Utah SEO - Bryan Phelps

Utah CEO Magazine’s latest edition is about “Web 2.0″ and Utah companies. Geoff Griffin wrote a great article about general outsourcing and asked me a few questions about relinquishing control when you are outsourcing to a tech company where you may not completely understand the industry. The full article is available online (after registering) as well as many other interesting web business related articles.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time over the last 6 months diving into the world of social media and in particular, Digg.com. Everyone knows the benefit of getting on the front page of Digg is the massive amount of traffic and potentially some residual links from those that really enjoyed your submission. I never really considered that the wording and timing of a Digg submission would have such an impact on how many links it would attract.

There are many articles and tutorials about how to become a top user and get on the front page of Digg but if your ultimate goal is attracting links, how do you maximize your submission’s potential to gain links? That’s where Dan Zarrella, social media consultant, steps in.

Maximize Your Digg Submissions Link Potential
Dan took 33,322 of the 39,000 stories that went popular on Digg in 2007 an analyzed them beyond my comprehension. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak at his report and in it you’ll find all the information you need to maximize your link building efforts via Digg including the best categories and sub-categories to submit to, what day of the week and time of day to submit, which keywords result in maximum links and more.

From ReadWriteWeb.com’s Story on this Report and the tools Dan has created using the same data:

The Keyword Tool analyzes a specific word or phrase and returns the average number of links a story mentioning that keyword got in 2007. While the Title Check Tool analyzes an entire title string and shows you which words tend to increase links and which tend to decrease links. These tools can be used by webmasters or social media consultants to help them tweak their copy for optimal social media link attraction, or by other researchers looking to expand on my work.

Overall, I’m really impressed with the report and the tools that have been generated from gathering this data. I can only imagine how time consuming this project was and impressively, it’s available for free. I’m sure this data is invaluable to someone who makes a living off of social media optimization and using Digg.com as a link building tool for clients.

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to attend my first Internet Marketing conference with some co-workers from OrangeSoda. Overall, it was a blast. Lets start at the beginning…

Day 1

• Wake up in Orem, Utah at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Vegas.
• Arrive in Vegas, catch a cab to Circus Circus. Survived several near death experiences with the cab driver who appeared to have some serious shakes from who knows what he was on.
• Unfortunately we were too early to check-in so I got to carry my backpack which contained my laptop and everything else I brought with me around the conference hall. Some of my conference-experienced co-workers were smart enough to pack their laptop and clothes separate so they were able to leave their luggage at the hotel.
• Managed to somehow stay awake through several PubCon sessions. They were interesting but 3:30 a.m. is even earlier than it sounds.
• Return to the luxurious Circus Circus where I can finally unpack my bag. Tried to be positive and convince myself I was experiencing the “historic” side of Vegas while I sat down on a bed that appeared to be a rock covered by a wood board covered with a stained comforter.
• The night picks up…off to see Blue Man Group. Lucky enough to hear a new dirty joke from the cab ride to and from the show. The Blue Man Group put on a good show and we all enjoyed it.

Day 2

• Head back to the conference hall and enjoy another day of PubCon sessions. It was fun to see/hear some of the popular SEO experts speak on various panels.
• Raided the exhibit hall for some schwag…picked up some good stuff from IZEA, Best of the Web & others and had some interesting talks with various link brokers/blog review companies. It should be interesting to see how and which paid linking companies evolve as Google cracks down.
• One highlight of the day had to have been the live domain auction. I was expecting to go for just a little bit and see some domain auctioning action but it turned out I was with a domain buying h igh roller who bought coveted domains such as DogShowTickets.com and cBatteries.com.
• Checked out the Wynn Buffet which was pretty tasty except for the sushi which Alex talked me into eating. Overall the buffet was excellent but unfortunately the sushi didn’t stay with me through the night. Thanks Alex!
• Wandered the streets of Vegas and took it easy.

Day 3

• Checked out of Vegas’ finest hotel, Circus Circus and got to carry all my laptop, clothes and schwag around for the rest of the day.
• Most of the PubCon sessions weren’t of any particular interest to me on this day but I heard the live site reviews were good so I checked some of those out and they were pretty interesting. Might have been nice if they screened them beforehand so they weren’t just “you need more links”.
• We took our final taxi ride/dirty joke to the airport and finally headed home.

Although it may not sound and probably didn’t look like I was having a blast (I was sick pretty much the whole time), I really had a great time. The sessions were informative and inspiring and listening to Chris (co-worker) carry on unusual conversations with cab drivers made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. Overall, PubCon was great and I hope to make it to more conferences in the future.

• Double Listings StomperNet Video

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• SEOmoz | Segmenting Search Intent

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