SEO is always – a changin’

When the members of the Chicago SEO Meetup arrived in downtown Chicago today and filled out their name tags, some of them were a bit confused over the marker given to them — they kept pulling what they thought was the pen cap  on one end, and they didn’t see that the tip came out at the other end.

That confusion is a bit like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) itself — Google’s algorithms are always changing and growing, and you get stumped sometimes trying to keep up with them. The two dozen people who came this morning to the office of software training school Digitial Bootcamp, just north of the loop, heard Bob Tripathi, the in-house SEO/SEM manager for Sears Holding. His topic was “Managing SEO in-house at mid- to large-sized organizations.”

The group, made up of SEO practitioners, learned that Google now posts Twitter material, and this is a new way to get publicity.

Among lots of good information about SEO, Bob outlined five common SEO mistakes:

1. Poor information architecture, such as bad site navigation, incorrect directory structures, and wrong naming conventions,
2. Wrong Content Management Systems (CMS), that give poor titles, headings and meta-tags,
3. Poor redirects,
4. Unfriendly URL’s. Don’t name them folder1, for example,
5. Poor SEO measurement tools. This is a more difficult task than measuring pay-per-click.

Some of the current trends in SEO are:

• Your Twitter profile authority has SEO authority. Google will keep up your Twitter post for two to three weeks.
• Video is ubiquitous. Host the file on your server.
• Use social media in website design.
• Link building — don’t use link bait anymore. Incentivise, such as giving a blogger a $2 Facebook gift, and maybe she’ll return the favor by giving your product a link.

It was more than just a talk — there was a lively interchange of questions throughout the talk, and lots of networking. I met several new friends afterwards.

For more information on the group, go to Chicago SEO Meetup.