What’s coming next and what’s happening now

Beating the heat

This month’s meeting of DFWSEM was cooler than being cool. It was ice cold. The air conditioning and the data were both icy — as was the beer, courtesy of event sponsor Advice Interactive Group, which was on hand with goodies and good local search info.

President Scott Vann started the ball rolling, then handed the mic off to past president Rob Garner to discuss The Vine Foundation, a charity that provides both necessities and ongoing life skills education to those in need. Of particular interest to those of us who are lucky enough to understand technology, The Vine Foundation teaches computer skill classes and is always looking for volunteers or donated laptops.

In other coolness, State of Search continues to rack up the points. The number of available tickets continues to dwindle rapidly. Speaker pitches have been completed and invitations have been sent out. eFrogs are charging up to take attendees all over Deep Ellum. But now there’s even more news.

Title sponser? Bing. Yeah. It’s like that.
Conference Hotel? Hotel Indigo. Stylishness for your face.
Final keynote speaker? Basecamp brand and marketing hotshot Mig Reyes!

Clearly, the only people who are going to miss State of Search are people who are going to wish they hadn’t missed State of Search. Register before September 1st and save $100 on tickets. But don’t delay – once they’re gone at this price, they won’t be coming back.

Gazing into the future

SEO stalwart and Pubcon founder Brett Tabke took the stage next, extrapolating from current trends he’s noticed to spin a few predictions.

Starting with design, he pointed out that mobile has made a huge difference. Visuals are cleaner, with no drop shadows or rounded corners. They’re bigger, too, and higher resolution to be visible across different sorts of screens. Add transparent buttons and parallax scrolling and you have a more immersive environment for users on any given device. As a result, design that doesn’t take touch into account or that relies on agent sniffing has fallen out of favor, along with CSS mouse-over menus and 3D buttons that might clutter the view.

In light of these trends, Brett speculates we might be seeing more sites that are 100% graphics – just pure images with a bit of mapping for links. And given the big change from Google to Alphabet, we’re likely to see a multi screen-centric view gain popularity, considering the new Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, is an Android guy.

But things really got cool on the subject of virtual reality (VR). The first version of the much-discussed Oculus Rift will be out in January. Going out on a limb, Brett claimed this will be a literally world-changing development. He also pointed out that Facebook stands to be the big winner in the VR space as owners of the Oculus VR company with a built-in user base. Successful VR and verified identities are a great recipe for the creation of entirely virtual worlds, and Facebook is positioned to be front and center.

What’s happening now

Tandem Interactive CEO and Pubcon speaker liaison Joe Laratro took the podium next to talk about current trends. Starting with the departure of Google’s Matt Cutts and how that impacted Mobilegeddon, he pointed out that we’re already in a different era.

But that isn’t all bad. Thanks to an improving economy, more companies are spending on SEO again, and doing so here in the US. In order to keep the momentum going, clean and classic SEO tactics are still the order of the day. Regular content additions are a must, but they must be useful and high quality. Link building hasn’t gone away, but it should be managed with care and audited quarterly. And in order to rank well on local search, “Barnacle SEO” is crucial. If Yelp ranks as the first search engine result for your type of business in your area, well, you’d better be sure your Yelp page is flawless. Don’t forget UX, either. If customers can’t easily use your site on any device, they’ll go somewhere else.

Of course, right around the corner is the much-discussed Internet of Things. Imagine a self-driving car; how cool would a Vegas taxi be with location-triggered ads that match possible destinations as tourists glide down the Strip? It’s important that marketers keep an eye out for new opportunities as more and more things are networked.

Finally, one lucky winner had their business card drawn out of the fishbowl, winning a ticket to October’s Pubcon Las Vegas. Laurie Shook, President of SMC Dallas, took the prize.

On September 9, DFWSEM will host Brad Geddes. Brad has spoken everywhere from Romania to Spain, to Silicon Valley, and all points in-between. He specializes in demystifying the more inscrutable aspects of SEO and PPC. It sounds like a pretty cool event and would be a shame for you to miss it.

"SEO isn't SEO anymore. Let's call it what it is. It's content marketing." Bold words from @btabke #DFWSEM.

— Kelcey Piper (@kelceypiper) August 13, 2015

Marketing is no longer spray and pray. It’s all about metrics and intention. #dfwsem

— John J Nosal (@jnosal) August 13, 2015

"The Internet of things… this is WILD." – @jlaratro #DFWSEM

— Timothy Huneycutt (@Timotheous128) August 13, 2015

Slidedeck – Brett Tabke

Slidedeck – Joe Laratro

Periscope Video – Brett Tabke

Periscope Video – Joe Laratro