Search Engine Optimization Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with SEO

Appendix A. Attending SEO Conferences

IN THIS APPENDIX

• How to prepare yourself

• What to pack

• What to attend and what to skip

Internet marketing conferences can be either tremendously helpful for your career or an expensive waste of time. This appendix provides actionable information on how to make the most out of these conferences.

PICKING THE RIGHT CONFERENCE

It turns out that the Internet is available globally (you think!?). As such, numerous conferences in cities all around the world focus on marketing online. In this section, I review some the most popular search-related conferences so that you can pick the right one for you.

SMX

SMX, Search Marketing Expo, is a conference run by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman of SearchEngineLand.com. The conference is tailored for beginning to intermediate Internet marketers. At the time of writing, tickets range roughly from $1,600.00 to $2,300.00 and the conference takes place in New York, Seattle, Toronto, Santa Clara, London, Munich, Stockholm, Sydney, and China.

I have been to this conference many times and generally enjoy it. It attracts most of the big-name SEOs and is consistently attended by Google, Microsoft, and more recently, Facebook. Most of the material is beginner to intermediate-advanced.

PROS

• Attracts the big companies and names

• Many big announcements are made at SMX

• Held in many locations

CONS

• Expensive

• Sessions are rarely helpful for advanced SEOs

BOTTOM LINE

• If you are an advanced SEO, this conference series is most useful as a place to ...