It’s the last day of SES for me, and while my head is still a little left brain heavy, I am excited about all the new information that I’ve absorbed. This was my first SES conference, and while I came here almost completely unbiased on what to expect, I was prepared for the salesy, hit or miss session content, blah, blah, blah…that I had heard prior to leaving St. Louis.

I’m happy to report that aside from the awful daily helping of carnival food, I found this to be the best conference I’ve attended in the last three years. Not a diss to SMX or anything like that, I’m just saying that I was impressed. The SEO sessions that were my favorite all had this continued focus on understanding what the search engines are looking for and what techniques and tools are out there to help you meet those expectations. It wasn’t just about how to rank well, but also, how to convert well. I think this idea of “conversion” has become somewhat of a paradigm shift for SEO. I know when I first got into the business it was all about being in the top 10; rarely did you hear emphasis being placed on conversions.

Because my brain is in “information overload,” for now, I want to list my top 5 nuggets that I think every SEO should know and discuss; especially if they are like me and still learning.

Top 5 Topics That Every SEO Should Be Talking About

1. Semantic Technology- Algo’s have gotten smarter. While SEO best practices haven’t changed, the search space has. As social media content continues to blend into search, it is becoming exceedingly important for site content to be adequate in volume and thematically focused. You want the engines to see your content as relevant and reward you with good positioning, even if the asset doesn’t have a title and description tags.
2. Site Taxonomy- This is all about how your information is structured on your site. Categorization and internal link strategy are the key components to this tactic.
3. Canonicalization- You want to avoid duplicate content where its intent could be misinterpreted. Sometimes using a permanent 301 redirect is appropriate, while other times it’s best to use the rel=canonical tag.
4. Link Building- Uber important! Every SEO campaign has to have a link building strategy. There are lots of creative ways to acquire links. It’s all about the tools and the time you put into it.
5. This one is my FAVORITE!! Using storytelling to benefit your SEO. This is all about creative messaging and writing compelling content that is shareable and link worthy.

I hope that this has created some sort of inquisition because my hope is that your questions and comments will help craft the blog posts I plan to write on each of these topics.

I’m glad that I was given the opportunity to attend SES, and I look forward to learning more next year.