STATE OF SEO 2014 5 Josh Bachynski MA

STATE OF SEO 2014 -5 Josh Bachynski, MA, Ph. D (2 nd yr) joshbachynski@gmail. com

200+ ALGOS

Under the hood

YE OLDE ONPAGE SEO

Onpage SEO v. Single v. URL Topic, Specific KWs Still Better if Natural OR Title, H 1 -4 and Content. . . (EMD RISKY) v. Write v. Use for humans – be precise, not repetitive Title/Desc for CTR (only 49 chars or so)… websiteadvantage. com. au/Google-SERP-Emulator v. Stay fresh: update regularly, have an “updated on”, current copyright, and year in title tag if room

BIGGER IS BETTER

More pages = more rankings Sculpt your PR to TOP pages Lose pages = lose rankings (inc url)

SERP CTR MATTERS v More Traffic now! v Better Title/Desc = Better Conversion / Panda defence v Better CTR = Better Rankings (Ohye, tests)

GET MORE CLICKS: v. Find your CTR: WMT > Search Queries > Top Pages v. Check your snippet: Ad. Preview or “google SERP emulator” v. Make it different, eg: Them: Red Apples | Red Apple …

GET MORE CLICKS: v. You: Wow! Get TOP Red Apples YOU can get the BEST Apples for LOW Prices. FREE Delivery. *** VISIT TODAY *** v. Always use the POWER words: you, free, now, new, because

STRUCTURED DATA

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST ALGO CHANGE IN THE LAST 2 YEARS?

HUMMINGBIRD

HUMMINGBIRD EATS SCHEMA

SINCE HUMMINGBIRD GOOGLE DOES NOT RANK WEBPAGES

IT RANKS ENTITIES THAT HAVE AN ASSOCIATED URL

E. G. : “Neutragena Skincare” Entity Factoids (author) Neutragena-skincare. com Article Page Product Page Order Page @neutragena References (wiki, freebase) (wiki, References freebase) freebase, blogs) Ratings/References Ratings

Micro. Data Can Get BIG Results: v Fills in the “entity fabric” – determines page “type” Article, Product, Service, Purchase, Event, Contact, etc. v Gets access to the knowledge panel, inc. “In-depth Articles”, onpage/offpage ranking factor (!!!!) Structured Data Tips: v Check your WMT report! Don’t have errors or “hatom” v Use WMT data highlighter and Schema. org to define pages, freebase. org to define entity, & RATINGS to get 3 rd party reference / quality signals

LOCAL

LOCAL: PIGEON IS THE FAT CITY COUSIN • • ENHANCED LISTING IS YOUR FRIEND MAXIMIZE YOUR MAPS LISTING HAVE A QUALITY SITE – TASK COMPLETION HAVE MULTIPLE GOOD REVIEWS (BBB, WIKI, FORUMS, BLOGS, G+, YELP, ZAGAT, ETC. ) • BE MOBILE OPTIMIZED (WATCH USAGE)

SOCIAL… PROOF

EXACTLY WHAT SOCIAL FACTORS HELP? . . . • SHARES OF YOUR PAGES (FB, TW, G+, PIN, DIS, RED, ETC. ) • ACTIVITY ON YOUR ASSOCIATED PROFILES • • Post shareworthy content Engage, comment, talk • GET BUZZ FROM EXPERTS: • Get Experts talking about you (reach out)

OH YEAH. . . LINKS

YES, YOU STILL NEED A FEW LINKS

MAKE UNSUSPICIOU S LINKS

Links They Trust: - High authority site (real business) - Not where everyone else is - Main Content Link - Anchor w/ natural stop words “good site for fruit”, “great resource”, etc. - appropriate amount don’t match current spam patterns! Links They Don’t: - New blogs - Manual post sites - Multi-topic sites/page - PR, Directories, Articles - Followed sidebar or footer links - Comments, Social bookmarks, Forum Prof. - no more than 10% EMQ, PMQ, or commercial dofollow anchors (even if in URL – that doesn’t matter)

HOW DO I GET THOSE?

LINK TIPS FOR 2014 -15 Buy Guest Blog Posts • ONLY on ranking, legit, established, single topic, NOT selling links to anyone else w/ NO EMQ link outs to ANYONE – most especially YOU • ONLY main content links (citation on image or editorial reference) • Again previous rules apply – no EMQ, natural stop words, “great site” etc.

LINK TIPS FOR 2014 -15 Aged Domain Resurrection • Spend 10 min / day looking for good expired event site, or failed business • Check it on majestic and waybackmachine • If good, buy it cheap (no more than $50), resurrect it, change the phone numbers • Put a “charitable donation by” link in main index content area (no match)

LINK TIPS FOR 2014 -15 Beat the White Haters At Their Own Game • Going viral is NOT that hard if you know how BRAINSTORM => PRODUCE => AMPLIFY • Content That Gets Shared: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Funny/Zany -> be hilarious Controversial -> be that guy Emotion Provoking -> be sappy Useful/Interesting -> be THE knowledge resource Popular -> make for groups who will amplify you

There is a sandbox for yesterday’s tactics

But there is no sandbox for what’s Trending

The more popular, the more you will rank for your topic Topical Links Title H 1 Content (ctr, !bounce) Expert Shares Social Share Aggregate Social Profile Proof Internal Links Site Ratings/Reviews

Examples? ok

New Site

Established secret “spammy” affiliate site

HOW THE F*CK?

Hint #1: social signals (1 of 2)

Social Profile Proof!. . . Shows you are real to Google Boost 1: Engagement • bigger G+ interaction (followers and comments and +1 s) 3 -4 days before boost Boost 2: Engagement • some re-tweets from mid sized accounts over a couple days • some twitter favorites • some FB shares (no other seo going on at that time - no content changes or additions - no links)

Hint #2

Offpage Schema Framework (“mentions/ratings”) search: -site: www. xyz. com “xyz. com”

GET ALL THE POSITIVE MENTIONS/RATINGS YOU CAN DELETE THE OVERTLY NEGATIVE ONES

Topical Links Title H 1 Content (ctr, !bounce) Expert Shares Social Share Aggregate Social Profile Proof Internal Links Site Ratings/Reviews

SOUNDS EASY. . EH?

DEMOTERS

PANDA

Panda Single BIGGEST Demoter Algo Moving Forward v Panda is like the NAZIs banging on your door and they check every house monthly, unannounced Panda Based upon Usage Metrics & On/Offpage Factors themoralconcept. net/pandalist. html

Do: • • • Users Satisfied Professional Finishing Legit Business signals Outlink to authorities Be shared, liked, reviewed Don’t: • • • Make “SEO” content Duplicate/Stuff Kws Have a bad reputation Annoy users with Ads Have naked Affiliate links

PENGUIN. . . AND “PAYDAY LOANS”

Penguin: “webspam” or “over-optimization” algo v v v Works on onpage and offpage over-optimization P 2 Relation between EMQ -> EMQ(D) This includes title/alt, titles, URL, content and anchors P 1 affected home page only, P 2 page based (flag) PUNITIVE: only runs twice per year or so. Have to wait!! How to remove? v Remove onpage keyword repetition v Delete (Disavow? ) 80%+ EMQ backlinks v Or 404 or delete target page PENGUIN

Is there another way?

“Payday Loans” v Loose name for a set of algos released June 5, 11, 27 -28 2013, and June approx. 12 th 2014 v Penguin higher thresholds, PDL lower thresholds v Seems to work on exact same principles as P 2 v PDL victims have exact same EMQ -> EMQ as P 2 victims v Google has not commented on PDL v Speculation as to how to fix it – likely Penguin with lower threshold so it hits high spam targets only “PAYDAY LOANS”

“PAID” LINKS

“Paid” links, affiliate links, advertorials v Looked for by Google’s manual team (inc. questionable / borderline spam links) v Over 12, 000 Google Manual Reviewers (2012) v Algo bubbles up suspects, and “spam form” Avoid: v Sidebar, footer, directory list, blogroll, sitemap, “compilation of sources”, style links (on or off) v At best devalued, at worst triggers manual action “PAID” LINKS

MANUAL ACTIONS

v Manual Actions or “Penalties” v v Manual Actions come from the Manual Web Spam Team 6 or more types of manual actions Listed in WMT under “Search Traffic” Must have WMT installed to see them v (2) Most Important are “Unnatural Link Notices” v Action vs SITE vs. Action vs LINKS v Vs SITE, must delete links, show good faith, disavow rest, and submit for reconsideration (can get out but…) v Vs LINKS you must… DO NOTHING (warning to change)

DUPLICATIO

Duplicate Content Penalty? v No such thing as a duplicate content penalty… but… v (2) Problems with Dup Content: 1. It forces Google to choose which page to rank. • They always choose the earliest + authority 2. John Mueller has admitted they “trust sites” with cross domain dup content “LESS” • Affects your panda score

Duplicate Content Tips: v v v Use Pub. Sub. Hub. Ub or XIndexer or WMT to spider content Use right-click copy paste and view source blockers Use copyscape to find copiers (use batch search) File DMCA requests with google Use and keep a sitemap Or finally, just rewrite the content – especially if it poorly performs, add in video and images, “Did you know” factoid blocks, etc.

NEGATIVE SEO

Negative SEO is HEEEEEERE. . Link Based Neg SEO: • Spam like it was 2008 e. g. “kw 1 kw 1” • Penguin 3 picked it up – Cutts admitted Penguin would Other Neg SEO: • Report them to JM/spam form, trick googlebot (Ted), make fake URLs on their site, bad reviews, attack their backlinks, scrape their articles, user gen content, CTR manipulation… and more!

Protect Yourself Don’t leave yourself open to Neg SEO by doing lazy 2008 SEO Older spam domains more susceptible: Sub-brand Have the signals they don’t know about / can’t get

WE ARE JUST AT THE BEGINNING IF YOU DON’T THEY WILL

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! IF YOU DON’T THEY WILL PENGUIN “FIX”? NEGATIVE SEO PROTECTION

QUESTIONS? IF YOU DON’T THEY WILL JOSHBACHYNSKI@GMAIL. COM