Agenda
The all-new SMX Create agenda features two dedicated learning journeys — SEO and PPC. This structured experience is designed to build your knowledge on the latest in content strategy in a comprehensive, meaningful, actionable way — no matter your level of experience.
Tuesday — April 13th, 2021
Keynote
TRACK
Keynote
Humans vs. machines: How content and experience are caught between platforms and people
Humans vs. machines: How content and experience are caught between platforms and people
Apple
Gmail
Outlook Desktop
Outlook.com
Yahoo Mail
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Humans vs. machines: How content and experience are caught between platforms and people
Session Overview
From GTP-3 to ads automation, more elements of content and search marketing are being enhanced by or left up to machine learning completely. While this accelerates the pace for marketers and eliminates human error, the age-old question remains: Will machines eventually take our jobs?
In this kickoff keynote from the Search Engine Land experts, you'll explore the key changes in automation, ML, and AI that impact content creation and copywriting, what they mean for practitioners, and how to use these technologies for your benefit.
Speakers
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Break
Sessions
TRACK
SEO
Part one: Planning SEO content that actually ranks
Part one: Planning SEO content that actually ranks
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
Speaker
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot
Aja Frost, Head of Content SEO at Hubspot, is a writer, speaker, and author. She recently published Work-from-Home Hacks with Adams Media, a Simon & Schuster imprint. You can find more of her work on her personal website or follow her on Twitter.
Speaker
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 16 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.
Speaker
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land. He has written guides on SEO, Amazon's A9 algorithm, podcast advertising and provides the community with news coverage on organic search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.
Part one: Planning SEO content that actually ranks
Session Overview
A successful SEO campaign depends on a solid foundation. Thus, we begin this learning journey at the beginning! In this first segment, you'll learn how to set goals around content, identify your audience and their needs, determine your content angle based on those needs, and use that data for effective keyword research. Establishing these elements upfront will set you up for content success in anything you write online.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Identify measurable metrics to set your content goals around
- Determine what your audience is searching for and how to create content that meets those needs
- Perform quick, effective keyword research
- Create an SEO editorial calendar to direct your content efforts
Speakers
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot @https://twitter.com/ajavuu
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land @rustybrick
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land @geochingu
TRACK
PPC
Part one: Planning campaigns in an AI and ML world
Part one: Planning campaigns in an AI and ML world
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Speaker
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, Paid Search Agency in Burlington, VT. Matt has been a speaker and session moderator for SMX conferences around the world for over fifteen years. He has been a columnist for Search Engine Land, writing on paid search topics and a technical editor for books on paid search, including Brad Geddes' Advanced Adwords and Andrew Goodman's Winning Results for Google AdWords. In 2015, he was named on of the first Microsoft MVP for his contributions to the Microsoft Ads community. Matt is a graduate of St Lawrence University, Canton NY (BS Economics) with an M.B.A. from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Matt enjoys contributing to non-profits that make a difference in the world such as Thank You Project (https://thankyouproject.org/) which brings clean water and education to rural Nigeria, and Building Dreams for Marines (https://bdfm.org/) which provides accessibility home renovations for NH Marine veterans.
Part one: Planning campaigns in an AI and ML world
Session Overview
Machine learning and AI are changing the way we create (or recreate) campaigns. With changes like BMM being phased out and phrase match taking over, paid search marketers need to adjust the way we set up our campaigns. These updates and the move toward more AI in PPC give advertisers less control.
Begin your learning journey by joining our speakers to dive deep into setting up campaigns for success from the start in this ever more automated world.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Understand how automation affects your campaigns (positively and negatively)
- Develop a campaign plan that takes platform AI and ML into consideration
- Review your existing account structure and bid strategies to ensure no wasted spend by platform automation
- Set your campaigns up for success based on each campaign's customized goals
Speakers
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster @mvanwagner
TRACK
Solutions
Page One Power - TBD
Page One Power - TBD
Page One Power - TBD
Sponsored by: Page One Power
Page One Power is an SEO agency specialized in sustainable link building and strategic content creation. We create custom campaigns for brands committed to winning in search — designed to capture authority, improve rankings, and grow traffic. We provide full transparency and consistent communication throughout all our campaigns because you need a partner you can trust with the experience, expertise, and commitment to doing search right. With over ten years of experience, we have the proven ability to build pages that earn visibility and links online, with stable processes to secure the links your pages deserve. Links built for results. Content built for search. Page One Power.
Break
Sessions
TRACK
SEO
Part two: Creating compelling content for SEO
Part two: Creating compelling content for SEO
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
Speaker
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool
Alli Berry is the Director of SEO for The Motley Fool. With 10 years of digital marketing experience, she has helped businesses build a successful SEO-focused content strategy in industries including finance, education, automotive, and retail. She was named to the 2019 Top 10 Women in Content Marketing list by Inc Magazine, and has been a featured guest on the MozPod and In Search of SEO podcasts.
Speaker
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 16 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.
Speaker
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land. He has written guides on SEO, Amazon's A9 algorithm, podcast advertising and provides the community with news coverage on organic search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.
Part two: Creating compelling content for SEO
Session Overview
"SEO content" always gets a bad rap. Too many people think it's stuffy and lacks voice. Content that drives traffic doesn't have to sound stilted and keyword-stuffed. In this next segment, you'll go beyond keywords and dive deep into how to write for SEO (hint: it's about writing for the searcher) including multimedia optimization.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Write content that ranks well and drives traffic... but also speaks to searchers
- Create linkable content that drives more inbound link equity from reputable sources
- Diversify your content makeup to include assets for video, social, and more
Speakers
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool @alliberry3
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land @rustybrick
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land @geochingu
TRACK
PPC
Part two: Ad copywriting from a copywriter's perspective
Part two: Ad copywriting from a copywriter's perspective
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Speaker
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG
Charlie Byrne is a creative yet data-driven PPC Manager, whose paid media passion lies in ad copy and creative optimisation. Having worked in high-growth, fast-paced agency environments for the last few years, she's mastered the art of producing high-quality, conversion-driving ads for a range of industries and audiences. Outside of work, Charlie can be found practising yoga, binge-reading crime thrillers, or pretending she's a vegan food blogger on Instagram.
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Speaker
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, Paid Search Agency in Burlington, VT. Matt has been a speaker and session moderator for SMX conferences around the world for over fifteen years. He has been a columnist for Search Engine Land, writing on paid search topics and a technical editor for books on paid search, including Brad Geddes' Advanced Adwords and Andrew Goodman's Winning Results for Google AdWords. In 2015, he was named on of the first Microsoft MVP for his contributions to the Microsoft Ads community. Matt is a graduate of St Lawrence University, Canton NY (BS Economics) with an M.B.A. from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Matt enjoys contributing to non-profits that make a difference in the world such as Thank You Project (https://thankyouproject.org/) which brings clean water and education to rural Nigeria, and Building Dreams for Marines (https://bdfm.org/) which provides accessibility home renovations for NH Marine veterans.
Part two: Ad copywriting from a copywriter's perspective
Session Overview
Continue your learning journey with some food for thought on how to develop ideas for messaging and presenting your USPs to the world. Whether you're freshening up ads that have been around for a long time or starting from scratch, we’ll explore ways to get your creative juices flowing to battle sameness, me-too ads that pollute the SERPs.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Punch up your ad copy in a way that will get the attention of your audience
- Write copy that compels your target audience to take a specific action
- Deliver a consistent copy experience from ad to landing page
Speakers
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG @charlieebyrne
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster @mvanwagner
TRACK
Solutions
Merkle - TBD
Merkle - TBD
Merkle - TBD
Sponsored by: Merkle
Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The company’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalized marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 9,600+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the US, EMEA, and APAC. Merkle is a dentsu company. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.
Break
Sessions
TRACK
SEO
Part three: Optimizing your content for increased findability
Part three: Optimizing your content for increased findability
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
Speaker
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync
Niki Mosier loves to share her knowledge as an SEO subject matter expert with captive audiences. She has experience speaking about both technical and local SEO and is a proud alumnus of the Shine Speaker Bootcamp. Niki has spent most of her SEO career agency side but recently made the jump to in-house SEO. Her time agency side has exposed to her a broad range of clients and SEO challenges.
Speaker
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 16 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.
Speaker
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land. He has written guides on SEO, Amazon's A9 algorithm, podcast advertising and provides the community with news coverage on organic search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.
Part three: Optimizing your content for increased findability
Session Overview
You can have the best-written content on the web... but it won't matter if no one can find it. That goes for both people and search engines. This next segment will focus on optimizing your site architecture for better visibility.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Understand how your site architecture affects how both people and search engines can access your content
- Drive more traffic and increase visibility for important topics and keywords with simple technical SEO strategies
- Optimize your content for rich snippets and competitive SERP features
Speakers
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync @nikers85
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land @rustybrick
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land @geochingu
TRACK
PPC
Part three: Creating visually stunning display ads
Part three: Creating visually stunning display ads
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Speaker
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, Paid Search Agency in Burlington, VT. Matt has been a speaker and session moderator for SMX conferences around the world for over fifteen years. He has been a columnist for Search Engine Land, writing on paid search topics and a technical editor for books on paid search, including Brad Geddes' Advanced Adwords and Andrew Goodman's Winning Results for Google AdWords. In 2015, he was named on of the first Microsoft MVP for his contributions to the Microsoft Ads community. Matt is a graduate of St Lawrence University, Canton NY (BS Economics) with an M.B.A. from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Matt enjoys contributing to non-profits that make a difference in the world such as Thank You Project (https://thankyouproject.org/) which brings clean water and education to rural Nigeria, and Building Dreams for Marines (https://bdfm.org/) which provides accessibility home renovations for NH Marine veterans.
Part three: Creating visually stunning display ads
Session Overview
Because they increasingly appear across the Internet, image-based ads can easily be the first exposure users have to your brand and products. Unlike search ads that consummate demand of people looking for a solution, visual ads can actually create demand.
In this next segment, we’ll dig deep into the psychology of color, layout, and images and how and where to find the best artwork for your visual ads. We’ll go over best practices for implementing these concepts inside platforms that resize ads across devices.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Create visually appealing ads that attract your target audience
- Understand how the ad design will appear on different platforms
- Deliver a consistent design experience from ad to landing page
Speakers
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster @mvanwagner
Break
Sessions
TRACK
SEO
Part four: Alternative content strategies to increase organic traffic and tracking success in 2021
Part four: Alternative content strategies to increase organic traffic and tracking success in 2021
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
Speaker
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro
Maria Amelie White is Head of SEO at FloristPro, the largest local SEO agency in the UK. She has over 12 years of experience in Technical SEO and Digital PR. Her current focus is Local SEO, she works with over 600 florists in the UK. Maria has an MSc in Psychology by the University of Oxford and she is also a part-time behavioural researcher with a focus on search and consumer behaviour.
Speaker
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast
John Shehata is Global Vice President of Audience Development Strategy & CRM at Condé Nast overseeing SEO, Social Media Strategy, Audio Growth and Email & CRM for all premium brands (Wired, Epicurious, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, etc.). John has 21+ years of experience in the digital marketing space working with top national brands and fortune 500 companies. John is also the founder of NewzDash.com, a leading News & Editorial SEO platform that helps publishers boost their traffic and visibility in Google Search Top Stories and Google News. Previously, John was the Executive Director of Search, Social Media at Disney ABC TV Group. Shehata lead SEO and social strategies for (ABC News, ABC TV, Oscars, and Disney Channels) and worked closely with all TV shows (GMA, Nightline, 20/20, World News, etc.). In his long career focusing on editorial SEO and Social Strategy, John has trained many writers, bloggers, journalists and editors on Search Engine Optimization and Social Media and how to write news while keeping Search and Social channels top of mind. Prior to Disney, Shehata was the director of SEO and Social Media for Advance Local. Shehata established and led the SEO and Social Media teams for all their digital brands (NJ.com. al.com, Cleveland.com, MLive.com, NOLA.com, etc.) and trained all the news sites and newspapers edit teams (The Plain Dealer, The Star-Ledger, The Oregonian, etc) on best online search/social practices. Shehata is recognized particularly for his SEO strategies for News and Technical SEO. He built multiple SEO products and has written several articles and continues to speak at conferences which focus on SEO and Social Media.
Speaker
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 16 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.
Speaker
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land. He has written guides on SEO, Amazon's A9 algorithm, podcast advertising and provides the community with news coverage on organic search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.
Part four: Alternative content strategies to increase organic traffic and tracking success in 2021
Session Overview
In this final segment, we'll go through content strategies for other marketing channels such as Google My Business, Web Stories, News, Video, and Social Media Images -- and how these alternative channels can increase organic traffic in 2021. You'll discover real examples and actionable tips on how to start optimizing your content for these diverse marketing channels today. Finally, you'll learn how to analyze all the efforts discussed throughout the day and confirm that those efforts led to successful content strategies.
After this segment, you'll be able to:
- Identify alternative marketing channels suitable for your brand
- Understand the importance of these channels in increasing organic traffic
- Create content for each platform (including durability and device visibility)
- Analyze the success of your content campaigns
Speakers
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro @Maria_Amelie
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast @jshehata
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land @rustybrick
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land @geochingu
TRACK
PPC
Part four: Creating a continuous improvement advantage
Part four: Creating a continuous improvement advantage
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Speaker
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, Paid Search Agency in Burlington, VT. Matt has been a speaker and session moderator for SMX conferences around the world for over fifteen years. He has been a columnist for Search Engine Land, writing on paid search topics and a technical editor for books on paid search, including Brad Geddes' Advanced Adwords and Andrew Goodman's Winning Results for Google AdWords. In 2015, he was named on of the first Microsoft MVP for his contributions to the Microsoft Ads community. Matt is a graduate of St Lawrence University, Canton NY (BS Economics) with an M.B.A. from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Matt enjoys contributing to non-profits that make a difference in the world such as Thank You Project (https://thankyouproject.org/) which brings clean water and education to rural Nigeria, and Building Dreams for Marines (https://bdfm.org/) which provides accessibility home renovations for NH Marine veterans.
Part four: Creating a continuous improvement advantage
Session Overview
True competitive advantage lies not in what you’ve just done, but in how you move from what you have now to something better. Competitors don’t stand still... and neither should you.
Wrap up your learning journey with a look at how to nurture a culture of continuous improvement through testing -- and what that means for day-to-day campaign management.
After this segment, you’ll be able to:
- Create a culture of testing (and of failure) to continually improve
- Manage all the assets of a testing program across platforms
- Adjust your bidding strategy for better ROI
- Measure and communicate your testing results and improve on tests that didn't perform well
Speakers
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster @mvanwagner
Break
Overtime
TRACK
SEO
Overtime: Q&A with today's SEO speakers
Overtime: Q&A with today's SEO speakers
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot
Speaker
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync
Niki Mosier loves to share her knowledge as an SEO subject matter expert with captive audiences. She has experience speaking about both technical and local SEO and is a proud alumnus of the Shine Speaker Bootcamp. Niki has spent most of her SEO career agency side but recently made the jump to in-house SEO. Her time agency side has exposed to her a broad range of clients and SEO challenges.
Speaker
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro
Maria Amelie White is Head of SEO at FloristPro, the largest local SEO agency in the UK. She has over 12 years of experience in Technical SEO and Digital PR. Her current focus is Local SEO, she works with over 600 florists in the UK. Maria has an MSc in Psychology by the University of Oxford and she is also a part-time behavioural researcher with a focus on search and consumer behaviour.
Speaker
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast
John Shehata is Global Vice President of Audience Development Strategy & CRM at Condé Nast overseeing SEO, Social Media Strategy, Audio Growth and Email & CRM for all premium brands (Wired, Epicurious, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, etc.). John has 21+ years of experience in the digital marketing space working with top national brands and fortune 500 companies. John is also the founder of NewzDash.com, a leading News & Editorial SEO platform that helps publishers boost their traffic and visibility in Google Search Top Stories and Google News. Previously, John was the Executive Director of Search, Social Media at Disney ABC TV Group. Shehata lead SEO and social strategies for (ABC News, ABC TV, Oscars, and Disney Channels) and worked closely with all TV shows (GMA, Nightline, 20/20, World News, etc.). In his long career focusing on editorial SEO and Social Strategy, John has trained many writers, bloggers, journalists and editors on Search Engine Optimization and Social Media and how to write news while keeping Search and Social channels top of mind. Prior to Disney, Shehata was the director of SEO and Social Media for Advance Local. Shehata established and led the SEO and Social Media teams for all their digital brands (NJ.com. al.com, Cleveland.com, MLive.com, NOLA.com, etc.) and trained all the news sites and newspapers edit teams (The Plain Dealer, The Star-Ledger, The Oregonian, etc) on best online search/social practices. Shehata is recognized particularly for his SEO strategies for News and Technical SEO. He built multiple SEO products and has written several articles and continues to speak at conferences which focus on SEO and Social Media.
Speaker
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 16 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.
Speaker
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land
George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land. He has written guides on SEO, Amazon's A9 algorithm, podcast advertising and provides the community with news coverage on organic search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.
Speaker
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool
Alli Berry is the Director of SEO for The Motley Fool. With 10 years of digital marketing experience, she has helped businesses build a successful SEO-focused content strategy in industries including finance, education, automotive, and retail. She was named to the 2019 Top 10 Women in Content Marketing list by Inc Magazine, and has been a featured guest on the MozPod and In Search of SEO podcasts.
Speaker
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot
Aja Frost, Head of Content SEO at Hubspot, is a writer, speaker, and author. She recently published Work-from-Home Hacks with Adams Media, a Simon & Schuster imprint. You can find more of her work on her personal website or follow her on Twitter.
Overtime: Q&A with today's SEO speakers
Session Overview
Your journey isn't over yet... join us for Overtime, where we'll host the speakers from today's SEO presentations and get their insights on audience questions gathered throughout the day. Submit additional questions of your own or just sit back and learn!
Speakers
Niki Mosier
Head of SEO and Content, AgentSync @nikers85
Maria Amelie White
Head of SEO, Floristpro @Maria_Amelie
John Shehata
VP, Global Audience Development Strategy & CRM, Conde Nast @jshehata
Barry Schwartz
SEO Editor, Search Engine Land @rustybrick
George Nguyen
Editor, Search Engine Land @geochingu
Alli Berry
SEO Director, The Motley Fool @alliberry3
AJA FROST
Head of EN SEO, HubSpot @https://twitter.com/ajavuu
TRACK
PPC
Overtime: Q&A with today's PPC speakers
Overtime: Q&A with today's PPC speakers
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Speaker
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG
Charlie Byrne is a creative yet data-driven PPC Manager, whose paid media passion lies in ad copy and creative optimisation. Having worked in high-growth, fast-paced agency environments for the last few years, she's mastered the art of producing high-quality, conversion-driving ads for a range of industries and audiences. Outside of work, Charlie can be found practising yoga, binge-reading crime thrillers, or pretending she's a vegan food blogger on Instagram.
Speaker
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land
With over 10 years of experience in content and SEO, Carolyn Lyden now serves as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. Carolyn is both endlessly passionate about search marketing and a staunch advocate for marketers as a community leader and educator. She most recently ran her own agency, Search Hermit, where she specifically set out to help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses improve their presence and performance in search. Carolyn has experience in all verticals in search marketing, with particular expertise in content marketing, strategy, local search marketing, and analytics. She is also a well-known figure in the search community through her experiences speaking in various search conferences and as the leader of the popular #SEOchat on Twitter.
Speaker
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, Paid Search Agency in Burlington, VT. Matt has been a speaker and session moderator for SMX conferences around the world for over fifteen years. He has been a columnist for Search Engine Land, writing on paid search topics and a technical editor for books on paid search, including Brad Geddes' Advanced Adwords and Andrew Goodman's Winning Results for Google AdWords. In 2015, he was named on of the first Microsoft MVP for his contributions to the Microsoft Ads community. Matt is a graduate of St Lawrence University, Canton NY (BS Economics) with an M.B.A. from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Matt enjoys contributing to non-profits that make a difference in the world such as Thank You Project (https://thankyouproject.org/) which brings clean water and education to rural Nigeria, and Building Dreams for Marines (https://bdfm.org/) which provides accessibility home renovations for NH Marine veterans.
Overtime: Q&A with today's PPC speakers
Session Overview
Your journey isn't over yet... join us for Overtime, where we'll host the speakers from today's PPC presentations and get their insights on audience questions gathered throughout the day. Submit additional questions of your own or just sit back and learn!
Speakers
Charlie Byrne
PPC Manager, Peak Ace AG @charlieebyrne
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content, Search Engine Land @carolynlyden
Matt Van Wagner
President, Find Me Faster @mvanwagner
Break
Featured Speaker
TRACK
Featured Speaker
The psychology of content: Mastering cognitive ciases, conversion triggers and modern SEO to achieve massive results in 2021
The psychology of content: Mastering cognitive ciases, conversion triggers and modern SEO to achieve massive results in 2021
Matthew Capala
Founder, CEO, Alphametic
Speaker
Matthew Capala
Founder, CEO, Alphametic
Matthew Capala is a seasoned digital marketing executive, founder of Alphametic, author of “The Psychology of a Website,” keynote speaker, and entrepreneur. As a Polish immigrant who started out on the scaffolds of Manhattan, Capala is a self-made success story. Studying books and seeking mentors, he learned how to use Internet marketing tools to create opportunities he would not have had otherwise. As a practitioner above all, he has spent the last 15 years delivering results to his clients, from emerging companies to some of the most iconic brands in the world, such as L’Oréal and Calvin Klein, leveraging the latest strategies in SEO, Google Ads, and conversion optimization. Presently, Capala is the CEO of Alphametic, a prominent digital marketing agency in Florida. Prior to his move to Miami, he led a successful career as a Madison Avenue ad agency executive in New York, where he was also appointed Adj. Professor at NYU (’12 –’14). His work and ideas have been featured in Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, MarketWatch, eMarketer, and Mashable. As a charismatic speaker, he regularly appears on some of the biggest marketing stages in the world, such as Internet Summit, MarketingProfs, and Digital Summit. He holds three degrees, including an MBA in Marketing.
The psychology of content: Mastering cognitive ciases, conversion triggers and modern SEO to achieve massive results in 2021
Session Overview
Modern marketers must understand -- and optimize for -- the basic principles of choice psychology that influence not only every action on your website, but how modern algorithms read and rank your content on search engines. Google’s new AI-powered RankBrain cares more about the user’s satisfaction than how many times a keyword is used in your content. If you want to optimize for the Google bot, you need to optimize for the human.
Combining hundreds of practical examples from some of the world’s most successful brands with the application of the fundamental principles of modern psychology and data science, the six-step Website PSY Formula covered in this session will take you on a guided journey to content success.
After this session, you'll be able to:
- Build instant trust and minimize friction by displaying unquestionable social proof
- Use credibility content and frame control to position your brand as a trusted authority in your field
- Reduce your bounce rates by learning how to overcome common objections mastering the copywriting for the Web
- Encourage small commitments and activate the consistency bias to pull the user towards your offer
- Reassure with social proof during the final stages of conversion to reduce buyer’s remorse and funnel abandonment
- Create a repeatable source of new customers through sustainable website conversion funnels that map buyer personas to keywords, content, and conversions
Speakers
Matthew Capala
Founder, CEO, Alphametic @searchdecoder
Break
Clinics
TRACK
SEO
Site content clinic
Site content clinic
Site content clinic
Session Overview
TRACK
PPC
Landing page clinic
Landing page clinic
Landing page clinic
Session Overview
Wednesday — April 14th, 2021
Workshops
TRACK
Workshop One
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day One
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day One
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group
Speaker
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group
Michael Brenner is a top Content Marketing influencer, an experienced CMO and Digital Marketer with stints at brands like SAP and Nielsen and multiple high-growth startups. Today, Michael runs a fast-growing content marketing agency, Marketing Insider Group. He is also the author of The Content Formula, and Mean People Suck. When he's not running after his 4 kids, or building effective content marketing programs. Michael enjoys sharing his experiences and client stories to inspire leaders like you to create growth and impact.
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day One
Session Overview
Smart marketers know that SEO and content are essential ingredients for successful search marketing. But even more important is that these two cornerstones work together in harmony.
Consistently developing high-quality content that delivers a valuable, seamless user experience, showcases your site as trustworthy and authoritative, incorporates the right keywords the right way, and has appropriate interlinking for an increase in traffic ALL depends on content marketers understanding and embracing fundamental tenets of SEO.
If you’re struggling with how to produce high-quality content in such a way that helps achieve organic growth, this workshop is for you.
Click here for a full workshop description!
Speakers
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group @BrennerMichael
TRACK
Workshop Two
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day One
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day One
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC
Speaker
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC
Nico Brooks is a co-founder of Two Octobers, a digital agency that combines best-in-class digital marketing, training and technology to help purpose-driven companies achieve extraordinary results. Nico also teaches analytics and search engine marketing as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, and is an organizer of the Denver Marketing Analytics Meetup. Nico is passionate about humanizing marketing data - making it centered around and useful to people. He has helped hundreds of organizations and individuals improve results and maximize impact with data since he first discovered Webtrends in the late 90’s. In his spare time, he likes making things and running on trails. He is currently working on mastering the art of bronze bell casting, with mixed success.
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day One
Session Overview
Google Data Studio is an incredibly powerful tool for visualizing and analyzing data. It can deliver on the promise of fully-automated real-time reporting and even aid in keyword research, trend analysis, audience insights, and more.
But... it isn’t exactly intuitive. Even if you use Google Data Studio on a regular basis, it can be easy to miss out on everything this robust tool has to offer.
If you've dabbled in Google Data Studio and are ready to take your skills to the next level, join agency veteran and analytics professor, Nico Brooks, for this live, interactive workshop -- featuring actionable tips and techniques gleaned from some of the best minds in SEO and SEM.
Click here for a full workshop description!
Speakers
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC @nicobrx
Thursday — April 15th, 2021
Workshops
TRACK
Workshop One
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day Two
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day Two
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group
Speaker
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group
Michael Brenner is a top Content Marketing influencer, an experienced CMO and Digital Marketer with stints at brands like SAP and Nielsen and multiple high-growth startups. Today, Michael runs a fast-growing content marketing agency, Marketing Insider Group. He is also the author of The Content Formula, and Mean People Suck. When he's not running after his 4 kids, or building effective content marketing programs. Michael enjoys sharing his experiences and client stories to inspire leaders like you to create growth and impact.
Creating an SEO-friendly content marketing program - Day Two
Session Overview
Smart marketers know that SEO and content are essential ingredients for successful search marketing. But even more important is that these two cornerstones work together in harmony.
Consistently developing high-quality content that delivers a valuable, seamless user experience, showcases your site as trustworthy and authoritative, incorporates the right keywords the right way, and has appropriate interlinking for an increase in traffic ALL depends on content marketers understanding and embracing fundamental tenets of SEO.
If you’re struggling with how to produce high-quality content in such a way that helps achieve organic growth, this workshop is for you.
Click here for a full workshop description!
Speakers
Michael Brenner
CEO and Founder, Marketing Insider Group @BrennerMichael
TRACK
Workshop Two
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day Two
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day Two
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC
Speaker
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC
Nico Brooks is a co-founder of Two Octobers, a digital agency that combines best-in-class digital marketing, training and technology to help purpose-driven companies achieve extraordinary results. Nico also teaches analytics and search engine marketing as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, and is an organizer of the Denver Marketing Analytics Meetup. Nico is passionate about humanizing marketing data - making it centered around and useful to people. He has helped hundreds of organizations and individuals improve results and maximize impact with data since he first discovered Webtrends in the late 90’s. In his spare time, he likes making things and running on trails. He is currently working on mastering the art of bronze bell casting, with mixed success.
Mastering Google Data Studio - Day Two
Session Overview
Google Data Studio is an incredibly powerful tool for visualizing and analyzing data. It can deliver on the promise of fully-automated real-time reporting and even aid in keyword research, trend analysis, audience insights, and more.
But... it isn’t exactly intuitive. Even if you use Google Data Studio on a regular basis, it can be easy to miss out on everything this robust tool has to offer.
If you've dabbled in Google Data Studio and are ready to take your skills to the next level, join agency veteran and analytics professor, Nico Brooks, for this live, interactive workshop -- featuring actionable tips and techniques gleaned from some of the best minds in SEO and SEM.
Click here for a full workshop description!
Speakers
Nico Brooks
Principal, Two Octobers, LLC @nicobrx
