SEOMoz Pro Training Seminar Review

I recently had the opportunity to attend SEOMoz’s 2009 Pro Training Seminar in Seattle.  The seminar has been going on for several years but this is the first year that I’ve been in attendance.  The focus of the seminar was tips, tricks and tactics and they definitely lived up to it.  Each of the speakers had very unique presentations and it wasn’t the same information you’ve seen at every conference or on a blog somewhere.   They left the audience with very actionable advice…I definitely came away with my own to-do list.

Here are some summaries of my favorite presentations:

SEO is Nothing Without Content - Rand Fishkin

Rand kicked it off and talked a lot about creating content and how to handle a user generated content site.  I’m not currently working with any membership type sites but that section of the presentation was very interesting.

Some of his tips for running a user generated content site and generating links:

• Vibrant Community - Create a top users list to encourage competition and participation.  Include points or percentage complete for profile completion.  Provide internal analytics for users.
• Link Generation - Copy and paste badges that users can put on their blogs.  Make information easy to share with links to Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Use humor, facts, controversy or ego boosts to bloggers to generate natural links.

Sustain Verticality for Three Rounds - David Mihm & Matt Brown

Local search is becoming a very popular topic at any search conference you go to.  It seemed like 75% of the Q&A session was directed to David Mihm and some great questions about Google Maps optimization.  Matt Brown also gave a great presentation about image and news search.

Top Local Take-Aways:

• Manually claim your Google Maps Listing
• Read Local Search Ranking Factors
• Use maximum number of categories allowed.  Use custom categories.
• Citation is the new link

We practice all of these techniques at OrangeSoda when working with our local clients but it was great information for anyone interested in the space.  I also enjoyed more of the detailed strategies like getting reviews, linking to your contact page and on-site factors to help your maps visibility.

Good vs. Great - Dharmesh Shah

This was a non-search related presentation but it was really awesome.  Dharmesh is the founder of HubSpot and has had a few other successful acquisitions.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a lot of notes because he was pretty entertaining to watch.  I’m looking forward to the slides or video to see it again.

A few main points I remember:

• Don’t start with free products, charge everyone, get feedback
• Learn to say no - don’t complicate things for an extra buck
• Choose business name wisely - should be short and unique
• Don’t write a business plan, start a blog
• Don’t take funding unless someone shows up at your door handing it to you

Overall, his presentation was a great break from all the SEO stuff.  Dharmesh claimed to be nervous but did a killer job.

Social Media Investments that Bring Real ROI - Todd Malicoat

People were going crazy on Twitter about Todd’s presentation because he gave everyone a lot of great tips and tools.  I realized after that I didn’t take very good notes so I’m going to have to rely on the slides and video again for this one.  One of the tools he mentioned that I hadn’t used before and have used pretty much every day since  is QuarkBase.com

Conversion Rate Optimization - Ben Jesson

Ben Jesson from Conversion Rate Experts gave an awesome presentation about how they increased the sales of SEOMoz.  The process seems pretty intense but has obvious benefits.

• Long copy works - especially for complex products.  Example: Amazon product pages and SEOMoz’s page
• Don’t think about selling, explain the value
• Use testimonials and “what’s on this page” box that links to anchors further down the page
• Get user feedback and find common objections - “Nobody is too important to find out why someone doesn’t want to buy your product”

Building a Killer In-House Web Marketing Team - Conrad Saam

Conrad is from Avvo and talked about how to build a great team and culture for In-House SEO’s.  I’ve never worked in-house but a lot of this information could apply to agencies and working with partners.

• SEO isn’t a standalone department.  They need to be involved with PR, Marketing, Sales, etc.
• Focus on realistic keywords
• SEO isn’t solely an art, use data backed decisions and keep testing

The seminar was hosted at the Westin in Downtown Seattle and everything seemed to run smoothly.  The lunch and snacks that were provided throughout the day were great. Perhaps the most amazing thing that happened was stable Internet and power available to everyone.

Overall, the seminar was really good and probably the best value of any seminar or search conference out there.  They pack a ton of good information into 2 days. I know a lot of work must have gone into setting up an event like this and SEOMoz definitely delivered.