I’m pretty open about being an introverted person. I don’t however usually share just how much people in more than groups of two scare the ever lovin hell out of me. I have been known to come close to running out of gas because I’ll pass gas stations that are too crowded to me even to pay at the pump.

So, it’s pretty bizarre that I would agree to be a speaker. There are studies that show fear of public speaking ranks up there with the fear of death for the majority of the population. When I first started my company I decided I would never speak at conferences. So when Dave Snyder sent me an email  telling asking me I was speaking at Scary SEO I hid under my desk for an hour.

I thought about it for a long time and decided I had months to prepare or change my mind. I knew Scary SEO would be a smaller conference and I wanted to see if I could speak in front of group. I really did think deep down I would probably back out of it when the time came. Months flew by and I have been busier than I ever have in my entire life. I have also been very sick for the last few weeks. Next thing I know it’s the week of Scary SEO, I had two choices. I could fake my own death or just go for it.

I ended up not being able to fly in until the middle of the first day of Scary SEO. Then the cab driver got lost and I had issues with checking in (big thanks to Samantha Snyder for helping with that like an angel from heaven above). I didn’t get to the actual conference until 20 minutes before the session I was on the panel started. This ended up being a blessing not giving me time to plot an escape out the door.

When it was my turn to speak, the walk up to the podium seemed like a life time journey. I was so busy celebrating in my head that I didn’t trip and fall down I almost forgot to start speaking. As I began and started talking about the first slide of my presentation I realized I was trembling like a tiny Chihuahua at the groomers. To my horror even my voice started to become shaky. I tried to remember to look up and out to the audience I was addressing. I did see some heads nodding in agreement with what I was saying, although I had no idea what I was saying. I truly have no idea what I said while I was up there other than “hi” and “thank you”. I have been told I did at least speak English. I did enjoy the Q&A part of the session. I love back and forth conversations about paid search.

I don’t know if I will ever speak at another conference but to me this was success. It doesn’t matter if I sucked and I bolted out of the room like a jack rabbit instead of working the room when my session was done. I did not back out, hide in the hotel room, throw up or faint in front of everyone. I conquered one of the biggest fears of my life. I want to thank Dave for having me as a speaker and everyone that even pretended to listen to me.

On August 21^st Google posted “Quality Score Improvements” on the Inside AdWords.

We all noticed that last week Google finally put Google Suggest on Google.com.

Then Google releases its own browser Google Chrome this week.

Ok follow me here, they change the way AdWords keywords perform, then quickly begin to change and herd guide people’s search habits. All this happens around the last week of the last summer month before school starts. Then the first week of September when traffic really starts to pick back up for most ecommerce sites they release Chrome which gets all the attention and talk.

Still with me here? Now paid search is like the front line so I see traffic trend changes very quickly. I have noticed some very dramatic changes over the last two weeks due to the change in quality scoring and Google Suggest. Terms that I had stopped bidding on due to low impressions are now outperforming the terms that use to be the sweet spots.

There was some attention given to the changes in Quality Scoring and Google Suggest here and there but not once Chrome was released. Google has everyone so wrapped up in the release that not many have really seen the changes in traffic and keyword trends.

Check the Change History-If you don’t know how already, here are the steps:

Campaign management screen>Tools>My Change History>Filter change history

Run this report once a week to see if anyone other than yourself has made any changes to the account. You may be surprised how often your clients can’t resist temptation and make random changes on their own. The client not knowing any better could cause detrimental harm to the performance of the account.

Slap Their Hand-The hard part is calling the client out regarding these renegade changes, but if done correctly you can stop this from happening again. I have even gone as far as to add a section to my service agreements that basically states that if the client makes any changes to the account other than billing info, it’s a breach of contract and I will no longer be held responsible for the performance of the account.

Think about it like this, if you took your car in for an oil change, went home and drained all the oil out, drove down the highway and blew your engine you couldn’t blame the oil change place.

But CEO Dale, I cannot sale

Then you will go down the Web Dev road

But CEO Dale, I cannot code

Then up the SERPs you will make them rise

But CEO Dale, I cannot optimize

Then PPC terms you will sort

But CEO Dale, I cannot build a report

Then an agency CEO you must be

Thank you Dale, says CEO me

Goofy poem I made up after reading “Capitan Jim” by Shel Silverstein’s book Where the Sidewalk Ends to my kids.