iStrategy AMS 2011 - Gillian Muessig, SEO Moz

From SEO to Cloud MarketingWhere We Came FromWhere We’re Headed What To Do About It
Gillian Muessig – iStrategy May 2011

The Web’s Most Popular Search Marketing Software

What IS SEO?
It is enabling the dissemination of ideas on the web

Socio-Political Ramifications of Our Work

What IS SEO?

Revolution is fomented on the empty bellies of men
Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Fidel Castro, CheGuevera, and many others

It’s Like This…

1999 - 2002

On-Page Optimization
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization

Slaves to PageRank
http://www.elliance.com/aha/infographics/Google-PageRank-Explained.aspx

PageRank Busted!
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-science-of-ranking-correlations

2003 - 2005

Anchor Text
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/anchor-text

Keyword-Match Domain Names
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/exact-match-domains-are-far-too-powerful-is-their-time-limited

Registration & Historical Information
http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=1121

1999-2008: What Page Ranked #1 for the Queries “Exit” & “Leave”?
http://searchengineland.com/google-kills-bushs-miserable-failure-search-other-google-bombs-10363

Topic Modeling
LDA correlates w/ Google rankings better than any other on-page feature
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/content-optimization-revisiting-topic-modeling-lda-our-labs-tool

Why Engines Need Topic Modeling

Term Frequency & Inverse Document Frequency

Co-Occurrence

Topic Modeling

Content-related Signals Require Ability to Determine INTENT
Rock, grenade, or baseball?
Are you SURE?

Simplistic Term Vector Model

Causation? Not So Fast!
Good links may be more likely to point to more "relevant" pages
Other aspect of Google's algorithm may naturally bias towards these pages

Expect the Percentage Output to Fluctuate ~1-5%
Think of it like polling, not counting
Checking every possibility would take an exceptionally long time
Image credit: http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/dont-listen-to-the-exit-polls-today/

Out of our SERPs!
Keyword Spamming might improve your LDA Score, but probably not your rankings

The Labs Tool
keywords here
Text from url here

Build a Chart: Compare Your Friends

How to Use Topic Tool
Think about negative keywords in a similar fashion to negative keywords for ppc.
Think about positive keywords in localized terms

Perspective: It’s All Relative
The numbers are RELATIVE
Track numbers over time – shoot for improvement

2006 - 2009

Domain Authority
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-domain-authority-page-authority-metrics

External Link Source Diversity
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

Nofollow, Sitemaps & Webmaster Tools
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

Search Quality Raters
http://www.seobook.com/archives/000915.shtml

Where We Are2009 - 2011

Twitter Data
Danny Sullivan:If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?
Google: Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article
http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389

Twitter Test
Page A
646 links from 36 root domains
2 tweets
Page B
1 link from 1 root domain
522 tweets
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-do-tweets-influence-search-rankings-an-experiment-for-a-cause

Twitter: Clearly Influencing Google
Page B – the tweeted version – ranks #1!
Page A
646 links from 36 root domains
2 tweets
Page B
1 link from 1 root domain
522 tweets
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-do-tweets-influence-search-rankings-an-experiment-for-a-cause

Twitter Data: Very Powerful for QDF
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study

Don’t Bother Abusing Twitter for SEO
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study#jtc133590

Author Authority
Danny Sullivan: Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?
Bing: Yes. We do calculate the authority of someone who tweets. For known public figures or publishers, we do associate them with who they are. (For example, query for Danny Sullivan)
Google: Yes we do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life :-)
http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389

Facebook Likes & Shares
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-marketing-ultimate-guide

Brand Signals
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-next-generation-of-ranking-signals

Brand Signals
Brands
Generics
Have real people working at a physical address
Have authentic, followed social accounts
Display obvious, robust contact information
Register with government/civic organizations
Receive traffic from diverse sources
Generate branded search query volume
Run offline marketing/advertising campaigns
Often exist only online
Rarely have significant social accounts
Frequently use email forms only
Stay “under the radar”
Search is often 90%+ of traffic
Have little-no branded search demand
Ignore the offline world

Entity Association

User & Usage Behavior
http://www.quora.com/Did-Bing-intentionally-copy-Googles-search-results

Where We Are

The Ranking Factors Are Changing

Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Search Engine Ranking Factors 2011
Preliminary Data
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/early-ranking-factors-data-an-april-linkscape-update

Big Changes from 2009 to 2011
Link-Based Factors are waning
Social Data is increasing
Page-Level Link Metrics Fell the Most (43% - 22%)
Keyword-Level Domain Metrics, Brand Data + Social Rising
The Survey itself asked for more detail/specificity which may be responsible for some of these shifts
The new version of the ranking factors will be online in April, 2011

Pandas & Farmers

From the Mouths of Googlers
Wired.com: How do you recognize a shallow-content site?
Singhal: (W)e asked… “Would you be comfortable giving this site your credit card? Would you be comfortable giving medicine prescribed by this site to your kids?”
Cutts: (Using) a rigorous set of questions… “Do you consider this site to be authoritative? Would it be okay if this was in a magazine? Does this site have excessive ads?”
Singhal: And based on that, we basically formed some definition of what could be considered low quality.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/all/1

Wired.com: But how do you implement that algorithmically?
Cutts: I think you look for signals that recreate that same intuition, that same experience that you have as an engineer and that users have.
Singhal: You can imagine in a hyperspace a bunch of points, some points are red, some points are green, and in others there’s some mixture. Your job is to find a plane which says that most things on this side of the plane are red, and most of the things on that side of the plane are the opposite of red.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/all/1

Googlers want to know:
Trustworthy?
Expert/enthusiast author?
Facts checked, well edited, sloppy
Genuinely interesting?
Original, insightful, comprehensive, print worthy?
Worthy of bookmarking? Sharing? Recommending?
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

Googlers want to know:
Safe place for your credit card info?
Do excessive ads distract from or interfere with content?
Is it better than competitive pages?
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

Where We’re Headed

Google SERPs circa 1999

Google SERPs 2011

Google SERPs Tomorrow

What’s Shrinking
Low quality links
Low quality content
Low value/fake social profiles
Over SEO’ing
Simple gaming tactics
Link farms, keyword stuffing, social spamming

Thin Content, Content Aggregating, Plaguerism: OUT!

Over SEO’ing: OUT!
seoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseoseo
seoseoseoseoseoseoseo

Sheer # of Followers: OUT!

Ignoring Reputation: OUT!

Just a Blog: OUT!

Blogging With Social Promotion: IN!

Domain Authority: IN!

Depth of Engagement & Social Reputation: IN!
Engagement ring… get it?

Well Written Content & LDA Scoring: IN!

Well Managed & Tagged Content: IN!

Reputation Management& Monitoring: IN!

Q&A Sites: IN!
Build Your Personal Brand

Competitive Research: IN!
http://www.seomoz.org/tools

More searches on Social platforms

First touch may no longer be on traditional search engines

Search engines are mining multiple social platforms to connect keywords to data

Mobile Searches Are WAY UpMobile Commerce Has Slower Adoption

Darwinian Tips

Don’t “Look” Like a Content Farm
http://hubpages.com/hub/WomensFashionsofthe1920-FlappersandtheJazz-Age

Avoid “Classic” SEO Tactics
Directory Link Building
Keyword-Variant Abuse
Reciprocal Link Pages
Paid Links w/ Manipulative Anchor Text
Sitewide, Footer Links
Navigation for Engines, Not Humans
Low Cost/Quality, Outsourced Content
Generic Design and Layout
Anchor-Text Rich Internal Links
Anonymous Contact Forms
Keyword Stuffed Titles + Pages
Ad Blocks Dominating the Page
It’s great to do good SEO, just don’t look like the only reason the site exists is to draw Google traffic

Take Advantage of New and Evolving Opportunities

Become a “Brand”
Brands
Generics
Have real people working at a physical address
Have authentic, followed social accounts
Display obvious, robust contact information
Register with government/civic organizations
Receive traffic from diverse sources
Generate branded search query volume
Run offline marketing/advertising campaigns
Often exist only online
Rarely have significant social accounts
Frequently use email forms only
Stay “under the radar”
Search is often 90%+ of traffic
Have little-no branded search demand
Ignore the offline world

Do Competitive Research
Where do these brands earn their links?
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org

Research Brand “Mention” Sources
Facebook page
Blippr?
Crunchbase profile
App profile on Blackberry
Twitter account
BusinessWeek Profile
Chrome Extension
Mashable Article

Focus on the User| Don’t Forget Engines
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html

Rich Snippets
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html

Re- blog, tweet, target
http://www.9e3k.com/9e3k/monday-meme-yoda-spreads-some-9e3k-love/

Be Personal Brand: Q & A Sites
http://outspokenmedia.com/social-media/quora-hipsters/

Infographics: Hire Guys Like This!

Get Your Social On
Stumble (upon)
Thumb up
Re-tweet
Like it
Share it
Digg it
Redd It

When in Rome…
Find Your Corporate Voice
Phenomenal analysis of statements by Googlers + how they translate to content/marketing actions: http://bit.ly/iGd7Pe
I’m excited to be able to share my life’s passion with you.

Embrace All of Inbound Marketing
News/Media/PR
SEO
Email
Research/White Papers
Blogs + Blogging
Infographics
Comment Marketing
Social Networks
Online Video
INBOUND MARKETING!(AKA all the “free” traffic sources)
Webinars
Forums
Document Sharing
Social Bookmarking
Word of Mouth
Podcasting
Direct/Referring Links
Type-In Traffic
Q+A Sites

Part II:Stop Competing. Start Owning.

Why are there Billions of Searches?
Billions of Queries

via ~diP on Flickr
How is Demand Created?

Inherent Need
via dimnikolov on Flickr

AD-FUELEDDEMAND
Advertising $300 Billion
Online Advertising $24 Billion
Search Ads $10.7 Billion
Via Interactive Advertising Bureau 2010

You Can Cater to Demand
via lumierefl on Flickr

Or…
You Can CreateDemand

A Case Study in“Making the Market”

DON’T CALL IT “SEO.”

3250
3000
2750
2500
2250
2000
Sep-10

That’s how you beat Wikipedia & Amazon!

Gillian Muessig
President & Co-Founder, SEOmoz
Twitter: @SEOmom
Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog
Email: gillian@seomoz.org
Try SEOmoz Free for 60 Days
iStrategy2011

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iStrategy AMS 2011 - Gillian Muessig, SEO Moz

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