iAcquire Co-CEO, Joe Griffin, spoke at SEMPDX about the evolution of SEO.

1. SEO EVOLUTION 2014
@iacquire

2. HISTORY: LAST 36-MONTHS
Laying the Foundation
@iacquire

3. @iacquire
36-Months of History
• Panda & Penguin
• Webmaster Notifications
• EMD & QDF Updates
• The Knowledge Graph
• Hyper Localization
• Mobile Optimization
• Google Now
• Google+ & +1
• Authorship & In-Depth Articles
• Schema and Rich Snippets
• Big Data & Tools
• (not provided)
• PageRank Death

4. @iacquireiacquire.com
Let’s Talk Business First

5. THE SEO PROFESSIONAL
The Evolving Role of
@iacquire

6. @iacquire
4 Types of SEO Professionals
• Local SEO
• Mobile SEO
• Video SEO
• Social SEO
• CMS & Hosting
• Page Speed
• Asset Optimization
(images, videos, code)
• Markup Implementation
• Code and Content
Implementation
• Content Strategy Full
• Content & Meta Management
• SEO Copywriting
• Content Navigation
• Asset Optimization
(images, videos, pdf)
• Business Case
• Governance
• Measurement
• Project Management
• Content Strategy Lite
• Tactical Strategy SEO
Strategist
Content
SEO
SEO
Specialist
Technical
SEO
via iAcquire Research

7. @iacquire
4 Types of Business Professionals
• Departmental Individual
Contributor
• Vendor Management
• Department Management
• Vendor Management
• Resources Champion
• Communication Champion
• Acquisition & Retention
Strategy
• Voice and Tone
• Channels & Tactics
• Budgeting
• In vs. Outsourcing
• Market Share
• Acquisition & Retention
• Trajectory
• Market Perception
Ideal
(C-Level & VP)
Strategic
(VP & Director)
Tactical
(Contributor)
Organ-
izational
(Manager)
via iAcquire Research

8. @iacquire
Maturity in The Organization
Ideal Strategic Organizational Tactical
SEO Strategist 30% 40% 30%
Content SEO 10% 30% 20% 40%
Technical SEO 50% 50%
SEO Specialist 20% 20% 60%
an iAcquire Guideline

9. @iacquire
SEO Market Opportunity
Small Biz SME Large Biz Agency Consultant
SEO Strategist 2 3 8 9 9
Content SEO 5 7 7 10 9
Technical SEO 1 2 6 8 8
SEO Specialist 5 7 8 6 8
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10-Point
Scale
an iAcquire Guideline

10. @iacquireiacquire.com
Market Selection is Key to Success

11. ORGANIC SEARCH AS
A MARKETING CHANNEL
Organic Search Matures
@iacquire

12. @iacquire
The Old Consumer Decision Journey
Elias Lewis (Advertising Agency
Hall of Famer) invented this
model (AIDA) in 1898.
via Wikipedia

13. @iacquire
The New Consumer Decision Journey
via Google ZMOT 2012

14. @iacquire
ZMOT Study Says Search Most Pervasive
via Google ZMOT 2012

15. @iacquireiacquire.com
Historically Prevalent Thinking:
“SEO Is Something You Do to Your
Website After You Build It, or
Redesign it.”

16. @iacquire
SEO As a Tactic (Historically)
Engagement (Channels)
Earned Media Paid Media Owned Media
Content Management
Creation Integration
Content Strategy
Voice and Tone Governance Content Plan Measurement Plan
Market Research
Audience Decision Journey Competition
Image by iAcquire

17. @iacquireiacquire.com
Current & Future Thinking:
“Organic Search is a Channel That
Touches Every Marketing Medium.”

18. Engagement (Channels)
Earned Media Paid Media Owned Media
Content Management
Creation Integration
Content Strategy
Voice and Tone Governance Content Plan Measurement Plan
Market Research
Audience Decision Journey Competition
@iacquire
Organic Search As a Channel (Future)
Image by iAcquire

19. @iacquireiacquire.com
CMO’s Are Getting Smarter About
Channel Integration, But SEO’s Have to
Push the Agenda!

20. RISE OF PEOPLE PAGERANK
Are Links The Only Way?
@iacquire

21. @iacquire
Read a Quote Time
Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles
will be ranked higher than content without such verification,
which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top
(verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then,
might be irrelevance.
– The New Digital Age by Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google
“ “

22. @iacquire
Google AgentRank
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO
%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220110289095%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20110289095&RS=DN/20110289095
Particular embodiments implement techniques for computing agent
ranks on the basis of a corpus of content signed by those agents, where
the corpus optionally contains explicit links among documents and
signed content. The agent ranks can optionally also be calculated
relative to search terms or categories of search terms. For example,
search terms (or structured collections of search terms, i.e., queries) can
be classified into topics, e.g., sports or medical specialties, and an agent
can have a different rank with respect to each topic.
“
“

23. @iacquire
Google Has The Best Category System
h"ps://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/productsservices
• Over
2,400
categories
(5
levels
deep)
• Replaces
old
school
systems
like
SIC/NAICS
• Built
for
the
web
• Future
of
authorship
may
align
to
Google
categories

24. @iacquire
Google AgentRank
Agent Rank =???

25. @iacquire
How Is AgentRank Calculated?
Courtesy of Mike Arnesen

26. @iacquireiacquire.com
Matt Cutts Told Us to Expect To See
Agent Rank This Year, and Also
Reduction of Authors in SERP’s.

27. @iacquire
Authorship In Flux
Via Moz Cast data

28. @iacquireiacquire.com
Cutts’ IS Following Through

29. JANUARY 2014
IACQUIRE AUTHORSHIP STUDY
More about AuthoRship
@iacquire

30. @iacquire
An iAcquire Study (January 2014)
• Top 70,000 Digital Publications (blogs, magazines, news sites)
• Analysis includes 250-10,000 of last posts (ex: iAcquire Blog ranked 37,651 – we analyzed
250 pages, 8,949 for economist.com)
• Presence of G+ on page
• Presence of Twitter handle on page
• MOZ Domain Authority

31. @iacquire
An iAcquire Study (January 2014)
Image by iAcquire

32. @iacquireiacquire.com
Authenticated Digital Signatures Are
Superior To Links. Google is moving
from Strings to Things.

33. THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
More About Strings to THings
@iacquire

34. @iacquire
Current Knowledge Graph
• Movies & Shows
• People
• Places
• Answers
• Images
• Weather
• Nutritional Info
• Medical Info
• Comparisons
• Flights
• Autos
• Census Data

35. @iacquire
Future Knowledge Graph?
• Recipes
• Mortgage Rates
• Colleges (EDU)
• Computer &
Cell Reviews/Specs
* They have experimented with
some of these already.

36. @iacquireiacquire.com
Affiliates That Rely on Public Data
(Like EDU, Auto, Travel, Etc.) Are in
Trouble Long Term.

37. REVIEWS MIGHT FINALLY MATTER
Reviews Are Getting Attention
@iacquire

38. @iacquire
Reviews Haven’t Mattered Much
10%
via MOZ 2013 Local Ranking Factors

39. @iacquire
Google Places (Reviews) – Newly Launched
Yelp
Superpages / DEX
Urban Spoon
Yellow Pages

40. @iacquire
Reviews Will Matter More In 2014
30%
MOZ Local Ranking Factors 2014???

41. MOBILE & THE FUTURE
Mobile Changed The World
@iacquire

42. @iacquire
Mobile Makes The Google Dream Real
Modality
• Touch
• Voice
• Sight
“a
par&cular
mode
in
which
something
exists
or
is
experienced
or
expressed.”
Context
• Time
of
Day
• LocaRon
• History
“the
circumstances
that
form
the
se9ng
for
an
event,
statement,
or
idea,
and
in
terms
of
which
it
can
be
fully
understood
and
assessed.”
Intent
• Keyword
Intent
• EnRty
Type
• Network
“the
thing
that
you
plan
to
do
or
achieve
:
an
aim
or
purpose.”
Building The Star Trek Computer A
favorite
line
by
Amit
Singhal,
SVP/Google

43. OTHER PREDICTIONS
@iacquire

44. @iacquire
Rapid Fire Stuff
• “Content marketing” titles will be the fastest growing title in digital.
• “Inbound marketing” will lose some steam. Earned media and content marketing will gain
nomenclature market share.
• “Audience segmentation” and “content strategy” will be the CMO’s two hottest buzzwords
of 2014.
• Google will make Zagat more like Yelp! for deeper restaurant SERP integration.
• Broad knowledge will kill cheap/ineffective/dangerous SEO tactics.

45. THE END
Joe Griffin
co-CEO
iAcquire
www.iacquire.com
@iacquire
@joegriffin