After work tonight, a colleague and I drove up to BayAreaSearch, an April SEO meetup I stumbled onto through Eventbrite. It was an hour and twenty from San Jose in full Bay Area traffic, but with my friend James along for the ride, the drive was worth it.
LinkedIn’s headquarters made an impression from the door in: a large, open lobby with clean, minimal design.
We arrived a little late, so instead of taking photos we used the last fifteen minutes before the panel to network, which is really just organic SEO for humans. James is the extrovert of the two of us, and he pulled us into a few good SEO conversations with people he had only just met, including one person we did not realize was a speaker, and Krista Seiden, then Analytics Advocate at Google.
From left: Andrew Shotland @ BayAreaSearch / Arun Jay Senior Product Manager @ Linkedin / Kyle Blanchette Data Strategy at Botify / Aleyda Solis SEO Consultant @ aleydasolis / SEO Consultant (Netflix)
The panel kicked off at 7 PM, each speaker introducing themselves and what they work on. I had not planned to write this up, so I did not catch every name in the moment.
From left: Andrew Shotland @ BayAreaSearch / Arun Jay, Senior Product Manager @ LinkedIn / Kyle Blanchette, Data Strategy at Botify / Aleyda Solis, SEO Consultant at aleydasolis / SEO Consultant (Netflix).
I will update names and links as I confirm them. Corrections welcome.
The opening question was the best one: describe your biggest SEO mistake and what it taught you. Every answer was a good story, and each one pulled up a few of my own past failures. The pattern was hard to miss: even the most respected people in this room learned the most from getting it wrong.
Learning about some of the biggest SEO mistakes (and wins) from these search experts at the Bay Area Search Meetup @aleyda
After an hour of war stories, the conversation turned to best practices, and the audience pressed the panel on what actually moves the needle.
One detail stuck with me:
Netflix spends more than $500.000 a year responding to people asking “Why is this show is not on @Netflix?” #seo #solutions #faq #costumer #support
I still do not fully follow the skepticism some SEOs have toward AMP. In my experience, the speed and mobile gains are worth it, and I lean toward implementing it wherever it fits.
I closed out the night with James (left) and headed back down to San Jose.
If you work in or around SEO and you are in the Bay Area, BayAreaSearch is worth your evening. Come to the next one, and if you spot me, say hello or follow along @ValonBadivuku.