SEOmoz Mozcon Recap 2012 by Avvo.com

July 25-27th, 2012

Avvo, Inc. Confidential - ©2012

Key Take-Aways
• SEO is evolving from “push” marketing to “pull” marketing

• Google search is in constant flux – 500 changes / year

• Building a community of engaged users surpasses any other marketing tactic

• Reverse Image search is an under-utilized tool

• People love cats

• People hate bullet points

• I don’t hate bullet points,
but not a fan of cats


35 Ways to Get Links
by Paddy Moogan (@paddymoogan) of Distilled

• Ego-bait fuels link building

• E-books, content curating, crowd-sourcing, topical research

• Use monitoring tools to reverse engineer your competitors’ footprints

http://ifttt.com/recipes/44611 Use guest-post by-lines
Dump OSE link data into CSE Monitor images for link
and search for footprints attribution using reverse image
search

• Incentivize sharing a page; #tweetandeat

• Build infographics quickly using infogr.am

• Use Amazon Wishlist for Bloggers you want to engage with

• Take online offline with local meetups, blogger events, or SM campaigns


Build the Agile SEO Framework
by Jon Colman (@jcolman) of REI

The waterfall methodology doesn’t work in rapidly changing environments.
1) Principle: Customers first
1) Hack: As a <role>, I want <goal/desire>, so that <benefit>.
2) Hack: Lo-fidelity prototyping with balsamiq.com

2) Principle: Cross-functional teams
1) Hack: Break down silos – traditional organizational models do not promote collaboration
2) Hack: Minimize meeting costs with daily stand-up meetings. Meeting $ calculator:
Bit.ly/meetcost

3) Principle: Be biases toward action
1) Hack: Maximize the work “not done”; remove things that don’t create value

4) Principle: “Don’t hate – iterate”
1) Hack: Ship early, ship often,
2) Hack: Stop chasing perfection


Community as Inbound
by Jen Lopez (@jennita) of SEOmoz

Create a taskforce for online community management.

1. It‟s a team sport – everyone should be involved!

2. Turn critics into fans; delight and excite your user base

3. Give a shit and be pro-active

4. Listen and act

1. Let people know you care about their opinions!

2. Segment your time-zones and marketing channels

5. Get people who love what they do


How Relationships Drive Link Building
by Jon Henshaw (@ravenjon) of Raven Tools
FACT: If you build links the wrong way, Google will destroy everything you love.

The castle = your link profile | Sir Lancelot = Google
While you may think that Google is always in the distance, it can and will eventually catch up to your “castle”.

People DO NOT want: People DO want:
To be sold something To develop relationships naturally
To feel like a pawn or object Stay on topic, not YOUR topic
To talk about links Create a positive experience


Badass Excel Tips and Tricks for Your Data
by Annie Cushing (@AnnieCushing) of SEER interactive
• Format data in tables for easy filtering and sorting

• Navigation short cuts

• CTRL + Arrow to navigate to end of column or row

• CTRL + SHIFT + Arrow to select data in row or column

• Filtering of cells can be based on cell color; useful for conditional formatting

• Customizing charts is almost always mandatory for high-impact data viz.

• Excel for Mac is a FAIL. Use a PC to access power features.


Web Spam Research: Good Robots vs Bad Robots
by Matt Peters (@mattthemathman) of SEOmoz

Machine learning is being applied to algorithmically predict web spam.

MozTrust is a very good indicator of spam propensity.


Beyond Link Building: Real Companies Do Real Things
by Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) of SEER Interactive

• Real companies do real things - #RCS

• Stop focusing on “link juice” and backlinks

• Penguin is hell bent on “slapping down”
You Cutts
low-quality, manipulative sites


Beyond Link Building: Real Companies Do Real Things
by Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) of SEER Interactive

Actionable advice:
• Setup G alerts after every major content push

• Go to Google, but don‟t press enter

• “VS” searches – “Your brand vs ______”

• “Search strategy should be driving
content strategy”

• SEO is no longer about cheap links and FOTM tactics
• Start making SEO about industry leadership
• Start making SEO about caring for customers
• Start making SEO about engagement
• Start making SEO about education


Social Tools & Data Mining
Making a Case for Content Strategy
by Mike King (@ipullrank) of iPullRank.com

CONTENT IS THE GLUE OF INBOUND MARKETING
YOU MUST TAKE A STAND

by Mike King (@ipullrank) of iAcquire.com



• Create Data-Driven Personas – “A major virtue of personas is the establishment of
empathy and understanding the individual who uses the product” - Donald A. Norman, Nielsen
Norman Group

Use Nielsen Prizm to quickly build personas from 66 pre-defined segments



• Content marketing is about turning the brand into a storyteller.

• Use the Jungian story archetypes and align them with your
business to create a compelling story.

• Run your content ideas by your target audience
before building any content!

How to pitch content marketing strategies:
1. Tell the story
2. Appeal to the competitive spirit
3. Identify the need
4. Present the solution which is tied to ROI


Link Analysis Through API
by Richard Baxter (@richardbaxter) of seogadget.co.uk

• JSON and XPATH data can be pulled into Excel with Niel Bosma’s SEO Tools

• Problem: querying large sets of data is inefficient in Excel

• Solution: SEOgadget’s Links API Extension for Excel

URL • Returns the metrics about a URL
Metrics or set of URLs
• Returns a set of links to a
Links API
page or domain
• Returns a set of anchor text
Anchor terms or phrases aggregated
Text across links to a page or
domain
• Returns the metrics about many
Top Pages
URLs on a given subdomain


High ROI Content Strategies for SEO
by Cyrus Shepard (@CyrusShepard) of placefull.com

• “Traditional” SEO tactics don‟t work like they used to

• Directories, Press Releases, Article Networks, Link Networks, etc.

• Create Linkable Assets: New, Useful and Newsworthy
• Tools, Guides/Reports, Free, Funny/Unique,
Videos, Data Visualizations

• Infographics vs. Ebooks: The winner is eBooks
• Longer product lifecycle
• Easier to produce and repurpose
• Easy to distribute and more likely to get scholarly reference

• Focus on conversion
• Rich Snippet author photo can yield up to 56% increase in CTR
• Garbage in, garbage out: invest heavily in excellent content


How to Earn Links without Doing Anything
by Ian Lurie (@portentinc) of Portent
There is no such thing as content marketing; it’s an outcome not an input!

Content = Audience = Authority = Growth
• SEO rankings are temporal. How long have Coca-cola and Ford been
marketing branding themselves?

• Building an audience will naturally result in links and shares

• Use the Facebook ads tool to get better insight into your audience

SAY. WHAT. MATTERS.
Marketable content is the result of great marketing.


Redefining Business Models in a Post-Penguin World
by Greg Boser (@GregBoser) of BlueGrass

Greg made specific recommendations for SEO service providers:

• Building integrated marketing strategies from a vertical silo structure
doesn't work.

• Ditched channel-specific silos in favor of a structure based client lifecycle
workflow. (one team works on all components)

• Consolidated product and service offerings: can’t do everything!

• Avoid “dangling carrot” clients

• Updated contract structures

• Implemented service-level agreements with guarantees

• Added client obligations/responsibilities

• Added simple budget reallocation tools


Online Reputation Management
by Rhea Drysdale (@rhea) of Outspoken Media

• No one cares about ORM until there is a fire

• What % of your branding and marketing budget goes to brand protection?

• Insuring a brand starts with SOPs:
Social media
• The speed of information has accelerated, policies

which is why everyone needs real-time Affiliate Community
management management
reputation management.

“This [increase in PR jobs] is in
response to businesses and Customer Listening
service tools
government agencies responding
quickly to news and information that Brand
development
move fast on the Internet and social
media.”

• Build reputable, relevant and authority-building content.


Persona Modeling Unhinged: The Zen of "Whole" Customer
by Marty Weintraub (@aimclear) of AimClear

• Psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes,
interests, or lifestyles.
• Much more „in-depth‟ than demographic data; offers insights to psyche
• Use psychographic variables with PPC ad data (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Adwords)

• Use cookies to set retargeting ads; and/or use acquisio.com to easily manage multi-
channel, multi-targeted psychographic SEM campaigns.

• Master persona + personality = micro-psycho segments
• Master persona: Broad interest classification;
• i.e. “Activities > Travelling”

• Personality: Specific traits to further define master personas
• i.e. causes, beliefs, charities, stances, issues, religion, websites, brands, legal, health,
search data, thought leaders, music, TV, radio, artists, affiliations, dislikes, cars, media
preferences, sexual orientation, race, gender, age


Persona Modeling Unhinged: The Zen of "Whole" Customer
by Marty Weintraub (@aimclear) of AimClear


A Secret Algo Project Launch
by Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) of 30go30.com
• Google has publically launched 20 named updates from 2003 to 2012

• In 2010, under oath, Google shared with Congress they had 516 changes

• Project: Algo Alert

• 1000 keywords checked for top 10 rankings

• Change monitored using Delta100 scoring

• Mozcast.com gives the “weather report”
on Google algorithm changes.

• The higher the temperature,
the more volatile the rank shift is.


The D Word: Leading the Way to Great Design
by Jenny Lam (@helveticagirl) of Jackson Fish Market
• Design’s impact on the bottom line is real.

• Mint.com has invested over $170 mm in design

• Every dollar spent on design yield $415.17; advertising yields $7.21

• #1 Factor in site credibility is the Design Look

• Finding great designers is difficult:
• Dotcom bust decommissioned many aspiring designers
• Design is currently at a premium
• It takes discipline and foresight to determine the right design skills for your team

• Three fundamentals to design: integrity, harmony, and radiance

Resources:
Patternry.com, patterntap.com, ui-patterns.com


Google+ SEO & Authorship
by AJ Kohn (@ajkohn) of Blind Five Year Old

If you care about search, you have to care about Google+.

Search Plus Your World is your SEO friend: Google+ shares will “shift” the SERP
landscape for the user and their downstream.

Actionable Tips:
• Maintain a personal Google+ profile and a brand Google+ profile
• Connect your social profiles in the “Links” section
• Add a rel=“publisher” tag to your website in meta or via widget
• Using keywords (exact + LSI + LSA) on your G+ profile is critical

Building out Google+:
• Offer exclusive Google+ content
• Host Live Hangouts on Air
• Share and contribute to other peoples content (pull, don’t push!)

Resource: Google Ripples to monitor sharing graph

If MacGyver did SEO
by Martin Macdonald (@searchmartin) of Expedia EAN
Using Excel and daily rank tracking in your vertical, you can quickly analyze the index,
identify new campaigns, and sites’ strength.

Extract domain Rankings
details gathered in
AWR

Pivot Sum all
rankings Single site Keyword +
analysis carried Landing Page
out at runtime concatenated
Acquire SEO data
through API’s

Build dashboards
at runtime

Optify CTR Data * Tables built to
Update rank
dashboard
Vol vLookup vs.
daily
Past update
information
Sum by Root
Domain

Build daily
strength sheet Optify CTR
Sum of
data multiplied
Changes per
by perceived
Compare SERP day recorded
search volume
changes


SEO Project Management
by Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) of AleydaSolis.com

SEO project management is complex due to the volatile search scape and
complex inputs required to administer a successful SEO campaign.

Actionable Advice:

• Set realistic expectations for all parties before selling a service/product
• Meet with all involved SEO parties / stakeholders
• Agree on the necessary resources and timing from the start
• Evaluate possible risks and restrictions
• Establish SMARTER goals
• Defined communication channels and workflows
• Develop a qualification checklist
• Wait until the client is ready


Attribution Modeling: Why You Must be Doing It and How ..
to do It Easily with Google Analytics
by Mike Pantoliano (@MikeCP) of Distilled.net

Attribution modeling assigns value to visitors’ conversion path for ROI modeling.
An example of a customer‟s conversion path:
Referral from Website > Organic Search > Referral from Twitter > Direct > PPC > (not
provided) > Branded Organic Search > Direct > Purchase

• The customer’s conversion path is rarely linear.

• First-touch / last-touch modeling doesn’t account for “everything in between”.

• Caveats: Tracking cookies crumble, users utilize multiple devices



An example conversion of $1,000.

Example conversion path:
organic > direct > social > referral > direct



Attribution modeling provides data so that you can confidently invest in a given channel.

Excel + Google Analytics (Basic) tutorial/worksheet:

bit.ly/mozmodeling

Estimating Traffic Based on Keyword Research
by Jessica Bowman (@jessicabowman) of SEOinHouse

Accurately selecting keywords for ROI purposes is an essential step that can make or
break your SEO campaign(s).

Predict actual search
volume for a keyword

Predict average
ranking position. 3 main hurdles to overcome

Predict average click
through rate.

Estimate Lift



1. Predict actual search volume for a keyword:

I. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool

II. Use Bing Webmaster Tools’ Keyword Research Tool

June 2012 Search Share (US)
2. Adjust for Google and Bing‟s Share of Search
3.0% 1.5%

I. Multiply volume by share
Google
13.0% Bing
II. Average Google and Bing
Yahoo!
15.6%
Ask
66.8%
AOL

Source: comScore Explicit Core Search Share
Report, July 11, 2012



3. Adjust the Number for Searcher Intent
I. If the search results are mixed intent (i.e. “install windows”) use the formula:
search volume * percentage of relevant sites = adjusted search volume

4. Predict Keyword Position
I. Perform competitive analysis

a. SEOmoz’s Keyword Difficulty

b. Analyze competing websites

c. Look at social signals

II. Based on comp. intelligence, what’s the min/max rank you can achieve?



5. Predict Average Click-thru Rate
I. Google Webmaster Tools

II. Bing Webmaster Tools

III. SlingShot SEO 2011 Report

6. Calculate the lift


A New Form of CRO
by Joanna Lord (@JoannaLord)

“Conversion rate optimization was born out of the need for lead generation and
ecommerce internet marketers to improve their website's results.”

CRO has involved to include more than sales and leads, but also engagement.

Ten Things to improve with CRO:

#10) Your Story – Golden Circle Theory #9) Your Pillars

#8) Your Relationships #7) Your Triggers

#6) Unique Value Proposition #5) Your Schedule

#4) Your Tools #3) Your Thank You

#2) Your Feeback Avenues #1) Your Biggest Success


Rock Your SEO With Structured Social Sharing ,
by Dana Lookadoo (@lookadoo)
“Structured” sharing refers to the microdata to optimize social sharing.

optimized

un-optimized


Rock Your SEO With Structured Social Sharing ,
by Dana Lookadoo (@lookadoo)
10 Steps For Microdata with Analytics:

1. OG:title – in head, <meta property="og:title" content=“Your Title" />
2. OG:desc - in head, <meta property="og:description" content=“Your description" />
3. OG:image – in head, <meta itemprop="image" content=“ABSOLUTE IMAGE URL” />
4. OG:type – in head, <meta property="og:type" content="website" />. Type values
5. OG:URL – in head, <meta property="og:url" content=“CANONICAL URL"/>
6. UTM Variables – for social referal data: URL, medium, campaign, source
7. Share Blurb for FB & G+
8. Hashtags – great for Google+, but not used for Facebook
9. Twitter / Retweetable – format: [Title]: [URL] via [@YourProfile] #hashtag
10. Document & Track - http://yseo.us/sssfw


The Best Citations to Get and Other Local SEO Tips .
by Darren Shaw (@EdmontonSEO)

Citations are a critical metric in getting ranked in Google+ Local map listings

• What is a citation? DBA Name, Address, Phone Number, Email, Website

• Find top citations per industry / city

• Hyper-local Citation Building Sources

Local Ranking Tips:
• Sponsor local non-profits and universities
• Build [quality] links to your Google+ Local Business listing
• Connect with influencers and ask them to review your product or service
• Getting 10 reviews will enable Zagat ratings
• Encourage reviews on 3rd party websites; not just a Google+ endeavor


Creating Awesome Video on a Budget
by Jeff McRitchie (@mybinding)

Tips to maximizing video production while minimizing expense:

1. Leverage existing content

2. Don’t record faces to make voice-overs easier / less expensive

3. Don’t use scripts

4. Brainstorm lists using internal data (i.e. analytics)

5. Group and shoot similar videos on the same day

6. Show customers how to use your product in real-time


E-Commerce SEO – Tips & Tricks
by Fábio Ricotta (@fabioricotta)

• Invest in unique product descriptions; don’t rely on manufacturers

• Target keywords / products on the cusp of page 1 for maximum results

• Use internal linking (i.e. homepage) to bolster product pages

• Place related products next to infographics to maximize CRO


Follow Avvo on Twitter:
@avvo
@avvoanswers
@lawyer_seo

Additional resources:
http://www.avvo.com/free-legal-advice
http://www.avvo.com/find-a-lawyer
http://www.avvo.com/ask-a-lawyer


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SEOmoz Mozcon Recap 2012 by Avvo.com

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