Video: Tips for SES San Jose 2006

In this video, I give some tips to suck the marrow from SES San Jose (e.g. sit in the back of the room, and then if someone is boring, you can duck out to try out one of the other three sessions going on at the same time). I also mention a few panels that will be must-see for me. Of course, what you want to attend will depend on your background: marketer, SEO, advertiser, and what your interest and experience level is. In fact, you probably want to check out this post by Thomas Korte, a fellow Googler. Thomas provides the entire SES schedule in Google Calendar format, along with recommended sessions if you’re a newbie, a Google fan, a web designer, a marketing manager, and so on. Pretty cool stuff–he’s even got the parties listed. 🙂

Session 12: Tips for Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2006

– What tips and tricks do you recommend for Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose?
– What sessions do you definitely plan to attend?

34 Responses to Video: Tips for SES San Jose 2006 (Leave a comment)

  1. Just a short one to smile (not related, but perhaps something you can fix :-)) — doing a “site:www.mattcutts.com” reveals as first URL: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog// (note the double backslashes at the end).

    BTW should we be linking to you with www or non-www?

    Have fun at the SES, Matt. Make some pictures for us 🙂

  2. Hi Matt,

    Will you be posting any of your presentations at SES on Google Videos for us guys in the UK that cant get over to San Jose?

    Really hope you do!

    May need to hire a Pro camera for that one!!!

    Thanks

  3. Hi Matt,

    Love the videos!
    Do you get compensated by Google for doing these? I hope so.

    Anyway, I’ve watched your video about the duplicate content filtering, but am still unsure on how it all plays out.

    I think my situation is pretty common amongst those concerned about the filter, so here goes…

    I run a web development company in Australia (operates under a .com.au domain) and we’re expanding into the UK.

    The new site is exactly the same as our .com.au site, except it’s hosted on the .co.uk name. If we launch the .co.uk website with exactly the same content as the .com.au – will we get stung by the filter?

    Reason I ask is, aside from our prices and contact details, nothing else really needs to change (.e.g our company bio, services, etc are all the same).

    We’re pretty happy with the layout, so we didn’t want to change this either. I’d imagine a lot of other companies are in the same boat.

    Your thoughts?

    Cheers,
    Adrian

  4. Matt,

    Great Videos & many thanks for the insightful info & tips… but would it be possible to have those videos written down ?? some still have slow connection down here (especially in Asia).

    It wouls also save Rebecca from a depression 😉
    http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=1261

  5. JohnMU – http://www.mattcutts.com only has 5k backlinks to it while http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ has 100k – think Google can sort it out? I bet they can!

    (could one say that canonical issues are sadly only for us weenie bloggers with few backlinks?)

  6. This is a popularity contest afterall, and a 100,000 backlinks probably cure a lot of ills, broken code, canonical issues etc.

    While we are talking about the webmaster console, and we were, by far my favorite feature is the ability to declare your prefered domain (www vs. non-www) I know I’ve mentioned it on public forums asking for just such an interface, as well I’m sure many others.

    Most impressive however for me is that they take real strong stance in their documentation, its not wishy washy at all.

    http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8473

    For example:

    Q. Will specifying a preferred domain nullify links that point to my site using the non-preferred version?

    A. No. Once you tell us which version of your domain you prefer, we consider all links to your site — using either version — to be pointing to the preferred version.

    I’d still like to see some sort of feedback system from the reinclussion request, just a status message, Pending, Approved, Unapproved, Denied, not enough information, etc. something that lets us know that its being considered, has been considered, or wasn’t needed.

  7. Well the weight from http://www.matt-cutts.com/blog/ doesn’t seem to be carrying to all pages. I searched for “matt blog bacon” (for the bacon polenta post) and “matt blog reinclusion” (for the old reinclusion post) and it’s returning non-www domains. 🙂 — perhaps a belated reaction to all those contests?

  8. Just wondering, what IS the issue with the double slash version?

    Cached 31 Jul 06 / 5 Aug 06:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mattcutts.com%2Fblog%2F%2F

    Cached 14 Aug *05*:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mattcutts.com%2Fblog%2F

    Is this the new canonical? 🙂

  9. Hey Matt

    Dave (ViperChill) here, sadly I live in the UK so I dont get to make it to SES conferences, as i would love to attend one year. Do you ever go to different countries such as the the UK

  10. Hi Dave
    Yep, SES is all over 🙂 — see http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/ – how does November in Paris sound?

  11. Check it out Matt, you have succccessssfully (using lots of C’s and S’s covers up my inablility to spell Successfully) started your hostile takeover of google. confused? allow me to delve deeper….

    I wondered how well your blog would rank for the search term ‘Google’ on (you guessed it) Google.

    Strangely you came up in position 156 on Page 16. This might not sound fabbo but I can tell you that you rank higher than loads of googles pages:

    >Google groups support
    >Google.fr (France)
    >Google.pl (polska)
    >and the Google Earth Blog !!

    Makes you sound great but on the other hand just above you in position 155 is the onion dot com (some news site)

    Congrats, try and plug away at it untill you make page 1 and I will send you a plastic trophy filled with mini chocolate eggs.
    That is my vow to you
    Richard ‘the fish’ Hargreaves

  12. Matt, Interesting enough, you may want to specify a preffered domain as well in your sitemaps account. Not that you are worried about people finding you, as I’m sure your server gets quite a workout, but it would be good real life test material.

    For mattcutts.com, an average of 605 pages.

    http://oy-oy.eu/google/pages/?url=http://mattcutts.com/

    For http://www.mattcutts.com, an average of 192 pages.

    http://oy-oy.eu/google/pages/?url=http://www.mattcutts.com/

  13. Wish I could make it to your google parties.. 🙂

  14. Wow! I wish I could attend this event! Why are all the great event located in the USA huh? we got quasi-nada over here n France…

  15. Not only does the blog turn up with both www and non-www URLs, but many topics also turn up both with and without a trailing / on the URL, e.g. http://www.mattcutts.com/vidyo and http://www.mattcutts.com/vidyo/.

  16. Hey Matt,

    Ever notice that the majority of those ‘sneaky’ javascript redirects have a ‘fresh date’ in the SERP?

    Fresh date in the SERP… Javascript redirect/cloaking… what is the connection?

  17. The slash, www and non-www issues stir up curiousity, but do these really matter?

    Enjoy the SES Matt and thanks for the video tips.

  18. JohnMu, the weird thing is that wordpress is fine with that url. So someone linking to it causes that. I’ll mention it to some people though.

    JohnMu, I told the backend guys that they could use mattcutts.com as the guinea pig domain to test whatever they wanted. So lately they’ve been slapping it around from www to non-www and back just to make sure things work fine.

    Dave, I make it over the pond less often these days, but I’ve done London a couple times and wouldn’t mind doing it again. 🙂

    I hadn’t noticed that, lots0..

  19. Yeah I second Dave’s request to drag you over here to cold rainy grey Blighty 🙂

    (the place where we spell ‘gray’ all funny ;))

  20. How about New Zealand Matt? Really worth the visit – besides if you were in Auckland the Aussies would all come over here to see you. This place is the best kept secret and believe me I have looked all over the world to settle down – originally I’m from Zimbabwe but born in Tanzania.

  21. Thanks JohnMu and Matt for the replies

    Paris..I might make it actually

    Just get the eurostar 😉

  22. Dave (Original)

    Matt,

    I have a real concern over these “conferences”. Danny Sullivan is heavily invloved in most and yet blatantly affiliates and advertises spammers on his site. He also protect spammers on his forum when/if a member post a link to a *blatant* spam site.

    In addition, he gives spammers a platform (and hence credibitily) to well know spammers. Well, well known to those that don’t need to buy SEO. Hence the problem.

    This site is one of DS favorites
    http://www.text-link-ads.com/

    This guy (apprarantly) has been invited to speak at the “conference”. One look at his site code shows him for what he reallly is. Yet, these “conferences” constantly promote and give credibility to these types.

    Is there any wonder that so many innocent site owners are ripped off by spammers only to be banned for some icing on the cake? All while the *top level spammers* are all invited to speak at these “conferences”.

    Only in the SEO industry! Why Matt? Why?

  23. Hi Matt… I’ve been really impressed with the social networking/bookmarking aspect of the conference this year. This is an area of the web that I’ve been really interested in lately, with the emergence of Digg and Del.icio.us and so forth… and it was great to get a sense of how much buzz was occuring around the SEO world concerning these fantastic services.

    Of course, the Pimp My Site seminar was fantastic from a purely entertaining perspective… and as a blogger I enjoyed hearing the Search Engine Bloggers seminar you were a part of. Great stuff.

  24. For once I gotta agree with old Dave the wacko.

    In my opinion, guys like Danny Sullivan are a big part of the SEO Spam Problem, promoting and ‘glamorizing’ search engine spammers is not the way to deal with the problem.

    Maybe if Danny was a an SEO or a Webmaster and not just a Writer that writes about SEO he would see things a little differently.

  25. Dave (Original)

    RE: “For once I gotta agree with old Dave the wacko”

    That’s pretty funny considering you are one of the “well known spammers”.

  26. >>>That’s pretty funny considering you are one of the “well known spammers”.

    Didn’t your momma teach you, Its not nice to tell lies about people.

  27. Dave (Original)

    Sorry lots0, but you created your own reputation, not me.

  28. Dave, I got news for you… Only the search engines decide what is spam or what is not Spam. You don’t.

    Running one mom and pop site that sells home made wooden spice racks you make in your backyard does not qualify you to name spammers.

    Why don’t you ask Matt if he thinks I am a spammer, I mean he is the person that really does decide who is a spammer and who is not.

  29. The more I think about being called a SPAMMER…by Dave, the more angry I get.

    Dave – as far as my “reputation” goes, it looks to me like you’re the only person that calls me a SPAMMER, so it seems to me like you’re the only one trying to create this “Spammer Reputation” I am supposed to have.

    Dave, quit telling lies about me.

    If you have a single shred of proof that I am a SPAMMER, show it or apologize. I dare ya. I double dog dare you…

  30. Dear Matt,

    It’s such a sorrowful thing that we can see your video in our country (China). Do you have any paper artile which I can see the content of the video? Or someone can tell me the major content?

    Thanks & Regards

    Peter

  31. Dave (Original)

    Lots0, you have yourself called me names on this very blog. I don’t EVER feel the need to deny the names and could not careless what you think.

    As I have said, you have created your own reputation. From my readings on umpteen forums etc I believe your reputation is your own fault and one you have earn’t.

  32. On the question of preferred domain, not everything is completely clear.

    I have chosen the www version as my preferred domain. So, I now have a http://www.example.com with a sitemap
    I have a non-www version without a sitemap.

    I have a verification.html file on the server

    Is that all I need?

  33. Thanks Matt, I am eager to watch your presentation at SES, and some clips of the session, I hope you shall also update us for the next sessions.

  34. Somebody told me that the order of adding meta information to web pages matters for Google.
    If your DESCRIPTION tag is out of sequence means if its not after TITLE Tag and before KEYWORDS META Tags then its considered as a Meta Tag Spam.

    I really like the videos you had from SES. You are life saver for one of my site I do SEO.

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