In two weeks time the European Search World will gather in London to attend, network and share knowledge at SES London 2012. Like every year it promises to be a great event with a great line up of speakers. State of Search will off course be covering the event and in cooperation with our friends at SEO Chicks you could be visiting the conference!
Going up to the conference we will also be shedding our light on the event. We have asked several speakers at the event to answer some questions. Questions about SES off course, but also about the market in general: where do they feel the market is heading.
Today we kick things off with Will Critchlow, one of the founders of Distilled, one of the leading UK Search Agencies.
A bit on the market in general
How much do you think has “Search” changed in the past year and how much will it change in the coming year?
There have been some pretty big shifts in the way many think about search – particularly with the introduction of true “content quality” algorithmic elements and ever-increasing social integration powered by G+. Having said that, we haven’t (yet) seen the seismic shift in tactics – most of the sites receiving the most search traffic throughout the English-speaking world are doing so based off the same old domain authority / targeted content / targeted links recipes.
Do you already feel the impact of “Search Plus Your World” as a searcher?
I personally love the increasing socialisation of my search results. They are tending to work well for me. Having said that, I’m an early-adopter of G+ with a targeted social network… I’m also not seeing the full roll-out yet here in the UK.
Looking at Europe, what do you feel other search engines should do to get closer to Google?
I’m surprised by Google’s continuing dominance in non-English-language European markets. We often see Google failing to understand the complexities of international markets with multiple complicated / overlapping languages per country (and vice versa). I would love to see a technical leap forward on that front.
If I knew the answer for the UK and US, I probably wouldn’t be running the business I am…
A bit on SES
What will your session and your talk in specific be covering?
I’m talking about “meaningful SEO metrics” – combining two of my favourite angles – the technical data / stats side and the business side of what we do. I intend to talk about “decision metrics” – i.e. those numbers that cause you actually to do something differently.
What makes SES a conference you want to speak at?
Worldwide, SES is still the largest of the SEO conferences and it has its own unique blend of attendees. It’s always there in my calendar.
Is there a session, apart from your own, you would urge people to go and see? And why?
One I intend to see is “SEO is dead. Long live SEO”. Ammon Johns (aka Black Knight back in the day) is one of the guys I used to learn from back on the cre8asite forums. We’ve shared a few beers over the years, but I’ve never seen him speak. Don’t miss this session.
What should people ask you when they see you at SES?
I love talking about data, business and whisky. In any order.
