Boston Search Engine Optimization Networking Group, Dec 1st Meeting Notes

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

By Brian Hawkins
Assistant organizer of BostonSEO.org & Affiliate Marketing Manager for Pingo.com

Boston search engine optimization networking group held its 39th event on Dec 1st in Arlington, MA.

With over forty five attendees that range from online publishers, SEO professional consultants to professional corporate marketing managers.

SEODrop.com Guest Demo, Speaker & Food Sponsor:
John & Robert founders of http://www.SEODrop.com

Is a new SEO tool platform that was all programmed since meeting at a coffee shop in August of 2008. The founders showed a great deal of knowledge and were kind enough to feed us all with a feast of appetizer goodies.

The power point went through the following tools.
You can watch the SEODrop.com demo presentation video at
http://blog.vibemetrix.com/2008/12/01/seo-drop-at-boston-seo-meetup/

Rank Checker: Import 100’s of keywords
Example: Given from founders personal blog JohnMursh.com

Competitive Rank Checker:
Study where your competition rank for keywords

Ex: www.twitter.com/jmurch
The tool provides brand able reporting to clients for agencies and SEO firms.

Keyword Tracking Tool:
Monitor’s keyword positions. Example from John’s blog: free solar panels

Studies hours of the day to see when the volume spikes to bid more aggressively for PPC.

SEO Standings:
Indexed pages, back links, social media mentions. Such as how many times a story got on the home page of Digg.

Content Analyzer
Analysis your domain and keywords to see how well you have optimize the site. Then it spits back specific recommendations. Like breaking down unique page title to keyword density to reminding you that you forgot H1 keyword tags.

SEODrop.com is currently looking for beta testers.

Questions Asked:

What’s the pricing model?
Looking at an affordable retainer model
When will you be out of Beta?
Joked about Gmail still being in “beta”.
Who you pulling the data from?
Alexa, Technoroti, and looking for other suggestions like compete.com
After the demo we started the seo round table discussion to share advice and challenges. Here is some of the topics and points discussed

SEO Tips Discussed:
- Twitter.com Tips:
Switch from Tinyurl.com to Cli.gs.com. Provides you with a shorter url with description and provides click tracking. Also set up a feed reader for your keywords

- Domain Names
Always try to get .com name with out any hyphens in the name. Try to get your keywords in the domain name.

- Building out Multiple Websites

Discussed building out multiple sites for SEO rankings and PPC bidding vs. building out one main portal site with sub folders yourname.com/sports or / travel etc.

- Google Battle
Why it’s better to play by there rules then stay in the “grey” area. Monitor your long tail keywords as it can hurt your Google quality score for not having any clicks. Reviewed local SEO strategies & how to protect a company brand keyword rankings.

Event Feedback:

Maciej Fita
“ There is always something new to learn and the SEO meetup is where you can do that. ”

Claude Pelanne
“ It was a very informative meeting and the SEO drop presentation was a nice way to start the evening. I particularly liked the open session after the presentation when members talked about issues concerning their business. A lot of good information came out during the give and take and it was nice to see the group open up and help with recommendations. ”

Charles C French
“ I am learning a great deal from the general discussion as well at the speakers. The snacks make a 6:30 meeting more acceptable. ”

See additional Boston search engine optimization event details for who attended at:
http://www.meetup.com/BostonSEO/calendar/8908251/

Boston SEO Meetup is always looking for food sponsors, product demo’s & guest speakers. Please RSVP for the next event on Jan 5th & Feb 2nd at http://seo.meetup.com/50