How good Panda optimization on-page can be more important than a massive backlink profile. Presentation at SEMpdx on March 11, 2014

1. On-Page
Content Optimization
Or, Why TripAdvisor is Going to Put a Hit Out on Me
11 March 2014
Michael Cottam
www.michaelcottam.com
me@michaelcottam.com
@Michael512

2. Ranking Factors
 #1 Links
 #2 Linking domains
 #3 Page title tag
 #4 Keyword density
 #5 Anchor text
 #6 Social shares
 …..
 #314 Panda on-page factors

3. That’s

4. Panda is BAD ASS
•Panda is NOT a
penalty
•Can override
MONUMENTAL link
profile disadvantages
•You don’t believe me,
do you. FINE.

5. Not a very
competitive
term,
you say?
Oh, it drove me
12,000 visits.
LAST
FRIGGING
MONTH.
Those people
are buying
$15K packages.
@ 12%
commission.

6.  It sure as hell ain’t the backlinks, baby
 A whole TWO Google +1s….it’s not social
 Yes, there’s a little Facebook and Pinterest action, but
nothing major
 FYI…I only started getting the video snippet 1 week ago
Want to know that secret?

7. Linking root domains
 #1 result: 85 RDs
 Frommers: 15,251
 USA Today: 240,737
 Lonely Planet: 49,985
 Trip Advisor: 144,546
 Travel.AOL: 323,926
 Oh, and the #8 result?
 85 linking root domains. Guess friggin’ who.

8. Panda Factors
 Above the fold: % CONTENT
 Not ads, not template, not whitespace, not nav
 Original text
 ok, Google actually sucks at detecting this
 Original images
 Rich media elements
 Embedded maps, videos, etc.
 Structured data elements (schema, G+ auth)

9. Don’t you (Panda) want me baby?
 http://www.visualitineraries.com/articles/
Best-Time-of-Year-to-Visit-Tahiti.asp

10. Say hello to #2

11. #2 with nav, whitespace, ads, links fuzzed out

13. S
a
y
H
e
L
L
O
T
o
#
3

15. I
LOVE
To
Pick
On
Trip
Advisor!

16. It’d be hard to suck worse than this
when it comes to content.

17. Panda hates you cause you suck
 You have no content
 You have nothing original for the user to see
 You have nothing interactive for the user to play
with
 Your images are copied from everywhere
 You’re stuffing my face with ads
 Take that budget you used to have for crappy
outsourced link-building and make some cool,
original content….and pack it into that page.