Happy June, evvabody! Here's what happened last month in case you were bedridden with swine flu: Best Blog Posts in May 2009 If I Could Go Back In Time & Give Myself Some Advice, This Would Be It. If Rand could turn back tiiiiiime......
I've just got back from SMX London (when I say "just" I'm obviously referring to the Hangover, as I've been back multiple days), and It's probably the best event I've been to for all around value and enjoyment. Having to been to several conferences (Including 3 SES events) over the years though, I've come to the conclusion that, unless you are networking for clients, these events are not easy to justify the expenditure they incur. The problem most people in the intermediate-advanced tier face is hearing only what we know already; I spend a lot of these sessions sucking eggs now.
Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Google crashed between 8:40 and 9:55 ET yesterday, preventing people from Googling to find out why Google wasn't working. Oh noes! Speaking of Google, they recently overhauled Google News as well as updated their blog search algorithm, and they're allowing trademarks to be used in US Adwords copy. Geez, no wonder there was downtime. Methinks Google needs a little R&R.
The weather's getting nicer, the days are getting longer and Rand's barely in the office. You know what that means: it's conference season! Since there are so many conferences right around the corner, I thought I'd list some upcoming events in case you're thinking of attending a show but aren't sure which one to book. SMX London in London, UK: May 18-19, 2009...
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Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Compete has rolled out a bunch of changes, adding user generated tags, a new interface, dynamic graphs, and more. Pete Meyers has hired a new intern, Yoozer, and he's here to answer your toughest questions about usability.
At the beginning of every month I'll be highlighting the best content from the previous month. I'll still be doing the weekly roundups (I owe you guys a big one tomorrow), but here's a monthly recap of the best blogs, YOUmoz entries, tools and more. Best Blog Posts in April 2009 Fear and Forg...
I haven't promoted an SMX event on SEOmoz in a long time, but the agenda and opportunity in London (May 18 and 19 - just 2 weeks away) is too good to miss. If you have search marketing personnel anywhere in the UK, the expenditure (£890 with a 10% discount for SEOmoz PRO members) will undoubtedly bring a high ROI. I'll explain why:
Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Stephen Tallamy did an interview with the SEO team at Distilled. I love the Mod Squad-esque snapshots of each employee. They're so posh. Joost de Valk wrote up a new guide to Magento SEO. Since the platform keeps evolving, he'll keep it nice and up-to-date for all you nerds. Maybe I need to implement this strategy in order to shave my swim time down a bit...
This is my wish list from Google and the other search engines. Rankings should be based more on the content of the site and less on technical aspects (tags, domains, links). The theory is that, as SEO teams, we could devote more time to content, the good stuff that actually benefits the user.
This past week, as Sarah, Adam, Jeff and I left the office for our Tuesday lunch meeting, they asked me how the Iceland conference went. I believe my exact words were "It was the most fun I've had since my wedding." The more I reflect on the experience, the truer it is. I arrived in Keflavik airport at 6:15am last Thursday morning. I walked outside to take the bus to Reykjavik...
Good presentation skills are essential in the SEO industry. As well as the multitude of conferences that feature so prominently in our industry, we are also often called on to present SEO clearly (and favourably!) to potential clients and skeptical CEOs.
I've been neglecting the Thursday roundups lately due to chronic deadlines and client work taking precedent over sitting down for four hours and putting together a post full of links. However, since I've received clamorings to resume the roundup (and because Rand is sad that I haven't been blogging much lately), I figured I'd hunker down and get you all up to date on what's been going on the past couple months. I'll also be "Andy Dufresne-ing" old YOUmoz entries and Marketplace listings into subsequent roundups until we're all caught up, so don't feel sad if you contributed to the site some way in the past and aren't listed below--I'll get to you! My apologies for some of the more "dated" news--hope you enjoy this mega long, uber-huge roundup!
Earlier this week Rand and I spoke at the third annual Searchfest, put on by SEMpdx and a load of lovely sponsors. Loyal readers and R. Kelley fanboys (and girls) will remember that my first ever speaking engagement was at the first Searchfest two years ago. The organizers were gracious enough to overlook my profound suckitude and invited me back to speak about link building last year. This time around, they asked me to participate on the blogging panel with Stoney deGeyter and Heather Lloyd Martin. I wasn't sure what to cover since the panel details simply said "Blogging," so I talked about various blogging myths. It seemed to go over fairly well considering it was 9:00 am--I think my half naked pictures of David Hasselhoff helped.
Over the weekend I was lucky enough to attend ThinkVisibility, a conference in Leeds (UK) where I was speaking on reputation management. Here's a quick roundup of the conference for you UK types - there's another conference in September and tickets were only £30 this time around which was a right bargain - just take a look at t...