Below is live coverage of the SEW Labs – Social SEO panel from the SES San Francisco 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Shanon Woodruff at RankSmart.
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Shanon Woodruff:
11:18:47 am
SEW Labs – Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage Moderator: Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing Speakers: Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch Ian Lurie, Chief Marketing Curmudgeon and President, Portent Todd Malicoat, Independent Search Engine Marketing Consultant, stuntdubl
Shanon Woodruff:
11:26:10 am
This session with focus mostly on a couple of examples – First up: tauk.com With all things site audits, you really need to start by looking at: -Site Command -Calls to Action -Phone Number -Site Map -Domain -Off the site information -What keywords -User and Commercial intent -What is reasonable for ranking -Social mentions
Shanon Woodruff:
11:49:42 am
Tauck.com Audit – Goal Inspire, Inform, and consult To many links – specifically “Why Tauk” – remove drop down Site speed – turn on gzip on your server Title Tags need to be better On FB – 7,906 Likes, show that on your page – good social influence Larger type is better for Seniors and Teens Needs Alt Attributes Replace FB login at top of page with a “Like” button Consider implementing a blog – Use customer generated content – base it on intensive Use your forums to mine for blog topics Also, your forum is hosted somewhere else, and is blind to the search engines Focus on the Forum From a usability stand point, a horizontal bar is harder to navigate
Shanon Woodruff:
12:11:11 pm
Next: USBank.com Homepage redirect needs to be fixed Your site is 302 redirecting, so bad Great link equity Need to focus on the generic search terms There is to many little things are wrong with the site – need to fix it before you can move onto social and other advanced SEO tactics Social is not the best way to go with a banking site Customer services page is a disaster, way to complicated – Lurie suggest just add a “Ask us on Twitter” Look at Google suggest The site comes across clinical, doesn’t have to be changed Hookah-shisha.com Excellent FB, but need to show is on your homepage Lots of unoptimized images Dedicated audience – use their dedication to help you Work on your domain Brocken links lead to 302 – need to use IIS for errors Watch out for site that only have duplicate content at bottom of pages Get you basic SEO out of the way Blogging is good Move blog to same domain – you want your blog to be a part of your site No Index your archive Beef up product links
Shanon Woodruff:
12:24:59 pm
Drsfostersmith.com Missing pages need to refer to a 404 not a 200 Excellent Blog – Add Twitter and Google plus on each post Install Socialable pluggin on your WordPress blog Great sticky post at the top Remove gray on gray text – hard to read at the top of the site Too many links and duplicate content and make site appear low quality Make sure Java Script is at the bottom of the page, it could cause a speed problem Structure menus better – too long – Use categories Use author pages for you blog
Shanon Woodruff:
12:35:53 pm
scilearn.com Don’t show entire blog post on the homepage of your blog Reduce number of blog tags Turn on gzip – site will load faster Better label your YouTube Videos Work on title across the board Don’t make people dig for “FastFoward” put it on the homepage Clean up your archive Pay attention to what people are looking for when finding your site. Show your social proof Make your call to action easier to find on each page
Shanon Woodruff:
12:40:32 pm
SEO always before Social Media
Shanon Woodruff:
12:41:42 pm
Never auto play a video
Shanon Woodruff:
12:45:43 pm
The End – SEW Labs – Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage