Conference Adventures Part Quatre - Working with the Hotel

It's now the evening of the same day since my last post (19 hours later). I checked a lot of items off of my list with regards to the logistics of the event, so I'm feeling pretty confident in how smoothly this is going to go (famous last words right?). I gotta say, my favorite part so far of the whole event... I booked a photographer to bring a photo booth to the party and asked for 80's props to go with my little theme.

After every up, there must be a down... This afternoon I felt an illness coming on. In a panic I ran to the Pharmacy across the street from the office and grabbed Zicam, a spray to protect from illness, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B-12 tablets. If I get sick this close to the event, I am screwed...

13 Days Until the Event

Status Update: 
Speakers: All Speakers confirmed and in the agenda
Speaker's Presentations (PPT or other): 0
Agenda: Full!
Logistics: F&B Coordinated, layout of room and AV discussed - Video Recordings, Meetup event details, Party details, and Photographer all checked off (WooHoo!)
Marketing/Promotion: I managed to get all of the speakers on the website (with the exception of Aaron Kronis, but he doesn't' count anyways) and the Agenda is looking pretty complete. I do have some room if someone comes in last minute, but we can go on with it as is as well.  I still need to get speaker emails set up as well as the marketing emails; schedule tweets, Facebook updates, get a Google+ event update schedule figured out (can't schedule those - have to do them manually), update Lanyrd,  finish last years videos, print materials for event (signs, schedules, promotion of next events) and oh so much more.
Master of Ceremonies: Still Me
Volunteers: 1 (Lydia is going to check people in - Yay!  Thank you Lydia) - I still need a Volunteer to help with the speaker's transition and man the video camera.

Coordinating with the Hotel

While the most feared part of organizing an event for me in the past (simply because I had NO idea what I was doing), it has now become one of my favorites. The first time I walked through the plan for F&B and AV with the event coordinator for the resort in Hawaii I got screwed. $20k in the hole later, and after a bail out from my Father to keep Search and Social Hawaii from being canceled, I learned from my mistakes, and have not made the same mistake since. 

I met with our coordinator this afternoon after getting off work. Now that the agenda is set, we went through day by day and discussed numbers for each meal and service. After the disaster of last year at the Hotel Kabuki, I am confident that the Sofitel will have good food, an impressive room (with heat), the coffee will get served (and won't run out), the mic will work for every talk, and the staff will be there if I need anything (did I miss anything?).

After talking with Lisa, I met with the Audio Visual guy. There were a couple of emails going back and forth, and they drafted up an estimate based on that. I'm not going to divulge the total, but I gotta say, I was pretty upset with what they came up with. I now realize why Lisa, and the IT guy both started off (before showing me the numbers) that everything is negotiable, and if needed we can cut some things out.

Well... They have about 90% of it to cut out before I can even come close to being able to afford the bill...

Conference Adventures Part Trois - 2 Weeks 'til

It's 1:30 am and after a couple of hours of sleep I woke up only to find I can't stop thinking about what I still need to do. On top of organizing the conference, I still have my full time job and I finally found a 2 bedroom apartment for my daughter and I to upgrade from the little studio we have been sharing here in San Francisco. We're moving in on February 2nd (right after the conference). There is still a lot to do... Though I tend to love when my life gets like this. So many tasks ahead leading up to a big goal that may seem overwhelming - but just take each day one by one and check the items off the list that need to get done, and it will all be ok. Not to mention that all those items checked off at the end of the day make me feel like I really accomplished something.

14 Days Until the Event

Status Update: 
Speakers: 28 out of 29 speakers confirmed
Speaker's Presentations (PPT or other): 0
Agenda: 1 spots left to fill (almost there)
Logistics: Still need to coordinate F&B (meeting with the hotel on the way home today), layout of room, AV (emails back and forth with the Hotel's IT guys), Video Recordings, Meetup event details, Party details, and Photographer.
Marketing/Promotion: Started on Daily Emails but haven't gotten any further - still need to get speaker emails set up as well as the marketing emails; schedule tweets, Facebook updates, get a Google+ event update schedule figured out (can't schedule those - have to do them manually), update Lanyrd,  finish last years videos, print materials for event (signs, schedules, promotion of next events) and oh so much more.
Master of Ceremonies: Still Me
Volunteers: 1 (Lydia is going to check people in - Yay!  Thank you Lydia)

Social Media Encouragement

I saw this tweet come through on Sunday and it reminds me how buzz like this around the conference makes all the hard work worth it.

I know, to you it seems like just a simple question, but to me it's so much more than that. You see, when you market an event, you don't get much feedback on how successful your marketing is until you see registrations come through. The conference purchasing decision is a process, and tracking that process is difficult - especially on a tight budget like mine (that's no budget really). It goes something like this:

1. The user saw an ad, a post on Facebook, a Tweet, or some form of notification about the event that peaked their interest.
2. The user visits the website for the event and looks at who is speaking, what the agenda looks likes, and generally reads up on the event.
3. The user Google's the event to see if there is more about the event or if anyone is saying anything about it. In some cases, the user might Tweet or Facebook and ask their "friends" if they heave heard of the event, or are going.
4. The user then goes back to work (or just generally goes about their day)
5. Days, or weeks pass and the user sees another mention of the event (ad, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and then talks to their boss (if they need to get approval) or checks their schedule, with spouse, and.or budget (either way, they need to get some sort of approval).
6. The user then goes back to work or day again.
7. Days, or weeks pass and the user remembers the event (or maybe might see another reminder). The user will then ask the boss, or consult their spouse, schedule, etc one more time.
8. The user then gathers whatever they need to justify the spend. Whether it be their boss, spouse, or own personal budget. This process could include a simple breakdown of costs, or it could involve comparing it to other similar events. It can also include items on the agenda that might help state their case (either to the boss, spouse, or themselves).
9. Once the event has been approved, the user will go about planning their trip (or if it is local, getting ready to be out of the office for a few days). The flight will get booked, but perhaps not the hotel quite yet, and certainly not registering for the event.
10. Days, perhaps weeks might pass and the user has let everyone around them know they are going. Facebook posts, Tweets, co-workers, Family, Friends, etc. Everyone knows that the user is going to attend the event... but the event itself...
11. 1-2 weeks prior to the event the user will realize they haven't booked their hotel, or registered for the event. At this point, the user will go to the website and register for the event, then find the hotel information and book their stay. If they are local and there is no stay to book, they usually register a few days before the event.

So, you see there is a lot from the awareness to the commitment that has to happen, and tracking that process is a very tough thing to do. I have my ways, don't get me wrong - I wouldn't be a marketer if I didn't find ways to track the process as much as possible. But numbers don't say nearly as much as seeing a Tweet come through that your event seems to be THE event to attend.  

Conference Adventures Part Deux - Speakers

(yeah, just "Speakers")

It's Saturday 2 weeks before the event begins, and I am finding myself focusing on getting these speakers confirmed, their profiles on the website, their talks in the agenda, and their details emailed to them. At times I feel like I can take an hour or two to relax (and watch mindless sitcoms on Hulu) and there are times I feel like there is too much to do and I can't take a break.

17 Days Until the Event

Status Update: 
Speakers: 26 out of 29 speakers confirmed
Speaker's Presentations (PPT or other): 0
Agenda: 2-4 spots left to fill (I reworked the times and cut back a few slots)
Logistics: Still need to coordinate F&B, layout of room, AV, Video Recordings, Meetup event details, Party details, and Photographer.
Marketing/Promotion: Started on Daily Emails - still need to get speaker emails set up as well as the marketing emails; schedule tweets, Facebook updates, get a Google+ event update schedule figured out (can't schedule those - have to do them manually), update Lanyrd,  finish last years videos, print materials for event (signs, schedules, promotion of next events) and oh so much more.
Master of Ceremonies: Still Me
Volunteers: 0 (possibly 1 or 2)

A Note to Speakers - or Advice when Speaking at a Conference  

However you wish to take it

After my close friend, and fellow SES conference frequenter Simon Heseltine confirmed that he will be in San Francisco the day of my Birthday party, I asked him if he had time to come speak at the conference as well. The day he confirmed I saw his post on SEW "The Guide to Speaking at Search & Social Conferences" and it got me thinking once again about the frustrations I get with speakers for every event I plan.

There are certain triggers and qualities in the people that approach me about speaking that send up red flags of warning. I often wonder if they know they are discouraging the person that approves their speaking, and if they knew they were doing it that maybe they would stop. I have thought about writing a post that talks to those wanting to speak, but worry I might offend someone. Well, no one reads this blog anyways (there are 1-3 visits to it each week), so why not do it here? If someone is offended by what I have to say, and to the point where they cancel their speaking on me, well... I guess I didn't need them to speak anyways (so there *sticksouttongue*).

Some of the points Simon makes are very valuable - so I'm going to call them out, and perhaps add to them so anyone that reads this can get more insight from a planner as well as someone with experience speaking. So, you should probably read Simon's article now (if you really want to get something out of this).

Speaking at a search or social conference like SES brings with it a few perks.

Most (not all) conferences will give you a free conference pass as a speaker, which makes it much easier to get your boss to agree to let you leave the office for a week to go to locations including London, New York City, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

Note the "few perks" including a free conference pass, and great locations to visit. For example "San Francisco" which is one of our conference locations. Even cooler, is my conference in Hawaii. The reason why I point this out is because a lot of speakers (and I'm talking about people I have personally never heard of before, haven't met, and don't have a very impressive background) will ask me about T&E coverage and an Honorarium. When I started planning these conferences I had grand visions of paying travel and expenses to every speaker, and giving them a gift in the form of a iPad, or something cool, as a "thank you" for speaking.

But then reality set in and the budget of a conference that is just starting out is not big by any means, and I just haven't been able to compensate the speakers. What I have been doing is offering them an all access pass to the event they are speaking at and, in addition, provide them two passes to hand out. To them it's worth $3,000-$4,000 with my out of pocket being just $1,000-$2,000 (depending on what they eat and drink, what activity they go to, if they use those extra passes, etc). Most speakers are perfectly happy with it, and some even get very excited and appreciative of the extra passes they get. But, there are a few that not only ask about T&E but then actually tell me they won't speak unless something is paid out to them. As I mentioned in my last post, the speaker that filled out the form requesting to speak (which clearly states all the details) actually 2 weeks before the event asked for T&E and honorarium, then told me he won't speak since he isn't getting compensated.  It's really no skin off my back as I can always find another speaker, but it frustrates me that I gave him a spot, have been sending him communications, and so close to the event he cancels. He is no exception... It happens often.

What gets me through it is the speakers that do end up speaking at our events. They love getting on stage and inspire the attendees. They show up to all of the networking events and activities and get to know attendees. In the end, when we weed out those that are above speaking for the sheer passion of the community and the greater good that we are all working towards, it makes for a very valuable event in the end.

Planning Your Conferences

Think about the topic(s) that you’re able to speak on knowledgeably, and that your company will allow you to talk about. Look for conferences that align with those topics by looking at the agenda for previous events. While prior events may not necessarily have had a session on that exact topic, when you make your pitch many conferences will add in new or consolidate new with existing sessions in order to keep the content fresh and up to date.

Wappow! conferences are extremely different from any other conference out there. There are often times that speakers fill out our form and I can tell that they haven't researched our event. EmMeCon in particular is a TED like event (which is the closest I can come to explaining it quickly) - the topics are a quick 20 minutes and are meant to be inspirational. We look into the future of technology and will ask the questions "Where are we going?", "Where have we been?", and "How did we get here?" often. I get so many speaking proposals wanting to talk about "How brands can benefit from social media" which is great, but everyone wants to cover it, and this event is for the advanced, it's not about teaching, but rather about inspiring. If speakers would take the time and watch our videos, check out the agenda, and get to know the event, then they would have a much better chance of getting chosen to speak.

Pre-Conference Prep

You should get an email from the conference giving you all the details about your session (e.g., timings, fellow speakers, moderator, equipment), about the conference (e.g., dress code, expected level of attendees, and other event logistics), and most likely some badges to display on your blog or website.

I skipped "The Speaking Pitch" - I highly recommend reading it, he's pretty spot on. So, onto preparing for the conference. I highlighted here that Simon points out how "You should get an email from the conference giving you all the details...". I cannot stress enough the importance of each speaker watching for that email and all emails following. I personally (since I am a one-woman operation) spend at least 2-3 hours (often more) crafting up the emails making sure speakers have all the details. Not only to make sure they have everything they need, but to hopefully avoid the one-off emails I get from them asking the same questions that I spend the time putting in the emails. In fact, I just got the question as I am typing this "How many attendees are there? What is the recommended hotel? ". There have been 3 emails mentioning the hotel - and a reminder that they needed to book their stay before yesterday or they would miss out on the discounted rate (that I carefully negotiated with the Hotel). Now because this person didn't pay attention to her emails she will have to pay full price for her room. I don't write those emails for my benefit, I write them for their benefit... but I will still get complaints that the hotel is too expensive, or get questions regarding the logistics of the event.

Preparing Your Presentation

Many conferences require that you submit your presentation electronically a week or so in advance. This doesn’t mean that you can’t make changes, should it need further refining, or should some new data or news become available that would be of value to the audience.

Back when I was speaking I never had a conference ask for a Power Point before the event. In-fact I usually emailed it to the person in charge or brought it up to the AV person on a thumb drive just before I spoke. I started asking for presentations ahead of time because, now that I am on the other side, getting the presentation as they are going on stage causes a lot of confusion, delays, and looks unprofessional to the audience.

I know the last few events there was confusion as PPTs weren't queued up and there wasn't a consistent person manning them. It's something I plan on making sure doesn't happen this time, and speakers sending me their PPTs days before the event relies heavily on that.

Speaking

Make sure to show up at least 15 minutes before you’re scheduled to speak. Check that your presentation is on the machine and is the latest version (if not, whip out your thumb drive). Make sure that any videos or audio you have work correctly, then head to the rest room as unlike the attendees you’re not able to leave the room should nature demand so.

Listen to your fellow presenters speak. They may say something that you can tie into your presentation, or during the audience question-and-answer period.

I can't stress Simon's point enough that you show up at least 15 minutes early and to listen to what your fellow presenters have to say. I actually ask our speakers to attend the entire event. I'm so particular about this that I will not ask someone back if they just show up for their talk, present, and then leave shortly after. Staying for a full day, or even the full three days bodes well with me, and will get them asked back every time. Someone that stays and adds value by attending the networking events will also get recommendations from me to some of the larger more prominent conferences (yes, conference organizers know each other and we talk).

The rest of Simon's post covers Q&A and a few more helpful tips that I strongly recommend read and fully understanding.

More Notes (from me)

Just a couple more pointers to add to Simon's post.

Check your ego at the door

Just because you were chosen to speak, does not mean that you are any smarter or better than anyone else at the event. You may think you belong to the "speaker's club" but the truth is there is no club. Whatever celebrity you feel while at the conference, it goes away when you get back home to your friends and family. Trust me, I've been there. I thought I was a celebrity with people lining up to meet me after I spoke. People would buy me drinks, pick my brain, and hand me their cards hoping that I would talk to them after the event is over. When I started planning events instead of speaking that all went away. Now no one knows my name, no one even knows I am the person that organizes the conference - I am just the "man" behind the curtain. I don't even see articles mentioning my name as a top SEO, Social Media, etc. expert or writers asking to interview me anymore.

To add - my favorite speakers include Myron McMillin, Lynne D Johnson, Dr. David Evans, Evan Fishkin, Gillian Muessig, Bill Leake, Shravan Goli, Zoe Harris, Jeff Jonas, Pascal Schuback, Scott Porad, Ian Lurie, Mike Yao, Josh Rizzo, and a long list of brilliant and inspirational speakers that are just like everyone else. If you're looking to speak, spend some time with these people (you can find them at my events, and soem at other events too). Each and every one of them has a passion for helping others and if asked, will tell you they have no idea why I love them as speakers so much (I admire their modesty).

Be Appreciative

Organizing a conference is not an easy task, and the costs that come with that far outweigh the financial benefits. Every person I talk to that organizes conferences have the same passion for what they do that I seem to have. We get a high off of the value that people get from the event we planned for them. That is all the reward we need. If you have ever organized an event, you probably know that there is absolutely no money in it. If there is, then the event tends to lose it's integrity - speakers are booked without given the topic of person presenting it any thought. Sponsors provide thousands of dollars to market to the attendees, and boy do they market to the attendees.

If you understand what we organizers put into the event, you will appreciate the chance to speak at one. Show your attendees appreciation for paying money to be there to see you speak. Thank your conference organizer for all the hard work and effort they put in to make the show happen. Talk to other fellow speakers and admire the efforts they put in to being there just as you did.

Lastly - Be Professional

I haven't had a problem with this at my events (thankfully) but I have read some pretty horrific reportings and even articles regarding harassment, "hooking up", and general misconduct at conferences. What attendees do, is their business, but speakers are also representing the conference they are speaking at during networking and other activities associated with the event. If I know a speaker tends to behave inappropriately, I won't ask them to speak. I myself am no perfect angel, but I know enough not to drink too much or carry on inappropriately at a conference. I also don't drink at my own events (though my 40th Birthday Party at this EmMeCon might be the exception).

If you are truly serious about speaking, memorize Simon's post, and head my rantings just the same, and you will be an amazing speaker. If you wish to speak at one of my events - there is a form (and an official process) on the website. Don't contact me directly, it just annoys me.

Conference Adventures Part Un - 18 Days 'til

Planning and organizing a conference is not an easy feat by any means, and I often ask myself why I keep doing it... But at the end of each event I have this "conference euphoria" (as my Father calls it) that feels very much like an addiction. Which gives me this feeling like a crack head itching for their next fix to plan another conference.

It's now 6:33 am on Friday and I have been up for 2 hours after 5 hours of sleep coming off of answering emails to speakers that have questions already answered in the 4 emails they have gotten so far, only to find they "can't make it" after all just 2 weeks before the event.

So what keeps me sane while doing all of this? 

Simply talking it out... So I'm going to use my personal blog to get out what needs to get out to save the rest of the world my frustrations.

 

18 Days Until the Event

 

Status Update:

Speakers: 29 out of 36 speakers confirmed
Speaker's Presentations (PPT or other): 0
Agenda: 5 spots left to fill
Location: Booked; deposit made; still need to coordinate F&B, layout of room, AV, Video Recordings, Meetup event details, Party details, and Photographer.
Master of Ceremonies: Me (until I can find someone)
Volunteers: 0

After my mostly Master of Ceremonies for all of my events past canceled on me for all conferences in 2013, I have asked one other person that I trust to take on such a task but was notified last week that he will not be able to do it. My backup plan is to host the event myself, but that leaves me to rely on volunteers to check people in, and someone else to man the AV, Social, and Photography. If everything is queued up before the speakers comes up to speak, I can hand them the mic, and then go up on stage why they get ready. That is IF the speaker's presentation is ready to go before they show up for their talk. Then once I introduce them, I can check the video camera (propped on a tripod) to make sure it is in place and running, Take some photos, check the Hootsuite feeds (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and get ready for the next presentation. But... that's only if I can get someone to volunteer and check people in without needing my help throughout the day.

The key to making this go smoothly is making sure I am available to watch the coffee/tea (making sure we don't' run out), be available as people check in (in case they have questions), and being able to check on the marketing aspects during the event. This will be my first time MCing... The fear of getting on stage is beyond my at this point (which used to be my biggest fear), now it's making sure I get through another conference without a complaint from any attendees or speakers.

This morning I actually snapped (a little) at the speaker that cancelled on my last minute. He filled out the form on the website requesting to speak back in November, and after several emails pleading him to confirm his topic, time, and speaking he asked when he was speaking, his topic, and if there was any compensation for speaking (T&E and Honorarium). I pointed out that his topic, date, and time has been sent several times, along with all the details of the event - and that the form he filled out clearly stated that he would be compensated with a Pass to the event for himself along with 2 passes to give away as he chose (worth up to $3,000). He said without compensation and T&E covered he will not be able to make it... I just simply said "Thank You" and explained that int he future perhaps he should come to these decisions more than 2 weeks before the event, and to read the information regarding speaking before requesting to speak.

I'm going to turn my computer off and head to my day job now...

SEO Buzzwords - don't get sucked into the hype

I am asked often by people wanting to get into the SEO business where to get training. There are a lot of online resources available; articles, blog posts, videos, and even downloadable presentations. It's difficult to know what to believe, who to pay attention to, and what will work for any particular website. Most experienced SEO's will tell you to learn as much as you can and then simply start optimizing and learning from trial and error. But who has the time? Let alone wanting to risk a website losing rankings or, even worse, getting banned for using the wrong techniques? This industry is very fickle and is always changing - what may work for one website, may not work for another, and what that big company that dictates how we should be doing our job changes it's mind often.

I have sat back and watched how the industry began, has grown, and developed throughout the years. On one hand it's been fun to be a part of something big that started from one company's idea and development that turned out an entire industry as a result.  On the other had, because it is still a very young industry, and that industry is dictated by the company that sparked it, we are all still developing standards, strategies, and learning every day.  In fact, just the other day I saw a post on Facebook for a workshop on how to use the Google Disavow Tool. It scares me to see SEO's already taking advantage of a strategy that is to not be taken lightly and making money off of "teaching" people on how to do it themselves. It's like a surgeon trying to teach a child how to patch up a kidney. Any seriously wrong move and the patient could die, and any slightly overlooked part of the process then the kidney could fail over time not knowing if it was the surgery or that the patient drinks vodka all day long.

In trying to learn and keep up with the latest in this capricious industry we often find ourselves having to look-up and research what the "experts" are talking about - those SEO buzzwords - coming across contradicting opinions, and quite frequently second guessing ourselves (even the highly experienced SEO experts second guess themselves). I have too often seen people trying to do what they think is right, and completely messing up their own site, and even client's websites because of all of the hype and misinformation out there.

The truth is that it is all viable, it's all in how you approach it. Of course, hearing that probably doesn't help, so the following are some of the most common strategies and some SEO buzzwords and hopefully clear up any confusion you might have. 

Link Building

Yeah, I started with the most common, yet most controversial buzzword of all. The term "Link Building" began with the birth of the almighty Google itself. What was a very simple and quick way to get rankings for a website for the most popular search engine, is slowly becoming an art-form within itself. The basic idea is that a link from one site pointing to another site is counted as a "vote". The more links pointing from other sites to one site the more votes, and thus higher rankings. With such an easy strategy to implement, and the growing popularity of the search engine that uses the algorithm, more and more spammers began to take advantage. By offering website owners to pay money fro a link pointing to a website (a.k.a. purchasing links), asking a website to link to a site in exchange for a link back (a.k.a.link exchanging), submitting a website to directories (a.k.a. directory submissions), commenting on blog posts (a.k.a. commenting), and even submitting articles with links in them to article distribution sites - all of these means of obtaining links tricked the search engines into ranking websites that might not have otherwise deserved the positions they were given.  In December of 2007 Google began cracking down on such strategies not only with increasingly new algorithms that catch sites that might be purchasing links, but by allowing webmasters to report one another manually. In the years since, we have seen a dramatic increase in the quality of the websites appearing in search results as a result.


SEO Buzzwords from Link Building:

Text Links
Links that point a page that contain a descriptive keyword or phrase. Many SEO's have used this strategy in the past because they give a context and a relevance to a link. This means that the search engines can read and index a page with all the text links and assign a ranking based on the quality if the content, the links and the destination of the links.

With Google's latest updates, the search engine no longer looks at the text within the link itself, but rather the words and relevance around the link. By recognizing that a page on a dog breed website with a link to a pet related website contains terms like "puppy", "hound", "paws", and other pet related terms that the dog site pointing to the pet site is, in fact, related. What I have seen in the past is a automotive website with an article on candy that contains one text link for "chocolate bon bons" and points to a chocolate website just isn't going to count (believe me, I've seen it). In fact, it will hurt the website's rankings.

Link Bait
The idea behind ‘link bait’ is to encourage people to bookmark or link to your website from theirs. Personal blogs, social media sites, and other communities will usually link to a site if the site offers something useful. Because of this, the search engines place a high value on the link.The best way to obtain these types of links is to write articles or white papers, a very valuable blog posting, or any sort of information your audience will find relevant. The more they share, the better the website ranks. The trick is to not force it - don't go out hiring people to share your posts, just let them happen naturally.

Link Juice
The ‘search equity’ that is passed to one page from another is called "link juice". The more relevant a page is, how often it has been shared, and how many times it is visited places a high value from the search engines. From that page (or website) the pages that link from it will also gain extra value because the original content is deemed useful to users.

Internal Linking
Almost self explanatory, most individuals tend to overlook the importance of linking within their own website. In fact, in most cases, the link to a page from a homepage can be just as valuable, if not more, than an external link. This, of course, does not mean that you should go adding a link to every page of your website from your homepage; nor does it mean you should link to a few pages, then rotate them, so that every page gets a chance at a high vote. What it means is that the pages that are most relevant to your users and make the most sense to continue from the homepage to, are the ones you should link to, and are the second most valuable pages (next to your homepage) that the search engines will rank.

Taxonomy
Categorizing a website with a hierarchy and linking to one another internally is one of the best ways to show the search engines which pages are most important, and where they should rank. If a website is about cupcakes and selling supplies, the site should be organized by types of cupcakes (perhaps flavors) and then categories of supplies. Then place pages within that category that make sense. From there, pages should link to one another where relevant to show the search engines that this is X category and a set of pages, and this is Y category with a set of pages.

Internal Optimization

Often overlooked by agencies simply due to the fact that so many clients will hire an agency to "optimize" their site only to tell them in the end that they don't have the resources to make the suggested changes, or that they simply just can't make changes (whether it be because of design, usability, business reasons, etc).  Unfortunately this leaves agencies in the predicament that they have to please the client and do what they were hired to do (which is to get the website rankings and increase traffic) but left with no other choice but to start link building. But a good SEO knows that internal optimization is really the heart and soul into obtaining legitimate rankings that will stick throughout all of the spam algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin. Below is a quick list and brief explanations for internal optimization.

Metatags

Title Tag - This often shows up as the title in your search engine result. The title tag should never be more than 70 characters, and should only contain your most broad term that describes your website.

Description Tag - The description tag will often appear in the search result as the description text if the key term searched is within the tag. If not, then the search engine will pull from the content on the page itself where the key term is located. If a page on your site is specific to a certain term, then this is a good time to get that term within the description.

Keyword Tag - The keyword meta tag was once the main source of how search engines determined what site would show up for what search. Now it isn't as relevant, but is still used by some meta crawler search engines (not Google - but Excite, and often Bing). List out a few of your target terms for the page you are optimizing to help you focus on what you want the page to rank for, and just in case a search engine is paying attention.

Content

Keyword density in document text - simply put, search engines look at how often a term shows up within the content of a page. If a word is mentioned 10 times within 300 words on a page, then the page won't get very good rankings. If a word is mentioned 10 times within 1200 words and spread out once or perhaps twice in a paragraph or two, then that page is more likely to rank better. A quick way to check densities is to put the content of a page within Microsoft Word, do a search within the document (Find), type in the word, and click "Highlight All". it's a great visual to see where a term is placed.

Content around the anchor text - As mentioned earlier, the words and context around an internal link is representative of the relevance of that page. The more a page will have of terms similar in context to the term you are optimizing for, the better.

Unique content - Any content borrowed, rented, or just stolen is considered a felony in the SEO world. There are algorithms in place that look for not only content within a site that exists elsewhere on a site, but content that exists on other sites as well. A quick way to check to see if your site has unique content is by searching on copyscape.com. Content that you have on yoru site that exists on other pages (or every page) will simply just not get counted (sort of just overlooked by the search engine), so any key terms within duplicate content on your site won't count. Duplicate content outside of your website is another story. If a website has content that you have copied (in other words, they had it first) then your site will get penalized. If your site had content first, and then someone copied you, then they would get penalized.

Frequency of content change - Search engines don't know the difference between a blog, a new publication, or a brochure-ware site that remains static. The best way they have developed to recognize a cutting edge news site and a static site, is how often new content is generated. The more often a new page is created with a robust amount of text, the more the search engine will come back and index, and therefore the higher the priority those new pages will get. If your site is something that is updated often, and is generating new content regularly, then the search engines will adjust accordingly. If your site is static, then don't worry, let it be, and the age of the pages will determine where they belong in the world of rankings (mentioned later).

Anchor text has key term(s) in links - What was a solid strategy of obtaining rankings for key terms in the past, is now less relevant, and even considered bad SEO. It's more about keyword "essence" and the relevance of the terms around the anchor text, than the anchor text itself (as mentioned above). Some of the more experienced SEO's are even finding that linking the word "more" or "click here" are helping their rankings more so than putting the key term within the anchor text.

Duplicating content - As mentioned before in the "Unique Content" bullet item, duplicating content on a site, or from another site is a very bad technique.

Invisible text - Nope, don't use white text on a white background with a bunch of keywords in it that only the search engine can see. Even 1 pixel high div's with the overflow hidden set in the stylesheet is a bad thing. Not only will you not get rankings, but your site will get penalized for it.

Overall Website

Age of website - the older a domain (or website) is, the higher a priority it will get within search rankings. A typical spam strategy is to buy a new domain and optimize it as much as possible to obtain quick rankings. Because of this, search engines will tend to ignore a website until it has been around for a few weeks, sometimes even months or years. If you have an older domain, then don't go thinking you should change it because it's "stale", it's actually a good thing.

Poor coding and design - Search engines can't tell what good design is, but they can tell from the popularity of the website. Social sharing, articles, blog posts, and all of the buzz about a website will only happen when a website is easy for the visitor to use, and gives all of the value a user is looking for. So, make sure your website is easy on the eyes, gives a clear and concise value proposition with a call to action, and is easy to navigate.

Exact Match Domain - Many spammers create website with a descriptive key term in the domain in attempts to get rankings. Google announced in October of 2012 that they were updating with an algorithm that will weed out any exact match domains. For example: http://www.compareinterestrates.com/ or http://www.best-interest-mortgage-rates.com/

Keyword-rich URLs and filenames - Just as the exact match domain is taking a hit in the recent updates, the keyword rich URL and filename strategy is as well. SEO's used to put their keyword within the URL with dashed between words in order to obtain ranking for long tail terms.
Site Accessibility - it's not talked about often, but can be potentially beneficial when your website is designed with accessibility in mind. Someone that has poor vision, hard of hearing, or may have trouble clicking links and buttons, is going to have trouble with most websites. If your website audience contains users that might need some extra help, keep this in consideration. Search engines know, and it could help you rank over your competition that hasn't.

Website size - Big or small, size doesn't matter. Some SEO's stress that a website needs to have millions upon millions of pages, but I have often personally witnessed websites that get penalized for having too many pages. Don't let this happen to your site, keep the pages down to a manageable and reasonable number. If your site is a publication with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pages with unique content, then you should be fine. Just watch your webmaster tools notifications. Most of the websites that trigger the warnings are ecommerce websites with masses of pages for each product. If you find your site is showing this kind of error, it's best to seek out an experienced professional to help you get your pages under control and managed properly.

Domains versus subdomains - A subdomain is a subset of a main domain. Often used as a place to store images, or for other purposes, a subdomain looks something like images.mysite.com. Too often websites will put their highly valuable unique content of their blog on a subdomain. Unfortunately search engines don't know the difference between a main domain and the subdomain. Because of this, they treat each one as a separate entity. In the past SEO's have taken advantage of this and tried to get multiple rankings on one page with multiple subdomains. Just this year (2012) Matt Cutts has announced that they no longer treat them separately for separate rankings, but rather as an extension of the main domain. Because of this, subdomains not only won't see rankings, but the content is still not counted as part of the main domain. When setting up a blog, or any section of your website, it's best to simply just add a new directory (ex: www.mysite.som/blog) so that any of the content within that directory supports the domain as a whole.

Hyphens in URLs - When creating URLs for your website, it's still considered best practice to separate each word with a hyphen rather than a space, or an underscore. For example, if you write a blog post or article titled "The ten best puppies everyone should own" the URL should be "www.mysite.com/the-ten-best-puppies-everyone-should-own.html" or to avoid getting pegged for keyword rich URLs and a set hierarchy, it should be "www.mysite.com/puppies/ten-best.html".

URL length - A URL that is too long is a red flag for a keyword rich URL. try to keep your URL simple, and keep that site hierarchy.

IP address - The IP address is the unique identifying number (like a phone number) of where the server that hosts your website is located. If you are targeting a local audience, or maybe even just focusing on one country, be aware of where your website is hosted. A website that targets users searching in Canada, and is hosted in the U.S. will have an IP that resides within the U.S. In this case, search engines will only rank the site for U.S. searchers, and not for their Canadian searchers. If you aren't' worried about focusing your SEO by location, then don't worry about your IP.

robots.txt - The robots.txt file is a very simple text file (like Notepad) that resides on the main server. The only case in which you need a robots.txt is when you want to block certain sections of your website. Some search engines will allow you to put links to your xml sitemap for better indexing. For more information on setting up your robots.txt you can visit robotstxt.org.

XML Sitemap - Sitemaps are an easy way to let search engines know about all of the pages within your website that you would like to see indexed.

Redirects (301 and 302) or Status Codes - 404, 301, 302... Each one of these numbers has a different meaning to a search engine. The most common is a 404 or "page not found" it basically means that the UIRL existed, and now it doesn't. In the SEO world, the 301 is another code that is mentioned often. A 301 one lets the search engine know that the URL existed and has been moved, so we let the search engine know by redirecting the old URL to the new URL. My favorite explanation of these codes is from a dear friend of mine Lindsay Wassell at SEOmoz in which she uses pictures to best explain the different codes, and what they mean.

Some basic SEO buzzwords

Long Tail - A long tail is what most SEO refer to when talking about a 3-5 or more word term. When a user is looking to buy a computer and begins their search with the word "computers", they will often start to get specific as they search focusing on the specifics like "500 GB laptop computer". This is what a long tail key terms is - the more specific you can target your audience, the more likely they will be to convert as they find what they are looking for.

Indexed - Indexing is a term SEO's use when a search engine has crawled a website and it's pages, and then starts to display them within the search results. This doesn't effect rankings, but merely expresses that a page is within the database, and recognized by the search engine. A quick and easy way to see if your website is indexed is to search with site: before your domain. For example: search for "site:oceansofpets.com".

SERP - Simply meaning the "search engine results page" and rolled off of the tongue of SEO's quite often. Pronounced just as it looks (serp) the search engine results page is the page that the user sees after completing the search.

Snippet - A search snippet is what SEO's use to describe the title and description a search engine displays on the search results page.


I think that should just about do it to get you started. With SEO there is no standard way of doing things. There is no true right and no true wrong, there is only what we try, fail or succeed, and try again.

Please feel free to add anything I might have missed in the comments below. I'm hoping this will become a pretty comprehensive list that newbie SEO's can get started with.

Official Google Announcement: A new tool to disavow links

As I have been watching the Pubcon Twitter stream today for any news on the recent updates by Google the past few weeks, I witnessed a large amount of tweets flying through with excitement about the new Disavow Link Tool from Google.  At 1:18 pm pst I saw three tweets come through saying there would be an announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, so I quickly opened up the page and continued to hit refresh every 10 minutes.

Then suddenly - there it was:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: A new tool to disavow links: Webmaster level: Advanced Today we’re introducing a tool that enables you to disavow links to your site. If you’ve been notified of a manua...

To reiterate what Matt and the Google team are stressing - Most sites DO NOT need this tool. They are serious, and cannot say it enough.

That being said - here's a quick note about links, why you would want to disavow them, and how to do it...

Bad Links

A long, long time ago when SEO's could tweak and play with sites and watch the rankings happen almost instantly, a strategy call "Link Building" was provided by agencies and consultants as a quick means to obtain instant rankings. By submitting a website URL to directories, submitting articles with links to article distribution sites, and press releases with links to the URL surrounded with key terms and anchortext with longtail keywords websites began to see nearly instant rankings. But as all spammy tactics must come to an end, so did the link building strategies.

Unnatural Links

In Google Webmaster Tools, some sites are seeing a warning in their messages about "unnatural links". This is due to Google picking seeing evidence of paid links, link exchanges, or other link schemes that violate their quality guidelines. More specifically participating in "link schemes" as Google puts it.

A few examples of what a link scheme could entail:
Buying or selling links that pass PageRank (ex: paying for a link from a site with a high pagerank)
Excessive link exchanging (ex: asking a site to link to you if you link to them))
Linking to web spammers or unrelated sites with the intent to manipulate PageRank
Building partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
Using automated programs or services to create links to your site

Removing Bad or Unnatural Links

The absolute best way to remove these unnatural links is to find out where the links re coming from and contact the website owner or webmaster directly. I myself have used our agency to contact such site owners individually and receive a weekly report of how many of the low quality links have been removed. In addition, I have contact a few of the site owners myself. I have found I either do not get a response at all - or a nice email asking for more details of where the link is located and what I would like removed. It's that simple...
Of course, I have heard stories from others in the industry with not as much luck or ease in this process. Some site owners have clued into these requests and actually ask for money for removal of the link.
But you really have to put the time in to find the link, contact the website admin and ask away.
A quick tool to help you determine what are good links, and what are bad links is the SEOmoz Open Site Explorer tool. You can plug in your URL and a full report of incoming links, page authority and domain authority will help you decide which links need to be removed.

I Tried - But I Still See Unnatural Links

Ok, so you did all you can, but you're still seeing bad or unnatural links pointing to your site. This is where the Disavow Link Tool will come in handy. But remember, don't get carried away with submitting a large amount of links. Also - take note that whatever link you remove, you cannot reavow and get the credit you once had (according to Matt Cutts in this video).
1) Head to the
2) You will be asked which domain you would like to use the disavow link tool for:

3) You will be prompted to upload a file with the links you want to disavow:

Disavow Text File

The file you will upload is a simple .txt file. You can easily create this in notepad on windows, just as you would your robots.txt file.

Within the txt file you want to add a snippet after a # sign with any comments as to the domain, and what you have done to try to remove the link(s).
Example:

# Contacted owner of webdomain.com on 10/1/2012 to

# ask for link removal but didn't get a response

In the case of links from a whole domain that need to be disavowed, you can add the line "domain:" with the domain preceding.
Example:
  domain: webdomain.com
If you have worked with a webmaster that has removed some links, but not all, and you wish that more be disavowed then you can comment as to the details of the request with the date. Then add a list of individual links you want disavowed.
Example:

# Owner of otherdomain.com removed most links, but missed these

http://www.otherdomain.com/sampleA.html

http://www.otherdomain.com/sampleB.html

http://www.otherdomain.com/sampleC.html

Right now Google only supports one disavow file for each domain, so choose and create the file wisely. Naming of the file doesn't matter - as long at the file extension is a .txt. Perhaps calling it simply "disavow.txt" would be the safest route in case of Google not accepting "-", "_", "=", or spaces.

For more information visit these links:
Google Webmaster Central Blog: Disavow Link Tool
Google Webmaster Tools: Disavow Links
Matt Cutts on Youtube - Disavow Links
Matt Cutts' PPT from Pubcon
Lisa Barone's Pubcon Live Blogging:  Google Announces New & Improved Disavow Link Tool
SEOmoz post by Dr. Pete Google's Disavow Tool - Take a Deep Breath

The Dos and Don’ts for Google’s New Disavow Links Tool

Direct Link to Disavow Links Tool