
If you missed the last SFIMA event "Intersection of SEO and Social Media" with Brett Tabke, then you missed some great content from this legend in the SEO space. Founder of
Pubcon and
WebmasterWorld, and a 30-year computing veteran, Tabke has a unique view into the world of technology and content. It was a treat for the digital marketers in the room to share nearly an hour with him.
This blog post will attempt to relay some of the great learnings from last Thursday night.
So, what's hot? Local SEO, such as Google Places & review sites. More weight is being given to GPS location data.
Reputation management, no surprise, is red hot. In short, don't wait to do reputation management until your company has a crisis. It's too late at that point. Start monitoring and get a process in place to respond quickly.
"If I tell my Facebook friends about your brand, it is because I like my friends - not because I like your brand."
- A great quote that Tabke shared from Mike Arauz at Undercurrent
Algorithm changes - Google's weighted breakdown for ranking your website has changed, and they are giving substantially more weight to “Engagement Metrics”, whereas before this area did not even register. So if users are coming to your site and engaging with you, congrats, your pages may get better treatment in the results. “Engagement” meaning the visitors that come onto your site are converting in some way, spending time, watching videos, etc.
Other factors in the weighting include “Trust/Authority of Domain”, “Link Popularity of Page” and “Inbound Anchor Text” to name a few.
Tablets (really, just the iPad) are cannibalizing PC's and will continue to do so. Tablets are the most revolutionary thing to happen since Windows 95 and will be ubiquitous in less than 10 years, said Tabke. Some stats provided, and attributed to mobile ad network admob's recent survey, are pretty amazing:
"77% of respondents reported that their desktop/laptop usage has decreased since they started using a tablet; 43% spend more time with their tablet than with their desktop."
And, this one is terrifying for TV execs:
"1 in 3 respondents use their tablet more than watching TV."
A surprising Social Media takeaway: The "check in" (a la Foursquare or Facebook) is dead, or will soon be dying since the advertising component has not been realized.
The app of the year? Dropbox. This is a site for online backup, file sync and sharing. The question was posed: Might Google buy it to integrate with their Google Docs?
More information about Brett Tabke: Brett Tabke founded WebmasterWorld, Inc. in 1998 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Tabke started PHD Software Systems while in college in 1984. He was also featured in the Biography Channel special on the Google founders. He was a founding board member of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization). He serves as chair of PubCon conferences. In addition to the thousands of educational posts he has written for WebmasterWorld audience, he has authored a chapter for the best selling "Google Hacks" book. He was the noted author of Karma 128, a leading edge assembler for the 65816 processor, according to Businessweek.
Overall the evening was great: The awesome networking hour illuminated by the sun setting on the golf course, the great content, and the usual good vibe found at SFIMA made this event well worth attending. Special thanks to Tabke, the sponsors SEO.cc and iAnalyst, and the SFIMA Board of Directors.
The event was generously sponsored by
SEO.cc and
iAnalyst.
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@taighwhitelinkedin.com/in/taighwhite