Rand Fishkin discusses the future of SEO and inbound marketing. Some key points include: - Inbound marketing now accounts for around 90% of traffic compared to 10% for paid marketing, yet receives much less investment. - Content marketing is highly effective at generating traffic as it reaches audiences across various online channels. - SEO fundamentals like content quality, user experience, and link building still apply but social media, video, and mobile have become more important. - An inbound strategy requires long-term commitment, focusing content on target audiences, and optimizing across multiple online channels.

1. The Future of SEO
Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
Download: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

2. Why SEO? Why Inbound?

3. #1: Click Distribution

4. Only 18% of Clicks Go Here

5. 82% Go Here

6. Less than 1% of Clicks Go Here

7. 99% Go Everywhere Else
Especially Here

8. The Best Facebook Ads
Get <1% CTR

9. Wall Posts Often Have 30%+

10. Banner Ads Are Lucky
to Get 1% CTR

11. But Web Content
Generates Tons of Views

12. Blog Sidebar Ads? <5%

13. Blog Content? Doing Great;
Thank You.

14. Paid Marketing:
~10% of traffic
($40 Billion of investment in 2012*)
Inbound Marketing:
~90% of traffic
(but only $5 Billion of investment in 2012*)
*Via Forrester’s Interactive Marketing 2012 Report

16. #2: Cost of Acquisition

17. Meet Steve

18. Steve Uses Ads to Buy Traffic

19. Steve Spends $500 on Average to
Acquire a New Customer

20. Meet Greg

21. Greg Leverages Inbound
Channels to Earn Traffic

22. Greg Spends $100 on Average to
Acquire a New Customer

23. Greg Can Aqcuire 5X as Many
Customers as Steve

24. Or Greg Can Spend $400 per
Customer to Improve His Product

25. Who Would You Rather Be?

26. 10K Foot View on Search

27. Growth of Google Queries 2007-2012
Number of Searches/Day on Google
3 Billion Searches/Day
(announced Aug. 2012)
http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709

28. Growth of Spending on Paid Search
Via http://adage.com/article/digital/interactive-marketing-spend-hit-76-6b-2016/229444/

29. Growth of Mobile Search
http://www.marquettegroup.com/why-advertise-on-a-mobile-device/

30. Bing vs. Google Market Share
Via Statcounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/#search_engine-na-monthly-201108-201208

31. Massive Growth of Google+
http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/17/google-plus-stats-2012-400-million-members/

32. Fragmentation of Social Networks
Users: 100mm 900mm 200mm 120mm 10mm
Users: 15mm Millions 14mm 7.5mm 18mm
There are lots of social networks at scale in 2012, and potentially more coming.

33. What Hasn’t Changed in SEO

34. Engines Still Need Accessibility Help
Via Google Webmaster Tools: http://google.com/webmasters

35. Delighting Users Still Leads to Success
Via the still-amazing http://headrush.typepad.com/

36. Getting the Basics Right Still Matters
Start with a strong base,
then work your way up.

37. SEO Success Still Happens at this Intersection
Right HERE

38. What’s Changed in SEO

39. Panda & Low Quality Content
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda

40. Penguin & Low Quality Links
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/7-achievable-steps-for-great-seo-after-the-penguin-update

41. Link Building vs. Earning Links
Avoid this: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-types-of-link-spam-to-avoid
Do this: http://searchengineland.com/link-building-means-earning-hard-links-not-easy-links-123767

42. Rich Snippets and Schema Markup
Star Ratings, Reviews & Price
Author Photo
Date of Publication
Video Snippet

43. Video Search and Video SEO
http://www.cleancutmedia.com/video/youtube-is-it-possible-to-watch-4-billion-views-a-day

44. The Merging of SEO & Social Media
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/new-data-the-correlations-between-social-sharing-and-inbound-links

45. User & Usage Data Signals
http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/07/how-google-might-rank-pages-based-
upon-usage-information/

46. Lost Data: Not Provided & Social Connections
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-annotations-in-search-now-your-social-network-rankings
and http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-analyze-google-analytics-not-provided-data

47. Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

48. Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

49. Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

50. Lots of New Tools & Data Available
Just one page out of 10 in Annie Cushing’s guide: http://inbound.org/tools-
software/2012/07/annie-cushings-amazing-google-doc-of-seo-tools/

51. Massive Shift in Roles & Responsibilities
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-responsibilities-of-seo-have-been-upgraded

52. Strategic Tips for SEO

53. #1: Get Your Brand’s Story Right
http://about.zappos.com/zappos-story/in-the-beginning-let-there-be-shoes

54. #2: Develop a Content Strategy that Will Attract
A) Customers and/or B) Customer Influencers
Relevant to Any Who Relevant Relevant
Interact w/ Potential to Potential to Current
Customers Customers Customers
Get Here

55. #3: Focus on Inbound Channels Where Your Audience Exists

56. #4: Set Up the Right KPIs
Metrics are essential at
every phase of the
funnel to determine
what’s working vs. not
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media

57. #5: Devote a Webdev Team to Marketing
Moz’s Casey Henry (http://www.seomoz.org/team/casey) and Devin Ellis
(http://www.seomoz.org/team/devin)

58. #6: Create an Incentive for People to Share

59. Tactical Tips for SEO (and Inbound)

60. #1: Embrace the Long Tail of Keyword Demand
Tens of thousands of pages of content created by
professional marketers (our writers and those who ask Q+A)
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

61. #2A: Optimize Your Social Timing
At the highest point, only ~6.5% of my followers are online, which
means only 4,514 of my 69,458 followers could possibly see a tweet.
Times when my followers are online via http://followerwonk.com

62. #2B: Optimize Your Social Share Formatting
URL at the end & hash URL in the center of text blocks, no
tag next to the URL usernames or hashes around it
For my account, on average, the highest CTRs come when a link is in the middle of a
tweet, surrounded by text on either side with no other @mentions or hashtags

63. #2B: Optimize Your Social Share Formatting
Bad image and non-customized
share & a mediocre snippet
means lower CTR on Google+
Perfectly formatted image uploaded separate to post
link makes for high visibility and CTR in Facebook.
Taking care to optimize your social shares will mean a higher rate of re-sharing
and more follower/fan growth with every share you make.

64. #2C: Optimize & Track What You Share
Tracking of my socially shared links via http://bit.ly

65. #3: Create Search Results that Stand Out

66. #4: Leverage Video Content & Video SEO
Video SEO Guide from Wistia: http://wistia.com/doc/video-seo

67. #5: Don’t Limit Competitive Link Analysis
to Direct Competitors
e.g. If I were doing link building for SEOmoz, I’d look at who links to other web
marketing topics, like email or conversion rate optimization.

68. #6: Research What Bloggers, Journalists, &
Influencer Portals Cover. Then Do That Stuff.
Alltop and other aggregation sites can be good sources: http://alltop.com

69. #7: Social Media OAuth Services Can Be
Powerful Customer Acquisition Tools

70. #8: Keep All Your Content on One Subdomain
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

71. #9: Poor Design Negatively Impacts Every Inbound Channel
Good place to find great designers: http://dribbble.com

72. #10: Test & Optimize Your CTA Buttons
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

73. #11: Make Your Site CRAZY FAST
Data from @jcolman of REI
http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/web-performance-optimization-the-silver-
bullet-of-seo-and-ux

74. A Few Last Words of Advice

75. Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Where Geraldine Started Her Blog
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

76. Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Where People Usually Give Up
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

77. Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Over 4,000 Visits/Day to a Single Author Blog
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

78. Channels Where Others Don’t Invest is Where
Real Opportunity Lies
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

79. The Temptation to Do Black/Gray Hat is
Strong. You Have to Resist It.
“The force is strong with this one.”

80. You Probably Can’t Do SEO (or Inbound)
Effectively at Scale Without an In-House Resource
Ruth Burr, SEOmoz’s In-House SEO http://www.seomoz.org/team/ruthburr
(part of a team of 6 inbound focused folks on our marketing team)

81. SEO Today (and for the Future) is Not About a Perfect Formula
Some guesses at algo flux: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-rankings-algorithm-
has-changed-over-time-

82. SEO is About Building a Great Brand
(and making that brand’s web presence accessible/optimized for engines)
Couldn’t resist using this image  Via http://xk9.com/bones/branding-is-bullshit/

83. Your
Analytics
R
Will Lie
to You.
(unless you’re using
multi-touch attribution)

84. Multi-Channel
Attribution is
Critical
R
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media

85. Visualizing Visits Through Various Channels
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-the-inbound-marketing-funnel-is-essential-whiteboard-friday

86. Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
• Download this deck: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo
• Email: rand@seomoz.org
• Twitter: @randfish
• Blog: http://moz.com/rand and http://seomoz.org/blog
The Future of SEO