We're delighted to announce Internet Marketing Ninjas as a Platinum Sponsor for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, the premier social media and optimization conference and expo which will be held
October 15 - 19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Internet Marketing Ninjas is a full service Internet marketing firm with a stellar reputation dating back to 1999 when it was founded as We Build Pages, and as a Platinum Sponsor it will also be exhibiting during Pubcon Las Vegas 2012.
The Clifton Park, New York-based firm offers link-building, social media marketing, content creation,
Jim Boykin
“We're delighted to have Internet Marketing Ninjas as a major Platinum Sponsor for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012,” said Pubcon and WebmasterWorld founder and chief executive Brett Tabke. “Company founder Jim Boykin has been a long-time supporter of Pubcon, including a Gold sponsorship last year, and with the continued growth the firm has seen we're happy to have Internet Marketing Ninjas as one of our top conference sponsors,” Tabke added.
“I've been a member of WebmasterWorld since 2002 and I've been attending the Pubcon
Google's Matt Cutts
“Out of all the conferences I attend each year, Pubcon has always been my favorite conference, and one that I made sure never to miss. I always end up leaving Pubcon with tons of new ideas and connections that help me to grow my own knowledge, my services, and my company,” Boykin added.
Internet Marketing Ninjas offers link-building, content creation, PPC management, widget creation, Web design, SEO speaking and Google re-inclusion services, along with local and social media marketing and reputation management.
During Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 representatives from Internet Marketing Ninjas will be available in
Pubcon Las Vegas
“I feel extremely lucky and very honored to be able to help support the WebmasterWorld community and the Pubcon conferences. I'm really looking forward to taking a bunch of my ninjas to Pubcon for training again this year. Exposing my employees to the knowledge base of the Pubcon presenters is one of the best investments I've ever made,” Boykin said.
“Internet Marketing Ninjas is thrilled again to be a Pubcon supporter by being a Platinum Sponsor for
Leo Laporte at Pubcon Las Vegas
“Don’t forget to swing by our Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 booth to pick up some of our ninja gear and we’ll show you how to look at the world through rainbow colored glasses,” Boykin added.
More information about Internet Marketing Ninjas is available on its website at http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/.
We're also happy to announce that Ahrefs.com will be exhibiting
at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012. Ahrefs.com offers Internet backlink and Search Engine Results Page (SERP, a term coined by Tabke) research tools.
We're excited to have Internet Marketing Ninjas as a Platinum Sponsor and exhibitor at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, and look forward to joining the firm for a fantastic conference in the entertainment capital of the world this October 15 - 19. Register today at low early-bird prices.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Pubcon Exhibitor: Ahrefs
posted on, Apr 27, 2012
 Ahrefs is a back link analysis toolset with one of the largest and most quickly updated databases of live backlinks and fresh SERP data. With their own bot that intelligently crawls billions of pages every day and a proprietary index where trillions of website connections are stored, Ahrefs provides all of the essential data for back link and rankings analysis. With these tools anyone can evaluate their own sites, as well as competitor’s sites getting quick and easy to read visual comparisons and detailed, exportable reports. Ahrefs offers free tool access as well as paid accounts with even more extensive functionality and data collection. |
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 Social Media And Search Conference
posted on, Apr 26, 2012
You'll love Pubcon, the premier search and social media conference, which will take over the
Pubcon Las Vegas
Thousands of the the world's most successful and tech-savvy innovators come to Pubcon every year, where corporate moguls network with brilliant entrepreneurs in an annual meeting of the Web's best and brightest. If you haven't heard of Pubcon or haven't yet attended, make plans now to join us for the year's most important gathering of social media and optimization professionals.
Pubcon has grown rapidly during the past several years, and with strong roots stretching back to
Pubcon Las Vegas
If you're asking yourself “What is Pubcon and why should I go?”, here are just some of the reasons why you should attend Pubcon, and check out what attendees are saying about Pubcon, too.
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 is the year's biggest and best social media and search marketing conference and expo in one of the world's most exciting cities, offering many unique opportunities to attendees, including:
- Over 210 of the world's best new media technologists and marketers leading cutting-edge discussions about the future of our digital world
- More than 110 of the latest panel sessions to educate and illuminate Pubcon attendees
- At least nine simultaneous sub-conference tracks included in all Gold and Platinum Passes
- Pubcon is one of the only conferences where speakers actually interact with attendees on a personal level throughout the week, during networking parties, in the halls, and in many unique Pubcon special events
- World-class keynote speakers inspire and energize all Pubcon attendees
Pubcon Las Vegas
Hold on tightly to your mobile devices of choice and make the decision to join us in the social media magic at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 this October 15 - 19 — a decision you'll wish you'd made years sooner. Pubcon also offers you ample chances to:
- Mingle with some of the top minds in the digital marketing, new media, search and affiliate worlds
- Learn what is working the best in your industry from those who have methodically studied the alternatives
- Gather vast quantities of new ideas from both up-and-coming young innovators and experienced technology founders
- Commiserate with other attendees and Pubcon speakers seeking the best solutions for handling the quickly-changing world of today's search engines and social media destinations
- Become inspired by some of the Web's most unusual and successful characters who make Pubcon an annual rite of passage in sunny Las Vegas
Pubcon Las Vegas
Register for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 today and take advantage of some of the fairest prices around,
Pubcon Las Vegas
Join in and come to Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 and you'll also be able to bring home not only new ideas and solutions, but many intangible elements that make Pubcon the top social media and search conference, including:
- More than 110 "take-aways" — at least one from every session, and if you
can't attend all the sessions that you'd like to, Pubcon will mail all Gold and
Platinum Pass holders a USB stickcontaining all the PowerPoint presentations from the week's panels
Leo Laporte by Dennis Goedegebuure
- Pubcon Labs, a chance to sit down one-on-one with dozens of Pubcon's top speakers and discuss your business's needs face-to-face with panelists that you can usually only see from a distance at other conferences
- Pubcon Masters Group professional training program — a day-long intensive and personal look at technology during a popular and always sold-out pre-conference special event
- Networking parties such as our famous namesake Pubcon Classic gathering — the industry's best opportunity to share and make deals
- Make new industry friends and contacts from an unmatched pool of attendees, keynoters and speakers
Sign up for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 at early-bird rates today, and join us for the biggest Pubcon week ever on October 15 - 19.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 Is The Year’s Top Week Of Social Media And Search
posted on, Apr 25, 2012
Pubcon, the premier social media and search conference, is the year's top week-long event for
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012
Pubcon conferences keep getting bigger and better as more people find out about the value of our events and see what past attendees are learning at Pubcon that allow them to push their business' social media and search strategies to the next level of success.
Over the past few years Pubcon's attendance has grown significantly, and early registration for
Pubcon Las Vegas
The biggest names in technology choose Pubcon for driven and insightful keynotes, including such luminaries as Google fellow Amit Singhal and head quality control engineer Matt Cutts, Emmy award-winning technology broadcaster and noted online personality Leo Laporte, best-selling authors Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki and Robert X. Cringely, and other prominent technology visionaries such as Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, New York Times technology writer David Pogue, Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh, Internet Brands chief executive Bob Brisco, Demand Media co-founder Richard Rosenblatt, Opera Software founder Jon Von Tetzchner along with many others, and Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 will offer a very special new lineup of esteemed keynote presenters.
Pubcon is the search and social media industry's ultra-marathon in the entertainment capital of the
Pubcon Las Vegas
For more than a decade Pubcon has featured major corporate technology sponsors and exhibitors including Google, Microsoft and Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, Ask, Zappos, PRWeb, Mashable, Demand Media, Raven Internet Marketing Tools, Market Health, Opera Software, MSN,
Google's Matt Cutts
Join us for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 on October 15 - 19 at the massive Las Vegas Convention Center for an unmatched week-long social media, marketing and search festival with the world's leading technology thought-leaders.
Register today at some of the fairest rates in the industry, and for a limited time only save even more by taking advantage of special early-bird Platinum, Gold and other conference pass levels, and we'll see you in Las Vegas.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Kris Jones, Ralf Schwoebel, Adam Riemer And Kirsten Wright At Pubcon Las Vegas 2012
posted on, Apr 24, 2012
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, the premier optimization and social media conference, will once again take over the city that never sleeps during the week of October 15 - 19 at the massive Las Vegas
Kristopher Jones
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 will feature some of the world's top technology speakers, including Kristopher Jones, president and chief executive at Internet marketing agency KBJ Interactive, Ralf Schwoebel, founder and chief executive at Germany's Tradebit Inc., Adam Riemer, president of Adam Riemer Marketing LLC, and Kirsten Wright, social media strategist at Wright Creativity.
These four thought leaders will join more than 200 other major speakers at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, which will feature over 110 session in at least nine simultaneous session tracks, and Jones, Schwoebel, Riemer and Wright each consider Pubcon a conference unlike any other.
“Despite having spoken at a dozen or so different Internet-related conferences in 2011, Pubcon once
Pubcon Las Vegas
“I'm especially excited about Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 because it will have the most diverse content mix of any conference, and will include both attendees and speakers that no longer go to other conferences, but come to Pubcon every year because it's an annual gathering of old friends,” Jones added.
Ralf Schwoebel is among the many German attendees who come to Pubcon every year.
“The Internet has mutated so tremendously in the last years, from a technical hangout of geeks to
Ralf Schwoebel
“The Pubcon conference helped to shape this evolution in the last 10 years. You meet retired Internet millionaires, social marketing experts and newcomers with great sites and new ideas in one big room. If you are not there as an online marketer in the U.S., you are probably not really serious about your job,” Schwoebel added.
“If you are doing business online in the States and you are not at Pubcon, you'll miss revenue. Our business is split across the globe, but to sell online in the U.S., I go to Pubcon every year from Germany. 2012 will be my seventh year now," ” Schwoebel explained.
“There is a reason why this is called Pubcon. We have doubled our traffic last year, just by the hints
Ralf Schwoebel
“Pubcon is a great mix of coding geeks, marketing and sales specialists and all-arounders, who understand the online business from the ground up. I havemet half of all my U.S. business partners over the years at Pubcon or through contacts there,” Schwoebel noted.
“Pubcon is the only place you meet the people who actually put the sites you use every day online. They sit around and talk about their daily problems. Just come and talk to them — learn more than you expected and have a truckload of fun,” Schwoebel concluded.
Adam Riemer has found Pubcon to be a unique and valuable event as well.
Adam Riemer
“What I love about Pubcon is that I not only get to learn new information from some of the most creative and brilliant strategists in the search and social space, but I also get to share what I've learned over the past 10 years, and people are genuinely interested in helping others,” Riemer said.
“The speakers encourage questions and the attendees want to learn. That is one thing that helps to make Pubcon one of my favorite shows of the year. The second reason I look forward to Pubcon is that the networking is not clicky and everyone is ready to invite you to their table, parties and events. Pubcon is an awesome show for people new to the industry as well as experienced veterans,” Riemer added.
Kirsten Wright also considers Pubcon to be a conference week not to be missed.
“This will be my third year speaking at Pubcon, and I am wishing it were October already,” Wright said.
Kirsten Wright
“Pubcon is one of my favorite conferences every year — it's a gathering of some of the most brilliant in social, Web and search — all willing to share their brilliance and a beer or two,” Wright noted.
“I was nervous my first year, as some of the tech conferences I'd attended in the past were a little tough to get into. The people didn't feel welcoming and the content was just so-so. Pubcon certainly threw that for a loop! In my last few years there, I've met some of the most incredible people, who I now can consider incredible friends, despite them being all over the country,” Wright added.
“And the content? I was shocked at the level of expertise that is readily given away in the sessions
Pubcon Las Vegas
Find out for yourself what Jones, Schwoebel, Riemer, Wright and thousands of others find unforgettable about Pubcon, and join them for the year's biggest and best social media and optimization conference at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 on October 15 - 19.
Register now at low early-bird pricing, and we look forward to seeing you in sunny Las Vegas in October.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Related Content:
- Ralf Schwoebel Pubcon speakers blog piece "Protection Against Online Credit Card Fraud"
- Ralf Schwoebel featured in "You Never Know Who You’ll Run Into At Pubcon"
- Kristopher Jones video interview with Pubcon video content producer Vanessa Zamora
- Kristopher Jones a featured author at Pubcon Las Vegas 2011 book signing event
- Kristopher Jones Pubcon Las Vegas 2011 session overview by Search Engine Journal
- Adam Riemer at Pubcon Labs
- Kirsten Wright Pubcon speakers blog piece "How Can Small Business Justify Social Media?"
- Kirsten Wright video interview with Pubcon video content producer Vanessa Zamora
- Bleiweiss, Jones, Schachinger And St. Michael Among Dazzling List Of Confirmed Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 Speakers
Pubcon Exhibitor: TastyPlacement
posted on, Apr 19, 2012
 TastyPlacement is a digital advertising agency that offers search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, website development, mobile marketing, digital marketing consulting, and interactive marketing like video and infographic development. TastyPlacement is based in Austin, Texas, and serves clients throughout the US in markets such as law, medicine, home services, and ecommerce. |
Pubcon Exhibitor: Bislr
posted on, Apr 17, 2012
 Growing your business online is suppose to be easy right? Well not exactly. Today you’re juggling apps to manage your website, blog, store, CRM, email marketing, SEO and the list goes on and on. It’s a pain because you need a platform for this, a platform for that. You have multiple interfaces that are confusing and multiple subscription fees to pay. Not anymore. Meet Bislr, a central place to run your business online. We’ve taken everything we know about creating online businesses and turned it into a platform for businesses like yours, so you can create and manage your website, blog, keep track of your forms and leads, improve your SEO, post to social media sites, send email marketing and even start an online store all from one place. Bislr is free to use, create your own online business today at http://www.bislr.com and follow us on twitter @bislr.
|
Bleiweiss, Jones, Schachinger And St. Michael Among Dazzling List Of Confirmed Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 Speakers
posted on, Apr 16, 2012
Some of the brightest social media optimizing and marketing standouts in the world will be speaking at Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, the premier social media and optimization conference and expo,
Pubcon Las Vegas
Among the great speakers already lined up for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 are Melyssa St. Michael, vice president of search and emerging media at digital marketing agency Rockfish Interactive, Alan Bleiweiss, director of search services at Click2Rank Consulting, Dixon Jones, marketing director at Majestic SEO, and Kristine Schachinger, chief executive at SitesWithoutWalls.com.
Bleiweiss, a popular Pubcon speaker who is also known for organizing a variety of attendee
Alan Bleiweiss
“I'm excited to be speaking once again at Pubcon Vegas,” Bleiweiss said. “I consider this to be the industry's big 'year end bash' on so many levels. Even though it's in October this year, it's still the last conference of the year for me in all likelihood,” he added.
“I love that Pubcon is so big — with so many sessions across such a great range of topics that go beyond the niche focus of most conferences. It's like combining several other conferences into one, which really broadens our ability to both learn and network with people whom we might not otherwise get to spend time with when just sticking to those niche events,” Bleiweiss noted.
“Given how big Pubcon is, it does make it more challenging to decide which sessions to attend —
Pubcon Las Vegas
“Also due to the size of Pubcon, the networking alone is nearly overwhelming, whether it's in between sessions, in one of the hotel lounges (several of us stayed at the MGM last year and the lounge was packed with attendees), or going out to eat or enjoy Vegas,” Bleiweiss said.
“I love that Pubcon is in Vegas — the cost of hotel rooms is still ridiculously low compared to other cities. And the entertainment and nightlife choices are crazy — there's so many to choose from. Last year, several of us spent one evening dancing at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino roof-top club all night. And the very next night, we went and got a V.I.P. experience at Haze Nightclub at Aria — a night that Usher happened to be hosting. A few of us stayed and danced there until the sun came up — it was truly epic and the Pubcon memories will sincerely last a lifetime,” Bleiweiss concluded.
Dixon Jones is also looking forward to October's very special Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, and with a
Dixon Jones
“Pubcon is great!,” Jones said. “It's just not like the other shows because the audience are themselves so cutting-edge that 'old hat' just won't cut it. The conversation in the bars and restaurants is where it really happens though. With such a huge audience, and such knowledge from the engineers and grindstone turners themselves, you'll learn plenty of tips and tricks just over a coffee. If you can, try to stay at one of the official conference hotels — but if you are on a budget, then there are plenty of very cheap places just off the Strip. Just make sure you go and sit in the conference hotel bar every night. You can always make a Coke last or just ask me — I'll buy you a drink. Especially if you are a Majestic SEO user,” Jones added.
“I think we are on Pubcon number 23,” Jones continued. “I attended Pubcon number one at the Cittie of Yorke Pub in London. Do you wonder if this thing has legs and whether it is worth going to? I travel 5,247 miles each way every year to attend and plenty of people come from further afield. I do that because this is where the new ideas come out. The idea is as likely to come from someone you
meet at lunch as it is from a speaker. If you do get a chance, see Google's Matt Cutts, who — let's face it — doesn't get out much these days, so it is great that he tries to be at Pubcon most years and presents as well,” Jones noted.
Kristine Schachinger also looks forward to Pubcon Las Vegas and the many benefits it offers
Kristine Schachinger
“I always look forward to Pubcon Vegas, almost as soon as the last one ends,” Schachinger said. “The friendships I have made there — the depth and breadth of the content provided — and even though a speaker myself, the opportunity to learn from many of the best minds in search and search engine marketing (SEM) always makes Pubcon one of my favorite events during the year,” Schachinger
noted.
“Because of Pubcon I have made friends and connections that I would not have otherwise, and the show offers me the chance to share ideas and discuss the year's many changes,” Schachinger said.
“Where else do you get to spend the whole day immersed in sessions and conversations with some of the best minds in search and SEM and then get to hang out with everyone 'til the wee hours of the morning discussing and debating everything you learned. The extra special part about all this is that Pubcon Vegas has helped me make some of my best friends in the industry,” Schachinger added.
Melyssa St. Michael also finds benefits in attending the week of search and social media learning
Melyssa St. Michael
“Pubcon, unprecedentedly, has been my go-to conference for all things search and social,” St. Michael said.
“Every Pubcon has, without fail, given our team at Rockfish solid, actionable to-do's that we can implement and that our clients can benefit from immediately. The information you find within the sessions at Pubcon is science rather than theory; it's what's happening today and what you should be thinking about for tomorrow,” St. Michael noted.
“Pubcon's seasoned presenters have been there, done that, and are more than willing to share what to do, and — most importantly — what not to do. With the rapidly-changing environment of the search and social space, Rockfish can't afford to not be at Pubcon — it is vital to the health of our knowledge, and consequently the health of our clients' search presences,” St. Michael said.
See for yourself why Bleiweiss, Jones, Schachinger, St. Michael and more than 200 other world-class
Pubcon Las Vegas
Besides keeping up on the latest Pubcon news here on the official blog, you can join our Facebook Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 event page, our LinkedIn Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 event page, or the Pubcon Google Plus page, and let others know you're coming to the year's biggest and best search and social media conference.
Early-bird registration rates are still available for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, offering discounts on what are already some of the fairest prices in the industry. Sign up for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 now and we'll see you in October.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Related Content:
- Dixon Jones video interview with Vanessa Zamora
- Melyssa St. Michael wins Pubcon Las Vegas 2011 photo contest
- Kristine Schachinger at Pubcon Labs
- Alan Bleiweiss Epic Dinner at Pubcon Las Vegas 2011 coverage
- Pubcon History
- Pubcon Testimonials and More Pubcon Testimonials
- Register for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012
Get SEO Value From Your Content Marketing Campaign
posted on, Apr 5, 2012
Pubcon Las Vegas
Here are four ways you can get more SEO value from your current content marketing efforts with content recycling:
Use blog posts in company e-newsletter.
If you want to increase the amount of e-newsletters you send each month, consider using your
Pubcon Las Vegas
Post press releases directly to website.
When a press release goes out through a paid distribution site, the press release is published on
Pubcon Las Vegas
Create static landing pages for white papers.
Instead of just posting all your white papers on a single page of your website, create unique landing pages for each white paper and optimize them for SEO. You can write up a few paragraphs that outline what the white paper is about and who would benefit from reading it — all the while targeting long tail keywords that will help bring the right people to the right white paper. And by creating a static landing page for each white paper you can always add the latest versions of the white paper (say you have a 2011 and 2012 version) and still keep the SEO value of that landing page.
Use webinars to fuel a video marketing campaign.
Video marketing campaigns don’t have to be particularly fancy or expensive in order to be effective.
Pubcon Las Vegas
You can extend the shelf-life and SEO value of a piece of content with a content recycling take on your content marketing campaigns. You are investing a lot of time and energy to create this information and these relevant pieces of content, so why not get more bang for your buck. A strong content marketing campaign is going to lend itself to a successful SEO campaign and a better online presence for your brand.
About the Author
Nick Stamoulis is the founder of full-service Boston-based SEO firm Brick Marketing. With nearly 13 years of Internet marketing experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his SEO knowledge by contributing regularly to the Brick Marketing Blog and by publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers. Read Nick Stamoulis' full PubCon speaker biography here. Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com
Related Content:
- 5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Better SEO Client
- Nick Stamoulis video interview with PubCon's Vanessa Zamora
- How To Better Manage Your Social Media Marketing
- Using Social Media to Drive Your Content Marketing Campaign
- Can Too Much B2B Content Devalue Your Services?
- Content Marketing’s #1 Problem
ICO David Evans Explains UK Cookies & Compliance
posted on, Apr 3, 2012
Get the Flash Player to see this content.
1. Can we get clarification as to whether session cookies that are stored in the browser memory and not physically in a file are subject to the law?
I think technically speaking the law doesn't differentiate between different types of cookie, so in other words if it's something stored on a device - whether its in a file or a browser - then it is caught, if you like, by this law. One of the important things that people need to realize is that clearly from our point of view at the Information Commissioner's Office,
2. If someone has ads on their website provided by a third party are they responsible for their storing cookies on the users machine when the user visits the site? (The implication of you being responsible for third party cookies is that AdSense then becomes pretty much illegal in the UK)
Responsibility for compliance here, in other words the requirement to get consent absolutely lies with whoever is setting the cookie or storing the information, so if you take the example of you have a first party publisher who maybe set some session cookies, they maybe do a bit of analytics work, they will be responsible for those cookies and getting consent for that sort of activity. If
3. Does ICO expect direct.gov.uk and hmrc.gov.uk to be compliant for this May? - as going through my cookies I found both of these had dropped stuff on my machine. (and nics.gov.uk even gives you a nice WebTrends user tracking cookie)
I think it might be difficult. I know as far as our engagement with government is concerned that they are heading in the right direction. As I mentioned in the beginning, we recognize the challenges involved here and we can't just flick a switch and get everybody complaint in one go and should be with private and public sector websites what we are expecting, that people will be able to tell us their compliance story, so in other words if we have concerns about a sector or particular website or if an individual raises a complaint with us about how a particular website sets cookies we won't not be expecting so they can absolutely guarantee to be compliant by the 26th of May. There are any number of reasons why they may not be, but would we would expect is that they would be able to tell us what they've done so far, what they plan to do in the future, and give us a realistic idea of where they are in terms of a plan.
4. Either without the firewall or with the firewall does the ICO realize, according to some, that they are going to be doing serious damage to UK business competitiveness by implementing this law?
Two points there. One is just to clarify, the ICO is not responsible for implementing this law. We certainly didn't draft it and we're not responsible for the legislation, but we are responsible for enforcing it and giving guidance. Obviously what we are trying to do is give guidance that allows people to comply with the law, but without ruining their users experience. In other words, we are absolutely aware that if people adopt panic measures or go down the wrong route in order to comply with this they may well damage their businesses. We are absolutely aware that the information websites collect about users may well relate to those users, may not, but absolutely what it does is help those websites run effectively and provide the services that people want to be provided with. SO we are absolutely aware of the risks here, which is why we haven't set out to provide people with a step by step guide that will effectively keep us happy. In other words, if people wanted us to give prescriptive guidance on how to comply with this, we could do that quite easily, but it wouldn't fit business needs and what we want people to do is create solutions to this problem to fit with their business, so how do they communicate with their user, how do their users usually make choices, whats their users level of understanding. We often talk to organizations who's users might be in a particular group of people who are maybe quite vulnerable or perhaps not quite understand how the internet works. Well the information you might need to give to those users to get that consent will be very different from if you are running a website that you run on WebmasterWorld or if you are running a tech website or whatever, and so ya we recognize the difficulties here. When the guidance first came out last year we were accused by some of killing the internet and that's absolutely not what is going to happen. What is going to happen is that sensible organizations will be taking reasonable steps to comply and I think that as those steps get a better currency users will get used to seeing this stuff and the exercising choices are deciding that they are ok with the existing settings will become more like second nature. So we all kind of understand some things about the internet, but maybe we don't all understand enough about cookies, but the more effort people put in now, the easier it is going to be to get consent and I think one of the important things to remember is that one of the ways that the law specifically mentions being a way of getting people's consent is through people's browser settings and although lots of us are using mobile more and more often, and not using what we might call a traditional browser, clearly the browser settings that people have available to them will be one way in which most websites will be able to get consent for a lot of the cookies that they use.
5. Wouldn't it be cheaper from an overall perspective to run public education programs on how to clean cookies from their machines?
I think that's an important point. I mean, as far as the legislation, at the end of the day, as I said we didn't choose to implement this legislation, it was something the UK government had to do, but I think the two things go hand in hand. You can educate people as much as you like, but at the end of the day if you are not giving them choices about things maybe people sometimes choose not to understand what they might need to understand. I think there are education programs out there, but at the end of the day just simply focusing on users level of education might not be enough. I think this is about seeing this as an opportunity for the websites that offer services that people obviously want, cause they are using sites, and they're downloading things, and they're buying things, and they're getting information from whichever websites they like to use. But I think the people who are going to get this right are the people who see this law as an opportunity to be a bit more informative with regards to their use, to give people better and more information, to make it more prominent, and again to get users used to seeing this. If you ask people, do you know what an analytics cookie is, maybe lots of people out there who use the Internet every day will understand what analytics are. If you were to ask them, do you think the websites that you use might collect statistics in order to assist them in working out which pages work or which pages are popular or which links are broke, most people will probably say well yeah, I'm sure they do. It's Common sense. I think it's bridging that gap between maybe a lack of technical knowledge, but kind of an intuitive view as to what is happening when you are online. The stuff that goes on in the background, which is often very sophisticated, is something that users can find out about and then make a choice.
6. Surely the best way to implement this would be in the browser - i.e. requiring all browsers distributed in the UK to specifically ask the user if they wish to allow a particular site to set a cookie on their machine. Why has it been executed in this particular manner?
Ok, so again, the reasons why it was executed in this particular manner, that's a question for the legislator. In terms of a browser-led solution, as I mentioned the law does recognize that browser settings are quite powerful in an important way in which the users can exercise choices. I think with regards to forcing browser manufacturers down the route of designing their browsers in a particular way to suit one piece of legislation, maybe in one jurisdiction, I'm not entirely sure the browser manufactures would be particularly happy to do that. Bear in mind a lot of them are offering a free product across multiple jurisdictions. I think the other important point there is in the way the question was phrased, sounded to me like somebody was suggesting it would be nice and easy if browsers simply asked you every time you went to sites, do you want cookies from this site. I could see that being fantastically irritating for users because I know how irritated I get when my browser tries to do things for me or tries to help me out, so maybe its not quite the silver bullet solution that the questioner thought it might be.
7. What about the international aspects of these changes in terms of EU member states and elsewhere?
Ok, so in terms of the EU, the UK was one of the member states that implemented this law first, we implemented it on time, so we're ahead of the game, if you like, in the UK. Now clearly that is causing us some pain because we are going through all the teething troubles of all this first, and that applies to the ICO as a regulatory body. We are the first people that have to write guidance. We're the first people having to deal with questions about this sort of thing, but it's also difficult for the organizations in the UK to find themselves having to comply with something which hasn't yet been implemented in every member state. The way EU law works, it will be implemented across all member states and in terms of finding an approach that's consistent across those member states, we as the regulatory body in the UK, we're obliged to work with our counterparts in other member states to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheets, to use the cliche, so people aren't finding the rules are wildly different across each member state. I think there will always be cultural and political differences in the way things are regulated, but I think one of the things that we're going to try to stress is that by going first in the UK we are very much seeing the fact that lots of other member states are kind of following our lead on this and hopefully they'll follow our lead as well on the kind of practical way in which we want to deal with those who aren't compliant, so again this isn't about going around hitting people with a regulatory stick, when actually it would be much more effective to give them advice and help them to comply rather than just punishing people who aren't compliant. I think outside of Europe, I think there are always difficulties whenever you've got European-wide law, it's remembering that there are other parts of the world that exist, particularly when we are talking about online issues, where at the end of the day, lots of users don't really care that much about where the website that they're looking at comes from, they just want to be able to access it, but I do think other parts of the world are kind of looking at this issue as well, maybe approaching it in a different way because of how things operate. The Federal Trade Commission published an important piece of work this week, which deals with these same issues, and it might be that those issues aren't dealt with in the same way they have in the EU and the UK, it's pretty likely that they won't be, but if we take a step back and look at this and say what's all this work intended to do, well its intend to allow the user to take steps to make sure that things that they don't want to happen online don't happen and whether its an EU cookie consent law or if its the FTC's work on "do not track" in the US or whether its a mixture of all of these things coming together, I think that's where we will end up longer term in a much more comfortable place in terms of what users understand is happening when they visit a web page, what they understand about how the service that they are getting are actually offered and whether that's through a cookies consent law in the EU or through better information provided according to FTC guidelines, I think we'll all end up in the same place at some point. The more some of the gaps and doubts are filled or dealt with via people adopting good practices the easier it is going to be for everybody else to support that it's possible an the momentum will help that.
Visit Pubcon At SES New York And Hear Brett Tabke Speak
posted on, Mar 19, 2012
Pubcon, the premier social media and optimization conference, will be exhibiting at SES New York
2012
this Wednesday, March 21 and Thursday, March 22 at the Hilton New York.
If you're heading to SES New York please stop by
the Pubcon booth (number 326) in the exhibition hall, say hello to our crew and pick up the latest news about
Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 and the hundreds of major social media leaders who will be taking to Pubcon's nine or more conference tracks filled with more than 100 of the year's top optimization and new media learning
experiences.
Pubcon and WebmasterWorld founder Brett Tabke will also be speaking at SES New York about enterprise-level search engine optimization (SEO) on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 9:45 a.m., along with fellow panelists Nagini Indugula and popular Pubcon speakers Motoko Hunt and Bill Hunt.
We look forward to seeing you at SES New York this week, and to helping you make plans for Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the week of October 15 - 19.
Thanks,
Lane R. Ellis
Lead Editor
Team Pubcon
Ben Douglas of H&R Block on Local SEO
posted on, Mar 2, 2012
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During the "national company local focus panel" at Pubcon, Douglas said a significant point shared was that the use of aggregators to get local listings out into the Internet Yellow Page (IYP) space is worthy of attention. A lot of companies feel that site search that allows users to look for them on a local level is enough, but it's really important to have a presence not only in the search engines, but also in the IYP space because that is where users are going either through applications or regular searches to find a lot of their local information. Douglas said it's also important to use aggregators like Localeze or AXIOM, which bundle locations together, and put them in a place where all the IYP providers can easily find them, and to then include them in their organic listings.
With regards to the recent Google Panda search engine update, Douglas said that H&R Block evaluated what was happening internally and to its competitors. The thing that is generally true about most Google updates, according to Douglas, is that if good content is present, a company doesn't have to worry too much about any particular update.
To conclude, Douglas shared the best piece of advice he heard at Pubcon Las Vegas. During the "getting the most out of your agency" session he said a speaker suggested that companies need to ensure a hired agency has the ability to do the work requested by providing clear guidelines in order to accomplish the intended outcome.
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