What’ s Up in SEO Land? Observations and curious happenings from Nov + Dec 2011 Rand Fishkin | CEO http://bit.ly/mozcationsea2011

1) Advertising Gone Too Far?

Whoa. That’s a Lot of Vertical Ad Space. https://www.google.com/search?q=credit+card+offers

Those Are Some Aggressive Ads! https://www.google.com/search?q=led+tvs Privacy? Ack!

If Your Keyword Referrals Fluctuate, Look at: Rankings Drop Seasonal Fluctuation Changes to Auto-Suggest Query Volume Your Performance SERP Changes Snippet Changes Brand Sentiment Verticals Advertising Blocks Visual Changes Demand Shifts Rankings vs. Visits in the Moz Web App

2) Rich Snippet Changes

No More Whitelisting? http://yoast.com/rich-snippets-everywhere/

Single Reviews as Snippets Note the review given by Jsoczka

Rel Author + Rich Snippets https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+series+9 16 reviews 4 reviews One dude’s review?

3) Video in SERPs

Whoa. Video is Everywhere… https://www.google.com/search?q=police+slog

Whoa. Video is Everywhere… http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/it-should-be-harder-to-rank-in-googles-universal-results-than-this/5164/ Not actually a video

4) Keyword Data

There’s a Lot of Not Provided http://www.seomoz.org/blog/quantifying-googles-keyword-referral-data-shutdown 23.4% of visits are (not provided); up from 18.34% the 1 st 2 weeks of Nov.

Dick Move! http://www.everywhereist.com/category/dick-move/

5) Bing vs. Google

Relevancy starts with the long tail http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l80eb/why_i_use_google_a_comparison_vs_bing_yahoo/

Bing = keyword matching http://www.bing.com/search?q=%2bthat+movie+where+those+two+guys+look+for+the+hamburgers

Google = deeper connections http://www.google.com/search?q=that+movie+where+those+two+guys+look+for+the+hamburgers

SEOs Need to Think “Relevant,” Not Just “Keywords” http://www.seomoz.org/blog/advanced-onpage-optimization-whiteboard-friday

6) SEO Tip: Be a Brand

Brand Domain Names Get Clicks http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/1021/1/wsdm12-domain-bias.pdf

Brands Get Preferential Visibility https://www.google.com/search?q=thin+laptops These clearly bias to well-known brands But brand also extends to SERP rankings

Brands Get Local Bias, Too https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+pizza Who ’s Under This Blue Box?

Brands Get Local Bias, Too https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+pizza

Happy Mozcation! Let’s do some Q+A @randfish www.seomoz.org/blog [email_address] http://bit.ly/mozcationsea2011