Winter 2015


09


out which one it should rank. A responsive design eliminates the need to have duplicate content, as it takes your existing web page and displays it seamlessly across all devices. Another big change is that mobile has pushed


Google into providing more instant answers. Mobile users have such a dependency on quick answers that Google is now biased to do this for all types of searches. If you search NFL scores or weather in your ZIP code, Google serves up one answer of its choosing above the rest of the results, and usually without any source citation. That removes a lot of traffic opportunities. My recommendation is be aware of when instant answers appear in search results, and make sure you’re not targeting your content and search efforts at places where Google gives an instant answer. Focus your efforts where you’ll be a main source for information and not passed over by an instant answer.


Q: We’ve talked about how SEO has evolved. Let’s wrap up by looking at how Rand Fishkin has evolved. You made a dramatic change at Moz when you stepped down as CEO so you could focus more on your passions. What are those passions?


RF: My passions are around product and marketing. I’m into making the world of marketing more transparent, and Google, too. Google says transparency is a core value, but they make their operations really opaque. My personal mission is to make Google more transparent. Good SEO can do wonders. Bad SEO can tank you.


There are many horror stories of businesses that lost a huge portion of their customer acquisition funnel due to being penalized or banned by Google, because they unknowingly hired bad SEO consultants or their in-house SEO person did manipulative spam things. I want to improve the quality of the data, tools, and content we produce to help people learn and engage in valuable SEO and marketing practices to grow their opportunities. 


Optimizing Popular Content Types


A well-rounded inbound marketing strategy includes a variety of content types. Here’s Rand’s practical advice for improving SEO for popular content formats.


Video


Video has become a content marketing “must have.” Make your video a “must see” with these tips:


• Compelling title — Attract viewers with a compelling title while leveraging relevant, searchable keywords.


• Striking front image — Create a visual snapshot that compels people to click. When a video is shared on social sites, a strong image impacts how viral it goes.


• Transcript — Because search engines can crawl and index them, transcripts can improve a video’s SERP rankings. Whether you use a transcription service or do it yourself, include keywords and phrases that help search engines understand your video’s subject. A transcript doesn’t have to be visible on the website for SEO benefits. It can be hidden in plain sight, allowing viewers to click on the page to display it.


• Control of experience — If your priorities are branding and visibility, put your video on YouTube. However, to better control the viewer’s experience, put the video on your site using a video hosting service like Wistia. By embedding video this way, the links, shares, and embeds all point back to you and increase your site’s search engine visibility, though you’ll sacrifice some YouTube traffic.


Blogs If your site domain is ABC.com, don’t post your blog at ABCblog.com. Google considers these two different sites, and all the valuable ranking signals and links coming to ABCblog. com won’t help ABC.com one bit. The ideal location for your blog would be ABC.com/blog.


SlideShare Embed your SlideShare content on your own website to drive up views and visibility. Also, embed links in your slides that point back to your site’s relevant pages or blog posts. Link to other sites, too, and they’ll be more likely to share your SlideShare.


Social Platforms Use social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as channels that drive people to your site with the promise of something interesting. Include your business name in your posts; Google can associate the keywords you use to describe your company with your business’s name, further enhancing your domain authority in search engine results.


Press Releases When publishing press releases, include an image or photo, and use your key phrase at the beginning of the image caption. For interested readers, include the URL of your website’s most relevant page. Google penalizes press releases that contain exact-match, optimized anchor text links, considering them “unnatural links,” so avoid using them or make sure they are set to “nofollow.” Post your releases on your website and share through social media and email campaigns. Above all, only share interesting and useful news. By creating better- optimized press releases with strategic execution, journalists who pick them up can link back to your site, where you control the experience and improve SEO.


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