Advanced SEO Strategies 2012

Tim Grice

Head of Search, Branded3

High Value, Natural Link Signals

• Why in Content?• Anchor Text Variation• ‘News’ Strategy• Freshness• Developing Natural Signals

In Content Links Work Better

• More defendable• Less likely to be devalued• Compliment Outreach• More relevant

Anchor Text Variation

• Old advice but still under used• Use ‘related searches’ + Google Suggest • Avoids filters and adds value

News Strategy

Regular Content Updates

Agree on Commentary

Re-write Content

Incorporate Brand

Publish through news

sites

Push Story to Sourced Blogs

Syndication Spread Story

Through Social Media

Monitor Alerts for Link

Opportunities

Why it works…

• Mimic’s the natural spread of content aroundthe web

• Creates a natural link spike• Brand signals work• A natural spread of authority

‘Fresh Rank’

• Google wants up to date content• A page can be deemed ‘fresh’ through

inbound links• Links placed in ‘crawled’ content have low

value

Freshness Test

Developing Natural Signals

• Google improving link analysis• Anchor text variation and brand• Location of links• Authority spread of incoming links• Justify your links• Targeting ‘high’ metrics only, is a mistake

Protecting Your Site

Variation = Filter Protection

Anchor Text

• Decide on 10 – 15 keywords per page• Use ‘Brand’ and ‘Noise’ signals• Use the Google Keyword tool/Suggest/Related

Searches• Helps understand the true SEO value of a

page

Variation in Action!

Link Types“It’s not all about metrics”

Paid Link Profile

Google Panda

• Biggest Offences> Internal duplicated content> Cross domain duplication> Pagination issues> Thin pages

• SEO teams need be involved in every site update

• Panda is not a link based algorithm

International SEO + hreflang

• Google has issues with duplicated content across international sites

• Consolidate page signals using the language tag

• Canonical link same language sites back to the master domain (.com, .ie, .co.uk, .ca etc…)

• All sites benefit from the authority of the canonical domain

Competitor Strategies6 Questions to ask:

• What type of links are they? • What is the spread of authority?• Which countries do they come from?• Which sites do they publish content on?• At what rate are they building links?• What is their overall PR/Social Strategy?

The Links

• Editorial links• Text links/Paid Links• Banner image links• Link Spam• Infographics / Social Links• Bookmarking & Forums

Always pick the better links to copy, these are the

ones with the most longevity.

Open Site Explorer

Authority Spread

Link Location

http://blekko.com/

Majestic SEO

• How aggressive are competitors?• Can you overtake them?

Infographics• Use Image Search to find linking sites

Social Link Strategy

• What news are they syndicating?• What link bait ideas worked & who linked

to them?• Where do they guest blog?

Search Metrics

• What content works best?

ROI + SEO

• Much more difficult than Paid Search• Rarely develop ROI on a keyword basis• You need to understand where your biggest

opportunities are• Best to measure ROI on a page basis

Cumulative SEO Benefit• Decide on target keywords per page• Estimate cumulative traffic• Use average conversion data to estimate

value• Expect to wait 12 months to break even

Opportunity Analysis

Opportunity

Conversion Rate

Potential

Traffic

Ranking

Opportunity Analysis

• Look for relevant keywords ranking between 12 – 20

• Estimate potential traffic• Factor in average conversion rate• Quickest avenue to ROI• Can use multiple API’s to automatically

process

Attack + Defend Strategy

• High value keywords need maintaining • Attack terms can be moved into defence once

rankings achieved• Less effort needed to defend keywords• Allows you to target more terms without

increasing budgets

Learning more…

• Read SEOwizz.net & Blogstorm.co.uk

• Email tim.grice@branded3.com for free SEO advice or connect on Twitter @tim_grice

• Visit our website www.branded3.com