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@SEARCHMOJO SEARCH-MOJO.COM 800.939.5938 JANET DRISCOLL MILLER TAD MILLER SEARCH MOJO @SEARCHMOJO SEARCH-MOJO.COM 800.939.5938

Top 14 SEO Myths...Busted!

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Watch the full webinar: http://bit.ly/1dQAh3i Pandas, Penguins and Hummingbirds…oh my! Staying current with all the changes Google makes to its search algorithm is enough to make even the most experienced SEOs want to scream. On top of that, speculation runs rampant on what exactly different updates mean and how they’ll affect your organic search traffic. How do you know what’s truth and what’s fiction? During this webinar, Search Mojo’s Janet Driscoll Miller and Tad Miller will review 14 of the biggest myths in SEO and debunk them, one by one, so you can focus on the SEO tactics that really matter. What You’ll Learn: • Are the rumors about the death of SEO really true, or greatly exaggerated? • How do social signals really factor into search rankings? • Are press releases and guest posts still OK, or too risky?

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Page 1: Top 14 SEO Myths...Busted!

@SEARCHMOJO

SEARCH-MOJO.COM

800.939.5938

JANET DRISCOLL MILLER

TAD MILLER

SEARCH MOJO @SEARCHMOJO

SEARCH-MOJO.COM

800.939.5938

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SEARCH-MOJO.COM @searchmojo #mojowebinar

Janet Driscoll Miller

President and CEO,

Search Mojo

Follow on Twitter: @janetdmiller

Tad Miller,

Vice President of Accounts,

Search Mojo

Follow on Twitter: @jstatad

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SEARCH-MOJO.COM @searchmojo #mojowebinar

• Search engine marketing firm founded in 2005

– Search engine optimization (SEO)

– Pay-per-click advertising management (PPC)

– Social media advertising

– Online reputation management

• Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA

– Office in Charleston, SC

• Featured in the Washington Post, B2B Magazine,

MarketingSherpa, Visibility Magazine and many blogs

• Speakers at SMX Advanced, MarketingProfs, PubCon and more

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“Just put all the keywords you

want to rank for in the Meta Tag

Keywords…”

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• The <meta> tag provides metadata about

the HTML document.

• Example:

– <meta name="keywords" content="b2b lead

generation services, search engine marketing

agency, search engine optimization agency">

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NOPE!

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Passing PageRank Spiders Following a Link

Treats the link like a vote of popularity on a subject (subject may partially be defined by anchor text)

Spiders/search bots use links like a highway to find new content and index it

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“You want to be #1 on

Google? All you have to do

is spend a lot of money

advertising on Google…”

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• Natural search results are derived from an

Algorithmic math formula factoring in at least

200 different factors about websites…none of

which includes advertising spend

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• Penguin focused on

linkspam

• “Any links intended to

manipulate PageRank or a

site's ranking in Google

search results may be

considered part of a link

scheme and a violation of

Google’s Webmaster

Guidelines. This includes

any behavior that

manipulates links to your

site.”

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“SEO is easy. If you want to

rank #1 for “Crossover

Vehicles”, just buy the

domain:

www.crossovervehicles.com

and Voila!

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• Then Google rolled out the Exact

Match Domain Update

• You no longer can get strong

rankings solely based on your

domain name. You have to fulfill the

other ranking requirements too.

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• Maybe not dead, just not as important

as before.

• Google’s guidelines re: link schemes

– “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases

distributed on other sites.”

• Google: If you are publishing a press release or an article on your

site and distribute it through a wire or through an article site, you

must make sure to nofollow the links if those links are “optimized

anchor text.”

• Pubcon 2013, Matt Cutts:

– Press releases are considered “paid links”

– Google just doesn’t count them

– Press release anchor-text linking isn’t necessarily helping you today

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• Messages from Google are cryptic.

Make press release links

“nofollow” and avoid anchor

text optimization.

We don’t follow those links

anyways because they are

paid links.

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PubCon – Oct 2013 - During Q&A, Cutts discussed links from press release sites. He said Google

identified the sites that were press release syndication sites and simply discounted them. He does

stress that press release links weren’t penalized, because press release sites do have value for

press and marketing reasons, but those links won’t pass PageRank.

“Google has identified “a lot” of the top Press Release sites and ignores the links but

doesn’t penalize those who are using them.”

Late July 2013

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• There are MILLIONS of press releases with links in them

that have existed for years on MILLIONS of different sites

• They aren’t going to require anyone to find every

instance of these and find the locations of every reprint

so that you can request the nofollow attribute on the link

• Most press release distributors don’t even have an option

to make links nofollow

• The real burden is on the PR distribution service to make

links nofollow on a going forward basis

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• Expect a Google Power Play vs.

Press Release Distributors. – Likely use of “User Generated Spam

Penalties” that remove offending pages from

the Google Index

– Google will force nofollow on the Press

Release distributors

– Real benefit is in the distribution, not on the

distributor site

• Again, these are most likely going

forward changes. Not retro-active

punishments

“Google has identified “a lot” of the top

Press Release sites and ignores the links

but doesn’t penalize those who are using

them.”

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“A true guest blogger is usually someone who is

an expert on the subject matter and doesn’t drop

a heavy amount of keywords in their anchor

text.”

“Guest blogging seems like it’s the fad of the

month,” said Cutts, but he says it is best done in

moderation. “It shouldn’t be your full-time job.”

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• Facebook Shares are the

biggest ranking factor…

• Facebook Likes are a

ranking factor

• Social media follower

counts can get you to the

top

• Google +1’s are ranking

factor

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• Google does not use Facebook

share data – in fact Facebook

blocks access to that data

• Google does not use Google

+1 votes as a ranking factor: – “(I’m) Just trying to decide the politest way to debunk

the idea that more Google +1s lead to higher Google

web rankings.”

Matt Says…

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• Links on Facebook Fan or Company pages still count a

little

– Also open Personal Facebook pages with no privacy

settings

• Links on Social Channels without the nofollow attribute

count

– Sometimes third-party aggregator sites strip off the

nofollow

• Don’t expect a lot from these kind of links. They don’t

scale into much.

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• The default setting for Google signed-in

users is “Search Plus Your World”

• These results are heavily personalized on

search history, location and the

connections and content associated in

Google Plus with +1 votes and G+ shares

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• AuthorRank vs. Authority

– Authority = measure of importance on a subject

– AuthorRank = type of algorithm adjustment

Current: PageRank

PR 8

PR 3 PR 6

Coming: PageRank + AuthorRank

+

PR 8

AR 10

PR 3 PR 6

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• Only 3.5% of Fortune 100 have adopted

authorship

• “Google is unable to use Authorship as a

ranking signal if important authors aren’t

participating.” – AJ Kohn

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• Site maps are more about giving search engines an

efficient, clutter free path to look at your web

pages

• Benefits:

– Deeper Indexing

– More Frequent Indexing

• Don’t assume your site is easy to crawl

• Site Maps are not likely to improve rankings unless

they allow a page to be found that search engines

haven’t seen before

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• What is schema (aka structured markup)?

– Added information in your HTML

– Helps search engines understand the type of

content (think context)

• “Marking up your data for rich snippets

won't affect your page's ranking in search

results, and Google doesn’t guarantee to

use your markup.”

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• “…new engine built on both existing and new

parts, organized in a way to especially serve

the search demands of today”

• Affects 90% of all searches

• The search demands of today are mobile style

conversational searches

– “What is the best place to eat hamburgers

in Charlottesville”

– “When does Big Head Todd and the

Monsters play Charlottesville”

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• Google Announced the Algorithm update

on September 26, but it was actually

rolled out on August 20

• We can’t tell that a single ranking from

our clients was impacted at all

• So much press, so much discussion, so

much supposition…

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• Google needed a better way to understand

the conversational queries

• “Siri-like” voice queries that are longer

• Better understanding of natural language &

synonyms

• Improved Query Processing

• It doesn’t really change what you should do

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• Inbound links

– Press releases

– Spammy sites

• Greater emphasis on content

– Authorship

• Greater emphasis on social

– Google+

• SEO has become more holistic

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Contact Search Mojo:

Sean McCusty

800-939-5938 ext. 116

[email protected]

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10 Killer Hacks for Remarketing Success

November 21, 2013

2:00 p.m. ET

Register today at

www.search-mojo.com/remarketing

Scott Garrett

Account Manager

Search Mojo

Sarah Wyland

Account Manager

Search Mojo

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SEARCH-MOJO.COM @searchmojo #mojowebinar

Google+: +Search Mojo

Twitter: @SearchMojo

Facebook:

facebook.com/searchmojo

Janet Driscoll Miller

Twitter: @janetdmiller

Google+: +Janet Driscoll Miller

Tad Miller

Twitter: @jstatad

Google+: +Tad Miller