Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, presented at CMO Event in November 2014

1. SEO IS DEAD
LONG LIVE SEO
Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Director, Fidelity Worldwide Investment
@TheKingsnorth

2. Quick
Survey

3. The History of SEO
1994
News
The first crawler (Webcrawler) is created in the US in 1994
Techniques
Keyword driven content. Meta tags.
1994 2000 2010 2014

4. The History of SEO
1998
News
Something called Google launches
Techniques
Pagerank introduced. Linkjuice begins
1994 2000 2010 2014

5. The History of SEO
1999
News
Black Monday. Altavista changes it’s algorithm
Techniques
Doorway pages
1994 2000 2010 2014

6. The History of SEO
2000
News
Adwords is launched as is Pagerank toolbar
Techniques
Use Pagerank to determine link strategy
1994 2000 2010 2014

7. The History of SEO
2003
News
Google launch Adsense for contextual advertising
Keyword Stuffing and Anchor Text over optimisation is punished by FLORIDA
Techniques
‘Made for Adsense’ sites arrive
1994 2000 2010 2014

8. The History of SEO
2004
News
SEO Moz launches, SEO Book launches
Techniques
Spam still prevelant. SEO Traffic considered untrustworthy
1994 2000 2010 2014

9. The History of SEO
2005
News
Nofollow tag introduced. Google Analytics launched.
First “SEO is Dead” post arrives
Techniques
Blog comment spam
1994 2000 2010 2014

10. The History of SEO
2006
News
BMW banned for Cloaking
Techniques
XML sitemaps launch
1994 2000 2010 2014

11. The History of SEO
2007
News
Social media revolution begins
Techniques
Google Suggest used to aid keyword research
1994 2000 2010 2014

12. The History of SEO
2009
News
Google VINCE pushes big brands to improve trust
Real-time search includes Twitter results
1994 2000 2010 2014

13. The History of SEO
2010
News
Google CAFFEINE provides fresher results
Techniques
Social media starts to be considered
1994 2000 2010 2014

14. The History of SEO
2011
News
JC Penney penalised for Black Hat techniques
Google launches PANDA – content quality becomes more important
Techniques
Traffic from (not provided) becomes a high % making life harder for an SEO
1994 2000 2010 2014

15. The History of SEO
2012
News
Google releases PENGUIN to refresh link quality
Directories, blog networks and similar sites are punished
Techniques
Disavow launched to help recovery from penalties
1994 2000 2010 2014

16. So what now?

17. Now we bring it all together
Content
Links
Keywords
Social
Media
User
Experience
Best
Practise
Coding

18. Who are we optimising for?
CUSTOMER

19. The Primary Focus is Content
• Create great content
• Own your space
• Be the go to source of content in your market

20. Why?
• Great content contains relevant keywords
• Quality sites will search out great content and provide
links
• Customers will talk about you on blogs and create links
• Social media will come alive with engagement and links
to you
• Your customers will deliver your SEO strategy for you

21. Content Strategy Considerations
• Truly Relevant
• Of the Moment
• Authentic
• Expertise
• Rich and Deep
• Unique
• Shareable
• Multi-Screen World
• E-Books, E-Courses
• Advocacy
• Apps
• What’s trending
• Semantic search
• How To Videos
• Infographics and stats
• Tips
• Slideshare & Thought Leadership
• Behind The Scenes
• Blog
• Podcasts, Webinars
• Personas
• PR

22. Content Strategy Planning
• Understand Your Purpose and Overall Business Strategy
• Understand Your Target Market and Segments
• Build Your Business Case
• Review Your Competitors
• Review Best in Class
• Consider The Channels
• Consider The Workload
• Consider Legal and Compliance issues
• How do You Measure Success

23. A quick look at Hummingbird
• Semantic
• Conversational
• Voice
• Multi-device

24. But think of the wrapper not just the content
• Technology: Best practise coding means a better website with
fewer errors, faster loading and a better experience for
everyone. Keep it lean, keep it clean.
– Also consider rich snippets: reviews, prices, photos, recipes,
song lists
• User Signals: Great navigation, intuitive design makes for a
better experience for the customer. Make it easy to do
business with you. Also potentially Click Through Rate
• Social Signals: As covered above – driving social engagement
has a direct impact on SEO
• Backlink quality and quantity remains key

25. Some Fun from Google
www.google.co.uk/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html
Google “Knowledge Graph”

26. Ranking Factors
Searchmetrics Ranking
Factors Annual Report

27. Over to you