Rand Fishkin of SEOMOZ speaks at SLCSEM.org

1. Choose Tall Men
(and short women)
http://bit.ly/choosetallmen
Rand Fishkin | @randfish | SLCSEM

2. Let’s talk about dating…
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

4. Here’s the problem

5. Height Is Holding You Back…
As women’s height rises, messages drop (the opposite is true for men):
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-biggest-lies-in-online-dating/

6. Height Is Holding You Back…
Not only is height a poor, arbitrary limitation, most lie about it:
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-biggest-lies-in-online-dating/

7. Remove the Irrational Bias
And You Can Get Every Other
Criteria You Want, Fulfilled

8. Let’s Apply This Principle to
the Marketing World

9. 8 Irrational Biases
(and how your inbound marketing can benefit by rejecting them)

10. Bias #1: Ranking Position is All That Matters
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/mission-imposserpble-establishing-clickthrough-rates

11. CTR is Influenced By More than Position

12. CTR is Influenced By More than Position
Star Ratings, Reviews & Price
Author Photo
Date of Publication
Video Snippet

13. Start w/ Great Titles, Meta Descriptions & URLs
Terrible
Excellent
Snippet Testing Tool: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

14. Profile Pics = CTR Boost
Rel=Author Guide from AJ Kohn: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement-rel-author

15. Video XML Sitemaps = CTR Boost
Video SEO Guide from Wistia: http://wistia.com/doc/video-seo

16. Rich Snippets: High Value in the Right Niches
Visual Rich Snippet Guide: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-visual-guide-to-rich-snippets

17. Bias #2: SEO is About Ranking for the “Money” Keywords

18. The Chunky Middle & Long Tail Are Amazing

19. Google Wants the Head for Themselves

20. Google Wants the Head for Themselves
The only non-Google link
(barely) visible without scrolling

21. Regular Content + UGC = Long Tail Success
Tens of thousands of pages of content created by
professional marketers (our writers and those who ask Q+A)

22. Bias #3: AdWords is All The Keyword Research You Need

23. Search Suggest Is a Great Keyword Research Tool

24. Search Suggest Is a Great Keyword Research Tool
Great tool for grabbing search suggest data: http://ubersuggest.org

25. Google News: Research the Undiscovered Keywords
In the next 1-5 days, these will all
have significant search volume

26. Social Media Leads to Queries

27. Tools for Tracking Social: PopURLs
http://search.popurls.com/

28. Tools for Tracking Social: Topsy
http://topsy.com/s?q=dublin

29. Bias #4: My Site is the Only Place to Do SEO

30. Controlling Brand SERPs Matters

31. Earning Rankings on Other Sites May Be Easier

32. Dominating SERPs is a Powerful Tactic

33. Consider SEO for Your Profiles &
Content on these Sites, Too.
R
Users: 90mm 900mm 200mm 120mm
120mm 10mm
Users: 15mm Millions 14mm 7.5mm 18mm

34. Bias #5: Social Sharing is Fire & Forget

35. What You Say and How Matters

36. Timing Matters
At the highest point, only ~6.5% of my followers are online, which
means only 4,514 of my 69,458 followers could possibly see a tweet.
Via http://followerwonk.com

37. Repetition Matters
The 3.5% online at night are almost certainly not
the same as the 6.7% online in the morning.
Via http://followerwonk.com

38. Link Placement Matters
URL at the end & hash URL in the center of text blocks, no
tag next to the URL usernames or hashes around it

39. Hashtags & Mentions Matter
Using the event hashtag will get Mentioning me makes
it in front of IFBC attendees sure I see it, which
might mean I RT

40. Snippets Matter in Google+
Not a great image (4:3
style format works best)
Comes from title &
meta description

41. Snippets Matter on Facebook
When @jennita (Moz’s
community manager)
shares content on
Facebook, she’ll often
upload an individual image
from the post to make it
better stand out in the
Facebook timeline

42. Bias #6: There’s No Simple Way to
Increase Traffic

43. Site Speed Optimization: Simple.
Data from @jcolman of REI
http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/web-performance-optimization-the-silver-bullet-of-seo-and-ux

44. 404, 500 & 302 Fixes: Simple.
http://google.com/webmasters and/or http://pro.seomoz.org can help ID these

45. Re-targeting: Simple. Increases Traffic.
Best retargeting providers?
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/comparing-the-top-4-retargeting-companies

46. Sharing New Content on Each Network. Simple.

47. Bias #7: CRO is about testing variations
of content and design

48. I want more people
who visit the site
to subscribe via
email
From my blog: http://moz.com/rand/

49. A) More People
Visiting
B) Higher
Conversion Rate

50. Let’s Improve the Call to Action!
This must be
the problem!

51. A/B Testing
We’ll show half our visitors one
and half the other, and get a
winner

52. Multivariate Testing
We’ll show each version to a
percentage of visitors and find a
winner

53. We Can Test Everything!
Location on Page
Display Width
Box Color
Address Verification
Social Proof Inclusion Different Versions Based
on User Behavior
Loading After the Page
Changing Messaging on
Call-to-Action Copy
Different Types of Pages/Posts

54. That’s Not CRO

55. What if this isn’t
the problem?

56. What if this is?

57. What if this guy is?

58. Likability
Design Branding
Historical Experiences
Trust
Social Proof
Word of Mouth
Associations
UX
CONVERSION DECISION Price
(it’s a complex process)
CTAs
Process
Copywriting Word of Mouth
Timing Amount of Pain Effort Required
Discovery Path

59. Likability
Design Branding
Historical Experiences
Trust
Social Proof
Word of Mouth
Associations
UX
WHICH OF THESE IS THE Price
CTAs REAL ISSUE?
Process
Copywriting Word of Mouth
Timing Amount of Pain Effort Required
Discovery Path

60. Ask Smart Questions to the Right
Never Taken a People
Took the Free Trial Took the Free
Free Trial But Left Trial and Stayed
What are you seeking
What are you seeking What made you take
What made you take What initially made
What initially made
from SEOmoz? What’s
from SEOmoz? What’s the free trial?
the free trial? you want SEOmoz?
you want SEOmoz?
brought you back?
brought you back?
What objections did
What objections did What objections did
What objections did
What would make you
What would make you you have and how did
you have and how did you have and how did
you have and how did
more likely to sign up?
more likely to sign up? you overcome them?
you overcome them? you overcome them?
you overcome them?
What are your biggest
What are your biggest What caused you to
What caused you to What’s been most
What’s been most
objections to signup?
objections to signup? cancel subscription?
cancel subscription? valuable to you?
valuable to you?
What would have made
What would have made Had success w/ Moz?
Had success w/ Moz?
you stay a subscriber?
you stay a subscriber? Can we share?
Can we share?

61. This is How the Pros Do It:
Boom.
From Conversion Rate Experts’ case study (which is definitely worth a read):
http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/crazy-egg-case-study/

62. This is How the Pros Do It:
Boom.
And
Shakalaka.
From Conversion Rate Experts’ case study (which is definitely worth a read):
http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/crazy-egg-case-study/

63. This process made SEOmoz $1mm in
additional revenue in 2009, when we
desperately needed it.
CRE detailed their results with us here: http://www.conversion-rate-
experts.com/seomoz-case-study/

64. Bias #8: Ranking in Google Means
Creating an Optimized Website

65. Scale of ROI from SEO Activities Over Time
2004-2009
2004-2009 2010-present
2010-present
Highest
Value Make the website’s pages
Make the website’s pages Create content people
Create content people
accessible to engines
accessible to engines want to consume & share
want to consume & share
Build links to individual
Build links to individual Make the website’s pages
Make the website’s pages
URLs for higher rankings
URLs for higher rankings accessible to engines
accessible to engines
Optimize on-page
Optimize on-page Optimize on-page
Optimize on-page
keyword usage/targeting
keyword usage/targeting keyword usage/targeting
keyword usage/targeting
Create content people
Create content people Optimize metadata,
Optimize metadata,
want to consume & share
want to consume & share schema, rich snippets, etc
schema, rich snippets, etc
Optimize metadata,
Optimize metadata, Build links to individual
Build links to individual
Lowest
Value schema, rich snippets, etc
schema, rich snippets, etc URLs for higher rankings
URLs for higher rankings

66. Scale of ROI from SEO Activities Over Time
2010-present
2010-present Google’s Dream
Google’s Dream
Highest
Value Create content people
Create content people Build a brand that searchers will
want to consume & share
want to consume & share positively associate w/ the niche
Make the website’s pages
Make the website’s pages Create content people
Create content people
accessible to engines
accessible to engines want to consume & share
want to consume & share
Optimize on-page
Optimize on-page Make the website’s pages
Make the website’s pages
keyword usage/targeting
keyword usage/targeting accessible to engines
accessible to engines
Optimize metadata,
Optimize metadata, Optimize metadata,
Optimize metadata,
schema, rich snippets, etc
schema, rich snippets, etc schema, rich snippets, etc
schema, rich snippets, etc
Build links to individual
Build links to individual Optimize on-page
Optimize on-page
Lowest
Value URLs for higher rankings
URLs for higher rankings keyword usage/targeting
keyword usage/targeting

68. Google Doesn’t
Want to Rank
“Websites”
Google Wants to
Rank “Brands”

69. Remove Irrational Biases.
Win at Marketing.

70. Choose Tall Men (and short women)
http://bit.ly/choosetallmen
• Email: rand@seomoz.org
• Tweet: @randfish
• Blog: moz.com/rand