The Reader's Digest version of SMX Advanced 2014, from an SEO perspective. This presentation is for the Fort Bend Internet Marketing meetup group. Learn about Matt Cutts' parting words before his leave of absence, the future of search and things you can do today to improve your SEO craft.

1. SMX Advanced
Prepared by: Zach Doty

2. What’s Up?
• Zach Doty
• Digital Media Specialist
• Forthea Interactive
• Love the outdoors
– (and digital marketing)
@forthea
@zldoty

3. Why Conferences + SMX?
• “If you don’t focus on professional
development, you won’t be remarkable in
five years.”
• SMX Advanced = blend of tactics and
thought leadership
@forthea
@zldoty

4. Focus Areas
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Performance (Paid) Media
• Content and Conversions
@forthea
@zldoty

5. SEO: Managing Complexity
• Time with Matt Cutts
• New success metrics
• Rich data
@forthea
@zldoty

6. A Fireside Chat: Matt Cutts
• Web spam spokesperson
@forthea
@zldoty

7. A Fireside Chat: Matt Cutts
• Mobile, mobile, mobile!
• Technical cleanup
• User experience
@forthea
@zldoty

8. New Success Metrics
• Old news: (not provided)
• Old problem: proving results
@forthea
@zldoty

9. New Different Success Metrics
• A balanced approach:
• Return on Investment
o ((Revenue – Spend) / Spend) * 100
• Cost per Lead Acquisition
o (Spend / Conversions)
@forthea
@zldoty

10. Structured Data
• Volatile applications in the SERPs
– (See also: Google Pigeon)
• Searches and Transactions may now take
place without ever seeing blue links.
• Just because rich data isn’t used now,
doesn’t mean it won’t be used later.
@forthea
@zldoty

11. SEO: The Bottom Line
• Google’s capabilities have vastly
advanced, at increasing rates.
• Are you keeping up?
@forthea
@zldoty

12. Spare Parts
• Pace your monthly budgets
– You can win big in the last week, when
competitor budgets have expired.
• Website testing: rebuild your website
every few weeks
– Inspectlet.com: Free* heat mapping tool
@forthea
@zldoty

13. Wrap Up
• Managing “internal” complexity in your
work
• Communicating “external” simplicity to
decision makers.
• “Mobile is coming faster than you realize.”
@forthea
@zldoty