Forum Moderators: open
One thing/idea/tip/event/fuzzy per post, but you may post as many times as you wish. Please be brief - a sentence or two max... Retweets are welcome
Tom said we shouldn't "wait to build 'version infinity' of our sites" - you know, the one that needs $1.2 million in venture capital? Just take the first step.
I know I've got more than a few empty domains that are quite a few years old (embarrassing, really) and this panel kicked my butt!
[edited by: tedster at 7:31 am (utc) on Nov. 11, 2009]
Also, and a bit of a surprise, he said each of the duplicate links seems to transfer a full extra share of PR - although only the first real anchor text seems to matter. Some interesting results, worth doing our own testing to prove or disprove, I'd say.
As a footnote, Matt Cutts arrived today and played the SEOMoz Werewolf game. Word is, he lost.
Bruce Clay seems to be sharing the most valuable tidbits so far. Going to try and attend more of his sessions.
The site review session - "emphasis on links" was jam packed and just overflowing with good stuff. That's what you get with such a strong panel!
I loved the Mega Site SEO session - huge sites have unique challenges. One tip (head-smacking obvious, really) was to use your analytics to find what are already your most popular articles and then link to them from other key pages.
By helping more people find those already strong and well received articles, you can gain even more natural backlinks and that strengthens those pages even further. After a while, those article pages can become almost as strong as the home page in circulating link juice through the rest of the website.
You can end up building a juggernaut with this kind of a positive feedback loop. I've done it on a smaller scale, but it sounds to me now like something to do all the time for a big site -- and may even for a not-so-big site.
Matt suggested to him to trash the domain and start over. So those with site issues may need to consider this.
Wanted to add another tibit here on something Matt just said. Google uses archive (wayback) as a tool to red flag domains when this is being blocked in robots.txt This doesn't mean it is filtered but opens the door for more serious reviews by his team.
Best quote from Ian Lurie - "Your customer is not an algorithm".
1) Caffeine will not be rolled out before this holiday season
2) Page load times will probably be factored into the search algo in the near future, and 2010 is a great year to speed up and optimize your sites
I also found the speakers talking less about their own achievements and pushing their own products. This may be just my experience, but I was happy to be spared the boredom and waste of good time.
Two issues that need fixing for future Pubcons. The technical problems with sound systems and the visual aids have to be overcome before sessions start. In one session we had to wait 15 minutes or so until the moderator could get the powerpoint presentation going. What a waste of time! The other problem is overbooked sessions, which left many of us leaning on walls, sitting on floors or peaking in from the entrance to the room.
In any case, in my view Pubcon 2.1 is a much improved product, which is bound to help Brett's conversions for future conferences. Good Job!
And how about that Orange Man Group at the airport?
They got pulled aside and frisked like crazy in security.
Heads up to Tedster as well on a great lecture.
I'm feeling triple deep fried after 5 days in Vegas.
Best quote I found in Vegas while at a Starbucks
"Whote Wheat? There ain't no whole wheat in Vegas, son"
