Well, Search Engine Strategies Chicago is in full swing. From the looks of things, they are covering a lot of ground this year!

Search Engine Strategies Chicago is happening for the next 3 or 4 days and although Search Engine Journal cannot attend this event we would like to suggest the ‘live’ coverage of SES Chicago by Barry & the Search Engine Roundtable crew. SERoundtable has planted professional search experts Barry Schwartz, Chris Boggs, and Benjamin Pfeiffer at different conference sessions, as they blog the presentations and audience questions.

Here is a roundup of the Roundtable’s coverage of SES Chicago Day One:

Search Advertising 101 : Starts with an intro to general terms. SEM does not equal PPC. PPC buys are on Search Engines, sites, networks. Pure form: search ads appeared only with related searches. Next generation: recycles PPC and places them into contextual or content networks- adds are relevant to the page’s content. Shows the difference between paid an unpaid listings. How does it work? Direct buying, ad auctions that use max bids. Bid Higher = stay higher, system corrects bid gaps: you pay a penny more than the ad below you. Ad auctions, “Google style” is more difficult to define…. [Read the rest]