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Day 2 just wrapped, and holy bombshell revelations, Batman! No, seriously, I’m not even being sensationalist here. The some of the info that these lovely folks dropped on us today represents an enormous shift in how we will think about your site content’s role in ranking.

(If you haven’t read about Day 1 yet, click here to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the fun!)

First, though, a HUGE shout out to Jen Lopez, who retweeted yesterday’s post. WHBB’s analytics were awfully pretty today, and I even got called out at lunch. “Hey, weren’t you the one who…” Hah! Thanks, lady, you rock!

And second, a shout out to Rand Fishkin, who really needs no shout out from me at all, but I want to point out that the fact that he loves SEO, and I mean truly and completely loves it, pours out of him like sunshine from the sun. The joy he clearly feels as he bounces around the room, immersed in all of the SEO geekery, is so tangible it could be bottled and sold. That enthusiasm was so incredibly cool to watch. I love SEO as well, but I know I have tons yet to learn. I want to be Rand when I grow up. Well, kinda. You know what I mean.

Without further ado, here are the top insights from today’s sessions.

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First of all, no, I have not met Rand yet, but he is just as adorable in person as he is in all those Whiteboard Friday videos, and watching him run around this giant conference room with a microphone when Todd Friesen had to relinquish his emcee duties temporarily was rather entertaining.

I’ve managed to get two questions in, one in which Todd ran over to me with the mike and the other submitted via Twitter and then read to the presenter by Rand himself. I feel so special! However, I think I’m just one of those people who always needs to ask questions or contribute comments in class. Yeah, I’m that girl. The one who always raises her hand.

Anyway. It’s been a fun first day at summer camp the #mozinar. Here are some of the highlights!

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Continuing with the series on basic SEO questions, one question that we optimizers frequently hear is “What is Black Hat SEO?”

There is no generally accepted definition for black hat SEO. The answers depend on who you are speaking to, something considered fair by one webmaster maybe off-limits to another. Generally, efforts to manipulate Search Engines to gain quick results are considered as Black Hat SEO.

Besides the principles that web companies and marketing personnel apply to their work, guidelines can also vary based on the industry and sometimes the Search Engines too.
Search engine operators, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, have published guidelines about techniques they consider to be Black Hat and in violation of their policies.

There are no shortcuts in SEO. It is a long-term process that requires perseverance and diligence. Black hat techniques may look tempting and easy and may give short-term results but they are detrimental in the long run. They can cause your site to get banned by the SEs which is every webmaster’s worst nightmare..

Here are some common BlackHat SEO techniques to be aware of :

Cloaking a website by displaying one website to visitors and other one to Google’s spiders. The most common way to do this is using the “iframe” redirect code.

Using Hidden Text or “white” text written on a white background to stuff keywords within webpages.

Creating Doorway pages which involves having a website optimized for one set of keywords, then redirecting its traffic to another website once it is indexed.

Using Automated Submission/Link Building Software that submits your site to hundreds of directories that probably have no relevance to your site. This is also known as Link Farming.

Keyword Stuffing or adding a large number of keywords in the meta-tags.

Buying Paid Links indiscriminately to try and build inbound links.

Becky:
Rob Ousbey noticed something fascinating and troubling this week: Google is testing live updating search results. Why does this make me nervous? Because of the implications it would have on long-tail search. Let’s say you’re searching for Chicago Lasik Surgery. By the time you’ve managed to type Chicago Lasik, you’re already looking at relevant SERPs and so you stop typing. This turns Chicago Lasik into the best converting search phrase, and the rankings for Chicago Lasik Surgery would matter much less since they won’t convert as well with fewer people seeing them. This would definitely put a lot more emphasis on shorter, more efficient keyword phrases. But it’s only a test, so I’m not truly worried yet.

On a lighter note, I’ll throw some link love over to the SEOmoz PRO Training Series 2010. I’ll be there, and I’m excited to meet people and soak up all of their search marketing insights! I’m hoping to post at least once while I’m in Seattle, so stay tuned!

John:
This week I wanted to point out an interesting eye tracking study to see how searchers view search results. It measured how the eye fixated on certain elements of a SERP and then discussed the meaning to SEOs. Check out Study: Meta Descriptions Very Important Search Results Click Through Rates ( I know, wierd title).

When Facebook launched its new geosocial check-in service one week ago, I was convinced it was going to blow its stand-alone competitors completely out of the water simply because it lives where the vast majority of social networking addicts already spend large chunks of time. That would make it hugely accessible and convenient – no need to leave Facebook to broadcast your location such as is necessary with Foursquare or Gowalla. Why go out of your way when it was already right there?

As an SEO, I was excited about it. Check-ins provide another avenue of brand exposure for my clients, and Facebook was telling business owners to claim their profiles. We scouted out the process for our clients by claiming our own company profile.  Now, a mere week after Facebook Places was launched, I am ready to predict that it is doomed to fail without some fairly major adjustments. Here’s why.

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If you are a Droid user like many of us here at the SEO team, take the time to put down your new Froyo OS and read our link love. And then comment. And then return to your Droid.

John’s Link:
This week I really was interested in Rand’s I’m Getting More Worried About the Effectiveness of Webspam. This is a topic that is thrown around a lot by our clients who are trying to get the best rankings, but without caring about the consequences.  It’s frustrating to explain to those outside of SEO that Google will come down hard on these web spammers, even though for the time being they are in that #1 organic spot. Google, please  back up your guidelines and the information that you repeatedly feed us, even though you forget to follow through.

Becky’s Link:
What are the implications for SMBS of Google Integrated Local Search Result Tests?
As soon as news of Google’s integrated local search tests hit the blogs, we were asking ourselves what it would all mean for SEO. Mike at Blumenthal’s has a lot of great thoughts on the subject.

Patti’s Link:
Oh, I got a great chuckle out of this one: Foursquare Experiences Record Signups After Launch of Facebook Places. A lot of folks were speculating what may happen to Foursquare with the official launch of Facebook Places. Would Facebook kill Foursquare? Clearly, that is not the case. Another win for Foursquare.

Last week, the news broke that Yahoo! would be serving up Bing-powered search results by the end of this week. Well folks, it’s now official – at least here at Page 1 Solutions. We spotted the identical results this morning in our own organic search results.

Here’s a search for San Francisco LASIK in Bing:
(there are fairly large screenshots behind the “Read More”)

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It’s Friday the 13th! This is definitely not the sort of day in which you pick up pennies that aren’t heads up. Be sure to avoid even touching any mirrors so you can’t be saddled with the bad luck if they’re broken, and forget walking under ladders! Some of us have a soft spot for the black kitties, though, so be sure to let us know if you see any so we can say, “Where? WHERE?” and then scoop them up for some ear scritches. (We found this awesome scaredy cat at ICanHazCheezburger.) Luckily, sharing the Link Love doesn’t qualify as a superstition.

Becky:
Marc Lyne’s post, 9 SEO Realities for Small Businesses, has some great insights to ponder, covering a broad range of SEO topics including Google MayDay effects, footer links, microformats and more. Though it looks like yet another basic SEO list on the surface, it is high on practical, useful information and devoid of junk. It’s sparked some ideas on my end, so thank you Marc!

John:
Eric Enge of Search Engine Watch does a great job in reminding us that the difference between appropriate optimization and overdone optimization is quite thin. While search engines provide guidelines that give us a little insight, every market and every product require different approaches to see which work best. He offers great advice about how competitive research can provide clues into what works and what is pushing the envelope a little too far.