SMX London 2014 - SEO Periodic Table of Ranking Facotrs

The Periodic Table ofSEO Ranking Factors

2014 edition

Grant SimmonsVP of Search StrategiesDominion Homes Media

• Proud expat Brit (22+ yrs)• Essex lad (always will be!)• Proud American with a funny accent• New Zealanders don’t understand me

Where amI from?

@simmonet#SMX

resources:

http://unop.me/smxlon

@simmonet

Let’s Go!

• Periodic Table of SEO What?

• Ranking Factor Element Trends

• Missing Ranking Factor Elements

• Ranking Factor Compounds

Search Engine

Optimization

@simmonet

factors for ranking

Search Engine

UnOptimization

@simmonet

factors for ranking

Google Algorithm Updates

Take a Fresh LookAt Your Link Graph & Content

Penguin: Link “Naturalness”

YIKES!

Link Graphs Should Be UnOptimized

• Anchor text to brand / site

• Inter-site linking i.e. footer links

• Dofollow links to nofollow links

• Internal linking for users NOT Google

This obviously isn’t for users

zere areno absolutes

Panda: Content Value

Content is Over optimized

scale over substancesubstance over scale

Content Should be UnOptimized

Content production needs to change from:

• Auto-generated to human-generated*

• ‘Thin’ to valuable

• Patterned to unique

• Scale to reasonable amount

• Generalists to authorities

better

*Cool new technologies may change this POV

Take a Fresh LookAt Your Link Graph & Content

Tools

Link Graph

• Open Site Explorer

• Majestic SEO

• Google Webmaster Tools

Content

• Screaming Frog

• Google SERP

So What’s Trending?

@simmonet

So What’s Trending

@simmonet

Search Visibility Trends

Content

• Quality & Freshness

• Engagement (far beyond the bounce)

• Speed of Delivery (especially Mobile)


Links

• Waning: Anchor Text, Number & Paid

• Waxing: Quality Velocity, Freshness, Relationship (how page topics / titles are related) and alignment (not correlation) with Social signals


Trust factors

• Social Reputation

• Topic Expertise

• Organic Reach / Amplification

“Digital Footprint”

So What’s Missing?

@simmonet

Better Facilitated Crawl

XML Sitemaps

Better Crawls =

Better Indexing Potential

• News / Recent

• Indexing reporting

• Link / Page Updates

• Media – images / video

• hreflang – language specific

SEO Element CompoundsThe Whole is Greater

Than the Sum of its Parts

@simmonet

The Fun BitBuilding SEO Compounds

@simmonet

bwaahahaahaa!

Freshness SEO Compound

Cf3Ac2At = Indexing FactorCombination of fresh content within an efficient site structure & great XML sitemap implementation to allow quicker& expanded index inclusion.

Fresh+ = rank worthy

Cf3Ac2At = Indexing Factor

Image: www.metropublisher.com

Engagement SEO Compounds

Ht2HdHs = CTR FactorCombining best practice Titles & Meta Descriptions with Structured Data

creates SERP environment for

increased Click Through Rates.

CTR is an important signal

Ht2Hd = CTR Factor

• Understand the query intent & context

• Optimize for CTR“is it clickable?”

• Don’t let Googlemake decision(align with query)

Ht2HdHs = CTR Factor

• Understand the query intent & context

• Optimize for CTR“is it clickable?”

• Don’t let Googlemake decision(align with query)

Engagement SEO Compounds

Ac2Cw4Ce = Relevance Path FactorCombining good silos with distinct user engagement actions – creates consistent interaction and clear hierarchiesof topic relevance.

Inspiring consistent onsiteengagement is important

Ac2Cw4Ce = Relevance Path Factor

Lots More Compound Hypotheses

We’re Done!

• Periodic Table of SEO What?

• Ranking Factor Element Trends

• Missing Ranking Factor Elements

• Ranking Factor Compounds

Thank You

resources: http://unop.me/smxlon

Questions?

resources: http://unop.me/smxlon

@simmonet#SMX

resources:

http://unop.me/smxlon

Grant SimmonsVP of Search StrategiesDominion Homes Media

The Periodic Table ofSEO Ranking Factors

2014 edition

SMX London 2014 - SEO Periodic Table of Ranking Facotrs

Technology

Transcript of SMX London 2014 - SEO Periodic Table of Ranking Facotrs