The Search Engine Strategies event provided us with fodder for a series of articles to help business owners increase their market share, extend their marketing reach, and dramatically expand their geographical reach into new sources and new markets. Search engine optimization allows a company's web site to defeat time and distance to maximize the company's potential.

Why we went:
The last time we sent anyone to the Search Engine Strategies conference was in 2001 - I think. Not because we were really interested in that technical stuff, but because we thought our readers might be.

Only two of us went and found very little that seemed relevant. At the time our readers, established successful mainstream companies, were just getting serious about their Internet presence. What would we find for them? Not much.

The focus in 2001 was on the big companies with IT staffs and (relatively) unlimited resources, huge web sites and bulging budgets. We did come across a few things, the only one I remember was the session by Heather-Lloyd Martin and Jill Whalen, called "Writing For Search Engines". I was actually interested in that session for us, not our readers.

This year, 2006, we decided to return. After all it was here in NYC and they were kind enough to provide me with press credentials. All I had to lose was cab fare and a few hours time.

Halfway through the first session I attended, hosted by Danny Sullivan the editor of SearchEngineWatch.com - I knew I had made the right decision.

In his warm-up Danny (I don't know him but you feel like you do after listening to him for a few minutes) asked the audience (probably more people attended that session - one of several at that moment, than attended the entire event in '01),
How many of you are web marketers?
How many of you are here for the first time? etc. etc.

After listening to him for 45 minutes it was clear to me that, we're all web marketers or we'd better be! Our serious competitors are and they will be taking our business right out from under our noses unless we begin to pay real attention to our search engine strategies.

Our readers, and probably too, want to grow their market share. They want to do more business with each of their customers, and they want to expand their reach (geographically). And they want to do it 24/7/365 as cost effectively as possible. How is that possible? That's what we were there to find out - and we did.

What we found:
Sessions for people like us (and our readers). Search engine optimization is not just for Internet entrepreneurs and giant companies anymore. It is for Main Street companies too.

There were three program tracks from introductory to expert. I found some very useful information in each - which I'll be describing in future articles. What I came up with were ideas and strategies our D.I.Y. (do it yourself) readers can use to maximize what they already have in place.

There were ideas that caused me to say to myself, "why didn't I think of that" and others that we'd started using but then lost interest in when there was no instant jump in our traffic. You know, those, "if I knew then what I know now" sort of things. And we learned how we and our readers can be better buyers of the services they can't or don't want to do themselves.

There's an SES event coming to a city near you:
That is not literally true - but there are several upcoming during 2006 and I met people from all over the country at the one here in NYC.

At lunch the first day (more about this in a future article) I met two guys from a family owned company in California. Their boss had attended the Search Engine Strategies event in Chicago (I think) and she told them to come to this one.

Their company is as non-Internet as any you can imagine and they were already busy making notes for what to do when they go back to the plant.

I called 3 of my colleagues and they attended just the "exhibit only" area the next two days. Time and (very little) money well spent!

This article will be posted on our web site complete with links to SES resources. There will be 6-12 additional articles described there. The articles will be posted as soon as they are written.

The bottom line:
"We are ALL web marketers or we had better be, because our competitors are!"

Our objective is to shine a light into the ways that each of you - no matter where you are in the process, can put your business (via your web site) to work more effectively - to realize your company's potential.