Achieving Balance in Your Search Mix (a.k.a. The Need for Feeds)
Moderator Dan Boberg, Senior Director of Partner Programs & Technology at Yahoo opened things up by sharing some quick user stats on search and shopping engines (no big surprises, lots of people are using both, conducting multiple searches, etc.) and went into a discussion of structured data feeds, one of the more neglected areas of search behind sponsored search and organic SEO. Benefits of feeds include an ongoing data link between engines and marketers with opportunities for continued optimization.
Chris Bowler, VP Media Director and Search Practice Lead for Agency.com took the stage next. Sponsored, organic, and feeds are all tools in the SEM’s toolbox - but Bowler is going to focus on feeds and how to effectively leverage them. Here are a few ways: establishing page dominance, combating search costs, ensuring product coverage, and as an SEO work-around (helping out site spiders).
The next panelist is the VP of Marketing & Advertising at Barrie Pace, Lori Krzyewski. She shared a story of her firm’s successful integration of several shopping search partners, including Amazon.com. Initially reluctant to begin such an endeavour, Krzyewski and her team realized success through the careful set up and execution of their feeds. Keeping a close eye on things was key. “You can just throw it out there and leave,” said Krzyewski.
Matt Solomon, VP of Marketing at Priceline.com was up next, sharing a few reasons why he considers structured feeds integral to Priceline’s business model. Like the other panelists, the ability of feeds to index millions of low level pages the crawlers might other miss out was one of them, along with the opportunity to push forward detailed price and data points in a dynamic way.
Last up was Carolyn Larson, Senior Manager of Interactive at Carlson Hotel. She shared some tips on succeeding in paid inclusion, which she likened to her firm’s ‘little insurance policy’ for when organic efforts fail. Detailed reporting was one of the secrets of her success.
Those who made it to the end (always no small accomplishment for conferences) were rewarded with some face time with speakers, who stuck around to answer individual questions at the end.
