiary keywords between him and Aswin Ramesh, the youngest CEO in India, which made our bags heavier as we had already lot to carry for the day at 11 AM itself! He reminded us about the tools an SEO/SEM consultant would use even while fast asleep: Adwords, Wordtracker, Yahoo panama, MSN keywords. He also shared knowledge about the keyword mapping and research and how we should capitalize on Google Suggest and Yahoo Suggest.

Clock struck 12 and we heard Srikar Nagubandi calling out for us, from US, on netmeeting to get our coffee mugs in to the hall. Those who don’t know he’s the Director of Rosetta. He was up at 1:30 AM EST (as he’s in US) to share his gyan on the E-Commerce SEO. He briefed about the challenges one may face in SEO and classified them into technical, on-site and off-site. He briefed about how ugly platform, ugly code, ugly URLs can affect campaigns. He stressed on tags with keywords and on the posting of real content written by people with named and optimized images. He also explained how allowing visitors to bookmark/share/email the site’s content can help SEO/SEM. He also stressed on using twitter based tools for easy access for sharing links which the visitors would want to do. He also talked about how SEO should relate to size and how one can specifically work based on the client who are small, medium or large e-commerce sites or companies. He shared that “One site doesn’t fit all” before he pulled his sheets to sleep.

Next was Trinadh a Web Strategy Consultant from CTS who hosted the last session before lunch on Web Analytics - what next? He concentrated initially on the changes in web analytics industry and how Indian companies have been recognized by GAAC, WAA, etc. He enlightened us on going about measuring web 2.0 which would mark the beginning of Web Analytics 2.0. He maintained that measurement is simple but the tools are complex. He also called in Jeff a UI Consultant from CTS who shared his thoughts on how to leverage Web Analytics and how usability is a very important factor affecting SEO and SEM campaigns. He presented a book “Web Analytics Demystified” by Eric Peterson to a SEO practitioner attending this session for answering his question.

We then proceeded to the lunch which was not meant for the body, but was for the networking beast sleeping inside us during the session.

Post the lunch Kiruba began the Brain Jam with the paper crumble game for quick tips and experiences of the attendees with SEO and SEM.

Next was Vishal Sampat, the CEO of Convonix who was there to educate us on the Website Usability - Improving User Experience. He spoke mainly about conversions and how to measure it and how to avoid the common errors.

The day’s last event, inside the Tidel Park was a Panel discussion between Akbar Lalani , Kapil and Arun Ramani(Sify) about which is better - Organic search or Paid Search.

This discussion ended at 5:30, after that we move toward from Tidel park to Falor Farms for Power Networking and where meeting so many new people at a same place and interacting with them took everyone long enough and we finally parted at 11 PM with a hope to collaborate more on Sunday!!

The day staring me with a beautiful sunrise on Marina Beach. I already decided that i have to go Marina Beach in early morning. This is a very tired morning for me to wake up early at 5:00 clock, but any how i wake up and go for a walk to Marina Beach. It near about 2 kms from my Hotel, when i reach at Marina Beach "WOW" this comes from my heart what a beauty it is. I am very much happy to see such a beautiful sea shore. Really by heart this is a very beautiful morning for me.

Then i came to my hotel & see that all my colleges are waked up late. Then we start again our jouney to Tidel Park, we reach seminar late by 1 hrs. So on that day i did't get much chance to shoot the event because i seated at 3-4 seats behind.

People started pouring in as time started closing in and we began the session with Stephen Spencer, the President and CEO of Netconcepts on Advanced SEO, Strategy and Tactics. He began with his introduction and the foundation of Netconcepts in 1995 and about his book Art of SEO. He told that the best way to win in Google is to think out of the box. It requires scientific approach and strategic evolution. SEOs need to bring in strategic thinking into place for the success to chase them and it may even begin with things as simple as page flows, site architecture - URLs, flash, javascript, etc and design and layouts. He briefed that the attained page rank needs to be strategically invested back into the business. He stressed on the importance of not just the inbound links but also about teh internal links by means of tagging and breadcrumbs. An idea from him asked the bloggers to make their blogs to look for most frequently searched keywords and use them as tags. He explained that the links dissipate due to dynamic URLs and also encouraged everyone to avoids placing links in the flash, javascript and java code or using overly complex URLs.

Next session was from Kalaivani on Right kind of marketing mix during recession. She stressed on the points to remember during recession that customers are more cautious and likely to postpone purchases, negotiate for concessions, move down the consumption chain, seek less expensive options/suppliers. So what can marketing do?? Conduct programs that generate leads by means of search marketing, conducting webinars, direct response ads, etc. Searchmasters must focus on activities that deliver better response and concentrate on coordintae marketing and make the rupeee last longer.

Post the tea session, Adam Lasnik from Google is here for the Q&A session for the audience. That's the session i am waiting eagerly. Many questions were shot towards Adam and he was just amazing in getting the audience flabbergasted by his answers and great explanations. Someone asked that why can’t we forget the page rank and concentrate on how to get top quality content up among the top content. One person asked Adam if Wiki is paying google for the top page rank as wiki always makes it to the top and Adam replied negative and said that wiki does correct stuff which would get their content on the top. They may be keeping flash out of the site, having original content, keeping the design simple. He also agreed that the regular site visitors love wiki but SEOs hate wiki. Topics like Role of LSI latent semantic indexing, Local listing of business, Custom Search Engine google.co.in/cse and the reason for inconsistency of SERP results were also discussed.

Before we parted for lunch, Adam had to share about his team and their willingness to support everyone who posts their queries to the Google webmasters’ forum.

Lots of networking in two days and though everyone has bags full of business cards and minds full of new names, everyone’s meeting others with a big smile and networking energy is soaring high and the Facilities department of Tidel Park is all confused if this is a Monday.
Post the lunch session, Syed invited people for “lightning sessions” for three minutes and passed the stage to Suresh Babu on Local Search and listings where he explained the local listing’s importance for a business with a hands-on.

Next we began with a session by Reema Thakur of Communicate 2 about Analytics in Paid Search. She began with the importance of tracking the analytics which would let you delve deeper and analyze customer behavior, product preference, content stickiness and keyword effectiveness. She illustrated the data that is needed to strategize, test and plan through a case study about a leading NBFC. She listed the paid search success - KPIs, which were conversion rate - macro & micro, days and visits to convert, visitor loyalty and recency, transactional funnel analysis and bounce rate. She stressed on AIDA Metrics

• Attention - Greater CTR/visits
• Interest - Lower Bounce Rate/Time on site or Page/pages per visit
• Desire - Repeat Visits/Visitor Loyalty
• Action - Goals

She then listed down the Best practices for us to follow
• Have clearly defined Business Objectives
• Customized Implementation Strategy
• Validate and take corrective measures if needed
• Design n customize reports
• Analyze your data
• Experiment

She wrapped up the session by a tag line which I liked. “Its not about the numbers. Look for trends and patterns.”