• February 6, 2009

Search Engine Land SEO guru Danny Sullivan kicks off the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West conference next week in Santa Clara, Calif., discussing the top search engine optimization trends for 2009.

Uncertain economic times and the growth of in-house search marketing will become a topic for discussion, as more companies learn the importance of employing someone internally to run SEO and create a "powerful marketing message" across search engines, he said.

Sullivan also will discuss the significance Google's growth. While it may not seem to be a search marketing trend, it's important to understand the company's direction because of its dominance in the space, he said. Google's Vint Cerf will give the keynote on day two of the event, providing insight on the future of search and how he sees the Internet evolving.--Laurie Sullivan