How SEO Blinded Me, Then Opened My Eyes

A story about the seductive power of search, and the

truth about marketing channels & why people buy

Rand Fishkin | CEO

http://bit.ly/mozblindedbyseo

SEO

But, SEO Also Blinded Me.

I Used to Believe…

#1: Gets 30% of traffic and sales

#2: Gets 12% of traffic and sales

#3: Gets 7% of traffic and sales

#4: Gets 5% of traffic and sales

#5: Gets 4% of traffic and sales

Step 1:Get Here

Step 2:

€ € € €!!

I Used to Believe…

Most users see these same results in the same order.

Reality: The days of standard SERPs are over

I Used to Believe…

#1 and #2; I’m winning!

Reality: Rel=author + great

branding means Aaron’s probably

winning

I Used to Believe…

>

I Used to Believe…

If a source doesn’t send converting

visits, it’s useless.

Reality: Visitors usually have lots of ways to get to your site before

they convert.

Hey Look! A Tree!

Oh… This is a forest.

Thankfully, SEO Evolved

No More 10 Blue Links

Today…

Snippets are Surprisingly Sophisticated

Visuals Can Dominate the

SERPs

Advertising Occasionally Overwhelms Organic

More and More, Google’s Putting Themselves in the Results

No More Lengthening of the Long Tail

“20 to 25% of the queries we see

today, we have never seen before”

– Udi Manber, June 2007

15% of the searches we see everyday we’ve never seen before.- Google Facts, March 2012

Today…

Searches are Suggested

Or Presumed

And Influence-able

No More Domination

without a Brand

"Brands are the solution, not the

problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands

are how you sort out the cesspool.“

- Eric Schmidt, October, 2008

Today…

Many Searches Bias to Established Brands

Others Suggest the Brands Directly

Brands Receive Preferential Treatment

Penalties and Filters are Designed to Target

Unbranded Sites

No More Manipulative Link Behavior That Lasts at Scale

Today…

Big, Famous Link Networks Get Hit

Small, Single Sites Get Hit

Blog Networks are Being

Shut Down

Directories Get Devalued

Google Will Lift Your Penalty Faster If You Tell Them How You

Got Those Links

No More Search without Social

Today…

Google’s Social Graph is Far Larger Than Most Believe

The Hardest Page to Find in Your Google Account Powers

Social Results Beyond Google+

http://www.google.com/s2/u/0/search/social

Email is Now a Social Influence on Search

Google Will Go to Great Lengths to Favor G+

As SEO Evolved, It Forced

Me to Evolve With It

Today…

SEO is a Tactic

Inbound Marketing is a Strategy

BecauseLower COCA = Competitive Advantage

This Process Is Simple to

Understand, Yet Hard to Execute

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY

DO INBOUND MARKETING

Step #1:

Know Today’s Customers

Step #2:

Know Your Future Customers

Step #3:

Create the Content Both Desire

Step #4:Spread Via Every Available Channel

Step #5:Measure, Optimize & Improve

SEO is Just Content, Keywords, Links & Rankings.

SEO is deeply connected to

broader marketing practices, and

it’s just one tactic amongst many.

SEO. But, no strategy.

Strategy, but no SEO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

Rand Fishkin | CEO

http://bit.ly/mozblindedbyseo

@randfish

www.seomoz.org/blog

rand@seomoz.org