how seo blinded me (then opened my eyes)
DESCRIPTION
Laying out some of the myths and misconceptions about SEO, with a focus on tips for startups planning to do SEO in 2013.TRANSCRIPT
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
Searcher Clicks are Biased
by Domain Branding!
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
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/great-content-for-seo-simpler-than-you-ever-imagined
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://moz.com/rand/manufacturing-serendipity/
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/
