Dom encouraged a simple approach to SEO. His points included:
- Pick your niche: Look at what people are searching for in your market
- Basic structure: Get decent URLs, title and heading tags
- Content: Produce something worthwhile
- Be realistic: High search placements are slow to gain and easy to lose
- Remove as much duplicated content as possible
- Judge your sources: Don’t read any SEO blogs!
- If you’re outsourcing updates (as with any other outsourcing), check everything
- Don’t do everything at once: Test the impact and improve incrementally
- Be savvy: Fact check any lines you may be being fed by an SEO agency
Areas relevant to Google for you to look at now or in the near future:
- Google product search
- Google local
- Universal Search (blogs, tweets, video, etc)
- Microformats
Dom presented a few Twitter anecdotes in his unique style, which illustrated:
- The importance of context – information which you may not be communicating
- That without context, meaning may warp or amplify
- Anyone may be listening (e.g. potential future employers)
- Strangers may go to great lengths to pull a prank (well, Dom and Tim may, at least)
- People will interact and respond in unpredictable ways
References: Dominic Hodgson, @thehodge
Related: BBC News – Be careful what you tweet