Kevin Ryan is chairman of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) advisory board, a global conference and expo series that seeks to educate delegates on search engine marketing (SEM), including optimisation (SEO) and advertising strategies, tactics and best practices.

Ryan is also heads up Motivity Marketing, a strategic consultancy which he founded in spring 2007 after a career in marketing, mostly spent at agencies.

A bit about Search Engine Strategies – what does the organisation do?

SES provides interactive marketing techniques in the realm of search engine marketing, including search advertising and search engine optimisation. It provides delegates with everything they need to know to help them maximise search engine marketing and optimisation for their business, and provides a forum for delegates to communicate with the search engines themselves.

What’s your role on the advisory board?

As advisory board chair, I help organise the content and coordinate the contribution made by the board.  We recommend topics and facilitate educational agenda of each SES event in conjunction with the SES content team.

What are the current issues you’re seeing in the market?

The evolution of search as a connected marketing vehicle is most exciting to me. I’ve dedicated a fair amount of time to watching blended search results [integrating multimedia into search results, for example] evolve as well. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all trying out variations on this theme.

How can those issues be overcome?

It’s only a matter of time as search sites continue to collect information about user behaviour and their habits in seeking out content on the web. Search will continue to evolve and while it’s clear that a new means of ranking content is necessary, it is not clear exactly what that will look like.

Who's done the most interesting thing with SEO this year, in your view?

I tend to root for the underdogs. While Yahoo is busy reconstructing its model and negotiating the ins and outs of merger possibilities, [the company is] quietly organising social constructs and finding new ways to creatively generate ad revenue. Check out Yahoo Shortcuts to see what I mean.

How many businesses are actually using SEO as a tactic? Does it differ greatly according to size and industry?

Most companies are at least aware that they have to consider search as a marketing vehicle but it resource allocation for search efforts has a direct correlation to revenue gained from the web.

Who ‘gets it’ most and who needs the most convincing?

The C-suite [board level] has yet to really understand search though they seem to recognise the need for search marketing efforts. This phenomenon is very frustrating for internal people trying to gain access to the resources necessary to execute search initiatives.

When is the next SES event and what will the key talking points be?

SES London (17-20 February 2009). I am sure surviving in a difficult recession will be on everyone’s minds, so we’ll focus on doing more with less and keeping level heads.

If you had one piece of advice to give to a firm looking to start an SEO programme, what would it be?

There are no guarantees in SEO, so plan on playing by the rules thinking long term.