ranking factors on the nordics

Ranking Factors Of The Nordics SWE, NOR, FIN, DK

Marcus Tober

Stockholm

10/15/2013

10/16/2013 ® Searchmetrics Inc. 2013 │ Page 1

Founder of

Searchmetrics

I‘m in love with SEO

and search since

2001

Study of computer

science in Berlin, so

I’m the techie

Made with Love in

Berlin

120 passionate

People

Innovator in SEO

Software since 2007

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twitter.com/searchmetrics

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If you want to get the deck send an email to

marcus@searchmetrics.com with “Deck

SMX Stockholm”

Business

Product

Website

World Wide Web

Ranking S

Ranking Factors – 2013

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• Basis:

• google.se / google.no / google.fi / google.dk

• Top 3 SERPs

• 10.000 Keywords

• Organic search results (no paid search)

• Average Values according to the respective Position/s in the SERPs

• Correlation ≠ Causation

Google Ranking Factors US 2013

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Google Ranking Factors US 2013 vs 2012

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Change

Google Ranking Factors US 2013 vs 2012

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EMD

Panda

Penguin

GOOGLEvolution

Aug./Sept 2013

SEOvolution

Ø

=

Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Onpage

Keyword in Description

A low correlation does not necessarily mean low ranking factor

Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Onpage

BRANDS

Low/near-zero Correlation

BUT: ~45% have that Feature

Keyword in Description

Quality over quantity

Don‘t overuse ads!

Focus on content

Link Features

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Anchor Text!

Ranking Factors – US 2013: Links

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Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Links

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

Number of Backlinks

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

Much more Backlinks on foremost Positions!

Number of Backlinks

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

Ø SEO Visibility of backlinking URL

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

High SEO Visibility of Link Source on foremost Positions!

Ø SEO Visibility of backlinking URL

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

% Backlinks with Stopword

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

More Stopwords in Anchortext on foremost Positions!

% Backlinks with Stopword

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

BRANDS

More Nofollow Links on SERP 1!

% Backlinks rel=nofollow

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

% Backlinks rel=nofollow

Ranking Correlations: Backlinks

More Nofollow Links on SERP 1!

BRANDS

% Backlinks rel=nofollow

Anchor Texts

Ranking Correlation – Keyword Links

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Ranking Correlation – Keyword Links

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Rest In Peace

Mr. „Lin-K-Farm“

If this was part of your strategy

building business, good night!!!

It‘s really hard to perform

continously good!

But too much lazyness

And you become a loser.

Be laser sharp and focused

all the time.

SEOs are always looking for a single strong

signal that they can focus on. This is a

behavior since the beginning of SEO.

If you still think this is the key to success,

you‘ll always fear the next update!

Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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Penguin 2.0

Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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!

Mr. „Lin-K-Farm“

Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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Penguin 2.0

Recovered!

Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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Penguin 2.0 – Loser reeds.com

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Anchor Texts - Evolution

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Brand Link

www.domain.com

„Domain“ / Company, Product

Diluted Anchor

DO:

More (Stop)Words

in Anchor Text

DON‘T:

„Hard“

Anchor Texts

Neutral Anchor

here

Generic

Terms

Over-optimized…?

Over-optimized…?

„Elegant“ appearance?

Let‘s talk about awesome

Penguin recovery stories.

Penguin Recovery: skyscanner.se

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Recent Recovery

Penguin 1

Recovery

took 18 Months to recover

Penguin Recovery: skyscanner.se

Drop on Keyword Level

Loser: Week after Penguin

Penguin Recovery skyscanner.se

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#7 ~#7

Complete Recovery

Penguin Recovery skyscanner.se

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#1

~#3

Better than before

Penguin Recovery: skyscanner.se

Page 78

Winner: Last week

Penguin Recovery: skycanner.se

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Top Anchor Texts of Backlinks (October 2013)

Fewer „hard“ Anchor Texts more NEW Brandlinks

They build a lot of links in the past months

They build a lot of links in the past months

Penguin Recovery: check24.de

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True Recovery

Penguin

Recovery

ca. 03/25/2012

took 6 Months to recover

Penguin Recovery: check24.de

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Drop on Keyword Level

Loser: Week after Penguin

Penguin Recovery: check24.de

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New vs Lost Backlinks –6 Months after Penguin

Very good Strategy concerning new Linkbuilding + Removal of bad quality Links.

Penguin Recovery: check24.de

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Top Anchor Texts of Backlinks (Around Penguin)

„Hard“ Keyword Links

Penguin Recovery: check24.de

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Top Anchor Texts of Backlinks (October 2013)

Fewer „hard“ Anchor Texts more NEW Brandlinks

Onpage (technical) Features

Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Onpage

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Onpage

Keyword in URL

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Onpage

Keyword in URL

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Onpage

Keyword in Domain

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Onpage

Keyword in Domain

EMD is still working in the Nordics.

Social Signals and

Social Graph

Test #2

Search Engines want to deliver the best

results, fresh and relevant to the user.

Hundred of millions of people share content

every day in social networks.

Could there be a reason why search engines

wont be interested in this data?

Where is the value? A fresco from the

19th century

Rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent

making great content.

Matt Cutts - 08/20/2013 (Head of Google Webspam Team)

What do users click, like, share…?

Relevant Content!

World Wide Web

Relevant Content!

Click!

Social Signals

User Signals

3 2 1

Ranking Factors – US 2013 Social

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Ranking Factors – SWE 2013 Social

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Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

Google Plusones

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

Google Plusones

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

BRANDS

Much more Social Signals on foremost Positions!

Google Plusones

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

Facebook Total

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

Facebook Total

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Social

BRANDS

Much more Social Signals on foremost Positions!

Facebook Total

Just trying to decide the

politest way to debunk the

idea that more Google +1s lead to higher Google web rankings. […] Suffice it to say that I would be

very skeptical of anyone

who claimed that more +1s led to a higher search ranking in Google's web results.

Matt Cutts - 08/20/2013 (Head of Google Webspam Team)

Test Procedure of Tests #1 / #2

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Topic

Issue 1

Text 1a

Text 1b

Issue 2

Text 2a

Text 2b

Identic Keyword Set

Identic Keyword Set

Network Signal Takeaways

1.Number of Shares does not influence indexation

2.Shares alone do not necessarily effect indexation

1.PlusOnes nearly instantly effect indexation

2.44 / 48 keywords indexed and ranked on high(est) positions

Test #1

Network Signal Takeaways

1.Number of shares does not influence ranking

2.Shares alone can effect good rankings, but not in the long term

1.PlusOnes effect better rankings in average

2.Few PlusOnes are enough to outperform FB-rankings on the same keyword set

Test #2

Click!

Integration of Social Buttons

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Facebook

32,4%

Twitter

17,5%

Google+

16,6%

Pinterest 4,5%

Share This 2,7%

Addthis 9,8%

16,1%

13,1%

7,9%

7,5%

Integration of Social Buttons

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Facebook

34,5%

Twitter

17,5%

Google+

17,9%

Pinterest 3,5%

Share This 1,6%

Addthis 11,8%

15,6%

13,1%

7,9%

7,4%

Integration of Social Buttons

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Facebook

36,1%

Twitter

20,5%

Google+

17,4%

Pinterest 3,1%

Share This 1,6%

Addthis 10,3%

17,9%

12,8%

7,9%

8,6%

Users are looking for great content/products.

Users want to have their problems solved.

Users don’t like distraction, salesyness, thin me

too stuff. They want to be impressed!

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Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Content

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Content

Number of Words in Text

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Content

Slightly more Words on better Positions

BRANDS

Number of Words in Text

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Content

Number of Images on Site

Ranking Correlations – 2013: Content

More Images on foremost Positions

BRANDS

Number of Images on Site

What is relevant content? What‘s the user intention? What does the user really need?

Query: Chicken Marsala Recipe

http://www.olivegarden.com/Recipes/Main-Dishes/Chicken-Marsala/

They rank on #13

Content Optimization

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Content Optimization

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Content Optimization

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Content Optimization

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Ranking Factors – SWE 2013: Content

Ranking Correlation – 2013: Content

Proof Keywords

Ranking Correlation – 2013: Content

Proof Keywords

Ranking Correlation – 2013: Content

Relevant Keywords

Ranking Correlation – 2013: Content

Relevant Keywords

Your turn…

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