Post on 21-Jan-2018
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
The Invisible Giant
That Mucks Up Our Marketing
“If anybody dares to step outside of the box, the
retaliation is swift. I have to say, after 50 years of
feminism, the retaliation against “tomboy” girls has
softened some over the years. The retaliation to
“mama's boys” and “sissy boys” is just as violent now
among peers as it has always been.”
- Terrence Real, Author of I Don’t Want to Talk About It:
Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression
Cultural Conditioning
It’s not just gender norms.
The culture we live (and work) in
biases all our actions & beliefs
Like fish in water, we don’t realize we’re
swimming in it.Via Oliver Tarling
It’s why (despite all the data that in-office work is less productive, misery-
inducing, & lower quality) most of us still commute.
It’s why, even though we know it’s net-negative to productivity,
many of us work 50, 60, or 70+ hours in a week.
It’s why, even though we know the archetypical “brilliant asshole” drags down
team performance, they keep getting hired.
It’s why, despite awful odds that an investor-backed tech startup will
produce returns, tech entrepreneurs like me think that raising money is a
celebratory milestone and a goal to strive for…
What About…
Marketing?
Let’s go from
Strategic Tactical
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe:
Investments Must Be
Measureable
Easiest-to-Measure Channels:
1) Pay-per-click advertising
2) Social media advertising
3) Retargeted/remarketed advertising
4) Email marketing
5) Direct mail advertising
Hardest-to-Measure Channels:
1) Word of Mouth
2) SEO
3) (organic) Social Media
4) Content Marketing
5) Public Relations
What if those channels are easy to measure because
the more measurable they are, the more money
powerful corporations make from us?!
Solution: Invest X% in Hard-to-Measure
Marketing Channels
Paid ads + emailSocial + content marketingSEOEvents + PR
Use Geography, Audiences, and/or Time-Series Analyses to
Monitor Brand + Traffic Lifts
Nest can see exactly
how their PR launch
impacted search
activity via Google
Trends’ upgraded
toolset
With tools like Fresh Web
Explorer, Talkwalker, or
Mention, you can track
media mentions too.
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Channels Must Be ROI-
Positive
The Story of Whiteboard Friday…
Over Time, Effectiveness Improves!
2008
WBF is our worst-performing
blog post each week
2017
WBF is our best-performing
content piece each week
Solution: Focus on Potential;
Measure Against Trajectory
Today
Long-Term
Potential
1 Year 2Years
Estimated Growth Rate
ROI-Positive
If you’re here after three
months of work, you’re on a
powerful trajectory, even if it’s
not ROI-positive yet
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Marketers ≠ Technical
Software Engineering IS NOT the only way to be
“Technical”
Can You…Scan HTML code for basic functions?
Pull data via APIs inside Excel?
Insert code snippets with Google Tag Manager?
Audit websites to find technical issues?
Use web crawl tools to export desired data?
Test Google’s indexation of a page’s content?
Everyone Has Skill Gaps
You Have Options…
Learn
Hack
Outsource (or internally source)
Recruit
Substitute
Work Around
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Search Investments Are
Either SEO or PPC
SEO:
PPC:
Percent of Google Web Results w/ only these two
types of results:
54.7%
Percent of Google Clicks Going to Other Types of
Results:
>11%
The Rest?
#1: Knowledge
Panels
#2: Related
Questions
#3: Local
Packs
#4: Images
#5: Sitelinks
#6: Featured
Snippets
#7: Top Stories
#8: Videos
#9: Tweets
WTF???!!!
Rand… Who the heck wants to get RID of flying
squirrels?
Breakdown of Searches
on Major Web Properties
(May 2017)
Google.com
Oct 2016 May 2017
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
62.6%
5.9%
4.1%
4.7%
1.5%
2.1%
1.4%
5.0%
+3.4%
-0.6%
-1.3%
+0.2%
-0.6%
-0.1%
+0%
-1.0%
Amazon.com 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%
Search Marketing in 2017 Has to Consider:
Google Images
Google Maps (& Local-Biased Results)
YouTube (originating searches & in GG results)
Which SERP Features Show For Your Keywords
Amazon, Facebook, Reddit, Bing
Where Search Demand Originates
Ranking well in Image
Search often doesn’t bring
much traffic or value
Image Search
Pro Tip
But… If you’re in a
vertical where
commerce is tied to
visuals, it can be
quite powerful
Likewise, if lots of
content creators
want your visuals,
ranking here can
yield loads of links
Text in images is one way to draw in clicks
for the right kinds of queries
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Organic Reach on Facebook
Ended in 2014
The Average Stats Look Pretty Bad
Now hovering
under 2%
But You Don’t Have to Be Average!
I’m Averaging
35.9% Reach!
#1: Earn Your Follows Through Shares
#2: Be Wary of the “Bad Post” Hangover
Slumps follow poor
performing posts
And stronger reach
follows better posts
#3: Find Content & Sharing Patterns
That Work, Then Stick With ‘Em
#4: Build Your Audience Off FB,
Engage Your Audience On FB
PRO TIP:
Organic FB posts work best for small->medium orgs. If
you’re a bigco, take Avinash’s advice; pay.
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Content Marketing Means
Publishing on Your Website
But What If Your Site is…
New
Light on Link Authority
Lacks a Usable CMS
Controlled by a Team/Client Who Won’t Let You Do
What Needs Doing?
Subject to Nasty Legal or Brand Restrictions
Many Websites:A) Offer Guest Publishing Opps
B) Rank Like a Boss
Accepts guest
contributions
Loads of Sites to Publish to For Rankings:
Via Solvid.co.uk
I’d Strongly Consider:
Quora.com
LinkedIn.com
YouTube.com
Pinterest.com
Reddit.com
STOP thinking of guest publishing as purely a way to
get links.
START thinking of other people’s platforms as a
way your message can spread
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
Google Rankings = Links,
Keywords, & Technical Issues
Few Links Outranking Lots of Links?
No KWs Outranking Solid KW Targeting?
What’s Google Ranking
These With?
Sure, this might be the most
interesting or click-worthy piece,
but it has poor KW-targeting and
little link authority?!
The New Ranking Factor:
Searcher Task Accomplishment
This is a good SERP – searchers
rarely bounce, rarely short-click,
and rarely need to enter other
queries or go to page 2.
This is a bad SERP – searchers
bounce often, click other results,
rarely long-click, and try other
queries. They’re definitely not
happy.
Focus on Signal:Noise Ratio – Don’t Let Bad Pages
Drag Down a Good Site
Quantity of Pages
Earning SERP Visits
Relative Time on Site,
Bounce Rate, Pgs/Visit,
Searcher Satisfaction
Site’s Search
Engagement
Reputation=
3 Options for Pages Like These:
1) Improve them
2) Remove them (404)
3) Redirect them (301)
Marketing Culture Leads Us to Believe :
When Google Takes Your Search
Traffic, You Can’t Earn It Back
They Tirk ‘Er Trafix!
When Google Gives You Lemons
Rank in Google’s
“Lemon” Knowledge
Panel
Take that ya Googley
traffic thieves!
It’s Possible to Earn Traffic from 90%+ of
Google’s Click-Siphoning SERP Features
You can do SEO
to show up here
And here
And here
Here And here Here too Also here Yup!
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
Video units
SERP Feature Type How to Get In
“People Also Ask”
Featured Snippet
Maps Box
Knowledge Panel
Top Stories (News)
Images
Apps
Create & optimizeon YouTube (or, rarely, Vimeo)
Branding –get searchedfor with/after the query
Phrasing & positionof short answer in content
Claim GMB, get links, earn citations, be nearby
Earn brand association, use structured markup
Get in Google News, earn links, title w/ KWs
Relevant images, alt attributes, & direct embeds
KWs in title/description, get popular in app stores
Books
Related Searches
Tweets
Search Suggest
Sitelinks
Section Sitelinks
In-Depth Articles
Carousels/List Results
Write a book, use KWs in the title, have an ISBN
Be searched+foundcommonly w/ the KWs
Verified accounts help, use KWs in tweets
As w/ related searches, also geo-sensitive
Get links & visits to several pop pgs; use markup
Grow popular subsections w/ popular subpages
Author longer pieces that receive attention/links
Be listedalongside common sets on the web
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
SERP Feature Type How to Get In
Analyze Which Types of SERPs Appear Most in the
Keywords You Care About
These show me how many of
each SERP type appears in the
results for this keyword list (via
KW Explorer)
Then Determine What Verticals & SERP Types You
Need to Optimize For
Aiming for these PAA
boxes (People Also Ask)
might be a great content
marketing strategy for
SEO
Next time you’re making a strategic or tactical marketing
decision, ask yourself:
How is cultural conditioning
biasing me?
Not “if”
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
Bit.ly/giantmuck