Day 2 of SMX Advanced Seattle was a definite improvement on Day 1. With more sessions in an open format, devoted entirely to questions or discussions, there was a lot more that actually lived up to the advanced name.

The session entitled Better Ways allowed attendees to ask some of the most respected names in the search sector questions on how to do better. Learning that came out of it included how to convince major brand to get involved with social media (use brand evangelists), how to get better keyword data (try the new Microsoft tool), how to convince writers & designers to take SEO into account (make them realise that people read differently online & make them think of search engines as another browser) and how to get qualified links from social media (make sure the content is on topic).

The final session was entitled Give It Up and involved some (more) of the biggest names in SEO ‘giving up’ secrets that enable them to do better. But by attending I agreed not to blog what was said. All I will say is that several of the speakers didn’t really give anything up, some of the tips were very interesting, and that Matt Cutts will do anything to stay in with the SEO community (only joking Matt!)

It probably won’t surprise you after what I wrote yesterday to learn that the most valuable part of the day was probably the breaks in between sessions, when it was possible to mingle & network. And even more valuable (and fun) was the great party which SEOmoz threw. It involved free drinks & bowling. It was a lot of fun. And whilst beer & bowling probably aren’t worth flying to Seattle for, the connections that come with them almost certainly were.

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