Here’s a preview of the pictures from the Distilled SEOmoz Link Building Seminar in London yesterday. Out of order as I’m just off to catch my plane Now in order and with better captions. Thanks for a wonderful seminar, Will, Duncan, Lynsey and everyone.
Here are the photos with captions. I’ve written a separate more reflective post on link building and the role of SEO in a site’s long term success, inspired by the day.
Linkbuilding lanyards. Come early to avoid the rush.
Distilled SEOmoz linkbuilding crowd. A huge turnout again afte Pro SEO.
Many returning faces from Pro SEO.
This way free links. The air crackles with energy before the event.
Wil Reynolds tells a cautionary fairy tale about big media links.
I.e. all those links you see on the board behind them, he got them
for a client in the course of two months but the client’s rankings
did not rise next to black hat competition in that particular industry.
Playing by the book and going after high profile links will not
win the SEO race. I found this particularly useful as for one of
our own clients, these kinds of media links are something
that we’ve been actively seeking like a holy grail to finally
totally dominate his niche. There must be another path
to Xanadu. We will seek and find it.
Wil Reynolds suggests widgets are better than big media links.
The day of widgets is not done. Just do better widgets.
Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive. Always smiling,
Wil easily won the crowd to his side.
Wil Reynolds answering SEO questions
Radiant Jane Copland of Ayima.
Rand Fishkin first question breaks the ice.
Lady SEO Jane Copland wows a crowded cigar filled room again.
In fact, more and more women are entering the SEO ranks.
Rand Fishkin questions for blackhats
Russ Jones of Virante.
Russ Jones: how to set your linkbait snares. Ross was interested in
links not content. Any trick to get a link will do. A strong balance
to Rand Fishkin’s upcoming impassioned defence of white hat.
Distilled co-founder Duncan Morris did MC duties for the day.
Tom Critchlow talking about the SEOmoz project. Target:
SEO tools which currently belongs to Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.
“Just links with anchor text won’t do it. We’ve got 15,000
of them. We need to improve the focus of the site.”
The solution involved 301ing now secondary pages of the
SEOmoz site from the weblog to the target page.
I would hesitate to do this as it means taking bricks out of the content
foundation to add an extra story. You make your site more fragile and
more vulnerable to a Google penalty by going so top-heavy. Ah, well the
Russian say, he who risks drinks champagne. Or nothing at all.
Tom Critchlow about to open up a Distilled office in NYC.
Tom Critchlow: reliable new techniques like crowdsourcing linkbait.
Tom Critchlow SEO Joel Test. Adapted from the famous Joel Test
for developers. For site owners, not SEO’s.
Questions and more questions
Tom Critchlow answers.
Paddy Moogan, one of Distilled London’s top SEO consultants.
Paddy Moogan’s sessions covered SEO planning in depth.
Paddy Moogan answers questions.
Designer Leonie Wharton‘s amazing seminar graphics during the break
where the SEOs do their best to resemble her spider.
Rand Fishkin helps out other SEO’s just before going onstage.
Rand Fishkin future of linkbuilding
Rand Fishkin putting blackhats out of business
Rand Fishkin blackhats will go bankrupt
Rand Fishkin future Google quality mapping
More women link building this year than every before:
the arrival of more women in the profession suggests that SEO
has gradually gone legit. SEO is now a career on the map and not just
a dark and arcane art practiced by strange wizards
Rand Fishkin’s Mr Smartypants slide. After raining on every
dark tactic for fifteen uninterrupted minutes, Rand realises he
must make now a positive case for ethical SEO.
Rand Fishkin offers a link equity map. Everything you need to know
for great success online is in this small photo. Click to blow
it up and read it, even if you didn’t attend London Linkbuilding 2011.
Who better than Martin MacDonald to open up the dark side of link building
Martin MacDonald Seatwave is passionate about his SEO.
Martin MacDonald coaches during a break.
Will Critchlow with Warren Buffet: setting the bar high for SEO
Will Critchlow Distilled Founder scaling up.
Mark Mitchell OMD CEO in quiet moment of remembrance
of fallen colleagues.
Jane Copland delivers answers.
Tom Critchlow contributing to Wikipedia in a positive way.
I had my hand up too. And about three other people.
Rand Fishkin bringing light
Rand Fishkin shoe shot: I’m very puzzled by this shot but it
was very important to Rand Fishkin who made a special request
for only one shot on 18 March: this one. If anyone else understands
this shot better than I do, please post in the comments.
linkbuilding London questions from floor
reading the linkbuilding book
Distilled lead designer Leonie Wharton and events coordintator Lynsey Little
bowling. The organisational masterminds behind the day’s events
and the evening’s festivities both beautiful in red.
Distilled founder Will Critchlow bowling: a perfect strike or nearly.
Will can bowl. Even in a suit.
Tom Critchlow with Leonie Wharton. Practicing the Hugh Grant look
for his upcoming successful stint as an Englishman in New York.
Distilled co-founder Duncan Morris with Lynsey Little
relaxing after a tough day at the conference.
Martin MacDonald still answering SEO questions at night
OMD’s Mark Mitchell and Distilled’s Will Critchlow in a reflective moment.
Rand Fishkin does drink beer.
License:
Copyright to these pictures belong to Distilled and Foliovision. The photographs are freely licensed for use in connection with reviews or information about Distilled SEO events with attribution to Foliovision and Distilled. For other use don’t hesitate to contact me.
Alec Kinnear
Alec has been helping businesses succeed online since 2000. Alec is an SEM expert with a background in advertising, as a former Head of Television for Grey Moscow and Senior Television Producer for Bates, Saatchi and Saatchi Russia.
Great pics from a great day! My right arm is even famous now :-)
Also of special note the guy picking his nose (sorry had to point it out ;) in ‘linkbuilding London questions from floor’ and Duncan Morris nodding off…..in ‘Rand Fishkin questions for blackhats’.
Also, Will Reynolds you are way too cool!
….hmm actually could be just a Duncan look alike!
Hi Caroline,
No that’s Duncan. But he’s wide awake in that shot. You had me worried I’d put up the wrong photo. Looks like the linkbuilding questions from the floor will need to be replaced. Sorry about that. Had to do the first round on my MacBook Air 11″ in London. Out of focus were not distinguishable.
BTW, the photos are still out of order (i.e. they are in alphabetic and not chronological order for the moment). Someone should be coming by shortly to put them all in order at last.
What an amazing day and you have done a fantastic job with the pics Alec!
I am now famous with 1/2 of my face showing in one of the shots with Martin MacDonald. :-)
Hi, Thanks for publishing the photos of this fantastic seminar! Just a question: Would it be okay to post a copy of one or two in my personal blog (of course with a link to this page)?
Hi Felix,
Glad you like the photos. Please go ahead and use these photos for your article with attribution. They are in fact press photos of the event.
Let us know where your article is and I’ll add it to my list of Distilled Link Building Seminar mentions.
The classic shoe shot! I don’t quite get this either…but it normally appears in Facebook albums after a girl’s night out….Rand :s
…….at least it wasn’t the ‘classic mooning shot’ after a boys night out….