I have recently been asked about what it is like to run my own meetup group, Search London.  SEOGadget are sponsoring my next event on Tuesday and I wrote a post on their blog about “Never Underestimate the Value of Networking”   I have been the organiser of Search London for just over 2 years and in that time the number of attendees has grown from 200 to over 1100.  It has been a fantastic 2 years and 2013 will see Search London continue to grow. I have really enjoyed being the organiser of this meetup group and I encourage anyone with a passion in a particular field to set up and run one too.  Here are some of my tips on how to run your own meetup group:

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2013 was going to be a great year for the website SEO Jo Blogs.  It turns 4 years old next month. However, last Thursday I found out both this site and my travel site (using wordpress themes) had been hacked into due to the themes I was using.  I will write a blog post about how I found this out later, I just wanted to let everyone know that this current theme is only temporary. I really liked the old theme wpzoom- but unfortunately it was hacked into.  If anyone can recommend a great theme they have used before, let me know.

At the next Search London meetup we are lucky to have Pierre Far from Google.  Pierre is a webmaster trends analyst,  speaking about Google’s Recommendations for Smartphone Websites.

The event will take place on:

• Date: Tuesday January 22nd
• Time: From 7:00pm
• Location: 19/20 Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1V 0DR

Pierre attends many search conferences and I first met him at SMX London in May last year.  He follows industry trends in SEO and web development in order to help different Google teams build better tools for webmasters and improve search quality.  He will be providing valuable insight to the first Search London event of 2013.

Pierre also writes for the Webmaster Central Blog and participates in Google and external forums, helping site owners troubleshoot search-related problems and get the most out of Google Webmaster Tools.  Prior to joining Google, Pierre held several roles in the technology sector, including community and product management, innovation consulting, and online marketing. He has a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics from the University of Cambridge.

2013 will see a few positive changes to Search London.  Instead of going onto meetup.com as before, please register and “buy” your ticket through the Search London event brite page.  All future events will need to be registered via eventbrite and not through meetup.com.

 

2012 was an exciting year and I was fortunate to be able to attend many conferences, including SMX, Link Love and Search Love.  However, attending conferences can be very expensive.  There is the cost of the ticket, plus the hotel and sometimes even the flight.  There are however, many events and meetups that provide audiences with valuable insight and case studies and one of the best parts, is that they are free (or cost just £5.00). Here are just some of them taking place in Q1 this year.

January

I thought January was supposed to be a quiet time of year, but there are many meetup groups holding their events this month, I have only noted down 4 taking place in London:

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Search London – SEO & PPC In House Or Agency – Sharon Harris

Sharon Harris, Head of Search at IG Group will be discussing the benefits of taking SEO & PPC In House. IG Group is a FTSE 250 leader servicing over 130,000 clients across 130 countries. The sheer size and scale of IG Group proved a challenging yet rewarding online platform for search integration.

IG Group encompasses IG Markets, IG Index and Nadex. IG Markets CFDs offer traders the ability to take a directional position on market movement. IG Index acts as a gateway into spread betting across a range of markets including the fast paced world of forex spreads. Nadex is a fully regulated US Exchange.

These markets offer complex derivative products yet understanding remains at the heart of IG Group. Integrating search enabled IG Group to tap into the users desire to learn at the point of inception, targeting both the newbie and professional trader. Increased online exposure across multiple keywords significantly enhanced visibility and conversion rates on a global scale.

Financial markets are fast and dynamic – Sharon Harris has fine tuned global SEO & PPC to react accordingly.

The event “SEO & PPC In House Or Agency” will take place:

When: Wednesday, October 26th, 7:00pm

Where: Theodore Bullfrog, 26 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HL

RSVP to Search London to guarantee your place