The Future of SEO
Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
Download: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Why SEO? Why Inbound?

#1: Click Distribution

Only 18% of Clicks Go Here

82% Go Here

Less than 1% of Clicks Go Here

99% Go Everywhere Else
Especially Here

The Best Facebook Ads
Get <1% CTR

Wall Posts Often Have 30%+

Banner Ads Are Lucky
to Get 1% CTR

But Web Content
Generates Tons of Views

Blog Sidebar Ads? <5%

Blog Content? Doing Great;
Thank You.

Paid Marketing:
~10% of traffic
($40 Billion of investment in 2012*)
Inbound Marketing:
~90% of traffic
(but only $5 Billion of investment in 2012*)
*Via Forrester’s Interactive Marketing 2012 Report

#2: Cost of Acquisition

Meet Steve

Steve Uses Ads to Buy Traffic

Steve Spends $500 on Average to
Acquire a New Customer

Meet Greg

Greg Leverages Inbound
Channels to Earn Traffic

Greg Spends $100 on Average to
Acquire a New Customer

Greg Can Aqcuire 5X as Many
Customers as Steve

Or Greg Can Spend $400 per
Customer to Improve His Product

Who Would You Rather Be?

10K Foot View on Search

Growth of Google Queries 2007-2012
Number of Searches/Day on Google
3 Billion Searches/Day
(announced Aug. 2012)
http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709

Growth of Spending on Paid Search
Via http://adage.com/article/digital/interactive-marketing-spend-hit-76-6b-2016/229444/

Growth of Mobile Search
http://www.marquettegroup.com/why-advertise-on-a-mobile-device/

Bing vs. Google Market Share
Via Statcounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/#search_engine-na-monthly-201108-201208

Massive Growth of Google+
http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/17/google-plus-stats-2012-400-million-members/

Fragmentation of Social Networks
Users: 100mm 900mm 200mm 120mm 10mm
Users: 15mm Millions 14mm 7.5mm 18mm
There are lots of social networks at scale in 2012, and potentially more coming.

What Hasn’t Changed in SEO

Engines Still Need Accessibility Help
Via Google Webmaster Tools: http://google.com/webmasters

Delighting Users Still Leads to Success
Via the still-amazing http://headrush.typepad.com/

Getting the Basics Right Still Matters
Start with a strong base,
then work your way up.

SEO Success Still Happens at this Intersection
Right HERE

What’s Changed in SEO

Panda & Low Quality Content
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda

Penguin & Low Quality Links
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/7-achievable-steps-for-great-seo-after-the-penguin-update

Link Building vs. Earning Links
Avoid this: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-types-of-link-spam-to-avoid
Do this: http://searchengineland.com/link-building-means-earning-hard-links-not-easy-links-123767

Rich Snippets and Schema Markup
Star Ratings, Reviews & Price
Author Photo
Date of Publication
Video Snippet

Video Search and Video SEO
http://www.cleancutmedia.com/video/youtube-is-it-possible-to-watch-4-billion-views-a-day

The Merging of SEO & Social Media
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/new-data-the-correlations-between-social-sharing-and-inbound-links

User & Usage Data Signals
http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/07/how-google-might-rank-pages-based-
upon-usage-information/

Lost Data: Not Provided & Social Connections
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-annotations-in-search-now-your-social-network-rankings
and http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-analyze-google-analytics-not-provided-data

Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Google & Bing Dominating Head Terms
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Lots of New Tools & Data Available
Just one page out of 10 in Annie Cushing’s guide: http://inbound.org/tools-
software/2012/07/annie-cushings-amazing-google-doc-of-seo-tools/

Massive Shift in Roles & Responsibilities
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-responsibilities-of-seo-have-been-upgraded

Strategic Tips for SEO

#1: Get Your Brand’s Story Right
http://about.zappos.com/zappos-story/in-the-beginning-let-there-be-shoes

#2: Develop a Content Strategy that Will Attract
A) Customers and/or B) Customer Influencers
Relevant to Any Who Relevant Relevant
Interact w/ Potential to Potential to Current
Customers Customers Customers
Get Here

#3: Focus on Inbound Channels Where Your Audience Exists

#4: Set Up the Right KPIs
Metrics are essential at
every phase of the
funnel to determine
what’s working vs. not
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media

#5: Devote a Webdev Team to Marketing
Moz’s Casey Henry (http://www.seomoz.org/team/casey) and Devin Ellis
(http://www.seomoz.org/team/devin)

#6: Create an Incentive for People to Share

Tactical Tips for SEO (and Inbound)

#1: Embrace the Long Tail of Keyword Demand
Tens of thousands of pages of content created by
professional marketers (our writers and those who ask Q+A)
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

#2A: Optimize Your Social Timing
At the highest point, only ~6.5% of my followers are online, which
means only 4,514 of my 69,458 followers could possibly see a tweet.
Times when my followers are online via http://followerwonk.com

#2B: Optimize Your Social Share Formatting
URL at the end & hash URL in the center of text blocks, no
tag next to the URL usernames or hashes around it
For my account, on average, the highest CTRs come when a link is in the middle of a
tweet, surrounded by text on either side with no other @mentions or hashtags

#2B: Optimize Your Social Share Formatting
Bad image and non-customized
share & a mediocre snippet
means lower CTR on Google+
Perfectly formatted image uploaded separate to post
link makes for high visibility and CTR in Facebook.
Taking care to optimize your social shares will mean a higher rate of re-sharing
and more follower/fan growth with every share you make.

#2C: Optimize & Track What You Share
Tracking of my socially shared links via http://bit.ly

#3: Create Search Results that Stand Out

#4: Leverage Video Content & Video SEO
Video SEO Guide from Wistia: http://wistia.com/doc/video-seo

#5: Don’t Limit Competitive Link Analysis
to Direct Competitors
e.g. If I were doing link building for SEOmoz, I’d look at who links to other web
marketing topics, like email or conversion rate optimization.

#6: Research What Bloggers, Journalists, &
Influencer Portals Cover. Then Do That Stuff.
Alltop and other aggregation sites can be good sources: http://alltop.com

#7: Social Media OAuth Services Can Be
Powerful Customer Acquisition Tools

#8: Keep All Your Content on One Subdomain
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

#9: Poor Design Negatively Impacts Every Inbound Channel
Good place to find great designers: http://dribbble.com

#10: Test & Optimize Your CTA Buttons
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

#11: Make Your Site CRAZY FAST
Data from @jcolman of REI
http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/web-performance-optimization-the-silver-
bullet-of-seo-and-ux

A Few Last Words of Advice

Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Where Geraldine Started Her Blog
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Where People Usually Give Up
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Inbound Marketing is a Long Term Investment
Over 4,000 Visits/Day to a Single Author Blog
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

Channels Where Others Don’t Invest is Where
Real Opportunity Lies
Link: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo

The Temptation to Do Black/Gray Hat is
Strong. You Have to Resist It.
“The force is strong with this one.”

You Probably Can’t Do SEO (or Inbound)
Effectively at Scale Without an In-House Resource
Ruth Burr, SEOmoz’s In-House SEO http://www.seomoz.org/team/ruthburr
(part of a team of 6 inbound focused folks on our marketing team)

SEO Today (and for the Future) is Not About a Perfect Formula
Some guesses at algo flux: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-rankings-algorithm-
has-changed-over-time-

SEO is About Building a Great Brand
(and making that brand’s web presence accessible/optimized for engines)
Couldn’t resist using this image  Via http://xk9.com/bones/branding-is-bullshit/

Your
Analytics
R
Will Lie
to You.
(unless you’re using
multi-touch attribution)

Multi-Channel
Attribution is
Critical
R
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media

Visualizing Visits Through Various Channels
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-the-inbound-marketing-funnel-is-essential-whiteboard-friday

Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
• Download this deck: http://bit.ly/mozfutureofseo
• Email: rand@seomoz.org
• Twitter: @randfish
• Blog: http://moz.com/rand and http://seomoz.org/blog
The Future of SEO