Team Tasmania operators engage in a number of networking events with an element of the event focusing on helping operators improve their international marketing reach. The following is the presentation and discussion that I was involved in where we discussed some principals of Search Engine optimization.

Areas that were talked about were

• The web is a supporting tool for a business
• Areas that a website owner should think about
• Accessibility (Hosting, Coding, sitemaps, CMS)
• Usability (Overcoming visitor obstacles, Set conversion goals)
• Analysis (Google Analytics, Free tools, Google Webmaster tools)
• Popularity (SEO, SEM, Social Media, Offline activities that need to dove tail)

The importance of Search Engine Optimization

SEOmoz SEO Pyramid developed by Rand Fishkin was used to talk about the layers involved in an effective SEO campaign. Some factors were explored around effective SEO. The SEOmoz SEO Biennial Ranking report was used to highlight some SEO areas.

Social Media was discussed.

• Any one can get involved
• Trying to cover everything takes too much time
• When thinking about getting involved in social media identify a category or type of social media and concentrate on getting it right. Dont try and tackle everything all at once.
• There is a difference in being involved in social media as a commenter or using it to understand what is being said as opposed to creating viral content that will promote your business.

Search Engine Marketing or Pay-per-click

Although it is becoming a more difficult area to obtain quick wins with higher keyword costs etc it is still an area that will help a business get exposure on the internet. It is important to get the right tools, do the right research and follow up with effective monitoring and testing.

A list of a few helpful resources

Sitemaps

http://www.sitemaps.org/

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ – Help Generate a sitemap

Usability
http://crazyegg.com/ on page interactive tracking

http://www.surveymonkey.com/

http://www.usabilityone.com/usability-resources/articles/usability-articles.php

Analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics/

http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/

Keyword tools

https://adwords.google.com.au/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.google.com/sktool/ Search based – find keywords from other side

Toolkits

http://tools.seobook.com/

http://www.seomoz.org/

Web master tools from Search Engines

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

http://www.bing.com/webmaster

Competitive intelligence

http://www.google.com/insights/search/

http://www.google.com/trends

http://www.keywordspy.com/

https://www.google.com/adplanner/

PPC

https://www.google.com/adplanner/

www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor

https://adwords.google.com.au/

Good SEO Blogs (information)

http://searchengineland.com/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog

Other Tools

http://www.addthis.com/

Some of the stand out presentations that I went to…

Monte Huebsch -Blended Search Tactics 2 – Maps & Local Listing Optimisation

Starting out Monte made the following statement: “The search engines advice when considering what to do always emphasis two elements”

• Maps/ Local Business directories
• Blogging

The presentation tackled the first one of these areas talking about local directories. Focusing on Australian local directories, he emphasized that a website does not have to pay for listings in three of the top five local directories.

These directories are good for traffic from the people who use the directories; they also contribute to a site’s overall Google rankings.
The list of top five directories in Australia presented is as follows.

• Google -> Free plus has street view
• Yellow Pages -> $$$
• Hotfrog -> Free
• True local -> $$
• Aussie web -> Free

Factors in utilizing Local directories correctly include

• Proximity of address
• Number of quality reviews
• Keyword relevance
• SEO characteristics of the website
• Links within the local community

Greg Boser from 3 Dog media – 301 Redirects, Why are they important?

Starting with this statement: “A 301 is a status code served in the http header that informs the requesting user-agent that the URI being requested has been permanently moved to a new location”

Greg moved on to say that he thought that the 301 redirect tool was one of the best and most powerful tools available to SEO’s. The reasoning was that it is the only redirect to pass or carry the link juice from one area to another area.

Greg mentioned the difficulty with developers in getting the correct redirect implemented.

When to use a 301 redirect

• Domain migration
• Canonicalization (www vs non-www)
• Site Architecture changes
• Type-in, misspelled, and marketing domains

Greg also spoke about the new canonical tag, which he called RELCAN. This gives webmasters the ability to help inform the search engines, which is the preferred page with in a site. The tag does not work across domains but will work across sub-domains. It helps hugely in the area of duplicate content and refines the process, which previously had to be done using robots.txt and other tools, which could cause other problems.

The resource he quoted was http://www.netconcepts.com/learn/301-redirect.php

Stephan Pavlovich – Conversion Rate Optimisation

A great presentation highlighting some really good best practises when thinking about conversion. Conversion of visitors to the intent of the websites existence is important. Stephen covered two topics in a list that his company uses when approaching a website’s conversion problems.

He addressed

• Understanding your visitors (particularly the non-converting ones)
• Designing your webpage experiment

Starting with Understanding your visitor Stephen defined that there are two types of non-converting users. The first is the visitor that wants what you have to offer and would like your service or product but struggles to get to the point of engagement. To fix this a webmaster needs to focus on the funnel path to conversion and clarify what the user needs to do next to achieve engagement.

The second type of non-converting visitor is the person that needs persuading. To deal with this a departure from conventional A/B testing of change something and see what happens is required. What he suggests is use the formula

What is the Objection / Counter the Objection

To achieve this he gave a few possible objections and their counter objection

• If they don’t trust your company -> Build trust elements
• If they don’t believe your product
• is better than competitors -> show advantages over competitors
• is better than nothing -> show benefits over nothing
• works -> show proof it works
• If they don’t understand what you are offering -> Use techniques to improve comprehension
• If you aren’t making enough offers -> Make more offers
• If they see the decision as being too risky -> Use risk reduction strategies

The biggest tool in helping to improve a websites conversion was the art of listening. A number of tools were highlighted which helped in getting feedback from visitors. This included survey and live chat tools.

He lastly covered off a number of methods for handling objections.

• Handle objections head on
• Give a reason why
• Be authoritative (image of someone in authority etc)
• Create Urgency, Scarcity, Exclusivity
• Provide something that is helpful (AID = advertising in disguise)
• Proof Demonstration, Media testimonials, Evidence of success, Social
• Perform Cost-benefit analysis
• Bargain appeal
• Risk Reversal
• Simplicity
• Desire to belong
• Common Enemy

His resource http://conversion-rate-experts.com/articles

Cindy Krum – What’s New In Mobile Search

“The Web has become so pervasive, so ubiquitous that it is fading into the background. It is becoming invisible. It just powers everything that we do and it is almost completely transparent; In that we often don’t even realize that we’re getting data or information from the Web. It’s just how we do things. We just expect it to be there and work. Flawlessly, at all times.”

Cindy specializes in web mobility, which seems to be the next large break through for internet search. Cindy empathised that mobility search is in its infancy and has huge benefits to offer early adopters. Likening this to the web of 10 years ago, Cindy said those that get involved now will have to test and play but grabbing the market share ahead of the heard would bring large benefits.

Why the Importance of Mobile Search

• Mass mobile coverage
• Most personal marketing medium ever
• More interactive marketing possibilities

Hurdles to Mobile search

• Lots of browsers
• Many different handsets
• Inconsistent coverage
• Expensive mobile data pricing
• User education

Cindy also talked about styling of mobile web pages, best domains to use(.mobi is dead), SEO mobile factors including directory submission.

This blight on American history has hurt the American people at home and soured international relations. The world community is less trusting. The nation of America and its people suffer under the increased load of world hate, mistrust and condemnation.

In the last days of the Bush administration, huge numbers of Americans have come out in support of Obama. They have also distanced themselves from Bush as much as possible. Youtube videos, news articles, blogs, discussion panels and even interviews have all had a go at how bad George Bush was as the President of the United States.

Does this show of anti-Bush sentiment help the rest of the world put aside the bad taste after eight years of bad decisions? Decisions that have not solved world problems but magnified them.

I dare to so NO.

Once more, we see the American people and media turning on someone who is weaker and more vulnerable. It is almost a repeat of what George Bush did to Iraq on a global scale. Those who are out of favor are torn down, ridiculed and disposed of.

It seems as though America has learnt nothing. The same sentiment that hunted Saddam, hunts Bush. What you deserve is what you get may be the retort. However, look where this bully mentality has landed America and the world at large.

If America has learnt anything from their recent experience of bullying other nations, it should be that bullies do not prosper. It would have been better for America to leave the Bush bashing alone. Condemning his actions is one thing; going after him personally is degrading.

America should have let the outgoing president leave with what dignity he had. His own conscience will condemn him; his legacy will dog him and the problems he has caused will haunt him.

The solutions to the problems caused will be difficult but will not come until America learns not to be a bully. It is when America is able to reach out and extend the hand of help to everyone no matter what his or her perceived value is. Then and only then will America start to solve their problems and be less of a world problem contributor.