Mark Alves

Here are the tips that the SEOs shared when we went around the room for introductions at the June 2009 DC SEO / Social Media Meetup. I’ve grouped them by category for your convenience…ooh, another tip—subheadings are a great place for keywords.

Tips for Getting Links and Ranking Better

• You don’t want to be #1 in the SERPs (search engine results pages), you want to be the page. (Dominate the listings with your site, your blog, your LinkedIn profile (mine) and SEOmoz profile (mine), etc.)
• Bloggers don’t want to pimp your press release, but they will feel like they’re doing a community service to write about your upcoming events. (This came from a diamond seller.) Reach out to them about events you sponsor and make sure the main URL includes your RSVP information.
• Chat me up at an SEO Meetup and I’ll throw you some link love. That’s what Chris (@trentiles on Twitter) did. So, let me just say, are you looking for healthy recipes? Check out www.keepitsimplefoods.com.  Chris highly recommends it. While you’re at it, if you’re looking for VW, Audi, BMW forums—especially in Buffalo—check out www.dubsinthebuff.com. And if you like to grocery shop for healthy food in a fancy schmancy car, check out both sites.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled post.

Google SEO Tips

• Create a Google profile (mine) as another way to get your name higher in the SERPs. www.google.com/profiles
• When adding new clients or sites, link to them from your highest public Page Rank page, such as shown in Google Webmaster Tools. (I’d add do it from your home page as well.)
• Add Google Analytics to your site so Google will visit you regularly — even if you use another analytics package.
• Similarly, run Google AdSense links on at least some pages so Google visits your site regularly. (Along the same lines, upload an XML sitemap regularly.)
• The updated AdSense policy might require a change to your privacy policy.  Generate a new one using (kudos to our host @1p for finding that link during the event).
• Google Search Appliance Version 6 is out.

Blogging SEO Tips

• Guest post on a blog for traffic and a link to your site. Make sure you have some good posts lined up for newcomers who check you out as a result – this might be your only chance to wow them. On your own blog, expand on your guest post or cover another aspect of the topic.
• If you’re going to use Blogspot, make sure you register your dotcom name and use it on the site. A few attendees who started with Blogger later switched to WordPress with some difficulty. But if they had used the Blogspot address instead of their own domain name, they wouldn’t have been able to redirect traffic to their new host. (Hmm, maybe the lesson is really to start with WordPress in the first place.)

Site Tips

• Get Internet liability insurance for your startup. Bonding yourself might not provide enough coverage. (Can I say “bonding yourself” on a site visited by church web teams?)
• Use a flat site architecture with good, descriptive bread crumbs to help with spidering.
• Try the www.thirtydaychallenge.com to see how you can make money online. My natural reaction is to be suspicious, but the tip was greeted with some affirmative head-nods by other attendees. Your call. Let me know how it goes if you try it. (Unless that’s asking for some sort of Amway-type invitation—then don’t let me know.)

Social Media Tips for Twitter

• Register all of your brand and product names on Twitter (defensively). Try to make as many active as you can.
• Register “yournamesucks” as a defensive move on Twitter. (I’d treat this one carefully or with humor since you risk the page ranking for your name.)

DC Job Outlook for SEO

• A corporate recruiter in attendance said that the DC area job market is picking up. 80% of the openings she sees are Web-related in some way, such as programming, SEO, copywriting, etc. (Secondary tip, if you’re looking for a job then show up prepared at a Meetup; sometimes recruiters and hiring managers are here.)

There you go. It’s almost like you were there, at least for the introductions.

Last time, my write-up of the SEO Meetup was primarily tips I had shared with others. This time the round of introductions helped all of the attendees participate in the information sharing. So what do you think of these tips–are you going to try some? Any that you think you should skip?