Following the opening session, there were two different tracks for participants to attend, New Media Basics and New Media in Action. I chose the first track with Brian Williams of Viget Labs and Jim Long of Verge New Media.

SEO Best Practices

Brian spoke to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), starting with the definition - a set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a web site in search engines.

SEO matters because it’s how people find you, 81% of consumers find sites via search engines. They increase awareness of your business, product, and even personality. Not only is it how they find you, but it’s how they judge you.

Search credibility is extremely important, and 33% of users believe that the top positioned web site is the #1 brand in that industry. It’s also important because this credit is earned, not bought.

Businesses have a variety of goals (lead generation for example) with their website, and it’s important that the content driven by search terms reflect that. When designing a website, you should customize the landing pages you choose so that they are optimized for the most search terms, utilizing key words and phrases. Use your analytic service (WebTrends, Google Analytics etc…) to determine what the high traffic search terms are.

How does social media relate?

If you are writing a blog on your speciality, product or industry, then you will be able to develop posts and links that are relevant to that. In turn, good blogging strategy will reward you by increasing your search engine credibility.

The Process of SEO

There are three simple keys to optimization, the code (build it right), content (address your key phrases) and connections (earn backlinks). It’s important to target your content for those key phrases as your potential search audience would find it through their search.

Relevance is the first SEO consideration. Are the terms relevant to your expertise, are they appropriate and will it generate quality content? It’s more important to get website hits from relevant searches than obscure.

Also think about the localization of your search. Make sure you are including where you are located, as many people will include location in their overall web search.

Popularity is important, understanding what terms will receive the most hits. For example, if your web traffic is coming from you blogging or writing on your site about one of your clients, it’s not as important as being directed based on your company’s content and expertise.

Competitiveness is also key when thinking about SEO. Some important questions are how hard will it be to earn placement? How large is the search term index and how popular are my competitors?

Performance is the final key point, knowing how effective your SEO strategy is, and what value it provides. How much of your traffic is coming from your SEO, and are the hits turning into customers?

Site Optimization

Best practices of SEO including optimizing code and optimizing design. Content should be designed cleanly using current mark-up standards, and graphic use should be minimized (as well as Flash).

Content should also be search-term rich, non-commercial, current and optimize links. Consider the “long tail” of the volume of your search terms.

Backlinks are important when considering SEO, and are treated as “votes of approval” - good content earns backlinks. Make sure that you are giving “link love” (as we like to call it) and contributing to the conversation.

Forming these connections goes back to building community, so it’s nice to see that SEO not only benefits companies, but also social media as a whole.

Final Thoughts on SEO

Brian summarized by saying to focus on the long-term results of SEO. Avoid tricks and “black-hat” tactics of tricking the search engines. Work on overall quality with the fundamentals of SEO in mind. When you’re writing content and designing your website, writing in your blog, or anything else online, make sure that you are thinking about how your SEO will be affected.

Taking a quick break then on to the second part of the session with Jim Long!

Sidenote: Viget Labs is pretty hip, they designed Squidoo and also Britney Spears’ website (and of course, the new Buzz Bin!). So, you can imagine how that affects their search engine results!