BusinessOnLine SEO Blog - Search Engine Marketing techniques for 3rd generation SEO» SEO Conferences http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog BusinessOnLine SEO Blog - Search Engine Marketing techniques for 3rd generation SEO Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:12:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 My 10 Main SEO Takeaways from SMX East 2009 http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/10/my-10-main-seo-takeaways-from-smx-east-2009/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/10/my-10-main-seo-takeaways-from-smx-east-2009/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:35:44 +0000 Benj Arriola http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/?p=290 Search Marketing Expo East

Search Marketing Expo East

In search marketing conferences, there are so much to information that it is impossible to listen to everything so everyone chooses their tracks/sessions wisely to listen to the golden nuggets of information which may not be the same golden nuggets of everyone else. Depending also on each individual’s knowledge dictates if a nugget is really golden of not. So that is why I start my title with a “My” since this is what I found to be valuable to me. Below are my top 10 takeaways from the 2009 Search Marketing Expo East in New York City.

1. Yahoo announced they no longer use the Meta Keywords tag as a ranking factor

The moment this was announced, I had my doubts, I had to double check if it was true since in our own BusinessOnLine SEO Lab, we have tested this before and we all know it is only Yahoo that reads the Meta Keywords tag. With an erratic wifi connection at Javits Conference Center in New York, I relied on my iPhone to check our SEOLabs testing sites and true enough, our unique keyword that was used only on 1 page inside the meta keywords tag that used to show up in Yahoo does not show up anymore! Initial thoughts were, wow, totally useless tag now, we can probably just delete it out. But apparently, Danny Sullivan tested it out and it was showing that Yahoo still looks at the meta keyword tag. False announcement? Faulty system? Delayed search algorithmic processing? I don’t know.

2. A page blocked in robots.txt may still appear in Google search results.

You block it in robots.txt, but it get’s linked from elsewhere, it ends up in the SERPs but with no Title or Description, just the URL. This was best summarized in a video by Matt Cutts.

Learn more about robots.txt. – The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice) Buy the book now!

3. Images will tend to rank better if they are near the title/header of a page.

While listening to Google Engineer Maile Ohye on the session ask the search engines, it was nice to see a different face than Matt Cutts from time to time and she did mention about images ranking better in Google image search and Google onebox if they are near the title/header of a page which I believe totally makes sense. There are so many images a blog or news site can have and multiple articles can appear. Just knowing which image goes with which title can be challenging, so choosing the image closest to the header tag would make perfect sense.

4. Images with captions will help rank better in Google Image search.

Again for the same reasons above, it seems alternative text (the alt attribute of the <img> tag) is not sufficient to help these images rank well in universal search results, image search and onebox results. Maile summarizes it also well on her video on news search under the FAQs part of this presentation, starting at 11:03.

Image Database: Image and Search Retrieval – Buy this book now!

5. JPEGs will do better than PNGs and GIFs

If you listened to the video of Maile well, you should have heard this already as she summarizes it pretty well into clear cut bullet points. Maybe some of you think image search is not that important and may not give enough quality converting traffic, but it really depends on your product or service and what user intent you can spin around your images. In the presentation below by Peter Lindsey, he explains different places where images can appear, onebox, maps, shopping, image search, and various user intent like inspiration, shopping, research, health, and very interesting, as a visual dictionary. He explains how in image search it is not all about being number 1. Image searchers go through many pages before they find the perfect image to click on.

Image Databases: Search and Retrieval of Digital Imagery

6. Good Web Server and Scripts Security helps in SEO.

In the session Ask the Search Engines, there were representatives from Google, Yahoo and Bing. And the Bing representative, Sasi Parthasarathy talked more about network security, the importance of server hardening, and making your scripts secure. And he showed many examples of queries he just did the day before of various websites that were compromised where either new pages are coming our selling unrelated products like pharmaceutical products, or similar pages on spammed forums or blogs on .gov or .edu websites and more that can be harming the SEO efforts or simply hurting the reputation of the site that has been attacked. This was not really like new information to me, but it was a big reminder how many blackhats out there and that they are really many of them that could be harming your own ranking.

7. Do not use English keywords and simply translate using tools for international SEO.

For international SEO for other languages, and the lack of robust keyword research tools in other languages, some SEO practitioners use English keyword research and simply translates the words using online tools and thinks these keywords are already the best keywords for another language. Andy Atkins-Krueger who is one of the popular authorities in international search has explained this pretty clearly where a direct translation may not really mean the same thing in the translated language. It is always best to get a local speaker of the language and do the appropriate translation for you.

8. SEO factor to possibly consider: Readability

This was not from one of the SEO sessions I attended, but this idea was mainly from one of the exhibit booths, specifically from Bruce Clay who we all now is one of the pioneers in the industry and has been mapping out the search engine relationships from the very beginning and keeps on updating them and is now getting less and less confusing as the main players in the search industries keep decreasing. Going back to the topic, as I was spying out checking out their tools on how it can benefit me, everything seemed like I can find a tool or some equivalent tool I already know that I can use instead of using Bruce Clay’s SEO Tool Set, although one thing that I noticed that I have not seen in other tools is they take note of Readability.

Readability tests, readability formulas, or readability metrics are formulae for evaluating the readability of text, usually by counting syllables, words, and sentences. Readability tests are often used as an alternative to conducting an actual statistical survey of human readers of the subject text (a readability survey).

- Wikipedia definition of readability

There were a few scoring systems used which I can’t remember which ones were on the SEO ToolSet, but upon search on wikipedia, there are a lot of scoring systems:

  • Accelerated Reader ATOS
  • Automated Readability Index (ARI)
  • Coleman-Liau Index
  • Dale-Chall Readability Formula
  • Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
  • Fry Readability Formula
  • Gunning-Fog Index
  • Lexile Framework for Reading
  • Linsear Write
  • Raygor Estimate Graph
  • SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook)
  • Spache Readability Formula

After a simple search of online tools, I was able to find two tools that can be used: SMOG online tool and using Read Able. Now would this be a critical search engine ranking factor? I am not sure, my gut feeling says it is not that critical but could still be a good factor for other purposes. Readability is a metric for showing how easy or how hard some text could be read by some age group, so it does make sense to optimize this for your readers, and not really for search engines, which is what search engines want you to do SEO anyway.

9. Google is getting better and better in reading JavaScript.

We have been reading this is various places being said by various representatives from Google in various ways, so I am convinced Google is pretty smart already in understanding JavaScript. In this specific situation where I was reminded again at SMX was during one of the sessions where Maile Ohye gave an example of using the Link Rel=Canonical tag showing various international sites in folders and using the link rel canonical to point all to the English version. I then asked if we can use geolocation detection by IP and run a JavaScript redirect so search engine would still look at the final English version as dictated by the Link rel canonical but users will experience something different depending on their geolocation and JavaScript will kick in to serve the appropriate page. I was given the answer that just because it is a JavaScript redirect does not mean Google will not follow the redirect. Conversation ended without a good answer since they asked me to ask this in the International SEO session instead. But with an answer like that, again confirms again that Google is really reading JavaScript.

10. Google is proposing the #! in URLs for crawling AJAX sites using a headless browser.

In the session where I was speaking more on CSS and code positioning and duplicate links order, there were two other Google representatives, Bruce Johnson and Kathrin Probst talking about crawling AJAX. They are proposing a new way to make AJAX sites. AJAX developers all know how convenient it would be to use the # symbol in URLs as a parameter since you can pass this around in the URL and the page does not even reload. You use it like a GET variable, but ideal for AJAX since AJAX sites do not require page reloading. And search engines normally will not see this since URLs with different text strings after the # symbol will all be treated like the same URL without the #.

Normally websites would treat these URLs as the same URL:

http://www.example.com/path/file.html

http://www.example.com/path/file.html#parameter1

http://www.example.com/path/file.html#parameter2

http://www.example.com/path/file.html#parameter1-valuex

And since the # parameters cannot be read by server-side programming languages (PHP, ASP, JSP, etc), and are read on the client-side by your web browser and JavaScript, search engines would not even see the changes on the page. So Google proposes something new, the use of the #!.

Now Google was proposing the use of a headless browser. This is a browser with no UI, but mainly like some script interpreting JavaScript code just like how a browser does. That way it will first fetch a page with the # parameters and render it first in the headless browser before Googlebot crawls the content. As this is only a proposal and is in experimental stages, to trigger the headless browser, you simply use #! instead of # in your URLs.

Being a developer myself and was sitting in that same session, I was curious to know how will we determine if Googlebot crawled the content correctly, and I asked if Google cache could be used. Kathrin replied no. And said they might make a separate tool for this. Maybe they would include it in Google Webmaster Tools. Vanessa Fox also added Google does crawl Flash links and Flash content but Google cache is also not a good way to see what Googlebot sees.

Interesting that AJAX for SEO is starting to get easier and easier and no need to do some complicated tricks once this headless browser crawling becomes a standard. This is definitely something the web analytics team would like to look at deeper for tracking AJAX.

Again this is “my” top 10 takeaways. Of course someone more interested in PPC, or SMO might have something else as their main takeaways.

After being on vacation in the Philippines during Typhoon Ondoy, speaking at SEMCon 2009 and SMX East 2009, I come back to work after 2 weeks and suddenly plays catch up with all the work that has been waiting for me and that kept me busy for the whole week that this SMX post is way overdue, but better late than later. :)

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/10/my-10-main-seo-takeaways-from-smx-east-2009/feed/ 6 My SES New York 2009 Experience: SEO Adventures 3000 Miles from Home http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/03/my-ses-new-york-2009-experience-seo/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/03/my-ses-new-york-2009-experience-seo/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:53:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=106
I just got back from SES New York on Friday where I was very honored to have an opportunity to speak and to contribute to an outstanding session called “Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers”. Between myself and the other exceptional speakers including Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO of Rank-Mobile; Anne Kennedy, SES Advisory Board and Managing Partner and Founder of Beyond Ink; and Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder of Conductor, Inc. I felt like we put on a very informative session and the feedback I got from audience members after the presentation was very encouraging. I will be presenting a separate blog post later in the week covering some of what I spoke about at the conference.

I was happy to have an opportunity to speak right after Guy Kawasaki’s keynote speech which I thought was fairly well done and educational despite what some other people have suggested. I thought most people coming away from the keynote were energized and ready to learn more about SEO, SMO and everything in between. So I wasn’t surprised that we had an almost capacity room of about 150 people.

After I was done speaking, I attended some of the sessions in the afternoon although I admit I skipped the session after I spoke to unwind and get some pizza. I have been to SES before so I wasn’t particularly confident that the stock lunch menu would be to my liking (I was happily surprised that SES has definitely improved their food selection since last time I was there two years ago). Props to the SES New York organizers for taking care of the problem. However, I was more than happy to have some authentic slices of pie from Ray’s Pizza around the corner from the Hilton where the conference was taking place.

While we are talking about the Hilton, let me say that the hotel is fantastic. The only complaint that I have (and it’s a big one), is if your going to charge a $250 discounted nightly rate, don’t try to weasel me for $15 extra a day for Wireless Internet. If nothing else, be smart enough to realize that at this conference its pretty much a given that almost everyone needs it. So bundle it in with the total package cost and let me be happily surprised that my laptop works as soon as I enter my room. That was a REALLY annoying part of the whole experience.

Overall though I had a great time. I thought that the sessions were really good for the most part. I thought Michael Gray had one of the better presentations that I saw, and was impressed with the amount of tactical advice that he gave people that could be implemented immediately. I am a big fan of sessions that teach people how to do things, rather than those whose speakers pontificate about high level subjects that make for interesting coffee conversations, but don’t really help you make money.

For example, in the session titled “Universal and Blended Search: An Update”, the people that were from agencies did an ok job discussing some tactical elements of Universal Search. But the search engine representatives seemed like they were giving a commercial about all their Universal Search properties. There was no real tactical advice and it felt like that they were all trying to convince people that their search engine was cooler than the other guys (and it wasn’t hard to figure out how to spend advertising money with them… *lol*). Ironically, Google, who invented the phrase Universal Search, was not part of the panel. Thankfully for them. So that was a little disappointing.

But the session on video search was outstanding. It was probably the best session I went to (or at least tied with the “feed” session that Michael Gray was part of). It’s amazing how the popularity of video has turned YouTube into the second biggest search engine in America. And goes to show you how important video content is to SEO.

I also learned a lot more about social media, especially with regard to how cool targeting ads can be with FaceBook. Actually there is a lot of cool stuff happening at FaceBook. If you haven’t set up a page for your business on FaceBook, now would be a good time. Between the social media capabilities, the viral possibles, and the potential SEO benefits, a FaceBook page for your business should be a priority for your online marketing efforts.

It wasn’t all business in New York (although mostly it was). The first night, Monday, I went to sleep early so that I could be well rested for speaking. Plus the 6 hour flight is always draining. The second night we went around the corner to a little New York bar filled with other SES attendees and talked a little SEO over a couple Heinekens. The last night I went to Dave and Busters in Time Square which was definitely the highlight of the trip. I got to hang out with my friend Heather and we were thoroughly entertained by the wisdom of Bruce Clay. Bruce is a fun guy to talk SEO with. His experience and his passion about the subject of SEO are almost unmatched in the industry. We both laughed when I reminded him that I met him six years ago. Time Flys.

So I had a great time, but after three days of intense SEO and meeting all kinds of amazing people (like Jefferey Eisenberg for example), I was VERY happy to get home (although not so happy with the extra hour of waiting for our plane to take off… *lol*). One fantastic thing about living in San Diego is your never really sad to come home. It’s not paradise, but its pretty darn close.

And it sure is a lot warmer here than New York :)

Stay tuned later this week for my blog post about my session and some of the SEO tips that I spoke about. Have a great week!

Catfish

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/03/my-ses-new-york-2009-experience-seo/feed/ 1 A Preview of my 2009 Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Presentation on Long Tail SEO Strategies http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/01/preview-of-my-2009-online-marketing/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/01/preview-of-my-2009-online-marketing/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:24:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=94
Wow time sure does fly. Seems like only yesterday I was doing my SEO for 2008 presentation at OMS 2008 here in San Diego and now it’s already 2009! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again this year and getting another opportunity to talk SEO with so many other industry professionals. And, what’s really exciting for me is that this year, Rand Fishkin will be speaking at OMS for the first time!

If you are not familiar with Rand, he runs SEOmoz.com, is a very well respected speaker at a number of SEO conferences, and he has contributed a great deal to the SEO community. So it’s very exciting for me to have an opportunity to speak at the same conference as Rand and talk a little SEO. I know that the OMS community will be very impressed with the depth of knowledge and experience that Rand brings to the table. And he is a really nice guy.

I will also be trying to bring some new SEO ideas and tactics to the table for 2009. My presentation this year will be focused on targeting the long tail. If you’re not familiar with the concept of long tail SEO, here is a good reference for you. Essentially we are talking about putting yourself in a position to capture as many of the less competitive keyword phrases as you can, on an ongoing and consistent basis. During my presentation, we will be talking about some of the on page, off page, universal search and social media SEO tactics that will improve your ability to target relevant, long tail keywords.

Some of the SEO topics that we will touch on will include keyword research, page titles, content optimization, internal linking strategies, blogging tactics, other social media opportunities and using analytics to augment your campaign.

It makes a lot of sense for companies to focus on long tail SEO for 2009. Advancements in personalization and Geo targeting are making it less and less likely that any two users will see the same listings for the same search query. That’s not to say that rankings for competitive keywords won’t continue to be a focus of SEO. But rather, just like the stock market, you should be diversified and not put all your SEO eggs in one basket.

One last thing, if you haven’t already signed up for free to be part of the OMS community and checked out all the cool SEO and Internet marketing blog content, visit the OMS Blog and do it!

Original dog image is a modification of a preview image of a 3D dog model by Andrey Kravchenko on his gallery on TurboSquid™

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2009/01/preview-of-my-2009-online-marketing/feed/ 1 Online Marketing Summit (OMS) – SEO and Social Media in Houston and San Jose http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/08/online-marketing-summit-oms-seo-and/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/08/online-marketing-summit-oms-seo-and/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:10:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=74 So I am finally caught up enough after being gone a week for OMS that I can blog again..lol. What a crazy week and a half its been. First I went to Houston for the first time where I met some incredible people who were very hospitable. I spoke about the SEO benefits of the social media broadcast system. I defined the social media broadcast system as:

“Your social media broadcast system is the collection of technologies that are used to broadcast your message to your friends and their friends.”

So this collection of technologies includes your blog, social networking sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, social news sites like Digg and Mixx, social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Stumble, image and video hosting sites like Flickr and YouTube as well as microblogging platforms like Twitter and hub pages like Squidoo. My presentation will appear on the blog at some point but I am currently using this material so it’s only available to OMS attendees at this point. But essentially we talked about all the ways to integrate these sites together as well as how to best utilize them for their SEO benefits.

My presentation seem to be well received in both Houston and San Jose although I think the San Jose presentation was a little stronger because I has already had one performance under my belt. And I modified it slightly to be a little more action oriented because I think that many people who heard the presentation were still learning about some of the concepts, likewhat microblogging is and why you should do it, and so I wanted to more completely spell out some of the tactical elements of what I was talking about so that people could walk away with a check list of things to do, even if they didn’t all make sense yet..lol.

All in all, I really enjoyed getting to talk about social media at this year’s OMS regionals. I have one more next week in Denver. Unfortunately, due to a scheduled surgery and the fact that the San Diego OMS date was recently moved, I will be unable to speak at the September regional here in San Diego. But I will be back with a vengeance in February for the OMS main conference where I will be focusing on more traditional SEO with my Shotgun / Sniper approach to SEO.

In the meantime, I will try to recover from recent OMS adventures which include jumping in the pool in Houston with my cell in my pocket. Not such a good idea if you don’t have your contacts backed up somewhere :( So if I haven’t called you recently, now you know why..lol. I can’t say enough though how impressed I always am with the people that I have met at these OMS events. Their collective enthusiasm for SEO and all things Internet marketing really motivates me to push my own process past where it already is. I think one of the biggest things about these events that make them so worthwhile is leveraging the collective enthusiasm of the group to energize your own passion. And of coarse, a free dinner courtesy of Aaron is always a welcome change from my own cooking or lack thereof :)

To everyone who I had a chance to meet last week, it was a pleasure. To the wonderful group of people I had a chance to have dinner with in both Houston and San Jose, thanks for an outstanding and entertaining evening of conversation and laughs. Hope to see everyone in Denver next week. Until then, keeping your SEO rockin!

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/08/online-marketing-summit-oms-seo-and/feed/ 2 More Videos from OMS – Duplicate Content Issues and the SEO Benefits of Authoritative Content http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/more-videos-from-oms-duplicate-content/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/more-videos-from-oms-duplicate-content/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:36:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=70 Here are a couple more videos of my presentation from OMS. I went a little out of order on these because of a couple reasons. I omitted the Flash video because it is now outdated based on recent developments. However, all I really did is reference Benj’s excellent post about SEO for Flash. He should be updating it soon based on the new Abode announcement (*hint hint Benj!). The other video I omitted is about Page Titles. As many people know, I am a proponent of Page Titles that are longer than 64 characters. However, we are in the process of doing some new testing with regard to Page Titles and I would rather save that video for my upcoming blog post on the subject.

Here is the first video and the last of the site wide videos (since I won’t be using the Flash video). This video addresses duplicate content issues in search engine optimization:

So instead we will jump into the second On Page recommendation from my presentation which is to create authoritative content. As you can tell from this video, this is a subject that I am passionate about because I think it has the biggest long term SEO benefit in addition to really being a huge driver of overall Web strategy.

I will be releasing the Off Page recommendations on Friday and a summary of the presentation. Thanks for all the encouraging comments to date both here on the blog as well as on FaceBook, Twitter and Sphinn. I really appreciate it.

For those who asked, I will be presenting at OMS Denver, Houston and San Jose and I will be speaking about the Impact of Social Media sites on SEO. At the San Diego session I will be doing a joint presentation with our usability ninja Thanh Nguyen on the integration of Usability and SEO.

Have a great week!

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/more-videos-from-oms-duplicate-content/feed/ 1 Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Preview – How to Use Google Webmaster Tools for SEO http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/online-marketing-summit-oms-preview-how/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/online-marketing-summit-oms-preview-how/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:32:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=69 ** Just posted the next two SEO videos from this presentation on Wed, July 9th, 2008..

With the Online Marketing Summit’s regional tour on the horizon, I thought it would be a good time to give everyone a taste of the kind of material that is presented at OMS. So I contacted the always helpful OMS marketing team and got their permission to release some video footage of my presentation here in San Diego last February. The presentation was entitled “SEO: Unveiling the Black Box – Everything You Want to Know that an SEO Wont Tell You”. Now before all you fellow SEO’s think I’ve been sniffin a little too much glue on the side, I didn’t come up with the title. *lol* So I will give you a more accurate title of the presentation: “Good SEO Practices for an Ongoing SEO Campaign”. In other words, this presentation centers around the kinds of activities you want to be doing once the initial optimization of the site has been completed.

The first two videos I am releasing for this presentation are focused on how to effectively use Google Webmaster Tools to augment an existing SEO campaign. I basically go over each section of Google’s Webmaster tools and how to use the information provided there to enhance your overall SEO performance. Keep in mind that this presentation was done in February of 2008, so there may be some slight variations in what is displayed now. Please let me know what you think of the videos. I will be posted the rest of the hour long presentation here soon. Have a great week!

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/07/online-marketing-summit-oms-preview-how/feed/ 6 Surviving BMA in Vegas – Thoughts on Corporate Blogging http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/06/surviving-bma-in-vegas-thoughts-on/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/06/surviving-bma-in-vegas-thoughts-on/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:42:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=66 I was in Vegas last week at the annual Business Marketing Association conference in beautiful Lake Las Vegas. I had never been there before and even though its odd not to be on the strip, it was both beautiful and relaxing. Our resort (Lowes) is a very nice place with ZERO slot machines or gambling so it almost feels like Palm Springs here (never fear though, we did manage find a casino or three..lol). But before all the late night Vegas fun at TAO in the Venetian (which I am not allowed to blog about..LOL), I had the opportunity to catch the corporate blogging session at the conference, which given the fact that I am a blogger, was of interest to me. It was the only session I got to attend as I was doing SEO Labs most of the time I was there.

I thought it was a good panel with a lot of different perspectives on blogging. It was more centered around the case for corporate blogging versus the tactical execution (which was a little disappointing since I am obviously already convinced that blogging is a good idea). But some of the things I did take away from the session I thought were interesting.

I thought it was really interesting, especially given the traditional makeup of the audience, to see so many hands when the moderator asked who in the room was on Facebook. And also surprising was the number of hands that went up who were on Twitter. Equally as important was the fact that the moderator was recommending to all these people that they integrate Twitter into their marketing programs as another channel to directly communicate with their audience.

All in all, I didn’t learn any new strategies for blogging really, but I did realize how mainstream Web 2.0 technology is becoming. Although, no one there I talked to knew anything about Plurk, but I imagine that will be a hot topic at next years convention ;) Of coarse by then, we will have some new service to talk about (like Jolt for example). The Web 2.0 world changes quickly and understanding how to leverage the newest, emerging technologies is critical to understanding how to get the most out of your blog.

Stay tuned for my new Social Media Broadcast System post where I will detail how I set up my own social media sites to interact with one another and maximize my ability to broadcast my message across my social network.

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/06/surviving-bma-in-vegas-thoughts-on/feed/ 0 Digital Hollywood Internet Marketing Conference Today http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/05/digital-hollywood-internet-marketing/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/05/digital-hollywood-internet-marketing/#comments Wed, 07 May 2008 15:08:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=56 Well I finally made it to Hollywood last night at midnight thanks to my car breaking down yesterday and someone breaking out my back rear window. It’s always a bummer to spend $300 just to get back to the same state you were the day before (having a working car…lol). But, undaunted, I made the journey last night to my favorite city outside of San Diego and I am ready to rock! I don’t speak today until 2pm but we have an 8am meeting that I am currently at waiting for other speakers to arrive. We are also right next to the Dreamworks people who are showcasing here as well.

Today I am going to be speaking on the best practices of an ongoing SEO campaign. In other words, after you optimize pages and get all the groundwork done, what are the next steps that you can take to keep improving your rankings after the initial optimization lift. We are going to talk today a little about linking strategies, more about Google Web master tools, and content development just to name a few. Anyway, gotta go! More updates soon.

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/05/digital-hollywood-internet-marketing/feed/ 0 OMS Was Fun! http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/02/oms-was-fun/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/02/oms-was-fun/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:38:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=36 Well now that things have finally settled down a little here in San Diego because OMS is over, I am getting an opportunity to put my thoughts together about this amazing conference. And when I say amazing, I am not referring to the number of excellent speakers and the vast amount of online marketing information that was presented (although to be sure there was an abundance of both). I am referring to the number of incredible people I had an opportunity to speak with who are involved with all kinds of fascinating projects and Web sites. And it was a lot of fun to encounter so many of them who were so interested in SEO. And the OMS team did a great job of making sure everyone had a good time (some people had too good of a time..hahahaha. Don’t worry Michael, no one saw anything :P ).

And that’s one of the best things about doing SEO for a living is the number of varied projects I get to look at. From traditional powerhouses like Sony PlayStation, Sybase and Black and Decker Hardware and Home Improvement to the very niche focused like World’s Finest Clothing or TheGoldenOpportunity.biz, the SEO challenges of the OMS community run the gambit of possibilities. And that’s what fun, because SEO is the creative application of best practices to a wide variety of situations. It never gets old because there are always new challenges. And new people. And that’s what else is cool about SEO. It’s not just about Meta tags and redirects and site maps and all the other little details of execution. But it’s about the relationships you make with people and your ability to help other people achieve their goals, and in some cases, succeed in business. And that really is what I love the most about SEO. Of course the fact that it pays my bills is motivating as well…lol, but really the sense of satisfaction that you get from helping people is why I enjoy coming to work everyday. And it’s what I love about OMS.

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]]> http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/02/oms-was-fun/feed/ 4 SEO Secrets – Catfish Podcast http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/02/seo-secrets-catfish-podcast/ http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/02/seo-secrets-catfish-podcast/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:15:00 +0000 Ray "Catfish" Comstock http://businessol.com.php5-5.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/seo-blog/?p=32 As promised, here is the Podcast from my interview with Cindy at EmarketingTalkShow.com. I talk about maximizing internal linking metrics, creating good Meta data and the importance of great content for SEO. I hope everyone enjoys it. Now I have to get my stuff together for my speaking engagement OMS in two weeks. Hope to see you there!

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