Kudos to the Boston-Cambridge SEO meetup organizers for not just another great presentation, but a riveting speaker.
Ryan Abood took what he knew from his parents’ floral business in Manchester NH and created a multimillion dollar David among the Goliaths of the gift-basket realm: Harry and David, Wine Country.
On Monday he revealed how and how GourmetGiftBaskets.com got burnt by Google for some unsavory tactics: paid-for links.
His strategy now — besides delivering the best quality goodies in the baskets, with lowest-cost shipping — create events and find strategies that reach beyond SEO.
And, so we will soon witness the results of his (just) month long quest to obtain the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest cupcake, to be baked and unveiled in Detroit in just a couple weeks.
Why? Not just to create an “international sensation, you can’t can’t buy that publicity,” but also because “I want to be the guy who holds the world records for the most world records,” Ryan said, rousing quite a response from the normally serene crowd of optimizers, link-builders, eMetrics-centric folk.
Aside from his quips, though, Ryan had some serious insights to take home:
- “Conversion has everything to do with trust”
- “Building credibility, conversion has to do with that and only that”
- “Link-building has to have consumer interest in mind”
- and “Vanilla rises better, travels better.”
Update Oct. 2010
Once again, the mastermind behind GourmetGiftBaskets.com has leveraged media coverage with recent coverage in Inc. Magazine: How Google Cost Me $4 Million.
For how you can leverage PR and/or SEO for your business, check out today’s post: How to optimize press releases for links and coverage
