How SEO Blinded Me (Then Opened My Eyes)

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Laying out some of the myths and misconceptions about SEO, with a focus on tips for startups planning to do SEO in 2013.

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Download this slide deck: http://bit.ly/blindedbyseo

By Rand Fishkin

A story about the seductive power of search, and the

truth about marketing channels & why people buy

#1: Gets 30% of

traffic and sales

#2: Gets 12% of

traffic and sales

#3: Gets 7% of

traffic and sales

#4: Gets 5% of

traffic and sales

#5: Gets 4% of

traffic and sales

Step 1:

Get Here

Step 2:

Profit!!

Reality:

Branding, CRO, UI/UX, and

the searcher’s location in the

buying cycle all influence the

effectiveness of SEO.

Most users see

these same

results in the

same order.

Reality: The

days of standard

SERPs are over

#1 and #2;

I’m winning!

Reality:

Rel=author + great

branding means

Aaron’s probably

winning

If a source doesn’t

send converting

visits, it’s useless.

Reality: Visitors

usually have lots

of ways to get to

your site before

they convert.

No More 10

Blue Links

Snippets are Surprisingly

Sophisticated

Visuals Can

Dominate the

SERPs

Advertising Occasionally

Overwhelms Organic

More and More, Google’s Putting

Themselves in the Results

No More

Lengthening of

the Long Tail

Searches are

Suggested

Or Presumed

And Influenceable

Still, I’d highly recommend investing

in long tail & chunky middle SEO

Less competition, higher

converting searchers,

and easier to serve

visitor intent.

No More

Domination

without a Brand

"Brands are the solution, not the

problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands

are how you sort out the cesspool.“

- Eric Schmidt, October, 2008

Many Searches Bias

to Established Brands

Others Suggest the

Brands Directly

Brands Receive

Preferential Treatment

Penalties and Filters

are Designed to Target

Unbranded Sites

No More Manipulative

Link Behavior That

Lasts at Scale

Big, Famous Link

Networks Get Hit

Small, Local

Sites Get Hit

Blog

Networks

are Being

Shut Down

Directories Get

Devalued

Google Will Lift Your

Penalty Faster If You

Tell Them How You

Got Those Links

No More Search

without Social

Google’s Social

Graph is Far Larger

Than Most Believe

Google’s Social Connections page

showed how this process worked (and

they’ve now made it inaccessible)

Email is Now a Social

Influence on Search

Google Will Go to Great

Lengths to Favor G+

There’s a big difference between content as a tactic and content “strategy:”

http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/rand-mozconcontentstrategy2

Building a passionate community is almost a

requirement for great SEO in 2013.

“SEO” probably

doesn’t have 825K

searches/month, but it

probably has ~4X as

many as “social media”

Moz’s internal tool for

funnel analytics

http://www.seomoz.org/article/recommended

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lead-from-within-10-strategies-to-become-a-successful-inhouse-seo

http://moz.com/rand/the-paradox-of-easy-vs-hard-to-measure-marketing-channels/

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