Futureproofing Your SEO Strategy

Wil Reynolds – SEER Interactive

History

Relevance NEVER gets old

History

Meta Tags & Cloaking

Keyword Density

PageRank Years (Real Content)

Linking / Reciprocal

Linking / Buying

Linkbaiting / Social Media

1998

2007

Tech Savvy

Marketing Savvy

History

History

Are all shooting for RELEVANCY!

History

Video

Google Universal

Ask 3d

Google One-Box

Yahoo “One-Box”

Linkbait

Digg

Del.ic.ous

Reporting LinksGoogle &

Yahoo News

Image Optimization

Reputation Management

Local

Facebook / Myspace

Social Media

Wikipedia

Directory Links

PR Optimization

Stumbleupon

Examples (after video / personal, what’s next?)

Feedburner – what spammers sign up for it?Google Reader

• Look at subscribers to blog• Growth of subscribers• Who subscribes (active blog readers or one timers looking to spam the search engines?)• Starred•Shared / E-mailed

Google is a RegistrarYahoo owns Del.ic.ous and as of Feb just started testing the integration

Examples (after video / personal, what’s next?)

http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/yahoodelicious.jpg

Examples (after video / personal, what’s next?)

The search engines KNOW what converts on one site versus another…HOW?

YOU TELL THEM!

Conversion codes + Google analytics + Microsoft Gatineau + Landing Page Optimizer = FREE for you & FREE Conversion data for Google.

They have data on how well your site connects with their searchers.

Examples (after video / personal, what’s next?)

http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/yahoodelicious.jpg

Examples (after video / personal, what’s next?)

Yahoo just bought buzztracker (hmmmm)Data in AdWords / Yahoo / MSN (Conversion rates?)Google Radio / PrintBorrowed from Rand Fishkin (SEOMOZ.ORG)•Link Traffic (Toolbars)•E-mail mentions

Futureproofing your SEO strategy

Step 1 – Start thinking more like a marketer than a techie Stop worrying about:

Keyword densityCharacter limitsMeta tagsNumber of linksRankingsAlgorithmsPatentsTrafficPLURALS – NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK

Step 2 – Start think in about RELEVANCY & REVENUES Step 3 – Go buy a HEAP of patience

Futureproofing your SEO strategy

Start Small & Realistic SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty tool How we did it for ourselves (Local vs. Global) New domains?

Stay Relevant Land Grab of keywords = bad strategy

Spread yourself too thin Build your theme first

Buy links, YES you heard me, if you are starting from scratch, get your directory links! They should help you rank for smaller less competitive terms WHILE you

are being patient and building themed links, which comes with time. Evaluating Directories (more than PR)

What do these kids have to do with linking?

What do these kids have to do with linking?

A) They represent offshore workers from China, Costa Rica, Romania, and Jamaica?

B) They are child laborers who are held against their will and made to get links?

C) By standing next to each other they are building an easily identifiable “link farm”

NOTE: Should they move to different class c’s?

D) Nothing, as one would have to be Green to represent Google’s Pagerank toolbar

E) They all work on Google’s webspam team and smile for every site they zap from the results

What do these kids have to do with linking?

They illustrate link diversity

Paid Link Kid Hates: Matt Cutts & no-follow tags

Likes: Microsoft / Yahoo

Less important than he used to be (hiding behind the other kids).

Still has value (why he’s in the picture). Getting too many of this shady character can

lead to penalties / banning / etc Friends with Florida update kid (RIP)

Linkbait Kid Hates:Likes: + Social Media +

Video + Stumbleupon + Mixx +

Digg algorithm changes Social traffic can bring down a server BE CREATIVE (takes time) Be involved / know the right people Result in legit links that may carry good long

term value Big shot in the arm

Blogger Kid Hates: Comment SpammersLikes: People who add value

to her blog

Hard to court Links attained are often on theme The harder to get = the higher the value Has a big ego, play to it Link value likely to last a LONG TIME = most

relevant

PR KID Hates: Losing his jobLikes: Newspapers / traditional

media

Old school Links are typically high value Likes press releases Not going to drive the same quick value Small but good impact - not in a shady way

like paid link kid

What do these kids have to do with linking?

They illustrate link diversity Bought (Asian)

Background, not really out in the forefront Linkbait (Hispanic)

Hey everyone look at me, I’m wearing Delicious / stumbleupon / Digg colors

Niche Content (African American Girl) Not as in the forefront, but is niche and has a voice

(bloggers) Press Releases / Real PR (Caucasian)

Smallest smile, tried and true tactics that get attention

Link Diversity

Trying to rank well for the future is important, but you can NOT forget what it takes to rank well TODAY, ok?

Free & Bought directory links are having LESS and LESS value everyday, but they still have SOME value.

Use them to rank well for easier terms, but they won’t help as much for competitive terms, to rank well for the long haul for competitive terms you have to have patience and build your profile.

Does Stuffing a KW Tag make you an SEO?

NOPE….Then….

Adding a digg / del.ic.ous button isn’t social media optimization

Writing a blog isn’t bloggingDeveloping a whitepaper isn’t promoting a whitepaperRecording a video and putting it online isn’t video

optimizationDoing a press release isn’t PR SEO

Wake up, you don’t have anything worth linking to!

Digg, del.ic.ous, stumbleupon, facebook, myspace, blogs, RSS, blah blah blah won’t mean SQUAT if you don’t have something worth linking to.

FREE is always good, giving something VALUABLE for FREE is HUGE…build a Digital Asset Inventory and keep building, some will strike out, some will catch on!

Again, Patience - some will strike out, some will catch on!

Become a marketer!

Asset Inventory

Promote Whitepapers Syndicate Whitepaper of the day Paid search

Press Releases / Press Contacts Understanding buying cycles / keywords used by analysts vs.

developers vs. CIOs Blogs

DevelopmentBlog roll / link to / collaborate with influential bloggers in the

space Participation, build reputation, get to know them

Speaking events / tradeshows / career fairs at colleges (get the .edu link;)

Futureproofing your SEO - Google

How do you get here?

What just happened to the value of this #1 Ranking and the Traffic it drove?

How do you classify your info by Main Ingredient & Cuisine?

Futureproofing your SEO - Yahoo

How do you get here?

What just happened to the value of this #1 Ranking and the Traffic it drove?

Jock Itch, Google and your search strategy

Here we go again.

How does this affect mayoclinic.com traffic?

What will they do about this?

Jock Itch, Google and your search strategy

Look at what happens when you click on “treatment”

How does this affect mayoclinic.com traffic?

Puts them in #2!

Uh oh

Jock Itch, Google and your search strategy

Integration of Video into the SERPS

What happens to the top SERP Value?

So what do we have here?

•Who is allowed here? •Can you get there?•What industry is next, hotels?•What does it do to the value of a top SERP?•What if they did this for cheap tickets?

What happens to the top SERP Value?

Gord Hotchkiss – Eye Study – Impact

How do you optimize your digital assets?

• Say something powerful, stop regurgitating the same information everyone else is

• Remember the Internet is about FREE (NY Times)• Don’t be scared to give GOOD secrets away (someone else will)• Build a “theme” by raising your prominence on industry blogs /

forums• Comment on popular blogs• Link to popular blogs in your blogroll• Become a “guest” blogger on those blogs• Build tools for the industry and give them away for free• Troll blogs for problems people have in your industry and develop

solutions, marketplaces, whitepapers, instructional videos, etc

Optimizing Video

• Video

• Upload to Youtube / Google Video

• Revver, Myspace, Metacafe

• TUBE MOGUL – Save time (Thanks Shawn)

• Podcast

• Transcribe Videos

• Embed tags into the video

• Solicit syndication

• Respond to comments

Fear Yahoo/MSN/ASK, well kind of•These sites are content developers as much as they are aggregators. Google doesn’t develop content!

•Partnerships?•Local reviews in SERPS (Google)•Fantasy Football•Travel (already)•Hotels•Eco-Friendly items•Google co-op

•If Yahoo / MSN develops content it increases the likelihood that they may place their own content above yours, pushing it further down.

How to Win?

Do what you need to do TODAY to rank well (http://www.youtube.com/wilreynolds)

PREPARE for what you need tomorrow!

Picking the right keywords – My Favorite Tool

Who here has used MSN ad Intelligence?

Picking the right keywords

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:•Get REAL number of searches for terms•Determine if a search is more likely to be done internationally•Get the male/female split for search terms, along with age?•Be given related keywords for the main terms you type in (flaws with Google Suggest, use Yahoo for broader research)•SEE what related words your competitors are likely to bid on•Get reports on areas of the web that are catching a lot of search buzz based on dates you select?•Understand trends with real numbers not relative•Audit the trends graphs in Google trends•Get paid search clicks relative to position for all keywords and match types, also get pricing

Picking the right keywords

And you can do it all in EXCEL (2008)

How to Win - ToolsAlways know what your competition is up to:

Ranking Reports on your competition (Digitalpoint)Touchgraph - How are you doing building a theme?

Are you competitors building the theme better?Review their links, determine value and follow

Google AlertsCopernic Tracker (keep up with changes)Link value toolsCompetitive analysis

Press mentions, what sources?Social Media MentionsYoutube

Spyfu / quantacast / keyword volume on brand name (Google Trends or msn adlab)Mentions of SMEs at the sites of your competitorsMentions in forums: http://www.boardtracker.com/

How to Win?There are two constants with search

1 – It always changes

2 – the search engines are always looking to get the most relevant answers to people’s queries.

How do you stay ahead?

1 – Read, Read, Read, experiment, experiment, experiment

2 – Develop a suite of digital assets around your business theme and continue developing them, when the next thing gets “hot” you’re covered