It's been a bumper year for actionable tips at Distilled's SearchLove London Conference 2012. We've gathered 220 takeaways and tactics on SEO, conversion rate optimization, content and much else besides. And there's a bonus pic at the end.
The tips further down are divided into the following topics:
SEO | Local search | Link building | PPC
Content | Online PR | User retention (for software services) | Finding fame on a bootstrap
International SEO | Conversion Rate Optimization | Video | General
SEO
1) Investing in SEO won't bring results quickly. It takes time.
Rand Fishkin
2) Where possible, write unique product descriptions (www.modcloth.com do this well and have some nice examples of fashion-related descriptions).
Stephen Pavlovich
3) SEO and internet marketing is getting more difficult for small business. You're going to need to fight harder and be more clued up than in the past.
Guy Levine
4) Fail fast. Acknowledge your mistakes. Then change what you're doing – quickly.
Guy Levine
5) On modcloth.com those who review are asked to give their dress size so that that review will be more relevant to the customer.
Hannah Smith
6) If it can work for your site, get more traffic by translating your content and loading it up onto another domain.
Justin Briggs
7) Featuring causes that you support can help create conversations on your site and engage your visitors.
Justin Briggs
8) A service company can increase clickthrough rates by including an author picture on the Google SERPs (search engine results pages). Photos increase clickthrough rates. But ecommerce companies may get better results by adding stars (reviews) as that's what counts when you're selling products.
Guy Levine
9) Check your conversion rates in GA (Google Analytics) for different browser types. Your code could be producing an error on a particular browser. Do some cross-browser testing. Fix problems, and your conversion rates should improve.
Guy Levine
10) Send out flip videos to have people record video testimonials – then pay to have the camera sent back.
Guy Levine
11) In SEO if a tactic seems to get easy results, it's probably not going to last too long (eg, submitting your site to directories was popular back in the day).
Wil Reynolds
Wil Reynolds
12) Don't waste valuable time trying to second-guess Google's algorithms. Concentrate on the fact that Google is trying to reward quality content with high rankings.
Wil Reynolds
13) Quality assets (content) will protect you against algorithm updates.
Wil Reynolds
14) Myth: Reciprocal links are bad. They're not bad if they occur naturally.
Wil Reynolds
15) Myth: Links in footers are bad. If you have a legitimate reason for linking, then don't worry about Google.
Wil Reynolds
16) Myth: Widgets are bad. All sorts of large sites are still using widgets and attracting links.
Wil Reynolds
17) Do RCS ("Real Company Stuff" - ie do things that real companies do) – it's the only thing that'll save you from the algorithm updates.
Wil Reynolds
18) Don't abuse Google authorship by adding rich snippets for an author (eg the CEO) who isn't actually producing articles.
Wil Reynolds
19) The algorithm updates to watch out for are those that affect display on SERPs because they'll affect your business and your pocket.
Wil Reynolds
20) If you have worries about Google's Penguin or Panda updates there's probably something you're doing that's causing you to worry.
Wil Reynolds
21) Why spend all your time on 5% of new users. There's much more profit in trying to keep the 95% of existing users?
Mat Clayton
Keyword research
22) Go back to basics - research new keywords on a regular basis.
Guy Levine
23) Mintel have done lots of market research in different markets. Use them as a research tool.
Guy Levine
24) In Google Analytics [and the Wordtracker Keywords tool] look for 'what' 'need' and 'how' keywords.
Guy Levine
25) Scan Money Saving Expert forums to find out what people are talking about.
Guy Levine
Guy Levine
26) Put into Google: site: forums.moneysavingexpert.com intitle:”help needed” “keyword” to see what people are asking about in relation to insurance, for example.
Guy Levine
27) View live chat transcripts to find out the phrases your customers are using.
Guy Levine
28) Use Topsy to search for tweets, images, RSS feeds.
Guy Levine
Local search
29) 30% of all searches are local. 20% of desktop searches and 50% of mobile searches.
David Mihm
30) The Venice update in March 2012 was more important than Penguin or Panda (for anyone interested in local searches).
David Mihm
31) Have a look at 2012 local search ranking factors on http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
David Mihm
32) Also introduced Google+ into local around the same time as the Venice update. So, Google+ will become increasingly important.
David Mihm
33) Google MUST be able to associate your website with your location for your site to appear in local results.
David Mihm
David Mihm
34) Your website should have a local page – including your contact details in html. Use schema (rich snippets) to mark up your address.
David Mihm
35) Your URLs should be short and include your city name.
David Mihm
36) Use the Geositemap and KML generator – upload this file with all your locations and register the file with Webmaster Central.
David Mihm
37) Including a Rich Snippet address hands Google your business card.
David Mihm
38) Have a crawlable store locator on your site. Each store should have its own page and you should submit each of these pages to Google – not just your home page.
David Mihm
39) You don't need a lot of links to compete with other businesses in local, though they are important. 3.6 is a good number (that's just an estimate).
David Mihm
40) Branded text is getting more important in local search.
David Mihm
41) You need one amazing link or citation – that goes a long way in local. Try to get links from local colleges or .orgs or links from local blogs (links with a local ‘scent’.)
David Mihm
42) Remember to use internal links to point at your local pages.
David Mihm
43) You need citations, ie mentions of your business name, address, phone number or combination of these. The more thumbprints you have around the net the higher you're going to rank.
David Mihm
44) In the UK, your information will be distributed by Companies House, My118Information, MarketLocation, LDC. There’s a graphic you can view on David’s blog about which sites distribute to whom.
David Mihm
45) Niche citations can be the differentiating factor in local search results. So, include your contact details in your communications. For example, include your contact details in job ads.
David Mihm
46) Whitespark has a system for comparing your local performance with your competitors.
David Mihm
47) Watch out for duplicates in the local listings. Google's Map Maker tool allows you to make edits (wiki style) to Google's maps. It's available in the US, but not yet in the UK.
David Mihm
48) If you've changed address do a search on your company name along with your old address and clean up any mentions of that old address. Beware that it can take up to 100 days for Google to index the change.
David Mihm
49) Reviews are critical for your ranking. Your rank will be affected by Google+ Local reviews – quantity over quality ie, a mediocre review is better than no review. Diversity is also still important; keywords (long tail and head); and sentiment (how people feel about your business - see the next tip).
David Mihm
50) Google pulls sentiment from Google+ Local, sites like Trip Advisor, Zagat, even reviews from blogs.
David Mihm
51) 'At a glance' keywords you’ll see in SERPs are being pulled in from reviews.
David Mihm
52) Send people to Qype or Yahoo Local to leave their reviews (not to Yelp – you may end up blacklisted as they don't like solicitation for reviews).
David Mihm
53) Find powerful local reviewers on Topsy and create a channel in TweetDeck or Hootsuite to track what it is they're tweeting about.
David Mihm
54) Search for “title=”Elite 2012” Manchester site:yelp.co.uk/user_details to find Yelp power users (people who review a lot) in Manchester. Of course, it works for other locations, too.
David Mihm
55) Use this search string to find Google+ users connected to Portland:
site:plus.google.com “live in Portland”
If you're looking for other locations, just swap Portland for the location you're interested in.
David Mihm
56) Local SEO – location – verification, citations, categories, reviews.
David Mihm
57) Traditional SEO website, content, title tags, architecture, snippets, link.
David Mihm
58) Use www.findpeopleonplus.com to find people relevant to your market.
David Mihm
59) Google doesn't provide as much category information as it used to. Now, Google is only showing one category in its Google+ pages. It's using reviews instead.
David Mihm
60) Keyword research at the local level is very difficult, there often aren't enough results to show meaningful data. Try Google Suggest for ideas.David Mihm
61) Google Trends will also show some information, but don't rely on the numbers being accurate. They're a very rough guide.
David Mihm
62) Tracking rankings is difficult for local results, too. The results are too variable to give reliable results.
David Mihm
Link building
55) Buying links is completely dead. You have to earn links naturally.
Guy Levine
56) Look for people who are copying your images in their blog posts. Ask them to credit you and link to you in exchange for a tweet of one of their posts.
Will Critchlow
57) Always look for opportunities to build relationships – you never know where they'll lead in the future. Eg volunteer for local events. One good link that Justin Briggs attracted was two years in the making.
Justin Briggs
Justin Briggs
58) Create a story around your product to attract links.
Justin Briggs
59) Find your competitor's top links [on Link Builder] then add the link into Topsy to see who's retweeted it. You'll find out what else they tweet and who the influencers are.
Guy Levine
60) Find out what your influencers in your niche are likely to share – brainstorm with your team to see how you can do it better eg, making a video or an infographic.Guy Levine
61) Write testimonials for companies you've had happy dealings with and who give links for testimonials.
Wil Reynolds
62) Who are you targeting? Identify influencer intersect (those people more than one of your targets follow). What are those influencers sharing? Be there!
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
63) Find topic insiders on Little Bird, or find who's tweeting about topics that interest you on Topsy.
Richard Baxter
64) TinEye reverse image search will help you track down who's using your images. If they haven't linked to you, ask them nicely if they will.
Richard Baxter
65) Do your developers have a tech blog? If it's useful you'll get lots of links from other developers. Eg, Netflix's Tech Blog.
Dave Peiris
PPC
66) Use PPC to test your keywords before investing in SEO.
Guy Levine
67) Make use of the Google predictive searches eg, type in “gifts for ...” to see what terms people are looking for, if you have a gift website.
Will Critchlow
68) PPC should be on every SEO's radar. SEO is great for the long term and you should have it, but in three hours you can see if a campaign makes sales on PPC.
Guy Levine
Content
69) Create an infographic that stands out, that's even a bit controversial, to get links from big sites eg Girl Geek Fashions on Big Fish Games that brought up the subject of the role of the female in video games.
Justin Briggs
70) Sneak peeks – publish teasing tidbits to get talked about.
Justin Briggs
71) Create something for April Fool's day eg, Mime Something by Big Fish Games. It was written about in USA Today.
Justin Briggs
72) The best kind of content is the kind people want to read, or are reading currently.
Guy Levine
73) Example of a good infographic that has lots of shares and links and even a mention in an MIT textbook and a link from the OECD is the data cake
Mark Johnstone
Mark Johnstone
74) Have a look at the Guardian datablog for ideas on data visualization.
Mark Johnstone
75) To get inspiration for content, find something that interests you and ask lots of questions.
Mark Johnstone
76) Do the beer test: is your idea quickly and easily understood over a quick pint?
Mark Johnstone
77) Are you using a credible data source for your infographic?Mark Johnstone
78) Is the data and methodology sound?
Mark Johnstone
79) Avoid appearing too self-serving.
Mark Johnstone
80) Is there something surprising or different about it?
Mark Johnstone
81) Is it shareable?
Mark Johnstone
82) If it's interactive can you provide a static version?
Mark Johnstone
83) A good idea is simple, interesting, credible, different and shareable.
Mark Johnstone
84) Don't explain the ideas behind your infographic to encourage user feedback.
Mark Johnstone
85) Use the right format – interactive can pick up many more links and shares.
Mark Johnstone
86) The Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Success is a good infographic.
Mark Johnstone
87) Another one is the Wordpress for Small Businesses infographic
Mark Johnstone
88) Every page on your site might be something that someone will share. Think on that when you're creating it.
Mark Johnstone
89) Seer Interactive's How do they make money is a useful resource page that attracted 7,700 links and 1,700 unique referrers.
Wil Reynolds
90) Responsive infographics will win.
Wil Reynolds
91) Moneysupermarket search MoneySavingExpert.com's forums for content ideas. They create social content to dominate the SERPs - eg, with a Batman infographic that outlines the cost involved in being Batman ($682,000,000). This got 24.2k shares on Facebook, 2831 on Twitter and 106 Google+
Heather Healy
Heather Healy
92) Batman was picked up by HeyUGuys who are open to talking to brands about film-related content.
Heather Healy
93) Design Taxi picked up the Batman infographic. They have an existing relationship with Mashable, who also linked to the content. Result =321 backlinks and link juice from 500+ others.
Heather Healy
94) To get fame cheaply, you'll need at least one of these:
- Talent,
- Relationships,
- Fame,
- Assets
- Chutzpah
95) But above all, you'll need time.
Will Critchlow
96) Have a look at Dr Pete's post on 'big content'
Will Critchlow
97) Dave created Hackerbuddy to put developers and designers in touch with each other. It got coverage from the BBC, Mashable and Stephen Fry.
Dave Peiris
98) Idea for content – research your keyword, find out if there are weaknesses (ie, a lack of good content) on that subject on Google, seek advice from experts in the field who may then tweet you later, and publish an infographic on the subject.
Richard Baxter
99) Great tools as content: time tracking software for freelancers – LetsFreckle.com, Everytimezone.com
Dave Peiris
100) Put up a web page for a new tool you think will be useful. Build your email list from that page to gauge interest, and then you'll have an audience to launch it to.
Dave Peiris
Dave Peiris
101) If a new product can't be shipped in 6 months, Yahoo will no longer bother with it.
Dave Peiris
102) Nothing good has ever been designed by committee.
Dave Peiris
103) Hipmunk – there's an agony feature (book the flight with the greatest number of changes for the boss you don’t like) as well as listing which airlines have on-board wifi (cool feature).
Dave Peiris
Online PR
104) Vocus – PR tool. You put in the niche and it comes up with a media list of everyone working in that space. It'charges around £10,000 a year but do try to negotiate. Like PRWeb in that you can post a release on it that goes to everyone in your niche.
Guy Levine
105) Response Source costs £160/yr. Journalists send media requests – you get them in your inbox
106) [Wordtracker also recommends HARO]
Guy Levine
107) Use #journorequest on Twitter to find out what journalists are looking for.
Heather Healy
108) To get press coverage for a new tool, find the angle first, before it's even built. You'll need a story to help journalists write about you.
Dave Peiris
109) Ignore famous journalists. Go for those with fewer followers.
Dave Peiris
Social media
110) Don't just create noise on social media – anchor that to something concrete on your website. Always have a landing page on your site for any social activities - so that other sites have a page to link to.
Heather Healy
111) Find out what your influencers are interested in, using FollowerWonk
Heather Healy
112) Use tweetarchivist.com to find linking opportunities.
Heather Healy
113) Social signals are still not a direct linking factor. But they're definitely useful for driving links to your site.
Heather Healy
114) Have a countdown to a big launch to create anticipation.
Mat Clayton
115) A big photo works on Facebook. Import the photo direct from your site. Link from the copy – don't link the picture.
Mat Clayton
User retention (for software services)
Mat Clayton
116) If your company sells an app - you can trigger Facebook notifications. They are effective but under-used right now. Only send notifications to your active users - to keep them active.
Mat Clayton
117) If your company sells an app, look to trigger an email or notification once the user hasn't been active for, say, 7 days.
Mat Clayton
118) Pay attention to your daily active user rates and watch for when they drop off in a cycle. Send users a notification to keep them interested at this point.Mat Clayton
119) With Spotify on mobile, after using their app for a couple of days a message popus up saying “Rate us 5 for stars” or “No, thanks.” Helps with engagement as well as generating 5-star good reviews.
Mat Clayton
Finding fame on a bootstrap
120) Offer a free t-shirt for users who take a free trial. Use Shipwire for delivery.
Will Critchlow
121) Use Appsumo to give your product away at a big discount.
Will Critchlow
Will Critchlow
122) Make alliances and partnerships, not just links.
Will Critchlow
123) Send an email asking if someone would like to share your content, make connections on LinkedIn through secondary connections.
Will Critchlow
124) Rapportive makes it easier to find email addresses.Will Critchlow
125) MailChimp's Wavelength tool looks at your subscribers and makes it possible to link up with emailers similar to yourselves (assuming you use Mailchimp).
Will Critchlow
126) Find a relevant community and engage for 20 minutes every day for a month. Drop in and be helpful. See how much business you generate
Will Critchlow
127) There was $40bn of investment in paid ads in US in the last year (Forrester). And $5bn invested in SEO.
Rand Fishkin
128) Visit AllthingsD a website devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the internet, and media.
Will Critchlow
129) Use http://linksy.me/find-email to guess email addresses that you don't already know.
Will Critchlow
130) fiverr.com is the place for people to share things they're willing to do for $5.
Will Critchlow
131) Piggy-back. An example on Facebook is a Mr Thomas Cook asking for a free holiday from Thomas Cook because of the jeering he'd put up with over the years about of his name. Thomas Cook turned him down. LowCostHolidays.com offered him a holiday and got great publicity from it.
Will Critchlow
132) 90% of traffic comes from inbound marketing.
Rand Fishkin
133) 18% of clicks on SERPs are on paid links – 82% on the organic.
Rand Fishkin
134) Customer loyalty is everything. When Harley Davidson went through a bad patch, there was a motto saying “I'd rather push a Harley than ride a Honda.”
135) You have to earn your customers, not buy them. They'll stay with you longer and spend more.
Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin
136) Empathy + creativity = great content.
Rand Fishkin
137) Innovation doesn't always trump improvement.
Rand Fishkin
138) Branding may be more valuable than links and traffic. SEOMoz's Whiteboard Friday doesn't get as many links as ordinary blog posts but it's great for branding.
Rand Fishkin
139) Google's algorithm uses co-citation in its rankings. So you can rank for a keyword that isn't even mentioned on your site.
Rand Fishkin
140) All graphics perform shockingly well. Even badly designed, amateur graphics.
Rand Fishkin
141) Being transparent with success works, but failure works even better. Not many people are willing to admit to their mistakes.
Rand Fishkin
142) Ranking number one isn't all it's cracked up to be. Using rich snippets to highlight your SERPs (search engine results pages) can generate more clicks for your site (even if you don't come top of the rankings).
Rand Fishkin
143) Helping other people look good helps you rank well. Eg, top 10s of your favorite sites.
Rand Fishkin
144) Sometimes it's better to do SEO on someone else's site. Particularly if your site doesn't rank well for your target keywords. Eg, put content on Slideshare or Eventbrite
Rand Fishkin
145) Google has a spooky nose for quality.
Rand Fishkin
146) What, when and how frequently we share matters a ton.
Rand Fishkin
147) Use Followerwonk to find when your followers are online and most likely to see your content.
Rand Fishkin
148) Upload an image on Google+ rather than a link. It's more likely too be shared.
Rand Fishkin
149) Only sharing your own content is a recipe for disaster. Be generous.
Rand Fishkin
150) Your community is bigger than your site - use Topsy to see where the conversations are happening.
Rand Fishkin
151) A customer's first interaction with you is likely to be the last if you don't reply, and quickly.
Rand Fishkin
152) Try Returnpath for email analytics.
Rand Fishkin
153) Newsletters with your own stuff? Meh. Newsletters with other people's stuff? Wow.
Rand Fishkin
International SEO
154) If you have an office in a different country you should have a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) to get you indexed properly by Google (ie, in the right country) Especially if you also have a marketing budget in those countries. The ccTLD is the least you should have.
Lisa Myers
155) You could have a subfolder eg myweesite.com/de if you have a limited budget or no local office or if you're just an informational site in that language. Econsultancy use subfolders.
Lisa Myers
Lisa Myers
156) You can have a subdomain but it's not a good idea as it doesn't benefit from link power.
Lisa Myers
157) You can set a geolocation in WMT (Google Webmaster Tools) but do you really want to restrict yourself to just one location?
Lisa Myers
158) 25% of sites have the wrong geotargeting setting, according to Google.
Lisa Myers
159) Create separate sitemaps for different folders on the same domain ie site.com/fr site.com/de then submit to WMT and set the geotarget settings.
Lisa Myers
160) hreflang is a way of telling the search engine this is a different language version of a page. Useful if you have a page targeted to Americans, one to Australians, one to the UK, for instance.
Lisa Myers
161) You can now use hreflang in your sitemap which is much easier than by adding to html headers (which used to be the only way you could use it).
Lisa Myers
162) Use http://www.themediaflow.com/resources/tools/href-lang-tool/ to create a sitemap.
Lisa Myers
163) [For techies] If using an IP detection script on your site make sure you're not excluding US Google bots. Use a javascript overlay that detects IP address and requests users to select their country instead.
Lisa Myers
164) Don't use Google Translate and think that's it. If you can, get it checked with a native speaker.
Lisa Myers
165) Don't use rel canonical tags as well as a hreflang. It just confuses things.
Lisa Myers
166) Having links from other sites in the language of the country that you want to be indexed in is HUGELY important.
Lisa Myers
167) Link development methods that work in Scandinavia might not work the same as in the UK, but good content will work a lot of the time.
Lisa Myers
168) In the UK use Gumtree to recruit native speakers and good content writers.
Lisa Myers
Conversation Rate Optimization
169) Make sure your home page has a clear call to action.
Stephen Pavlovich
Stephen Pavlovich
170) Include testimonials on your home page - to increase trust.
Stephen Pavlovich
171) Does your home page explain, clearly and simply, what you do?
Hannah Smith
172) If you're competing on price (ie, your prices are cheaper than your competitors), make sure you mention this on your site. And INCLUDE the prices.
Will Critchlow
173) If you're offering the lowest price in the market – make sure you mention your low-price guarantee.
Stephen Pavlovich
174) Don't force your users to register an account before they can buy. Even Apple makes that mistake.
Will Critchlow
175) Have a 'Similar products you'll love' section below your product listings (like Amazon does).
Justin Briggs
176) Take the user straight to the checkout page – don't even give them the option to carry on without registering - just let them buy. But include a link asking them to register when they've bought.
Will Critchlow
177) CRO – Include only the good stuff, not the kitchen sink.
Rand Fishkin
178) The great myth of CRO is that testing enough variants will produce optimal results.
Rand Fishkin
179) Changing a button color isn't game-changing CRO. Discovering customer objections is. Ask through surveys or emails then fix your page.
Rand Fishkin
180) Look at how you're retaining customers as well as how many you're bringing in with marketing.
Mat Clayton
181) Test hypotheses about customers, not pages.
Patrick McKenzie
182) Have a clear call to action, maybe a new video, nice modern design, clear pricing, social proof – read Landing page optimization for more ideas.
Patrick McKenzie
183) Have someone with responsibility and authority to monitor performance of the website, or obvious things, like broken links, will be missed.
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
184) Focus on the first five minutes that a visitor spends on your website.
Patrick McKenzie
185) Ask for referrals, explicitly – right after they've bought from you is a good time.
Patrick McKenzie
186) Guide people's purchasing decision. They'll love you for it and your accountant will as well.
Patrick McKenzie
187) Show the steps that the user needs to go through to complete a task on your site, so that they know there's not far to go.
Patrick McKenzie
188) Don't use Google Analytics for funnel testing – there are too many technical problems.
Patrick McKenzie
189) Try Kissmetrics for measuring funnel success to find out where people are dropping off.
Patrick McKenzie
190) Monitor two funnels – the use of your product or site, and the main revenue generating pathway.
Patrick McKenzie
191) After your free trial, send 6 emails of educational content, add in 2 sales emails – send them after the 3rd and 5th educational emails – all spaced a few days apart.
Patrick McKenzie
192) “Switch to annual billing and get your next month free” gets a great conversion rate.
Patrick McKenzie
193) Biological fact: people's faces are more interesting to humans than almost anything else. Have pictures of humans on your landing pages. Maybe your team, or your users.
Patrick McKenzie
194) Hang your core value proposition directly below 'Pricing' headline.
Patrick McKenzie
Video
195) A law firm Phil worked with saw a 14% increase in organic traffic by investing in 53 videos at $75 a video.
Phil Nottingham
Phil Nottingham
196) Think first "what am I going to do?", and THEN decide what's the best way of doing it. Don't make a video just because you can – it may not be the best format to use.
Phil Nottingham
197) On an ecommerce site the video needs to be on the product page itself, not separated off on a different page.
Phil Nottingham
198) Self-host or use a video hosting package like Vimeo Pro or Wistia YouTube doesn't work for videos that are designed to help conversion.Phil Nottingham
199) Iframes aren't currently ranked by Google.
Phil Nottingham
200) Provide Google with video metadata.
Phil Nottingham
201) Use this spreadsheet for creating a video sitemap. http://dis.tl/video-sitemap-generator
Phil Nottingham
202) Use Schema markups to get videos ranking.
Phil Nottingham
203) Using videos to demonstrate their products means that Appliances Online customers are twice as likely to convert. Why? Because the company is bridging the gap between simple interest in a product and actual conversion (buying the product).
Phil Nottingham
204) You don't need a fancy camcorder, but do invest in some decent lights and microphone.
Phil Nottingham
205) Use Speechpad for transcriptions.
Phil Nottingham
206) Don't put conversion videos on Youtube: it cannibalizes the rankings for your site and devalues you, making it harder to rank well on YouTube.
Phil Nottingham
207) This LG IPS monitor video is the type of thing that works well on YouTube. And webinars.
Phil Nottingham
208) Include keywords in your video file name – that seems to be a big ranking factor.
Phil Nottingham
209) How to SEO your videos:
- Include a Closed Caption (transcript) file – which includes your keywords.
- Optimize your title, description and tags on the video page.
- Include a naked URL link in the meta description for the video.
- Get links and views and get shared.
Phil Nottingham
210) Measure user engagement on videos, not views.
Phil Nottingham
211) How to have a lower bounce rate:
- Keep the introductory pieces on a video short. (Stings or indents).
- Focus on the quality of the audio (it's more important than the picture).
- Get straight to the meat and potatoes.
Phil Nottingham
212) The number of views haven't been a ranking factor on YouTube for about two years.
Phil Nottingham
213) If you're putting it on Youtube, put it up everywhere else as well. Get it out there for brand recognition.
Phil Nottingham
214) Make sure links only go to your site, not to your video hosting site.
Phil Nottingham
215) Phil's video embed link generator will generate embed code for your video.
Phil Nottingham
216) If you've already had links to your YouTube version get in touch with everyone who used it with the new embed code to your site and ask them for a link.
Phil Nottingham
[By the way, we have an offer on our Videotastic! e-book If you purchase before midnight on 31st October 2012 you'll get $20 discount]
General
217) "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what do to and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." – George. S Patton.
Mat Clayton
218) Use Acunu to analyze when Google's visiting your site and to find out what your users are doing on the site.
Mat Clayton
219) "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." George S Patton
Mat Clayton
220) Tool tip: Use Quixapp so that you can use your bookmarks across all browsers.
Paul Madden
BONUS PIC: The SearchLove Ducks of Awesomeness
The SearchLove Rubber Ducks
