Arran Coole, ASP Inc Dave Lutz, Velvet Chainsaw

Stephen Nold, MeetingTechOnline

Is Your Event Website Optimized?

Agenda – Part 1

Intro to SEM/SEO 1

SEO Analytics2

SEO & Social Media3

What is website optimization?

• For an event website it means good online marketing

• Most of the work is not on your website

• Results in attendance, long term exhibitors and a profit center website

What does a good website do?

• Converts• Converts the converts• Rewards good exhibiting• Markets to people you are not

marketing to (yes they do exist!)• Recruits 100’s or 1000’s of copy

writers

Throw away the books

• Pragmatic advice• Convince you

– Not to have a website– Don’t SEO optimize the website you

don’t have

Don’t have a website

• Have an online empire• Magazines vs trade shows

The Flat-World Audience

Let’s talk about online only

Event: No Social Media

Alone online

People can talk about you

You have no reply

Popular party vs lonely kid

Event: Website SM

Lets build SM on our website!

Subset of your audience

Could grow outside

Conversation restricted

Event: Social Media Participation

?

Pros:2 way conversationInstant market researchRelationships aidedCreates wantCreates content

Cons:Needs resources

Goals of Social Media

Branding

Event Website

Reg/Data capture

Your new front page:

Am I Google biased??

• Of 12 Billion U.S Searches in Dec 2008 62.9% were made in Google [Source: Search Engine Watch]

• Google beats Yahoo ~ 4 to 1[Source: Search Engine Watch]

• There are an estimated 28 billion web pages indexed by Google(Source: Google ‘Big Daddy’)

• On average everybody in NA with access to the internet searches Google once a day.

SEO vs. SEMSEO• organic search results• mass content

approach• optionally free• long term results

(slow)• more cost effectiveAlways should be

used - Free

SEM• paid for results• focused campaigns• paid for (click or

placement)• immediate results• more expensiveLaunch shows & new

URL’s during visitor promotion campaign

The SEO Goal

To get as many pages indexed by the search engines, with the most

relevant content, that is most useful for your event’s target audience, so they repeatedly

visit your website

SEO is like Chess

•Minutes to learn the basics•Years to master• Just to make it harder

– Some of the rules are secret– Each search engine is different– Billions of other players!

Alan Eustace, a Google VP of search engineering announced in 2006 that there are over 200 signals that Google uses to determine document relevance for a searcher.

Hmm, Chess is easier!

200 in 2006!Q: How many now?

In 2007 Google tweaked their rules 450 times

ASP’s SEO Approach

• It’s impossible to figure out the ultimate SEO strategy as the rules are too complex and change constantly• Holistic approach instead:

– What is Google trying to do?– Google wants to be #1– Google will stay #1 by giving the best results– That means:

Google Empathy

When you make a search on Google, Google must find the most relevant

answerto your query to remain successful•Holistic approach:

– Don’t cheat– Don’t spam– Have loads of great content– Apply all the basic SEO techniques

SEO Areas

Marketer can control

• Content• Page Titles• Images ALT tags• External linking• Internal linking• Domain name• Social SEO• PR SEO

Web Dev can control

• Code structure• Flexibility• Enforcement• Design• Page structure• Submittal

SEO Analytics• Programs enable site owners to measure their

successes • Tracks visitors from all referrers, including search

engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

• If integrated with AdWords, users can review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals).

• Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file.

• These can also be monetized. • Marketers can determine which ads are performing,

and which are not, providing the information to optimize or cull campaigns.

SEO Analytics

• SEO Website Grader by HubSpothttp://www.websitegrader.com/

• Google Analytics– free service offered by Google – generates detailed statistics about the

visitors to a website. – product is aimed at marketers as opposed

to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew.

Social Media Enhances SEO

• Social media/networking sites are increasingly showing up in Google search results

• Social sites like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter show up due to the communities these sites empower and the viral nature of the content found in these places.

• Means content has the ability to be spread further than ever before.

• Community can submit good content to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit or “Tweet” it on Twitter, comment on Facebook or email it to a friend.

• Effect = direct impact on increasing inbound links = huge impact on search rankings.

• “Buzz generates citations, citations generate links, links generate rankings, top rankings = good SEO.” NetWits Think Tank

YouTube

YouTube

Wikipedia

Social Media & SEO

Social Media & SEO

Blog

Twitter

MySpace

Facebook

LinkedIn

Social Media & SEO

– SEO Blogs - seo.alltop.com– General - WebMarketing Today– Blogs/Social Media -

Chrisbrogan.com– TSW Event Tech Blog– IAEE eMerge Blog

Resources

Continued….

Join us for SEO Part 2 at 9:45AM

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