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March 25th, TKG will be hosting our Cleveland SEO Seminar. We cover all of the basics of SEO including: Keyword research/selection, content development, site architecture, HTML/CSS optimization and link building. Of course, this is an intro to SEO, so we don’t have the time to dive into great detail on any of the above topics, but we get deep enough to help site owners begin the process of recognizing areas for improvement on their site. Most who attend these seminars have told us that it’s gotten them started in the right direction and given them an action list to take back to their teams.

Anita Campbell, of Small Business Trends, will also be joining us to discuss some highlights regarding Social Media and Blogging for Business.

For many of the readers of this blog, the info at this seminar may be too basic. If you’re already doing advanced search marketing, you might be well past this. However, the workshop after the seminar is great because it provides 1 on 1 consulting and a pre-event review of your site and SEO efforts, which you take with you.

Here’s a promo code to use or pass along to friends and colleagues to save $50.00 on SEO Seminar or Workshop registration. Promo Code: Seminar2.

There was good attendance and good response to the session, which tells me the market is ready to hear the advantages of getting SEO and Development under one roof. As I mentioned in my last post, the presenters were coming from 2 different perspectives; integrated web shops and specialized SEO shops. It would have been great to have a panelist coming from the perspective on an internal corporate SEO, maybe next time…

Chris Boggs of Brulant was our moderator. He did a great job of facilitating good questions and guiding us in a useful direction.

A brief overview of what each speaker said in their 5 minute presentation, listed in the order they presented:

Geoff Karcher

• SEO and Dev need to work together in 1 consistent effort
• Traditional challenges of working with artists and programmers are similar to challenges between SEO/Dev/Design
• Each group (SEO/DEV/Design) have their own interests and agenda
• Client’s best interest is a combination of the 3.
• All groups need to learn to focus on the user!
• Client should never have to deal with the headache of managing these groups.

Common issues that result from focusing on their own agenda rather than the user’s:

• Flash only pages and sites
• Query strings & session IDs
• Overuse if image based text
• Lack of usability (programmers too focussed on server performance, code efficiency etc. rather than the user’s experience)

Colton Perry (NetPlus Marketing)

• Full service shop allows for easier integration and implementation of efforts.
• Coordination with all forms of marketing (traditional and online) is key.
• SEO team needs to know about off line campaigns and marketing efforts.
• Ability to integrate these efforts so your PPC and SEO campaigns can support offline advertising is huge. An integrated shop makes this integration possible.

He gave some barriers to SEO that can result if teams operate in silos:

• Duplicate Content (resulting from session id’s, cookies etc)
• Indexing Issues
• Critical content only being accessible via forms or pop-ups.
• Lack of a sitemap
• Poor, vague or no title tags.
• Ugly URLs

Sage Lewis (SageRock)

• It’s better to buy separate specialized components rather than 1 unit. He made a creative analogy using an image of a tv/vcr unit as compared to a component based audio video system. The first image stated “All in one shop: If one part breaks the whole thing is junk”. This slide was followed up with a graphic of an AV system with about 14 different components, which read “A specialty Shop, if it matters you buy components”. The message being that several, specialized, vendors will perform better than an integrated shop.
• SEO-only firms offer more specialized services; they are focused.
• Coordination & communication between the SEO firm, development shop, site host, other marketing/design firms and the client is key, but can be challenging.
• Referenced the Clash of the Titans to illustrate the challenge in trying to coordinate different specialists, but stressed how important it is to manage this effectively.

He mentioned some of the differences in opinion that specialized shops might have:

Specialized Development Shop may think:
SEO will turn your design into stone.
There is no value in SEO.
Some SEO requests are not possible.

Specialized SEO Shop may:
Often be belligerent and inflexible.
Have extreme all or noting attitueds.
Often recommend you destroy everything and do it their way.

Sage also listed some common Developer Values and some Common SEO Values:

Developer Values: Design is Job 1. Portray the brand beautifully. User Experience.

SEO Values: Ranking is Job 1. Optimize for user and algorithm. Focus on experience and conversion.

In summary, Sage said that hiring specialists can create a highly advanced website. Though, it’s up to the client/site owner to promote intense communication between what he called “warring factions” to build a successful site.

I have my thoughts about whether or not a client should have to manage vendors with such different agendas to try and achieve success; but that’s a topic for another post!

Second post coming soon to cover Q&A. Some great discussion came out of this!

Heading out for SES Chicago tomorrow morning. We’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to speak on a panel with some other great search marketers; Sage Lewis from SageRock.com Colton Perry from NetPlus Marketing and our Moderator Chris Boggs from Brulant.

The session is called Get It Together. The topic is whether or not Web Development and SEO should be done in a combined effort. Obviously, a hot one for us, since our philosophy has been that they are integrally linked for 7 or 8 years now.

In the session, we’ll discuss the challenges that site marketers face both with in house teams as well as those that arise in managing multiple vendors. It can be a challenge either way. Whether it’s dealing with artists programmers internally, or it’s managing a development shop and and SEO shop, trying to get them to play nice.

I’m sure there will be some good debate, and points made for both integrated shops and points made for specialization. Either way, I’m glad it’s making its way into the industry and being discussed in a forum such as SES.

For several years now, we’ve been operating on the philosophy that web development and search engine optimization are integrally linked. In other words, if done properly, they overlap each other significantly. Well, the SEO industry is finally becoming ready to hear that message. At SES San Jose, it seemed that the market was also looking for companies that can do both, in-house. In fact, we pitched a session called “Get it Together” at SES Chicago, and it got accepted.

Here’s the abstract from the SES site:

SEO & Development – Get It Together!
In this session you will learn why your Web development and marketing teams need to make nice. The audience will hear first-hand from a firm performing development and SEO under one roof. The discussion will include the client advantages/challenges presented.

At the end of the day, it seems like common sense to us. If you’re truly optimizing your site, you should be making significant changes to it, not just “putting keywords in the right places”. Why not have a professional web development team making those changes, rather than an “SEO Expert” who might just be uncomfortable with html, css and programming.

If you think about it; how can anyone take a “holistic approach” to website marketing, with out the ability to change more than text?

We, The Karcher Group do seminars on search engine marketing several times a year. Our next one is coming up in Columbus, Ohio on October 23rd at a great facility called the Platform Lab. It’s an IT testing and training facility near downtown Columbus. A very cool place.

So, if you’ve just gotten into the search marketing industry, or have been charged with optimizing and promoting either your own site, or your company’s site; this is a great way to start learning about SEO and PPC.

We’ve been doing these seminars for several years now and have had great response to them. The attendees regularly comment that it’s more than worth the money, and more importantly their time. We’ve made it very affordable, because our primary goal is to educate the market on Search. There are too many companies spending time and money in all the wrong places trying to optimize their sites.

Anita Campbell will be joining us from Small Business Trends, to discuss Blogging and Social Media, which was one of the favorite sessions at our last seminar.

So, if you’re interested in learning about SEO or PPC, or just want to come meet some great people, come see us at our SEO Seminars in October.