Since 2007, the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) conference series has been a leading industry event for digital marketing professionals around the globe, with regional events in New York, London, Munich, Paris and Jerusalem. Unlike marketing conferences that serve primarily as sales avenues for vendors and solution providers, SMX focuses on providing practical, helpful insights and hands-on tactics that SEO and SEM practitioners can benefit from immediately. More importantly, the programming at SMX is the brainchild of senior editors at Search Engine Land, the go-to publication for the search industry, founded by search marketing guru Danny Sullivan. As a result, the conference makes a point of providing objective, vendor-agnostic content that takes into account the latest developments across major search engines and is laser-focused on the day-to-day challenges of search engine marketers.
SMX East, which takes place September 27 to 29, is one of the largest and most significant search marketing conferences on the East Coast. The three-day event will feature an impressive lineup of speakers, all at the forefront of search engine optimization and marketing. Speakers include representatives from both Google and Bing, the dominant search engines of our time. Jerry Dischler, vice president of Google AdWords product management, will be the keynote speaker. He will be providing insight into the most recent updates for AdWords & Analytics, including “mobile-first” bidding support, new advertising features on Google Maps, and options for longer text ads. The Google team is reportedly planning a special new product announcement at the conference.
In-house SEO experts from some of the country’s largest corporations, including The Home Depot, Hilton Worldwide, Conde Nast, and IBM, will also be speaking at SMX East. In addition to search engine and corporate marketing speakers, conference attendees will hear the latest musings from Search Engine Land editors Matt McGee and Ginny Marvin, along with industry influencer Larry Kim, founder of WordStream, the leading search marketing software. Kim regularly shares tips and advice with more than a million visitors a month via his WordStream Blog, and he is a top contributor for a variety of leading industry publications.
To help digital marketing professionals navigate the increasingly challenging world of search, SMX East will host workshops focused on key topics in search marketing, including local search strategies, Google Adwords, and SEO best practices. SMX East will also include an event exclusively for in-house SEOs, where they can learn how to tackle optimization most effectively, how best to manage internal teams and how to determine optimal reporting metrics. For entry-level SEO professionals who are looking to jump start search marketing careers, SMX East has also created a Search Marketing Boot Camp, a full-day, conference-based curriculum where participants can learn search basics from keyword research to link-building and SEO-friendly web designs.
According to Borrell Associates, nearly 90% of online marketing activities are SEO-related, which will see a total of nearly $80 billion in spending by 2020. For digital marketing professionals, it is increasingly essential to be exposed to the latest strategies and best practices so they can allocate their SEO budgets wisely and stay ahead of the curve.
Search Engine Land is currently offering an early discount rate for SMX East that expires on September 25. To register, click here. Search Marketing Expo (SMX) is published by Third Door Media, a leading publisher of advertising and marketing content behind Marketing Land, Search Engine Land, Digital Marketing Depot, the MarTech Conference and the SocialPro Conference.