For the third year in a row, I’m organizing the SEO Camp Montreal event, a full-day SEO/Inbound Marketing conference taking place in the city. Almost 200 attendees from Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke and Ottawa are coming to meet, speak and learn “in-the-trenches” tactics, tools and strategies from fellow digital agency professionals as well as a south of the border speakers.

This year’s conference sold out before we were able to announce the speaker line-up, which is quite an achievement and shows that we’re still aligned in terms of pricing and quality. We deliberately want to keep the cost of entry as low as possible to ensure we reach small agency folks, consultants and peeps doing SEO for their products or clients everyday. Indeed, it’s not an easy balance between quality (no pitch) talks, low cost tickets and making sure the organization founding the event, non-profit organization W3Quebec, does not register a loss at the end of the day.

A glimpse of the conference

I caught up last week with Adam Melson, one of our returning keynote speakers. Working at SEER Interactive in Philly, Adam will dispense his knowledge of link building tactics in a post-penguin era. SEER Interactive is known for its RCS philosophy, initiated by Wil Reynolds, the company founder. Here are Adam’s thoughts on RCS in 2013 and how it plays a role in link building and digital marketing.

Real Company Shit is continuing to looking beyond the SEO mindset (architecture, keywords, etc.) and really talking about what makes our client’s businesses work. The goal is to continue making businesses better for our clients, even if that’s recommending they spend some of their SEO budget elsewhere because it just makes more sense. It’s continuing to look out for the best interests of our clients and making sure they know we’re invested & passionate about them being successful.

I also asked him how he stays on top of SEO in 2013, given how fast the industry has been evolving for the past few years and which are his go-to blogs, websites and authors.

It’s hard! There are so many tools coming out every day, great people blogging, and so many changes with Google. The best ways I’m trying to stay on top is :

a. Relying on others to help recap articles/blog posts so I can spend 2 minutes reading the top 3 takeaways vs 15 minutes reading the article.

b. Testing – you’ll always be able to take away something from a test – whether that’s something you can confirm (how Google might react to something or how visitors react to something) or even just finding out how to not have your next test have holes/flaws.

c. Checking to see who I actually retweet the most so I can accurately answer this, but I have to say @aleyda @dan_shure @RossHudgens but also a number of people who have nothing to do with SEO, like @RachaelGerson sister @The_PUNisher_SF

Thanks to Adam for the interview!

Digital Marketing in Montreal: Why we need to rally and make the most of our collective knowledge.

Or why I think we need an Online Marketing Conference in Montreal for industry professional.

SEO used to be very community based and still is. From the boards and IM chats (ICQ anyone?) we were often considered as techies as opposed to other marketing professionals. SEO is now becoming more marketing and less development and the community is getting dispersed. That’s the primary reason behind an event in Montreal, where peeps with backgrounds in content, social and digital marketing can mix in with the one-time SEO geeks now turned Inbound Marketers.

That’s why I deeply think Montreal deserves an event for these professionals of all kinds to meet, speak and learn on the latest challenges we as digital marketers face. My goal was always to create a no-bullshit/no-sales pitch conference where attendees can expect actionable content. Other conferences such as Distilled’s SearchLove or the unmissable SEOmoz’s MozCon are definitely inspiration for me, putting aside the differences in market sizes and magnitudes of the events.

What do you think the future holds for the Montreal digital marketing community? Let me know in the comments or at the event if you were lucky enough to get a ticket!

Follow and tweet during the SEO Camp Montreal 2013 with hashtag #SEOCampMtl.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Montreal’s SEO & Online Marketing Community is Thriving

Why Getting a Google Analytics Certification?

As Google themself describe the test, it is by no means an arduous task nor a proof that you’re a Google Analytics ninja.

The Google Analytics IQ test challenges your knowledge and understanding of Google Analytics.

Still, I think there are 3 main benefits to take and pass the Individual Qualification test :

1. evaluate your Google Analytics skills
2. be listed as an official qualified individual
3. help you agency or business get the Google Analytics Certified Partner program accreditation

Search for Google Analytics Qualified Individuals

GAIQ Test Details

If you fail, it’ll cost you another $50, and you’ll need to wait for another 2 weeks before you can take it again.

How to Pass the Test

First, go to the Google Testing Center and sign up for an account if you haven’t already. Remember that this is different from your Google main account. Next you should go to the Google Analytics IQ Lessons and watch all of them. It’s a little over two hours of video and depending on your actual Google Analytics proficiency this just might be why you’ll pass the test. Then you go buy yourself the $50 test.

Trick: 50% off voucher for the test by buying Brian Clifton’s book Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics. At CAD $30 for the Third Edition, you’ll be saving $25 and effectively making the book almost free.

New GAIQ Questions Takeaway

In their new test, Google raised the bar. They did so by moving away from simple & straightforward question to more logical reasoning based questions. This time around, I got questions based on the latest version of Google Analytics (v5) including real-time analytics and conversion attribution.

All in all, the test isn’t too difficult as long as you’ve had real-life experience with Google Analytics, not at the level of a GA consultant but you should be able to understand most of the concepts and implement them. The new test is definitely more focused toward implementation.

Documentation to pass the test

Useful documentation links and tools you might want to have open in a separate browser so that you can quickly switch back and forth during the test:

• Cookies & Google Analytics
• e-commerce Tracking
• Campaign Tracking Definitions and Methods
• Google Analytics Metrics and Dimensions
• Google Analytics regex to exclude range of IP

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Google Analytics Certification: How to Pass the new GAIQ Test

Email is a great business tool and when it’s put to good use with great & engaging content, it’s pretty powerful.

A blog post written by the informationhighwayman.com @Bnonn stated 5 reasons why, Email Marketing is crushing it for B2B businesses. I think, Email Marketing is killing it for most business B2B or B2C who are using it the right way.

Rather, it’s because email allows you to make repeated contact, and that contact is “invasive”. It’s in their mailbox—their inner electronic sanctum. That’s very different from sending out a tweet or posting something on Facebook, where they may or may not see it, because it’s just part of a much larger timeline featuring hundreds of other people. Excerpt from: 5 Reasons Email Marketing Crushes Social Media Marketing for B2B

I’ll add that maybe the most important reason why it’s because you own your list, not a third-party platform. For most agency folks, being so busy chasing the latest magic bullets, we often forget how Email Marketing is essential to our client’s web marketing strategy.

It all boils down to how you connect and foster interactions between related inbound channels.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Email Marketing Crushes Social Media

Google Rich Snippets Testing tool

They also globally released Product Rich snippet support. Which means we’ll see more SERPs looking like this on Google.ca:

Better start implementing Schema rich markup…If you’re still not sure about rich snippets, you may watch my last year introduction to rich snippets and SEO video.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Rich Snippets Testing Tool

A year old but still a must watch (re watch), its gold for those dealing with clients. Also check out the corresponding post.

When a client asks you how much something costs, every “ummmm” out of your mouth is thousands of dollars just vanished. If YOU don’t think you’re worth the money, your client certainly isn’t going to.

If they want something different, they will let you know. Don’t negotiate with yourself on behalf of the client. Don’t convince yourself they won’t be all right with something. GO FIND OUT! The worst that can happen is you won’t get the job.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Mike Monteiro: Fuck You. Pay Me.

28th minute of the latest Foundation episode 11

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Social click streaming Data for SEO

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Under the hood of Search

Microsoft was interested in acquiring Motorola’s patent portfolio that would have allowed it to torpedo Android even further. The possibility of that deal brought Google to the negotiation table, resulting in the blockbuster sale. OM Malik on GigaOM

Pissed that they lost the last fight over Nortel’s patents, Google had to do something. They were probably looking to secure their Android platform from rival, which means more control over the “open” platform (don’t be fool). They will be able to deploy Android update much faster or at least to put pressure on these OEMs (HTC, Samsung) not fast enough. They can defend Android much better with that acquisition, as MG Siegler on Techcrunch wrote:

What happens when the iPhone 5 launches and everyone wants it? That includes many people currently using Android phones. After a few months of this, Google grows frustrated that none of their OEMs can release a device that matches the build-quality that Apple puts out there. But wait, they now have their own company they can at the very least use to apply to pressure the other OEMs to force them to do better work!

More on that over RWW and Techcrunch

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Google gobbles up Motorola Mobility for Mobile Patents

A way to ensure that the most important Tweets from the organizations you follow reach you directly, by placing them at or near the top of your timeline. These Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet, and like regular Tweets, they will appear in your timeline just once.

I think this new ad system is really smart and feel a lot like AdWords in a way. They’ll show you promoted tweets only if you follow a business. So if you opt-in an Ad might help you find what you’re looking for, which feels like Search Ads.

More on that news over Search Engine Land and Read Write Web.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

Twitter’s new In-stream Ads: Timely Tweets

True mobile SEO could only exist if you only have a mobile site and the only link building you do is from other mobile sites and pursue other SEO activities on only mobile based platforms. In other words, “mobile SEO” doesn’t really exist, it’s just another part of SEO, and should be treated as such.
On Search Engine Land: Mobile SEO: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

It’s Not just about SEO and Ranking

Mobile is indeed a huge market, and of course, you need to make your website accessible and pleasant for Mobile users. Consider that users are visiting  sites from an increasing assortment of devices and browsers, thus your site should be crafted to respond to your user’s needs no matter what platform. Responsive Web Design embrace the fact that the Web is flexible. So for Mobile, the SEO goal should be to optimize your site for smartphones (and dumb phones when it makes sense).  To make sure you do not duplicate your site with thin content and finally why not implement Mobile friendly VCard and call-to-action such as standard format phone number.

Post from: Montreal Web Strategy and SEO

There is no such a thing as Mobile SEO