Chicago SES Day 1 Highlights

Some highlights, random thoughts, gossip and good stuff from the first day of the Chicago Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo:

• The search industry will reach $30 billion this year. By 2011, it will be a $60 billion industry.
  
• Blended search is becoming very significant.
  
• It used to be your website needed to be in the Top 30, then Top 10. Now, there's a vertical creep, where it needs to be above the scroll on the first page. People don't scroll anymore.
  
• With blended search, there is some specialization among search engines. For instance, MSN is including health care in its blended search results.
  
• You need to maximize all digital efforts in order to take advantage of blended search, including photos, music, movies, etc.
  
• When it comes to measuring traffic, you need to do more. Look at your landing pages report. Look at your bounce rate. Then dig down and look at the keywords.
  
• Measure the customer's journey through your website. They might surf around a bit before they give you their credit card number.
  
• Is there life after Google? Yes. Look at other search engines, including Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask. Look at vertical search engines.
  
• The future of search is social search. Everything is going social with users connecting with each other.
  
• Search engine loyalty is habit forming. Even if users find another search engine with better results, people are loyal to Google.
  
• The cost per click is going up and it will continue to go up. There's more competition.
  
• Who should be designing your website? Your visitors.
  
• When trying to improve your landing pages, just don't look at the "dogs"...fix the good pages as well. They can be improved upon.
  
• When you are testing landing pages, the better the idea you put in, the better you get out.