Future-Proofing Your SEO:2012 Edition

Dr. Peter J. Meyers | User Effect

Chat with webinar attendees:

http://bit.ly/seomozchat

Technical problems or feedback:Please email team@seomoz.org

SEO should look like this…

Proactive SEO …Not like this.

I. Year in Review

Jan/Feb – High Profile Penalties

JC Penney hit for link farms (http://nyti.ms/fbisVa), Overstock for paid links

SEO should look like this…

Mmmm…Rankings tastelike despair!

Feb 23 – The Panda Update

Panda 1.0 impacted an estimated 12% of queries

02/23 – Panda 1.004/11 – Panda 2.005/09 – Panda 2.106/21 – Panda 2.207/23 – Panda 2.3

08/12 – Panda 2.409/28 – Panda 2.510/03 – Panda Flux10/13 – Panda Flux11/18 – Panda Flux

June 2 – Schema.org

Schema.org launched cooperatively by Google, Bing and Yahoo

June 21 – Google+ Launches

Preceded by March 30th launch of +1 button

Oct 28 – Query Encryption

Impact on data seems to be increasing (http://mz.cm/v5NnoM)

Nov 3 – Freshness Update

Google claimed 35% of queries impacted!

II. Proactive SEO

“13,311 precision evaluations…”“…resulted in 516 changes”

“Why Do They Outrank Me?”

Maybe you’re asking the wrong question…

“Why Do I Deserve to Rank?”

You can’t control Google or your competitors.

Link

s

Link

s

On-

page

Soc

ial

Use

rs

Con

tent

Follow the money…

III. Looking Ahead

Consolidate Pages

More indexed pages is NOT always better.

True DuplicatesDuplicate Paths

Search Sorts

Product OptionsGeo Keywords

Syndicated ContentSearch Pagination “Thin” Content

Consolidate Domains

Google’s not that dumb.

BuyCheapJunk.comBuyJunkNow.com

MyCheapCrap.com

FindJunk.comILoveJunk.net

TheBestJunk.comCheapJunk.org JunkityJunkJunk.co

Create Unique Value

What is your Search Value Proposition (SVP)?

Buy Content, Not Links

My rule of thumb: 20 hours for a great piece of content.

$1000 = 100 hours = 200 [crap] links

*Lifetime traffic (published Feb 2009)

*Traffic for 2011 only (no updates)

Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

Diversify your link-building tactics, sources, and anchor text.

Proactive SEO The Reverse Sandbox

Build Your Social Authority

Tweets, Likes and +1s will have PR (PersonRank).

Mind Your Bouncing

Bing is already factoring in user signals (http://binged.it/rqsZEO).

Bounce Rate “Dwell Time”Click-Through Rate

Speed It Up

Long Live the 10-result SERP

Local, Maps, Images, News, Thumbnails, Real-time, Site-links…

Scheming With Schemas

See what’s working in your niche (http://mz.cm/spjXiV).

Q&A Time!

@dr_pete

www.seomoz.org/blog

peter@usereffect.com

www.seomoz.org/freetrial