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1) Is there or will there be a schedule of known parties? At SES, Joe Morin usually posts a list of the parties even if they are not public.
2) If I do a good job of networking during the week, how important is the Friday pub session?
Thanks!
The best bet with events is to hear about them at the conference itself. Official ones will be announced.
As far as the Friday event is concerned, if you miss out, you'll never know how valuable it might have been.
Official ones will be announced.
I hope soon. I always, ahem, "plan to be flexible" but knowing when the big evening events are happening would be helpful. I imagine some folks are planning on squeezing in a show [pubcon.com] or enjoying a meal at one of the posh reservation-friendly restaurants [pubcon.com] (it is Vegas baby!) Knowing in advance what night would be best for that sort of thing would be appreciated. :)
Anyone with ideas of where to stay could sticky me.....
And don't miss the latest news PubCon Las Vegas Special Event : Safe Bets from Google [pubcon.com]
Cool. I take it they haven't decided which day yet? It would be nice if Brett could post the day/time soon.
Wednesday, 5:30 - 7:30pm
See your handy Session Grid [pubcon.com] for all of the dates/times/details.
So far it's very nice, hot tub in the room and it's like a mini condo. The room is huge I have a kitchen, 2 bathrooms a huge bedroom upstairs..
Only a few more hours and it's learning time. I am looking forward to it. I brought 2 people with me this time.. The CEO of BankCard Central and the Marketing Director. This will be their first time at something like this. We are looking forward today to hear Guy Kawasaki in the morning with the WebmasterWorld Pubcon Kickoff Keynote session.
Other Sessions we are attending:
- Feeds, Blogs, News, and Social Search
- In-House Optimization Forum
- Feeds and Other Alternative Optimization Opportunities
- Feeding the Engines - Writing Copy
- Affiliate Strategies and Content Strategies
These look like great topics, actually if I could be in all of them at once I would... There is so much knowledge that these guys have to share. The most important thing about this event is to network..
TALK to people! That is were things happen.....
Thanks Brett and the huge team of speakers.. See you in there.
Finally met Coopster - while he tried to tell me I look like Grizzly Adams, I think he fits the part more than I.
Already got some great tips from Webwork - does anyone pay attention to this man? He's a wealth of knowledge.
The evening quickly degraded as caveman wrangled a few folks into starting some late night "fun" at about midnight. Ugh... I'd say I was too old for this but he's a few years older than I so that's not gonna fly .... ;)
oh! by the way where are you guys, i cant find you.
So far a great pubcon and looks like it's only going to get better. :)
What did you think?
What did you take away?
Martinibuster, your link-building talk was very interesting, lots of excellent ideas I'd never thought of.
I read a really great blog post last night that was very detailed. Many great blogs out there to read...Enjoy.
[edited by: Hawkgirl at 5:55 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2006]
[edit reason] URL removed. [/edit]
Hats off to Guy and kudos to Brett for snaring, and sharing, this one!
btw - Did anyone copy down the email address to get the presentation slides? <Was the font size too small for me to see it? :)>
[edited by: TedM at 3:16 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2006]
On another note, Pubcon is huge. I think there was a massive last minute buy. Never seen such a long morning line, cocktail line, no space for tables and chairs to eat, crowded hallways. That's bittersweet as someone who has been going for years, because it's a pain to move around without feeling like cattle, but it's great for the organization. I've met some old friends but also lots of first timers that just registered recently.
I'm off to catch a presentation, will report back when I can. :)
Anyone know?
**New Age of Web Advertising Keynote by John Battelle**
www.federatedmedia.net
Dear drives audiences toward social media sites.
The best businesses on the web are those that allow customers to build the business
o MySpace
o Digg
o Amazon
Acknowledge your customers
o Why are they visiting your site?
o Engage in conversation.
o Let them know that you know what they need. Think outside the box.
Invite customers to help you change your business.
www.wikia.com
Be respectful of consumers i.e. Dont post on Wiki in your own self-interest as it is disrespectful of community.
Marketing copy should be conversational for increased ad performance.
Be honest with your audience, especially when blogging.
Branding be patient. Dont make all your moves based on instant gratification. That type of strat. does not prove fruitful long-term.
**Site Structure for Crawlability**
DO NOT HAPHAZZARDLY REDESIGN SITE! Mark Jackson
o Create site pyramid, blueprint
Crawlers are simple-minded. The cycle:
o Visit URL, store contents
o Decide when to revisit
o Extract links, decide whether/when to revisit
o Modern crawlers are continuous
o What works well for visitors is what works well for robots.
o Imagine how site would function without extras i.e. images, javascript, etc. test in screen reader, a blind person should be able t o navigate your site
o Have someone who knows nothing about site design/development look at site.
How do robots find sites?
o External links
o Domain registration
Crawling tech typically lags browser tech - Vanilla HTML is best at this point
Architecture
o Assign Keywords to EACH Page (3 per page)
o Good Content! Use product descriptions for keyword-rich content
o Write copy that compliments keyword research
o Keep old content, just clean up code
o Be careful with ULR structure 301s, 301s, 301s
o Study analytics
o Become an authority size matters!
o KEYWORDS ON HOMEPAGE
o Good Navigation
ί Avoid image-based Nav., Flash Nav., Javascript Nav.
ί Include keywords in links when possible
o ELIMINATE REDUNDANT CODE
Design
o Balance cool with strategic
o SEO friendly does not have to be ugly
Programming
o W3C Compliance
o Javascript: Comment out/Place in Includes
o Use CSS to increase load-time
o CLEAN SITE WITH BEST CODING PRACTICES
Content
o Homepage: 400 words; Interior Pages: 250 words
o Avoid keyword-stuffing
o Link to relevant pages
o Section 508 Compliance
Meta Information
o Meta Title MUST be unique on every page and should begin with main keywords
o Dont stuff keywords tag
o Keep description unique on each page
URL Structure
o BE CONSISTENT
ί Always use www or never use it redirect when necessary
ί Try not to use different URLs to point to same content, may be considered Dup.
o Clean URLs, human readable
o 301s must be used correctly
o Keep as static as possible
o Descriptive anchor text
o Minimize redirects and do not have redirect loops
o Every page can be reached by a static link (HTML sitemap from homepage)
Perfect Site
o All pages are reachable from root page
o Links extractable from plain HTML
o Single URL for each piece of content
o Limited dynamic arguments Use Flash on a limited basis and offer HTML version
o Minimize use of frames and javascript
o Keep text out of images
o Use ALT tags for images
o Content not dependent on sessions, cookies
o No robot.txt limits on content you want crawled
o Informative anchor text in internal links
Dynamic Sites
o Two meanings of dynamic
ί Content assembled on the fly
ί URL string contains query
o Avoid too many arguments
404s
o Be sure to return 404 on bogus URLs, but feel free to offer inf o to user
o Worst-case: soft-404 crawler trap
Robots.txt
o Good way to keep SEs from crawling certain pages
o New extensions available Now supports regex-like wildcard syntax
Changing Your Address
o Use 301 redirect from old site
o Hold on to old domain for as long as possible
o Consider page-to-page redirect if site structure is identical
Check Your Cite in SERPs
o What pages?
o Titles
o Descriptions Should be unique for EVERY page!
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com to find out how Yahoo! is crawling site and to authenticate set up automatic update of new content!
Google Webmaster Tools to Fix Crawling Errors www.google.com/webmasters
o Crawl errors
o Googlebot activity reports
o Robots.txt analysis
**Duplicate Content**
The key is prevention.
Write original descriptions.
Disallow robots on printer-friendly versions of pages.
Same pages with different URLs are considered dup. content
o Should be 301ed
o This includes index
o i.e. [yoursite.org,...] [yoursite.org...] [yoursite.org,...] [yoursite.org...]
URLs creation convention should be consistent to avoid indicating to the SEs that there may be dup. Content.
Session IDs are a no-no
Not penalized for named anchors/fragments
Same content in different languages is not considered dup.
NoFollows ARE followed, but they do not contribute to ranking,
CopyScape for Scraping Detection
**International & Euro Optimization**
European Internet Statistics
o 90 Million MORE Internet users than the US
o Over 10% of ALL Ad-Spend in both UK and Sweden was online in 2006. Makes online advertising more developed there.
Multi-lingual SEO
o Keyword Research Glossary Translation Optimization Validation
o Brainstorm with a native speaker
o Go to the competition and lift their keywords
o Tools
ί Trellians Keyword Discovery www.keyworddiscovery.com
ί Overture isnt best for SEO, but its better than nothing.
o Page Optimization
ί Native copywriter its better to start copy in foreign language.
ί Learn the translation process inside and out.
ί CHECK IT!
ί Consistency AND accuracy
ί Validators should look at English and foreign language copy when checking it.
ί Train the translator on SEO.
ί Send useful information to translators screenshots, images, character limits, etc.
ί Remember to send corrections back to the translator.
o Specific Languages
ί German
High expectations translations have to be accurate.
Text will be approximately 3x the length of English.
German grammar is difficult merges words depending on context.
Two forms of the language.
ί UK English
NOT THE SAME AS AMERICAN ENGLISH, SHOULD HAVE A UK SITE!
British are more verbose
Have a native speaker review the copy.
ί Spanish
Consider target region as there are many versions of the language.
o Steps to Cracking Southeast Asia
ί 300 million internet users
ί Understanding Your Audience
What is funny and creative here may not be there and vice versa.
Internet is often used for researching, but buying is often down at brick and mortars.
Direct marketing does not work as well BRANDING
50% of all internet-usage is done in Cafι
ί Asian Domain Name
Make sure its pronounceable to the native speakers (i.e. Chinese cant pronounce Google)
Go with extension of competitors
www.cnnames.net
ί Hosting
US Hosting Option
o Slow access
o Economical
o Easy to pay for
Chinese Hosting Option
o Fast
o Politically Regulated
o Online payment options are difficult
ί Know the Major Search Engines
ί Translation is Very Important
ί Keywords
Take time to develop keywords
Generally 15 different versions of words across all the countries
ί Paid Search
Begin with Paid
Implement local Paid
ί Organic Search
Site structure, Meta & Keyword Placement
Good content matters
Link popularity
Think Local
o Local company favoritism
o Local hosting
o Local domains
ί Understanding Reporting
ί Implement Analytics
ί The Red Tape
Limited Customer Service
No APIs
CPM Reporting
Kickbacks and Discounts Lack of Ethics Commonplace
Poor Payment Methods
Political Favoritism
High Speed Access is Limited
General Ideas
o Keywords in foreign languages are going to be easier to rank for as there are fewer results in most cases.
o International Affiliates can be the easiest way to enter into the market as a foreign SEO would otherwise need to be hired to properly optimize.
o Buy TLD for country or host site in target country
o Purchase backlinks from foreign sites.
I'm at the Super-Session right now, so I'll deliver more notes tomorrow. :)
Thanks!
Jerri
