In order to receive a 15% discount, just enter the code SEOPTIMISE012 when signing up online. There are different packages available and the prices go up after 30th March so it’s best to book early!

For coverage of previous events, please check out the presentations we have delivered and posts we have written:

• Keyword Research presentation by Kevin Gibbons – SMX London 2011
• How Important are Facebook Likes for Search? – Marcus Taylor presentation, SMX London 2011
• Top 10 SEM Tips From SMX Advanced London 2010
• Social Media for Online Reputation Presentation by Kevin Gibbons – SMX London 2010
• PPC Ad Quality Presentation by Richard Fergie – SMX London 2010
• SMX Advanced 2010 – Best of Seattle & London
• 39 SMX London 2010 Recap Tweets
• 41 Ultimate Tips from SMX London 2009

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. 15% Discount Code for SMX Advanced London 2012

Related posts:

1. UK Search Conference Calendar – 2012
2. What’s Your SEO Confession? SMX Advanced London Ticket Giveaway!
3. Keyword Research – SMX Advanced London 2011 Presentation by Kevin Gibbons

So for 2012, I’ve put together a conference calendar of search events – let me know if there’s any I’ve missed!

February:

• SES London – London, 21-23 February 2012

March:

• Think Visibility – Leeds, 3rd March 2012
• UK Search Awards Conference – London, 9th March 2012
• Distilled – Link Love – London, 30th March 2012

April:

• BrightonSEO – Brighton, tbc

May:

• International Search Summit – London, 14 May 2012
• SMX London - London, 15-16 May 2012
• SAScon - Manchester, 17-18 May 2012

June:

• a4uexpo Europe – Barcelona, 19-20 June 2012

Oct:

• a4uexpo London – London, tbc
• Distilled – Search Love – London, tbc

Nov:

• Conversion Conference – London, 27-28 November 2012

I’ll be speaking at a couple of these events, more on that once I can confirm them. So which events will you be attending this year?

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. UK Search Conference Calendar – 2012

Related posts:

1. What is your favourite UK search conference?
2. 15% Discount Code for SMX Advanced London 2012
3. Think Visibility Voted #1 UK Search Conference by SEOs

Confessions of a Conversion Rate Optimiser

The afternoon kicked off with a keynote by Bryan Eisenberg, who has been in the conversion optimisation business since 1998.

59. Conversion rates have increased little over the past decade. Every site has a conversion problem.
60. Companies typically spend $92 to generate traffic to every $1 to convert people once they get onto the site.
61. Advertising is seen as sexy, while CRO is hard.
62. Bryan showed a clip of Sell or Else, in which David Ogilvy tells direct response advertisers that they know the effectiveness of their adverts ‘to the dollar’, while general advertisers do not, and implores the direct response advertisers to tell them what they have learnt to ‘rescue the advertising business from its manifold lunacies’.
63. Conversion is a journey or process, not an event.
64. Persuasion Architecture – get personas, plan their journeys, implement and test the results – this takes ages, and so is not popular.
65. The job of an analyst is to give a to-do list.
66. There are three CRO elements:
• Tools
• People
• Process
67. Four variables correlated with improved conversion rates:
• Perceived control
• Structured approach
• Someone is responsible
• Staff are incentivised
68. Don’t do slice and dice optimisation. Test changes to things that are important, like headings.
69. Cutting a form by 25% always has an impact.
70. Have a clear hypothesis with a clear KPI when you test.
71. Testing needs to be fast.
72. Useful tools:
• WebsiteTestingTools.com – lists many tools (free and paid)
• BO.LT
• BTBuckets – free behavioural targeting
• Runa – does deal optimisation (creates personalised deals to all site visitors)
• Monetate
73. Putting badges on products can increase conversion rates by up to 50%.
74. The Conversion Trilogy is made of Relevance, Value and Call to Action.
75. You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time – and you can only optimise a website one bite at a time. Do quick, dirty tests fast – remember this is for revenue rather than science.

E-Commerce Best Practices

The first speaker was Paul Rouke from PRWD, who went through many examples of retail sites. You can find his slides here, and his immense collection of usability resources here.

76. The key conversion principles are:
• Transparency
• Build trust and confidence
• Remove usability barriers
77. Have a bar of USPs across the top of the page.
• They don’t have to be links, but they must be prominent.
• Examples: John Lewis, ASOS and Boots.
78. On product pages, encourage people to add to shopping basket.
• Put the info people will want. Don’t hide it.
• Example: ASOS has delivery and returns information on the product page, very visibly.
79. Understand what users are looking for and inform them.
80. Have social proof – this is becoming more influential in improving conversions.
• Have customer ratings and reviews, promoted close to the product’s name and price.
81. Areas with tab navigation are good for product and delivery info – they fit more info into a small space.
82. On the shopping basket page, encourage people to check out.
83. Be transparent over delivery cost and options – don’t force visitors to check out before giving them that!
84. Focus visitors’ minds on proceeding with a clear Call To Action.
85. Make payment options prominent.
86. Say the process is secure:
• Show security measures and accreditation.
• Use the word ‘securely’ on buttons.
87. Remove barriers for new customers to checkout:
• Don’t force people to register straightaway. Say ‘continue’ rather than ‘register’.
• Let people register at the end of the process, when you only need to ask for a password.
• Say why customers should create accounts – benefits to them like order tracking and saving their details.

Next was Stephen Pavlovich from Conversion Factory

88. Mine your analytics!
89. Look at your Sales Funnel – where are you losing potential customers?
90. Top Landing Pages – what percentage of traffic lands on the homepage?
• Are there any sales messages that are only on the homepage? Not everyone will see them.
91. Look at Browser Conversion Rates:
• This shows if there is a problem with your site on a particular browser.
• Use Browsershots or ClickTale to check for compatibility problems.
• Note that ‘Safari’ covers iPhone and iPad users as well as desktops.
92. Look at Site Search – visits that use site search can convert 7.5 times more than those who don’t.
• See how people search, and check that they see the right results.
93. Don’t guess visitors’ objections. Talk to visitors and customers to see what stopped them or nearly stopped them from buying.
• Example: a high end bathroom site thought that people might be put off from converting because they hadn’t seen the product in person, but surveying customers showed that the problem was lack of delivery information.
• See if you can make business decisions based on this (like improving delivery).
94. Use Benefit Bars – put your USPs front and centre
• Make the USPs believable without having to check the terms and conditions – make them links that open overlays on the page, with basic info and a link to another page for more info, rather than taking you to the other page straightaway.
95. Show how much the visitor is saving from the RRP in the shopping basket.
96. Use the principle of scarcity – have messages like “only 3 left in stock!”
• If you don’t have that detailed stock information, you can say “Hurry! Limited quantities!”
97. Have reviews for your PPC ads – this increases CTR and trust.
• You just need 30 or more reviews on sites, like dooyoo or Trustpilot.
• Go for review sites with better conversion processes.
• If a customer has a Gmail address, send them to Google Places to review you, as no further registration is needed.

Why Won’t You Buy? Finding and Eliminating Conversion Blockers

First to speak was Dr Karl Blanks, chairman of Conversion Rate Experts and former rocket scientist. He listed 16 conversion killers:

98. Not split testing
• Use Which Multivariate
99. Meek tweaking
100. Customer not in shopping mode
• Someone just browsing may convert later. Capture their details, build up a relationship, and get them to convert when ready
101. Unclear value proposition – “I don’t know what you do”
102. Lack of trust
103. Lack of interest
• The Amazon Marketplace means that people interested in things not sold by Amazon itself get what they want, and they think Amazon has everything and so return later.
104. Confusion
• Read Strunk and White!
• Also read the Plain English Campaign (especially for B2B).
• Get someone to read copy out loud and hear where they stumble.
105. Usability
• Use UserTesting.com.
• Get someone to use the website and watch them.
• Use Ethnio to recruit testers from actual visitors.
106. Product specific objections
• Draw up a shopping list of what prospects ask and check that the site answers them.
107. Fatal distraction – people may just get distracted from the conversion process
• Get contact details as soon as possible.
108. Visitors don’t believe your products are good
• Use social proof like expert reviews, media mentions, celebrity associations and customer testimonials.
109. Competitor gets sale
• Use niching. Specialists are assumed to be better than generalists. (This is why there’s no general shampoo, only shampoo that claims to be for a particular hair-type.)
110. Perceived risk – reduce this
111. Defers decision
• Create urgency.
• Example: TicketMaster has a timer for how long you can reserve a ticket for.
112. Affiliates may have a problem that their visitors have to go on to a rubbish site to actually convert
• Make sure visitors are persuaded before they leave your site.
• Track people.
• Get visitors on an email list.
113. Bad prior experience
• Good experience leads to repeat business.

Next to speak was Rob Jackson, founder of Elisa DBI and Conversion Thursday.

114. CRO is made of persuasion architecture, relevancy and user-centric design.
115. It’s not about having a massive green call to action button – colour doesn’t matter.
116. First conversion blocker: no measurement strategy.
117. Build a framework of KPIs
• KPIs should be the metrics that achieve the website’s goals (and the website’s goals should come from the business’s overall objective).
• Have targets and alerts.
• Dashboards and relevant reports help persuade business cases.
118. Second conversion blocker: ignoring mobile internet users
• A third of UK adults own a smartphone and a half of internet users in the UK use mobile.
119. To convince your boss – show mobile conversion rate is low compared to the rest of the site’s traffic, then calculate potential by using the return on mobile traffic with the rest of the site’s conversion rate.
120. You don’t need a full mobile commerce site – try a holding page or contact page.
121. Third conversion blocker: ignoring high value segments
• Aggregate of all data is rubbish. There are many different types of user.
• Analyse KPIs by segment (visitors from social media, people with over three visits, logged in members, etc).
122. Look for segments that differ greatly from site average.
123. Target high value segments with relevant content.

That’s it for the first day – takeaways from Day 2 are coming soon.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Conversion Conference London: 65 More Takeaways

Related posts:

1. Conversion Conference London: The First 58 Takeaways
2. What is your favourite UK search conference?
3. 154 Awesome Pubcon 2011 Takeaways, Tips & Tweets

With the year drawing to a close, and Christmas just round the corner, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try and summarise the best and most popular posts of the year, and hopefully give you a few early SEO Christmas gifts. While I am personally not a fan of list posts, judging by the most popular posts a lot of you are. So ever eager to please, here is a list of the 58 best/most popular posts of the year.

Our 10 most popular posts

What better place to start than the most popular posts of the year? Between them, the posts below generated almost 100,000 pageviews. So, working on the basis that 100,000 people (ok, maybe not people) can’t be wrong, there must be some awesome SEO gems contained within them.

1. 30​ Web Trends You Have to Know About in 2011 – the first post of the year is also the most popular, with Tad’s post about what was going to happen to search and social in 2011 receiving over 17,000 pageviews. As you would expect, there were a few predications that didn’t come true, but a fair few that did.
2. 30 Ways to Use Social Media for Business People – with businesses seemingly falling over themselves to become more social, it’s good to know what you can use it for, and this post rounds it up.
3. 30 (New) Google Ranking Factors You May Over- or Underestimate – a one-stop guide to some of the more misunderstood Google ranking factors: link decay anyone?
4. What Happens When You Build 10,000 Dodgy Links to a New Domain in 24 Hours? – this post got a fair few mentions at conferences, on other blog posts and even in the mainstream media. While the answer may seem obvious, you never know until you try, and Marcus did.
5. 30 (New) SEO Terms You Have to Know in 2011 – this was the most shared post on our blog in 2011 and, amongst other things, told everyone what a content farm is shortly before Google tried to destroy them all. Still, there are always the 29 other terms.
6. High Risk SEO: 33 Ways to Get Penalised by Google – a post that summarises ways to get penalised by Google. Best used as a “how not to guide”, but I’m fairly sure people will still try a few and cross their fingers.
7. 36 Must-Read Local SEO/Google Places Resources from 2010/2011 – with Local and Places results becoming ever more prominent in the SERPs, it’s best to know how to master them. This post did the hard work and aggregated lots of the best sources for you.
8. 30 Web Trends for 2012: How SEO, Search, Social Media, Blogging, Web Design & Analytics Will Change – despite only being published in late November this still made the top 10 list. Judging by the accuracy of the one Tad did for 2011, it’s probably worth a read.
9. Can You Get a New Domain Ranking Using Just Facebook Likes & Tweets? – there was a lot of talk earlier in 2011 about the potential use of social signals in Google’s algorithm, so Marcus tried to find out if there was anything to back up the chat by experimenting.
10. 30 Link Building/Link Baiting Techniques That Work in 2011 – With the Panda update (potentially) devaluing a lot of low quality links, Tad refreshed our memory about some of the great link building tactics that are still available.

The 20 posts that got you sharing

The later half of the year has all been about one thing – social media, largely fuelled by Google’s latest attempt at social media, Google+. Bearing this in mind, we had to check what got our readers sharing during 2011.

1. 30 New SEO Terms You Have To Know in 2011 – shared 1,510 times
2. 30 Ways To Use Social Media for Business People – shared 1,284 times
3. 30 Web Trends For 2012: How SEO Search Social Media Blogging Web Design Analytics Will Change – shared 890 times
4. 30 New Google Ranking Factors You May Over or Underestimate – shared 678 times
5. How To Write a Social Media Audit – shared 599 times
6. Can You Get a New Domain Ranking Using Just Facebook Likes Tweets – shared 597 times
7. High Risk SEO 33 – Ways To Get Penalised by Google – shared 582 times
8. 30 Link Building & Link Baiting Techniques That Work in 2011 – shared 406 times
9. What Makes a Real SEO Expert – shared 404 times
10. 30 Google Quality/Panda Update Resources for Content Farmers and SEO Practitioners – shared 397 times
11. 30 Efficient Web Tools That Save Time and Make Money For Power Users – shared 369 times
12. 30 Google SERP Changes that Impact Your SEO Strategy – shared 357 times
13. 157 Awesome PubCon 2011 Takeaways – shared 346 times
14. What Happens When You Build 10,000 Dodgy Links to a New Domain in 24 Hours – shared 322 times
15. 30 Web Trends You Have To Know About in 2011 – shared 285 times
16. Google Dropping Analytics Keyword Data: What Does This Mean – shared 273 times
17. 30 SEO Myths That Are True or False Depending on Who You Ask – shared 247 times
18. 30 Ways To Optimise Your Site for Speed – shared 235 times
19. Experiment Do Google+1S Impact Your Rankings – shared 229 times
20. Social Media Why an SEO Background is Better Than PR – shared 229 times

The three best experiments of the year

Due to the secrecy behind Google’s algorithm, a lot of popular SEO theory is based on anecdotal evidence and guess work. But, every so often Marcus, our resident SEO mad scientist, likes to don his lab coat shark outfit, lock himself away and get experimenting. Below are three of his best experiments from 2011 (no animals were harmed during the making of these posts – but a few sites were).

1. What Happens When You Build 10,000 Dodgy Links to a New Domain in 24 Hours
2. Experiment – Do Google+1s Impact Your Rankings
3. Can You Get a New Domain Ranking Using Just Facebook Likes Tweets

The 10 greatest SEO tool posts

The one thing common to all SEOs is that we like our tools, whether it’s to crawl a site or just optimise it. In the SEOptimise office we like to try everything out, and the good news for you is that we love to write about them too. So here are the 10 greatest posts about SEO tools we wrote this year.

1. Top 20 WordPress Plugins 2011 Edition
2. 30 Efficient Web Tools That Save Time and Make Money for Power Users
3. 10 New Google Tools Products and Services Every Business Person Has To Know About
4. Five Low Profile SEO Tools
5. 30 Very Useful Twitter Tools You Must Be Aware of
6. Google Webmaster Tools: A Beginners’ Guide to Installation
7. More Than 30 Google Tools, Extensions, Tutorials and Other Resources
8. Simple Goal Conversion Tracking With Piwik, the Open Source Google Analytics Alternative
9. 30 Social Search Tools SEO Resources For Power Users
10. Salespeople The Free SEO Tool Every Agency Has

10 awesome SEO conference posts

As an agency we get like to go to and talk at as many conferences as we can (especially if they are in Vegas). But we also know that not everyone can go to them all, and even if you do there is a lot to remember, so we always try our best to post a round-up of the stuff we hear. So below I have summarised our 10 most viewed conference related posts.

1. 157 Awesome PubCon 2011 Takeaways
2. Using Social Media for SEO Benefit: Travel Presentation SAScon 2011
3. How Important Are Facebook Likes for Search Presentation From SMX London
4. BrightonSEO 2011 Roundup Who Said What and Why
5. Post Panda Affiliates’ Guide to Surviving Google, a4uexpo London 2011
6. Keyword Research SMX Advanced London 2011 Presentation by Kevin Gibbons
7. Top 65 Takeaways From a4uexpo London 2011
8. SearchLove 2011: Top Trends
9. 28 Top Takeaway Tweets From SAScon Mini 2011
10. London SES Day 1

Five wicked polls

We love a good bit of crowdsourcing in the SEOptimise office, and we are very lucky that we have followers who like to get involved and share their opinions. Here are five of the best and most interesting polls we ran this year.

1. 74% of SEOs Buy or Would Buy Links
2. Google Dropping Analytics Keyword Data: What Does This Mean
3. Quick Poll Is Google AdWords Remarketing (A) Great for ROI or (B) Annoying
4. Poll What Are The Most Important Factors That Make a Blog Post Go Viral
5. Think Visibility Voted 1 UK Search Conference by SEOs

So these are our greatest hits of the year, hope you all found some cool stuff. Next year there will be more of the same, plus hopefully a few more video blogs as well. If there are any blogs that we haven’t included but you think deserve a mention, let me know in the comments section.

Finally, we are always happy to take requests, so if you want us to blog about something in particular you can add those to the comments too.

*Image credit: negatendo on Flickr (I had to use a cat picture once this year).

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. SEOptimise’s 58 most awesome blog posts of 2011

Related posts:

1. 154 Awesome Pubcon 2011 Takeaways, Tips & Tweets
2. Top SEOptimise posts in September…
3. SEOptimise Wins Best Blog at the UK Search Awards 2011

Mobile and Real Time Optimisation

The conference started with Amy Africa, CEO of Eight By Eight, packing many tips for mobile conversion optimisation into her forty-five minute keynote.

1. Three things matter for mobile:
• You have to have some mobile presence (even if it’s not a full mobile site)
• Optimise speed. A page should have a size around 50k.
• Navigation.
2. Mobile has a half to a third the number of conversions of a traditional site.
3. You have to concentrate on only one goal.
4. Get users’ email addresses or phone numbers so you can profile them.
5. Pay attention to the user’s context, and use diversions to show them appropriate content.
• Where have they entered the site from? Different sources convert differently, or will want different information. Twitter converts well on the phone. People from shopping sites will want prices. Concentrate on your top referring sources.
• Where are they? You may want to show them a different page if they are looking at your site while in your store.
6. Apps are not mobile sites. Concentrate on your mobile site rather than on making an app, unless you have a very good idea for the app.
7. Treat users on tablets separately to those on mobile.
• Tablet traffic convert around twice as much as desktop.
• Mobile traffic convert a third or less.

8. Navigation: Mobilise, don’t miniaturise.
• Streamline your navigation, and make sure it is intuitive.
• Only have five to eight choices.
• Top navigation is better than bottom navigation.
• Use breadcrumbs, sorts and jump links.
• Use big buttons. Colour doesn’t matter, but size does.
• Have a big search box at the top, and use auto-suggest.
9. Change forms and checkouts.
• Fields need to be bigger so people make fewer mistakes.
• Make it easy to spot and correct errors.
• Have only three to five choices in drop-down menus.
• Be clear on the length of the process, for example by saying “step 1 of 7”.
10. Over 92% of time is spent on the first view, above the fold.
• Limit your message to one page and have the important stuff at the top.
• Don’t waste space on adverts for other people’s brands.
11. Don’t use Flash.
12. The best way to get conversions is to have a click to call. Have your phone number everywhere.
13. Graphical icons can help, but make sure to test as the wrong icons can bomb.
14. Have images big but not too big.
15. Only people on 4G will watch videos.
16. Always have an option to email, so people can send a page to themselves.
17. Abandon programs are key – find out how to convert abandoners on other channels.
18. If a user shares something on social media, they won’t come back to your site. Give them options to share after they have converted.
19. Always give the option to view the full website.
20. Get something that’s good at tracking mobile, like Bango.

Turbo-Charging PPC & Display Landing Pages

First to speak in the session was Kai Radanitsch, from eBusinessLab, who talked about different sorts of searches and landing pages.

21. Work out user intent from the search term – is it informational, navigational or transactional?
22. Transactional searches have on average 1.5 words, while informational have 3.7.
23. The highest quantities of transactional searches are between 11am and 4pm.
24. When creating an ad for a keyword, use the keyword in the ad headline.
25. Expand the keyword with a benefit
• For instance, if the keyword is ‘London Hotel’, the headline could be ‘London Hotel from £44’.
26. Ads are more attractive if there is a customer rating
• Get ratings displayed by getting 30 four or five star reviews on Google Product Search.
27. Use sitelinks – they may not be clicked on, but they broaden the offerings you can show in an ad.
28. Homepages do not make the best landing pages. You need something on them to grab visitors and get them to your offerings.
29. Article landing pages can have calls to action like newsletter signups.
30. Rapid conversion landing page are good for things like insurance. They don’t give too much info, and make conversion quick.
31. You could have a page which asks for a priority code that was in the advert, and prefill the code.
32. From the search, get a mental hook to the landing page.
33. Repeat the ad’s language on the landing page.

The second speaker was Guy Levine, CEO of Return On Digital.

34. Don’t just think about keywords and landing pages, think about people and personas.
35. PPC testing needs a good campaign setup. Get a good setup with ‘peel and stick’
• Your first go at campaign structure is a stab in the dark.
• When campaigns are running, find keywords that work
• Peel the keywords out of their current ad groups
• Stick them in new ad groups on their own, so tracking their performance is easier.
36. Keep a tight correlation between keyword and ad copy.
37. Track conversions
• You want specific conversion actions, not pageviews and time on site.
• Use phone tracking (like AdInsight).
38. Multivariate testing versus A/B testing:
• Multivariate testing needs a lot of people to come to the site, or will take ages with low traffic.
• A/B testing is quicker as there are only two variants being tested.
• Use A/B testing first, then use multivariate testing on smaller details.
39. You want at least 100 conversions for each variant being tested before making decisions.
40. Testing is about overcoming objections.
41. The worst mistake is losing context. People get perplexed if a specific long tail search goes to a less specific landing page.
42. Having PayPal is good for B2C.
43. If you want to test alternative sources – like testing traffic from PPC rather than all traffic – then you need separate landing pages.
44. The Call To Action button is the biggest priority for buying pages, while more elements are important for lead gen.
45. Click Tale can tell you which form fields people don’t fill in (even if they abandon the form).
46. Tell people
• We are experts
• This is what you should buy
• Please buy it from us

SEO and SEM versus CRO – Tactics for Optimising Both Search & Conversion

The first speaker was Richard Baxter, Founder and Director of SEOgadget. His slides are available on Slide Share.

47. There are many types of search:
• Query Deserves Freshness
• Image search
• Video search
• Rich snippets (eg movie ratings and show times)
• Google Places
• Social – if you’ve shared something on Google+ friends see it in the SERPs
48. Understand user intent.
• People searching for ‘Chicago pizza’ have  a longer dwell time on local results than people searching for ‘pizza’.
• People searching for ‘how to make pizza’ look at the videos.
• People looking for ‘pizza cutter’ look at the images.
49. Can you influence CTR in the organic SERPs?
• Tested with SERP Turkey
• Informational searches get better CTR with informational meta-descriptions.
• Transactional searches get better CTR with meta-descriptions emphasising the price and other transactional information.
• The CTR was even higher for a transactional search when the transactional meta-description had a customer rating rich snippet.
50. Can you change the description depending on the query intent?
• Tip from SharkSEO – if you have a long meta description then Google will show the parts that are most relevant to the query.
• If you have two descriptions the more relevant one will be used.

Patrick Altoft, Director of Search at Branded3. His slides are available here.

51. There are many reasons why people don’t convert.
• Some people may return later.
• Some may not find what they’re after (traffic can’t be as targeted as with PPC).
52. To increase conversion rates
• Increase keyword relevancy
• Get more visits to convert
• Attract users at multiple points of the buying cycle
53. Keyword research
• Everyone uses the Google Keyword Tool so the top results are very competitive.
• You can look at keywords from PPC and organic search, and use the conversion data on them to work out the opportunity for each keyword.
• But even then you will have thousands of keywords, and you can’t concentrate on them all.
54. Approach keyword research from a landing page perspective.
• Work out the potential revenue per keyword per landing page
• Use a pivot table to sum over landing pages to calculate the potential revenue per landing page.
• Build links for the landing pages with the highest potential.
55. Don’t build all links with the same anchor text
• Vary anchor text with the top keywords for the landing page.
• Add ‘noise’ and brand to some links, so it looks natural and adds long tail terms.
56. Use the same landing page for PPC and for SEO – there’s more incentive to spend money to improve PPC landing pages.
57. Optimise pages for short tail searches, then research and optimise for long tail.
58. To get low competition long tail keyword ideas:
• Put the page’s URL into the Google Keyword Tool
• Check the “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms” box
• Filter to show only keywords with fewer than 1000 monthly searches.

This was just the first morning of the two days. More takeaways to come.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Conversion Conference London: The First 58 Takeaways

Related posts:

1. Conversion Conference London: 65 More Takeaways
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This is a great conference, with the main SAScon event taking place in May – and to cover main tips and takeaways from this I’ve listed the top 28 tweets:

Testing products not enough - spend time talking to your customers #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:10 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

"@karate_barbie: #sascon social: like link building - look for authority not quantity"

November 24, 2011 3:47 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@seobelle

Sadie Sherran

Split test analysis recommendation: http://t.co/Xm9nEq5o #sascon

November 24, 2011 2:55 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@ChelseaBlacker

Chelsea Blacker

#sascon biggest mistake people make when split testing is not making bold changes

November 24, 2011 2:56 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rhyswynne

Rhys Wynne

Only way to test conversion process = signup/order products! eg @karlblanks testing dating site & weightwatchers #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:07 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

There was a quote "50% of ecommerce users are logged into Facebook" made at #SAScon by, I think, @badams. Where did this number come from?

November 28, 2011 12:40 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@PG_Martin

Paul Martin

"Everybody clicks on the shopping results so get a feed." Too right! @badams #Sascon

November 24, 2011 5:09 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@Justhipper

Justhipper

You can't convert if you don't know why users aren't buying - find reasons & reassure them #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:16 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

"Your site's internal search is a big, big source of keywords." #sascon

November 24, 2011 5:05 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@pushonltd

PushON

#sascon if your site structure sucks, so will your SEO via @badams

November 24, 2011 5:05 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@karate_barbie

Tracey Drain

Do NOT leave customers with a thank u page. Push them further. #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:03 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@ChelseaBlacker

Chelsea Blacker

Microdata works on reviews waste of time for anything else via @badams #sascon

November 24, 2011 5:12 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@seobelle

Sadie Sherran

Address objections like xplaining "we hav no phone number to keep costs low and deliver u mega cheap prices" #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:25 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@ChelseaBlacker

Chelsea Blacker

Kampyle, Kiss Insights, Survey Monkey, Google Alerts all recommended for conversion optimisation #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:22 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

#sascon get your hands on clients tv & radio advert schedule. Time it with your SEO for optimum results.

November 24, 2011 4:01 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@karate_barbie

Tracey Drain

"if your product is out of stock, do.not show a 404. - i will find you and kill you" @badams. #sascon

November 24, 2011 5:09 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@danbellj

Dan Bell

After sale think of how you can get users to purchase again or leave feedback. Could be fresh content ;) #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:05 pm via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@pinje

Dan Alderson

How did you find us? Open-text results far more insightful/specific than drop-down web field #sascon

November 24, 2011 3:29 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

At #SAScon we were told by @majesticseo's @dixon_jones to only use the fresh index when collecting backlink data since it's up2date&accurate

November 28, 2011 3:37 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ChelseaBlacker

Chelsea Blacker

90% of all media consumed starts with search - it is the key to everything says @citizenrobert PR people you need to come to #sascon #prcanc

November 25, 2011 11:00 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@nickywake

Nicky Wake

@danbarker's @econsultancy article: How to steal some 'not provided' data back from Google http://t.co/BRTCCvZU #SAScon

November 24, 2011 2:49 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@joannahalton

Joanna Halton

Why has mobile been left out by this ssl... Mobile is more personal than a PC now ... #sascon

November 24, 2011 2:41 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@TamarUK

Tamar UK

#sascon google have gone a step forward with transparency and gone three steps backwards with the whole SSL stuff.

November 24, 2011 2:26 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@APSG

Amrit Gill

SSL panel: "There are so many metrics to measure SEO success, not just keywords," says Chelsea Blacker #sascon

November 24, 2011 2:46 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@pushonltd

PushON

Panel on SSL search #SAScon: @SamuelCrocker nails it - data accuracy matters.

November 24, 2011 2:25 pm via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@badams

Barry Adams

The room believe: SSL search is here to stay and the (not provided) percentage is expected to grow. #SASCON

November 24, 2011 2:45 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@latitudexpress

Latitude Express

Contracts based on the growth of organic non-branded traffic - massive changes in the way we get paid. But not in the way we do work #SAScon

November 24, 2011 2:46 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@joannahalton

Joanna Halton

. @kevgibbo says although (not provided) is big in tech industry, in other industries it is a lot smaller #sascon

November 24, 2011 2:23 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rhyswynne

Rhys Wynne

For those who were at the event, what were your favourite bits?

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. 28 Top Takeaway Tweets From SAScon Mini 2011

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Image credit: Guy Levine

So here’s my twitter coverage of Pubcon 2011:

General SEO Trends
1) #7 ranking for a long-tail term can get as much traffic as #2 for head-of-tail! Due to CTR behaviour @ArnieK
2) 42% of people click #1 result for head-tail terms – 25% 1st result for long-tail, but much more traffic spread across rest of SERPs
3) Wow! Sites get a higher CTR being in the #7 position for a long-tail keyword than a #2 position for a head term.
4) +1 annotated URLs receive 20% higher CTR - @robgarner
5) Google’s in big trouble right now according to @leolaporte – next big thing isn’t search!
6) Via @leolaporte – A single engaged viewer is worth at least 10 loosely engaged viewer. (Unless they’re a stalker!)
7) Build targeted niche audience in order to maximise advertiser revenue, instead of short-term trick tactics @leolaporte

On-site Optimisation
8) Provide consistent geo signals in titles, URL, breadcrumbs, content. etc. via @AlanBleiweiss
9) Worst #SEO thing to do: pick obvious phrases & rank below the 7pack :( -@GregBoser
10) Slightly black-hat tip from @graywolf his “friend” forges updated blog publish date to increase SERP CTRs
11) Exact match title tags used to work better, now natural language titles performing much better @uberjill

Technical SEO
12) Robots exclusion preferred option for blocking indexing – saves Google load because they don’t need to visit page @gregboser
13) Great free tool for creating micro formats from @RavenTools http://t.co/waMQWXi0
14) Research shows that a penalized domain with 301 redirects to a new domain will pass the penalty to the new domain
15) There’s an exponential decline in PageRank passed as the number of 301 redirects increase.
16) If you haven’t played with http://codecademy.com then your missing out… Try it!
17) Don’t 301 redirect throwaway blog content – SE’s are getting smarter. Update content to make more commercial instead @graywolf
18) A special webmaster video for : How does Google determine page speed? http://t.co/f2a1T6Zy

SEO Strategy
19) Client focuses; don’t be afraid to go rogue, proof-of-concept is key, embrace open graph & individual employee identities @GregBoser
20) Key agency focuses; learn to say no, autonomous solutions & new products/services to solve common problems @GregBoser
21) Clients convinced they need more links to get rankings – quite often they need less. Tidying profile having big impact @GregBoser
22) Ask your client; do you think you deserve to rank in top 3 for priority keyword? If not, why not? @bruceclay
23) “Get your SEO included in the specification team” via @ashnallawalla
24) Great tip by @sspencer – if you see indented listing, add num=9 to URL – if 2nd listing removed, true position = 10
25) Ambiguity is a problem for SEO – Google need behavioural targeting to find personalised user intent behind query @bruceclay
26) “if you as a parent can say to a child go to a site & learn from it, then you have a quality site” Amit Singhal, Google
27) 2012 predictions: personalisation to determine rankings, local PPC & evolution of more integrated internet marketing @bruceclay
28) Web is only place where the small businesses can move faster than big guys – eg Zappos were small & achieved huge success @mattcutts

Google Webmaster Tools/Algorithm
29) Google suggested searches can be quite different from Geo to Geo, pay attention & find opportunities -@GregBoser
30) “link: http://t.co/zfAOUcUg inurl:twitter” query shows that Google are indexing Twitter links! @sspencer
31) #pubcon poll: Would you rather get more search queries in GMT (40%) or more history (60%) @mattcutts
32) Make sure you subscribe to Google Webmaster blog, Inside Search & Webmaster Video channel @mattcutts
33) Signup for GWT, setup email alerts, setup “fat pings” when publishing, use http://t.co/PmmNZKbT @mattcutts
34) Google looking to provide more communication updates – eg GWT alert on out-of-date WordPress @mattcutts
35) Got a page topped with ads? google’s evaluating algo changes to penalize these says @mattcutts
36) Google currently looking into figuring out what content is above the fold as part of algorithm @mattcutts
37) Google giving communication big push in 2011 – more feedback via GWT over reconsideration requests etc @mattcutts
38) SEO=Coaching – only constant in search is change, you don’t want to go where SEs are – go where they’re going to be! @mattcutts

Google Panda
39) There’s no quick fix to panda – quite often you need to change business model & accept you’ll never get back to peak @GregBoser
40) Pre-panda strategy; bigger the net, the more fish you catch. Post-panda; can’t get away with overloading index @GregBoser
41) Weak UGC – e.g. spun articles & 1000′s of pages of crap content is affecting overall domain performance in Google @gregboser
42) Panda update = Google far more concerned with overall site quality vs page quality @gregboser
43) Google rates content on how helpful it is to users – bounce rate/usage data very important post-panda @sspencer
44) Low quality content is typically; aggregated, paraphrased, generic, duplicated – lacks; expertise, research, citations @beussery
45) G panda update biased by quality of links. @bruceclay has seen + impact follow link pruning to reduce low quality

Social Search
46) If video is part of your strategy – make sure you use keywords when you speak! = getting found via transcript search @bruceclay
47) Correlation is important, Google don’t tell us the answers. Facebook shares currently top human engagement factor @GregBoser
48) Wikipedia & YouTube nofollow external links, but not internal links. So get content hosted on there ranking instead @sspencer
49) “the name of the writer can be used to influence the ranking of web search results” v important quote from Google about authors
50) Video & image search is much better on Bing than Google @GregBoser
51) Important social authority tip: meet people in real life! Make connection between on&offline to improve likelihood of sharing
52) What does google look for in social authority? Number of replies/comments, automation vs manual, relevancy & association with groups
53) According to keynote SEO may be dead in 6 months, so let’s talk about social! @johnwellis

Google SSL
54) Number of users with SSL is single-digit percentage in aggregate. Tech sites will be higher due to type of users @mattcutts
55) Main argument by @mattcutts was it’s what users want, total SSL no is <10% & you can get keyword data from GWT for top 1000 kws
56) 96% of website’s get full keyword query data from 1,000 term limit in GWT @mattcutts
57) PPC gets data, organic doesn’t. Advertisers get the data b/c they can’t do negative KWs and make useful.
58) Google unlikely to back down on SSL, users are happy with it because of privacy issues @mattcutts
59) 96% of sites get ALL keyword data from GWT (1000 KWs) – getting around SSL not provided GA report @mattcutts

Analytics
60) “Track what matters. Compare year over year. Not month over month. Consider trends/seasonality” @RobSnell
61) To have rankings in GA will take a ton of resources but Google is looking into having something like that in the future @mattcutts

Local Search
62) Anyone else starting to see Google suggest results influenced by local? See example from Vegas: http://t.co/hqopvPbm

Content Creation/Linkbait
63) You can write a resourceful, 800-word post and link out to 40 different sites – well worth it if it garners a ton of links
64) 1) find related content with great links 2) write killer content about topic 3) write to those who already link to topic @jimboykin
65) View top content ordered by links for competitors in OpenSiteExplorer to find content ideas @ArnieK
66) Great tip for content ideas! Use Google discussions in more search options to find simiar keywords people are talking about @ArnieK
67) Attract links; videos, interviews, ebooks, infographics, contests, solid blog posts all get great backlinks @ArnieK
68) Content marketing tactics: blog, hosted videos, infographics, whitepapers, twitter feed, glossary, lists @lorenbaker
69) Brute force doesn’t work anymore – content marketing marketing makes it a link magnet! @lorenbaker
70) Don’t cut corners and go cheap on content creation. It’s your brand. It’ll be out there a long time. via @arniek
71) If there are no recognized awards in your industry, create one. Make yourself #6 or something @JoannaLord

Link Building  
72) If your link velocity/anchor text profile doesn’t match other/older sites in your industry you prob got it unnaturally
73) Find great blogs in your niche using http://t.co/komEvJNp & forums: http://t.co/jczhz3CU @chriswinfield
74) Dixon just announced a new redesign of @MajesticSEO – coming very soon!
75) Nice tip! Check referral visits in analytics are from cached pages. If not link to it using “as seen on” widget @rjonesx
76) Consider paid infographic placement – very difficult for Google to detect @rjonesx
77) Every natural link has a reason – most common; fact citation, content attribution & interest links @rjonesx
78) Forum communities are approx 5x larger than the blogosphere – they predate the web! -@crowdgather
79) Relationship link building; offer testimonials, sponsor events, send samples, speak at conferences, run good cause site @dixon_jones
80) Widgets having great impact for link building to retail sites – eg shoe size finder, random outfit builder @aaronshear
81) E-commerce link building via affiliate programs – use naked link cookie method to get backlink credit @aaronshear
82) Add on to someone else’s list post with a list of your own, then ping the author to get a link to your list.
83) Great case study for IT jobs infographic by @lorenbaker – not just about direct coverage, also promote sites which embed @lorenbaker
84) Build seasonality content – what worked last year, which will work again this year? Content has a long life @lorenbaker
85) Link building went off track up until last year: exact match links, Google PageRank was a marketplace, unnatural links @lorenbaker
86) Use PPC display placements & adPlanner to find link targets - great tip by @bgtheory
87) It’s much easier to be natural than to fake natural ~@mattcutts
88) @mattcutts on press releases: you’re going up to someone & asking them to write about you…
89) linkresearchtools.com is being recommend by Stephan Spencer as GREAT. Live Demo now
90) “site:http://t.co/fmuNNjRd inurl:.pdf” – shows that Google is indexing & values links from PDFs @sspencer
91) Mine ~ queries to find synonyms/related searches. Bolded keywords are commonly anchor text used in backlinks @gregboser
92) Focus on brand based anchor text – no exact match in 1st 6 months, use synonyms & related searches, branded partial match @gregboser
93) Human engagement is new PageRank – @gregboser highlights Google’s purchase of PostRank in need to monitor social attention
94) Total indexed pages vs. total organic landing pages. And look at total indexed pages to deep links. Good points.
95) Social media is not the new links – links are still the precursor to rankings – @joehall

Competitor Analysis
96) Never try to replicate anyone’s backlink profile. competitive intel is about finding out what metrics to compete on.” @jane_copland
97) ID what domains they own. site:http://t.co/PPXe6FLm “competitors name” -@streko
98) Competitor analysis can be deceptive. A site which has 10k links may be ranking because of 1 editorial link, not volume @mattcutts

Keyword Research
99) Ninja takeaway from day 1 - http://t.co/VdrGvn6N – Uber awesome KW research tool!
100) Great tip – own head KW & then run ranking report to optimise around top phrase matches & converting terms @wilreynolds
101)Google WT keyword info uses avg pos & only 1000 KWs – not ideal but still worth using @wilreynolds
102) Research on getting KW data to stop bitching about SSL http://t.co/YjN3wUb3 by @wilreynolds
103) Kw tools: Compete.com, SEMrush, Raven KW Insights, ConcentrateMe, Wordstream, OpenSiteExplorer anchor text report
104) http://t.co/njlqtl28 recommended for instant-style keyword research from Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon etc @sspencer

Social Media
105) YouTube will eventually become a CDN @bruceclay
106) Twitter ROI long value: avg lifetime value eg: cust bought $50 & buys 20x in their life & tweets drives new custs
107) YouTube tips; include channel link on site, keep videos short, brand your channel, be active commenter @chriswinfield
108) Facebook tips; make page visible, tag other brands in posts, get fans talking to improve Edgerank score @chriswinfield
109) http://t.co/p24kQimS monitor keywords, http://t.co/ns6vBoDI find lists & curate private lists to watch competitors @chriswinfield
110) Figure out social strategy, then go all in! Maintain a blog, create great content, use Twitter for an hour a day etc @chriswinfield
111) Social tip: find out where your customers are – ask them what sites they use? @chriswinfield
112) Be social, meet colleagues & look for influencers (add a few contacts per week), meet in real life! @chriswinfield
113) No magic bullet in social media – keep it simple & get fundamentals right @chriswinfield
114) 98% of Facebook fans view content through their Newsfeed. Focus on great content not fancy tabs on your page
115) Optimized video is 53 times more likely to show up on page 1 of Google than a standard HTML page.
116) Slideshare = obscenely powerful for search+social @KristaNeher
117) Upload video transcripts in different languages = instant subtitles! -@sspencer
118) Make your own machine transcriptions. You can override the default transcription with your own. It’s searchable too!
119) Use http://t.co/LtfTRb9Z to track search rankings & engagement metrics in YouTube @sspencer
120) Social goals: you’re not trying to make sales – capture attention, build links/social signals & create searchable brand @graywolf
121) Social push: tweets have lifespan of 3-5 hours, stagger retweets, ask friends, real trusted account > 1,000 zombie accounts @graywolf
122) Blogging still best platform to push content & attract links - sacrifice keywords for viral content @graywolf
123) Be entertaining, make people laugh/think/cry or be an informational resource = social attention & links @graywolf
124) Google is looking at as much social data as possible! 5,000 new links & no social media coverage = unnatural sign @graywolf
125) Social signals in search: author highlighting, establish social authority, Facebook & Google+ profile optimisation
126) Google+ optimisation tips: link to other social profiles, stay fresh, use & optimise every field, use your name multiple times
127) Quick show of hands highlights everyone uses Facebook daily - no-one uses Google+ daily @johnwellis

Conversion Optimisation
128) If people are in a buy cycle & merchant offers 1-click buy process, tablets have a higher conversion rate. @Szetela
129) Humanise your content – people buy from people; write with unique voice, demonstrate expertise & leverage knowledge @robsnell
130) The site needs to say: 1.) We are experts 2.) This is what you should buy 3.) please buy it from us! -@robsnell
131) Google Ace recommended by @bgtheory to test conversion rates from SEO campaigns: http://t.co/nLwouUV8
132) Here’s your diamond in the rough when scouring Revenue Analysis: LOW vol. / HIGH Revenue
133) Use GA filters to show clients $. Calculate conversion rates & revenue pm http://t.co/Of6irvjp @wilreynolds
134) Use orange 4 CTA buttons. Green blends in. Red says Stop. @bgtheory: Red works 4 a DUI atty, user is in penalty mind
135) Do not use submit button on your website!!! Use Get This Offer, or Start Your Order, or Continue, or Proceed via
136) Conversion tool options: eye-tracking, mouse-tracking (CrazyEgg/ClickTale), software algorithm (AttentionWizard) @tim_ash
137) Avoid triggering visual motion online – rotating banners e.g. http://t.co/rkmvsfpu distracts attention from static content @tim_ash
138) Never prefill fields. Our eye is trained to find empty spaces. @bgtheory
139) The more questions you ask, the more qualified the lead but the fewer leads you’ll get – @bgtheory
140) Some form questions should never be required – eg how did you find us? That’s what analytics is for! @bg_theory
141) Brand strengthening for conversions: mission statements, testimonials, awards, customers, logos, badges, press mentions
142) Essential to understand the weight of these secondary conversions – how likely is someone who subscribes to pay you $?
143) Secondary conversion examples: email capture, subscribers, social votes, membership, downloads/views, comments/engagement, feedback
144) Basic landing page optimisation tips: be specific, clean & concise, call-to-action, branded/certified/trusted @JoannaLord
145) Site search is 2nd biggest place to find the easy money after checkout

Paid Search
146) Good argument for running both SEO & PPC for same term; PPC landing pages can be better optimised for conversions @bgtheory
147) Retargeting is teaching new habits. People put things in a cart, then leave. Remarketing ads almost always offer disco …
148) PPC tip to build remarketing audience – use tracking code on Facebook fan page, email marketing newsletters & industry sites for $!
149) PPC bidding strategy tip for B2C – use higher budget at start & end of month. Conversion rates often higher around payday!
150) Big potential PPC win. Analyse conversion rates & bidding strategies for day-of-week & time-of-day stats
151) Think about customer mindset for bidding timings – e.g. search volume for “baby nappies” correlates with most popular nap times for babies
152) PPC demographic & interest targeting may be available for search as well as display soon – predicted by @dszetela
153) PPC remarketing tips – mix up banner creatives, use frequency capping, separate campaigns, build audience
154) Google now uses searchers proximity as a ranking factor for paid search business listings

Some of these are retweets as well, there’s too many to organise but thanks to Ruth Burr, Merry Morud, Tony Verre, Berian Reed and Dave Reynolds amongst many others.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. 154 Awesome Pubcon 2011 Takeaways, Tips & Tweets

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I’ll start off by saying that I enjoyed SearchLove a whole lot more than the other SEO conferences I’ve been to, and not just because of the great food and excellent Monday night party! I felt there was a great deal of enthusiasm among those present, and I came away from the conference feeling inspired and eager to try out the new ideas I heard.

The word "awesome" is being used a lot at this conference. Just saying. #searchlove

October 24, 2011 9:09 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@RachelsWritings

Rachel McCombie

So, in no particular order, here are some of the main themes emerging from SearchLove this year…

Good content is more important now than ever before
In the light of several iterations of the Panda update, it came as little surprise to hear the importance of great content emphasised by a number of speakers, with Tom Critchlow even advocating the role of ‘Chief Content Officer’ to manage content strategy effectively. Having a strong content strategy in place, he argued, turbo charges your SEO efforts. Low-quality content harms the whole site – whether it’s bad writing (couldn’t agree more with this one!), too many ads or duplicate content.

Giving your users a great experience
The first session of the conference was Rand Fishkin speaking about developing online communities. For a community to be successful, he argued, it has to benefit the users way more than it benefits you. So why is it worth your while? Because users can build your content and do your SEO for you (forums are particularly good for long-tail optimisation). The importance of giving your users a great experience applies to your website as a whole, of course (not just the community element), a point also covered by Richard Baxter’s talk on ‘gamification’ (below).

‘Gamification’ – or the art of getting people to do what you want
I wondered at the time whether I was the only one who hadn’t ever heard this term before, but by the end of the conference it seemed felt normal, as it was referred to a lot. Richard Baxter gave a very interesting talk on it, looking at how you can reward your users for learning more about your brand by using elements such as leaderboards, points systems and other competitive elements usually found in games. You can apply this to a wide range of things to help you achieve your business goals, whether it’s completing a profile or generating reviews. The upshot is that people are motivated by status, and you can use this to encourage people to take the actions you want them to.

Building online and real-life relationships is good for link building
Blogger outreach should be all about building relationships. Don’t contact people out of the blue asking if they want to feature a blog post – engage with them by following them on Twitter and mentioning/retweeting them, and commenting on their blog; only then should you try approaching them about guest blogging. Though more time consuming, your success will be greater because you’ll be a familiar and friendly name, and you’ll have the added advantage of approaching them with a deeper understanding of what they’re trying to achieve with their blog.

LinkedIn is a surprisingly useful (stalking) asset
SEOMoz’s Joanna Lord pointed out that LinkedIn can be great for sussing out the strategies being taken by your competitors (or those of your clients). Checking out who’s been hired and who’s left can show what competitors are doing and strategies they’re taking in terms of what areas of the business they’re putting their budget in. LinkedIn can also be a good medium for approaching people regarding linking opportunities.

The Dislike button won’t happen
It’s Facebook’s most frequently requested feature apparently, but Mat Clayton argued that it won’t ever be implemented because negativity kills sharing. And whether you’re in SEO or social media, we want people to share! If people think that others will react negatively to something they share (i.e. by ‘disliking’ it), they’ll be less likely to share.

Infographics can still work
The phrase “infographics are so 2009” was bandied about a bit, but ultimately the conclusion seemed to be that they can work if you approach it in the right way. The infectiously enthusiastic Wil Reynolds advised having a marketing plan in place and finding relevant audiences by finding out who’s commented on popular long posts along similar lines. If you use HTML 5 they’re more likely to get shared, as it’s new and there aren’t many examples of it – meaning it’ll appeal to HTML 5 geeks as well as your target audience. And don’t forget to use Google Image search to find naughty people who’ve used your infographic without crediting you – they’ll usually be willing to link back if you ask nicely.

Have I missed out any important themes? Leave a comment below and let me know!

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. SearchLove 2011: Top Trends

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This is running across two days (30 November – 1 December) at The Business and Design Centre in London and has a great line-up of conversion optimisation speakers, it looks like it’s going to be a very interesting event!

To get a 15% discount off ticket prices, all you need to do is sign-up using the promo code: SEOPTIMISE011 – see you there!

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Timeline

Panda first hit in the US back in February 2011, affecting up to 12% of all Google search results. Since then, there have been five iterations of the update, excluding the update that took it globally with the exception of Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

Since I started creating my deck a few months ago, there were three updates with one only days before I was about to present. In my honest opinion I don’t believe that this is over just yet, and that Google will continue to edit the algorithm and roll it out.

What Google Recommends

Google actually provide us with some advice on what to do to avoid being hit by the Panda update, as seen below.

“you should evaluate all the content on your site and do your best to improve the overall quality of the pages on your domain. Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”
Google

From the paragraph above I have bolded 3 key points, that I feel you need to focus on.

On-site Changes

Evaluate Content:

Use your analytics software to identify content that is under-performing by viewing user metrics such as page views, bounce rate & exit rates. Although not the only metrics that you should look at, they allow you to identify pages that potentially could contain poor or out of date content that may need to be looked at.

Quality of Content:

The main function of the Panda update is to help improve the quality of content available for internet users. Basics such as grammar, spelling and stylistic errors across your entire content portfolio could be damaging. Matt Cutts talks about how there is direct correlation between good quality content and high page rank & domain authority.

Google provides you with a list of 23 quality questions as a guideline to what type of things they might be looking at when crawling the content. I would recommend that you use these questions as a guideline, put them in a survey to send out to your clients, customers or a survey group that will provide you an unbiased opinion on your content. The results from your survey can provide you with the basis of improving your content.

Thin Content

Thin content provides users with limited information about the topic you are describing. If you are not providing enough information to your users then why would you expect there to be enough information for a search engine? Ideally you need to improve any content that is below 200 words in length and try to expand that to at least 350 words. If you believe that the content can’t be expanded, then you can either remove the page and redirect it to a relevant page or you can use the noindex tag to remove it from the Google Index.

Duplicate Content

This problem has been around since long before the Panda update, but it seems to have been given a significant amount of weight in the latest update. Removing duplicate content alone has seen results for many websites, and is something that needs to be addressed quickly. Use tools such as Google Webmaster Tools or ScreamingFrog to identify the duplicate content to be removed.

Syndicated Content & Product Feeds

Many websites, affiliates included, use syndicated content on their site, adding to the issue of duplication. The inclusion of syndicated content also means that you are providing the same content as many other sites, reducing the chances of you achieving a high ranking position. Product feeds follow a similar theme to syndicated content where they are used across tens, hundreds or even thousands of different sites all displaying the same content. Getting this content re-written will help to provide your users with unique and valuable content.

Choose 100 of your top selling products and have these re-written first, and then move on to the next 100 taking things step-by-step. You can outsource this work to places such as Copify, Textbroker or even hire an intern or a college student who is interested in making some money, to help with the process.

Design & Page Layout

Although there is no clear evidence that design and page layouts will drastically turn your fortunes around, it is recommended that your website should be at least current in design. I am not suggesting that you go out and get your entire site re-built from the ground up using HTML5, because Google see no preference in that. But if your site hasn’t been re-designed for 10 years then I feel that you really should look to get it updated.

Page layout should be your main focus for any design change, providing more content above the fold, whilst trying to reduce the number of adverts that are prominent within your text. Reduce the number of adverts from 3–4 to 1-2 and move them into either the sidebar, header or footer so that they are not within the text.

Link Building & Social Shares

Link building is a massive part of any SEO strategy and even more so for affiliates, who might not get natural links like larger brands. When it comes to link building to an affiliate site, you need to concentrate more on deep page link building, rather than link building just to the homepage. Offer social media buttons on pages that you believe offer good content such as product pages, blog posts, and knowledge centres, etc. This will make it easier for people to share your content with their social community and potentially improve your link profile.

Content suggestions

Many of the suggestions and tactics that I made within the presentation were to remove low quality or thin content, replacing it with good content that your users want to see. The following ideas are suggestions on how to create content that your users want to read.

• Addict-o-matic – brings in various sources of information including Twitter, YouTube, Google News, etc, based on the keyword that you have entered. This will allow you to get a good overview of what type of content has been created and is being shared by your target audience.
• Keyword Tools – using tools such as Google Adwords, UberSuggest and Google Suggest you can get ideas of what people are search for and use them to enhance your search for content suggestions. If your topic is based on an annual release, then these tools can also provide you with key phrases that are based on trends that could be used.
• Q&A Sites – can provide you with a large amount of information on what type of content people want to see. Search sites such as Quora and YahooAnswers, using multiple search queries to get a full understanding of what people are asking for, and then try to supply that information by writing quality content.
• Social Media – use different social media platforms to see what your target audience are talking about and sharing with their community. Get involved in the conversation by asking and answering questions, providing good quality content that is both from your own website and others.
• Attend Industry Events – such as A4U, where you will get new information before it goes into the public domain, providing you opportunities to write new unique content and live blog. Another great reason for attending industry events is to meet influential figures within the industry who could potentially provide you with information, natural links or areas to place good content.

Case-study

The presentation finished by looking at a case-study on HubPages who had been hit massively in the first Panda update.

According to the SearchMetrics data, Hubpages lost 85% visibility across their keyword portfolio, dropping from 182k key phrases to just 26k overnight. For any business this is a significant loss in keywords, and although rankings are not the best measurement for SEO, it is still significant.

Since that update HubPages have worked hard using a lot of the techniques described in the presentation, to improve the quality and reduce thin content throughout their website. HubPages also went further, moving all the authors on to separate sub-domains isolating any author that wrote poor content. Since making those changes, and after the Panda 2.5 update HubPages saw their keyword visibility rise to over 761k. What I see as most significant for HubPages is the fact that they now have more visibility than before the 1^st Panda update.

Key Takeaways

• Remove low quality & thin content
• Improve the quality of content throughout your website
• Improve link building to lower level pages

Although not something that could be recommended for every website I would analyse and test, whether moving areas of the website onto sub-domains will help reduce the penalty that has been enforced on your website by the Panda update.

If you were at the session I would love to hear your feedback and comments below. If you were unable to get to A4U, I hope this provides you with some insight into what I talked about and of course I also welcome your comments.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. SEO Tactics to Tame the Panda

Related posts:

1. How to Survive a Panda Attack!
2. Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google – a4uexpo London 2011
3. 30+ Google Quality/Panda Update Resources for Content Farmers and SEO Practitioners

#A4US2 opportunity = search vol * max CTR * conversion rate * Rev per sale #boom

October 18, 2011 10:03 am via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@APSG

Amrit Gill

Brand-name IBLs must outnumber keyword IBLs! Getting this wrong is the greatest red flag for Google. (via @PatrickAltoft @a4uExpo #a4uS2)

October 18, 2011 10:27 am via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

Superaffiliate SEO is more about ranking #1 for all of your top keyphrases, not conversions @patrickaltoft #a4uexpo #a4us2

October 18, 2011 9:57 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

No point working on 50.keywords at a time unless you have the resource. #a4us2

October 18, 2011 10:01 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@danielbianchini

Daniel Bianchini

Rotate press release & article syndication submission sites every couple of months to mix things up @patrickaltoft #a4uexpo #a4us2

October 18, 2011 11:46 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

What links do you need? Volume, authority, velocity, and anchor /by @kelvinnewman #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 3:35 pm via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@ruudkok

Ruud Kok

#Google #Panda site escalation channels http://t.co/orA88xfG #A4UB5 followup

October 18, 2011 8:29 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kas_tweets

Kaspar

It doesn't matter whether you use html5 or not to google. #a4ub5

October 18, 2011 3:07 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@danielbianchini

Daniel Bianchini

Make sure you provide links to both mobile + desktop versions of the website to allow the user to switch. #a4ub5

October 18, 2011 3:14 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@danielbianchini

Daniel Bianchini

pagespeed mentioned by webmaster trends analyst as one of things to worry about #a4uexpo #a4ub5

October 18, 2011 3:39 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@martijnbeijk

martijn beijk

Don't use Google's Panda Questions as a simple checklist - but as a guide to the mindset behind the algo (via @PierreFar @a4uExpo #a4uB5)

October 18, 2011 3:44 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

some #Google sources mentioned during Q&A earlier today http://t.co/pS7mSqw0 #a4ub5 @searchmartin @pierrefar

October 18, 2011 8:57 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kas_tweets

Kaspar

Takeaways, Sims, Entertainment & Group Buying are top purchase sectors on mobile on @AffWin #a4uexpo #a4ub4

October 18, 2011 1:45 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

Interesting to see lost mobile opportunities by not having a mobile optimised site and or tracking behind it #A4ub4

October 18, 2011 1:53 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@HelenMarie21

HelenMarie21

17% of mobile users downloaded a voucher code in q1 2011; 32% wouldn't have bought without voucher (Nielson) #a4uexpo #a4ub4

October 18, 2011 1:58 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

Sky Affiliates lose out on 7% of sales but are helped 19% of the time #A4UB3

October 18, 2011 11:13 am via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@RachaelS0201

Rachael Spowart

"10% of customers directly influence the purchasing decisions of the remaining 90%" a Gartner stat via #A4UB2

October 18, 2011 9:37 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@AndrewGirdwood

Andrew Girdwood

Google says: "Make pages primarily for users" MacDonald (@seoforumsorg) says: "Absolute rubbish!" #a4uB10 @a4uExpo

October 19, 2011 1:39 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

Take search learnings on seasonality, conversion time etc & apply to social media targeting #a4uexpo #a4ub2

October 18, 2011 9:58 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

"If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they'd punch you in the face" #a4uexpo #a4us10

October 19, 2011 1:37 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@JuliaStent

Julia Stent

Google; "14% of travel searches in the UK are mobile" #a4us9

October 19, 2011 11:27 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@AndrewGirdwood

Andrew Girdwood

Google; "Only 17% of the top 500 retailers in the UK have mobile optimised websites." #a4us9

October 19, 2011 11:27 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@AndrewGirdwood

Andrew Girdwood

Don't think about actual link prospects, but about the themes of those sites /by @kelvinnewman #a4us8

October 19, 2011 10:47 am via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

@ruudkok

Ruud Kok

A lovely tool for pulling in APIs and datasets for a given niche via @dsottimano http://t.co/yrYWKc7A #a4us8 #mashup #brainstorm

October 19, 2011 4:02 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@TomAnthonySEO

Tom Anthony

This, this & thrice this RT @kieronhughes: "Email newsletters are awesome; Google can't see them" @davenaylor #a4us7 #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 8:53 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@rhyswynne

Rhys Wynne

Increase exposure by signing up as a topic-expert "Source" at http://t.co/7MZOIcyq (@helpareporter) (via @KevGibbo @a4uExpo #a4uS4)

October 18, 2011 2:05 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

StateofSearch: SEO Tactics to tame the Panda – #A4U http://t.co/lTdPoISe

October 18, 2011 2:27 pm via twitterfeedReplyRetweetFavorite

@state_ofsearch

State of Search

. @patrickaltoft: "you should invest in all online channels (PPC, social, PR, etc) for optimal success in SEO." #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 9:58 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@ruudkok

Ruud Kok

Take search learnings on seasonality, conversion time etc & apply to social media targeting #a4uexpo #a4ub2

October 18, 2011 9:58 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

“@geoffblog: @a4uexpo http://t.co/JFr9E1oH is URL for TouchGraph if you want to share it :)” <- great for understanding your social graph

October 19, 2011 3:56 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@a4uexpo

a4uexpo Conference

"Engagement on Facebook brands' walls is down 22%" #a4uexpo FB session quote

October 18, 2011 4:28 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Note to self: check out Google "related:domain.com" search and also backlins.in site (from @kelvinnewman presentation #a4uexpo)

October 19, 2011 10:29 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Martjin just mentioned Httpfox plugin http://t.co/rha25oTC in Internet Sleuthing presentation #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 10:31 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Customer rewards don't need to cost a lot of money - simple common sense but worth remembering! #a4uexpo #a4ub2

October 18, 2011 9:46 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

Search Optimisation Q&A with Dave Naylor (a4uexpo Live Blogging) http://t.co/8BDhiFVj

October 19, 2011 9:33 am via Pushon Main Site BlogReplyRetweetFavorite

@pushonltd

PushON

Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google (a4uexpo Live Blogging) http://t.co/5e6hbsug

October 18, 2011 2:16 pm via Pushon Main Site BlogReplyRetweetFavorite

@pushonltd

PushON

Consider setting up a Limited Company & a Virtual Business Address to give your affiliate setup credibility. (via @KevGibbo @a4uExpo #a4uS4)

October 18, 2011 2:09 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

Don't just write content for your own blog! Write for other authority sites in your niche too. (via @KevGibbo @a4uExpo #a4uS4)

October 18, 2011 2:10 pm via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavorite

@rouninmedia

Rounin Media

In answer to #a4us4 questions - from Google's @pierrefar HTML5 doesn't have a negative impact to SEO & don't cloak affiliate links!

October 18, 2011 3:07 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

if all your team left today and applied for thief jobs again, who would you employ? #A4US3 #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 11:16 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@LinkShareUKBlog

LinkShareUKBlog

Focus on highly converting keywords #a4uexpo #A4US4

October 18, 2011 2:03 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@fuzzone

Kunle Campbell

...some other names mentioned: Copify.com, ProBlogger Jobs board, Google Trusted Stores, myblogguest.com #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 2:07 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Some more names mentioned at #a4uexpo: Toluna, 99Designs, oDesk & CodeMyConcept - hope that's useful if you've not heard of them

October 18, 2011 2:13 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Encouragement to participate should be integral to a site #a4ut10

October 19, 2011 2:06 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@fi_robertson

Fiona Robertson

Summary of SEO discussion at #A4uExpo - http://t.co/0dY43LOo

October 18, 2011 4:09 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@cheehowan

Chee Ho Wan

If you want to win, make sure you set the rules - great £20 auction example from @willcritchlow #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 8:17 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Be careful when building 500+ links per month, likely to trigger Google manual review! @patrickaltoft #a4us2 #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 9:55 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

#a4uexpo 5 Tricks Our Minds Play On Us – And how to take advantage of them... http://t.co/iVpXOJHq #a4us1 deck for those you who missed it

October 18, 2011 9:49 am via Tweet ButtonReplyRetweetFavorite

@kelvinnewman

kelvin newman

Superaffiliate SEO is more about ranking #1 for all of your top keyphrases, not conversions @patrickaltoft #a4uexpo #a4us2

October 18, 2011 9:57 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

RT @geoffblog @patrickaltoft saying you should buy the book 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins in the #a4us session #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 10:00 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Superaffiliate marketing team: content writers, SEO, PPC, CRO, designers & developers - they don't rank by accident! @patrickaltoft #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 10:09 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Ideal inhouse SEO team structure - head of search, strategists, link building, content writers & agency @patrickaltoft #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 10:12 am via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Where do Sky's online sales come from? 14% from affiliates, 17% from display and 40% from PPC. #a4ub3

October 18, 2011 11:07 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@AndrewGirdwood

Andrew Girdwood

StateofSearch: Essential Paid Search Tools from Excel to Automation – #A4UExpo http://t.co/Rvj8AgAl

October 18, 2011 12:48 pm via twitterfeedReplyRetweetFavorite

@state_ofsearch

State of Search

Other tools mentioned: mergewords, ubbersuggest and Alchemy for Excel http://t.co/U3jaIHez #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 12:59 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Google recommending use of rel=alternate hreflang for cross-country specific SEO http://t.co/1uUwKKCV @pierrefar #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 3:21 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Google doesn't hate affiliates, but your website has to add value to our users #panda #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 3:41 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@kieronhughes

Kieron Hughes

Google guys again recommending these 23 questions http://t.co/b78Kyw8x to establish if you're providing quality content #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 3:42 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

Google recommending splitting up sitemaps for large sites @pierrefar @searchmartin @kas_tweets #a4uexpo

October 18, 2011 3:56 pm via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

beware of server/firewall setups using throttling mechanisms #pagespeed #a4ub5

October 18, 2011 3:56 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@martijnbeijk

martijn beijk

I've figured out how Google will actually get us to use Google+ - only good way to get a response from webspam team :) #A4U

October 18, 2011 3:58 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@SamuelCrocker

Samuel Crocker

Martjin just mentioned Httpfox plugin http://t.co/rha25oTC in Internet Sleuthing presentation #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 10:31 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

My @a4uexpo slides from #a4us8 are now live: http://t.co/fsn3K6uJ hopefully now without the auto-advance :)

October 19, 2011 2:37 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@SamuelCrocker

Samuel Crocker

Another idea: check the conversion rate between mobile operators (Vodafone, Orange, etc.) and consider tweaking PPC spend #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 4:32 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

...also optimise PPC by looking at sales by time of day between desktop, tablet and mobile users #a4uexpo

October 19, 2011 4:33 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffblog

GeoffBlog.com

So what were your key takeaways from the conference?

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Top 65 Takeaways from A4UExpo London 2011

Related posts:

1. 28 Top Takeaway Tweets From SAScon Mini 2011
2. Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google – a4uexpo London 2011
3. Top 17 Tweets & Best Bits From Jump Conference

In case you missed it, we’ve posted both sets of slides online here:

If you have any questions on this please let us know in the comments.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google – a4uexpo London 2011

Related posts:

1. Meet us at Internet World, SMX London, SAScon & a4uexpo Europe!
2. Top 65 Takeaways from A4UExpo London 2011
3. What Are Your Biggest Challenges in SEO? An a4uexpo London Special!

This is run with 8 tracks alongside each other – so obviously I didn’t attend them all, but I have listed the top tweets and best bits from the day:

$50 billion will be spent by US organisations in 2012 on Facebook advertising. #cometojump

October 12, 2011 8:54 am via MyPad for iOS (iPad)ReplyRetweetFavorite

@connoan

Alan Connor

Personalised Direct Mail resulted in a 30% sales uptake online for Net-A-Porter #CometoJUMP

October 12, 2011 11:36 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@CometoJUMP

Come to Jump

35% of UK web users wipe their cookies once per month (Comscore). Problem for marketers that rely on them! #cometojump

October 12, 2011 11:26 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@freestyleint

FreestyleInteractive

1st reason people stop following brands, they get bored. 2nd they feel like they are being spammed. #cometojump

October 12, 2011 8:44 am via MyPad for iOS (iPad)ReplyRetweetFavorite

@connoan

Alan Connor

Interesting that match.com purposely don't drive people to Facebook because they want web visits not "likes" #jump2011

October 12, 2011 10:52 am via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@jeremywaite

Jeremy Waite

Under the last click model - Virgin Atlantic only consider 25% of customer events http://t.co/SYFK2JBs #ComeToJump

October 12, 2011 11:35 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@joannahalton

Joanna Halton

"Don't use a pull environment to send out a push campaign" Nick Fuller #cometojump

October 12, 2011 11:22 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@GilesS

Giles Shorthouse

#cometojump 70% of global 2000 will use gamification by 2015 - Gartner

October 12, 2011 12:39 pm via TweetList ProReplyRetweetFavorite

@OptimiseOrDie

Craig Sullivan

It's amazing what happens when you share a common language. BBC Worldwide trained IT in digital marketing. Great results! #cometojump

October 12, 2011 12:45 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@Propellernet

Propellernet

Display advertising involved in 86% of sales attribution for BSkyB! #cometojump

October 12, 2011 2:40 pm via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevgibbo

Kevin Gibbons

Autoglass and optimisation: The tests that drove the highest results were based on testing words,not colours, not images #cometojump

October 12, 2011 3:09 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@Penanalytics

Penelope Bellegarde

Measure your companies email reputation at senderscore.org via @mfarmakis at #cometojump benchmark, aim for >75%

October 12, 2011 3:40 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@ClaireKav

Claire

The best way to reward customers is with status, not free stuff. Gabe Zicherman on Gamification at #CometoJUMP

October 12, 2011 12:58 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Econsultancy

Econsultancy

JUMP Video - @ggalat from @tealeaf on how joined up marketing is now a reality for brands http://t.co/HJACAm0d #cometojump

October 12, 2011 1:45 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@tealeaf

tealeaf

30% increase in conversion when #expedia put a phone number on the page #cometojump

October 12, 2011 1:47 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@smorris75

Simon Morris

Only 35% of travel is booked online. Most travellers book via phone or in Travel agency - offline still key #cometojump

October 12, 2011 2:08 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dotAlistair

Alistair Carmichael

'We fail with 90% of stuff we do on our site, but that 10% of winners can shift online hugely and measurably' - @OptimiseOrDie #cometoJUMP

October 12, 2011 2:25 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@LinusGreg

LinusGreg

Overall there’s been lots of interesting talks and great tips/advice – if you’ve got any to add please let us know in the comments.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Top 17 Tweets & Best Bits From Jump Conference

Related posts:

1. 28 Top Takeaway Tweets From SAScon Mini 2011
2. Top 65 Takeaways from A4UExpo London 2011
3. Get 15% Off Conversion Conference London 2011

This received a great response (197 votes in total) – and we can now announce that the winners of the competition were Think Visibility, who collected 63 votes!

SAScon Manchester and BrightonSEO made it a great result for the smaller events as they finished second and third respectively, with 56 and 29 votes – ranking ahead of some of the much bigger organised London events. Thanks to everyone who took part!

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Think Visibility Voted #1 UK Search Conference by SEOs

Related posts:

1. What is your favourite UK search conference?
2. UK Search Conference Calendar – 2012
3. Get 15% Off Conversion Conference London 2011

Update 15th Sept – the votes have started to settle down now and the top results are very interesting, with the smaller organised and 1-day events such as SAScon, Think Visibility and BrightonSEO coming out on top of conferences which are considered much higher profile.

Here’s the results, from 171 votes:

1. SAScon Manchester – 51 votes
2. Think Visibility Leeds – 49 votes
3. BrightonSEO – 27 votes
4. a4uexpo London – 19 votes
5. SearchLove London – 15 votes
6. SMX London – 5 votes
7. SES London – 4 votes
8. Conversion Conference London – 1 vote

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like you can embed the results from the Facebook poll (if it is, please let me know how!) – but I’ve published a screenshot of them here instead:

As I said on the poll, each conference has different target audiences so this may reflect the results – but I think it’s interesting nonetheless to see what the most popular conference is within the UK search industry.

We’ll be attending (and in some cases, speaking) at all of the upcoming events – so come and say hi. Plus next week, Marcus will be speaking at social media marketing & monitoring on Monday, for those who are around Oxfordshire, we’ll be at Oxon Digital on Weds and we’ll be at the OMN London on Thurs! Busy week – would be great to see you there too!

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. What is your favourite UK search conference?

Related posts:

1. Think Visibility Voted #1 UK Search Conference by SEOs
2. UK Search Conference Calendar – 2012
3. Get 15% Off Conversion Conference London 2011

SEOptimise will be providing the very best points from each presentation session by session and updating this blog post. If you are unable to make BrightonSEO this year, then follow @SEOptimise on Twitter and get all the latest updates right here.

Below is a list of presentations and speakers coming up.

Jonny Stewart – Google’s Panda: A Case Study

John Stewart discussed the Panda update and how it has hit Review Centre, along with some of the things they did to try and revive their rankings.

• Focus on quality content to add your website – Panda update was designed to help people find high quality content
• Johnny estimated that panda released every 5/6 weeks
• “You’re not a good SEO until you have been hit by a penalty” – Jonny Stewart
• Data from Review Centre shows that short tail generic keywords were hit the most

What Review Centre did

• Luckily Review Centre was redesigning their website in the background – This included moving content above the fold and adding prominent social button
• They decreased ad density from 3 areas above the fold to just 2 smaller areas.
• Noindexed lots of content that didn’t have good user metrics and blocked Google bot only, as Panda is a Google-based algorithm change.
• Removed all duplicate content from the site, including boiler plate content

So far Review Centre have not completely recovered, but the fight goes on. The presentation is available to view on YouTube below.

John McElborough – Building a Private Blog Network

John spoke about how building a small blog network is a good way of creating quality links, although the network should be small and private.

Problems with public blogs:

• Low quality domains
• Expensive
• Spam signals sent through poor quality content

Benefits of building a Private a Network of Blogs

• Lowish risk
• Value added for clients
• Focus efforts on higher value link building
• Useful for targeting lots of keywords
• Very effective in long to mid tail keywords

Top level Blog Network Setup Checklist

• Buy relevant domains
• Use .co.uk or org.uks
• Mix registrars – “don’t use 123reg.co.uk”

John went on to talk about how he outsourced content creation to places such as odesk and Textbroker, along with automating link building to these sites to build up authority in the short term.

James Carson – Dr Social Love:  Or how I learned to Stop Worrying about Google Algorithms and Love the People

James Carson Spoke about SEOs looking further at social and people signals rather than waking up in sweats regarding an H2 tag that should really be an H1 tag.

James started off by saying that it is wrong to look at social signals for ranking factors; we ought to look at them as people signals.

Everybody needs to care about Facebook pages and social sharing for brand purposes. Why?

• 42% get news through social networks
• 44% of all online sharing takes place through Facebook

Your fans + your fans’ fans = sharing success.

• Use Klout to find influencers to help engage in conversation + improve sharers.
• Getting likes, tweets and shares from relevant pages will drive traffic.
• Social media affects all traffic sources + content.
• SEO/Social nutshell:  fix your site – love your people.

Erika Ungar – Choosing and Implementing Friendly URLs for Ecommerce

Erika from Boux Avenue spoke about how she had overcome platform issues to implement friendly URLs.

Coming up with a URL structure for ecommerce:

• Top level categories
• Sub categories
• Filtered sub categories
• Product pages
• Static pages

Before you start changing your URL structure you need to look at and think about the follow four points.

• understand the issue you have
• justify the change
• seek solutions
• compromise with developers

Malcolm Coles – How to win at SEO with Duplicate Content:  Featuring Pippa Middleton’s Arse

Malcolm spoke about how in the short term you can use duplicate content to help improve traffic, but in the long term the content will be filtered out.

In the medium term, Google filters out duplicate content; in the short term you can increase traffic by displaying duplicate content. You can also get lots of traffic via Twitter search and generate plenty of natural links.

NOTE:  Google doesn’t give a penalty for duplicate content – it’s a filter.

How to increase traffic using duplicate content for short term gain:

• Use Google auto on a daily basis to look at suggested terms
• Look at Google trends to find target phrases
• Occasionally ask for tweets – to help increase crawl speed

Other ways to get content into Google:

• Publish comments on separate page
• Publish on subdomain
• Include a parameter

Malcolm ended by saying that these techniques require a lot of effort but can help improve traffic in the short term, for the right website.

Neil Walker – Links – SEO Value vs Client Expectations vs Cost

Neil presented results from a number of surveys that he carried out asking both the SEO industry and clients about what people want from a link.

Takeaways

• be transparent
• explain why you choose certain links
• explain the strategy
• manage expectations
• don’t worry about getting poor links
• sales and direct traffic

Dom Hodgson – My Hack Day Addiction

Dom’s presentation was all about Hack days and building applications in 24 hours. Dom explained what Hack Days were and how we should all have a hack day within our companies.

For those that are not aware what a hack day is, they are meetings of developers, designers and computer geeks that are challenged to create applications within 24hours.

Samuel Crocker – How to Pitch SEO

• You can’t go after every piece of business
• Decide if you really want the business
• Get to know the client during the pitch process to ensure it will be a good relationship
• Ask questions about the brief no matter how challenging
• Put a lot of energy in the strategy
• Put forecasts in it’s all abut the forecast be optimistic and pessimistic
• Be prepared to give information away
• Do homework on your competition
• Earn trust by being open with all the information – Give information on the team that will work on the account
• Put something at risk – performance related fees
• Do not alienate internal teams
• Bring the best possible people to the pitch

Graeme Benstead-Hume – Stormy Weather:  The Accuracy of Search Volume Estimation and Forecasting

Graeme presented results of a study that he carried out around the accuracy of the keyword research tools SEOs use on a daily basis.

Some of the figures were quite alarming.

• Google Keyword tool average accuracy was +13,403%
• Wordtracker tool average accuracy was +1,099%
• SEOBook average accuracy was +4,232%

See Graeme’s BrightonSEO presentation below.

Dara Fitzgerald – Beyond the last click:  Finding Hidden SEO value with Multi-Channel Funnels

Dara’s talk was all about multi-channel funnels in Google Analytics and how we it helps improve tracking beyond the last click.

Kane Bartlett – Driving SEO with PPC

• Use PPC for SEO keywords
• Understand multiple channel interaction
• Understand user interaction
• Test PPC headlines to see which improves CTR

Rosie Freshwater – Market Research:  Informing SEO and Link Development

Rosie spoke about the how by doing some market research, can help improve the content that is created for link building purposes. By conducting some market research before starting a link building campaign, you will be able to create more targeted content.

Some of the areas you should be looking at include:

• Customer insight helps provide ideas to create content
• Targeted Content will provide better li building
• Look at media habbits,
• Find out about there lifestyle choices
• Find out what they do in there spare time
• Find out family and social activites,
• Customers consume media that matches there lifeestyle

To conduct the market research you need to create focus groups that meet regularly focusing on understanding your clients target audience.

Once you have all the data from the focus group begin creating customer profiles with the information gathered. From here you will be able to create a large amount of targeted content that your clients audience will be associated with.

Summary

• Plan properly
• Use professionals
• Doesn’t have to be expensive
• Creates very targeted content

Rae Lovejoy – Delight in the Digital World:  Why Settle for Customer Satisfaction

Rae talked about client retention and relationships, discussing the many difficulties in strategies, services and results.

BrightonSEO was another great day with lots of great speakers providing actionable information. To end the day Kelvin played a video from a special guest. VIDEO COMING SOON.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. BrightonSEO 2011 Roundup: who said what and why

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2. 28 Top Takeaway Tweets From SAScon Mini 2011
3. SEOptimise’s 58 most awesome blog posts of 2011

We’re currently working on the presentation and thought it would be a good idea to reach out to our readers in order to ask:  what are your biggest challenges in SEO?

This is going to be largely targeted at affiliates – so looking at challenges such as:  ‘how to add more content?’, ‘how to appear as a brand rather than a thin affiliate site?’ and of course ‘how do you avoid a panda slap?!’

But we also want to hear from you and look to answer your common questions and challenges – so please let us know in the comments below…

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. What Are Your Biggest Challenges in SEO? An a4uexpo London Special!

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1. Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google – a4uexpo London 2011
2. Meet us at Internet World, SMX London, SAScon & a4uexpo Europe!
3. Top 65 Takeaways from A4UExpo London 2011

Here are the slides from my talk:

20 Top WordPress Plugins – 2011 Edition – Kevin Gibbons, London Blog Club

If you have any questions on this please let me know in the comments or on the meetup.com page.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Top 20 WordPress Plugins – 2011 Edition

Related posts:

1. SEOptimise’s 58 most awesome blog posts of 2011
2. 15% Discount Code for SMX Advanced London 2012
3. Keyword Research – SMX Advanced London 2011 Presentation by Kevin Gibbons

Kevin Gibbons – a4uexpo Europe – Natural Link Building

If you have any questions just let me know in the comments. The session was alongside Kelvin Newman who did a great presentation which you can find here. You can also find my latest presentations on Scribd from recent search conferences and events.

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. Natural Link Building Presentation at a4uexpo Europe 2011

Related posts:

1. Meet us at Internet World, SMX London, SAScon & a4uexpo Europe!
2. 30 Link Building/Link Baiting Techniques That Work in 2011
3. Post Panda: Affiliates Guide to Surviving Google – a4uexpo London 2011

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. How Important are Facebook Likes for Search? – Presentation from SMX London

Related posts:

1. 15% Discount Code for SMX Advanced London 2012
2. Can You Get a New Domain Ranking Using Just Facebook Likes & Tweets?
3. Keyword Research – SMX Advanced London 2011 Presentation by Kevin Gibbons