Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insights from the Moz Blog

Introduction 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 Th is Book? 4

PART I: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 5

The Birth of SEO 5

Life Aft er Google 6

Cracking Down 6

How Search Engines Make Money 7

Tactics Th at Never Stop Working 8

The Future of Search 8

Chapter 1: White Hat SEO: It 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” hrefl ang=“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 Th at 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 Th is 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 Aft er 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: Th row Away Your Form Letters (or 5 Principles to Better Outreach Link Building) 189

1. Talk to People Like People (Th row Out Your Form Letters) 190

Opening 191

Sustaining 193

Closing 195

2. Stand out in the Inbox 197

3. Do Your Research 198

4. Off er 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 Traffi c 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 Traffi c 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; Th at 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-Th rough 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 Aff ect 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 Th at 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