Clarity ‘14: Lessons From the Field
Eric Enge @stonetemple +Eric Enge
Who is Eric Enge?
Lead Co-author: The Art of SEO CEO: Stone Temple Consulting, 30+
person Digital Marketing and SEO firm Columnist:
Interviewer:
Eric Enge @stonetemple +Eric Enge
Eric Enge – Fun Fact
1984 World Foosball Champion – “Goalie War”
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Did Your Content Marketing Plan
Take a Wrong Turn?
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The Traffic Growth Curve is Not Short
Started in 2009
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This is where most people give up.
In Reality, It Looks More Like This:
Traffic Data is From: Everywhereist.com
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Goal of Content Marketing is Not Direct Conversion
Search on “Buy Used Cars”
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Not Conversion Optimized!
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Yet, It Outranks This Page
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Get Your Departments to Collaborate
Link Worthy Content
SEO
Visibility Building Efforts Shareable Content
PR Social Media
1 1 1 5+ + =
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Don’t Launch Without a Plan!
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Content Marketing Without a Plan is Like This
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What is Needed to Move Up?“Nursing Education”
#7
#6
#5
#8
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Summary of Data
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Linking Page Level Analysis for One Competitor
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Adapt to Many Platforms
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Image Credit: Isitablog.co.uk
Likes, Tweets and +1s are Not the Answer
10,000 LikesWill MakeMe Rich!
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Avoid Off Topic Content (as a Primary Focus)
If You Sell Golf Clubs … … Don’t Focus Your Content on Lawn Care
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Example of Off Topic Content
And, Don’t Force It
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Seventh GenerationSells Diapers and Other Household Products
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They are Kicking Butt!
Over 1.2M Likes!
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How Seventh Generation Positions Itself
“Seventh Generation is a health and wellness company that happens to produce consumer packaged goods.”
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Let’s Get Mobile!
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Mobile Subdomain orDynamic Serving Responsive Web Design
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User Agent Detection
Request page
Detect User AgentSelect Right Site to Send
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User Agent Detection Pitfalls
• Dependent on having a list of User Agent Strings• New devices getting added all the time• Mismatch problems are not uncommon• Don’t look for Googlebot-Mobile, focus on devices
• Risk of perceived cloaking• All Googlebot mobile crawlers use common device type user agents
• Use third party services instead of your own code
• Must use Vary HTTP header• On mobile subdomains, redirects slow load time
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Vary HTTP Header• Whenever you use User Agent
Detection, implement Vary HTYP headers• Tells ISPs that page is User Agent
dependent• Keeps them from serving up cached
copies of pages when not appropriate• i.e. mobile page to a desktop, or vice
versa
• Aids in discovery of mobile URLs
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Vary HTTP and CDNs
Source: Cindy Krum, via Search Engine Land
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What Google Said About It
“Vary: User-Agent is broken for the Internet in general. …the basic problem is that the user-agents vary so wildly that they are almost unique for every individual (not quite that bad but IE made it a mess by including the version numbers of .Net that are installed on users machines as part of the string). If you Vary on User-Agent then intermediate caches will pretty much end up never caching resources (like Akamai).”
Patrick Meenan, Staff Software Engineer at GoogleSource: RKG Blog
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The Akamai Workaround
• Configure Akamai servers to ignore HTTP Vary and pass it downstream• Akamai servers are part of your infrastructure• Addresses ISP caching issues for you
• Rely on Akamai smart caching to do its thing• Better than dumb user agent detection (just like yours is!)• Save a bare minimum number of page copies to service devices
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Mobile Site (“m.yourdomain.com”) Requirement
Rel=“alternate”(or tag in sitemap)
Rel=“canonical”
Implement a Mobile SitemapImplement Vary HTTP Headers
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What is Dynamic Serving?
• Same process as a mobile subdomain, but …• No redirects required• Content is served on the same URL as your desktop pages• No rel=alternate / rel=canonical required
• No mobile sitemap needed• Still need the Vary HTTP header
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Responsive Web Design
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Problems with RWD
• Can be easier just to create a Smartphone site• Use case requirements may vary greatly• Flash and other technologies no longer
available to you on DT site• Phones may not support touch screen
features
• Full code often downloaded to mobile devices• Average page size on the web: 1.7 MB
• Ads may get cut off
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Samsung is Probably Not Happy With This
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Another Enterprise Site Issue Example
• Client was moving to RWD• Decision made to streamline nav in the site-wide menu for better
mobile experience• Put a crimp on a nav path that was desirable to broaden for SEO
reasons• Solution was to add drop down/expandable menus within a set of
links that existed below the fold on the homepage
Thank You!
Eric [email protected]: @stonetempleGoogle Plus: +Eric Enge(508) 879-0950http://www.stonetemple.com