This is a presentation I gave for the Smart Insights Digital Marketing priorities webinar series on why SEO is still important in 2014 and key trends to look out for.

1. SEO…..Is Alive!
James Gurd
Owner
Digital Juggler
James will outline the context for effective SEO in 2014
Digital Marketing Priorities 2014
Brought to you by:
#PlanToSucceed

2. Agenda
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SEO has evolved
Technical SEO is king
Mobile & local shine on
Author influence
Value of content
Social currency
Penguin: link quality vs. quantity
Don’t forget on-page
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3. About me
 James Gurd
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Owner & Lead
Consultant, Digital Juggler
Co-founder #EcomChat
Guest blogger for Smart
Insights, Postcode
Anywhere & Econsultancy
Shameless consultant
@jamesgurd
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4. SEO has evolved
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Consumer search patterns are more sophisticated.
The long tail is magical world of discovery.
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Search engines have reacted to increase contextual understanding >
Hummingbird.
Beware the super long tail e.g. voice activated contextual search.
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5. SEO – still evolving!
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For some queries, organic is down
the page.
Increasing variety of paid ads
changing the face of SERPs.
Need to analyse data at device
level.
If you’re CTR and traffic is low for
specific devices, test paid
campaigns alongside SEO.
Figure: iPad search for “dishwashers”
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6. SEO – devolved?
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Google is protecting its revenue > (not provided)
The data blind spot of (np) – what can you do?
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Customise analytics tools to get ‘some’ data
Focus on page level optimisation
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7. Technical SEO is king
 Not sexy but critical for SEO
 Ensure website is properly structured:
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Information architecture (IA)
Internal linking
Page load speed
Duplicate content e.g. canonical tag
URL parameters
Indexation issues
 Complexity increases with sub-domains, international etc.
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8. Mobile & local shine on
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More searches are being conducted on mobile devices.
40% of mobile searches have local intent* and 3 out of 4 mobile
searches trigger follow-up actions e.g. store visit/call/purchase.
Hummingbird is one move to recognise this > finding the context in a
search (object orientated search models – patents already filed).
If your mobile site doesn’t display well, will be a big FAIL for SEO.
* Source: Google’s Mobile Search Moments Study
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9. Don’t kill the mobile star
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Poorly optimised mobile sites drive 46% customers to competitors
(and kills your mobile SEO).
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10. Vote: mobile SEO
 Do you measure your mobile SEO results?
1. Yes
2. No
3. I don’t know
 Please only select one answer.
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11. Going local, down in…
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Chart source –
Moz 2013 Local
Search Ranking
Factors
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12. Author influence
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Search engines can associate content
with people
People can influence others – reputation
can impact value of content
Early days but expect trusted authors to
benefit in SERPs
Tips:
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Set-up G+ profiles for authors and link to
web profile
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Add mark-up to blogs/articles
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Use the structured data testing tool
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Consider guest blogging (on
reputable, quality sites)
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Employ writers who have an
established, quality profile
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13. Vote: authorship
 What do you think the key benefit of author markup will be in the future?
1. Authors of quality content will be rewarded with better
ranking
2. Authors can maintain their reputation regardless of
where they work
3. Authors can monetise their reputation by charging for
content
4. I don’t know
 Please only select one answer.
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14. Value of content
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$118.4bn spend on content
marketing in 2013 according to
eMarketer
27m pieces of content shared daily*
Algorithm update > Panda
Example SEO benefit – blogs**:
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55% more visitors
97% more inbound links
434% more indexed pages
*Source: Content+ infographic, March 2013
** Source: AOL and Nielsen
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15. Vote: content marketing
 How do you measure the impact of your content
marketing for SEO?
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Inbound links
Traffic to website
Social shares
All of the above
 Please only select one answer.
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16. Social currency
Image source: Beyond
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17. Social for SEO: key tips
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Make sure key content/product pages can be shared
Integrate visitor comments
Share your content via social channels
Give people a reason to RT/G+/Like
Identify key influencers and build relationships:
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Motivate them to share your links (but don’t pay!)
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18. UGC: build it and they will come?
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19. Penguin: link quality vs. quantity
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20. Don’t forget on-page
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Still a vital part of SEO – simply getting this right can give you high
visibility for non competitive keywords
Do your keyword research (Google keyword
tool, Wordstrea, Ubersuggest, Soovle etc)
Focus on most relevant keywords for page title, meta description and
H tags
Optimise at page level – avoid site wide
Optimise image assets e.g. alt tags
Make sure copy is relevant and well written
And don’t be afraid to be different – engagement helps with SEO
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21. Vote: on-page SEO
 What is the most important on-page signal for
SEO?
1.
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5.
Meta keywords
Meta description
Page title
H1 tag
I don’t know
 Please only select one answer.
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22. Summary – questions please!
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SEO is very much alive!
You need to understand the
changes
Mobile optimisation is
critical
Content is the marketing
fuel
Don’t forget the need to get
basics right
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Follow me on Twitter
@jamesgurd
Please check out
#EcomChat (Mondays)
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Recommended Smart
Insights resources:
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SEO Hub page
SEO 7 Steps to Success
ebook
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