This year we will be moving to a new Rooftop Party location — Join us for some old school networking in old town Portland at the Embassy Suites in downtown Portland.

Enjoy good food, drinks and conversations as a DJ spins tunes. Don’t miss the best networking event of the summer!

Location:  Embassy Suites, 319 SW Pine St., Portland, OR 97204
Date: Tuesday, August 13
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 9: 00p.m.
Cost: $20 through Wednesday, August 7 –
$30 after August 7; — $40 at the door
(Registration form is near the bottom of this page)

Last year’s event Sold Out — so don’t delay and get your ticket today!

Photos from Last Year

Photographer Kenneth Benjamin Reed, a Google Trusted Photographer, took photos on the rooftop. Take a look at the photos from the Rooftop Networking Party 2012 from Ben.

TV coverage of Last Year’s Event

Time Lapse Video of Rooftop event…

Networking

The SEMpdx annual Rooftop Party promises to be the most talked-about networking event of the year. Be on top of the latest developments going on at the most innovative marketing associations in the Pacific Northwest!

We're Inviting our friends from other local professional organizations:

• AIGA Portland
• American Marketing Association (AMA)
• Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO)
• Northwest Internet Advertising Group (NWIAG)
• Oregon Columbia International Association of Business Communicators (OCIABC)
• Oregon Entrepreneur Network (OEN)
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• Social Media Club
• Technology Association of Oregon (TAO)

Door Prizes

Passes to SearchFest 2014 and more will be given away to attendees via a business card drawing.

Free WiFi

Our friends at CLEAR will be supplying free WiFi on the rooftop!

Sponsors

Become a Sponsor!  Contact us at SEMpdx Sponsorships for more information.

The original post is titled August 2013 – Rooftop Networking Party , and it came from SEMpdx .

If you’re following the search marketing masses to Seattle for this year’s SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle, you may want to consider joining us at Captain Blacks, located in Capitol Hill, for a bit of pre-conference networking.

You won’t regret it as you stand on the outdoor deck overlooking the beautiful Seattle skyline. Many Northwest (and beyond, of course) search engine marketing professionals will be on hand, giving you a prime opportunity to rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the industry.

This is a FREE event, so bring a friend, or two, even if you’re not a member yet. If you plan to attend, please register below.

Please note that this is *NOT* a sanctioned, approved or in any way “affiliated” SMX Event.

Location: Captain Blacks
129 Belmont Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98102
Date: Monday, June 10, starting at 8:00 pm
Cost: Free! Please register below so we can get an idea of the head count

Hosted by

               

Sponsored by

Linkdex is the SaaS marketing platform that answers the right questions. Our software is used by brands and agencies growing revenues from SEO, PR, Social and Content Marketing.

If your focus is on SEO or creative content and production, Linkdex will help you create the right content, get it discovered and shared and maximize your market impact. Linkdex will also show you the value of that content.

If your focus is on PR or social, Linkdex will show you the best path to the most influential authors and publications in your market.

PPC Associates is an integrated digital marketing agency with offices in San Francisco, San Diego, downtown Chicago, and Silicon Valley. The company made its mark with disruptive, innovative search engine management and has built a diverse client portfolio across B2B, ecommerce, lead gen, and EDU with its blend of channels and ROI-driven methodology.

PPC Associates’ focus on best-in-class client service, combined with its proprietary methods and technology in search, social, and display, has helped build cutting-edge companies including GoPro, Survey Monkey, Square, Eventbrite, and OpenTable. The company is hiring in all locations and always happy to talk to clients looking for growth and innovation.

Monday night’s party is not affiliated, organized or sponsored by SMX Advanced or its organizers.

About SMX Advanced Seattle

SMX Advanced is the only search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers. Sessions are fast-paced, Q&A-packed, frequently controversial, always informative…and don’t stop to cover the basics. Fluent in search engine marketing? Come to SMX Advanced and engage with others who speak your native language.

Missed getting a pass? Here are some alternatives:

• SMX Workshop passes are still available. Check them out here.
• Network passes are $139 for those who register online before June 10 ($159 on-site). Take a look at the pass benefits.

Location: Bell Harbor Int’l Conference Center
2211 Alaskan Way, Pier 66, Seattle, WA 98121
Date: Tuesday, June 11 – Wednesday, June 12

The original post is titled June 2013 – Seattle Prefunk Party Before SMX , and it came from SEMpdx .

I think my head might still spinning from everything I learned during the Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Course offered by SEMPDX & Portland State this spring. And that’s coming from someone who has a *decent grounding in the web and digital field. (*being a relative term)

Sure, there was mention of buzz terms, currently flying around today’s blogosphere, like “big data”, “content is king”, and the usual avalanche of industry acronyms. But what stood out as the biggest takeaways from the 3-class course were the details of fundamental skills and tools as well as an understanding of the big picture of SEO & SEM efforts.  Yes, you can go in and set up an Adwords account and make some ads or fiddle around with Facebooks advertising but you can very quickly waste a lot of money and time trying to just “figure it out”.

Industry veteran, Kent Lewis, and several outstanding guest lecturers led the classes over the 3 week session. The team mixed up the course with practical assignments, real world case studies, lectures, and in-context reviews of student’s current application of digital marketing strategies.  Topics included:

• Industry resources for analyzing websites and campaigns
• Metrics, history, and trends for SEO & SEM
• The should & should-nots of website navigation and layout
• Why speed and content are crucial
• The importance of social activity as a ranking factor
• Drill down on PPC and CPM campaigns and the systems that run them
• Local search, why it matters, and how to do it
• Keywords and ad copy development
• Components of a quality landing page
• Content Marketing & Link Development
• Online Reputation Management

The scholarship was a great opportunity to refine my skills and learn just how much I have to learn in this area. Fortunately for the Portland area, we’ve got great resources like SEMPDX and Portland State to bolster our growing community of tech-savvy weirdos. For me, I’ve got my work cut out for me implementing all that big data and creating content for the apparel and accessories brand I work for, LOOPTWORKS.

- Claire McEachern

The original post is titled What I Learned from the PSU Search Engine Marketing Course , and it came from SEMpdx .

Among the top 7 changes that have occurred in local is the importance of Google+.  It’s amazing to consider that Google+ Local is just under a year old.  Aggressive changes continue to roll out and now more than ever, brand plus location is paramount regardless of your company size.  Help Google help you by implementing rel=publisher and rel=author tags and imbedding your map from My Places.

Another big change in Local Search is with Google’s backend.  Google Map Maker has decreased the amount of time it takes to review and it’s also improved the quality.  And believe it or not, reporting a problem to Google actually works now.  In all, it’s much easier to clean up data problems.

David closed the evening by sharing two process suggestions for improving time management: assign fundamental tasks to the agency and high return projects to the client.

If you’re not an SEMpdx member, join now and benefit all year!

The original post is titled Annual Members Only Event Recap , and it came from SEMpdx .

WEBSITE DESIGN
Whether you are looking for sleek, captivating and enticing – or fun, bright and image rich, Exults can build a custom website that delivers your company’s message clearly. Our innovative team of designers will create a professional and organized website that allows your clients to learn about your brand in an effective and concise manner in a heavily saturated market. Stand out in a sea of sameness with an individually constructed and customized website designed by Exults.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING – ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) & PAY PER CLICK MANAGEMENT (PPC)
Exults skillfully employs the use of analytical and quantifiable tactics to increase both Organic SEO and Pay-Per-Click positioning which is critical for gaining visibility and qualified traffic to your website. As a Google AdWords Certified Company, Exults expertly organizes and structures Pay-Per-Click accounts by arranging geographically targeted settings, creating relevant ad copy content, and generating bidding strategies that deliver results. Exults focuses on capturing qualified traffic from both Pay-Per-Click and Organic Search Engine positioning that will deliver both leads and sales to strengthen a business’ core.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
A strong presence on social networking sites is imperative for creating brand recognition online. Regardless of your type of business, customizing and sponsoring pages on social media sites such as Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, are extremely beneficial and important to your online marketing mix. Exults will help you create and maintain a dynamic social media presence that accurately reflects your business, provides original content to engage new clientele, expands your market and attracts new fans to your brand.

The original post is titled David Steinberg , and it came from SEMpdx .

Ryan began by quickly reviewing several important elements for ROI including tracking codes, CRM, custom data source and universal analytics.  From there, he dived in to some of the latest measurement strategies and tactics you can use to understand the results of your SEM efforts.  One integral strategy is personalizing the site experience.  Keywords, landing pages and other data will show you visitors who were interested in your product or service but didn’t buy anything.  Based on the data you collect, you can then re-target to these visitors.

Three key areas where inaccuracy can come back to bite you are self referrals, non-qualified visitors (e.g. jobs, investors, internal) and conversions on 3^rd party channels.  The data is there, so take advantage of your analytics to prevent these mistakes.

Amanda walked us through a quantitative approach to building personas.  The 3-phase process – research, consideration and decision – taps in to the expectations of your customers so you can determine the types of people coming to your site.  Tools such as Yahoo Clues and Google Trends provide insights on how to keep site visitors more engaged.

Once you’ve built your personas, design your website accordingly.  Implement, test and analyze for PPC landing pages and ad copy, home page re-design, and blog and social content.  You should also review your persona-based site paths and evaluate specific content pieces by persona type.

The original post is titled Google Analytics for Pros Recap , and it came from SEMpdx .

Cat Adoption Team’s 30,000th Adoptee!

SearchFest 2013 drew hundreds of attendees from near and not-so-near to absorb tips & expertise on a wide range of search marketing topics from a distinguished cluster of expert speakers.

But there were a couple of other special attendees, as you might have noticed – ones with fur and claws and cute little faces that seemed to say “adopt me, adopt me!”

They were a little nervous due to the crowds (I’ve been known to be a bit shy among strangers too) but they were a big hit with attendees, many of whom stopped by to visit with Chomper (pictured at the top of this post with Theresa Brown who adopted him recently) or Candy Cane who was also recently adopted.

In fact, Chomper was Cat Adoption Team’s 30,000th adoption!

So why were there cat’s at SearchFest 2013? – I forget to mention that Cat Adoption Team (C.A.T., get it?) is our Charity of Choice this year.

Kathy Covey

Kathy Covey is currently the PR Manager for C.A.T. and she recently sent me this update on how things went at SearchFest & after:

“Monte Cristo was the first to be adopted, even before SearchFest – quite literally just a few days prior but after I built the SearchFest cat web page and we started talking about him.

“That is what happens and why social media can be so powerful for adoption of pets. I firmly believe that when you start talking about a pet for adoption, getting others involved in the conversation, something goes out into the ethers if you will and the person destined to adopt that pet is drawn in.

“Chomper was one of the kitties who made a short appearance at SearchFest with Candy Cane. He was the very nervous black cat who was very startled with all the clapping. Chomper became our 30,000^th adoption on Friday! (March 15, 2013)

“Candy Cane went home pretty quick after SearchFest (again that magic). He was very outgoing and we just knew it was finding the right person who would accept that he was FIV+ (feline immunodeficiency virus). Candy was the one we brought on stage. He too was terrified of the clapping but otherwise is a super confident kitty.

“Curry, a 13 year old cat with a huge attitude, found her special person as well. We were concerned for Curry. Being 13 years old and not liking cats meant that she really did not put her best “paw” forward here in the shelter. She was cranky and stressed (being around other cats).  Jennifer saw past that and took her home. Here’s the e-Tails article I did on Curry prior to her adoption.

“The two who are still waiting are Scion and Simba. They are buds/sisters in fact and it would be terrific if they could go to a home together.

Scion

“Scion is shy and will need a gentle hand to gain confidence. Perhaps that’s why having her stay with Simba, who is a very outgoing gal, will be best if possible. They are “sisters” who lived together prior to coming to CAT.

“This pair was given up to us by their owner and have been waiting for over a year to find a new home. They are not very old (just a little over 2 years) and are quite affectionate. If I had to guess why they were still here at CAT….. it would be because we really would like them to go to a home together.

Simba 

“Every Tweet or social post about these cats will put them one step closer to the person who will adopt either or both of them.

“Of course, if SEMpdx members and fans prefer black cats, or white cats, or tortie cats, visit our cat & kitten adoption list and pick your favorite to promote, we won’t mind.

“The more folks who see what great cats we have available and how wonderful a pet cat is, the better.”

As our Charity of Choice for 2013, SEMpdx will be contributing 10% of our organization’s proceeds to C.A.T. as well as some of our Board Members donating time to do PPC, SEO and Social.

Adopt me. Now.

And, we’re also covering the cost of adoption during the month of March – so if you’ve been thinking about having a furry feline friend around the house, there’s never been a better time.

And how can you resist a face like this?

Cat Adoption Team
14175 SW Galbreath Drive
Sherwood, OR 97140

503-925-8903
contactus@catadoptionteam.org

The original post is titled SearchFest 2013 Feline Attendee is 30,000th Pet Adoption , and it came from SEMpdx .

Before diving in, always begin by looking at the big picture and decide where conversion rate optimization fits in.  Calculate the revenue equation (Revenue = Traffic  x  Conversion Rate  x  Value of Conversion).  It’s important to focus on each component equally.

Once you’ve looked at the big picture, work through the following seven steps to increase your site’s conversion rate:

1)      Who are our site’s visitors?  Build customer personas, focusing on psychographics rather than demographics.

2)      What are they trying to do?  Continue building customer personas in this step.  Differentiate between primary and secondary personas.

3)      What do we want them to do?  Define KPIs based on your business objectives.  Configure both macro and micro conversions in analytics.

4)      What’s preventing them from doing it?  Look at analytics and user feedback.  In analytics, ensure goals are configured and the correct tracking is installed.  Figure out which page is the problem.  When gathering user feedback, continue to focus on the data.  Tools such as FiveSecondTest, UserTesting.com and Lucky Orange provide great insights into users.

5)      Develop a hypothesis to fix it.

6)      Test.  Don’t get hung up on the tools.

7)      Repeat steps 4 – 6.  What else can we do?

After working through these steps, go back to the big picture.  Calculate the revenue equation with your new numbers and reinvest the extra revenue in traffic.

The original post is titled Conversion Rate Optimization Recap , and it came from SEMpdx .

View slide deck from event

When:
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 - 5 pm to 7 pm

What:
Learn what you need to do to accurately measure your SEM, how to interpret the analytics data you have to surface meaningful insights about your SEM initiatives, and discover how SEM data can provide insights in to the behavior of your search visitors.

Where:
AboutUs – 107 SE Washington Street, Suite 520 – Portland, OR 97214

Who:
Amanda Bernard | ISITE Design
Amanda Bernard has over 8 years of experience in multimedia marketing and advertising including digital marketing and traditional media. As Director of Digital Marketing at ISITE Design, Amanda works with clients helping them build and utilize effective strategies for paid, organic, and social marketing channels.

She also works with clients to ensure that one continuous targeting strategy flows effectively from demand side marketing to the capture side user experience. Amanda has a digital marketing background that includes SEO, Paid Search, Social Media, PR, Advertising, Online Marketing, and developing cutting-edge marketing strategies across multimedia platforms for brands like KinderCare, Oregon Health & Science University, Planar Systems and the University of Oregon.

Ryan Summers | ISITE Design
Ryan Summers works with clients leading them through Day2′s digital optimization framework. Analytics and optimization can seem daunting task to many organizations, but Ryan excels at asking targeted questions that lead to effective measurement strategies, which are themselves the foundation of effective, ongoing optimization strategies.

Ryan lends his analytics talents to develop pay-per-click, search engine marketing, site optimization, and implementation strategies for industry leading brands in healthcare, higher education, e-commerce, and travel. Prior to joining ISITE, Ryan worked for Webtrends and Symantec to provide analytics support. Ryan is also an active member of Web Analytics Wednesday, a national analytics group.

The original post is titled April 2013 – Google Analytics for Pros , and it came from SEMpdx .