Best of Pubcon 2012

Pubcon was great! Here’s the best from the conference:

Best lines

Jerry West: SEO will never be dead until Matt Cutts says the new algorithm is paid search. [On the one year anniversary of Leo Laporte’s PubCon keynote prediction that SEO would likely be dead in six months]

Matt Cutts: Think of the link disavowal tool as like a chainsaw. Respect the tool.

Sanjay Sabnani: Some of you already noticed the slides have nothing to do with what I’m saying. For the rest of you, you can look at me now.

Ruth Burr:

• We make big Excel spreadsheets where we track people. Not in a creepy stalker way, in a sweet we love our friends way.
• Some people are not going to link to you no matter how hard you try. It’s OK, you’re still a beautiful flower
• Content is King, but it’s not like Field of Dreams. It’s not if you build it they will come.

Best tips

Mona Elesseily: Have the people on your page look at your call to action, NOT right at the viewer.

Marty Weintraub:

• When you like a brand, your friends can see that Page Like ad forever.
• Post with the picture optimized for Facebook. You can change the pic on your post later.

Jim Boykin: If you’re not going to write great content, don’t write at all.

Ruth Burr:

• Your reports to your clients should be simple. Tell them what you did, and exactly what results that accomplished.
• Google+ in 15 minute increments, once or twice a day. Five minutes each for Reply / Engage, Share / RT, Post Your Own Stuff.

Dennis Yu: Facebook doesn’t do a good job estimating CTR, so rather than bid on a CPC basis, use a super high CPM and you will get better results at cheaper rates.

Shakil Khan:

• The worst thing someone can say to you is “no”. Once you can handle that “no”, life becomes so much easier. Most people go through life not wanting to get out of their comfort zone.
• When people tell me they have a 3% conversion rate, I tell them to figure out what the other 97% are doing.

David Klein: Every link is a bought link. People link because they get something from you. Usually they link only if linking to you will make them look cool or helpful.

Duane Forrester: Attach a dollar figure to everything you measure. Everything.

Tim Ash: Number one driver or conversion is matching the visitor’s intent.

Bill Hartzer: You have a 2 hour window to get fresh content shared.

Sanjay Sabnani: Whatever the higher purpose of your community is: have one.

Best warnings

Alan Bleiweiss: Avoid fake reviews – there is a $500k fine & permanent listening on .gov site for infraction.

Best interactions

Ryan Jones

How many of you were hit by Penguin? (Lots of hands)

How many have already recovered by using the Disavow Links tool? (laughter)

Best stats

Eric Enge: When you have a picture next to your article on SERPs, the click-through-rate goes up by 30%.

David Mink: Images are shared ten times more than video.

Ryan Jones: Every month 750 million people Google “How do you Google”

Matt Siltala: StumbleUpon traffic avg “time on site” is about 10 seconds, Pinterest traffic = avg time on page of 10 minutes

Robert Cialdini:

• Reciprocity: When waiters put a mint with the bill, tips went up 3%. 2 mints: 14%.
• Liking: Deadlocked negotiations dropped from 30% to 6% when participants were first asked to share a little personal info about themselves.
• Commitment and consistency: Reduced no shows at restaurant from 32% to 10% by changing from request “please call if you have to change or cancel” to question “will you please call if you have to change or cancel?” Users made commitment, then followed through.
• Loss aversion: Insulation company got 150% better results from “this will will stop you from losing $1 a day” than from “this will make you $1 a day.”
• New and improved: Calling something New attracts the 3% of the population that is early adopters, but scares too many others. New and improved works for everybody.

Best Tweets

Ben Cook (@Skitzzo): Crowd goes wild when @mattcutts announces a link disavowal tool. Related news: SEOs about to screw themselves w/link disavow tool.

Best presentation titles

Marty Weintraub: Social PR: Go badass or go home.

Best announcements

Brett Tabke: Sold WebmasterWorld.com to Jim Boykin

Matt Cutts: Launched “New and Improved” disavow links tool. It’s really a new tool, but Robert Cialdini’s keynote convinced him that he should announce it as New and Improved.

Dixon Jones: Majestic SEO index now updating hourly.

Hat tips

Thanks for your help compiling this list through your Tweets and posts:

Dana Lookadoo, Ben Cook, Ash Buckles, Lyena Solomon, Alan K’necht, Jabez Lebret, David Carrillo, Lisa Barone, Ryan Fontana, Michael King, and Manny Rivas.

See the best moments from other great search conferences.