and I even brought a tripod...
The slogan was 5 minutes, 5 SEOs, 10 sites. Basically, we had five minutes to take a look at a site we had never seen before and make recommendations from a Search Engine Optimization perspective.
It was fun. The Internet connection was pretty crappy, but it gave us enough to go over most sites.
It was pretty interesting to hear the different approaches and recommendations from such a knowledgeable bunch of SEOs. Here are a few thoughts on each presenter:
- Marc Bitanga – SEO Manager for Electronic Arts. I liked Marc’s style, quick on his feet and to the point. One of the takeaways from Marc’s 10 minutes was the use of micro formats. Hi brought this up while making recommendations for Corona Coming Attractions. Learn more about Marc’s thoughts on Online Marketing at Marc Bitanga’s Blog.
- Tina Kells – Search Marketing Strategist with Enquiro. I hadn’t met Tina before, so I was glad she came out for this.Tina brought up a pretty cool free SEO tool called Spyder Mate (www.spydermate.com). Learn more about Tine through here Twitter profile @tkells.
- Aaron Bradley – SEO and Content Monetization Director at www.Suite101.com – Aaron stepped outside the SEO real few times and touched on something equally important, page optimization and call to actions. Connect with Aaron through Twitter at @aaranged.
- Ani Lopez – SEO Consultant for VKI Studios – Ani helped organize this meetup and would not had been possible without his help. Ani style is also clear cut, which is a good thing being an SEO. Ani engaged a fellow Meetupper when a question about subdirectories was asked. As an international SEO, Ani has lots of experience figuring out these subdirectory mysteries and making sound recommendations. More of Ani’s expertise as his SEO Consultant blog.
- Jose Uzcategui (Me) – Internet Marketing Specialist at Snaptech Marketing– I was surprised at the number of sites that weren’t doing the non-www to www 301 redirect. These are very basic and its purpose is to avoid duplicate content and inbound linking consistency…I also pulled out a site that, in my view, was one of the most challenging to optimize in 5 minutes, the UBC Graduate Studies Website. This site had good structure, good keyword selection, good code, nothing really stood out. So I’ll dedicate a future blog post to an extra 5 minutes.
Again, thanks everyone for coming. Oh, I forgot to take any pictures. Anyone out there with pictures they would like to share?
And as usual, thanks @ceilisvan for providing us with a very cool place to hold our meetups.
Are any other takeaways you want to share?
Jose – thanks a lot for this event! It was my first one to share with the group and I thought it was well worth the drive! I appreciate the quality of the presenters and the opportunity it offered to businesses to tweak their sites for better performance.
Really glad to hear you liked it Harmony 🙂
I’m also glad that more people like you are joining the group. Stay in touch because we should definitely work together.
See you at the next meetup in a couple of weeks 🙂
Jose
Jose – thanks a lot for this event! It was my first one to share with the group and I thought it was well worth the drive! I appreciate the quality of the presenters and the opportunity it offered to businesses to tweak their sites for better performance.
+1