It’s all changed – from how people use the web, to how Google ranks pages, to what resonates with influencers. Not surprisingly, the tactics marketers employ need to change, too. But tragically, many of us are stuck in a rut, eeking out the last few drops of fuel from efforts that are dying or dead. What’s even worse – the cutting edge practices that are producing remarkable returns heavily benefit early adopters, and if we’re not in those groups, we could find ourselves way behind in the years to come. In this presentation, Moz founder Rand will dive deep into what really works to drive traffic, rankings, branding, and conversions (and what’s better left in the scrap heap of yesteryear).

1. Cracking the SEO Code for 2015: Tactics
to Love vs. Leave
(advanced edition)
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com

2. This Presentation Is Online Here:
bit.ly/seocode2014

3. What Changed?
A brief look at how SEO has
evolved over the past five years.

4. #1
Searchers (and engines) are
demanding more from results than
ever before

5. Page Speed Expectations
Via http://www.relentlesstechnology.com/insights/page-speed.html

6. Design & UX Expectations
Via The Rise of Customer Expectations Around User Experience

7. Content Quality Expectations
Via http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/knowledge-base/ranking-factors/

8. Employing User &
Usage Data

9. Leaning More Heavily on Human Quality Raters
Via http://www.thesempost.com/google-rewrites-quality-rating-guide-seos-need-know/

10. Past SEO Success May Not Be Indicative of the Future

11. #2
The move from keyword matching
to topic association

12. 1998-2008 Keyword Matching

13. 2009-2012 Keyword Matching

14. 2013+ Keyword Matching

15. 2013+ Keyword Matching

16. 2013+ Keyword Matching

17. 2013+ Keyword Matching

18. Google’s Upgraded Their Understanding
Have We Upgraded Our Content?

19. #3
Domain-level keyword connections
are on the rise

20. Google’s Algorithm Used to Be Very Page-Level Biased
This page has the most
relevance and links.
This one has the 2nd most.

21. In the Past Few Years, They’ve Become More
Inclusive of Domain-Level Signals
We’ve seen a lot of searchers
around this type of topic get
positive results from this site.
Let’s see if we can find a relevant
result from it.

22. Don’t Have a Domain-Level Content Strategy?
You May Lose to Less SEO-Sophisticated,
More Brand-Focused Competitors

23. #4
Google’s crackdown on spam is
basically a crackdown on ranking
without a brand

24. Manipulating Google? You’d Better Be a Brand.
Via http://marketingland.com/10-big-brands-that-were-penalized-by-google-69646

25. Ranking Well,
But Not a Brand?
Google’s Gonna
Reclassify Those
Tactics.
Via http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/infographics/brand-branding-brands.php

26. #5
Critical SEO data still flows for the
1%, but is unavailable to the 99%

27. ~10% of Referral Data Still Available
Via www.notprovidedcount.com/

28. AdWords’ [Exact
Match] No Longer
Exact
Via
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2014/08/close
-variant-matching-for-all-exact.html

29. Via http://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-and-targeting-without-exact-match-whiteboard-friday

30. But If You’re a Big Advertiser, that Keyword Data
Still Flows Through Your Reports

31. GA Sampling is Pervasive Unless You Pay…
Via https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2601061?hl=en

32. This Inequity Might Feel Familiar
Over time, behaviors of brands, searchers, & algorithms
have combined to create something similar in SEO

33. Tactics
Processes and practices to change
in the year ahead to
stay a step ahead

34. Keyword
Research & Targeting

35. Classic Keyword Process
Collect Input Brainstorm
Generate an
Ideation List
Use KW Research
Tools to Expand
Group Keywords by Targeting &
Ranking Ability
Produce List of Pages to
Create Based on KWs
Don’t KW Cannibalize –
Consolidate if Need Be

36. What’s Broken?
Collect Input Brainstorm
Generate an
Ideation List
Use KW Research
Tools to Expand
Group Keywords by Targeting &
Ranking Ability
Produce List of Pages to
Create Based on KWs
Don’t KW Cannibalize –
Consolidate if Need Be

37. Instead of This:
Use KW Research
Tools to Expand
Do This:
1) Search the web, news, images,
YouTube, & Buzzsumo using your list
2) Collect the concepts, topics, intents,
related searches, & popular content you
find
3) Aggregate into a new keyword list for
refinement via volume
estimate/expansion tools

38. Instead of This:
Group Keywords by
Targeting & Ranking
Ability
Do This:
1) Group keywords by overlap in
searcher intent
2) Break into buckets of 1-5+
terms/phrases that all serve those
same intents. Worry less about
precise KW match targeting in the
title/URL/headline.

39. Instead of This:
Produce List of
Pages to Create
Based on KWs
Do This:
1) Produce a list of searcher intents
w/ 1-5 KWs each.
2) Create pages to target each intent,
and plan ongoing content efforts w/
more competitive & temporally
demanding KWs

40. Instead of This:
Don’t KW Cannibalize;
Consolidate if Need Be
Do This:
1) If you have multiple pages already
targeting the same KW intent(s), consider
consolidation (especially if they don’t rank
well).
2) Anticipate creating fresh content that
may repeatedly target the same KWs
based on temporal changes, new intents,
& the goal of connecting your domain w/
those terms in the engine.

41. A simplistic example to
help illustrate:
Keyword Brainstorm List
Mustache Products for Baddies
Evil-Doers Facial Grooming
Evil Mustache Wax
“Infamous!” “Sinister!” I’m
already getting expansion
terms from searching
Bad Guy Moustaches
Criminal Mustaches
Villainous Men’s Grooming

42. People are clearly curious
about what signals
mustaches send! A perfect
topic for my content.
Johnny Depp & Lyft…
Potential partners in
moustachio’d crime?

43. Google clearly has search volume and
data for terms like this, but they won’t
show them in Adwords 

44. Using the data I received from my searches,
however, gives me some new opportunities
(w/ very light competition)

45. Group keywords by intent, not matching
Villainous Mustaches
Evil Mustache
Villain Mustache
Bad Mustache
Monster Mustache
Criminal Mustaches
Evil Mustache Styles
Vile Mustaches Styles
Sinister Mustache Products
Searchers looking for any of these
keyword phrases likely have the same,
shared intent/goal
Unsavory, Moustachio’d Characters
Sacrilegious Mustaches
Loathesome Mustache Wax
Detestable Stache Products
Vampiric Mustache Grooming
Goods
Famous Villain Mustaches
Movie Badguy Mustaches

46. Make Pages
that Focus on
Intent
Content that engages
people AND fits with
topic modeling algos

47. Build Up Your Site’s
Association with a Topic
(or set of topics)
Beardbrand’s constant presence
across the web (in social, video,
news, blogs, etc) means Google
associates mustache product
searches with their site.

48. Link
Building Earning

49. We Sometimes Have Blinders On In Link
Building Mode…

50. Instead of This:
Must. Get. Followed Link
with Anchor Text.

51. Do This.
Build. Relationship.

52. Social Media Can Build Relationships

53. Comments Can Build Relationships

54. A Friendly Email Builds a Relationship
Even when the email is simply
through a form, a note of
thanks/compliment goes a long
way.

55. Advertising is a Relationship

56. The goal isn’t links. The goal is to grow the quantity of interactions to
the point where the relationship is real.
Links are just a great side
effect of the relationships
(BTW - that’s exactly the type of link
Google wants to count)

57. Pro Tip #1: These are terrible targets:
Sites #1-10 get all
the attention, and
likely experience
online interaction
fatigue very fast

58. These are ideal targets:
Sites #12+ are far more
likely to be flattered
by/interested in online
interactions, and have far
fewer pre-existing, web-based
relationships

59. Likewise, these are probably terrible targets:
Folks with heavy Twitter followings often
get bombarded with offers

60. While these are likely excellent targets:
A high social authority means
lots of RTs per tweet, but
probably not nearly as much
attention as the vanity metric
owners

61. Pro Tip #2: Need a warm intro? GoConspire
I can find anyone at a
given company and/or
any specific person and
how we’re connected.
Whoa.

62. Pro Tip #3: Correlation Exists Between Advertisers on
Small-Medium Sites & Links
There’s a strong
probability that at some
point, the blogger/site
owner will editorially link to
these folks, simply
because they’re top of
mind.

63. Pro Tip #4: Brand Mentions Near Keywords May Have
Link-Like Effects
This page isn’t even a great
match, but Google’s
associations of
MarthaStewart.com w/ terms
like “house” and “home
organization” and “checklist”
likely play into the ranking

64. Content
Creation

65. Content Marketing May Be Creating
False Expectations & Bad Practices

66. Me. Must.
Get. Viral.
Hit.

67. Me. Must.
Publish.
Every. Day.

68. Me. Must.
Write. Good.
Unique.
Content.

69. Me. Must.
Make.
Content.
Convert.

70. Why. Me. No.
Get.
Results.?

71. Criteria for Modern Content Investments:
One-of-a-Kind–appears nowhere else on the web
Relevant –contains content engines can interpret as on-topic
Helpful – resolves the searcher’s query in a useful, efficient manner
Uniquely Valuable – provides information that’s unavailable elsewhere
Great UX– is easy & pleasurable to consume on any device
Likely to Spread– convincingly answers the question:
“Who will amplify this content and why?”

72. Pro Tip #1:
Imitate What Works!

73. e.g. Buzzsumo can tell you the
content that’s performed best for any
given keyword, timeframe, platform,
author, or website

74. Pro Tip #2: In General: Text < Visuals < Interactive
This planner from DefensiveDriving.com made Reddit’s homepage , in part thanks to interactivity

75. Pro Tip #3: Even great content benefits from paid amplification
Check out Quicksprout’s Guide to Content Syndication Networks

76. Choosing Where To
Invest

77. Measurability is Often
Inversely Correlated
w/ Opportunity

78. Serendipity is Powerful Because It’s Hard to Track, and Almost
Never Competitive
Attend a
conference
in Portland
Meet a woman
through a mutual
friend who invites
you to participate
in a webinar
Webinar
attendee is
impressed,
invites you to
speak at an
event in San
Jose
San Jose
event leads
to $1mm in
new
business
How do you attribute/measure the
value of going to conferences in
Portland?
More: Manufacturing Serendipity & WB Friday on Serendipitous Marketing

79. Only by increasing the vectors of exposure to
potentially powerful events can you scale ROI

80. My Advice:
Blogging
Display Ads
Video
Photography
Google+
Presentations
Interviews
Overinvest in your unique strengths.
In-Person
Relationship
Building
Twitter
Networking
Facebook
Instagram
Research
Illustration
Offline
Advertising
Illustration
Social Ads
Podcasts
Whitepapers
Email
LinkedIn Pinterest
SEO
PPC

81. SEO is getting
harder

82. But, that high barrier to entry means greater
opportunity for those who succeed.

83. bit.ly/seocode2014
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com