Incidentally, Virginia Nussey of Bruce Clay, Inc., is actually the interviewer this time for the WebmasterRadio.FM show SEM Synergy, but we decided to roll our cameras as well.

As Mike tells Virginia, WebProNews Videos pushes for a very high-level of production value. Our videos include professional editing, graphics, broll, and more. Since our viewers are used to watching high quality television, we try to meet that same expectation with our Internet videos.

In regards to conference coverage specifically, Mike explains that the number of videos vary from each show. The number of videos is dependent upon several factors such as the size of the video crew at the show, the number of days of the show, and whether or not we are doing video work for other people during the show.

Although this barely tips the iceberg in regards to work behind WebProNews videos, we hope this gives you a better understanding about our video productions.

Ward says the biggest change is that in the early days, there were no engines that looked at or analyzed links. Rankings and links had nothing to do with one another, so you built links with people in mind. Then Google came along and recognized that there was a value in those links that they could measure. Suddenly, Ward says, that meant your links had two audiences – the people that could click them and the engines that could count them. The downside, he says, is that a whole industry has grown around building links purely for search rank. You know the story.

Before Google came along, links were often paid for, and they were basically just ads. People would just buy links from each other with the intent of people actually clicking them. It wasn’t about rank.

As Eric notes, Google has never actually said don’t buy links. They just say don’t buy our PageRank. Don’t buy the PageRank measure that they’ve assigned to a site. Buying a link would make sense just like buying a banner would’ve made sense ten years ago. If your motivation is click traffic that’s fine, says Ward. If your motivation is that you want to buy a link from a high PageRank site so that you can rank high, then you’re in the area that Google doesn’t like.

Ward contemplates what things would’ve been like had Google never released the toolbar with that PageRank number. It’s an interesting question, considering that Google pretty much tells people to ignore it. The company has even now eliminated PageRank from Webmaster Tools.

Miller talks about how the tentative Yahoo Microsoft deal will be bringing more competition to search as well as more innovation for advertisers, users, and publishers. The deal is still subject to approval, but Yahoo is hoping it will be approved early next year.

Miller reiterates that Yahoo is not giving up on search and intends to add value, control, and transparency. With regards to control, Yahoo has launched the ad delivery report, which allows advertisers to see how campaigns are performing on different parts of sites. Early next year, Miller says Yahoo will be launching “network distribution,” and advertisers will have the ability to separately bid on campaigns for Yahoo, the partner network, or both.

Miller also discusses a tool Yahoo currently has in beta, which is expected to roll out early next year as well. It is an offline tool that lets advertisers control their accounts without having to be connected to the Internet.

Yahoo has also been working on enhancements in ad selection to help advertisers maximize conversions. Miller talks a little about these too.

ChoiceStream and Zappos just announced a deal this week, in which ChoiceStream personalizes recommendations on the Zappos product detail page. So if someone’s looking at a particular item, ChoiceStream recommends complimentary items and alternative items – things that might be similar to the product a shopper’s viewing.

In addition, they personalize recommendations on the shopping cart page, and also on their beta homepage.

“In the short time we’ve worked with Zappos, we’ve learned a lot about their culture, their emphasis on customer service, and also just the customer experience in general, and I think personalization is not only a way for retailers to optimize their sales and conversions, but it’s also a way optimize the customer experience for shoppers,” says Trahan.

Keep in mind that Trahan isn’t only talking about Zappos. ChoiceStream’s technology is available to other retailers as well, and recommendations in general, can be a great way to upsell to customers.

Dunn is basically talking about the principle – “What hurts can make you stronger.” His point is that when you get a penalty in Google, it forces you to really pick apart your site and figure out what’s wrong. At that point, you can make it better (and perhaps better than ever).

Dunn talks about a specific example in which a client had an issue with a site. There was keyword stuffing going on, and it got penalized by Google. When they went back and cut back on the spam and cleaned it up, they got back in Google’s good graces. Dunn attributes this to the fact that the client had good content (better than competitors in fact), and Google likely recognized this fact when determining rankings after the keyword stuffing issue was addressed.

Dunn says being penalized by Google serves as a wake-up call to webmasters. He says you should get someone outside of the company to look at the site. You can consult with an SEO or a friend with some SEO experience, look for advice in forums, and/or get a site audit.

Dunn and Hedger go on to discuss how you know if your site has been penalized from Google or your rankings have simply dropped. They also discuss Google’s Caffeine update and what this could mean for SEOs. Watch the video to find out what they think about the matter.

Mike McDonald sat down with him for another interview at Search Engine Strategies, NY, and picked his brain about that and some other things.

Bruce talks about some tools he has that actually show some of the things he predicted are actually happening. For example, one tool lets you look at results seen as they would from other locations, which are often varied. For example, a Search Engine Optimization professional could look at a query from LA as if it had actually originated in New York.

Bruce says he’s seeing behavioral search everywhere on Google, and it is not dependent on whether or not you are logged in. He also talks about why SEOs have to be careful.

Eventually the subject shifts to social media. Bruce sees Twitter as a communication tool, but has trouble defining the service completely at this point. He says it could be a replacement for the press release. It’s good to communicate to people who would potentially link to you, but not necessarily for the direct links themselves.

He talks about how companies have a hard time grasping even that “online” is important, let alone Twitter. Top-level executives often are still wrapping their minds around search, which is measurable, and have a hard time justifying putting much time and energy into social media, which is not so measurable.

He says it’s like a poker game. It’s either “all or nothing, but every hand is all in or fold.” Regarding social media, Bruce says, “It’s a leap of faith.”

For you’re your convenience, here are some of the links to items/pages/sites referenced in this week’s video:

WebProNews on Quattrone/Google/Yahoo

ZDNet Summary of Yahoo/MSN dealings

Google Analytics Graphing

Google Talk Enhancements

Google App Engine:
On WebProNews
On Matt Cutts Blog

Yahoo Ad Sales

USA Today Alerts

SEO Book Search Engine Rank Tool

Hope you find the links/articles useful. See you next time!

Shel is one of WebProNews‘ blog partners and submits expert frequent expert articles. In our coverage of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, there were too many concepts to place into one article. This is where a podcast would help reduce information overload.