After finishing up with the SEO workshops I flew to New Delhi on Sunday night. I’ve been staying with a friend and it’s been an awesome couple of days here. I’ve got to experience so many new things and I’m just so thankful for the opportunity I had to visit this great country.

On Monday I went to the Qutub Minar complex (seen in this first picture) and also Humayun’s tomb. What an experience that was! Aside from the incredible architecture and cultural history, another aspect of my visit made it extra special. There were hundreds of visitors there and many of them were school kids visiting the complex on a field trip. As I was walking around snapping photos on my iPhone and reading the various historical excerpts at each structure, I started getting approached by the other visitors there. The first group came up to me and said, “One photo, please?”. I assumed they wanted me to take a picture of them, so I said sure thing, hand me your camera. To my surprise, they actually wanted a photo with me IN it with them! I was so embarrassed at first, but agreed out of politeness. I was slightly bewildered by the experience, but didn’t think much of it. However, another 20-30 groups asked me to be in a photo with them! I felt a little embarrassed every time, but all-in-all I admit it was flattering (a lot of them really liked my tattoos too haha). Needless to say, my visit to the Qutub Minar complex was quite memorable.

Yesterday, my new friend Pritha and I journeyed on the Metro to Old Delhi. The Metro was an adventure in itself, but I only got (nearly) pick-pocketed one time! Someone reached for my iPhone but luckily I already had my hand there and batted them away. Once we arrived in Old Delhi we hopped on a rickshaw en route to The Red Fort (as seen in this second picture). The complex was quite remarkable and the vast expanse of the place was truly staggering. I learned that in 1911 the ceremony to shift power in India from Calcutta to New Delhi was held at The Red Fort under the rule of King George V. I can’t even recall the many adventurous encounters we experienced in Old Delhi, but let’s just say it was slightly refreshing to finally escape the crowd and sit down to a nice lunch at Kahn Market.

This country is truly amazing in so many ways. It’s a great place to grow your business (SEO for me specifically) and a wonderful place to visit and soak up new culture. I truly hope to come back someday! Now, I need to start gearing up for my 15-hour flight back to the US.

As you can see from the smiles in this picture, everyone had a great time. This was a great learning experience for both myself and the new team. It’s amazing how quickly they were able to hear all this new information and start successfully applying it. We first focused on learning how search engines algorithms work and why optimizing our websites for those algorithms is important. I talked to them about the many elements of both on-site and off-site optimization, and how these two pieces work together to achieve first-page rankings in Google for a given search query. Once they had an understanding of the process we began looking at specific disciplines like content creation and link acquisition. The team did a great job of utilizing the various brainstorming techniques I shared with them and learned how something as simple as a bubble chart can generate literally thousands of ideas for creating quality content. Then we looked how to leverage these pieces of content to acquire links that point back to our various web properties.

Even though there is still a lot to learn, I’m highly encouraged by their ability to grasp and implement new concepts and tactics. This is truly the most important part of becoming a “good” SEO. The game is always changing and the ability to quickly adapt to those changes is what makes a successful optimizer.

As for me, I was able to learn a lot too. Aside from exploring a fascinating new culture and a bewildering (thanks Hari) new culinary palate of flavors, I gained invaluable experience in sharing my passion for SEO and online marketing. India is truly a remarkable country and I have a feeling I will be coming back.

I leave for Delhi tomorrow, looking forward to spending a couple days there before it’s back to the US to continue my daily hustle in the world of online marketing.

In this picture you can see me standing with Hari (my point-man here in India) outside the KGISL CEO’s guest home where I’ve been treated to some of the most fantastic lunches ever! One of the dishes I have really enjoyed is the uttapam which is sometimes characterized as an Indian pizza. Basically, it’s a dosa-like dish made by cooking ingredients in a batter. Unlike a dosa, which is crisp and crepe-like, uttapam is a thick pancake, with toppings cooked right into the batter (thanks Wikipedia).

It’s just after midnight here so I’m going to wrap up some client work, finish my Jaipur Murgh Mughalai and get some much needed shut-eye. Looking forward to another day of training my new team on SEO strategies!

As you can see in the picture to the left, I was greeted with a smile as I stepped off the plane from New Delhi to Coimbatore. That charming fella’s name is Eashwar and he’s my driver for the week. I’m staying at Le Meridien Coimbatore. But…

The majority of the action is taking place at KGISL where I’m speaking about content creation and link acquisition as it relates to search engine optimization. Today went quite swimmingly as I spoke to the team about how search engines work, what an algorithm is, why search optimization is important and how their work will fit into the SEO puzzle as a whole.

One thing I will add before signing off – the coffee down here in the southern part of India is AMAZING! Also, today I was blessed to experience a 7-course Indian lunch in the CEO’s house on KG’s campus – what a treat!

The thing is that all SEO‘s know that Title Tags are important for search rankings, but few organic search buffs actually grasp the function (or role) that Title Tags play in the SEO game. So, let me provide an illustration:

Imagine that your website’s search engine optimization campaign is a giant ship. From far away (or to the inexperienced eye) it just look like a big, cool boat. But to you and me, the vast amount of moving parts that make our “boats float” (haha) are visible all the time. In other words, a ship can’t be a ship without the hull, the helm, the engine, the rudder, etc. Similarly, an SEO campaign will not work without all the pieces in place, functioning together.

You still with me? Ok, so on this SEO ship you now have in your head I want you to picture yourself at helm (as pictured to the left). You’re calling the shots. And when you turn that helm to the left or right, what happens? The rudder attached to that helm responds, causing the ship to go left or right. That’s the same function as your Title Tags! You see? The titles you place on your web pages are the rudder for directing search bots in a way. Because you’re telling them, here’s the primary keyword I want this web page to rank for. And when your titles depict a clear message for the bots to read, you will get rewarded (because they don’t have to take extra time guessing what you’re optimizing for).

And just to point out, if you’re still thinking about what powers our SEO ship…I would have to say that link building is the engine that makes our organic search campaigns actually go.

Ok I know this was a quick post, but I just wanted to point out that you need to be wary of “over-optimizing” your titles (and meta descriptions). One thing I like to do is think about traditional marketing. I try to make my titles (and meta descriptions) read like an advertisement for my web page, being sure to include the primary keyword I’m optimizing for with the ad copy.

So, the question is: are directory submissions as useless as tits on a bull?

The short-version of what I took away from this session is this: a paid directory submission is NOT seen as a paid link in the “eyes of Google” because you are paying for someone to review the quality of your website, and then approve or deny your link based on the level quality determined by the reviewer.

Now, this is an excellent point and one to be considered as Google is working harder everyday to start penalizing websites that are “renting” links.

Here’s something I’d like to add about directory submissions. You see, a lot of SEO’s and link builders believe that directory submission is a thing of the past or, simply, ineffective. However, I believe that directory submission gives your link portfolio an incredible amount of context. In other words, being able to have categories, sub-categories, anchor texts and descriptions all related to your niche…well what more can you ask for?

NOTE: Do not live and die by directory submissions. They should be an integral part of an overall link popularity campaign.

That’s all for now, check out Twitter’s new attempt at a directory.