SEO Success Factors 2014

Cool SERP, bro!

SERPs aren’t as easy to backsolve

5

Hummingbird – it’s a new engine

So how do we interpret studies like

this?

Does this mean rankings are all about getting

Google +1s?

These are hints. Not ranking factors.

Read: Correlation does not equal causation

“Correlation does not imply causation”

Edward Tufte says this is

better:

"Correlation is not

causation but it sure is a

hint."

Cyrus has a great ranking factors deck:

http://www.slideshare.net/cyrusshepard

Links?

"I think backlinks still have many, many years left

in them," he said. "But inevitably what we're trying

to do is figure out how an expert user would say

this particular page matched their information

needs. And sometimes backlinks matter for that."

Links = very much alive.*http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2343363/Matt-Cutts-Google-Wont-Devalue-Links-

Anytime-Soon

External Anchor Texthttp://moz.com/rand/imec-lab/

Competitive

phrases are

tougher to move,

but still hold up

in testing.

Internal Anchor Texthttp://www.greenlaneseo.com/blog/2014/01/old-school-seo-tests-action/

Keyword strings in titles, METAs, etc.

Mark up ALL THE THINGS?

“Absolute Rankings”

“Rankings are part of my

reporting, but near the

back now”

“Rankings will be dead

within one year”

“I still report rankings,

but as a composite

metric. Not individual

rankings.”

Entity-based optimization

http://www.seobythesea.com/2014/01/entity-

associations-websites-related-entities/

http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/knowledge-

graph-optimization

Localized organic results

Takeaway: All the search engines are

building for the mobile future.

Google’s move to Local KG

Takeaway: Hummingbird requires us

to test SEO assumptions.http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

Takeaway: Optimize content around

entities and relationships.

Takeaway: Every site has its own set

of success factors