The State of Search Conference presented by the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association was a huge meetup held in Dallas where well known online experts such as Chris Brogan offer the latest ideas on how to utilize search marketing strategy, content, social media and SEO to improve your online business, bring traffic to your website and increase user engagement for your product and/or service. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to attend but I was able to copy down notes from guests that took the time to post them on Twitter (Thanks by the way). Below is a list of very valuable information that you might like to use in order to better understand the importance of good content. Enjoy!

Owners want easy metrics. Facebook likes. Its frustrating.

We are all in the customer service business. And customers are looking for satisfaction.

You can’t algorithm your way to relevance through the web after panda and penguin.

Internet famous is like being library famous.

68% of web traffic comes from mobile. Are you mobile ready?

Impact = Contrast * (Reach + Exposure + Articulation + Trust + Echo) = CREATE

When you earn trust you automatically become the best solution.

1 in 7 humans on the earth have a Facebook account. And you act like your customers ain’t online.

build education videos…YouTube.

Don’t forget to use social media as a listening tool.

If you can’t articulate your goals, why should your customers buy from you?

We are all just fleeting TV stations. Content curators with an ability to build a following.

$ vs Echo. Are u drowning peeps with ads or do you reverberate with your customer?

ASSET spectrum (attention, story sharing, emotion, trust). “Your audience telling your story is sexy.

Trust = You can screw up and people will still love you.

ALWAYS remember to articulate your goals before you start a project.

40% of small businesses are not on the web.

If you can’t figure out how social media makes you money for your business, you’re not doing it right.

Connecting with people on other levels other than business… just may help make you human and build a following.

Your homebase is your website – the outposts are the social sites where you chit chat and send people back to your site.

Sometimes talking about business is boring.

Content needs to be created for the mobile world.

Find , follow, and nuture the up and coming people in your industry.

Make your buyer the hero. Tell their stories incessantly. Make your buyer the hero. What do they get or earn buy using your product or service?

Connecting with people on other levels other than business… just may help make you human and build a following.

You can’t do PR around a company that has no soul.

SEO as a journalist or PR. That’s REAL marketing.

Scale causes us to do low quality tactics that work for a while but aren’t a good foundation for a business.

Don’t think of bloggers as “Hey how can I trick you into giving me a link?” Bloggers are people.

Stop hitting enter on Google. That’s how you get content serendipity. See what people are searching for.

It’s much easier to sell to your boss when you can show them what is ranking and what isn’t.

SEO is about creating a real connection through journalism and PR.

By knowing the questions that people look for, you can generate ideas.

Don’t forget the basics of link building: be creative, be agile, and have real conversations.

Social Crawlytics: Gives you the top 20 most popular posts on a site. Then actually read them and talk to the writers.

Guest blogging is not dead.

Do a Vlookup: Twitter followers vs. link profile. Who follows you but doesn’t link?

Connecting with people on twitter FIRST then do outreach, yields a 3-4x higher response rate.

Use mentionmapp to see who people are talking to- even if they don’t have a niche in their bio, you can see who they know.

Always offer value and don’t be self-serving when trying to build links.

SEO tips: write on your own property and build your own audience.

You don’t have to have a glitzy mobile website. Remember many fancy things won’t work on mobile.

Spamming the web is ruining the Internet and the Internet is one of our most valuable resources.

Split your device out. Each device should have it’s own ad campaign.

SEO isn’t about tricks or secrets – it’s about marketing a brand online.

Build solid brand to succeed…not secret SEO.

Build solid brands,market online in language people use to search,fix broken stuff,create good sharable stuff.

Build relationships that build links that drive traffic.

Trust is something Search will never have.

80% don’t leave home without their smartphones.

Brands already have people’s attention -that’s why they’re brands!

Email marketing isn’t dead; bad email marketing is dead.

SEOs of today: you’d better deliver. The margin of error is shrinking.

Smartphone leads can lead to purchases on other channels.

Searches that begin on mobile can lead to purchases on PC and other channels.

Keys to success for SEO audits: Start w/ROI. Focus on products that will make the most money.

You’ll never win by data, you’ll win by anecdote.

If your website is a true utility, if it has tools…an SEO audit means nothing.

Competitive analysis is a great “what not to do.” It also gets the boss excited.

Google is trying to find ways that they can dynamically generate where your ad is placed.

Keywords are all about opportunity. You already know what delivers ROI. ROI + volume + low difficulty = Keyword.

Look at business impact, customer impact and difficulty to prioritize business goals.

Solve business problems instead of just running through a checklist.

Solve business problems with content with great SEO tool.

Regarding content, ask the question “What is the campaign to launch content assets?”

If you are an employee of my company, I expect you to share my content in your social network.

Tools make you more efficient and give you time to be creative and innovative.

Tools w/a good user interface make it! They make you want to come back again and again.

Broken links do matter, it makes your website lose credibility and creates a bad user experience.

Build kickass content – that’s the one SEO trick that ALWAYS works.

We’ve evolved toward more engaged local search – reviews, UGC encourage engagement.

Engagement, fundability, mobility. Allow consumers to consume in real time, in more locale.

Consumer generated content will be the standard. Reviews, comments are key for local search.

Local search is basically a search with geographical intent.

Local search can be classified into 3 areas. Yellow pages type sites, Local Map Search, and Portal searches (like Placerank).

Use ad extensions to own the whole top area of the paid listings area.

Don’t advertise until you do your homework! Which sites rank on Google? Which sites have high market share?

NAP Normalization = Name, Address, and Phone number. Make sure it’s as consistent across the web as possible.

Local SEO tip Consumer driven content will become the standard like user generated content & reviews.

Local trends: local search is growing, explosion of tablets and mobile, new methods for finding business in Social & Daily Deals.

Don’t forget your responsive design for mobile. Especially if you’re a local-type site.

40% of mobile searches have a local intent compared to 20% of desktop searches. Tablets are also growing.

3% of satisfied customers leave a review online, vs. 30% of dissatisfied customers. Work for those positive reviews!

Even though no one likes G+ It helps you both on the organic and paid side. Take advantage of it NOW.

Ads should have passion, emotion, interactivity or humor depending on your audience.

To merge your G+ Local and Business pages, you need to have the same email address in both.

Have your business on Google+ places and merge your Google+ business page for local.

Never run a promoted Facebook post from the post itself… Always use Facebook Power Editor!

You don’t have to use your root domain as your landing page for your G+ Local profile.

Make sure city/state are in title tag of your G+ local landing page, and mention products/services on that page.

Connecting with people on twitter FIRST then do outreach, yields a 3-4x higher response rate.

Your most current reviews are a relevancy factor for local searches.

The authority of the person leaving a review is considered as a review ranking factor.

Google looks at the authority of the person leaving the review before deciding to accept it or mark it as spam.

IF your G+ biz email doesn’t match your G+ local email, you can’t respond to reviews!

After you merge your G+ business & local profiles, DO NOT edit anything from the Places Dashboard.

SEO for YouTube affects related video viewing, YT search results and of course Google/Bing SERPs.Standard KW research tools aren’t enough for YouTube – remember user habits are different around video.

Although Content Marketing isn’t new, the CONCEPT of content marketing IS new to many marketers.

Content Marketing is highly cost effective, sustainable for the long term, and the cornerstone of online marketing.

Create conversations around content, not just updates.

Content marketing is money. Marketing is ALL about generating money.

Content marketing is not necessarily selling.

Your social media channels exist to do one thing: Drive traffic back to your website.

A series playlist adds an extra related videos slot & can rank in searches.

Remember that your blog / website is the only place where you own your content. You don’t own your content on Facebook.

You cannot pursue a content marketing strategy without a steady stream of content written in an authoritative tone.

Content marketing works in terms of months and years. It takes discipline for the long run.

YouTube is full of fluff – so do something decent, useful, helpful, funny. Something good!

The number one YouTube ranking factor has nothing to do with SEO – it’s all about engagement (comments, shares, rating).

Likes and dislikes both count as engagement metrics on YouTube.

The ultimate failure of content marketing…not knowing your storyline.

The biggest failure content marketing is not reaching out to your editor and utilizing content strategy.

See a specific need and unique angle to generate great content.

People who see marketing, not as a subfunction of sales, but what your business IS ABOUT, usually understand content marketing.

Marketing is a core part of business operations, not just a sub-function of sales.

Content marketing is content marketing. Be conscious of the quality of the content you’re creating and engage.

It’s more dangerous to post something bad than it is to post nothing. Quality is key.

Make someone feel good about themselves / help them in someway. Take the selling out of it.

Using an app to find information is just a very refined vertical search opportunity.

When you look at mobile you have to think beyond a smart phone.

How do we stay relevant? Watch kids – texting, touch screens, etc is something they got started with way earlier.

Teenagers see Twitter as a news source. And they hate news. They like engaging with their friends.

SEO is usability. It’s about improving a site to make it more relevant to users AND search engines.

SEO is not fast, guaranteed, once and done, or free.

Build social followers and fans organically – that’s how you get people who actually respond to yo.

Reciprocal followers are a net zero to search engines.

The ultimate failure of content marketing…not knowing your storyline.

Create communities thru: 1) consistent campaigns 2) compelling conversations 3) meaningful calls to action.

Don’t ever assume you’re hitting SEO at 100%.

Compelling content is the REASON people search. They’re not searching because it’s fun.

Pick your niche, become the expert, be the authority! (That’s BRANDING!!!)

Data can help you uncover new niches or refine your focus.

Do keyword research thoughtfully. Use the tools. Bing Webmaster tool pulls from organic keyword data.

Got writer’s block? Check your keyword research for inspiration.

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