SEO.   It’s an art, not a science.   Search engines like Google and Yahoo are looking for specific keywords and that’s who you’re trying to please.  As community managers oftentimes this job lies on us.  We had 418 tweets and 78 participants, which to me, means that a lot of people were listening in for the advice.

We also had a special guest host this week because Kelly was out of town.   We were fortunate to have the great @BlaiseGV step in and do a wonderful job keeping the community managers in line and the conversation strong.   Thanks, Blaise!

Bonus: syracusecs: Choosing the Right SEO Tools http://bit.ly/c7fdgL

Also make sure to follow the @CmgrChat Twitter Account and join the Linked In group as well (Link on the right side of the screen)!

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Q1: Who handles the SEO at your company? What aspects do you focus on as the Cmgr?

AskTim: Our web manager handles SEO for our web site.

blaisegv: Used to have dedicated SEO consultant in last job , but would work closely with him as Community great source of SEO

brightmatrix: Web team manages SEO, but not intensely. We rely on good content writing, keywords, & sound coding to help with search ranking

muruganpandian: Perhaps we should all have SEO in our minds when we create and manage content.

kaleighsimmons: Pre-blog, we outsourced it to another co., but now with a blog, we need to do more in-house, as we write.

tmonhollon: Content is our big SEO focus. It’s an evolving thing as we define internal and external roles

WriterChanelle: Kinda difficult to get it exactly right the first time. I always monitor the keywords I’ve optimized for better oppty

syracusecs: #SEO is tricky and is ever evolving. You need to be checking it regularly and altering what you do. It’s never a 1 time thing

ASQ_Trish: Our web/marketing team handle all SEO. As the cm I don’t get the opp

cusecomm: #SEO is a full time job it feels like!

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Q2: How important is SEO to your current strategy? How do you balance engagement with SEO?

SunnyinSyracuse: I was always looking at keywords to up our SEO on all of our online profiles & finding new comm. members. SEO & CMGR go together.

muruganpandian: I look at SEO as the invitation card for users to start the engagement process.

_ANSPAUGH_: I’m in the digital strategy dept at my company, so I’d say it’s very important! All content usually has specific KPIs in mind.

Sybil_B: Very important. If you’re not using the “right” keywords, you can’t find those relevant communities you want to reach

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Q3: What have you done to help improve your SEO? What social tools or community platforms do you use?

WriterChanelle: I’ve started teaching myself and participate in chats with knowledgeable folk in #seochat

JPedde: My first order of business is to attack all the Title Bars. Make sure they all say key words. Then put in descriptions

blaisegv: For me, i’ve had great success with forum software as a regular mass generator of highly focussed and SEO-friendsly content.

syracusecs: Spend time researching where people are coming from, what they are searching for and how I can put that into the site.

kaleighsimmons: I did a keyword density search on seobook.com

syracusecs: Tools: Google Analytics/Trends/Webmaster/Keyword Search and Raven SEO Tools. A few smaller ones too

WriterChanelle: More details on WebCEO http://www.webceo.com/how-it-works.htm

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Q4: Where can you go to learn more about SEO? Any good resources to recommend?

evanhamilton: SEOmoz, SEOmoz, SEOmoz. They are fantastic. SearchEngineLand is certainly useful too.

syracusecs: Blogs. Everything is constantly changing, books are old news by the time they are printed.

tmonhollon: @Copyblogger has great resources. Also enjoy SEO Copywriting, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and of course SEOmoz

muruganpandian: 15 Minute SEO List – Learn how to SEO http://t.co/ztQmQnt

greghollings: I’ve heard the ‘Art of SEO’ by O’Reilly is meant to be good but haven’t read it. Anyone read it?

tmonhollon: Some good SEO courses at http://inboundmarketing.com/university

tmonhollon: I think a good strategy covers both paid and organic, so I think PPC and SEO complement each other.

WriterChanelle: Matt Cutts is a must read. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

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Thanks to all who participated! If you would like to see the entire transcript, please click here.Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with either Jenn or Kelly!