Being the in-house SEO & Web AddiCT within the SWAT team attending SMX East was a must. It was like the stars aligned when the topics presented in the various tracks fitted right into the types of companies within the Naspers Group. The only problem was that there was only one of me and 5 different tracks happening simultaneously.
In an attempt to attend the talks that were relevant to the various projects I am involved in I found myself bouncing around from Technical SEO, Keyword Research, Paid Search, Social Media, Ecommerce, Analytics, Blogging and Local Search.
Technical SEO
Relevant to every website the session Dealing With Domain Names, URLs, Parameters & All That Jazz focused on the do’s and don’ts when it comes to the use of URLs, domain names with research done into how the use of each affected a sites ranks in Search Results. The insight gained and lessons learnt would be perfect for 24.com and the related verticals.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the one of the most important aspects of SEO and even though the session was aimed at beginner SEOs no harm is done in doing a refresher. The various tools and techniques that can be used to find the perfect keywords to target on our various sites mainly remain the same but a few gems were revealed. Keyword research once again applies to all sites from Property24 to BuscaPé.
Paid Search
Paid Search is the perfect compliment to organic search engine traffic and Google is not the only way to advertise your business online. The biggest take away from SMXEast for me was the various tools that can be used to efficiently manage paid search campaigns across Yahoo!, Bing and Google. I was also introduced to new forms of paid search by some of the exhibitors at smxeast. An simple process was also revealed to reduce your PPC spend by 15%
Social Media
There are a vast array of Social Media sites within the group, attending the Social Media sessions demonstrated how Social Media enhances brand awareness and actually has a direct impact on your paid search campaigns, increasing click through rate for brand and long tail phrases
I live blogged the Pumping up Wordspress for SEO session and many others in attendance tweeted and live blogged all the sessions over the 3 days. You can read a synopsis of the live blogging here.
Looking forward to attending SMX Advanced in 2010.
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