Search, analytics and social media conference SAScon held its mini event on 24 November. While this event was targeted at the digital marketing and SEO community there were some good top line takeaway tips for the creative industries. PR Agency One managing director James Crawford dissects the analysis, and pulls out a few key learnings for the layman.

SAScon featured a number of very interesting presentations from a vast array of digital marketing thought leaders, such as link intelligence firm MajesticSEO, and Conversion Rate Experts, but most of these presentations would probably be a bit too technical for the average Creative Times reader.

So what did this event offer readers of this blog? A presentation by Mindy Gofton from iCom was essential for non-specialists everywhere. She covered a lot of the basics of SEO, but included a number of principles that I see being ignored time and time again.

Her presentation looked at the relationship between SEO and brands and how Google sees online presences of businesses. In many ways I have read her advice a million times in the specialist digital marketing blogs, but seeing that these principles are often ignored, or never make it into mainstream business publications, let’s go over them again:

Google doesn’t see brands, it sees brand signals
Google doesn’t see the Nike logo or great products, it sees sites in terms of popularity, the number of inbound links and age. Social media signals are also playing an increasing influence in the way business and brands are perceived.

Consider how Google sees your website
Show the search engine spiders a good time. Since the latest update to Google’s algorithm, the search engine is now considering the quality of onsite content and the ease at which the user can find their way around the site and interact with it.

Use trust signals to help search engines make the right decisions about your website
1. Use H1 tags (jargon alert 1) and other metadata to tell Google what the site and each page is all about. This sounds technical but it’s not really
2. Make sure your contact page shows the user how to contact a human. Show Google spiders that you are legit by registering in directories
3. Have an ‘About Us’ page. Include customer testimonials and any affiliations that you might have
4. Create great content. Use alt text (jargon alert 2) and different media to show Google there is lots of useful stuff on the site
5. Make the site easy to navigate in as few clicks as possible. Include an XML site map (jargon alert 3!)
6. Build link equity. I.e. grow the number of authoritative sites linking to your domain. Remember that it is quality over quantity. Remember that linking out to authoritative and trusted sites (like to trade bodies etc) is important too.
7. Talk about your brand and get it talked about in social media. Do online PR. Make sure your business is listed on Google Places.

Above all though there is still no substitute for customer engagement and having an active community of customers talking about and engaging with your business online.

Hat-tip to PushON for their comprehensive notes from the event.