Archive for October, 2009
The Importance of Creating an SEO Theme Throughout a Website
In an ideal world, each and every page on your website would be properly themed and contextualised to give the search engines a clear indication what your content is all about. This means researching individual keywords and phrases, whilst implementing unique Meta on each page.
For many though, this just isn’t possible. The time and understanding [...]
Reseller Accounts On Developer Hut Almost Done
For the last 4-5 days now I have been working on a reseller account system on Developer Hut. I have had the reseller account idea for years now, but just until recently I was waiting on making sure my current system is dialed in so I wont be working on too much stuff at once. [...]
Whiteboard Friday - Future-Proofing Your SEO
Posted by great scott!
When individuals or companies are new to SEO they often wonder if SEO is a one-time thing, or if it’s an ongoing process. In order to stay on top of your game, you need to keep an eye on your rankings over time and adjust accordingly; but there is a lot of core SEO strategy that doesn’t change much and paying attention to these fundamentals (along with a little upkeep) can go a long way toward future-proofing your SEO strategy.
In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand goes over the key components of three major areas of any SEO strategy–Technical, Content, and Marketing–to show you where and how you can plan your efforts so they won’t be obsolete next month or next year. Whether you’re just setting out to optimize your site, or you’re already working with an SEO strategy, this video will help you find places to tie-up loose ends and avoid potential frustration down the road.
PS - In the video Rand uses Hitwise as an example of a company that uses unique content effectively, referencing this post about Twitter traffic by Bill "Hold Me Closer Tiny" Tancer.
This Week in Search for 10/28/09
Posted by Sam Niccolls
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- Eric Schmidt - What the Internet Will Look Like in 5 Years:
Google’s CEO takes a look into the future and talks about some of the ways the internet will change, such as Chinese language sites outnumbering English language sites, an increase in the number of digital natives in the tech workforce, and the difficulties search engines have around ranking real-time search.
- eCommerce - What the Telco Industry Tells us About Product Selection:
From button treatments to product matrices, there are likely a number of telco industry learnings highlighted on the Get Elastic Blog that can be applied to your eCommerce site.
- Retailers Going Too Far Tracking Web Habits:
I’m probably the only person on earth who puts items into his shopping cart and intentionally abandons sites in order to get product discount e-mails a week or two later, but the USA TODAY discusses two issues that are hot button topics for more normal consumers: Cookie usage and behavioral targeting.
- Grammatically Incorrect Keywords:
In her Search Engine Journal Post, Susanna Speier talks about how even though grammatically incorrect keywords aren’t going to win you any spelling bees, they might be the ones that’ll make you the most honey, er-um money.
- Andrew Chen - Building Lifestyle vs. VC-Backable Companies:
In an interesting post pulling from his VC experiences, Andrew Chen discusses the fundamental differences between building a self-sustaining company and one that’s VC-backable.
- SEO by the Sea on the Importance of Listening:
In a step away from his usual technical and analytical posts Bill Slawski takes a thoughtful and reflective look at how his life experiences have validated the importance of listening. Also, Slawski’s post about How a Search Engine might distinguish between bots and humans is not to be missed.
- Amazon vs. Walmart - The Battle of the Books:
Target is a distant third in the online book sales race, but Compete provides some interesting, in-depth analysis on the toe-to-toe battle this month between Amazon and Walmart.
- Halloween E-mails:
Campaign Monitor’s Halloween E-mail Roundup shows some creative, brand specific examples of Halloween e-mails that’ll give you some last minute idea fodder for this year or things to think about for next year.
- Update on Google Rich Snippets:
Google has been working on better using structured data and expanding rich snippets for a while, but this week’s post on the GWC blog calls attention to improved documentation and tips around their rich snippet testing tool.
- WSJ - Why E-mail No Longer Rules:
You may have caught the Wall Street Journal post earlier this month, but if you didn’t, it’s worth a read. The negative backlash across the e-mail industry continues several weeks later.
- Integrating E-mail with Other Marketing:
A well executed e-mail is no different from a fine wine… it’s good on it’s own, but it’s better when given the right pairing. In a useful post centered around e-mail marketing, Joel Book addresses how the most successful e-mail initiatives integrate with other marketing efforts.
- Google Analytics Qualification Test:
GA has had a more heavyweight certification for agencies for some time, but now available to individual marketers is a test that gives web analytics users personal certifications.
- Networks, Publishers, & the Evolution of Search & Display Ads:
Jonathan Mendez talks about emerging trends in the ad world and makes some predictions as to how the landscape will change for both networks and publishers.
- Creating a Multi-Cultural Website:
If you’ve ever tried to market a product internationally, Forrester’s post about the importance of market research when creating a multi-cultural website might strike a nerve.
- Google Website Optimizer API Released:
GWO rolled out a new API, which, depending on your CMS provider, can allow you to create and launch tests without touching any of your website’s code. Pretty useful stuff. Although a major limitation is that the API currently only integrates with two CMS providers.
- Google Analytics - Be Careful When Rearranging Goals:
With GA’s release the other week came a myriad of fantastic features, including customized alerts and expanded goals. But as James Svoboda points out, if you want to preserve your goal history, you might want to think twice before rearranging your goals.
- Seth Godin - Some People Are Better Than Others:
The short post about customer types earns a spot in this weeks roundup for one reason: The use of the word sneezers, which Godin uses to refer to the customers and brand evangelizers who are best at spreading your company’s word.
- 5 Social Media Lessons for Paid Search Landing Pages:
Scott Brinker takes a fairly basic, but worthwhile look at some things to consider when optimizing your PPC landing pages.
- Google Now Treating 410 Status Codes as More Permanent Than 404s:
Historically Google has treated the two status codes the same, but now, as stated by Google’s John Mu, 410 status codes will be treated as more permanent.
- Bing It On:
Google is still going strong, but Bing’s share of the search market continues to grow.
- How SEO and Sex Are the Same:
In a post with gratuitous use of the word ’sex,’ Joel Leydon’s parody highlighting the similarities between sex and SEO is an entertaining read. Both sex and SEO are basic needs, they’re both organic, and yes, as Leydon points out, you can also pay for each, too.
Top YOUmoz entries:
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Case Study: How Building a Site for Users Improved Rankings by csaliba
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Web Analytics and Segmentation for Better Conversion by philou2803
Where Does Content Sit In Your Website’s Priorities
Content is part of the whole SEO services package. Whilst we all talk about implementing keywords, creating embedded word links and Meta behind the scenes, it is the on-page copy that will ultimately sway visitors and search engines alike to take you seriously.
The importance, therefore, of getting your website’s content right can hardly be overstated. [...]
Third-Party Affiliate Programs: Roll Your Own Instead
Posted by MichaelC
One of the best ways to build inbound links is to create an affiliate program. It’s also a great way to drive real customer traffic from related sites.
But…don’t just sign up for one of the big third-party affiliate programs–you’ll get the customers, but you’ll be throwing away a terrific opportunity to get great inbound links. Today, I’m going to try to talk you into writing your own affiliate program from scratch.
Companies like Commission Junction and Google’s own AdSense will do the implementation for you (and take a piece of the pie), but the real reason NOT to use one of these services is that the links to your site are going to be redirected through THEIR site, so that they can track the clicks, sales, etc. What this means, of course, is that when a crawler looks at your affiliate’s page, it’s going to see a link to the third-party affiliate site, NOT your site.
But surely there’s off-the-shelf software already written that you can just install on your servers and configure, right? (You’re not being lazy, you’re being EFFICIENT… right…).
True. There are is a ton of it out there. But the stuff that really works well is going to be popular, and if it’s popular, and tons of sites start using it, Google is going to eventually be able to spot some pattern in the linking or tracking identifier in the URL etc. and throw it into the "paid links" black hole. And whether a particular package does/does not skate under the radar with Google today doesn’t really matter–why spend your time integrating something that Google’s paid link assassins are likely to target in the near future?
Besides, it’s NOT that hard. Let’s run through a quick outline of what you’re going to need to do to roll your own affiliate program to get link juice where you want it.
Affiliate Signup
First, you’ll need an affiliate sign-up form. Collect the basics: company name, tax ID, address, email, password, phone, etc. and store it in a table in your database. Generate a numeric affiliate ID when you do this (I use the integer primary key from the database table for mine). I recommend that you also include a field for % commission–although you’ll probably have the same commission for 95% of your affiliates, it’s nice to have the flexibility to quietly offer a few key partners more to get them on board. Putting the % commission in this table will make your reporting and affiliate payments much easier.
Affiliate Linking Strategy
Next, you’ll want an easy way to generate links and linking code for the affiliates. DO NOT get all clever on us and create a single page that redirects after collecting the tracking info! You’ll funnel all the link juice to a worthless page. And don’t start talking 301s…there’s a much easier, cleaner way.
Simply add a parameter to your URL (e.g. affid=1234); write a little global include file that looks for the parameter in the URL, pulls it out, and stuffs it in a cookie. Then, use good old rel=canonical to tell the search engines that the canonical version of this page is the version without that affiliate ID parameter. Here’s an example written in plain old ancient ASP:
P.S. while calling the parameter "affid" probably makes this example more readable, if it were ME, I’d name the parameter something that looks less like an affiliate program ID 
Tracking Sales
Add a column for the affiliate ID to the database table where you track purchases. At purchase time, suck the affiliate ID out of the cookie. (And, when you write the cookie initially, I recommend a 60 day or 90 day lifespan on the cookie so that your affiliates will get credit if the customer returns later and makes a purchase…affiliates like this 
)
If your experience mirrors mine, your program is going to attract a ton of little affiliates that rarely generate any sales, plus a handful of affiliates that deliver 80% of the customers. For starters, create yourself a report you can run monthly that joins your orders table to the new affiliates table by affiliate ID, so you can see who you owe commissions to. Spend your time GETTING affiliates on board, and worry about automating payments to them after they’re making you tons of cash; you’ll most likely just have a handful of checks to write each month for a while.
Encouraging Links
Make it brainless & painless to link to detail pages on your site. Let the affiliate login, stuff their ID and login state in a session-expiring cookie, and on each page that might be link-worthy (e.g. your product detail pages), look for that cookie–if you see it, add a little block to the page with a callout and your linking HTML.
Linking HTML Tricks
Of course, providing the linking HTML gives you the opportunity to encourage favorable anchor text. If you have thumbnails of your products available, give the affiliate two options: an image link, and a text link. Put the linking HTML in a read-only multi-line text area (http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#h-17.7) and add an on-click handler that selects all of the text in the box to make it easy for them to copy the HTML (or, much more difficult for them to screw it up!).
What to Watch Out For
1. Craptastic Affiliates - you’re going to get a handful of affiliates from bad sites. Not much you can do about this, BUT as long as you’re getting plenty of links from good neighborhoods this shouldn’t get you into any trouble.
2. Trust - some affiliates may be leery of your home-built tracking system, and not want to trust that they get every last nickel they’re owed. Create a page outlining in general how you track commissions, and if you’re brave, reveal approximate conversion rates on your site. Offer to show referral stats from Google Analytics (or whatever you’re using for visitor tracking) on an on-request basis.
3. Referrals falling through the cracks - with the scheme I’ve outlined, of course the affiliate is not going to get credit if the user has blocked cookies. You COULD carry the parameter along in all URLs and form submits as hidden variables, but this is likely a lot of work on your side to cover a tiny fraction of the traffic. I’d recommend NOT using client-side Javascript to write the cookies as now you’re also weeding out users who block Javascript :-).
4. Promotion - first, create an "affiliate program" link in your footer that takes you to an intro to your program. Consider buying a mailing list for businesses in your industry and emailing those businesses. Target a number of larger, more promising partners and email their marketing/business development people directly about your program–but be sure to personalize each email so they KNOW they were hand-picked. Do a Google search for "affiliate program" + related businesses and look for affiliate programs YOU might want to join, then send them an "I joined YOURS, now check out MINE" email.
5. Payments - are many of your affiliates going to be out of country? Are the payments going to be really big? You need to figure out if you want to send checks, do PayPal payments, etc. There are laws about how much $ you can move between countries; and, you do need to report commissions over a certain amount to the IRS, which is why you want to collect the federal tax ID if you’re a US company.
Thanks to LHOON/WikiMedia Commons for the image of the nose; Faigl Ladislav/WikiMedia Commons for the image of the arrow; Gothika//WikiMedia Commons for the image of the gears.
Why are Search Engine Rankings so Important?
Before you start to consider implementing a full-blown strategy, you might well question why it is so important to get your website ranked on a search engine in the first place. Yes everybody talks about getting to number one on Google, but why exactly should you bother?
Well, for starters, Google is the most visited website [...]
Google’s Conflicting Push to Move Beyond Search
As Google has looked to increase revenues and move beyond being “just a search engine” they have put themselves at the top of the food chain in multiple categories. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, etc. 
If you search for books their book search is the result in natural search and when you search for movies they push their iGoogle application in paid search. Every holiday season Google tries to make further inroads in ecommerce by doing things like offering free Checkout services (at launch of Google Checkout), integrating Google Checkout with AdWords ads (and claiming this increases ad CTR by ~ 10%), and promoting Google Base / Google Product Search more aggressively in their navigation and organic search results. Some early Google Checkout users also got free links.
As Google dives into music services a new one-box with links to selected partners will appear at the top of the search results. And as Google makes tie-ins with more software providers you can look for Google to promote Google pack and other such offerings across the spectrum of search results.
Google has tested creating a mortgage marketplace in the UK and LendingTree is suing a business partner because they heard that the company might sell data to Google.
Everything is a beta and everything is a test. And then one day a new competitor appears from nowhere.
At times Google seems unbelievably savvy, but at times they seem unbelievably conflicted. Google claims that searchers are expecting more for advertisers and that advertisers need to start acting more like magazine publishers who publish (and advertise) great featured content. Sounds good, maybe. But then Google launches an AdWords ad translation kit. It is pretty safe to say that if a machine translates your ads in a competitive marketplace you are wasting an awful lot of profit margin.
Google claims to like brands, that brands are how you sort out the cesspool, and to show brands for generic keywords to increase user satisfaction.
But lets look at a recent search result for the eBay brand. Google knows that eBay.com gets a 90%+++ CTR, that the keyword is a trademark, that the keyword is navigational, etc etc etc. And in spite of eBay even bidding on their own brand, this is perhaps the first time Google takes a valuable partner hostage.
If Google claims that they need to show brands on generic search queries to increase user satisfaction then why do they pollute the associated brand search results with irrelevant nonsense? Navigational searches are the easiest ones in the world to get right, and if a site has historically got a 90%+++ click-through rate for a keyword, why would it ever make sense to risk putting a universal search result or a marginally relevant ad above the obvious #1 result?
If people are looking specifically for news when entering a branded 1 word trademarked keyword then surely they would skip past the #1 result for the official site. Sure there is money in promoting apps for eBay, but it seems so counter to Google’s messaging when justifying their algorithmic editorial philosophy elsewhere.
You Aren’t Average
Do you ever think that SEO is “obvious”? “Common knowledge”? “Pretty easy, really”?
Watch this:
In this video, “Scott” from Google asked 50 people on the street if they knew what a browser was.
Less than 8% of people surveyed did.
Many people confused a browser with a search engine. Google Chome - or Google “Crown” as one woman put it - was unheard of.
I bet you’re feeling smarter than you did before you watched that video! Fact is, if you’re reading this site, you’re already waaaay ahead of most people in terms of internet knowledge and how it all hangs together. Pat yourself on the back.
There is a downside, however.
The Distorted Lens Of Familiarity
We see the internet through our own lens, a lens that has been honed over the years by focusing on a specific thing. We study search engines, we experiment with algorithms, we hang on Matt Cutts every word - they should have asked the people if they knew who Matt Cutts was - “Matt Coutts?”, we upload sites, we research keywords, we study user behavior, we build links, and more.
Such attention to detail can provide clarity, but can also distort our view.
We need to keep in mind that most people don’t see the internet as we do. Most people don’t know what a browser is. Most people cannot tell a paid search result from a non-paid one. People certainly do not understand that the site they are seeing in first position may only be there because some smart SEO has helped ensure that happens.
What is “spam” to the trained SEO eye may be perfectly acceptable to the end user, so long as the user gets the answer they want.
normal people can’t tell the difference between AdSense style ads and all the other links on most web sites. And almost the same number don’t know what “sponsored results” on the Search Results Page are either. It’s just a page of links to them. They click the ones that look like they’ll get them what they want. It’s that simple
Beyond the tiny web-savvy crowd, these people are your market. So it pays to put yourself in their shoes, especially when making decisions about how your site functions and displays information.
According to research conducted by the Nielsen company, the average internet user now spends 68 hours online per month. That may sound like a lot, but it only comes out to an average of about two and a quarter hours a day
You have a tiny window of opportunity. There are so many other activities, and web sites, demanding a visitors attention. The fact someone has even arrived at your site should be seen as something special.
Here a few points I’ve found to be true.
1. When Designing A Site, Make It Stupidly Easy To Use
Internet users spend less than one minute per page while surfing. You have roughly four seconds to get their attention. The average time spent on a page is falling, indicating that if people don’t find what they want immediately, they will go elsewhere, and they can, because the supply of websites is endless. Ignore design rules predicated on the notion of information scarcity.
A user won’t wrestle with your site. Web design, particularly navigation, is not the place to get clever. Web design should be no more complicated than book design. You might notice every book shares the exact same user interface. As do cars. As do bicycles. I have no idea how my car works. People have explained the workings of the internal combustion engine to me, and I nod sagely, but really, I don’t have a clue. Nor do I need to know. I just turn the key and hit the pedal.
Your website design should ask nothing more of the user than a car does. Assume nothing, other than the user will point and click something obvious.
2. Make The Thing You Do Obvious
Once a person decides your page is roughly what they are looking for, you have a further four seconds to direct them to desired action or get them to continue reading. On the average web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.
If you make your money via Adsense, then place Adsense prominently on your pages. If you make money selling subscriptions, make a huge button that says “sign up for a subscription here”. Place it where everyone can see it on their first - and possibly only - visit. If you want people to donate to your charity, make the donate button big and bold and place it prominently on every page.
Pretty obvious, right.
But it’s amazing how many sites bury what they want a user to do.
So, decide what is the one thing you want users to do, and relegate - or remove - all other distractions. The exception is a site to which users return to time and again. Make more features available to power users, but ensure there is always a clear, simple path for the first time user.
Language can also get in the way of conversions. Assuming people know everything that you do (including acronyms and industry jargon) is an easy way to passively lose sales every day.
3. SEO - You Don’t Need to Sweat The Small Stuff
There are people who spend their life finding and exploiting gaps in the algorithms, gaps that often exist only temporarily. I’m not one of those people. Neither is Aaron.
I think SEO is most effective when approached holistically i.e understanding how the different stages of attracting the visitor then converting them to desired action relate to one and other.
Identify the target market - keyword research and visitor profiling - and work backwards from there.
When the visitor who - and lets remember, s/he most likely doesn’t know what a browser is - searches for “lemon law” - what do they really want to achieve? Do they want to find information about this topic? Do they want to buy something? Do they want to compare one service provider with another? What’s really on their mind?
Sift through a list of related keywords until you can determine intent. Once you’ve figured out the intent, give the people the content they desire. Publish crawlable pages addressing that topic and intent, get the pages linked from other pages related to that topic and intent, and advertise your pages anywhere where your target market resides, either by buying space on high ranking sites or publishing your views, and links, on those sites. Read this.
That’s SEO in a nutshell. Leave the minutiae to the hackers, unless you are one!
4. The Most Successful Stuff Replicates Something The User Already Does
Email is a killer app because it enables a user to do something they already do more easily - write letters to people.
Search is a killer app because people have always looked for information, and search makes that process more efficient.
The computer games industry is huge because people have always played games.
Facebook and Twitter are huge because they are essentially txt messaging in another format. Txt messaging is a replacement for calling people on the phone.
Skype. Amazon. Ebay. All the big, successful internet plays took an everyday task the user already undertakes, and puts that task in an online context.
These services don’t ask the user to do something genuinely new. Most applications that ask users to do something genuinely new - a lot of Web 2.0 applications, for example - fail miserably for this reason. Most users don’t want to do anything genuinely new.
The people who do - radical early adopters - are highly unlikely to be your target market.
Try to frame whatever you do in terms of a task a visitor already knows well. Demonstrate, quickly and clearly, how you make that task easier or more efficient.
5. Even Google Users Are Not Typical
Studies suggest that Google users tend to be wealthier than average, and have more experience with the internet than users of MSN and Yahoo. The longer people have been using the Internet, the more likely it is that Google will be their search engine of choice, are more likely to have household incomes above US$60,000 than people who use competing search engines.
Whilst these numbers are probably getting more mainstream as Google grows their market share, it pays to remember that your target market may not be using Google at all! One of the secrets of search marketing is that the conversion rates from MSN and Yahoo can blow Google conversion rates out of the water, especially if you’re in the market of providing goods and services to the average punter.
A good example of this was when Aaron recently shared ad click-through rates per visitor for some large sites…with Bing in the clear lead…nearing double the rate of Google users.
Summary
In summary, the key to internet marketing is to know your audience. Really know them. It is not that people are stupid, it is that they are likely to be unfamiliar.
And remember that the average internet user is not you
7 Tips for Surviving PubCon
Posted by Dr. Pete
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Conferences can be amazing opportunities for education and networking, but to get the most out of them, you have to make it to the end. If your average SEO conference is an endurance event, then PubCon is the Iron Man – 3 full days of sessions, sponsored parties, being dragged around Vegas by crazy people, topped off by a full afternoon of even more drinking (just in case you somehow managed to forget where the “pub” in PubCon came from). This year marks my 3rd PubCon, so I thought I’d offer some tips for getting the most out of your experience without ending up looking like this guy.
1. Plan Your Sessions
Even before you leave for a conference, take some time to plan. Time flies onsite, and by Day 3, you’ll barely remember your name, let alone what the difference is between "Track A1 - Social Media" and "Track A2 - Media in Society". The Murphy’s Law of conferences is that the 4 sessions you most want to see will all be in the same time slot. If a session just isn’t cutting it for you, don’t be afraid to get up and go somewhere else, unless you were foolish enough to sit in the front row.
Pro Tip: If you do change sessions, please open and close doors quietly. It would be a shame if you were beaten to death with a laptop at your first conference.
2. Round Up A Posse
What’s the difference between you and an A-list SEO celebrity? Celebrities are constantly surrounded by their posses. You can gain instant celebrity by pre-building your entourage – get on Twitter and arrange to meet some folks for dinner the night before the conference starts. Then, follow those people around, each taking turns being the center of attention. People will automatically assume that you must be famous.
3. Stay Hydrated
Like any endurance event, you have to remember to stay hydrated. If you see a free bottle of water, grab it, even if you’re not thirsty. The vending machines at the Las Vegas Convention Center do take credit cards, which may seem convenient, but you’ll feel differently when you get home and your wife asks you why there are 7 pages of $3 charges on your Visa bill.
Pro Tip: The IRS does not consider $600 worth of Pepsi to be a legitimate write-off.
4. Bring A Sweater
Running a large event is grueling work, so it’s no surprise that many conference organizers grew up in the Himalayas. Being near-Yetis, these otherwise helpful organizers labor under the assumption that everyone is comfortable at a balmy 50° Fahrenheit. By Day 2 of any conference, no matter how manly you think you are, you’ll be begging to borrow the nearest hot-pink cardigan. Do yourself a fashion favor and bring your own sweater or dress in layers.
5. Buy a Power Adapter
Laptops outnumber outlets by a ratio of 99:1 at any SEO conference, and even though you love your iPhone, let’s face it – it has the battery life of a crack-addicted drumming monkey. If you bring a portable power adapter, you’ll not only be able to share outlets, but you’ll be a hero to anyone who comes along with a dying battery.
Pro Tip: Save your last remaining plug for a celebrity – you never know when Matt Cutts may need to plug in his Android phone.
6. Know The Controversies
SEOs love controversy, so try to have a few in your pocket for when you need a conversation-starter. Start with something easy and work your way up. Here are a few to get you going, from least to most controversial:
- "What do you think of the new nofollow rules?"
- "I think Flash is just as SEO-friendly as HTML."
- "Did you hear that Rand Fishkin eats puppies?"
Of course, you never know what side of a controversy any given person will be on – when in doubt, use these handy, pre-packaged phrases to keep the conversation going:
- "Dude, that sucks"
- "Seriously, I know"
- "You should totally ask [insert expert] about that"
7. Know When to Nap
No amount of Red Bull can keep you awake for 4 days straight, and sooner or later you may need to sneak a cat nap. There are some comfy chairs in Vegas, but there’s also a lot of competition, and napping on slot machine stools gets expensive fast. If you find yourself falling asleep during a session, just bury your head face-first into your iPhone or Blackberry. People will naturally assume that you’re fanatically Twittering.
8. Bonus Tip!
That’s right – 8 tips for the price of 7, because that’s just the way I roll. Pay attention, because this one is important. Whoever wrote the motto "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" clearly doesn’t work in our industry and has never heard of this thing called the internet. Of course, from a marketing standpoint, "What happens in Vegas will probably be photographed on a cell phone, Tweeted, Re-tweeted, posted on Facebook, and tagged for the entire world to see" doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.
Don’t Forget to Say "Hi"
This isn’t really a tip, but if you’re a Moz community member, don’t be shy about introducing yourself. SEOmoz is also going to be hosting a special event you won’t want to miss (more details coming very soon). Hope to see you there!
(Las Vegas sign photo licensed from iStockPhoto.com)