Learn more about local SEO from the super passionate and smart Greg Gifford.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
[ccw-atrib-link]
Great content is essential for success in local SEO, but unfortunately, a lot of local business websites are sorely lacking in this area. Columnist Greg Gifford shares his advice on how to write excellent website copy for local SEO.
The post The secret to writing awesome local content appeared…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
[ccw-atrib-link]
Posted by EricaMcGillivray
One of our favorite things about MozCon is introducing all of you to Seattle. We love our city, and besides three days of marketing learning, we also host three night events and facilitate other fun activities. We are currently 92% sold out with around 100 tickets left, so if you haven’t already:
Check out the full schedule if you’re interested in knowing more about the MozCon sessions.
After many requests for more community connecting, this year, we’re launching birds-of-a-feather tables during each lunch. There will be eight labeled tables with different topics each day and a different facilitator each day. (There are also a ton of unlabeled tables for random meeting and gatherings.) Sit down and join a conversation around a professional interest.
Don’t worry, with all of us in the same room, doing the same things for three days, you’ll never miss a lunch or birds-of-a-feather opportunity!
Join us and our partners for a tour of the neighborhood bars in Belltown. This is our second official MozCrawl, and we’re delighted to show off yet another part of Seattle. Each bar will feature a unique MozCon button. Collect all six and be entered in a drawing for a golden Roger. The crawl runs from 7-10pm. Make sure to bring your ID, US driver’s license or passport.
(Standard disclaimer: Roger is golden, not made of gold.)
Locations
Buckley’s, 2331 2nd Ave, hosted by | ![]() |
Clever Bottle, 2222 2nd Ave Ste.100, hosted by | ![]() |
Rabbit Hole, 2222 2nd Ave, hosted by | ![]() |
Lava Lounge, 2226 2nd Ave, hosted by | ![]() |
Wakefield Bar, 2137 2nd Ave, hosted by | ![]() |
The Whiskey Bar, 2122 2nd Ave, hosted by | ![]() |
You’ve long asked for a networking-focused event, and in a Mozzy spirit, we’re happy to bring our Tuesday night MozCon Ignite. Starts at 7pm with networking and appetizers with talks starting at 8pm.
Ignite talks are 5 minutes in length with auto-advancing slides. All these talks are passion topics—no marketing talks—so you can put your notebook down and relax. Get to know your fellow community members and their interests beyond our shared profession.
7:00-8:00pm | Networking | |
8:00-8:05pm | Welcome to MozCon Ignite with Geraldine DeRuiter, aka the Everywhereist | ![]() |
8:05-8:10pm | Regales of an Accidental Nightcrawler Stunt Double with Jay Neill from Affiliate Resources, Inc.
Jay Neill is an online marketing consultant who helps businesses get started in the world of local SEO through education and servicing. In his spare time, Jay enjoys jumping on trampolines and playing with his vast collection of vintage Star Wars action figures. |
![]() |
8:10-8:15pm | Sled Dogs, Northern Lights, and Mushing Tails! with Anna Anderson from Art Unlimited
Anna Anderson is an avid dog lover who owns over 35 sled dogs in Northern MN. Growing up with sled dogs, she and her family now competitively race across North America: training, racing, and traveling for 2-3 months with 20 of her best canine friends across the country! Follow her on Twitter: @boldadgirl |
![]() |
8:15-8:20pm | Performing a Canine C-Section with Marie Haynes from HIS Web Marketing
Dr. Marie Haynes is recognized as a leader when it comes to dealing with Google penalties and algorithm changes like Panda and Penguin. Prior to her career in SEO, she was a small animal veterinarian for 13 years. It is possible that her strong fear of birds is what launched her in to a new life of battling the Penguins at Google. Follow her on Twitter: @Marie_Haynes |
![]() |
8:20-8:25pm | Bulltown Strutters: The Band That Married Its City with Mark Traphagen from StoneTemple Consulting
Mark Traphagen is Senior Director of Online Marketing for Stone Temple Consulting. When not disrupting things online, Mark disrupts the sleep of the good citizens of Durham, NC, by making as much noise as possible with the Bulltown Strutters, a New Orleans Second Line style parade band. Follow him on Twitter: @marktraphagen |
![]() |
8:25-8:30pm | Okay, I Have a Confession: I Was Homeschooled with Garrett Mehrguth from Directive Consulting
Garrett Mehrguth is digital marketing enthusiast and owner of Directive Consulting, which provides SEO, PPC, and Content for small to mid-market companies. When Garrett’s not in the office, you can catch him playing foosball, surfing, or playing soccer. Follow him on Twitter: @gmehrguth |
![]() |
8:30-8:35pm | Conquering the 100 Best Books of All Time with Kristen Craft from Wistia
Kristen Craft is Director of Business Development and loves connecting with Wistia’s partner community to spread the word about video marketing. In her spare time, she takes epically long walks, swims in ponds, and brews beer. Follow her on Twitter: @thecrafty |
![]() |
8:35-8:40pm | Tales of Coffee from a Kitchen Window with Scott Callender from La Marzocco Home
Scott Callendar is the Director of the newly launched La Marzocco Home. He is the definition of a coffee geek and spends his time away from his job in coffee with his family and thinks more about coffee. Follow him on Twitter: @incognitocoffee |
![]() |
8:40-8:45pm | Go Frost Yourself: 7 Basic Frostings & Their Uses with Annette Promes from Moz
Annette Promes has spent the past two decades in and around Seattle working in various marketing roles. She is currently the CMO at Moz, where she and her teams handle everything that is “funnel-related,” such as driving traffic to Moz’s site, converting that traffic into product trials, and reducing customer churn. Annette really loves frosting. Follow her on Twitter: @ahpromes |
![]() |
8:45-9:15pm | Networking break | |
9:15-9:20pm | A Creative Endeavor Inspires & Lengthens a Life with Ralph Legnini from DragonSearch
Ralph Legnini – Senior Creative Strategist at DragonSearch in NY – is an Aikido 5th Degree Black Belt Sensei, former Saturday Night Live music producer, President of the Board of Education in the 2nd largest school district in New York State, funky rock & roll guitar player, and has worked in the recording studio with music icons Mick Jagger, Madonna, David Bowie, Nile Rodgers, & Todd Rundgren. He used these unique combined skills to create a life sustaining environment for a talented 16-year-old boy with incurable cancer. Follow him on Twitter: @ruaralph2 |
![]() |
9:20-9:25pm | Finding and Embracing Healthy Eating Habits with Carrie Hill from Ignitor Digital Marketing, LLC
Carrie Hill is the co-founder and technical SEO expert at Ignitor Digital. She loves cooking, eating, reading, and Eddie Vedder…not necessarily in that order. Follow her on Twitter: @CarrieHill |
![]() |
9:25-9:30pm | I Was Told There Would Be Hoverboards. with Dan Petrovic from DEJAN
Dan Petrovic, the managing director of DEJAN, is one of Australia’s best-known names in the field of search engine optimization. Dan is a web author, innovator, and a highly-regarded search industry event speaker. Follow him on Twitter: @dejanseo |
![]() |
9:35-9:40pm | The Day I Disremembered with Chris Hanson from 3GEngagement
Chris Hanson has been involved in digital marketing since 2006 and is currently Founder and CEO of 3GEngagement. After Hanson worked as a Park Ranger, lived without electricity, raced sled dogs, and lived in Alaska, he felt that digital marketing was the next obvious career move. Follow him on Twitter: @FollowUPsuccess |
![]() |
9:40-9:45pm | What Did You Expect in an Opera, a Happy Ending? with Chrissi Reimer from Three Deep Marketing
A Green Bay native and Minneapolis transplant, Chrissi Reimer spends her days working as an SEO at Three Deep Marketing. Most nights, Chrissi can be found experimenting with different ways to prepare arugula, trying new brews, or taste-testing every ice cream option in the Twin Cities. Follow her on Twitter: @chrissireimer |
![]() |
9:45-9:50pm | The Best Practices in Cooking Hot Dogs with Josh Couper from Rafflecopter
Josh Couper is the director of customer happiness at Rafflecopter and long time hot dog aficionado. Follow him on Twitter: @josh_couper |
![]() |
9:50-9:55pm | Raising My Parents with Jen Lopez from Moz
Jen Sable Lopez is the Director of Community at Moz. She is a renowned Community Strategist who started her marketing career as a technical SEO. Jen is a self-proclaimed geek and faux vegetarian, and she prides herself in having kicked colon cancer’s butt at the young age of 37. Follow her on Twitter: @jennita |
![]() |
9:55-10:00pm | Stoned Nerd versus the Four-Legged Home Invaders with Ian Lurie from Portent, Inc.
Ian Lurie is founder and CEO of Portent, Inc., a search, social and content agency that helps clients become weird, useful, and significant. He’s also a renowned raccoon wrangler. Follow him on Twitter: @portentint |
![]() |
There ain’t no party like a Moz party, and our annual bash at the Garage is always a blast. Have one last hurrah with us before heading home and back to work.
For those who’ve never been to the Garage, there’s something for everyone: bowling, pool, and karaoke. Plus, a ton of food and drinks—including our featured MozCow Mule Mocktail, as well as well liquor, beer, house wine, and of course, our friend H2O. So whether you’re singing your heart out, playing for the corner pocket, bowling a turkey, or just chatting with your new friends, we’ll see you there.
The following events are MozCon-adjacent, meaning they aren’t hosted by Moz and attendees must arrange and pay for their adventures.
Paddle around Elliott Bay! At 2:30pm Sunday, for $49/per person, you can head out on the water and make new MozCon friends. You can easily catch the water taxi at Pier 50 ($4.75 one-way) from Downtown to West Seattle. Alki tours is located right next to the West Seattle ferry terminal for your convenience.
Take a distillery tour at 12pm Sunday and learn about Seattle’s unique craft culture. Conveniently, the tour leaves from the Grand Hyatt Hotel. You can call (206) 455-3740 to reserve your spot on the tour, which costs $87.50/per person.
Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Angels
Love baseball? Come see Seattle’s home team play. The Mariners game starts at 1:10pm, and you can see them take on the Angels for $17/per person on the View Level. You must purchase your ticket before 5pm July 10 in order to get the MozCon deal. Enter ‘MOZCON’ as your special offer code.
Agua Verde, recommended by Rachael Kloek
“Agua Verde serves great Mexican food in a beautiful lakefront setting. You can rent paddleboards and kayaks right under the restaurant to paddle your way around Lake Union.”
Ballard brewery blocks, recommended by Chris Lowe
“A dozen really good breweries all within a few blocks of each other: Stoup, Reubens, Red Envelope, Populuxe, Peddler, Maritime, etc., etc. You can easily walk from one brewery to another. Bonus is that most of these breweries host food trucks on the weekends. The area is also just a few blocks from downtown Ballard and the Burke Gilman Trail.”
Ballard Locks, recommended by Renea Nielsen
“The Ballard Locks are a bit of a trek from downtown Seattle (~ 45 min. by bus), but they are a perfect Seattle maritime adventure. The Locks abut a beautiful park and show off Seattle’s maritime history. If you’re lucky, you may even find some sea lions playing in one of the closed Locks.”
Pike Place Market, recommended by Erica McGillivray
“May seen like a ‘touristy’ spot, but Pike Place Market actually thrives on local business. Every day, there’s a farmer’s market, flowers galore, and artisans on everything from cheese and spices to woodworking and jewelry. There are hidden shops (at least three bookstores) and a ton of great food.”
Elliot Bay Books, recommended by Rand Fishkin
“One of the best indie bookstores in the country, stocked with good stuff to buy and read, and there’s a lovely cafe, too.”
Ferry ride, recommended by Nemecia Kaloper
“Takes you to such cool places and allows you to see the city from different view and get a taste of our awesome islands! It requires usually at least 1/2 a day, but is well worth it to be able to hop over and have lunch somewhere other than the city. It’s easy to never take the trip, but well worth it if you do. I recommend Bainbridge in particular and Nola Cafe.”
The Fremont Troll, recommended by Kevin Loesken
“The Fremont Troll, and Fremont in general, perfectly sums up what’s great about Seattle. The troll itself is an amazing piece of art. It’s also near the Lenin Statue and close to a lot of interesting bars, restaurants, and shops.”
Rodeo Donuts!, recommended by David Lee
“Best donuts ever. Even better than Voodoo in Portland, OR. This needs to be a 150 characters long so once again, best donuts ever. I really like the donuts here. Don’t go to Krispy Kreme or Top Pot.”
Vivace: the Cafe Nico, recommended by Abe Schmidt
“The Cafe Nico best coffee drink in this city. Orange/nutmeg/ cinnamon paired with the greatest espresso pull in the country (only machine in the world capable of the ‘perfect’ espresso shot).”
Starbucks Roastery, recommended by Ben Simpson
“Just a few blocks from the convention center, the Starbucks Roastery is one of biggest new attractions in Seattle. Why? To start, walking it it feels like Willy Wonka had one to many espresso shots and got inspired. Starbucks pulled together its best baristas from around the country to put together some amazing craft coffee creations. And to top it all off, they’ve got a Serious Pie on location making all of their delicious food. If you do nothing else during your visit, the Starbucks Roastery is an absolute must!”
Looking for more options? Don’t miss our quintessential post from last year,
our mega post from 2013, Rand’s personal recommendations, and Jon Colman’s Seattle coffee guide.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!
[ccw-atrib-link]
Posted by ronell smith
“Man, I’m sorry. You guys weren’t ready to adopt the brands as publisher mindset. I suspected you’d never be ready to do it successfully. I knew it; I could sense you knew it. I wish I’d spoken up when I saw the intra-departmental debates waging. That’s on me. My bad.”
Those were my words to the executive of a midsize lifestyle brand I worked with in 2014. It took me months to get up the nerve to reach out and make it right, even though I’d done nothing wrong.
He seemed to understand. But he did have a question that stopped me in tracks and continues to haunt me.
“If
we couldn’t get it right, with all of our resources, what does it say about the feasibility of becoming a brand publisher?” he inquired. “Does that make content marketing [in and of itself] a bad idea?”
A fair question, to be sure, and one I did not have a sufficient answer for. But in looking back, I realized this exec, like so many others before him, made the mistake of thinking he could do quickly what he had not yet learned to do well. Content marketing wasn’t the missile that sank his boat. The decision to do content marketing at warp speed and with little direction was his brands’ albatross.
Any one of these could have led to failure. Facing them all at once is akin to content marketing suicide. I see these same four elements dooming content marketers so frequently that I’ve resorted to naming them the four horsemen of content marketing failure.
For the purposes of this post, I want to illuminate how attempting to be a brand publisher is a lofty, needless goal for all but a handful of brands. Then I will highlight how to make steps 2, 3, and 4 work for your brand, not against it.
Before I begin, however, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: The ideas shared in this post have been formed through working with hundreds of brands over more than a decade, either as a writer, business strategist, content strategist, product marketing consultant or in a PR/media relations capacity.
I’m under no illusion that each (or any of them) will apply to everyone, but experience has shown me that these elements play an invaluable role in the success (or failure) of most brands embarking on the content marketing journey.
(image
source)
The web is rife with examples of marketers sharing the “wisdom” of brands becoming publishers, and no less common are the examples of brands who’ve done just that, adding content publisher to the laundry list of services they already provide. Here’s the problem with that logic: You’re not a publisher, and attempting to become one is fraught with risks that more often than not lead to failure.
Brand publishing refers to brands attempting to behave as media companies, specifically with regard to content breadth and frequency. Also, and most important, it requires a mindset wholly different from that of a typical content marketer: These brands view publishing as part of their business model.
That’s where the confusion comes in. A lot of very
knowledgeable people say any brand that publishes blog posts or adds updates on social media is a brand publisher. But that’s akin to saying anyone who runs is a marathoner. It’s about scale. While content marketing’s goal is to attract and retain customers through the creation and distribution of content, being a brand publisher means you have layers of staff, strategic insight, vision, resources to build platforms for sharing new content and, most important, the ability to produce content at a rate that rivals, well, publishers.
If content marketing is a single-family dwelling, brand publishing is a city of one-million-plus.
It’s not that being a brand publisher is a bad idea all by itself. It’s that too many companies, who are barely ready to do content well, now think being a publisher is a sound idea.
As brands continue to bite off more than they can chew, the realities are tough to stomach, and have led to some interesting conclusions:
After months spent developing content strategies for clients looking for content marketing help, I decided that, in good conscience, I would never again insist that brands become publishers.
Instead, I adopted a strategy that’s as far away from one-size-fits-all as possible.
First, I refrained from using the term brand publisher. Next, I became a vocal proponent of the good-for-business-doesn’t-mean-good-for-your-business philosophy, which meant that in meetings with managers, directors and C-Suite execs, I had the courage of my convictions in sharing that while content marketing is a sound practice, becoming a full-fledged publisher is something that requires a minimum of three things to be successful:
If your company is ready to shoulder such a commitment, then by all means dive right in. If not, there’s a better way to do content marketing, one that is no less effective but does not require you to mortgage your future in the process.
Instead of attempting to become a publisher, or even a content marketer, focus your efforts on becoming a brand that consistently creates content that puts the needs of prospects and customers first, while simultaneously providing meaningful solutions to their problems.
I’ve been a very vocal haranguer of content marketing, though not because of its inefficacy.
I’m simply not a proponent of brands thinking of themselves as anything other than
what they are in the minds of their prospects and clients.
Hopefully, at the core of your business is a product or service customers clamor for, not a content engine.
That’s why becoming a customer-first brand that has meaningful content as part of its DNA is the safest, surest, easiest-to-adopt model for brands with the desire to do content marketing right but who aren’t willing to re-org the business to get it underway.
In this way, you keep the
main thing the main thing. That main thing in this case is serving your core audience.
At this point, I’m hoping you see the light, realizing that becoming a brand publisher isn’t necessary for your company to be successful at content marketing.
If you’re ready to chart a solid, more reliable path to success, it begins with turning away the four horsemen of content marketing failure.
We’ve banished the first horsemen. Let’s do the same with the other three.
Whenever I sit down with a prospect to discuss their business, I open up my notebook and write down the following three phrases, including a checkbox next to each, on a sheet of paper:
Then I ask “What are your goals for the business?” all the while knowing full well the answer will be one of the three things I’ve written down.
The followup question, too, is canned: “What are you doing to get there?” That answer, too, is typically never a surprise: “That’s what you’re here for, right?”
Wrong!
After I’ve apprised them that the shortest path to failure is not
having a clear view of their goals, I have their attention and they are ready to begin the goal-setting process.
Here’s the catch: Only you and your team can decide what those goals are/should be. It’s important that the goals take into account the entirety of the business, not just SEO, content, social media, etc.
Also, I’ve found it helps if the metrics assigned to measure a business’s success toward their goals are meaningful (e.g., a sincere help to the overall business) and clearly communicated (e.g., everyone involved is aware of what they’re working for and being judged against).
(image
source)
No matter what specific goals you decide on, applying the principle of “HAS,” as in holistic, adherable (er, sticky) and sustainable, can be a huge help:
I’ve found that keeping these principles top of mind helps to order a brand’s steps, ensuring that everyone is aware of the goals and of their role in working toward them.
As an example, let’s say you’re a small business ready to jump into the murky waters of content marketing, but you don’t yet have a website.
The right goal would be to launch a new website. To make the goal as HAS-friendly as possible, you could assign a timeframe—say, 90 days—then break out the associated tasks by order of importance (see image below).
(image
source)
I’d even suggest keeping a checklist in a Google Doc where team members can stay abreast of what’s going on, in addition to seeing who’s responsible for what and having a better understanding of where the team is in terms of completing each task related to their goals.
If I had to single out the No. 1 reason content marketers I’ve worked with have failed it would be that they based their goals on what the competition was doing instead of what’s best for their own business.
Seeing a competitor rank higher for their main keywords; having thousands of web pages indexed by Google; spending mad cash on paid media; and having brand pages on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, these businesses attempt to do the same.
Sounds comical, right, until you realize it happens all the time and to businesses of all sizes.
So we just had a new client shut down our social strategy to instead “copy anything and everything their competitors are doing” #brilliant
— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) January 26, 2015
Problem is, no two businesses are entirely alike and, well, “You aren’t them,” as the saying goes.
Aside from having little idea of how much real success the competition is enjoying from their search, social and content efforts, these brands are taking their eyes off the main prize: their own business.
An approach that works well and is easy to carry out entails taking an inventory or where you are in relation to where you want to be while keeping a keen eye on the competition.
With your goals solidly in hand, begin by sketching out a plan based not on where you are, or on what the competition is doing, but on those actions that would likely lead to success for you.
(image created by author)
In the graph above, created in Google Docs, you can see that I mainly focused on the content-related activities that would have the biggest impact over the next 90 days. (Caveat: This is simply a high-level overview of one area of the business, but it’s plenty thorough enough for a team to begin working from.)
The key is to take the time to get to know (a) what success looks like for your business, then (b) focus on specific, actionable elements that can be done in the allotted timeframe.
(image
source)
“Why do you hate content marketing?” I get asked these words at least once a month. The answer is always the same. I don’t hate content marketing. I hate most brands’ approach to content marketing.
There is so much more to making it a success than we’re typically led to believe there is.
The focus is always on produce, produce, produce. Outreach, outreach, outreach. Produce more. Outreach evan more. Rinse and repeat.
As marketers, we’ve seemingly trained a generation of brands that the focus should be on doing fast (and often) what they barely know how to do at all. We never learn to do well.
Yeah, I know it works…for some. But is it scalable over the long-term? Better yet, will it remain scalable into the future?
If you want to position your brand for success in content marketing, make sweating the small but oh-so-important steps a priority.
This process starts with clarity.
(image
source)
Simple. Brilliant. What I loved about this slide and the line of thinking is it helps brands (and the staff who work for those brands) stay the course, focused on their already-defined objectives. For example, once you know who you are and who you are in the minds of your core prospects and customers, any actions you take should be done with this information in mind.
Therefore, if the team begins to get distracted by shiny-things syndrome, anyone has the right to ask “Why are we doing this?” or “Why does this…make sense?”
Nothing like forcing someone to defend a bad idea to provoke clarity.
I can’t say for certain that, if you refrain from attempting to be a brand publisher, you’ll be a successful content marketer. I also cannot promise that going all-in with the three points outlined above ensures your success.
What, however, I can say is the vast majority of brands would do better if they banished “I want to be a brand publisher” from their lexicon and decided to focus on the right goals, executed a sensible plan and made the small things part of the main things.
What about you? Are you ready to do content marketing wisely? Dive into the discussion in the comments below.
(main image: licensed by the author )
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!
[ccw-atrib-link]
John Rampton interviews Greg Gifford from AutoRevo about local SEO.
[ccw-atrib-link]
Posted by EricaMcGillivray
Get ready to give some high fives, because I have some great news to share today: The four community speakers for MozCon 2014, July 14-16th in Seattle!
First, I want to thank everyone who tossed in their hat. It’s an incredibly brave thing to do, so pat yourselves on the back. We had 146 submissions this year—about 10 more than last year—during the week and a half that they were open. There were tons of amazing ideas, incredibly thoughtful sharing, and all around excitement. The selection committee all agreed that 2014’s pitches were the best yet. Though, of course, that makes the decision the hardest one.
In the order that they’ll be presenting at MozCon:
Google+ Game of Thrones: Claiming Your Kingdom for Brand Dominance
Be the ruler of your vertical by claiming uncharted ground in Google+ to dragon-power your brand’s Google influence.
Mark Traphagen is Senior Director of Online Marketing for Stone Temple Consulting and a sought-after speaker and writer on Google+ marketing and Google Authorship. He runs the largest Google Authorship community on the web, and offline, he competes in story slams, but never, ever slams a good story.
Bad Data, Bad Decisions: The Art of Asking Better Questions
Stephanie Beadell will discuss the power of surveys and how if you’re not asking the right questions, you risk making decisions on the wrong answers.
Stephanie Beadell is Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream and was formerly head of Digital PR at SEER Interactive. She holds a Master of Science degree in Market Research from Boston University.
More than Words: Localizing Your International Content
Zeph takes you beyond the technical implications of international SEO, showing you real life examples of how to leverage your existing content in other languages.
Zeph Snapp is the CEO of Altura Interactive.
Talking Back to Conversational Search
Looking at how conversational search and the knowledge graph are changing how users search and engage with content, Justin will talk about implementing entities at an enterprise scale.
Justin Briggs is the Sr. Manager of Organic Marketing at Getty Images, a leading stock photography company based in Seattle. Justin has over 10 years of web experience, including seven years working in SEO and social media.
Honorable mentions go out to both Gianluca Fiorelli and Greg Gifford.
Get ready to cheer these four on, and make sure that you’ve bought your ticket to MozCon 2014, as they’re going quickly and will sell out.
I get asked quite a bit about how the community speaker selection committee process works, so I thought I’d shed some light on it for those who are curious. This year, there were a total of nine committee members. That’s a lot of people vetting your submissions. And you may notice that it’s the same number as a more famous fellowship:
You can make your guesses as to who correlates to whom on Moz’s staff.
The committee for MozCon 2014 consisted of:
I’m typically the one that does a first sweep through all the entires. I try to do a “blind” sweep through them to stay as unbiased as possible by not looking at names and emails, only reading the content pitch itself. We use a grade scale, A through F, and make notes on entries. (Sorry, person who submitted pretending to be Matt Cutts, you received the F. We did get a laugh, though.) From there, Cyrus, Danie, Jen, Keri, Megan, and Trevor jump in and they add their own grades and notes. Yes, sometimes we disagree! But most of the time, we’re all pretty close in what we think.
One hopeful sent his pitch in letter format with a koala bear. Someone’s following my Pinterest account.
After that, it gets easier to narrow it down to 20 or so pitches. Both Trevor and I also make special notes on ones that we might want to grab for blog posts or Mozinars if they aren’t selected as speakers. When down to 20 or so, Rand and Matthew join in and give their thoughts on the top ones. We also start more extensively reviewing to see what kinds of presentations people have given in the past, if there are slide decks or video of them on stage, and what sort of other content they’re putting out there, like blog posts.
Once it gets down to less than 10, the choice gets harder. Typically there are one or two people that everyone is completely on board with. Then we discuss more about what we’ve seen from the rest and how the topic would fit into what’s already being offered at MozCon. Usually, there aren’t any “cons” to these fabulous folks, just lots of “pros.”
I reach out to the selected four first, to let them know and confirm that they’re still interested and able to attend MozCon. Then I have the somewhat sad job of telling the rest of the potentials that they weren’t selected. But it’s very important to inform everyone so no one is left wondering whatever happened to that time they pitched. (I know how frustrating never hearing back can be from the other side of a pitch.) Then I write this post.
Hope that added some transparency to our process!
A big thank you to all of you who submitted this year and congratulations to our four speakers for MozCon 2014! We can’t wait to see you all there.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!
[ccw-atrib-link]