How To Get Found With Advanced SEO
Today we’re talking about “Advanced SEO Tactics: On Beyond Keyword Research” from Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University, taught by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz. (Make sure to take a look at last week’s post on Viral Marketing.) Fishkin’s lesson focuses on what will work for your SEO and what isn’t as important to stress about. His information is based on “expert opinion” attained via a survey about search ranking factors answered by 70 of the top SEOs worldwide.
Google’s Ranking Algorithm
There is no secret fool-proof formula for getting a good site ranking, but according Google’s Ranking Algorithm, the top three most important factors are the trust/authority of the host domain (25%), link popularity of a specific page (22%), and the anchor text of external links (20%). That’s a whopping 87%! The problem is, you’re not really in control of it. But the next factor is what you can control: on-page keyword use. Although it only makes up 15% of the most important factors, you should try to hit your on-page keywords on the head as much as possible because you can control it! Fishkin says that, “Links, as they pertain to both the domain and the individual page, are vastly superior in importance to the page’s content.”
Keyword Usage
Onto that keyword usage! Keyword use in the tittle tag, as the first word(s) of the title tag, from expert opinion, seems to be very important, as well as keyword use in the root domain. (The root domain is the main part of the URL–for example, in http://www.thejargroup.com/the-basics-of-blogging-for-business/ the root domain is thejargroup.com.) Want a great example of how SEO really helps? Dollar Days International, a premier, online wholesale distributor and closeout company, launched a new website in April 2007, but they weren’t getting as much traffic as they should have been getting from search engines. They brought their problem to The JAR Group and we implemented an advanced linking and SEO strategy, optimizing over 850 pages on the Dollar Days site. The results? Within 8 short months, conversions rose 104% from JAR’s strategies and they continue to rise. And their revenue from search engine traffic is up to 33% of the total revenue. Big difference, right? Impressive, I know.
Non-Link Factors
Some of the top non-link factors include how recently the page was created, historical content changes, and the use of advertising on the page. >Substantive, unique content is a huge driving factor. Make sure you have content that provides value (such as original, new blog posts).
Link Metrics
Now onto the nitty gritty–the importance of link metrics. The top factors in this category are global link popularity, the trustworthiness of the domain based on link distance from trusted domains, and link diversity of the domain. And as far as root domains and subdomains go, expert opinion states that content on subdomains inherit some, but not all, of the query-independent metrics of the root domain. In other words, subdomains likely don’t inherit all of the ranking benefits of the root domain, but neither are completely separate entities.
Additional Advice
Fishkin also shared that “great” content is useless unless it can make people link to you. Try to use emotion in your content to get people who are frequent linkers to link to you. (Fishkin refers to these people as the “Linkerati”.) He also shares some link building tactics according to expert opinion: create valuable content that naturally attracts links, blog, and create viral content that can get promoted over twitter and social media platforms.
Fishkin’s recommended reading:
- SEOMoz
- Search Engine Land
- SEO Book
- Search Engine Roundtable
- Matt Cutts
- Distilled
- Search Engine Journal
