Search Engine Strategies (SES) is a conference series focused on search engine marketing and search engine optimization.[1] These events teach the ins-and-outs of search engine marketing from top experts in the field, along with information from the search engines themselves.
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The conference was created by Danny Sullivan, founder and former lead editor of Search Engine Watch. The first[2] SES conference was on November 18, 1999 in San Francisco, California and marked the first[3][4] formal occasion that site owners had met with search engines.
The conference expanded internationally in 2000 when the first SES UK was held in London, England on April 27, 2000, followed by Denmark in 2001, Germany in 2002, and France, Sweden, Canada[5], Italy and China[6] until 2006. The growth of the industry caused the creation of special niche SES Conferences such as SES Multimedia & Mobile Edition and SES Latino.
The conference is hosted by Incisive Media since 2005 who purchased Search Engine Watch from MecklerMedia (now Jupitermedia) for $43 million[7] that year.
Just over a year after the purchase, Sullivan announced his resignation from guiding the series on August 29, 2006[8] after a contract dispute but later agreed[9] to run two further shows in the US and speak at a third during 2007.
On June 7, 2007, Kevin Ryan was named as vice president and global content director for the series.[10]
One of the highlights of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose event, is the party at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA (Googleplex),[1] dubbed "Google Dance" in reference to the monthly index updates of Google in the past that were also called "Google Dance". The party is free, but only open to SES attendees who did RSVP prior the event or have been invited by Google directly.[11] The first Google Dance was in 2002 during Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2002.