the state of seo: 2015 and beyond!

The State of SEO

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I GO A LITTLE OVERBOARD SOMETIMES

The universal answer to every

gardening question ever:

It depends…

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1. I started learning SEO in 2005, and I’m still learning. 2. I totally figured out the MSN Search & Win contest in

2006. 3. I won an award at SES 2008 for ‘Most Innovative Use of

Search Engine Optimization’.4. Danny Sullivan follow’d me on Twitter.5. I spoke on a panel at SMX West 2010 with the product

manager of Google Buzz.6. At SMX East 2012, I presented a ton of evidence of

blackhat/hacking related to payday loans. 8 months later, Google launched the ‘Payday Loan Update’ to their search algorithm. Coincidence?!? I think not!

7. At SMX Advanced 2014, I got a hashtag trending on Twitter (#SmallData).

UH OH. IT’S MY FIRST TIME WITH A MIC TO MYSELF

LET’S TALK MORE ABOUT ME

In order to understand who I am as an SEO, you need to know who I learned from.

1. Todd Friesen (aka Oilman)2. Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla)3. Todd Malicoat (aka StuntDubl)4. Dave Naylor (aka DaveN)5. Aaron Wall6. Bruce Clay, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, Matt

Cutts, Bill Hunt, Mike Grehan, Adam Audette, Markus Tandler, Avinash Kaushik, Shoemoney & more!

SEO was cool in 2005. Kinda seemed like this.

Kinda like we were roller-bladin’ phone phreakers.

And this was Google.

And I guess these guys were Matt Cutts.

We thought we were Zero Cool.

IN REALITY, WE WERE MORE LIKE THIS:

MY SEO HEROES ARE THE REASON WHY:

• I love to test new ideas.• I have 1,000+ Hotmail accounts.• I spread my sites across several servers.• I have different Google Analytics accounts for my

sites. (And why sometimes I don’t use GA!)• I’m into domain’ing.• I was sitting at my computer the exact moment

Facebook launched vanity URLs.• I have 100’s of Twitter handles.• I have dozens of Facebook pages.• I recently created a few dozen Ello accounts.

NONE OF THAT WORKS ANY MORE

Google installed its one millionth server on July 9, 2008. That’s a lot of processing power. It’s getting tougher and tougher to game their system.

Google’s 1st server

DISTANT MEMORIES OF SEO

For the longest time, the #1 goal of SEO was free traffic – and lots of it! It seemed like the only thing people cared about was increasing rankings and traffic.

TODAY’S SEO KNOWS BETTER

In 2015, we know that simply driving a lot of traffic doesn’t always achieve our goals.

In fact, I have seen several times where driving too much traffic had negative consequences:

Fewer “Qualified Visits”+ Increased Bounce Rate+ Decreased Conversion Rate+ Decreased Revenue Per Visit= Unhappy Client

VISITS INCREASED, BUT…

REVENUE INCREASED, BUT…

REPEAT AFTER ME:

“MORE TRAFFIC DOES NOT SOLVE MY PROBLEMS.”

RIDICULOUS HASHTAG OF THE DAY

MORETRAFFICDOESNOT SOLVE MYPROBLEMS.

#MTDNSMP“That hashtag

is ridiculous!”

LET’S SWITCH GEARS FOR A MINUTE

“That dog is ridiculous!”

The Future of SEO.

“Reasonably.”

The SEO Timeline: Matt Cutts Edition

2000 2014

• Feb-2003: Boston • Nov-2003: Florida• Jan-2005: NoFollow• Jun-2005: XML Sitemaps• Oct-2005: Jagger• May-2007: Personalized Search• Feb-2009: Rel-Canonical• Dec-2009: Real Time Search• Jun-2010: Caffeine• Feb-2011: Panda• Oct-2011: Not Provided• Apr-2012: Penguin

Before Cutts During Cutts After Cutts

<meta name=“keywords” content=“viagra,phentermine,viagra,viagra,blackjack,texas holdem,phenphen,online poker,viagra,payday loans,viagra,phentermine,viagra,viagra,blackjack,texas holdem,phenphen,online poker,viagra,payday loans,viagra,phentermine,viagra,viagra,blackjack,texas holdem,phenphen,online poker,viagra,payday loans,viagra,phentermine,viagra,viagra,blackjack,texas holdem,phenphen”>

WHICH IS MOST IMPORTANT?

Knowledge of the:

• SEO Past• SEO Present• SEO Future

Why does everyone obsess about the Future of SEO?

WORD CLOUD: SEO PREDICTIONS FOR 2015

Top Keywords:

• brand(s)• social• people• user(s)• device(s)• audience• voice• semantic• data

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ARTICLES?!

BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT. WE EAT IT UP! THESE SITES ARE SIMPLY FILLING THE SUPPLY SIDE OF THE EQUATION.

(Ironically, this is what every site should be doing. Find out what your visitors want – then give it to them!)

YOU CAN SEE THE DEMAND IN THE INDEX DATA

PERSONALLY, I LOVE THE FUTURE OF SEO!

1. It’s fun.2. It sparks my

imagination.3. It makes me wonder

where it’s all going.4. Clients frequently ask

about the future of SEO, so it’s good to know about the various predictions.

5. Sometimes, it makes me laugh.

MAYBE EVERYTHING WON’T CHANGE OVERNIGHT

“It is a mistake to think that moving fast is the same as actually going somewhere.” - Steve Goodier

“It feels like you're runningat an incredible rate, Harry.”

THERE’S SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT IT ALL

The majority of my clients have goals and projections they need to hit *THIS* year. Not 3-5 years from now. Most of our time is spent on strategies for immediate goals.

Furthermore:

“A clear trend in client-agency relationships is to terminate those that under-perform. In 1984, the average client-agency relationship tenure was 7.2 years. By 1997 (13 years later), that number declined by 25% to 5.3 years. Today the average client-agency tenure is thought to be less than three years.” (DigiDay)

http://digiday.com/agencies/10-alarming-stats-about-the-state-of-agencies/

WHERE TO START?

1. Mobile2. Local3. #Apptimization4. International5. Entity Search

“Whatcha gonna do, BROTHER?!”

IT REALLY GOES BACK TO DEFINING THE GOALS

For clients who need long-term growth 3-5 years down the road, focus on strategies that will help achieve those goals.

For clients who need short-term growth, focus on strategies that are working right now.

If there are goals in both time frames, develop a strategy that will set them up for success in both the short term and the long term.

IT’S ABOUT TIME FOR AN AVINASH QUOTE

“Without a clearly defined list of business

objectives you are doomed, because if

you don't know where you are going then any

road will take you there.”

TIME FOR A QUICK QUALITY CHECK

“You’re doing good!”

LET’S SWITCH GEARS FOR A MINUTE…AGAIN

#BearsWithBeaks

WHAT MAKES AN SEO?

Equal Parts:

• Marketer• Brand Enthusiast• Business Analyst• Data Nerd• Problem Solver• Sales Person• Economist• Technologist• Developer/Coder• Creative• Writer• Futurist• Reader/News Junkie• And many other skills!

“What would you say you do here?”

SEO’s GET ASKED TO DO A LOT!

1. Technical SEO2. Local SEO3. Mobile SEO4. Image SEO 5. Video SEO6. Content Strategy7. Usability & User Experience8. Information Architecture9. Digital Asset Management10. Affiliate Marketing

11. Social Media Marketing12. Reputation Management13. Relationship Management14. Link Building15. Conversion Rate Optimization16. Blogging (Writing, Topic Generation)17. Domain’ing18. Wordpess, Magento, Drupal19. Platform Optimization & Migration20. Analytics Analysis & Implementation

“SEO’s do #ALLTHETHINGS!”

Honey, I shrunk that list.

MY SEO PRIORITIES FOR 2015

1. Basic strategies that we have to get right – right now!• Meta Tags: Title tags & Description tags• Basic On-Page Elements: H tags, Alt tags, image captions, etc…• XML Sitemaps• Store Locators & Local Information• 3xx Redirects

2. Newer tactics that we have to get right – sooner rather than later.• Modern/Social meta tags: OpenGraph, Twitter Cards, Pinterest Rich Pins• Schema.org markup, especially location information• HTTPS (Secure Search)• SiteSpeed/PageLoad

3. Futuristic ideas that we need to research, learn & begin implementing.• App Indexing Best Practices• Content strategies for entity search & voice search• Anything & everything related to mobile experience

MEAT & POTATOESReal-World Tactics You Can Use Today & Tomorrow!

NOT PROVIDEDAdvice: It’s a hurdle. Jump over it.

“I’m so over ‘Not Provided’.”- @Rhea

BEST QUOTE OF 2014

TRY THIS: COUNT THE # OF URLS DRIVING VISITS

GA ORGANIC CHANNEL LANDING PAGE

TRY THIS: COUNT THE # OF URLS DRIVING VISITS

THAT NUMBER RIGHT THERE!

TRY THIS: GRAPH IT & LOOK FOR WEIRDNESS

THAT’S ODD.

TRACKING ALGO UPDATESAdvice: Look for any oddities in your daily organic visits data.

CAN YOU SPOT THE ALGO UPDATES?

TRY THIS: MEASURE 1 DAY BEFORE & AFTER

TRY THIS: MEASURE 3 DAYS BEFORE & AFTER

BONUS IDEA: DO THE SAME WITH RANKINGS DATA

RANKING REPORTSAdvice: URL-level reporting is the way to go.

TRY THIS: SEMRUSH FOR RANKINGS HISTORY

Path: SEMRush Organic Research Positions

NEXT: DOWNLOAD YOUR HISTORICAL DATA

NEXT: BUILD SOME PIVOT TABLES

Once you have the data, there is only one thing left to do…

PIVOT

TABLES!

BONUS: TABLE MATCHES EXPLAINED

NEXT: GRAPH THE DATA (TRADITIONAL VIEWS)

NEXT: GRAPH THE DATA (MODERN VIEWS)

LINKBUILDING & LINKSAdvice: Don’t be dumb. Be smart. Don’t be careless. Be careful.

TRY THIS: “LINK RECLAMATION”

1. Download all the URLs that have driven traffic in the past 2 years.• Get this data from GA, Omniture, CoreMetrics, etc…

2. Download your link profile/history from:• Google WMT, Majestic, Moz, AHREFS, etc…

3. Merge all the URLs from 1 and 2; Filter for uniques.

4. Crawl those URLs.

5. Look for any response codes other than a 200. • Specifically, look for 3xx, 4xx & 5xx codes.

6. Build/Update the redirects for URLs 3xx, 4xx & 5xx codes.

7. BOOM. Free Links!

CONTENTAdvice: Adapt to conversational search. Create topic hubs.

TRY THIS: TOPIC HUBS (ENTITY SEARCH)

“A good site for topical hubs could be a microsite. We have just to think of our site as if it was a composition of microsites all contextually connected.” - @gfiorelli1

https://twitter.com/gfiorelli1

SEMANTIC SEARCH

"Semantic search is a search or a question or an action that produces meaningful results, even when the retrieved items contain none of the query terms, or the search involves no query text at all.“ - Tamas Doszkocs

CAN I HELP YOU?

Gotta love this SERPs template, right?

TRY THIS: MINE YOUR ONSITE SEARCH DATA

If you’re not looking at your

website’s onsite search data, this owl disapproves of your entire SEO

campaign.

TRY THIS: MINE YOUR ONSITE SEARCH DATA

If this is your first time to look at your website’s

onsite search data, brace yourselves.

ONSITE SEARCH TAKEAWAYS

1. Look at your site’s onsite search data.

2. Use that data to determine what your customers are looking for.

3. Take all of that and build some pages that target your customers’ needs.

REGARDING THE QUALITY OF YOUR CONTENT

You should look at your content the same way Uncle Jesse looked at Aunt Becky. You should be singing to your content: “I’ll be forever loving you.”

You should love your content as much as Macho Man loved Miss Elizabeth.

HULK HOGAN SHOULD BE POINTING AT YOU!

CRUSHING IT: BUZZFEED

CRUSHING IT: HUFFPO

CRUSHING IT: VICE

XML SITEMAPSAdvice: Yes. These still matter. Maybe more than ever.

REMEMBER THESE THINGS?

Everyone takes it for granted that their sitemaps are complete, accurate, and up-to-date.

DUANE’S ADVICE

“Right, because if you start showing me 301s in here, rel=canonicals, 404 errors, all of that, I'm going to start distrusting your sitemap and I'm just not going to bother with it anymore.”- @DuaneForrester (Mar. 3, 2011)

Source: http://moz.com/blog/bings-duane-forrester-on-webmaster-tools-metrics-and-sitemap-quality-thresholds

http://moz.com/blog/bings-duane-forrester-on-webmaster-tools-metrics-and-sitemap-quality-thresholds

KERRY’S XML SITEMAPS TO-DO LIST

1. Go find all of your XML sitemap file(s)2. Make sure they are listed in your robots.txt3. Crawl all of your sitemaps4. Look for any URLs that are no returning a 200

status code; fix them or remove them from the sitemap.

5. If possible, break your sitemaps into groups by products and/or categories.

6. If you can, break them into smaller batches. It makes it easier to diagnose problems.

Rel=Alternate Tags for Your International Sites

URL SPECIFICALLY FOR #WORLDCUP

APP INDEXINGAdvice: This is a thing now.

LET’S TALK ABOUT APPS

GOOGLE IS SENDING SEARCHERS TO APPS

“Today, we’re expanding it to work for English content worldwide. And we’re including 24 more apps…

– Google Search Blog (Apr. 3, 2014)

http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2014/04/accessing-your-app-content-in-google.html

BING IS DOING IT, TOO.

THE PATH FOR ORGANIC SEARCHERS IS CHANGING

INITIAL SEARCH

OR

WEBSITEVISIT

APPVISIT

WHEN YOUR APP GETS INDEXED…

AppLaunches

You may notice a drop in organic traffic to your website as Google and Bing begin to send more organic search to your app instead.

GETTING YOUR APP INDEXED

More on APP indexing & structured data from @JustinRBriggs: http://www.slideshare.net/justinrbriggs/increasing-mobile-visibility-with-structured-datao

http://www.slideshare.net/justinrbriggs/increasing-mobile-visibility-with-structured-datao

BRACE YOURSELVES

SEARCH ENGINE #APPTIMIZATION

A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF APP KPI’s

If organic search begins to drive searchers to your app, you will need to track their behavior in the app.

1. Users2. Session Length3. Session Interval4. Time in App5. Acquisition6. Screen Flow7. Retention8. Lifetime Value9. …and more!

Get ready for App KPI’s. It’s going to get fun.

SITE MONITORINGAdvice: It’s more important now than ever.

TRY THIS: MONITOR YOUR VISITS BY DIMENSION

1. Pull your organic visits data daily.2. Trend based on ‘Source’. (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc…)3. Trend based on ‘Device’. (iPhone, Galaxy S5, iPad, etc…)4. Trend based on ‘Operating System’.5. Trend based on ‘Browser’.6. Monitor for any sudden changes.

Benefits:- Quickly identifying site issues.- Quickly identifying algo updates.

PRO TIP: MONITOR YOUR TITLE TAGS IN THE SERPS

Recent AuthorityLabs study suggests Google is modifying title tags 60% of the time.

http://authoritylabs.com/blog/title-tags/

CASE STUDY: SITE STABILITY & RANKINGS

Lesson: Google is fast to drop you out of the SERPs.

Site 1: Server errors for 3-4 days.

CASE STUDY: SITE STABILITY & RANKINGS

Lesson: Google is fast to drop you out of the SERPs.

Site 2: Site down for 8 weeks.

YOU SEE…WEBSITES ARE KINDA LIKE FAMILIES.

LOVELY PARENTS, BEAUTIFUL KIDS, NICE HOUSE…

BUT DON’T FORGET ABOUT THAT ONE COUSIN.

“SH!TTER WAS FULL!”

“IT’S TIME TO CLEAN UP YOUR SH!T.” - @kerrydean

Site B

Lesson: Fix your 4xx & 5xx status codes.

STUFF I’M TIRED OF HEARINGAdvice: You might be tired of it, too.

UGGHHH….

1. “Just build great content.”2. “Google says…”

“That really grinds my gears!”

OH, AND THIS ONE, TOO.

3. “Buying links is bad.”

“Your advice is bad, and you should feel bad!”

SPEED ROUNDAdvice: The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.

THE BEST SEO ADVICE EVER.

CREATE A CULTURE OF TESTING.

THE BEST SEO ADVICE EVER. PERIOD.

STOP READING ABOUT SEO.

START DOING SEO.

THE BEST SEO ADVICE EVER (REGARDING PRIORITIES)

“If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”

- Deion Sanders#PrimeTime

THE BEST SEO ADVICE EVER (REGARDING GOOGLE)

THIS IS WHAT THEY DO. GET USED TO IT. FIND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE CHANGES.

CONCLUSION

SOMETIMES, THIS IS SEO. #DistantFuture

SOMETIMES, THIS IS SEO. #NearFuture

SOMETIMES, THIS IS SEO. #RightNow

THIS IS ALSO SEO. #TheRecentPast

AND, SOMETIMES, THIS IS SEO.

“I suggest you gentlemen invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole.”

“We've got to find a way to make this... fit into the hole for this... using nothing but that.”

The good news is that SEO’s love a challenge.

Meet every challenge with this statement:

“I’m your Huckleberry.”

BONUS PRO TIP

“Always end your presentation with a picture of a cat.” - @kerrydean

THANKS!

the state of seo: 2015 and beyond!

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future of seo

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