Description
Book SynopsisLearn from the leading resource on the latest inbound marketing techniques As the SEO industry undergoes a shift and Google continues to change its algorithm, successful SEO practitioners need to increase their knowledge of a wide range of inbound marketing channels.
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
SEO Is Changing 2
From SEO to Inbound Marketing 2
Inbound Marketing 3
Investing in Inbound Marketing for the Long Term 4
Why Read This Book? 4
Part I: Search Engine Optimization 5
The Birth of SEO 5
Life After Google 6
Cracking Down 6
How Search Engines Make Money 7
Tactics That Never Stop Working 8
The Future of Search 8
Chapter 1: White Hat SEO: It F@$ing Works 9
Some Points on Kris’ Post 11
Black Hat ≠ SEO 15
Why We Can’t Ignore Black Hat Entirely 17
Why White Hat Is Always Better 18
Chapter 2: Schema.org: Why You’re Behind If You’re Not Using It 23
Myth: Schema.org Markup Doesn’t Get Rich Snippets! 24
Schema.org Is Not a Language 25
Five Underused Schema.org Applications 26
1 Events 26
2 Jobs 27
3 Reputation Management 28
4 News Sites 29
5 Ecommerce 29
Wrap-Up 29
Chapter 3: Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization 31
Best Practices for Optimizing Pages 33
HTML Head Tags 33
URLs 34
Body Tags 35
Internal Links and Location in Site Architecture 36
Page Architecture 36
Why Don’t We Always Obey These Rules? 37
Best Practices for Ranking 1 37
Chapter 4: Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World 39
What Is Duplicate Content? 40
Why Do Duplicates Matter? 40
The Supplemental Index 40
The Crawl Budget 41
The Indexation Cap 41
The Penalty Debate 41
The Panda Update 42
Three Kinds of Duplicates 42
True Duplicates 42
Near Duplicates 42
Cross-domain Duplicates 43
Tools for Fixing Duplicates 43
404 (Not Found) 43
301-Redirect 43
Robots.txt 44
Meta Robots 44
Rel=Canonical 45
Google URL Removal 46
Google Parameter Blocking 46
Bing URL Removal 47
Bing Parameter Blocking 47
Rel=Prev and Rel=Next 48
Internal Linking 49
Don’t Do Anything 49
Rel=“alternate” hreflang=“x” 49
Examples of Duplicate Content 49
www versus Non-www 50
Staging Servers 50
Trailing Slashes (“/”) 51
Secure (https) Pages 51
Home page Duplicates 51
Session IDs 52
Affiliate Tracking 52
Duplicate Paths 53
Functional Parameters 53
International Duplicates 54
Search Sorts 54
Search Filters 55
Search Pagination 55
Product Variations 56
Geo-keyword Variations 56
Other “Thin” Content 57
Syndicated Content 57
Scraped Content 57
Cross-ccTLD Duplicates 58
Which URL Is Canonical? 58
Tools for Diagnosing Duplicates 59
Google Webmaster Tools 59
Google’s Site: Command 60
Your Own Brain 61
I Hope That Covers It 61
Chapter 5: Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings 63
How Google Scores Fresh Content 64
1. Freshness by Inception Date 65
2. How Much a Document Changes Influences Freshness 66
3. The Rate of Document Change (How Often) Impacts Freshness 66
4. Freshness Influenced by New Page Creation 67
5. Changes to Important Content Matter More 68
6. Rate of New Link Growth Signals Freshness 69
7. Links from Fresh Sites Pass Fresh Value 69
8. Changes in Anchor Text Signals May Devalue Links 70
9. User Behavior Indicates Freshness 71
10. Older Documents Still Win Certain Queries 72
Conclusion 73
Chapter 6: All Links Are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations of Search Engines’ Valuation of Links 75
Principle 1: Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes 77
Principle 2: External Links Are More Influential Than Internal Links 78
Principle 3: Links From Unique Domains Matter More Than Links From Previously Linking Sites 79
Principle 4: Links From Sites Closer to a Trusted Seed Set Pass More Value 80
Principle 5: Links From “Inside” Unique Content Pass More Value Than Those From Header/Footer/Sidebar Navigation Do 81
Principle 6: Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value Than Those in Alt Attributes of Linked Images 82
Principle 7: Links From More Important, Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value 82
Principle 8: Links Contained Within Noscript Tags Pass Low, If Any, Value 83
Principle 9: A Burst of New Links May Enable a Document to Outrank “Stronger” Competition 83
Principle 10: Legitimate Links on Pages That Also Link to Web Spam May Be Devalued 84
Conclusion 85
Chapter 7: The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded 87
Part II: Content 91
History of Content within SEO 91
Types of Content 92
Turning Challenges into Opportunities 93
Video Content 93
High-Quality Content 93
Producing Content on Budget 94
Content at Scale 94
The Future of Content 95
Chapter 8: Beyond Blog Posts: A Guide to Innovative Content Types 97
Q&A Content 98
Presentations 99
Curated Content 100
Magazine and Long-Form Content 102
Imagery and Photojournalism 102
Video 103
Interactive Infographics 105
Product Marketplaces 105
Facebook Notes 106
Why Everyone Needs a Marketing Oracle for Their Content Platform 107
Chapter 9: Scaling White Hat Link Building—Scaling Content 109
Scalable Content 110
Cost 111
Scale 111
Quality 111
What’s This All Have to Do with Link Building? 112
Great Content? 112
Use Only Great Writers 113
Quality Control 113
Automation 113
Filling the Hopper with Good Content 114
Scaling 114
Do We Have All This Stuff? 115
Chapter 10: 10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building 117
1. Write for Power Skimmers 118
2. Why Headline Formulas Work 119
3. Get 20% More with Numbers 119
4. Free and Easy Power Words 120
5. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Clicks 120
6. Use Sub-Headlines or Die Trying 121
7. When in Doubt, List It Out 121
8. Quotes 122
9. The Bold and the Italic 122
10. Be Honest 122
Part III: Social Media 123
Social Media Marketing: The Early Years 123
Social Media Awakening: It’s Not Just About Me, It’s About You 124
Example 1 124
Example 2 125
Social Media Management: The Online Community Manager Is Born 125
Social Media Strategy: A Part of the Team 125
Social Media: What Does the Future Hold? 126
Chapter 11: The Rich Get Richer: True in SEO, Social, and All Organic Marketing 127
Chapter 12: Life After Google Is Now: 9 Pieces of Advice on How a New Site Can Succeed Without Search 131
What Does Designing For Social Mean? 132
1. Only the Best Goes Online 132
2. Twitter Is for the Insider’s View 132
3. Facebook Is for Debate 132
4. It’s All One Product Concept = Better Use of Time and Energy 133
What We Learned 133
5. Do More of What Is Successful 133
6. Not Everything Succeeds 133
7. Jump on Every Opportunity 133
8. Partnerships = Win-Win 134
9. Tools Help 134
In Conclusion 135
Chapter 13: Tracking the KPIs of Social Media 137
Why and Where Social Matters 138
Which Social Metrics to Track 140
Facebook 141
Twitter 142
LinkedIn 146
Google+ 149
Reddit, StumbleUpon, Quora, Yelp, Flickr, and YouTube 152
Blogs and Forums 152
Tools for Measuring Social Media Metrics 153
Chapter 14: Everyone Should Hire “Social Media Experts” 157
Chapter 15: A Peek Under the Hood: How We Manage the Moz Community 163
Who Are We? 164
Keri Morgret 164
Erica McGillivray 165
Megan Singley 165
Lindsay Wassell 166
Christy Correll 166
Melissa Fach 167
Miriam Ellis 167
Jen Lopez 168
Community Doesn’t Stop There 168
Ashley Tate 169
Peter Meyers (aka Dr. Pete) 169
Mozzers 169
What Do We Do? 170
Blog 170
YouMoz 172
Q&a 173
Social Community 175
Twitter 175
Facebook 177
Google+ 180
LinkedIn 181
Whew 183
Part IV: Outreach 185
Why Outreach Is Important 185
Good Outreach versus Bad Outreach 186
How Outreach Has Changed 186
The Dangers of Buying Links 187
The Challenges of Outreach 188
The Importance of Exceptional Content 188
Chapter 16: Throw Away Your Form Letters (or 5 Principles to Better Outreach Link Building) 189
1. Talk to People Like People (Throw Out Your Form Letters) 190
Opening 191
Sustaining 193
Closing 195
2. Stand out in the Inbox 197
3. Do Your Research 198
4. Offer Value 199
5. Maintain the Rapport 199
Conclusion 200
Chapter 17: A Link Builder’s Gmail Productivity Setup (with Outreach Emails from 4 Industry Link Builders) 203
Gmail Tools and Tips 204
Gmail Shortcuts 204
Canned Responses 205
Rapportive 206
Boomerang 207
Undo Send 208
Send and Archive 208
Link Building Email Templates from Industry Link Builders 209
Broken Link Building 209
Guest Posting 210
PR 210
Push Content 211
Exchange for a Link (But Not a Link Exchange) 212
Incentivized Reviews for Ecommerce 213
Chapter 18: Putting Guest Post Outreach Theories to the Test [With Some Real-World Data] 215
Theory 1: Being a Woman Will Get You More Links 216
Battle of the Sexes: Who Performed Better? 216
Theory 2: Job Title Matters 217
Theory 3: Timing Is Important 218
Theory 4: Personalisation Is Worth It (or Is It?) 219
The Results 219
What Did We Learn? 220
Theory 5: The Style of Outreach Email Has an Impact 221
Theory 6: Persistence Pays Off 221
What’s the Perfect Combination? 222
Part V: Conversion Rate Optimization 223
The Evolution of CRO 224
Testing and CRO 225
The Future of CRO 226
Chapter 19: An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Influence and Persuasion 227
1 Reciprocation 228
2 Commitment and Consistency 229
3 Social Proof 231
4 Liking 232
5 Authority 233
6 Scarcity 234
Chapter 20: The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program 237
Establishing a Conversion Baseline—The Conversion Scorecard 239
Scoring Your Page 239
Step 1: Use a Separate Landing Page for Each Inbound Traffic Source 239
Sponsor’s Advice 240
Step 2: A/B Test Your Landing Pages 240
Sponsor’s Advice 241
Step 3: Match Your Landing Page Message to the Upstream Ad 241
Sponsor’s Advice 241
Step 4: Context of Use 242
Sponsor’s Advice 242
Step 5: Use Videos to Increase Engagement and Conversions 242
Sponsor’s Advice 243
Step 6: Use Directional Cues to Lead the Way 243
Sponsor’s Advice 245
Step 7: Find the Optimal Balance of Data versus Conversion Rate 245
Sponsor’s Advice 245
Step 8: Be Honest About Your Writing and Edit Ruthlessly 246
Sponsor’s Advice 246
Step 9: Make It Desirable to Share 246
Sponsor’s Advice 246
Step 10: Leverage Social Proof and Trust Devices 247
Sponsor’s Advice 247
Step 11: One Page, One Purpose 247
Sponsor’s Advice 248
Step 12: Post-Conversion Marketing 248
Sponsor’s Advice 249
What Now? 249
Chapter 21: Lessons Learned from 21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization 251
The Role of Design 252
The Role of Social Proof 254
The Role of Headline and Copy 258
The Role of Call-to-Action 260
Your Role 262
Chapter 22: An Illustrated Guide to Web Experiments 263
A/B or MVT 264
MVT Face-off: Full Factorial versus Fractional Factorial 265
Testing the Test Environment with the A/A Test 266
Statistical Significance 267
Pro Tip: Ramp Up Traffic to Experimental Conditions Gradually 268
Part VI: Analytics 269
Ecommerce Budget Allocation Decision 270
Burning Question 270
Data Needs 270
Analysis 270
Paul’s Grief Over His Lack of Blogging Success 271
Burning Question 271
Data Needs 271
Analysis 271
Naoki’s Obsession with Being 1 272
Burning Question 273
Data Needs 273
Analysis 273
To Shoot or Not to Shoot; That Is the Question 273
Burning Question 274
Data Needs 274
Analysis 274
Chapter 23: 11 Google Analytics Tricks to Use for Your Website 275
1. Set Up Your Analytics Goals 276
2. Connect Your Google Webmaster Tools Account 277
3. Leverage Site Speed Reporting 278
4. Enable Site Search 280
5. Track Events 280
6. Real-Time Reporting 282
7. Multi-Channel Funnels 283
8. Use Custom Campaign Tracking 283
9. Plot Rows 284
10. Custom Dashboards 285
11. Flow Visualization 286
Visitors Flow 287
Goal Flow 287
Conclusion 287
Chapter 24: Eye-Tracking Google SERPs—5 Tales of Pizza 289
The Equipment and Methodology 290
Local 1: “best pizza in Chicago” 290
Local 2: “pizza” 292
Video Thumbnails: “how to make a pizza” 293
Product Images: “pizza cutters” 294
Expanded Site Links: “Pizza Hut” 295
Some General Implications 296
Chapter 25: Calculating and Improving Your Twitter Click-Through Rate 297
Q: Do My Wordier Tweets Earn Higher CTR? 300
Q: Do My Shorter Tweets Perform Better? 300
Q: Do On/Off-Topic Tweets Affect My CTR? 301
Q: Is My CTR Improving Over Time? 302
Part VII: Conclusion 305
Chapter 26: Launching a New Website: 18 Steps to Successful Metrics and Marketing 307
1: Install Visitor Analytics 308
2: Set Up Google and Bing Webmaster Tools Accounts 308
3: Run a Crawl Simulation of Your Site 310
4: Test Your Design with Browser Emulators 310
5: Set Up RSS Feed Analytics 311
6: Tag the Actions That Matter 312
7: Conduct an Online Usability/Branding Test 312
8: Establish a KPI Dashboard 313
9: Build an Email List of Friends and Business Contacts for Launch 313
10: Create Your Google Alerts 314
11: Bookmark Brand Tracking Queries 314
12: Make Email Signup/Subscription Available 315
13: Create Your Site/Brand’s Social Accounts 316
14: Connect Your Social Accounts 317
15: Make a List of Outreach Contacts 317
16: Build a List of Keywords to Target in Search Engines 318
17: Set Targets for the Next 12 Months 318
18: Plug into Moz Analytics 319
Meet the Authors 321
Index 325
