Rhythm and SEO Combined - Jon Myers Interviews Michel Leconte of SEO Samba

Well it is that time of year again and SES London is upon us! The show is looking like a great one again and I am looking forward to a busy 3 days and 7 panels so hoping to see and chat to lots of you at the event.

I have been asked once again to do a pre event Q & A by the guys down at SEO-PR (thanks Byron!) and this year I have been lucky to get to interview Michel Leconte from SEO Samba to get his views on SEO, future developments and the SEO Samba tool itself!

I have asked him a series of 5 questions so enjoy and hope you all consider the tool as a great option to use. On top of this Michel has kindly offered a free trial!! It covers one website, and a one month of free access from the publishing date for one lucky reader of this post and you will find it after the Q & A…thanks SEO Samba!

1. Search engine marketing is a constantly developing and evolving practice. Is SEO Samba prepared for this and how do you plan to stay on the forefront of technological advances?

SEO Samba maximizes website's performance with search engines and other "free-to-play" digital marketing channels. It enables SEM firms and SEO experts to manage an unlimited number of organic search clients, projects and web sites from a single interface, and change SEO best practices across them all with a single click. From a conceptual standpoint, we propose that web marketers and professionals deploy and enforce best practices from a single point rather than manually coding these evolving best practices into each of these sites while hoping that end-users will not gradually undo these practices. So, yes, practices are evolving and developing, but SEO Samba's role is to facilitate execution and maintain best practices' integrity while letting expert users adapt their best practices to changes in algorithms.

From a product development standpoint, our mission is supported by our software-as-a-service architecture, a zero footprint technology (this means that web sites built with SEO Samba are W3C HTML-compliant and do not place any call back to our servers once uploaded to their published location), and two major effort areas.

Our objective as an organic search platform is to enable and promote cooperative efforts from end-users and SEO experts without the latter fearing a loss of clients to competitors also using the platform. We needed SEO Samba to segregate end-user pools from each other and be a complete, private-label solution for SEM firms. Hence, we provided an interface that can be branded in less than a minute, along with DNS routing so that the software can be accessed and served from our partners' domain of choice in complete confidentiality.

Now, for cooperation to happen, we also needed to remove competing interests from the picture, and we are doing this by aggregating data and providing it back to users under the form of proven, albeit optional, best practices.

Obviously, the system is flexible enough to allow for experts to pick, fine-tune and add their own best practices prior to making them available to a select pool of their clients as they see fit. By large, on that end, we're pursuing the old adage that a total can be greater than the sum of its parts. And as long as the platform can accommodate the evolution of search algorithms, and we are confident that it will, web marketers and SEO experts will be able to try different things and adapt their strategies as required.

In addition, SEO Samba provides an optimized distribution framework for information along with automation and alignment rules to make it very cost effective to successfully market through these "free," but crowded channels. Our R&D work consists of seamlessly integrating new distribution channels into the existing platform and proposing a set of proven best practices that are ready out-of-the-box upon launch. Lots of prioritization, research, and development and testing time go into this area.

For example, our first universal search module (provided free of charge) is a news module that provides a Google News-ready structure, news articles that are search optimized according to your chosen best practices, search friendly scrollers, automated RSS feeds creation, integrates with email newsletter platforms such as Constant Contact, Vertical Response etc. You can publish news across all your sites with a single click then aggregate news items across web sites to create unique newsletters and market to a cross segment of your email list, and finally save these newsletters with one click to any of your web sites. Each of our upcoming modules will provide the same level of details to ensure websites' visibility, while expanding the least time possible from a user, content writer, marketer and SEO experts' perspective.

As search algorithms evolve, so will the rules applied by the SEO experts using the platform and its associated modules. In the meantime, we'll be working in the background on behalf of SEM firms to make their clients more successful. Our team will focus on keeping existing and new SEO Samba modules functional from a search engine/technical requirement standpoint and increasingly leverage the community's knowledge and scale to the benefit of all.

2. What reactions have you had from clients using SEO Samba?

End-users are obviously ecstatic about their search engine rankings, but they do not usually fully grasp the extent of SEO Samba's capabilities until after they have been on the platform for a few months. On the other hand, SEO experts are usually convinced of the possibilities offered by the execution approach after seeing live demonstrations. Actually, the more questions, the more technical- and detail-oriented these questions are, the easier it is for us to explain our choices in building SEO Samba. When I had the chance to receive the visit from David Naylor at our U.S. launch at SES Chicago, he was understandably skeptical about our claims and had a barrage of both rather precise technical and conceptual questions ready for me. I was demonstrating the software and I only had to speak the first half of most answers for him to understand where I was going, and for him to shoot the next one at me. It was an enjoyable meeting for sure.

3. You say on your site that SEO Samba was created by search engine and search engine optimization veterans. What inspired you to create it?

I've provided SEO consulting services since 2001, from non-profits to Fortune companies, and I've observed a few things. SEO is sold by professionals as a process that requires an ongoing effort from web site owners. However, there's no life cycle management built into what SEO experts deliver. As a result, the execution is a hit-and-miss game that generates an awful lot of delays, frustration, and, ultimately, lost revenues for both client and experts. Furthermore, SEO is time consuming to research and test for experts, costly to execute by hand for end-users, and takes very little advantage from the scale of the SEO agency or its customer business size.

With an increasing number of applications built in the cloud, development of social networks, progressive deployment of custom and universal search, and a maturing SEO services marketplace, we thought the industry was ripe for a change towards higher value-added services, and that "smart SEOs," as Matt Cutts call them, would crave additional bandwidth to focus on strategy and business development, both for them and their clients. We invented the first organic search management platform to facilitate systemic execution of best practices, adoption of "free-to-play" marketing channels, and enable professionals to scale their practice through software instead of payroll.

4. What advice would you give to a small business planning on developing SEO activity from scratch?

You came to right place J. OK, seriously, the first step is to clarify what you are trying to sell and to whom. Make sure you get it right because everything else depends on it, and I have seen many small business owners enlightened by having to go through the SEO process. In fact, I think it should be very much part of the value proposition coming from SEO experts, as there's a chance that you're the closest thing to a marketing agency they have ever hired. An excellent resource for this that we feature in the SEO Bootcamp at SEO Samba is Pragmatic Marketing

5. Why should SEM or SEO firms considering using SEO Samba?

SEO firms need to adapt to the economic environment and differentiate their service offerings. A customer might not be able to tell which of two arcane SEO techniques is better, but most business people can make the difference between a method supported by an automated system that yields predictable results and a plain consulting engagement, even if backed with stellar experience. I think that's part of the reason why small businesses have reacted so well to the concept. Our direct SMB pricing is at $99/month/domain, so it is creating a new market of SEO-conscious businesses, a market where forward-looking SEM firms will be in prime position to grow in sophistication and profits.

On their side, SEM firms, through their branded interface of SEO Samba, complement their service mix with an offering that will win new business for them. Here, I'm talking about businesses with multiple site strategies, micro-sites, lead generation web sites, franchises, reputation management, and all sorts of small and medium businesses. Appropriately presented, we know already that an organic search management platform will tilt the balance in favor of one provider over another. In an increasingly competitive environment, I think this is welcome aid. Of course, SEO firms get a significant discount on the direct SMB pricing and are also free to bundle the platform with their own services and charge whatever they feel is appropriate through their private label interface.

Thanks for the Interview Michel and if you are interested to find out more visit www.seosamba.com or you can see Michel speak on his panel “Organic Listings Forum” at SES London 2009 on Feb 18^th at 5.45pm.

Now for the prize code! Only the first person to capture it under their account's finance tab at www.seosamba.com will be able to take advantage of it and the activation code is 9bd30d97760273333a36565e396a0bcd.

a4uexpo Speaker Advisory Board Announced

Well it has been a while since I put anything on the blog apart form daily news feeds. But I wanted to PR the great work Matthew Wood has been doing with the A4UExpo and expanding it into Europe. To that degree he has formed a specialist speaker advisory board that will assist his team at a4uexpo with formulating the agenda for the a4uexpo Europe. An very kindly he has included me on it! (thanks Matt!)

You can see the official post here on a4uexpo but I have detailed it below as well. The board consists of thought leaders and experienced industry personalities who amongst them have many years of experience within the sector and experience and opinions on the challenges and opportunities that we face.

Members of the board currently include:

• Judith Lewis - SEO Director, i-level
• Shakil Khan- co-founder and Managing Director, Card Smart
• Missy Ward - co-founder, Affiliate Summit
• Ciaran Norris - SEO & Social Media Director, altogether digital
• Todd Crawford, ToddTalks.com
• Marcus Tandler, Mediadonis
• Joris Toonders - Managing Director, Yonego
• Joost de Valk - Founder, Yoast.com
• Jon Myers - Head of Search, MediaVest Group Ltd
• Kieron Donoghue - Director, UK Offer Media Ltd
• Mike Allen - CEO, Shopping Bargains
• Matthew Wood - Managing Director, existem
• Irfon watkins - CEO, Coull
• Peter Glaeser, Sponsormob
• Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director, Affiliate Window
• Julia Stent - Affiliate Manager, Vodafone

Jon Myers Interviews Ross Caveille of ContextWeb

Recently, I was invited to interview Ross Caveille by the SEO PR Team. Ross has been instated
into the role of Country Manager for ContextWeb Inc’s renowned product ADSDAQ(TM) Ad Exchange
and has been challenged with selling UK inventory to advertisers, with the aim to assist in
their attempt to reach exchange’s UK audience.

So who are ContextWeb?

ContextWeb Inc. is a leading contextual advertising company. Enjoying major success, one of their
most celebrated products is the ADSDAQ™. Welcoming over 93 million monthly unique visitors in the
US, the ADSDAQ Exchange represents over 50% of the domestic online population.

A few days later, I finally settled down to produce a few concise but hopefully revealing questions for Ross to gives us his views on…

Country Manager sounds like an interesting challenge, what are your initial objectives?

Personally the role represents a very interesting challenge and one that I am very excited to be involved with. We opened the UK office on the 17^th of March this year with the aim to bring to the UK market the unique product that ADSDAQ by ContextWeb has to offer. Exposure and UK industry awareness of the ADSDAQ product and ContextWeb brand is the initial objective as up until we launched over here advertisers were not aware of the opportunities we could provide. In the US, we have around 5,000 publisher and 400 advertiser partners and have an established name within the online advertising marketplace, the aim now is to replicate this success over here in the UK (We’re already up to over 25% UK uniques according to ComScore in March 2008 - a good start.). In addition to establishing ourselves within the market the UK team will also be expanding and we plan to make additional hires in June this year.

Relating to these, do you see any major hurdles ahead and if so, how do you plan to jump them?

The UK marketplace is very competitive with regard to the number of vendors and options available to advertisers and agencies. Consolidation is happening within the marketplace, but as quickly as this happens new companies are born and so it is imperative that we differentiate ourselves and make sure our service levels are consistently high to match the standard of our product. This situation is mirrored with publishers in the way that there is growing demand for inventory both from advertisers and third party vendors. Fortunately, ADSDAQ offers opportunities to both advertisers and publishers alike on an equal scale as we operate an open exchange meaning publishers are able to name their price and advertisers are able to choose the brand-safe content and context in which they appear. There are a lot of opportunities for talented people within the market. We need to make sure we attract the right people in order to grow as a business and as this does represent a challenge we are prepared to take time in doing this if necessary.

ADSDAQ Exchange is well renowned over the water but how do you plan to build the status of and educate the UK audience about the system in the UK? Are you planning to or have you already established any partnerships?

The positive aspect of being established in the US is that our product is tried and tested and so we can be confident of delivering successful campaigns for clients within the UK. As eluded to above one of the main barriers is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the ADSDAQ Exchange so maximising exposure is a high priority. For example, UK advertisers are just beginning to learn about the brand safety offered by the ADSDAQ Exchange which is a result of the Exchange’s patent-pending, page-level contextual technology.

To date we have managed to secure press articles in NMA magazine as well as online with Reuters, Wall Street Journal and a number of additional publications. My role within the company is to make sure ADSDAQ is taken to market and as many agencies and advertisers as possible are allowed the opportunity to take advantage of the contextual targeting tool we have to offer. Since launching on March 17^th we have run successful campaigns for clients through Havas, WPP and Profero and are now about to launch campaigns with a number of other leading UK agencies. The contextual tool that we offer can be adapted to a wide range of clients and as such we have already delivered campaigns using standard and rich media formats to UK, European and Global customers across film, music, finance, travel, business, theatre verticals. The next step now is to grow the number of advertisers and agencies in which we are in contact with and the number of campaigns we are running which is why we will be growing the UK team with new additions joining in June.

In turn, how do you think ADSDAQ will infiltrate itself to sit beside technology already available in the UK?

The great thing about the ADSDAQ Exchange is the technology we use and the way we work is that we are able to compliment many existing technologies or at least work in conjunction with them. Many publishers use the ADSDAQ exchange along with a network or Google Adsense, for example, as we only serve an advert to a page if that page contains specific content relevant to one of our advertisers campaigns. Similarly, we are able to work with all third party ad-serving technologies so there are no barriers for advertisers. With regard to competitor technologies our contextual targeting tool is able to not only understand keywords and content but also the context in which they are in so we can guarantee a relevant and brand safe environment every time. This is of key significance to contextual tools that are keyword based only as adverts often appear out of context.

This is a great piece of software to have, especially completely free, do you have any plans to introduce a subscription fee?

In short, no. The ADSDAQ Exchange is an open exchange and so allows both publishers and advertisers to fulfil their objectives and the more partners we can attract the more liquid the exchange becomes giving both parties more options and routes to success.

And what makes the system different? Could you tell us your three defining USPs?

There are three key USPs to what we offer the market. Our contextual technology serves adverts based on the context of the entire webpage, not just a handful of keywords, and so we are able to serve adverts within a brand safe relevant environment every time. As well as ensuring brand safety for all our advertisers this also allows us to extend reach and acquire additional unique users without compromising targeting. For example, a laptop supplier will want to run adverts within a computer website which is relevant but there will also be relevant pages of content available within non-endemic websites e.g. technology section of a news site. As every advert we serve is at the page-level we are able to pick out only the page that is relevant to the advertiser effectively eradicating waste while facilitating extended targeted reach. A recent study by OTX Research found that serving adverts to relevant content within a non-endemic website increase brand recognition by a further 19% over showing the advert in an endemic site. In addition, each advert we serve is in display format, including rich media, which doesn’t restrict advertisers to using just textlinks and means we can effectively transfer a search campaign online in a more impactful format. The third USP is the way we work with publishers, many behavioural or contextual tools require publishers to add tags or code to each page of their website this is not the case with ADSDAQ. By using just one Java script tag we are able to access every page of a publishers website meaning we can access more pages gaining additional reach for advertisers and work with the publishers that do not facilitate third party tags being added to their web pages.

Thanks for taking the time Ross to give me and SEO PR your views and best of luck in the new role going forward.