Digital Marketing Keynotes from Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn & Disney #SEJSummit

This week Search Engine Journal hosted an exclusive event limited to 150 digital marketers. The second annual SEJ Summit featured eight industry leaders from companies including Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Disney. Several key themes that emerged from the exclusive day-long event in Santa Monica:

• Think of your users as humans. You’re not an SEO optimizing for a user, but a human optimizing for another human.
• We live in a multiscreen world. You never know where someone will be interacting with your content. #ResponsiveDesign
• Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is gaining momentum and regardless of your industry you need to be ready to implement.

The last point about AMP was highlighted in a Q&A with Googler Maile Ohye. Read on to find out what she had to say about AMP and read more from all the speakers!

Googler Maile Ohye’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Do something cool.
• Get AMP or structured data ready.
• Stay relevant.

Q & A with Maile Ohye

Where is AMP going?

Maile Ohye: I cannot disclose that. I would say if you’re wondering, just be ready in general. Start updating. Whether it’s AMP or structured data, there’s more stuff you can do to better feature it. You will get better ROI with these things. And then, when they say they’ve just rolled it out for entertainment, for example, you’re ready.

As far as markup is concerned, what other tools besides schema do you recommend?

Maile: The best place to start is the schema.org blog. Also, try data highlighter in Google Search Console.

How much importance does Google place on progressive enhancement?

Maile: Try Fetch as Google with the rendering. Anytime you use a new JavaScript framework, you can use this tool to see what we see. The progressive part isn’t about doing it for Google, but for doing it for all levels of users.

Should we stop doing responsive design websites and just do AMP?

Maile: No.

There are two methods to implement HREF lang: by page-level or XML sitemap level. Per developer tools you can use either one. Which one is more successful?

Maile: Yes. In the short term, if you have a lot of languages that you’re trying to map to, use a sitemap. For rel canonical or pagination we cut off at the head so no one can alter anything. But for sites that evolve a lot, their head is closing way sooner than their other elements. But if you do it in the sitemap you don’t have to care about what developers are doing with their code. The sitemap is more foolproof in that way, but in the long term, the sitemap is also harder to debug. Also, always check for errors in Search Console.

WordStream Founder Larry Kim’s 3 Key Takeaways

• It’s a paid social world — we’re just living in it.
• Don’t ever forget social media marketing.
• Find your unicorns (unicorns = 100X better content)

Microsoft’s Kevin Henrikson’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Have skin in the game.
• ROI is everything.
• You need a quota.

Ant Farm President Melissa Palazzo’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Humanize the brand.
• Be about the people.
• Contribute to the world.

Circle Click CEO Anne Ward’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Speed is king. Do the work and reap rewards.
• Don’t build an app just for the sake of it.
• There is no dominant platform. Always consider the myriad screens.

Googler John Brown’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Prevent against ad blocking.
• Focus on the user.
• Write simple, compelling relevant content.

Disney Senior SEO Manager Jeff Preston’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Launch your app in the Australia app store before launching it in the U.S. to see how the app fares among reviewers.
• Optimize your app store description!
• When you update the app, review the keywords and update those that need it!

LinkedIn Product Manager William Sears’s 3 Key Takeaways

• Look at your site performance through multiple lenses.
• Build a strong network of people by reading blogs, going to conferences, getting out and thinking differently.
• Share your knowledge at conferences — we all have something to share.

Tweets about #SEJSummit from:BruceClayInc

Want to attend an SEJ Summit? SEJ Summit comes to Chicago on June 23 and New York City on Nov. 2! Find out more.

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.