Monday, March 14th was another day full of panels all about web content and why it matters to brands, publishers, and brand publishers. I hopped between a few panels to listen in on what was being said, and settled into a line to see a panel called “Q&A With Google & Bing On Website Ranking” featuring Matt Cutts from Google, Duane Forrester from Bing, and Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land. I must admit that while I was interested in hearing what these guys had to say, the format (all Q & A from the audience) was laden with terrible questions that always had the same answer, one I have been preaching for years:

The number one thing that search engines are looking for is quality content.

That’s right: I heard that straight from Google and Bing’s mouth. They both agree. Search engines aren’t looking for keywords, they’re not looking for backlinks, they’re not looking for metadata. They are looking for quality content.

I implore you: stop spending your money buying ads and links, and start investing it in a long-term strategy to secure your site’s authority. Create content yourself, hire a company like us to augment that strategy, or hire us to take it over entirely.

After this session wrapped up , I was excited to grab some lunch and catch the Felica Day keynote. It seemed fate had other plans, as I met up with Lindsay and randomly bumped into two fine folks I met the night before as a tent full of some of the most amazing and free food appeared on the corner. We were quick to jump in line, grab a plate and pull up some floor.

Much to my surprise, we then met NASA.

Felica Day could wait. Two strangers stopped by and asked if they could join our group, and we were quickly chatting about our day jobs, but these two quickly stole my attention when they started talking astrophysics and moon missions. Needless to say, I missed the keynote, but met some amazing folks.

My afternoon consisted of a session about value-based pricing, a concept that I am excited to continue to explore at Raidious, as well as “Anatomy of a Design Decision.”

Tuesday I was fortunate enough get to meet Holly Jeter and learn a few things about the film business, catch an inspiring keynote by Blake Mycoskie’s of Tom’s Shoes, and spend some quality time on the trade show floor where I purchased quite possibly the most important thing I could buy before SXSW Music started: a Mophie JuicePack Air.

As I continue to let the whirwhind that was SXSW settle in, I’ll be posting some additional thoughts on some of the emerging trends I witnessed, as well as some of my thoughts on the gear and production of SXSW. I saw some really cool stuff going on, and I am excited to share it with Raidious and our clients.