Day two at MozCon was all about photos with Roger Mozbot, speculation on the future of SEO, and nursing hangovers from last night’s MozCrawl.
It’s the second day of MozCon and the STAT team arrived bright-eyed and bushy tailed — even after last night’s pub tour of Seattle, #MozCrawl.
After fuelling up at the espresso stations sponsored by Stumptown Coffee Roasters and La Marzocco, we filed into the conference room that was abuzz with excitement for the first speaker of the day.
Starting the MozCrawl
Some of the STAT team horsing around in Seattle.
Speakers we loved:
Moz’s “marketing scientist” and legendary presenter Dr. Pete Meyers got everyone hyped about the future of search with his presentation, “Surviving Google: SEO in 2020.” He told the crowd that Google is no longer a content curator, but a content creator: delivering Google-controlled content in the form of answer boxes, knowledge panels, and Google applications.
Why the rise of the answer box? Dr. Pete points out the importance of short answers for voice search and mobile search. So even if they’re a headache for the SEOs of the world, answer boxes are meant to create the best user experience — and they’re here to stay.
Struggling to create an engaged online community? Rich Millington’s talk “Reaching Critical Mass” warns that if you can’t get 50 people to interact in a community, then don’t build that community. Take a note from the hobbyists of the world and create communities starting with your friends, founders, and then enthusiasts. The concepts that work best for communities are those that solve a problem for the members, seize an opportunity that they’re aware of, explore a passion that users are curious about, or increase their status among their friends and colleagues.
Ending the day with a rush of energy (possibly fuelled by all that free coffee), Wil Reynolds spoke about the importance of understanding how people make decisions, not how Google works. Don’t forget that behind every click and every search is a real person. First learn what people want and then apply that to your marketing strategy — don’t just try to get rankings. “The brands that we admire are willing to go the extra mile for their customer.”
Quotes we loved:
“There’s no bigger misinformer than Google, so you need to use tools like STAT to supplement.”
— Marshall Simmonds, “Dark Search and Social — Run Rabbit Run!”
“Stop thinking about desktop and mobile, and just think about your users.”
— Adam Singer, “Digital Analytics: People, Process, Platform”
“Average attention span on the internet is about eight seconds, but even less time to decide if you’re going to open your email.”
— Tamara Gielen, “Drive More Conversions with Lifecycle Email Campaigns”
“Think short term tactically and long term strategically.”
— Dr. Pete Meyers, “Surviving Google: SEO in 2020.”
“Build good local karma.”
— Mary Bowling, “Back to the Future with Local Search,” where she talked about being a part of your local community by sponsoring local events, joining local groups, and donating to charities and events.
“Winning at a keyword, but losing at branding to a competitor will make you lose in the long run.”
— Wil Reynolds, “The Time to Do the Web Right Is Incredibly Short”
We <3 Roger
Finally, our chance to get a pic with everyone’s favourite robot.
Other stuff we loved:
- Did we mention how much we love Roger? Our photo session with Roger was a blast for all us search nerds.
- Birds-of-a-feather tables at lunch were a great way to casually find people who share your interests.
- We’re meeting some great people from all over the world. Interested in seeing the diversity? Moz created an interactive map to show where all of this year’s MozCon participants call home.
See you all tomorrow for the final day of MozCon 2015!
