All systems were a go during this year’s Retail Marketing Expo, held on August 7th, 2012. As we mentioned in earlier news our NetSearch Direct President & CEO presented at the morning power session during this year’s event. As 80 audience members looked on, Mike started his presentation off with a small activity aimed at getting business owners to really think about how much they know about their business’s website and SEO in general. Mike asked the audience to stand up and then asked them to sit down according to a series of questions. The majority of people changed into a seated position when Mike said “Sit down if you have heard of the new Penguin, Farmer, or Panda updates.” In the end of this activity there was only one lone audience member who claimed that he was completely satisfied with his knowledge of SEO and the results he was seeing from his website.
Mike did not do this to make the audience feel inadequate, but instead he did this to shed light on the fact the SEO is extremely multi-faceted and in order to take the first steps into optimizing your website you must first have the knowledge to make it happen and be asking the right questions. Throughout the remainder of the presentation Mike took the audience through SEO 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, as well as explained the do’s and don’ts of SEO, focusing heavily on avoiding any black hat techniques. In the end all attendees received a free copy of Mike’s book SEO 3.0, The New Rules of Search Engine Optimization. We all figured that people would take their books home, read them, and possibly get in contact with us for questions or comments, but something much more exciting happened.
After the books were distributed, a crowd of impressed attendees waited patiently at our booth for Mike to autograph their books. Some NetSearch Direct staff joked that it was like having a real life celebrity in our midst, but in all seriousness the happenings at the 2012 RMA Expo were extremely affirming and proved to us that being the experts definitely has its perks! We can’t wait for see what next year’s RMA Expo will hold. In the meantime be sure to like the Retail Merchants Association’s Facebook page in order to be updated with pictures from the event as well as news and future event dates.