Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

So we had Global Thoughtz members down in San Jose for the past week attending sessions and talking with vendors, bloggers and search industry experts.  One of the highlights was getting some feedback from Google’s Matt Cutts on big brands and black hats at a session.  A video snippet can be found over on SEO Space; Matt Cutts on big brands and black hats.

Overall not a bad show.  We’ll be posting more on the show over the next week.

We’re all familiar with the main search engines conferences that take place out there with the top three being Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo and Pubcon.  Of the big three, only Search Engine Strategies features a conference in Canada.  That conference being SES Toronto that takes place in June.

Really that is the only major search engine conference to take place in Canada.  Yahoo Canada feature a couple of events in Canada throughout the year, and MSN does the same.  However the lack of search related conferences in Canada is a bit of a concern.  What are the reasons for this?  Here are a few of our theories.

1. Canadians Are Not Interested in Search - well  at least not compared to our friends to the south of us.
2. Canadians Simply “Fly South” for the Conferences - with a number of conferences taking place on the sunny west coast of the US in places such as San Jose, Santa Clara and Las Vegas, many Canadians simply attend these shows as opposed to SES Toronto and the like.
3. There Are Simply Not Enough Search Engine Related Conferences in Canada - this is very true.  I would like to see more search conferences in Canada.  In fact cities such as Kelowna, BC, Calgary Alberta, Halifax, NS, Vancouver, BC, and Montreal, Quebec would be great cities to host such an event.

For now, we’ll have to attend the US shows and events such as SES Toronto.

Search Engine Strategies Toronto takes place from Jun 16-18th this year.

• Organized by two of the world’s leading search authorities, SES Toronto Conference Chairman, Andrew Goodman and SES Global Content Director, Kevin Ryan.
• Delivers real-time actionable information you need to grow your business through search engine marketing;
• Teaches the ins-and-outs of search engine marketing from top search experts and the search engines themselves;
• Provides a unique setting to network with fellow marketers and search engine industry professionals and discuss the trends in search engine marketing;
• Grants access to the world’s most comprehensive gathering of search engine marketing & optimization-related solutions providers and potential partners & affiliates;
• Get the latest event information at the SES Blog.

Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo Toronto 2008 features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion.

Online marketers looking for industry information or to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) should check out SEMPO Canada.

SEMPO Canada is Canadian Non-Profit Professional Search Marketing Association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing in Canada. This Working Group was founded in November 2006 by Ken Jurina & Alexandre Brabant and focuses on improving the growth, awareness and understanding Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Canada including Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Link Building, Pay Per Click Management best practices in this new field of marketing and how it uniquely pertains and is of relevance to Canadians worldwide across any sector, vertical or industry.

Since November 2006, SEMPO Canada members have made three educational presentations at the University of Alberta, represented SEMPO Canada at the Canadian Information Processing Society annual conference as well as Bar Camp in Vancouver, been interviewed on CBC Radio, and presented at the Government of Canada Business Link Centre to multiple Canadian cities via video conference. By Feb 01/07, SEMPO Canada intends on having a modest website, Sempo.ca complete with blog (consistent with the brand of Sempo.org), grow membership to 12 members, and present at additional educational institutions and seminars.

You know there is something that can be said for a good old fashioned relevant directory.  TryCanada.com is a small little Canadian directory that features Canadian sites only.  There are two ways to get into TryCanada.com:

1. Fill out the form “Add your url” to submit your Canadian website. If it meets the requirements (read the Submission Guideline), your site will be added and shown in this format : title, description, url, city. This is your “title”, which is going to be clickable (as a hard link).
2. If you give a link back to TryCanada somewhere on your website, you earn the right to get 1 anchored keyword in your description. You aren’t dreaming : this means an extra “contextual text link” pointing toward your homepage (or a different page of your choice). So there is no need to have this page linked directly from your homepage, as other directories demand. And that’s not all. If your backlink is placed on a page having a Google Pagerank of 3 or more, you get a printscreen of your website (a thumbnail image of 65×50 pixels) with an “Alt” repeating your anchored keyword. This could be the deal of a lifetime; click here to see an example. Remember, 1 quality link to Try Canada = 1 Screenshot + 1 Extra Contextual text link.

TryCanada.com and add your site today.