Best regards,
Linda Cunningham

Would you like to cover our upcoming conference in Scottsdale in similar fashion? I think it would be a great benefit to attendees, and to all those who can’t attend.

The conference is BUILDING AND PROTECTING REPUTATION 2010: Executive Communications and Speechwriting in the New Media Age, Scottsdale, Arizona Feb 24-25, 2010. http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=380&full=1

This is the first year for the REPUTATION conference in Scottsdale but we are expecting this to be a premier annual learning event. We have some of the very top experts on executive communications and speechwriting on the agenda, the venue is an architectural delight and we’ve partnered with the Cicero Speechwriting Awards and local IABC and PRSA chapters for added learning and value. There’s also a cocktail reception under the stars and an evening dine around for networking.

Thanks,
John

Social Media and Search Arnie Keunn, CEO of Vertical Measures @ArnieK Vertical Measures

Optimizing for search is critical

What happened in 2009?

–Google made ~ 540 changes in 2009 they update their algorithms almost every week.
–Search Engines got better at eliminating spam.
–Quality backlinks became much more important, weak links became worthless in terms of rankings.
–If the link is easy to get, the Search Engines know it.
–Social media ‘signals’ became a real factor.

What to expect in 2010

–Quality in SEO
–Create engaging unique content
–Optimization of each page you want to rank
–Trusted inbound links
–Changing search results
Personalized search: you need to be there to be considered.
Universal Search: capture real estate with local video press blog post

Social Media influence
–Signals & real time results

How does social influence search?

It can influence your rankings for your websites

• Mentions & Signals
• Backlinks

Social Media actually appears in the search results

• real time search
• Blog posts
• Images
• Video

Social media as reputation management

How Does It Work Today?
Google bot or spider

Your website: Create Good Content
Build pages around your Keywords

Add real value to the web visitor
• Unique
• Informative
• Entertaining

Who Do You Link To?
• Good neighbors
• It’s your reputation

On Page Optimization (in order of importance for 2010)
Recommended reading SEOmoz’s 2009 Latest Ranking Factors

Links – Internal & external
Freshness of content & KW usage
TT (viewed in results)
Image Alt text
H1 Tag
Description meta tag (viewed in results)
URL structure
Page Load Times

What NOT to do on Pages

Try to fool the SEs
KW stuffing
More links than text
Biggest factor is Still Inbound Links

The best links:
From trusted sites (.gov, .edu)
Have proper anchor text
Have varied anchor text
Are from many different domains (new 2010)
Determined editorially (SOCIAL!)

Social Media in Search results
Videos
Images
Blog posts
Profiles
Tweets
Updates
They all appear in Search Engine Results Pages

You still need to optimize for Social / Profiles where possible:
Titles, KWs, tags, descriptions.
Try to build links to them too.

The Best of Both Social & Search

Build great content and promote it
Good for Social Media?
• Is it ‘linkworthy’?
• Can you promote it?

Examples:
Lists
Case Studies
Comparisons
Satire & parody
Interviews
Polls & Surveys
Videos
Contests 0 detailed example, next)
Promote it using social media!!!
Have a corporate blog.

Social & Search – Other Ideas
Widgets & Badges
Licensing of Content or Tools
Research results, white papers, free tools, etc.
Article Placement

Awesome. …Make that spectacular! The verbosity and clarity in all your notes and summaries of the presenters was excellent. This is a great resource and you cited everything the best you can with links.

Seriously, thanks for attending and taking the time to put your thoughts on this together. It shall benefit many people. I plan on taking a number of these points item by item and writing about them.

Thanks again! If you ever want to connect and discuss social media strategy, let me know.

~joe
@joemanna