Like Micah, I too was at The Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs meetup listening to John Sherrod talk about Search Engine Optimization as part of my “Resolution 2007: Getting out of My Comfort Zone” tour. And also like Micah, in the back of my mind I was afraid that I would come out of meetup needing to take a long, take-a-layer-of-skin-off shower to get rid of all the dirty hackery that is SEO, but instead the meeting was a real eye opener. The most important point I got out of the presentation is that SEO is not as much about getting yourself listed as #1, but more about controlling how you want Google and Google users view your web presence. In a way, SEO is the web application’s equivalent or traditional retail’s mantra of ‘location, location, location’.
The meetup had quite the strong attendance — it’s nice to see that there are a lot of people out there trying to achieve similar goals. I did have the pleasure to meet fellow Railer Micah and spoke with him about his company AisleTen and about Obsidian Portal, their portal for players of Dungeons & Dragons. If you’re into D&D, check it out. I do have a suggestion for their site though (I was originally going to post it to their forums, but I’d thought I’d make Micah work for it 
): try putting the latest campaign post or an excerpt of it on the front page. That content is too good to have to be digging for it.
For those interested in SEO, John has the SEO presentation available on his blog.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Calvin,
I’m glad you didn’t have to come out of meetup needing a scrub down to remove any SEO nastiness. Little did I know 5 years ago that my industry would gain the reputation of our lawyer friends. Believe me, I have been in that room full of black hat SEO spammers and it is very similar to the shadowy crevices of a Mississippi casino. But for those of us who offer real content and value, the good results will follow – without the need for a luffa!