The document discusses SEO and whether it is still relevant. It notes that while SEO has changed more in the past couple years than the previous ten, the core principles remain the same. The document aims to dispel myths about SEO and provide useful tactics that when implemented will increase visibility and traffic. It promises to provide actionable SEO strategies and tactics for now and beyond in a hands-on clinic.

1. Apogee Results

2. Apogee Results

3. Over the past couple of years, SEO has changed more than it has over the
previous ten. Or has it? Others tell us that the core principles of SEO are
timeless and have been unchanging since the birth of Google in the late 1990s.
What's the truth? We constantly hear about new Google updates and how
Google Panda this or Google Penguin that has completely changed the rankings
landscape. What's really going on? SEO is actually more important than ever,
and we're going to dispel myths and dispense useful tactics that when
implemented, WILL increase your visibility and traffic online. This session will
get down and dirty with actionable strategies and tactics for now, for 2013, and
beyond. Don't miss this hands-on, no holds barred clinic that will help you
successfully grapple with one of the very highest ROI marketing endeavors out
there.
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

4. • Once you have something figured out, it is probably about to change on you
• There are many roads to Rome
• Hubris (pride) is the beginning of humiliation
• What works for someone else, might not work for you
• Follow me @marketing_bill or email me leake@apogeeresults.com
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

5. = Revenue?
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

6. • Forrester JUST released a new report
• “The Purchase Path of Online Buyers in 2012
• Analyzed conversion paths on 77,000 orders
• Fewer than 1 percent of transactions could be traced to social links
• Top performing sources
• direct visits (20%)
• Organic search (16%)
• Paid Search (11%)
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

7. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

8. • Search matters most for NEW customers
• Email matters most for REPEAT customers
• Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

9. VS
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

10. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

11. Slide Copy
• Sales?
• Bottom Line Earnings?
• Top Line Revenue?
• Margin?
• ROI?
• Brand (building, maintenance and/or defense)
MOST LIKELY…. Not Forms or Likes
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

12. • Social Media
• Partners
• Channels
• Press
• Portals
• Divisional efforts
• Universal / Blended Search
• Mobile
• Plus / Places / Maps
Shades of a Large Shift…
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

13. • Online PR
• Search - Paid (PPC)
• Search - Natural (SEO)
• Email
• Social Networks
• Display (incl. retargeting & rich media)
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

14. • ABT (Always Be Testing)
• Titles, Descriptions, Tagging
• Keywords
• Landing pages / conversion
• ABM (Always Be Measuring)
• What matters?
• How are you measuring it?
• ABA (Always Be Asking)
• What else can I learn from this?
• ex/ PPC drives SEO keyword selection
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

15. • Get it right at the beginning
• Sales and marketing alignment critical to this exercise
• Strategic planning worth the investment
• What is victory?
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get
you there”
- Lewis Carroll
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

16. • How are you going to measure this?
• Are your analytics tools working?
• Where are you today?
• How does today compare with where you need to be?
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you
there”
- Lewis Carroll
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

17. • Heuristic (aka rules of thumb)
• Top ten lists
• Checklists
• Best practices
• Persona-based
= QUALITATIVE
• A/B & Analytics
• Multivariate
• Google
• Adobe / Omniture Test & Target
= QUANTITATIVE
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

18. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

19. Logical
Competitive Methodical
Spontaneous
Emotional
Quick Decisions Slow Decisions
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

20. • SEO is the study of search rankings factors and the practice of implementing
those findings to increase a client's ranking or otherwise favorably position a
client in the results pages.
Traditional
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

21. Competitive
Reputation
Management
Publicity
Local
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

22. Traditional Social
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

23. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

24. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

25. • Objectives
• Target audience
• Rankings, traffic, actions
(per keyword/page/section/site/overall)
• Keywords
• Popularity & competition
• Keyword intent (navigational/informational/transactional)
• Rich content appearing in SERPs
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

26. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

27. • Keyword generation
• Google Insights
• Google Trends
• Google Suggest/Instant
• Keyword popularity
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Wordtracker
• Keyword competition
• Adwords Keyword Tool
• SERPs, AllinAnchor, AllinTitle
• Viewing SERPs
• Spyfu (paid)
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

28. • Think like the Customer
• Must have Search Volume
• Don’t Forget the Long Tail
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

29. • Structural Issues
• On-Page Factors
• Off-Page Factors (links)
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

30. • Indexability
• Google Webmaster Central (www.google.com/webmasters/)
• Sitemaps
• Page on Site
• XML Sitemaps
• Internal Linking Structure
• Keyword Usage
• “No Follow” to Focus PageRank Flow
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

31. • Title tags
• URL structure
• On-page copy (a/b test!)
• Meta description (just test!)
• Alt tags
• Fresh content
• Blog
• UGC
• Unimportant
• H1 tags
• Meta keyword tag
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

32. • Traditional link building
• Directories, business profiles, local listings
• Blog commenting
• Article syndication
• Press releases
• Partnerships
• Sponsorships
• Rented links
• Link excavation or linking optimization
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

33. • Social link building
• Social Bookmarking and Social News
• Social Bookmarking = less community (Delicious, Diigo, Mister Wong)
• Social News = more community
(Digg, Reddit, Slashdot)
• Promotion on social networks – followers on Twitter, people who ‘like’ you on
Facebook
• User generated content
• Make something interesting
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

34. SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

35. • Content link building
• Write something that your average customer would share
• Build an interactive tool that can be extremely useful or interesting
• Provide such an interactive tool to be used on other’s websites (widget)
• Share and share appropriately
• Track what works (mentions, new links, traffic, conversions?)
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

36. • Video search
• Image search
• Product search
• Maps/local search
• Blog search
• News search
• Other sites where search is key
• eBay
• Amazon
• App store
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

37. • Different set of rankings factors
• Popularity counts
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

38. • Trust
• Citations > links
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

39. • Indexing
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Analytics (# of pages with search traffic)
• Ranking
• Free: hand-checking (only applicable for very short tail)
• Paid: Authority Labs, SEOMoz, most reporting suites
• Traffic
• Actions
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

40. Don’t Forget BING!
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

41. Over the past couple of years, SEO has changed more than it has over the
previous ten. Or has it? Others tell us that the core principles of SEO are
timeless and unchanging since the birth of Google in the late 1990s. What's
the truth? We constantly hear about new Google updates and how Google
Panda this or Google Penguin that has completely changed the rankings
landscape.What's really going on? SEO is actually more important than ever,
and we're going to dispel myths and dispense useful tactics that when
implemented, WILL increase your visibility and traffic online. This session will
get down and dirty with actionable strategies and tactics for now, for 2013,
and beyond. Don't miss this hands-on, no holds barred clinic that will help you
successfully grapple with one of the very highest ROI marketing endeavors out
there.
SEO: Not Even Remotely Dead
October 2012

42. @Marketing_Bill
Leake@ApogeeResults.com
Apogee Results