On December 14th, Search Engine Academy Northwest hosted our Two-Year Anniversary/Holiday Party/Member Appreciation Night. We exchanged gifts had a little nosh and ate cupcakes from Saint Cupcake. We had fun!
By far the best part of the evening is when members shared Internet Marketing Tips and Business Strategies for a chance to win a beautiful Pinot Noir from Willamette Vineyards. We had 11 takers and the winner was Luisa Simone of Tadpole Graphics! How’s that wine Luisa?
Anyhoo, I thought I would share the tips shared by our members. Merry Christ… oops I mean Happy Holidays!
Tip #1 Social Media Tools
Contributor: Beth Erlendson, owner of FAB! Marketing Communications, Lake Oswego
Try out the toolbar Wibiya. Adding the Wibiya toolbar to your website allows you to easily increase page views and user engagement, and promote your content. Wibiya offers a variety of free apps, enabling you to extend your content’s exposure and provide users with a more interactive experience of your website.
Tip #2 Social Media Tools
Contributor: Tysa Fennern, Clarity Innovations, Inc., Portland
Try Your Buzz for Social Tracking.
- Manage popular social sites like Facebook®, Twitter®, Yelp©, CitySearch®, and more
- Identify active customers who have the potential to reach many more
- Get recommendations on responding to comments and creating new conversations
Tip #3 WordPress
Contributor: Ian Henderson, Hendersonian Design, Portland
Hold off on updating to WordPress 3.3. Many of the plug-ins are not compatible yet. At the very least make sure your plug-ins are compatible before upgrading.
Tip #4 Networking
Contributor: Daryl Welch, Affordable Web Technology, Portland
Make friends with colleagues that use different ISP’s. Sometimes search engine rankings are different from ISP to ISP, so having a network of colleagues with different ISP’s will help you test out search engine page positions for your clients. If you are interested in being part of a list for our meet up group, let me know and we can get the list posted on our meet up website.
Tip #5 Firefox
Contributor: Kat Capps, WebTouchMedia, Portland
When using many add-ons in Firefox, your load times can slow down. To alleviate this problem, use the Firefox profile manager to create several profiles. Maybe one is clean with no add-ons and another has your SEO tools like the Google Toolbar and the Firebug Web Development tool.
Tip #6 WordPress Plug ins
Contributor: Mike Schafir, Lake Oswego
Trying to decide between the WordPress plugins Headspace2 SEO and All in One SEO Pack? Headspace 2 wins according to Mike because it also has site modules for webmaster tools, Google Analytics and much more.
Tip #7 Archival Information
Contributor: Jasmine, Portland
Lost information from a former version of your website? Use the Wayback Machine at Archive.org to capture that missing data.
Tip #8 Business Advice
Contributor: Victor Echevarria, Portland
I need to get the exact quote from Victor, but the gist of his tip was, “Use it or Lose it” which is so true!
Tip #9 Business Advice
Contributor: Bill Dwyer, Washougal, WA
Find your niche! If you are selling five things, sell three. If you are selling two things sell one. Those who focus on a niche are the winners.
Tip #10 Social Media
Contributor: Luke Ordway, MyReplayLive, Portland
Use the Facebook Graph API to push updates to your website pages. You can also find plugins already created at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
Tip #11 Business Advice
Contributor: Luisa Simone, Tadpole Graphics, Portland
And last but not least, our winner for the evening had this to offer:
Read the book “Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.” After Luisa read this book, she increased the close rate of new business dramatically. I’ve ordered my book have you?
If you have a tip you would like to share please add it to the comments. We are looking forward to many more. Also, if you live in the Portland area, why not join our monthly meet up. You can find us at http://www.meetup.com/SEO-Tips/.
One Response
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cwright Says:
Several additional cool tools were mentioned at the SEO Tips Meetup on Janaury 19th. Look for an additonal post soon!
