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SMX Advanced Seattle Recap
By Nick Berliner | June 8, 2008
SMX Advanced Seattle Recap
Search Marketing Expo just completed the anniversary show of their first conference, one year ago, on Seattle’s lovely waterfront convention center at Pier 66. Despite the unfavorable weather, the general reception of the event was very positive. Whether or not the topics discussed were actually advanced, or if the SEO sessions were too black hat, is up for debate, but they did have a candy bar at the MSN After Dark Party (Runts AND Skittles…).
For many, these conferences are about the networking, relationship building and reconnecting with friends. Others attend to meet industry heavyweights, pick up some tips on PPC or SEO and find out why Google’s spam expert, Matt Cutts, hates them. For me, this year’s SMX Advanced included all of the above.
We’re Not Moralists, We’re Marketers
This was just one of the outrageous lines uttered by Jay Young (Link Fish Media) during his entertaining talk on Link Building Techniques. Link building is a critical component for any search engine optimization campaign as the search engines use the number and quality of inbound links to your site to help determine it’s authority and relevance on a given subject. Link building generally falls into two schools: Matt Cutts Approves and Matt Cutts Disapproves (apologies to Microhoo…it’s not you, it’s that market share thing…). The search engines don’t want people gaming the system for fake, paid or schemed links. They look at links as votes for your site and links from questionable sites that are bought or scammed equal vote fraud. But, don’t be afraid of Cutts, says Young. Instead, Young suggests doing everything you can to get links, including buying links, linkfarms, three way links and reciprocal links. Just don’t get caught.
He also suggested a few white hat methods such as signing up or paying to be listed in authoritative directories (DMOZ, Yahoo, Joe Ant and Blog Catalog) and looking for non profit sponsorships. Link building techniques from the rest of the panel included networking the blogosphere, looking for high PageRank sites to approach for links, giving free talks at libraries or on campuses and looking for sites that “thank” sponsors with a back link.
Other SEO focused sessions included International SEO (don’t optimize for soccer in Spain), Bot Herding (cloak at your own risk), Surviving a Recession (advertise in China) and SEO Analytics (crawl frequency is important). I would love to give details from the Give It Up session where some of the biggest SEO Ballers in the industry give up there slyest tips and tactics for getting links and improving natural search rankings. Alas, all attendees are banned from blogging about this session for at least 30 days. I mean, I could tell you, but then I’d have to…
PPC, SEM and Developer Tracks
SMX Advanced also provides a paid search track and this year they smartly added a one day Developer Track and a SEM Business Track. On the PPC side, sessions included Bid Management, New PPC Tips, Tracking Leads, Ad Copy training and more. Some of the biggest takeaways were never stop tracking, know your most important metrics (ROAS, CPA, CTR…by engine, by keyword, by Web site…) and content network ads need to jump off the page. The Developer and SEM tracks focused on subjects from Search Friendly Development to Funding, Valuing and Selling SEM Businesses.
The quality of the speakers was again exceptional. Standouts included Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts, Kevin Johnson from Microsoft (who delivered a mea culpa of sorts…), Rob Kerry from Ayima Search Marketing, Adam Goldberg of ClearSaleing and the always entertaining, Danny Sullivan and Matt Cutts Show (this time in matching red t-shirts and vans).
A debate has emerged on whether the SEO track of the conference was too black hat which prompted Sullivan, the show’s founder and all around search engine marketing guru, to write a thoughtful piece on why SEO is not spamming and his intentions for the conference. While some may have inferred that advanced SEO is primarily comprised of black hat techniques, I felt it was obvious that the content that drifted to the dark side was either shock jock material or tactics to test only and not to attempt with clients or the company that pays you (if you want them to continue paying you…).
Controversy aside, what helps makes the SMX shows special are the good food (men with funny hats at carving stations), the multiple networking mixers (break dancing, cocktails and Journey) and the friendly atmosphere (a massive group hug following the last session).
Plus, let’s not forget the Runts and Skittles.
Topics: Local SEO, National advertisers, Events, Community, Content, Local Search, Uncategorized |