SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Panel. Details TBD.

AI and large language models dominate the conversation, and many are eager to claim that SEO is dead. Some even claim you no longer need a crawlable website. However, the truth is that across industry after industry, the sites that are winning and will continue to win are built on a strong foundation of Technical SEO.This session cuts through the hype and focuses on what actually matters in your website's code. You will learn which technical elements deserve your attention in 2026, where you can confidently reduce your effort, and which tools can help you uncover opportunities you may be missing.

Key Takeaways: Technical priorities in 2026 • What not to focus your limited resources on • Tools to use that you might not have in your toolbox

AI and large language models dominate the conversation, and many are eager to claim that SEO is dead. Some even claim you no longer need a crawlable website. However, the truth is that across industry after industry, the sites that are winning and will continue to win are built on a strong foundation of Technical SEO.This session cuts through the hype and focuses on what actually matters in your website's code. You will learn which technical elements deserve your attention in 2026, where you can confidently reduce your effort, and which tools can help you uncover opportunities you may be missing.

Takeaways:Technical priorities in 2026 • What not to focus your limited resources on • Tools to use that you might not have in your toolbox

Website migrations can be complex and riddled with challenges, but data-driven decision-making can help avoid costly mistakes. This session will focus on overcoming site migration roadblocks using all available data points, including competitor insights. Whether working in a small business or a large corporation, attendees will learn how to use data as the foundation of their marketing strategy to drive better results. The discussion will cover real-world solutions for replatforming and migration challenges, ensuring that every decision - from content strategy to technical execution - is informed by analytics rather than guesswork.

The presentation will walk through the tools and workflows used in agency environments to streamline large-scale migrations, including practical applications of Screaming Frog, AI, and Python. Attendees will see step-by-step examples of how AI can simplify migration tasks, from keyword research and trend analysis to competitive benchmarking and ideation. Even those unfamiliar with programming will gain a clear understanding of how automation and AI-driven insights can make the migration process more efficient. By the end of the session, participants will have the knowledge and resources to execute smoother website migrations and avoid common pitfalls before they disrupt their projects.

So you have budget for a writer, a boss that wants you to write content and a subscription for ChatGPT - now what? What are you going to write about to attract new customers or should you be spending your time improving content that is already on the site? You aren't alone, as so many people create the wrong content or are unsure what or when to update it. From keyword to topic to user intent to analyzing the search engine result page - I plan to walk you through this exact process of understanding what is best for your situation.

Takeaways: Identify keywords and topics that are of interest to your audience • How to read the SERP and find those hidden opportunities • Identify high-potential older content for updates • Tools and methods to help you scale your content creation

So you have a budget for a writer, a boss that wants you to write content, and a subscription for ChatGPT - now what? What are you going to write about to attract new customers, or should you be spending your time improving content that is already on the site? You aren't alone, as so many people create the wrong content or are unsure what or when to update it. From keyword to topic to user intent to analyzing the search engine result page, I plan to walk you through this exact process of understanding what is best for your situation.

Key Takeaways: How to read the SERP and find those hidden opportunities • Identify high-potential older content for updates • Tools and methods to help you scale your content creation

Breathe new life into your existing content using AI and LLMs. In this innovative session, we'll explore how to leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI to repurpose and revitalize your existing content library.

Learn practical strategies to: Identify high-potential older content for AI-assisted updates • Use LLMs to expand, rewrite, and modernize outdated articles • Create multiple content formats from a single piece (e.g., blog post to video script, infographic to podcast) • Enhance SEO performance of existing content through AI-driven optimization • Develop a sustainable content recycling strategy that saves time and resources

Discover how to maximize your content investment and keep your website fresh and relevant in the age of AI. Perfect for content marketers, SEO professionals, and digital strategists looking to work smarter, not harder.

This was a conference that I personally organized from start to finish. Due to a number of reasons including simply having to much on my plate the conference did not happen. It had been a 8 session/panel/keynote single day event that was to touch on AI, Hiring, SEO, Data and more with more than 15 great speakers. The idea and concept for a quick single or half day conference might be revived in the future or in some new form - we shall see.

The panel of SEO experts will share about the continuously changing landscape of SEO, from long-term strategies to best practices for GA4. Topics include: Tools and tips for monitoring and analyzing the SERPs • How to shift focus from traditional ranking metrics to a broader perspective of online visibility • Tactics for developing an SEO-first content strategy • The value of SEO in marketing (corporate and small business investments)

Every day we are documenting and writing up JIRA tickets, talking with developers or clients, sending emails, submitting bugs, creating SEO recommendations, and much more. So, what do business owners, clients, product teams and dev teams care about? Dave walks through his years of working in the agency, in-house and consulting spaces to help you get the most out of your time spent digging and doing various explainers and writeups.

Google and Bing in recent years have rolled out some great free tools to help with SEO and digital marketing. Sit in on this session to learn how tools like Search Console, Cerity, Webmaster and more can help drive more traffic, increase site speed, and improve your website and content overall. Dave will also dig into the tools he uses to extract the data and how to use these tools for SEO, content marketing and paid search.

Actionable tactics you can apply after this session: Use new and improved tools that will elevate your SEO, content and analytics strategy • Apply tactics to more effectively export and leverage data • Implement strategies as soon as you're back in the office to improve the data in your SEO and content marketing efforts

Every day we are documenting and writing up JIRA tickets, talking with developers or clients, sending emails, submitting bugs, creating SEO recommendations, and much more. So, what do business owners, clients, product teams and dev teams care about? Dave walks through his years of working in the agency, in-house and consulting spaces to help you get the most out of your time spent digging and doing various explainers and writeups.

Every day we are documenting and writing up JIRA tickets, talking with developers or clients, sending emails, submitting bugs, creating SEO recommendations, and much more. So, what do business owners, clients, product teams and dev teams care about? Dave walks through his years of working in the agency, in-house and consulting spaces to help you get the most out of your time spent digging and doing various explainers and writeups.

Learn the latest SEO best practices from SEO thought leaders. Our panelists will share their personal experiences and expert opinions on best practices, trends, and the future of the rapidly shifting SEO landscape. Panel also includes Annie Scranton, Ryan Brock and Ms. Sherry Bonelli.

This session will walk you through some things you can do no matter your target audience along with some tips for each of those that have some specific targeting.

Key Takeaways: What to do (and not) for when your Ecommerce site is targeting a certain type of GEO • Find out what is and isn't working when it comes to optimizing Ecommerce sites

Google and Bing in recent years have rolled out some great free tools to help with SEO and digital marketing as a whole. Sit in and learn how tools like Search Console, Cerity, Webmaster and more can help drive more traffic to your site, speed up your site and improve your site and content overall. Dave will also dig into the tools he uses to extract the data and how he uses these tools for SEO, Content Marketing and Paid Search.

Google and Bing in recent years have rolled out some great free tools to help with SEO and digital marketing as a whole. Sit in and learn how tools like Search Console, Cerity, Webmaster and more can help drive more traffic to your site, speed up your site and improve your site and content overall. Dave will also dig into the tools he uses to extract the data and how he uses these tools for SEO, Content Marketing and Paid Search.

A session all about audio and visual with getting started with Podcasting and Video creation. Talking > Writing or at least it is that way for some of us. Not all of us are great and fast writers but we want/need to create content right? This session will walk down getting you started with audio (podcasting) and video (video or live streaming) so you can expand your content creation and go beyond just writing articles week after week.

A session all about audio and visual with getting started with Podcasting and Video creation. Talking > Writing or at least it is that way for some of us. Not all of us are great and fast writers but we want/need to create content right? This session will walk down getting you started with audio (podcasting) and video (video or live streaming) so you can expand your content creation and go beyond just writing articles week after week.

The Business of Digital Podcast is a digital marketing focused podcast by two small business owners for other small business owners and digital marketers. In August of 2021 we published our 200th and last episode for now. There is no plan to start back up but we shall see what the future has as we may get the itch again.

So you have a site or podcast and want more traffic from Google and Bing? Join Dave as he walks through how to learn from your site what users want, how to find more people searching for things you want to write about and just how to optimize your site to perform better in the SERPs (search engine result pages). Expect to have not only a better understanding of SEO, but a number of free tools that will help you drive more traffic to your site.

Google and Bing in recent years have rolled out some great free tools to help with SEO and digital marketing as a whole. Sit in and learn how tools like Search Console, Cerity, Webmaster and more can help drive more traffic to your site, speed up your site and improve your site and content overall. Dave will also dig into the tools he uses to extract the data and how he uses these tools for SEO, Content Marketing and Paid Search.

Key Takeaways: What is new and improved in the that you need to know about • Ways to export and leverage the date better to help your SEO • What reports to focus on and when you should leverage them

This session is all about audio and visual with getting started with Podcasting and video creation (handy for ecom creating product videos). Talking -> Writing or at least it is that way for some of us. Not all of us are great and fast writers but we want/need to create content right? This session will walk down getting you started with audio (podcasting) and video (video or livestreaming) so you can expand your content creation and go beyond just writing articles week after week.

Podcasting has finally become a mainstream medium over the last few years. And it is high time we stop ignoring its power and take advantage of this amazing opportunity to reach and engage your audiences in a new, non-traditional way. Podcasts are a great way to build your brand, grow your business, and promote your subject-matter expertise. In this session you will learn how it can function as a new channel in your content marketing strategy to get attention and engagement from your stakeholders.

Here is what's in store: Unleashing the power of podcasting to drive more engagement • Why you need a podcast for your business • What are latest trends for brands to follow and what should be avoided in 2020 • Best practices before recording/launching your podcast show • Learn powerful strategies to create, promote, and monetize a successful podcast • Tips on deciding topics and conducting interviews • Answering your questions about podcasts

In the past two years much has changed with Google Webmaster/Google Search Console. There has been a name change, new reports, more data but also a number of features and reports have gone POOF. In this session we will cover some of the new features in Google Search Console that you should be leveraging, some external tools to help you better leverage the data in Google Search Console but also some tips and tricks to help you get more out of your use of Google Search Console.

SEO doesn't happen on its own. It takes a team and most of the time that "team" is on the IT, Development, PR, Paid, Legal, Social, Content, UX or some other team. Dig into practical ways to unite multiple teams and stakeholders to deliver radically relevant digital experiences when and where it matters most. This session is for those that are looking for ways to get more resources, budget and buy-in to help them and their teams move the needle with their digital marketing.

After this session, you'll be able to: Make reporting a vehicle for getting support from other departments rather than a time suck • Use tips and tools provided that will help you negotiate more resources and budget • Allow in-house teams to optimize processes and think like an agency

Our speakers will offer a step-by-step guide that dives deep into everything you need to know about starting a Podcast. From hosting, to equipment, to estimated costs per episode, to getting the right guests and much more. This session will help anyone interested in Podcasting understand all the variables and things to consider before actually starting a Podcast.

Get answers to the questions that everyone is asking about Podcasting: What tools do you use to Podcast? How do you host Podcast episodes? Do you have to have a website? How do you get on Spotify, iTunes, and Google? Can you make money Podcasting? How do you build up listeners to your Podcast? What kind of equipment should I have? Is it really expensive to Podcast? Bring your questions and get started in this powerful marketing medium.

I was the main organizer, host and MC for the Detroit SEO popup conference.

Have you ever felt bummed out by senior leaders who don't accept your projects or ideas? This workshop will be a road map for moving your projects from an idea to a finished product. Dave will guide you through gaining buy-in, getting approval for resources, navigating internal politics, aligning goals and engaging your team for project success.

There is more data available to organizations today about their customers and business performance than ever before. Yet, harnessing that data, making it actionable and connecting resulting performance to analytics is often an elusive task. There are however some fundamental tools, processes and strategies that, when implemented, empower data driven decision making and improved marketing and business performance. Join our panel of innovative marketers as we discuss (and possibly debate) fundamental and practical solutions for moving organizations forward in the area of data driven marketing. Some of the topics that will be addressed are 'What are organizations doing wrong that keeps them from truly being data driven?' and 'How do you move from reporting to analytics to business intelligence?' We also will welcome your observations, thoughts, questions and input during the Q&A session!

This session will look at how to audit your content marketing strategy with data you have in hand. The session was called out by TopRank Marketing as one to see.

In this podcast we talk with Dave Rohrer live from the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference (MDMC18). We discuss the difference between paid search and organic search and how, or if, consumers recognize the difference; compare quality vs. quantity content; speak about the importance of the consistency between the mobile site and its desktop version, as well as highlight the focus on the user.

Sharpen your inbound marketing skills with intermediate and advanced strategies used by enterprise e-commerce and multilocation brands. Corporate consultant and agency-trainer Steve Wiideman will be covering technical, contextual and off-page visibility opportunities that touch users during key micro-moments, while improving organic visibility. Learn how to marry data from what we already know about our paid and organic visitors with insights garnered from competitor research.

Podcasting continues to grow in importance and prevalence in marketing channels. Learn what tools you need to get started, get tips on getting started, and learn techniques that will help you succeed and reach your audience.

Dave's session at MDMC18 titled "How to Win At and With SEO" will focus on the current changes taking place in SEO, namely, Mobile First, Local SEO and the growing number of ads. Dave will dig into how to win at SEO in 2018, which KPIs matter to SEO and other teams, and how to make them all work together.

Covering as many SEO problems as possible in 75 minutes, Carolyn Shelby of Tribune Interactive and Dave Rohrer of NorthSide Metrics ran through clear examples of how to deal with day-to-day SEO issues. Whether this was on migrating to a new content management system (CMS) or creating content for a blog, the solutions all came down to communication and research.

Drawing on skills learned from years at an agency, this session will examine how and when to hire a consultant or an agency, how to prepare for and work with an agency, and how to make the best use of agency skills.

This was a 3-3.5 hour In-house SEO/Agency Training/Workshop conducted on the second day of the conference.

Come learn the basics of marketing with email, social media (organic and paid), paid search (PPC), organic search (SEO), content, and video. Discover why that little device in your hand/pocket/purse is your friend and your enemy. Come ready to take notes as you will walk away with lots of new tips and tools to try out.

This session will look at some technical SEO aspects of content and sources of data for inspiration in enterprise environments. Query intent, entities, co-occurrence of keyword relevance, TF-IDF, word2vec, what other terms top pages are ranking for, and more data to show what you should be covering when writing content.

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will review content strategies that worked in 2016, teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique, yet relevant, topics to your industry.

Examine content and content marketing in this live site review session. Bring your business card to the moderator or any panelist at the beginning of the session, in order to have your site reviewed. Or, simply watch and learn as panelists examine how to review your website's content through content audit techniques and answer questions.

This topic will discuss ways to identify relevant competitors, share of voice, tactics for finding prospects who may be considering your competitors instead of your brand, and what to do with the information once you have it. Is your brand ready to get ahead of the competition?

Content creation and community engagement are the current buzzwords. But if you are not using the analytics tools of Google, Facebook, and Twitter you are working in the dark. Kerri Butler of Zephyr Strategy (Zephyr's new marketing agency) and Dave Rohrer of Northside Metrics will enlighten us.

Do you know what to look for in candidates as you build and train an in-house online marketing team? Let us help you build a team poised to deliver results as we examine education options, the elements of building a successful team, and how to keep in-house search operations running smoothly. This session will also look at how to get things done in a large and complex organization insightful SEO metrics you should monitor, and how to build an SEO company from nothing and deliver world-class services in less than two years.

Was moderator for the Search track for the entire day. My duties included working with speakers, introductions, keeping sessions on time, helping with Q&A and more.

Making way for Google bot! The topics will include optimizing your site for crawling & indexing, server Issues, tweaking your htaccess, site search, WordPress tweaks, and more.

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will review content strategies that worked in 2015, teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique, yet relevant, topics to your industry.

One hour lunch hour talk covered PPC, SEO and Social Media basics to a small group as part of a larger ongoing education plan for anyone in the office that was interested.

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique yet relevant topics to your industry.

This session will outline how to assess, gather data, and perform a successful SEO audit of your or your client's websites. During the SEO process, it's important to know the tools and when and where to use them. Using real-world examples of sites that had issues, what the issues were, and how those issues were resolved, attendees will learn: When you need to perform an SEO audit • What tools you can use • How to spot SEO issues you need to fix

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique yet relevant topics to your industry.

With so many agencies to choose from, selecting the right one to meet your business objectives can be a daunting prospect. It is crucial to find an agency that has the right resources and tools to make that key difference to your marketing campaigns and ultimately your bottom line. This session will focus on: How to take inventory of your own talents and resources • What questions to ask yourself regarding your departing agency (what went right and what went wrong) • What questions to ask a specialized agency • How to optimize the relationship to propel your brand to the next level

Do you know what to look for in candidates as you build and train an in-house online marketing team? Let us help you build a team poised to deliver results as we examine education options, the elements of building a successful team, and how to keep in-house search operations running smoothly.

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique yet relevant topics to your industry.

Session on website migrations and SEO best practices.

Session on using social signals to improve content marketing strategies.

Open Call to all site owners to have a panel optimize anything during the session.

This session will focus on hiring an external agency for SEO. Delve into how you should communicate with agencies, manage resources and contractors, and ultimately sell that SEO internally.

This presentation will discuss how SEO can be used to improve the reach and effectiveness of social media campaigns by sending the "right" signals to the search engines and help driving more traffic to your website.

Are you on the business development side of a digital agency? Are you on the buying side - client side marketer? This session brings clarity to the processes involved with working with agencies and getting the most out of the deals.

Live site reviews are the focus of this session. Bring your business card to the moderator or any panelist at the beginning of the session to have your site reviewed, or simply watch and learn as panelists examine SEM techniques and answer questions.

Creating great content is essential in developing your blog, capturing the attention of readers, and garnering return visitors. This session will teach you how to create engaging copy and become a contributor of unique yet relevant topics to your industry.

You've researched your keywords, optimized your site, and created your campaigns. But did these steps work? Analytics is more than just page views and visitors. You must measure and analyze your site visitors and how they consume your content. This introductory session will cover: How to decipher common web metrics and apply them to your business objectives • How to properly track campaign performance, regardless of medium • How to set goals and measure conversions in terms of dollars and sense.

Off Page Optimization will be 2 hours and cover: The importance of off-page optimization, Off-page optimization factors, Link building tactics that work today, Link building tactics to stay away from, and Other off-page optimization issues.

You've researched your keywords, optimised your site, and created your campaigns. But did these steps work? Analytics is more than just page views and visitors. You must measure and analyse your site visitors and how they consume your content. This introductory session will cover: How to decipher common web metrics and apply them to your business objectives • How to properly track campaign performance, regardless of medium • How to set goals and measure conversions.

Marketing Analytics. 2 hour session will include 90+ minutes of lecture mixed in with Q&A and small group breakouts to discuss what was learned. Session will cover: Introduction to Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Analytics Setup, Benchmarking, and Dashboard Setup.

Integrating your search and social media efforts can dramatically improve your marketing results and ROI. Learn how to effectively work with your SEO team to uncover new audience segments, grow your community through targeting keyword interests, use social media for effective link acquisition and authority building, and increase your visibility on social networks and organic search by leveraging Open Graph technology.

This session will deliver practical case studies on topics such as how to grow and distribute an in-house team; how to best deploy that team within large, distributed organizations; the use of agencies/consultants alongside an in house team; and how the presenters' in-house successes (and failures) have influenced the role of the team and its importance within the organization. There will also be ample Q&A time for you to ask questions about your own in-house initiative.

The Digital World Expo Hall featured an Interactive SEO exhibit featuring some of the best SEO professionals today. The exhibit was part classroom, part Q & A, and part "stump the SEOs." The purpose of the exhibit was to help attendees better understand how each of their site components are effected in search engines and how they can make adjustments to improve their site's rankings for search. "Grey Matter: Black Hat, White Hat and Negative SEO" taught attendees about positive business practices in SEO while simultaneously creating awareness of vulnerabilities and foreign attacks.

For everyone who feels comfortable in the basic elements of search marketing, this will expand your understanding of paid placements in search. Explore methods to discover "money words" and enhance your understanding of paid search campaigns. Key takeaways include: Paid Search Marketing, Paid Search Analytics, How to create a paid-search campaign, Paid Search opportunities today, Best practices for paid search advertising, Writing search ad copy that sells