First there was God, and then came the internet. Our new religion has consumed us, and devoured us whole – every last megabyte. Content is the new Holy Grail, and links are our happy ever after, but what about legacy? What about the good of Mankind? Here we take a look at the shiny new plug-in from the guys at MyBlogGuest.com, to see if our prayers really have been answered. (more…)
When Google decided it was going to look a lot more at authorship and consequently look more closely at people instead of just links, something interesting happened in my inbox. It got fuller, a lot fuller.
The e-mails I am since getting are very much focussed on trying to get a spot on State of Search, not being one of the bloggers, but being a guest poster. Just for once, to get that article out there. And to be honest, the e-mails didn’t get any better. I got targeted for the weirdest things. From search marketing to financial products.
It is a sign of times changing. Because they are after the links, but they are after something else as well: influence. The more your name gets around, the better it is for your status as blogger. Are bloggers the “new” influentials? Maybe they already were and they just got a reboots from Google?
For this reason I was interested in seeing the launch of “Bloggabase” a new initiative of PR guru Andy Barr and his partner in crime Rich Leigh. They are trying to get a grip on the enormous amounts of “shoddy pitching” to bloggers as they put it. (more…)
To continue with the events week theme on State of Search, I spoke to a some of the blogging team to get their tips and pointers on attending events and taking notes at events.
Many of the State of Search blogging team are pros when it comes to writing up conference sessions seeing as they have attended and covered so many for us. We are hoping that you can take away a few pointers from them to make going to conferences a better experience for you in 2013.
The two questions that were asked:
Let’s get started:
Content Marketing for Conferences: How to Stand Out from the Crowd & Deliver Value to Those that Weren’t There…
Live blogging and/or writing summary blogs for conferences is a way in which it is common in our industry to exchange value and share our experiences. Online marketing, and more specifically social media and SEO, are ever-changing fields that arguably warrant the huge amount of conferences that happen across the world every year. Many individuals and companies liveblog at these events, or summary posts to attempt to summarise and share the key takeaways from the speakers. However, I believe that many don’t stop and question why you are covering these events? Is it just because everyone else is doing it? In this post I will explore some of the reasons why I believe we should cover events and also provide my top 4 tips on how I approach covering events. (more…)
A recent spate of blog posts have been published ridiculing the pervasive “What X Taught Me About Y” genre. Richard Falconer published a long list of them, I wrote my own parody here on State of Search, and Michael Kovis effectively demolished the genre. But there are also fans of these types of posts, and some have flocked to the relevant comment sections to proclaim their favour, sparking interesting debates in the process.
Do these type of posts add value? Are they worthwhile to write – let alone to read? Is this a type of blog fluff that we should embrace – like top 10 lists – and strive to do as well as possible, or is it better to mock and shun these metaphor-driven blogs? (more…)
So you have that fantastic blogpost, but now to find readers! You can off course do SEO, but there is much more you can do to promote your blogpost. Here are 30! (more…)
Time for a quick update on the development of State of Search! As you may have noticed in the past few years we have grown quite fast, both in traffic, number of bloggers, content and popularity. We have even won an award!
Now it is time to take the next step. And today I am proud to announce that State of Search now, next to a great team of bloggers, officially has an ‘editorial team‘! (more…)
As an SEO I’ve always been very focused on learning. When I started I realized almost instantly that in a fast developing business like ours you need to be ahead of developments all the time. Therefore I made some choices to make sure I would be obligated to stay on top of the developments and know my stuff. One of the best choices for my development was to start blogging about search (and online marketing).
It all began when I decided to start a blog for my former employer. As the only contributor at the time I was forced to produce something with a certain amount of regularity. Based on the posts I produced there I was asked for some guest posts on different blogs in The Netherlands. Which finally led to me being asked by Bas to blog for State of Search. Which of course I gladly accepted although I knew it was a level of audience that would force me to achieve a higher level of blogging I was used to (and in different language as well). Later on I also picked up blogging on my own blog in Dutch on jeroenvaneck.com.
Almost 200 posts later I realize blogging for all these platforms gave me a lot of benefits. Much more than I expected. I recommend everyone who wants to be good in this business to pick up in blogging. And here are four reasons why you should. (more…)
Last week I was kindly invited to speak at the latest Search London meetup in London which is organised by Jo Turnbull. The topic I spoke about was Link Building through Blogger Outreach. I know that this is an area that many people are interested in so I wanted to turn my slides into a blog post which will hopefully help many of you who build links.
Being honest about link building, it isn’t that easy. But it can be made easier with the right processes and the right tools. I’m going to outline a process for content based link building which will include the use of a number of tools.
(more…)
If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been on a mission of late to cover as many SEO conferences as possible. Not only is it a great way to visit different countries, it is a good way to meet UK and international SEO’s and online marketers, and of course a fantastic way to network in the industry.
In the last 8 weeks alone, I’ve been lucky enough to visit London and New York for SES, Iceland for the RIMC, Think Visibility in Leeds, SMX Munich, the International Search Summit, Brighton SEO and IonSearch. I’ve met some amazing people, and I’ve written more blog posts than I care to mention!
With all the travelling and blogging, I’ve learned a lot about how to get the best out of conferences, blogging in different time zones, the pitfalls of live blogging, and the challenges of covering events, so I thought that for this post, I would share with you a few hints and tips for bloggers, speakers and conference organisers with a view to helping us to help you get the best coverage possible.
Wi-Fi Connection
There have been a few events that I’ve been to, where the Wi-Fi drops in and out, or that the reach is just not enough for coverage in every room. There have also been some conferences with no Wi-Fi at all.
I know that there is never going to be 100% uptime, but not being able to use Wi-Fi effectively prevents us from being able to live blog effectively, and for people like me that are also running a business from the conference, not being able to work whilst listening to the speakers, makes for a much more difficult day.
Not all bloggers and attendees can make the start of a conference, so making the connection password visible from the moment we step into the building and at the start and end of every slide means we don’t have to tweet the inevitable ‘does anyone know the #wifi #password’
We Need More Power Captain
Two words – plug sockets!
Most large conferences I have been to have a large venue, often with plug sockets at every turn. Some conferences also provide a selection of sockets in the front few rows so that attendees can re-charge when they need to.
Larger conferences also have different pathways, so it is easy to nip out and charge up in the corridor as you head to the next talk. However, I have also been to conferences that run with a single programme from start to finish, with 10 minute breaks for coffee and lunch – really excellent programme and a great way to take in the information, but when you are running low on power, it is impossible to charge enough in 10 minutes to last for the entire day
I have learned that I need to bring a spare battery for the laptop and the phone, and cover myself with an old fashioned notepad and pen for when I can no longer type, but it makes life easier if I can plug in.
Photo Opportunities
In order to cover your event, or your speaker session, it’s great to post a selection of photos to show non delegates what they are missing! Help us to help you look good, by giving us something different to photograph. Much as it is great to listen to speakers stood behind a lectern, pictures look loads better if you are pointing at something interesting, showing us an area on your slide, making hand gestures, (not rude ones!!), or have something on your slides other than lines and lines of text.
However, don’t move about too much as otherwise rubbish photographers like me can’t get the shot 
In my experience, the best photo ops have come from the little events like ThinkVis, and Brighton SEO, where entertainment is put on in some of the breaks but I realise that this is not always possible at the larger events.
I also understand that constant clicking and flash photography can put speakers off, so invest in a camera that takes decent shots without the use of a flash – I know that my camera could do with having a silent shutter, but I’m working on that.
Slides
More and more, I see speakers putting the links to their Slideshare versions at the start of their session. This is fantastic, BUT if you don’t give us enough of a chance to catch that address, or you are using a long URL, or shortener we haven’t heard of yet – we can’t always write it down!
Many conferences suggest that slides will be available after the event, but if you are blogger that needs to get a post out that day or the next day, it helps to have instant access to slides.
If you are submitting slides to the organiser, put it on Slideshare or better still, your own website, and we can drop you a valuable link 
I have taken to bringing a non-flash camera to take pictures of all of the slides so that I have a record, just in case, we never get sent the link…
I understand that some speakers, prefer a more visual approach so this is not always feasible, but every little helps.
Speakers Corner
Be visible
Not picking on you guys, as you after all, are what we come to see at conferences and events, however, of late it seems that many speakers, turn up 20 minutes before they are due on, and some then leave straight afterwards.
I know your gig slot is your gig slot, but it really helps us to network and get to know you better, if you hang around! I only say this as not everyone can get to networking drinks, and some people save all year, to be able to come to some of these events, so being visible for more than the 10 minutes after your slot for questions, could just make someone’s day!
Help the Live Bloggers
Some of the more recent events have been so fast paced, it is impossible to take pictures of slides, let alone live blog it, so if you have a rapid fire list of handy hints or tools, give us the slides, so we can at least try to share your knowledge on the day!
I would be interested in any feedback on how we can make our blogs posts better for conference organisers or speakers, as I’m sure there are ways we can all improve to get the most out of all events.
As an SEO community we are the scum of the internet, the quacks, the crooks and the swindlers. We have been accused of manipulating the web, destroying the independence of search engines and basically being a virus within the world wide web. To some, we’re like door-to-door salesmen trying to sell stuff to people who don’t want it or need it. We’re manipulating the web so we can lead people to websites where we can lure them into buying all kinds of things they would never have thought of buying if it wasn’t for us.
Of course that’s not how we see ourselves, that’s not how everyone sees us, but some people do. And that’s not just because there’s ‘crooks’ actually trying to make money by manipulating either search engines or ignorant companies wanting to profit from this magical business called SEO.
It’s also because we as a community have a hard time explaining what we actually do. It’s not without reason an important part of being an SEO is about knowing how to convince others, knowing how to persuade. That’s because it’s a difficult business. Heck, not even everyone calling themselves an SEO understands it to the fullest. (more…)
It seems that at least once a year I need to write a post like this one, just to make sure everyone still has both legs firmly planted on the ground.
Because, yes, once again hype has taken hold of the SEO industry and we’re all running around screaming that everything we do has to radically change because Google farted and the SERPs have been turned on its head and SEO will never be the same and ohmygodwereallgoingtodie!!
Calm down, dear.
Some people seem to forget that this thing of ours is in a continuous state of flux. The specific tactics of how we get more relevant search traffic to a website have always changed. Everything from how we tackle on-site optimisation to the nature of linkbuilding has undergone change from one year to the next, and often quicker than that.
But what we actually do as SEOs, the core essence of our remit in the wider digital marketing mix, that really hasn’t changed at all. It’s still about getting relevant traffic to a site via organic search. That was true 15 years ago and it’s still true now. (more…)
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