Your SEO and Social Media Marketing questions answered by Bing’s Duane Forrester, Bruce Clay, AimClear’s Marty Weintraub and Maisha Walker.
Sponsored by Bing and Inc., a panel discussion was held in Houston, TX at the beautiful Gremillion & Co. Fine Art Annex gallery. With a great selection of hors d’oeuvres and beverages by Swift Company catering, the venue was an elegant welcome to the audience. The event was billed as “what matters most in enhancing your website’s visibility, how to efficiently invest your time (and your money), and what the future holds for online rankings and searches.” Bing, Inc. Magazine and Houston delivered.
After an opening introduction where Bruce Clay jokingly declared the combined panel experience was over 200 years with most of it under his belt, we began with audience questions. They flew fast and quick, but here are a few highlights.
Q: What is your desert island tip for SEO?
Bruce: Ask yourself “How do i perform on my mobile website?” Mobile is your ability to survive in 1-3 years.
Duane: Go home tonight and put every URL in your website in a spreadsheet and assign monetary values to each page (can be relative). Now, resort spreadsheet by dollar value and start woking on how driving traffic to the top sites. Check bounce rate for top valued pages. Maisha reminded everyone to stay focused on your bottom line and understand where your customer is and how to reach them.
Q: How do you know who to hire as a Social Media or SEM professional?
SEO and Social are tough subjects, but can be immensely important. Bruce admitted that he is the average 4th SEO agency for his clients. It is not a commodity, but a specialty. He has been practicing since 1995 starting at his dining room table, now has offices in 5 countries. Duane said to be willing to open the checkbook to pay for that type of experience.
Marty chimed in with “Why would you hire someone via an outbound cold call if you need inbound marketing leads?” See his 12 Brutal questions to ask a potential firm.
Q: Several audience members were interested in the difference between buying vs. window shopping in relationship to your targeted audience.
After a brief mention of Personas, the panel discussed the importance in key phrases. Duane admitted that “Digital Cameras” vs “Digital Camera” is a different query with different focus. The younger generation “Digital Cam” is still interpreted correctly in both natural and paid search. Maisha reiterated your goal is not to drive traffic, but to find decision makers.
Q: Is there one tool that will help keep track of all tools?
Short answer, no. But, using a combination of HootSuite and Google Analytics is probably a table stake to understanding the space. The resounding No and discussion of various tools confirmed there is no one ring to rule them all.
After the formal Q & A period, the audience was invited upstairs to a reception and to talk further with each of the panelists. Thanks to @IncLiveEvents #urBizOnline #incLive for sponsoring a very informative event. We noticed Agency professionals, in-house marketers and a variety of Business Owners at the event.