1@RyanJones

Pubcon Las Vegas 2012Slides Online at www.RyanMJones.com

Sustainable SEO

@RyanJonesManager – SEO AnalyticsSapientNitro

www.SapientNitro.com

www.RyanMJones.com

2@RyanJones

“ What Is Sustainable SEO?”

3@RyanJones

The Google Penalty Algorithm

Google makes over 350 changes to their algorithm EACH YEAR!

• Farmer• Panda• Ads Above Fold• Link Networks• Parked Domains• Over Optimization?• Penguin• Exact Match Domains

RT @RyanJones It’s time we stop thinking about algorithm updates as “penalties” and ask how we can benefit from them.

Photoshop credit: Kevin Madden

4@RyanJones

“ Algorithm Chasing Isn’t Sustainable

SEO”

Photoshop credit: Kevin Madden

5@RyanJones

RT @RyanJones Good SEOs get hit by Google algorithm changes. Great SEOs benefit from them.

Good SEOs get hit by Algorithm Changes.

Great SEOs benefit from them.

Algorithm Change

6@RyanJones

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. – Wayne Gretzky

7@RyanJones

“Good SEOs optimize for Google today. Great SEOs optimize for Google of the future. – @RyanJones

8@RyanJones

“So What will the Google of the

future actually look like?”

9@RyanJones

“The Future of Search Is Verbs”- Bill Gates

Searchers want to accomplish a task. Google rewards sites that help searchers do something. Does your site help users accomplish a task?

RT @RyanJones It doesn’t matter how many links you have if your site is crap.

10@RyanJones

You’re Doing It Wrong

Don’t Ask: Do Ask:

“How Can I Rank For ___?”

“What does somebody searching ___ want?”

11@RyanJones

Stop Chasing The Algorithm. Start

Chasing Visitors!

RT @RyanJones “Make decisions based on visitors and KPIs, NOT

algorithm changes.

12@RyanJones

Focus On The User

Google’s efforts are focused on the user.

So why are your efforts focused on Google?

13@RyanJones

YOU Aren’t the Typical Google

User

Reminder: We (Marketers) are NOT Google’s main customer.

Most Google Searchers have NEVER heard of:• Link Wheels• Paid Links• Xrumer/Scrapebox• Link Directories• Content Scraping• Black Hat or Negative SEO

And they don’t care about. They care about QUALITY.

14@RyanJones

This Is a Typical Google Searcher

Maybe your cat stares because you keep winking at it?

15@RyanJones

“Jones, you’re full of shit. You sound like a Google PR person. I have great

content and my site doesn’t rank.

- Somebody At The Breeze Bar Tonight

16@RyanJones

Make Your Site Unique

Vital. Useful. Relevant. Not Relevant. Spam.Source: Leaked Google Quality Rater Guidelines

RT @RyanJones Google isn’t biased toward brands, customers are.

17@RyanJones

Differentiate & Add Value. Quality is Sustainable.

HOW?

Freshness

Better User Experience

Better Content

Most Popular

Schema.org

Rel=author

Unique Content

Be that Vital result

If people don’t find your site when they search, they should think that search is broken.

18@RyanJones

How Do You Measure Quality?

• Bounce Rate• Time On Site• Conversion Metrics (KPIs, LFAs, Revenue)• Referring sites

• Do people click those links you’re building?

19@RyanJones

A Quick Example and A Quick Rant

20@RyanJones

Practice Sustainable Linking

Practices

Bad:www.company.com/2012/widgets/www.company.com/2013/widgets/

The Apple way:www.apple.com/ipad/

Internal Link Structure:

External Links:If the link isn’t sending traffic, it’s not sustainable.

21@RyanJones

Quit Blaming Your Suck On

Panda/Penguin/Google

Source: seroundtable.com survey

3.1%Source: Google

Percent of Queries Affected By Penguin

22@RyanJones

Pubcon Las Vegas 2012Slides Online at www.RyanMJones.com

THANK YOU

@RyanJonesManager – SEO AnalyticsSapientNitro

www.SapientNitro.com

www.RyanMJones.com