SES Conference, New York, February 27 - March 2, 2006 . Hilton New York . NYC

I am taking advantage of my recent participation at the SES Conference in Chicago to give people attending the SES Conference 2006 in New York some tips, being our company SEO oriented and willing to provide and share our SEO expertise with others.

First of all take advantage of the Hilton Hotel offer. The Hotel is only 3-4 blocks away from Central Park and on Sundays there is a street fair where you can find a lot of great items at low prices. Also during the week you are one street away from 5th Avenue, and even if you do not shop ($$$$) you can window shop and maybe stumble upon a celebrity or two. Going th other way, on the other avenue you can find yourself walking on Broadway. So this is a great chance to be near the best places in New York.

Getting back to the conference, the SES Conference in New York seems to be special in various ways. One of the things I will miss is being part of the first SEO Week, scheduled to be named and celebrated starting this year at this event. Just imagine being part of the first SEO Week. Sounds great.

If this is your first time in an SES Conference, and eventhough you might know your SEO stuff, I would always recommend going to some of the Fundamental Courses mainly because there is where all the new stuff and tricks are given out. Even more than in the other levels.

As per the Agenda, I was looking at the themes and speakers, and these are my recommendations:

DAY ONE

Always attend the keynote meeting, it will give you a perspective of things to come in SEO and the conference.

Searchonomics: Serious & Fun Stats is new and it sounds interesting, specially having speakers from Hitwise which is a service I personally use and is very helpful. Also you will learn about other tools to use like ClickTracks Web Analytics, SEOelite, IndexTools, Wordtracker, OptiSpider, Optilink, Xtreeme Search Studio, Xtreeme Site Expert, and WebPosition.If you are not interested on this then go to Contextual Ads one of my personal favorites. The speakers Brad Byrd and Peter Hershberg are very good.

Lunch - Birds of a Feather Seating take advantage and look for the themes you want to learn more about. Be there early so the table you want to sit in is not full when you get there.

Then I would go to Targeting Search Ads By Demographics & Behavior. I really liked one of the speakers there: Dana Todd. She has a very fresh and inteeresting perspective of SEO.

On the next block I have no idea what to recommend, but after that block I would go for Ads Beyond Search which gives you a broader campaign perspective, outside the web, with excellent examples and success stories. I personally loved two of the speakers that are also speaking for this theme at the SES in New York: Hollis Thomases from Web Ad.vantage and Tessa Wegert from Enlighten.

DAY TWO In the first block: Creating Compelling Ads would be my first choice. Even if the speakers are not decided yet it was a very interesting theme in the last SES Conference.

The next block is more difficult because Writing For Search Engines and Landing Page Testing & Tuning are both excellent themes. The first one emphasizes on the importance of content and the second one on the importance to test your landing pages as to maximize ROI.

The next block has two very good themes: Link Building Basics where guys like Eric Ward can give you very good tips on linking but do not worry if you miss this one since on DAy Three there is a session called Linking Strategies that covers this theme and more, and Search Ad Buyers Forum which has the same speakers, at SES NYC, that were in the SES Conference in Chicago. They are all very good, specially Joshua Stylman. They provide a clear perspective on PPC trends. This is a very interactive session so be prepared to bring your set of questions. Another option on this block is Duplicate Content Issues. The problem you will find with ALL of Shari Thurow's presentations is that you will never get a copy of his presentations in anything besides print. So if you want to share the knowledge you will have to retype all of it.

Next block I can only provide opinion on Meet The Search Ad Vendors where usually the main Search Engine reps appear to give you a look of all the new things they are doing. If you attend the Search Ad Buyers Forum where all the buyers express their frustrations and then come to this session, you will be able to see both sides of the coin.

DAY THREE

Linking Strategies is my first choice here. You must meet Greg Boser and Eric Ward and listen to all knowledge and ideas they have to offer.

From my business associate I learned that Working As A Team is the best option on the next block. If you have an SEO Team, if you are building or plan to build an SEO Team, or in the works of hiring an SEO firm, this is a session you must attend.

Next block: Enjoy yourself and attend Pimp My Site! Here is where no site is safe. Want a taste of what's wrong or right with your site? If you have the chance to have your site up on the screen, THEY WILL TELL YOU.

Finally for the day, eventhough you feel wipped by this time try not to miss the Evening Forum with Danny Sullivan, mainly because it holds ideas and general perspectives of SEO present and future.

DAY FOUR

Converting Visitors Into Buyers is the option on the first block, and Measuring Success Overview in the following. The first one emphasizes on testing and content and the second one gives you an overview of means and metrics to measure your success in SEO.

Finally my last two options are Meet The Crawlers and SEO Overkill. The first one shows you techniques to maximize your content for crawling and the second one shows you when you have overdone SEO.

Hope all these tips are helpful on choosing the right conference sessions for you.

Enjoy a great SEO Week.

Enrique Gonzalez Nieto

"Embrace and manage online and offline as one
to become a complete Marketing Manager"