SEO and Paid Search have changed quite a deal in 2013. Learn the major trends and events that are shaping the industry and what to do about them.

1. Andrew Delamarter
Inbound Strategies Group
InboundStrategiesGroup.com
@ADNYCE
What’s Changed and What Hasn’t in SEO and SEM
OMS San Diego 2013 | Room 29D

2. Agenda:
1. What’s new in SEO.
2. What’s new in SEM.
3. What to do about it.

3. What changed in
2012 – SEO.

4. 1. The decline of link schemes.
2. The increase in complexity.
3. The reframing of SEO into ‘Inbound
Marketing’.

5. The decline of link
schemes.
SEO in 2012

6. What do I mean by ‘link schemes’?
Buying links in an obvious way
‘Private blog networks’
(i.e. BuildMyRank.com)
Paid link schemes

7. B2B or B2C, hyperlinks are SEO fuel.
Links with optimized (keyword) anchor
text are super effective in core web
search.

8. Domain Authority
24%
Link Popularity of Page
22%
Anchor Text of External
Links
20%
On Page Keyword
Usage
15%
Traffic & Click Data
7%
Social Graph Metrics
7%
Registration & Hosting
Data
5%
Components of Ranking Algorithm

9. So what happened?

10. Link Schemes
Google

11. • By attacking webmasters directly – penalizing brands.
• With the threat in place, Google can rely on self-reporting
and web spam reports.
• Step 1: Send warning letter. ‘Tell us who you work
with’.
• Step 2: Flag reported domains and review site
footprints.
• Step 3: Send out more letters to linked domains.
• Step 4: Profit.
So how did Google do it?

12. Remember:
Google is built on the Link Graph. It’s
not ready to tear it out and start over.

13. Which is why…
Link building still works.

14. Increasing
complexity.
SEO in 2012:

15. Core web search is becoming a ‘winner
take all’ situation

16. Search engines are incorporating new
ranking signals.
• Social signals – author, domain, page authority.
• Citations - not just links.
• User experience – high bounce rates hurt rankings.
• Viral nature of content.
• Device-specific mobile site performance:
• Technical – Responsive design, mobile sites.
• Content – local content.
• User intent:
• Search engines getting better at discerning ‘local
intent’ & including local search info in products.

17. • Local search - map, review sites, G+ local, etc.
• Mobile search (50% of which is also local)
• Social search
• Image search / infographics
• App-driven traffic (Foursquare, Field Trip)
• ‘Dark’ traffic make things tough to track:
• ‘Dark social pools’ – URL shorteners strip out referrer data.
• Much of your viral content traffic may show up in analytics
as direct referrer. Content Marketers take note.
• No keyword shown for logged-in organic referrals.
• IO/S traffic shows as direct traffic in analytics
• Data feed / API-driven traffic.
Organic traffic sources are more
complex - and harder to track.

18. The transition from
‘SEO’ to Inbound
Marketing.
SEO in 2012:

19. ‘SEO’ does not even accurately describe what good ‘SEOs’
do anymore:
• Our SEO Recommendations memos address:
• Social media / social profiles
• APIs / Open data sets
• Semantic markup
• Local search / review sites
• Conversion / landing page optimization
• Keyword strategy & Content marketing
• Communications
SEO is inherently holistic.

20. Current Online Marketing paradigm:
Best of breed tools and processes run
by experts.

21. UX /
Design
Analytics Social
SEO /
agency
Paid
media
Content /
Editorial
“We call ‘em ‘Bankruptcy Tubes’” – Joel Salatin
Director of Marketing
Managing Lieutenants in silos

22. But SEO does not work well in a silo.

23. Mix it in.

24. “Search, Social &
Content Has Merged into
a Single Process”
-Kevin Gibson

25. Inbound Marketing Paradigm:
Managing SEO, High-intent Media,
Local, Social, Content, andAnalytics,
holistically.

26. Be these guys.
Social / Local / Mobile

27. What changed in
2012 – SEM.

28. 1. Mobile / Local grew up.
2. Complexity increased.
3. Lines got blurred.

29. Mobile. Local.
SEO in 2012

30. Tectonic plates shift:
Mobile search to eclipse desktop
search by 2015.

31. Mobile search means lower CPCs
and fewer clicks for Google

32. • Tablet search converts better, smartphone search worse,
for most (but not all) keywords.
• Google’s ‘Enhanced Campaigns’ make it harder to run
platform-specific SEM.
• Requires advertisers to set multipliers that impact all
keywords in campaigns.
• Find ways to make your business local – optimize local
landing pages, reach out to reseller networks, service or
support pages – anything to make your business locally
relevant and good for local SEM.
Brands need mobile / local SEM
strategies.

33. Increased
complexity.
SEO in 2012

34. • Advertising networks and exchanges now have a real
winner with remarketing.
• DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) and agencies have
exploded to help advertisers and agencies deal with
complexity and exploit inefficiencies between ad
networks, publishers, and brands.
• Real-time bidding across networks and goal setting.
• Creative development and optimization.
• Targeting (including mobile) and audience settings.
• Social networks are jumping on the bandwagon.
The remarketing boom.

35. • To really get the most out of these new tactics
deep SEM / media expertise may be required for
mid-to-large sized brands at this point.
• In-house SEM may need enterprise tools to get it
done ($$$) globally & to manage multiple
engines.
• SEM / Media agencies can afford to distribute the
cost of tools and training over many clients.
Agencies love complexity.

36. • Are you maxing out inventory on Google adWords?
• Remarketing / Retargeting & Affiliate ‘display’ media
opens a world of ROI-positive tactics.
• Do you have budget to expand marketing if the ROI is
positive?
• Do you have better things to do with your people?
• Like creating, publishing, and optimizing content,
maybe?
• Or making sure everything is working together?
How to decide if you need an SEM or
media agency.

37. The blurring of
lines in SEM.
SEM in 2012

38. • Ad networks have become search-like and search
engines have acquired media firms and ad networks.
• The result is search-like advertising tactics abound
outside adWords and Bing.
• Start thinking beyond adWords – there is a big world
out there.
• Endless forms of targeting (site, URL, search, IP, geo) are
adding real value to display advertising.
• Remember: The real ROI is always on the bleeding edge,
before the big, slow brands with big budgets pile in.
Search engine marketing evolves.

39. All that work you put in to building a Facebook presence now
needs paid media to get seen by your fans.
• 16% of brand posts now make it into the newsfeeds of
fans
• SEMs need to be heavily engaged in both Facebook
advertising (‘Premium’ ads) and working with Social media
content teams (news feed ads).
• Social media content needs to be very compelling to be
seen or else it needs to be promoted.
Social media is looking more like paid
media.

40. What to do about
it.

41. Shift to an Inbound Marketing
perspective.

42. SEM / SEO is a big part of inbound
marketing, but just a part.

43. It also includes:
Content marketing
Social media
Conversion optimization
Media alignment

44. The inbound marketer thinks about
keywords, content, and context, and
facilitates cross-group communication,
strategy, execution, and optimization.

45. Inbound
Marketer
SEM / media Web analytics
CM / SEO Social
WordPress
Conductor
HootSuite
Marketing Cloud
Doubleclick
Marin
Kenshoo
Omniture
Google
Analytics
Earned

46. Inbound marketers look for emerging
sources of traffic that defy silos.

47. Just because you can’t
staff an inbound position
doesn’t mean you can’t
think along these lines.

48. Inbound marketing in action.

49. Keywords and
Destination URLs
Editorial plan SEM / Paid / Social
Local teams Communications
Start with a master keyword list.

50. Build out a keyword-driven editorial plan.
Create content, promote with media.

51. Inbound content marketing –
infographics.
• This Infographic
optimized for ‘UX
careers’ keywords
dominated the
entire search
results page:

52. • Align media spend - adjust bids on PPC
ads based on organic rankings.
• Use paid search data to drive content
marketing
• Create evergreen SEO content based on
organic landing pages use SEM data.
• Expand beyond Google, beyond search
entirely to new ‘high intent’ tactics.
Inbound marketing – SEM.

53. SEO & SEM: Competitive brand query.

54. SEO & SEM – Non-competitive brand
query.

55. • This is a bit redundant since Inbound Marketing is
replacing SEO.
• Nevertheless, SEO in the Inbound Marketing era
still remains, just in a more subtle form.
• Assuming your have decent content and no major
technical problems, the big thing in core web
search is still links, which boils down to link
building.
Inbound Marketing - SEO

56. Understand the difference between link
building and buying links. Buying links
in an obvious way is no longer wise.

57. Link building is a Grey area.

58. Optimize your backlinks via
partnerships, value exchange,
whatever. But the second you see
results, pull back and vary anchor text
and URLs. Strive for a ‘natural backlink
profile’

59. • Take ownership of G+ local, other business listings.
Encourage channel partners to do the same.
• Populate local pages with keyword-driven content
from content marketing program.
• Make sure NAP (name, address, phone) matches
exactly to web site & add semantic markup to be
sure.
• Cross-link your Google + Local page, Yahoo local
listings to on-site content.
Inbound marketing tactics – local.

60. • Drive traffic with deep links and keyword anchor text.
• Monitor link sharing trends (Bit.ly+) and feed into
content calendar.
• Seed keyword-driven content to social sites and
cross-link using keywords.
• Promote good social content with SEM / media.
Inbound tactics – social.

61. Merging local + social.

62. Boost author digital social authority via
profiles.

63. Klout score(Bing) or Google’s
AgentRank are among the
emerging ranking signals for
issues-related content.
Anyone who creates content for
needs to have a G+ profile linked
to their content:
• Speeches
• Press releases
• Core site content
• News
Add author attribution to syndicated
content.

64. • Enterprise SEO tools: Consider
Conductor, Brightedge ($$$), Raven
($), Searchmetrics ($$)
• Web analytics – Create cross-group
dashboards and reports (Domo).
Consider integrated platforms like
Adobe and soon the DoubleClick
search platform.
• Ad Managers: Kenshoo has PPC,
SEO rankings, social and local ad
management. Marin software has
search, social, display, mobile
Tools to get it done.

65. It’s up to you to make the connections
to show integration and cross-group
success.

67. One last point…

68. Search is long in the tooth.

69. But… a lot has not changed.

70. Apersonal example.

71. Running a homeschool collective
(radschool.org) is hard...

72. Like any business we needed to ‘acquire
customers’.

73. We developed a marketing and keyword strategy
• Changed target to ‘alternative schoolers’ from
homeschoolers.
• We mapped our keywords to digital content
• We optimized on-page content for each keyword using a
search-friendly CMS platform like WordPress.
• We had each parent link to the home page using the
keyword ‘alternative school’ or a variant.
Start with the basics.

74. 2001 - era tactics still work.

75. I am continually amazed at how many
brands small or large that have not
even gone this far.

76. • LA smog image by Robert S. Donovan: CC-licensed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/booleansplit/1297903757/sizes/o/in/photostream
• Ice tea image by Harsha KR: CC-licensed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mynameisharsha/4901750728/
• Google CPCs chart: BusinesInsider.com on Google public data:
http://www.businessinsider.com/fury-at-google-advertisers-say-new-search-
rules-are-stealing-from-them-2013-2
• Thor action figure image: By JD Hancock. CC-licensed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/8402660230/
• Homeschool photos by Andrew Delamarter (author).
Image credits.