Live From SMX! SEO Q&A
Ty and I are live from the main hall A1, here in Santa Clara, California, with a panel of Danny Sullivan (CEO , Bruce Clay (CEO Bruce Clay International), Jill Whalen (CEO Higherrankings.com), Todd Friersen (VP Google Technologies), Greg Boser (SEO Consultant) and Stephan Spencer (President NetConcepts.com). Here are the questions and the comments from the panel.
1. When desgining a website - use iframes or ajax? ANSWER: Cloke, have a workaround. Ajax is good for cleaning your toilet, not for SEO.
2. What is your favorite keyword research tool? ANSWER: Jill - Keyword discovery Bruce - Bruce’s own tools Greg - Keyword discovery Todd-Firefox tools? Everyone has thier own tools, use what works for you…
Bruce says analytics tools will be even more critical for future.. (Duh) www.Inquisite.com tools? www.greasemonkey.com www.touchgraph.com for wow factor.
3. Optimum words in title tag? H1 Tag? COMMENTS: H1 tag still is important. Very useful, synergistic. Increase chances for crawabilty.
Title tag…Jill says fit 3 keyword phrases in title tag. Greg says do not put commas in TT. Jill says you can make TT longer than 90-100 characters??
Bruce says average 7 words in TT. Just make TT compelling.
4. Paid links - Jill says do it “underground”. Bruce does not buy paid links for clients at all. Todd says he pays for links, but is cautious. Just disclose to clients. Donation pages? Is this considered a pauid link? No. To compete, you may have to buy links, until all SE’s apply universal rule, you may have to be discreet in buying links. Matt Cutts not keen on “sponsored” ads in blogs. If your only looking at paid links for PR ONLY, you are possibly a target. Bruce says, “taste great less filling” ?? We are off topic!!!!
5. Keywords in URLS? Underscores? Hyphens? Dont use underscores. Boser says keyword in domain in good. No HYPHENS…Cutts says underscores will soon be an indentifier. Testing showed keywords in URL did increase rankings…Keywords in domain will help, but not make you number one..!! If url is working, dont change!
Boser is a Cloaker says Corey!! I think he is right, kinda fishy??
6. Worry about scrapers? Dupe content? RSS feed will help, determine as originator. Bruce HATES scrapers. Dupe content is no longer a penalty.
7. Domain age important for ranking? Parked domain? Yes. (duh) Register Domain name for 10 years helps.
8. Top 10 tips! From panel - Jill-sign up for HR newsletter.. Bruce-Data, competive analysis, apply inteeligence. Greg-Dont get overwheled with data. Prioritze. Todd-Get IT guys in the loop, dont pass on “juice” to others by doing a no-follow. Make buddys with IT guys.
DONE!
Obviously there was lots more, just can’t type that fast, and Matt Cutts was sitting in the back!
Tim has a 3:00 meeting with Bruce Clay who is going to review at least one of Tim’s sites, perhaps he can post his meeting notes? —– Stay tuned! http://www.bruceclay.com/web_analytics.htm
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I want to hear what Bruce said about Tim’s site. Can you ask him to post some comments?
(I’ve heard conflicting reports on Bruce’s theories.)