On June 20th, 2015, SEO Hacker hosted SEO Summit, an SEO conference at the Alphaland Southgate Mall in Makati City, Philippines. The event aimed to accommodate SEO specialists at all levels. The event found the perfect sweet spot between unreasonably expensive, formal conferences, and lackluster, casual gatherings.
Our SEJ Philippines team was excited to attend. We received press passes from the conference.
Here are our takeaways from the SEO Summit 2015:
Efficiency Is Not Perfection
Optimizing your website suck up a lot of time. However, being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being efficient. According to Sam Nam of Digital Room Inc., being an efficient SEO means working within constraints and spending time in areas that require less work but provide the most value.
Sam Nam, Vice President of Marketing at Digital Room Inc.How to be an effective SEO: Take a look at what ranking factors you’re using and see whether search engines put importance on them or not. After all, not all ranking factors and keywords are created equal.
Expand Your Definition of SEO
SEO nowadays no longer just means ranking on Google. According to Sam, the future of SEO is niche, which means you can also rank on various websites that function as search engines.
Take Amazon, for example. From a customer’s perspective, it’s an e-commerce site where you can find products to purchase online. But, from a business standpoint it is another platform you should optimize for. If you don’t believe it, just remember these words from Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google:
“Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competition is Amazon.”
Link Building is Selling
Link building may have gained a bad rap following Google’s algorithm updates, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective. Link building works, especially if you know how to use it to improve your link outreach.
Grant Merriel, Co-Founder of Conversion UpAccording to Grant Merriel of Conversion Up, “link building is selling”. Therefore, it’s important to know your potential clients and build a relationship with them, before you start talking about what you can do for them. Also, don’t forget to keep all your past data so you know which outreach strategies work and which don’t.
Editor’s Note: To learn more about link building and the future of SEO, listen to this Marketing Nerds podcast with Eric Enge.
Entrepreneurship is Not for Everyone
One of the great things about the SEO community in the Philippines is that you can surround yourself with inspiring people－many of whom were able to transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur. However, Grant Merriel pointed out there are a few factors you need to consider before jumping ship.
Being an employee, a freelancer, and an entrepreneur each has its own set of pros and cons. Grant shared nine questions you should ask yourself to identify whether the journey is right for you. In case your answers reveal you shouldn’t leave your 9-to-6 job to become an entrepreneur right now, remember these questions can also tell what you need to learn to pursue your dream.
Learn the SEO Basics by Heart
The changes in search engine algorithm have brought in different techniques to optimize a website. Some of them are legit, some are not. But if you really want to win with on-site SEO, Sean Si of SEO Hacker reminds us that there are much more powerful factors than content.
Sean Si, CEO and Founder of SEO Hacker and QueryzThese powerful factors he’s talking about are the things we sometimes pass on as basic:
- Title Tag
- Meta Description
- Interlinking
- URL Slugs
- Image Optimization
Your entire SEO structure depends on how good your on-site optimization is. If you want to win it, you have to learn the basics by heart.
Keep Your Rankings
So, you were able to get your on-site optimization right. You were able to rank on the first page of SERPs.
Now what? You need to engage your audience.
User activity accounts for a lot today. According to Sean, you should be getting 32% click-throughs if you’re ranking on the first place of the first page for your target keywords.
Otherwise, you will be reviewed by Google’s manual review team. The same thing happens if your visitors bounce out of your site, regardless if you’re getting over 32% click-throughs.
So what do you need?
1. A catchy title/meta description
2. To engage your audience through CRO
Keep this in mind: SEO is not just about ranking for your targeted keyword. It’s also about keeping your rankings.
Image Credits
Featured Image: From SEO Hacker. Used with permission.
All images taken for Search Engine Journal
Here are more great photos taken by SEJ at the event:
