Optimizing Search and Social

In Google rankings, roughly 80 percent is what people are saying about you and 20% is what you are saying about yourself. (Biggest thing is your title tag)

Good content gets links, don’t let Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs) write your content. SEOs are basically made up of failed journalists. Write it yourself or hire a good writer.

SEO Trends #2 - Link Baiting

• Good Content
• Four main hooks
o Funny hook
o News hook
o Resource hook
o Controversial hook e.g attack an ad company
o Flame hook (not generally a good strategy)

SEO Trends #3 - SEO/PR
• Press releases can be excellent SEO fodder
• How best to do it
o Frequent
o Keyword embedded
o use the Internet wires
o Internet-only mention of press are good

• Online Reputation Management - You need to control your image on Google. SEO30.org is a good place to start.

SEO Trends #4 - Local - Use more local resources.

SEO Trends #5 - Universal
In the future, your text results will be blended. More opportunities to be found. If you have a video, post it. SEOs are not just about ranking, if someone clicks on a video, they are going to be more involved.

More Hype than Real in 2008
• Virtual Worlds - Second Life. If you look at the numbers (when you take out the really active people) it has been able to only recruit about 100,000 people in the U.S. Down the road, something like this will work, but Second Life isn’t working
• Mobile - is not materializing as planned. the only exception is the Apple iPhone, but it is still really painful compared to real interface.

Here’s What is Real in 2008
• More and more videos - People respond to pictures and videos plus broadband is improving
• Social Media Optimization - Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising
• More convergence and cross-channel marketing