SEO Company Works to Lure Hip Tech Event to Utah

With cities competing to host the SEOmoz Family MozCation, a Utah-based firm hopes to lure the influential technology firm to Utah on June 29.
Internet geeks in Salt Lake City are vying against those in Houston in the race to host MozCation. SEOmoz is a leading provider of web-based search engine optimization tools. The hip, Seattle-based company announced recently that it would select a city for a special "meetup" in June. Fans were invited to tell SEOmoz why their town is the best place for the event.
"We have a high concentration of SEO companies in Utah, including some of the most recognizable brands in the industry. It really makes sense to bring the conference here," said Claye Stokes, a search engine optimization director at Utah-based SEO.com. "Aside from Seattle, I can't think of anywhere with such a high concentration of SEO talent and companies."
Bypassing the Beehive State just wouldn't make sense, Stokes said.
"Local SEO companies are being very vocal and creative, so the only way it's not coming to Salt Lake City is if they're not basing the decision on noise and demand," he added.
Cities need to be nominated by May 24 to be considered for the June event. Submissions could include blog posts, videos, songs, photos or drawings.
SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin said Salt Lake City is an attractive location.
His Seattle firm has "some good friends in Utah," Fishkin said in an e-mail to SEO.com.
"We're not ruling anywhere out," Fishkin said. "[Salt Lake City is] definitely an easier flight than some of the other spots we're looking at."
Cities with the best chances of hosting MozCation include Salt Lake City, Houston, Lima, Peru, and three different towns in Spain, said Jen Lopez, community manager at SEOmoz.
"The interest has been very high. It's been exciting," Lopez said. "Twitter has been a lot more difficult to manage."
A blog post at SEO.com encouraging SEOmoz to come to Utah ranked third when people searched for "MozCation" online.
"If you Google MozCation, we rank just behind SEOmoz," Stokes explained. "SEOmoz definitely sees us on the radar."
You can view another submission from Salt Lake City at MozCation.net.
"We really wanted to see how creative people could get," Lopez said.
SEOmoz travels the world participating in marketing conferences where the topic is usually search engine optimization - the science of helping companies boost their website rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing.
But MozCation is the first event of its kind.
And SEO.com isn't the only Utah firm working to convince SEOmoz to visit Utah.
"We've been in direct communication with dozens of local SEOs who have expressed interest in having SEOmoz come to Salt Lake City for MozCation," SEO.com President Ash Buckles said.
Utah has strong SEO and social media communities, he added.
"We've promoted events and attracted many great leaders including: Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Mullenweg, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and many others," Buckles explained. "We would love to have the SEOmoz team join us here in Salt Lake City."
SEOmoz is scheduled to announce the location on May 31. Visit www.seomoz.org/mozcation for more information.
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