Original post by SEMpdx...

Scott Hendison Hosts Good Morning East Portland

A couple weeks ago, Jane Copland wrote a post at the SEOmoz blog about her frustrations surrounding her appearance on the Pubcon “5 Bloggers and a Microphone” session she appeared on.  While the point of her post was to voice to her readers the sorts of questions she would have like to be asked as a panelist, she made one “off the cuff” comment that I immediately picked up on…

“…Unofficially, I suggest we be allowed to show up with a drink in hand… and is that such an odd request, given that it’s Vegas?!”

Unbeknownst to anyone besides some of my fellow SEMpdx Board Members (who might not even remember my bringing it up), I made the suggestion to do the following sort of session for our last Searchfest event (which I shared in the comment thread to Jane’s post but I’m repeating here with more detail):

“Put the bartender for the no-host bar to follow the session in the corner of the stage (clearly, this would have to be the last session of the day).  Give each of the panelists a drink about 20 minutes before the session starts and give them the ability to get a refill during the session if they wish.  3 panelists is ideal (certainly no more than 4).   Have a moderator (probably our own Kent Lewis) prompt the panelists with interesting concepts that they can talk about in a free-flowing manner, instead of the typical directed questions that require a specific answer.  On the screen behind the stage, have a live Twitter stream of people posting with the relevant session hashtag (note that this idea wasn’t part of my original proposal since I was barely aware of Twitter when I thought this up).  Twitter would also act as a good “discussion prompt” for the panelists if one is needed.  Instead of doing traditional moderation, Kent would conduct the panelists more like an orchestral leader and so long as the conversation is moving along at a good pace, he would not interfere with the panel flow.”

While I can’t disagree with Jane’s assertion that she should have been asked better questions, I would suggest that that her concern was secondary to the real problem with the session (which I actually found to be interesting but somewhat inferior to the previous year’s session that featured Lee Odden, Rand Fishkin & Andy Beal).

We (the audience) were the problem because our presence inhibited the speakers from really communicating and sharing in an optimum fashion.  In order to program a session to cater to us (or what the session programmers felt we wanted or needed to see), the session had to be constricted and “dulled” down to attempt to meet our perceived expectations.

What would I have liked to see happen during the session?

“…Ideally, the panelists would experience a collective Charlie Kaufman moment.  They would cease being aware that they are on stage with spotlights shining on them, speaking into microphones with every word being recorded and liveblogged.  Instead, the black backdrop of the stage would be magically transformed into the back booth of a diner.  The hum of good conversation and all the positive vibrations of good friends, good food and good times are in the air.  Comfort reigns and self-consciousness melts away as each person partakes in conversation, paying rapt attention only to the others at the table, totally ignoring the world beyond the booth.”

The superior 2007 session actually had some of this flavor…the 2008 session did not.

If Andy Beal, Lee Odden, Jane Copland, Barry Schwartz & Michael McDonald sat in a restaurant booth with good food & drink, I will guarantee you that the conversation would be incredibly interesting and insightful.  I would definitely want to be a fly on the wall to listen and learn from these industry leaders.  The “proposed” session I’ve outlined above would be my attempt to recreate what would be the ideal backdrop to learn from such folks…where we could hear how they think, feel, and perceive, instead of just getting factoid responses to sound byte questions.

Fortunately, I did get one excellent opportunity to sit in a restaurant booth at Pubcon and participate in a “dream” industry discussion with some extraordinarily smart people.  I, Scott Hendison, John Andrews, Marty Weintraub, Brian LaFrance & Ken Huffer all took advantage of the $9.99 Prime Rib Special at the Sahara one Pubcon evening. Our collective conversation was amazing.  Had we been a session, I guarantee that you’d want to sit in and listen. 

By brining the spirit of what transpired at the Sahara onto a conference a stage, even if we sanitized the confidences that we shared, we would have a memorable session with strong takeaways for all assembled.

Original post by SEMpdx...

The SEMpdx Searchfest Session That I’d Program

By keeping SEO top of mind for everyone in the company

Getting C-Suite buy-in is easy. Numbers, Demeanor. The numbers speak for themselves. C-Suite will love the ROI and buy-in.

The problem: Everyone under the C-Suite. Middle management complains and the complaints get escalated, people get agitated.

Your search requests add to project man hours, are inconsistent with other goals, go against existing programming standards, weren’t technically feasible, added to the project time line and cost—typical objections.

Don’t assume that once you get executive buy-in, your battle is done. You’ve only just begun.

Your plan of action: consistently and constantly reiterate the search marketing message to all employees.

Develop a 24 month PR Campaign. Create an SEO “Dog and Pony” show. Why SEO Makes sense and gets high priority. Give it to anyone and everyone. Get details of your plan in the company magazine. Offer SEO Brown Bags. Train everyone in SEO. Have regular search marketing update meetings for all levels.

Allison Fabella:

Program: 4 sections (Product Manager, Developer, Designer & Content Producer).

Product Manager (Your first and last defense). They approve each phase of project so they must be made aware of the benefits of SEO and the consequences of ignoring it.

Scenario: Product Manager forgets to invite you to the kickoff meeting. Solutions: Remind you that their project will yield better results if SEO is baked-in during the planning phase. Show example of a successful project in which SEO was considered right from the kick-off and backup with data.

Developer (Make it or break it). They create the backbone of your SEO…can directly impact traffic positively or negatively.

Scenario: The developer builds all page links in Javascript. Solutions: Don’t tell them to tear it all down and start over. Explain how the page could lose traffic and suggest that a supplemental HTML links can prevent that from happening. Show an example of a solution…helps illustrate what you mean, proves it can be done.

Designer (Your content begins here). Mutual opportunities: Design create opportunities for SEO and vice versa.

Scenario: Designer mocks up a page made up entirely of images…no text. Tell them how fabulous the page looks. Express concern that people might not see their page due to search engine limitations for images.

The Content Producer (The bridge between engines and users).

Scenario: Content producer writes a story about Britney Spears with the title “Ouch”.

Solutions…Google “Ouch” and ask the producer if this is where they want their story to appear in the SERPS. Then, Google a more appropriate title.

Achieving SEO Harmony: Establish your credibility (Make a quickie change and show results). Critical if you’re new to the organization. Document successes: Theirs, not yours. Emphasize how SEO benefits them not you. Be Omnipresent: Locate your SEO at intersection of Development, Design & Content if possible. Weekly update meetings w/ the four “sections”.

Goals & Accountability: Attach success to their productivity.

Checklists: Each “section” gets tailored checklist + 101. Build SEO into life cycle checklists.

Training: turn everyone in your organization an SEO especially the 4 “sections” Compromise: Well, what can be done?

Dan Perry (In-house SEO, PPC and Campaigns)

Company-wide SEO Training. Where to start? Senior executives – get in the meeting. Stay above 30K feet. Stress Accountability. Importance of Training everyone. Importance to long term business goals.

Show the competition. Strengths / weaknesses. Pain points. Opportunities.

Why train everyone? Marketing / PR. Influence brand perception by optimizing the display of brand messaging. IT – small changes can have large ramifications. BizDev – Need to be knowledgeable to recognize fantasy from reality.

Initiatives: Department / New Hire Training. Build it into the process. Seek out SEO superstars. SEO “Office Hours”, SEO email address, SEO wiki.

Takeaways: Have a plan. Show the math / competition. Brace yourself – real work is about to begin. Stress accountability.

Big Company SEO & PPC Management (Ana Schultz)

In-House PPC Management

Pros: Better Internal Communication, Product/offer knowledge

Cons: Staffing / Account Management Team / Talent Pool, Technology.
SEO Challenge: SEO budged justification, quantifying results for each initiative, implementation process, too many page owners, information architecture.

Jill Sampey: Inhouse: The Agency Perspective.

To use an agency or not to use an agency:

Goals: Duration, complexity.
Learning Curve: General skill, unique to biz.
Bandwidth: Time, Talent
Stakeholders: Influence, Integration

The agency advantage: Training and overhead, tools and expertise, objective and authoritative voice, catalyst for change, and new set of eyes.

Potential issues: Removed from the core business. Can be expensive if the objectives aren’t clear. Requires management. Finding the right agency.

Making it work: Own your ROI, Own your analytics, own the relationship.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: In-House SEO, PPC, and Campaigns

Why buy links? You get the anchor text you want; you get on the page you want; you get the location on the page you want; you get the links that help you rank better.

Why people don’t buy links: Fear of Google, Don’t Understand it; Upfront cost; Hoping for a wave of natural links miracle; Takes time, salesmanship and effort.

What is a safe paid link? Link should be in relevant text; Link should be the only paid link on the page / one of a very few on the website; Lots of variation on your anchor text; Link should be on the inside pages; Links should be long term. Moderation: Don’t go crazy…50 to 100 max on newer sites.

What’s a powerful link? Host web site should have good rankings. Host web site should have lots of natural links. Host website should not be a major link seller. Dofollow, contextual HTML link within text relevant to your website.

My Link Buying System: Search Google for various keyword phrases you want to rank for. Look through the results for websites and web pages where your link would fit. Verify that the potential link partner does not link to major link buyers. Contact the webmaster and make a fair offer for the text link that you want. Your links should pass a hand check to avoid being reported by competitors looking for personal gain. Google “Embarassment to Google” to learn more.

After the buy: Monitor your links to make sure they stay up and the host sites stay clean. Use your rankings as a springboard to gaining natural links. Keep making your site better. Know when to quit buying links.

Rand Fishkin: How To Buy Links Without “Buying Links”

Examples: Event Sponsorships. Process: Locate events (geography, industry relevant); Get in touch; offer to sponsor them; Often, $1-$500 = permanent link from a good page.

Charitable Donations: Process: Find them online, locate their sponsorship pages, check that links pass juice, get in touch, don’t use standard donation forms…make sure to personally check about being listed on the page, added benefits – goodwill, branding, helping people.

Website purchases: Process-find relevant site to buy, negotiate ownership, redirect links.

Viral/Linkerati Traffic Buying: Process-Identify/Create Viral-worthy content; Find relevant viral traffic sources (e.g. StumbleUpon, Techmeme, Techcrunch); Buy Traffic/Ads; Measure/Improve “link acquisition” Conversion rate.

Blogger Product Reviews: Process-Meet bloggers in person, through contacts. Send bloggers free
stuff, follow up with email, don’t ask for link…ask for a review.

Featured content on other sites: Identify sources that can use it, get in touch and offer for free, if you really want it, pay for branding.

Blog Incubation

Aaron Wall: Low Risk Link Buying

Alternatives to buying links: Syndicate Content (Builds Authority/reputation/traffic/Page Rank)
Barter: (Giff Stuff away, Discounts for certain sectors: big in education).
Buy Competing Websites
Social Interaction
Public relations & follow up publicity.

Encouraging Organic Links: Cumulative Advantage, Regular Editorial Voice; Community Participation, Show Social Proof, Beautiful Site Design, Signs of Credibility – about us, etc.

Yahoo Directory: Pick the best category that you have a chance at listing on – want to be in the first 20 results, can sponsor a category if you are not.

Business.com: Submit a leading guide to Work.com…instead of paying recurring, you get free exposure.

Directory Purge of 2007: Google killed many directories. Buy in if home page Page Rank is what you expect, cache dates are recent, and listing quality decent. Likes niche directories, Joe Ant.

AdWords Ads for Linkbait. Create industry leading content for authoritative east-to-link-at topics. Buy AdWords for a wide basket of related keywords.

Clean bought links: Blog about new Google Products and wait for “x” to blog about your blog post. Google checkout, designer portfolio, etc. Sponsor events & advertise. Contests & award programs. Donate or give stuff away (widgets, software). Affiliate programs.

Dirty Links: Try to buy links in content or organic looking links lists…without disclosure. Run really dirty stuff through your affiliate program.

Link Location: “Irrelevant links at the bottom of a page aren’t accounted for in the rankings.”

Build Brand…Have to assume someone will see what you are doing.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: Linkfluence : How To Buy Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk

1)On every page of site, make sure there is a “View Shopping Cart” on every site page
2)Phone number) on every page.
3)Make sure you’re answering all core questions on Shopping Cart page.
4)Ensure where your buyers know where they are at in the buying process.
5)Make the shipping cost very obvious in the buying process.

Ecommerce Site Optimization (Ethan Griffin)

Does your website perform as well as your biggest store or best salesperson? It should.

Good design is key…both for SEO and conversion. Follow Web Standards. Every page is not one size fits all. Don’t forget the mini cart. Guide your visitors navigation.

Don’t neglect your site search. Good internal site search isn’t an option…it’s a requirement. Displaying relevant results. Google Analytics site search report…site search conversion is 3x – 5x.

The “No Results” page is also important for ecommerce.

Why should I trust you? Establishing trust with your visitors is key. Why should visitors trust your company, your products, your website? Where you need to assure your customers…footer, right-hand columns.

Shop with confidence: Guarantee customer satisfaction, inform them of your shipping policies, let them know that their shopping experience will be completely secure, remind them of how you value their privacy and personal information.

Have a Bullet Proof Checkout: Typically the #1 way to a big increase, show customers their process, eliminate distractions, reducing shopping cart abandonment, proper error messages, attention to detail.

A good picture sells a ton of products!

Rob Snell (Wrote Yahoo Store for Dummies Book)

17 Tips to make more with your online store:

1 change increase our conversion rate 20%:
1) Tell folks what to buy.
2)Give folks enough information to decide for themselves. Write a “buyers guide” for each product category – gives 50% higher conversion.
3)Write unique product descriptions. Write 1 new paragraph for every $10 in product cost.
4)Play “20 Questions” with every product.
5)Capture killer content any which way you can.
6)Convert audio assets into text. Transcribe manufacturers videos.
7)Leverage ALL manufacturer content (legally only). It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.
8)Promoting new content will get you links.
9)Blog to build content and links.
10)Support the organizations that your customers support.
11)Make your vendors link to you.
12)Collect Converting Keywords
13)Optimize for transaction-assisting keywords too.
14)Missed
15)Add keyword modifiers to your keyword list.
16)Show product text snippets on category pages.
17)Survey your customers.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: E-Commerce and Shopping Cart Optimization

Word of Mouth is the act of consumers providing honest information to honest consumers. It’s driven by influencers with large social networks who are inspired to talk positively about a brand, product or service. Organic WOM – Occurs naturally when people become advocates because they are happy with a product or service. Amplified WOM – When marketers launch campaigns to accelerate organic WOM (WOMM).

WOMM happens when people are given a reason to talk about a product(s) or service(s) offline or online. It is based upon driven customer satisfaction, two-way dialog and transparent communications.

Online WOMM: It includes online consumer activities using Internet tools that allow the exchange of ideas about products, services, and brands through the social networks. It does not dissipate after a conversation as in the offline world. It’s share is small but growing.

The Return of Conversation in the Social Order. Today, WOM and Advertising are working together.
Organic WOM is the most effective. People on the receiving side of WOM are more impressed by advice given by those who used the brand. People are more inclined to recommend after exposure to marketing / advertising.

Todd Parsons: New Ways To Measure and Capitalize on WOM.

Blogs are the ultimate WOM. More readers follow links in blogs to discover new content than the do keyword research. Links in blogs rank just as high in trust as a personal recommendation. It’s not a “get in, get out” mentality…71% of readers read more than 1 blog per session.

Research / Measurement: What is being said already? How big is the conversation? Who’s participating? Who’s leading? 2 Strategies to consider: Create, extend or modify existing online WOM. Leverage WOM as new inventory for existing online advertising campaigns.

Online WOM as “New Media”. Leveraging existing WOM as inventory for ads.

Research / Analysis is critical; Understand your specific objective; Measurement is key; Extend WOM Shelf life.

Ben Fisher: Understanding Blog Conversation and Interaction.

Do your research: DECIDE (Determine, Evaluate, Create, Identify, Develop, Effectiveness)

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: Conversation and Word-of-Mouth Marketing

7 habits of highly effective web design:

Be Proactive: Keyword research, competitive analysis, creating a search engine friendly information architecture, search engine friendly web design, content.

Begin with the End in Mind: What are the goals? More sales / leads. Higher rankings / More SE Traffic, More registrations for newsletters, Better Branding (Better Looking Website). Incorporate keyword research, refer to competitive analysis, develop a strategy for information architecture.

Put First Things First: Prioritize important things rather than “urgent” things. Plan for the end result rather than addressing immediate pain points.

Think win/win. Content is good for users and search engines. People are searching because they are researching. Good content will get naturally linked to with proper promotion of the content. Blogs are great for this.

Building Content: Write content that is engaging to read and conducive to your SEO strategy. Use opportunities for internal linking. Avoid marketing “fluff”. Call it what it really is. Add a blog to help target your “tail keywords”.

Seek first to understand then to be understood. Refer to Analytics before creating information architecture. Understand user behavior. What current rankings / traffic do you have? Make sure that these pages still exist in the new Information Architecture. 301 redirects for all URLs/Pages.

Synergize. All these things go into the creation of an SEO Friendly Website and more importantly a Successful Website Strategy.

Sharpen the Saw. Post launch checklist. Check rankings against baseline rankings report. Check Analytics against baseline analytics report. Check Google Webmaster Tools for broken links or other issues. SEO is an ongoing process. Keep refining efforts through additional keyword research, change in competitive landscape, new content, new linking strategies.

SEO Design & Organic Site Structure (Lyndsay Blahut)

Where do I start? Create a plan. Identify stakeholders. Benchmark reports. Use a checklist for your on-page optimization.

Your SEO Design Plan: Take an inventory of your pages. Talk to your designer / developers. Benchmark your current success (or lack thereof). Give a general timeline but don’t overpromise. Keyword research.

Use a checklist…for every page on your site; to long what changes you made and when ; keep track of your targeted keywords for that page. Basic information: Description of page, URL, Data Analyzed, Date suggestions made, Who did them.

Checklist: The Title Tag…is there one? How long is it? Does it include your keywords? Your company name?

Metatags (Description, Keywords, Robots).

Header tags (Use H1 for the most important copy on your page). Use H2 (subheaders). Headers can be any size, font, color, etc. thanks to CSS.

Flash: Any on page? Is there any valuable content withing Flash? Use CSS instead of Flash whenever possible.

Images: How many images are on the page. How many are using relevant ALT tags? Is there content in your image that could be done in CSS?

Sitemaps: Is this page included in your site’s Site Map? Is this page included in search engine site maps? Google Site Maps, Yahoo Site Explorer, etc.

Robots.txt: Have you verified that you are not blocking robots from crawling this page? Google Webmaster Tools has a robots.txt checker.

Links: Check that all your links aren’t broken. Menu links should be checked extra carefully especially if they’re rollover or pop-up menus.

Duplicate Content: Use robots.txt or the Robots meta tag if you need to block extra pages.

Other tips: Always check to make sure your pages work in all the popular browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari). Use your analytics to check what browsers your visitors use. Use CSS over images and flash whenever possible.

SEO: A Linear Approach (Alan K’necht)

Don’t put important content in Flash. Web 2.0 – Mashups, Ajax can’t be indexed.

Search Engines like Words and they value the words at the beginning of the code more than at the bottom. The linear approach to words: Go to a 2 tier web development strategy…separate content from presentation, organize content logically, use CSS to control positioning.

Newspaper Philosophy: Where are the headlines? Where is the table of contents?

The Linear Approach to Words: Important elements must come first. Ensure these elements contain your targeted keyword phrases, Graphics & Ajax & non-essential code at the bottom, Use CSS to position everything.

Search bots are browsers. They see things their own way (linear, bad code might be confusing). Test for bots.

Testing the linear approach: Use Firefox with Developer plug-in. Turn off all CSS and see how HTML promotes your content. Do important words / phrases come first? How far through the code does a bot have to go before it finds the valuable copy? Does your code validate at the W3?

Aaron Wall: SEO’s <3 Site Structure

Large Site: Break It Down. If it seems complex, then break it down. Any section can act like a site. Can start as a directory then build it out later.

On page duplication as a tax. Searchers are fish (Page text is a fishing net). Each should be unique (Page title, on page heading, internal anchor text).

Map it out: Assign keywords to each URL.

Learn from competitors: Look at their navigation, see how content is organized, find their top keywords.
Creating duplicate pages. Duplicate page types (printer friendly, many sort options with the same content, near duplicate (shoe size or shoe color), pagination. Tools: Xenu Link Sleuth, Website Health Checker, Google Webmaster Central.

Market Content Feature: Make brand look better, makes it easy for people to find your best content, makes people more likely to link at your site, for new sites, sell ad inventory to yourself.

Types of links: Sitewide navigation, Internal Section Navigation. In content links: If people scrape your content, they may link at you. Have your documents translated, many links will stick. Automated linking.

Automated internal linking. Keeps user on site, gives them relevant content, adds keyword rich text to page, flows page rank and anchor text.

Redistributing Page Rank. Rel=NoFollow on administrative pages, demote poor performers, promote seasonal offers early, use analytics data to see what pages performing better than expected. Send it more Page Rank be featuring it higher, look at rankings and see what is close to the top.

Switch it up: Hard to get links to commercial offers. Recycle link equity: After doing a promotion, add a bunch of links into your well-linked pages, pointing at the commercial parts of your site. Hold contest or promote feature content on a URL then change the content of that page.

Capture forgotten link equity.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: SEO Design and Organic Site Structure

Don’t build a Frankensite. Business process & workflow must support SEO.

Training for SEO. Locate and educate everyone in the workflow. Dedicated analytics for each person. Hold regular team meetings.

War Story #1 – Management MUST Buy In. Major Enterprise – Silicon Valley. Great Identification of Players (IT Dept., Marketing, Web Design, Writers, Analytics). Strong Education Kick-Off (High Enthusiasm), ½ the team reassigned 4 weeks later. \

Business Goal is #1 Always. Marketing Strategy: 1) Content – Concept Level. Back end decisions (server, CMS, analytics). Then, do keyword research. Then follow with Information Architecture & Menus. Then, develop your content – full copy. Followed by Graphic Design – Templates. Content - “Web edit” in browser. Must document each decision.

War Story #2: Beware of Chasing Trophy Keywords. (niche market “homeopathy software”). Product is aimed at doctors, search terms is used by the layman (b2c not b2b). Gained #1 and #2 rankings – 150 pages of content, sales decreased. Happy ending…rethinked strategy.

Information Architecture: Before Making Menu Decisions, need the right buckets for your content.

Final Web Edit: Content Interacts With Layout. CSS is web typesetting. You can kill good content with bad layout or beast weak content with good layout. Study print typography.

Simple and Seamless for the End User, for Search Engines, for Maintenance. Make simplicity your discipline. Where were the seams come from? Showing off…works against business purpose. Code Geeks should never write content.

Despite all your planning, things will go wrong. When it’s time for a fix, thou shalt not kluge. Better late than lousy, expect to make tradeoffs. Keep all the priorities straight…reference your document.

Robin Liss: Reviewed.com High Value Content Production Workflow Strategies.

Just like a car maker, you manufacture a product. What lessons can we learn from traditional manufacturing?

Mr. Ford’s assembly line rocks! Create content like an assembly line.

Blog: On a blog, each person usually performs all the steps…that’s why it’s so efficient. Blogs might have “long” form posts that have more editing and more process. With this pipeline, there is no outside quality control or editing, but many argue that is what defines blogs.

Modified Pipeline (1 Writer & 1 Editor / Boss). Time how long each step takes and distribute the tasks accordingly. You may have to go through more than 2 edits, especially with less experienced writers. It may be efficient to add a 3rd person to take the specialty tasks such as CMS loading, Copy Editing, Marketing or Supplemental Asset Creation.

6 People Pipeline (Editor in Chief, Managing Editor, Writer, Product Photographer, Product Tester, Copy Editor). Many quality controls built into this process. Highly efficient because it uses specialization, everyone has a specific job which they do and can get very good at.

Content Management System (WYSIWIG tools save production time and money), Dreamweaver, Plone, MoveableType, Own your CMS, Investing Money in your CMS will reduce editorial costs long term. Workflow Management Tools: Google Calendar, Lots of Speadsheets.

Specialization = Economic Efficiency. Find the right writer for the right task. Short form vs. long form. Journalistic vs. Opinionated. Edgy vs. Straight. Switching tasks take time. When doing large projects, different parts of the article might go to different people. Product and Editing Specialization. Find an online copy editor to pay per word. Find a basic HTML guru to do the CMS input. Hire a part time or full editor to improve your quality and manage workflow. This will allow your writers to improve their craft and get more efficient. Making one person do everything can be very inefficient.

Bottlenecks must be destroyed. Time everything. Constantly track these times and look to improve them. Create an “article flow” or “article patter” by reducing bottlenecks.

Error-free content = credibility. Measure everything.

Final tips: Set up clear contract…you own the rights. Put plagiarism protection clauses in your contracts. Be specific as possible, try to put those blueprints into the contract. You get what you pay for…cheap original content will cost money in the long term in editing and correction. Try your best to be original in your content. Blogs are a great way to dip your toe in original content production.

Mobile Content (Rupali Shah)

84% of Iphone users are looking for information on their mobile device…potential viewers of your content. Should check your website on an Iphone / Iphone emulator.

Mobile SEO: Use valid XHTML code, W3C compliance, keywords, metadata, linking, sitemaps.

Accessible mobile content: Uncluttered (Less is more). Page size: Small. Simple design – text. Style sheets. Div tags, not tables. Optimized images – including ALT text. Categorized browsing.

Other tips: Google Mobile Sitemap. Yahoo Mobile Content Submission.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: Real-World Winning Tactics for Content Creation

1)Lack of control. Within social media environments, companies are afraid that their customers will talk about them, or even worse…to them.
2)No One To Monitor. Having social media profiles is like having little websites that need constant monitoring.
3)No Money. Unless you are going to do a customized theme or develop a widget, it costs nothing to set up and get involved in social media.
4)Corporate Red Tape.When every decision a company makes has to go through multiple processes, stuff doesn’t happen.
5)Blogging excuses. We can’t afford to install a blog. We have nobody to write for us. We have nothing to say. Examples of what you can say: cover news in your specific industry, write opinionated posts related to news and events. Announce new products and or special offers. Write in-depth product reviews. Highlight customer testimonies and praise. Do a Q& A style posts to deal with common inquiries. Publish customer news…the more personal, the better.
6)Branding Opportunities
7)Building Link Popularity. Link back to your original site within the social media sites you setup. Once you get these various social media profiles indexed, they will count for you.
8)Attracting traffic: Depending on the industry you are in, social media and networking sites can send quality traffic to your site.
9)Interaction with the public. One of the biggest fears – the transition from “talking to” customers to “intereacting” with them.
10)Networking opportunities. Being the lone ranger isn’t the most productive way of running your business.
Control the SERPs for your brand and product names.

Chris Winfield: Google + Digg = Love.

How they work from a marketers perspective.

Google: Choose keywords, optimize site, get incoming links, rank #1. Timeframe to goal: Days to months to years.

Digg: Create viral content. Submit to Digg. Goal: Promote it to the Digg homepage. Timeframe: 24 hours.

Algorithms. Google: On Page Factors, Age & History of Domain, Inbound Links. Digg: Submitter (power user vs. new user). Voting pattern (fake/friend/natural). History of Domain (banned, trusted, “blacklisted”).

Traffic: Google: Depends on the term/s that you are ranking well for. Sustained traffic – as long as you rank, you will get traffic. Digg: Typically between 10K and 50K visitors within 24 hour period. The first few hours will usually have the most visitors (“Digg Effect”). Depends on the topic.

Advantages for Bloggers & Publishers.

Google: Sustained Traffic. New people who are interested in something you have written about. Capturing attention (Aaron Wall).

Digg: Get your content out to thousands quickly. Build up a following. RSS & Email Subscriptions.

Advantages for Commercial Sites.

Google: Just in time marketing. Get your products or services in front of people who are looking for them at that very moment.

Digg: Get thousands of new people exposed to your brand the way they want to consume it. Get them in the door and lead them throughout the store.

Advantages for Large Media Properties.

Google: 100,000’s of pages = 100,000 of visitor opportunities. Strong authority, trust = easier to rank.

Digg: Lots of page views.

Digg = “The Great Influencer”.

Creating Touch Points

In conclusion, use a multipronged approach. View the sites as complimentary – not replacements for each other. Don’t forget to go niche.

Li Evans: Social Media & Search: A Love Story or a War Story.

Social Media isn’t a quick fix, substitute for SEO or PPC etc. Social media is a huge world. It’s more than Digg and Facebook. Know who your audience is and where they are.

Types of folks: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, Inactives.

How do you know if social media really works? Need to set goals and measure success.

Bill Hartzer: Is Social Media A Love Story or a War Story?

Old SEO vs. New Social Media SEO. Old SEO (self explanatory). We’re in the new age of Social Media SEO. Still creating content on site, on page optimization, Links = authority directories. Write articles = on own site. Unique articles on industry authorities. Link bait on own site. Use social media to “get noticed”. Success in social media = getting noticed in search.

Keys to successful social media: Participate on regular basis, vote and comment often, add friends, put your site in your profile, social media has niches, submit to appropriate niche sites, use social media to “get noticed”, use social media to get market share of links. Market share of links – having more links than others. Being first with market share of links gives you advantage. You get noticed by humans and noticed by crawlers. Humans have ability to link to you. How do you get this? Example: News in your industry. Watch your industry for newsworthy content. Reach quickly, post or add content to site, quickly submit to social media for links, go back and edit, update as necessary.

RSS Feed Promotion: Promote RSS feeds that will help you. Take advantage of all RSS Feeds (your own site, your social media submissions, those that link to you). Promote sites, RSS feeds, articles of those who link to you. Remember: a link to you is more powerful if the page that link is on has more links.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: Is Social Media & Search a Love Story or a War Story?

3 stages of acceptance: Denial, Reluctant Acceptance, Meaningful Connections (If there is a meaningful conversation, comment about it).

Your customers are on Twitter. Twittinsecrets.com Twitterhandbook.com

Brian Carter: The Social Media Trifecta: Three-Pronged Strategy: Achieving Online Awesomnity.

Trifecta: Blog + Bookmarking + Twitter.

Optimization = Getting the results you want faster. Identify your goal, establish a measurement, where are you at, plan route to goal, let results guide progress.

Blog: Where you establish authority. Bookmark: Social Proof. Twitter: Attention.

Guillaume Bouchard (Social Media & SEO)

Main Principle: Capture Natural Link Growth. Realistic Rolse: Producing Link-Worthy Content, Taking Luck out of the Equation. Social Platforms: Digg, Stumbleupon.

Digg: Then and now: Way more votes required, less “illegitimate” content, hot in any upcoming but not on home page, recommendation engine.

Stumbleupon: Strategies: Sending a page to a friend forces a view. Should be tagged with popular categories. Reviews increase chances of views exploding.

Digg Strategies & Concerns: Content, Platform, Submitter, Category, (Vote) Solicitation

Content – Strategies: Approval = Perception of quality and enjoyment / Time Taken To Enjoy.

Give quality / Save time to the Digg audience.

SEO Concerns: Keyword use (Blog titles for backlink with great anchor text, Page titles can have more keywords). Interlinking (Wait until after the push to interlink strategically, post regularly to dilute). 301 redirection (resist the temptation, let the content be).

Platform: Trust. Only 6-8 text articles with juicy text from non-trusted domains are likely to hit the front page of Digg.com per day. This means you either need to work for trusted domains or we should all coordinate ourselves to share a piece of the pie.

Submitter: Domains are trusted, so are people…less likely to be buried, immediate friend votes, strong accounts natural to combine with “shout”. Some top submitters will eventually find out you work for a client and they can bypass your company and contact the sites directly.

Solicitation: Exchanges, IM, In-Site Communication Services, Vote On Lots of Stories. Average time to hit: 12-15 hours. Less votes on weekend but less help around.

Kent Schoen: Social Media & Measurement (Facebook). Basic overview information…no important takeaways.

Original post by SEMpdx...

Pubcon Session: Social Media: The Big Sexy Buzz