State of SEO in 2017 | Rand Fishkin

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Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com How to Keep Up With Google in 2017 and Beyond

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Slides online at bit.ly/keepup2017

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In the last 2 Years, Google’s Made a Lot of Big Changes

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Via Google Algorithm Change History on Moz 17 Major Algorithm Updates (that we know about) from 2014-2016

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Via Backchannel A Move to Machine-Learning First

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It’s like spotting a snow leopard in the wild. Via Mozcast The End of 10 Blue Links

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Via Nick Eubanks AdWords Redacting Data Like It’s the CIA

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Via Merkle PPC Growth Continues to Level Off

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Google Fights Back by Making Ads Subtler But… Where Can They Go From Here?

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Thanks to Clickstream Data, We Know More About How Searchers Interact

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Breakdown of Searches on Major Web Properties (May 2017)

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Google Core Oct 2016 May 2017 Google Images Yahoo Bing Google Maps Amazon Facebook Gained/Lost 58.9% 27.7% 2.6% 2.3% 2.2% 1.9% 0.7% YouTube 3.8% 64.8% 21.8% 2.4% 2.4% 1.2% 2.3% 1.5% 3.6% +5.9 -5.9 -0.2 +0.1 -1.0 +0.4 +0.8 -0.2

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Google’s Growth So far, 2017 is trending ~10-15% higher than 2016, not including voice or Apple devices

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Mobile CTR 2.0% on Paid 40.9% on Organic 57.1% Don’t Click

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2.8% on Paid Desktop CTR 62.2% on Organic 35% Don’t Click

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CTR on Google Mobile vs. Desktop There may be more traffic opportunity from desktop STILL due to higher CTR Source

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Massive Change… But What Does It Mean for Us?

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The Big 5: What Marketers Must Do Differently in the Years Ahead

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Diversify Traffic to Keep Earning Visits from Google #5

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Google Knows Where Traffic Flows on the Web (mobile and desktop) Together we see all… We know all… There is no escape…

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Google knows where visit paths begin… Where they go next… And where they end up.

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If Google Knows Your Site Gets 80%+ of Your Traffic from Them, They May Take a Closer Look at Why Via Vinny La Barbera

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Lots of Sources Drive Web Traffic. Don’t Make Google Your Achilles Heel!

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Via SimilarWeb

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Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+ Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2% Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3% Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4% Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2% Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2% Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally (data below from May 2017)

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See Where Your Competition Gets Their Traffic: Via SimilarWeb Pro These are the sites that sent traffic to WarbyParker.com

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Apply different tactics to reach audiences on different sites Amazon’s ranking factors can be found here. Conversion rate plays a big role.

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Consider Content for Multiple Engines Moz first puts videos up on our site, then later uploads to YouTube to benefit from both classic SEO and video SEO

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Visual content can perform on Google Images, but also creates value on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, & More Via Kenji Lopez-Alt on Instagram, who uses the platform brilliantly

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Ranking well in Image Search often doesn’t bring much traffic or value Image Search Pro Tip

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But… If you’re in a vertical where commerce is tied to visuals, it can be quite powerful

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Likewise, if lots of content creators want your visuals, ranking here can yield loads of links

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Text in images is one way to draw in clicks for the right kinds of queries

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Evolve Our Keyword Targeting to Match Google’s Sophistication #4

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Google’s minimized the desktop search experience to make it more closely align with the mobile experience.

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And they’re putting more and more “answers” atop the results to remove the need to click a 3rd-party site for information

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We expected answers like these would siphon away traffic from our site… In reality, we got more!

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But some answers really do remove traffic (estimates of 50%+ traffic loss to web results after SERP changes like these)

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Consider Click-Through-Rate When Choosing Keywords The organic results on this page probably get only ~60% of the clicks from searchers

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Consider Click-Through-Rate When Choosing Keywords But, the organic results here are likely getting 100% of the clicks

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You can make these estimates yourself when evaluating keywords for SEO effort:

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Or you can use a tool like Keyword Explorer to get the CTR Opportunity scores 100% CTR Opportunity 60% CTR Opportunity

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It’s Possible to Use SEO to Get Into Featured Snippets (and earn big CTR boosts) They beat out Wikipedia by phrasing the content to match the *answer* Google wanted for this search query

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More on How to Become the Answer: Via Dr. Pete (and more Dr. Pete)

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The Classic Source of Volume Data is Google AdWords, and there’s a Lot of Weirdness There

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These numbers actually represent ranges, even though they show as estimated averages

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Russ Jones showed how Google’s volume ranges work in his post about Keyword Planner’s Dirty Secrets.

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Google Trends (which we’ve found to be generally more accurate) tells a different story?!

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AdWords is Now Conflating Volume of Related Keywords in Frustrating Ways Via Bill Slawski on Go Fish Digital

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Keyword Suggestions in AdWords Hide a Lot of Useful, High-Volume Queries Really Keyword Planner? Really?!

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It sure looks like Google knows about some closely related keywords that have search volume!

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Don’t Use Google’s Volume Numbers as Absolutes, Only as Relative Comparisons There are probably more people searching for “champagne flutes” than “toasting flutes”, but 12,100 and 1,900 almost certainly aren’t the real quantities.

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Google Trends is Good for Volume Comparison “Champagne flutes” is likely ~5-10X the volume of “toasting flutes”

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KW Explorer Uses Clickstream Data and Volume Ranges that May Give Greater Accuracy In our tests, these ranges contained the true search volume 95% of the time.

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Want the Best Data About Volume, Conversions, and Trends? You’ll need to buy the keywords and measure directly in AdWords.

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Don’t Rely Exclusively on KW Planner for Keyword Suggestions/Ideas Search Suggest and Related Searches are smart additions (and totally free)

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7 Kinds of KW Research Expansions to Try: 1) Search Suggest 2) People Also Search For… 3) Similar Pages Rank For… 4) Semantically Connected Terms 5) Topically-Related Searches 6) Questions Containing these KWs 7) AdWords (Commercial)

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Tools that Have These Discovery Options: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) (Free & Paid) SEMRush (Free & Paid) KeywordTool.io 7) (Paid) SimilarWeb (Free & Paid) Moz KW Explorer (Free) Ubersuggest (Free) Answer The Public

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Use Searcher Intent & SERP Features to Break Through Google’s Changing Results #3

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18 Unique Types of SERPs that Show Up in 0.5%+ of Google’s Results One of my favorites: the “disaster type” answer

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In our data, only ~3% of results are the “classic ten blue links” kind

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SERPs like these are far more common

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These types of results can dramatically reduce organic CTR (in this case, Moz estimates only ~24% organic CTR)

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Infuriatingly, Google’s restricted who can appear in certain types of listings (e.g. video is now YouTube or Vimeo only)

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And on mobile, even more kinds of searches are limited to particular networks (Google Play & iPhone App Store).

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Analyze Which Types of SERPs Appear Most in the Keywords You Care About These show me how many of each SERP type appears in the results for this keyword list (via KWE)

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Then Determine What Verticals & SERP Types You Need to Optimize For It might pay to generate some visual charts in addition to a text-only version…

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If certain searches are impossible to target…

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Aim to Influence Search Suggest More on Whiteboard Friday

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Be On the Right Platform For Your SERPs: Videos: E-Commerce: Podcasts: Local Businesses: News: Apps: YouTube Vimeo Facebook G Shopping Amazon eBay Etsy G Play iTunes G Maps Soundcloud Libsyn Apple Maps Bing Maps G News iTunes G

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Google’s Become Masterful at Understanding a Searcher’s Intent

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Keyword Matching is No Longer a Competitive Advantage Via Backlinko

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On-Page SEO is No Longer Satisfied by Raw Keyword Use Either These keywords are nearly as important to use on a page targeting the query as the query keywords themselves

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It’s Still Wise to Use Keywords

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Matching Your Content to What Searchers Are Seeking is Critical, Too Trulia knows searchers want home prices, by neighborhood, with trend data, zipcode filters, and a zoomable map.

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Use of related topics to indicate the content’s relevance Serving KWs w/ matching intent together on one page Thorough answers/solutions to the searcher’s query Unique value over what other sites in the SERPs provide Intelligent keyword use in page title, meta description, URL, and top few paragraphs (just as before) On-Page SEO in 2017 Requires

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Create a Link Strategy That Scales with Decreasing Friction #2

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Every Link Builder Needs a Strategic Roadmap: Link Goals Strategic Approach Tactical Initiatives KPIs/ Metrics

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An Example: Bookserf, An Istanbul Based Book-Sharing Community

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Bookserf’s Long-Term Link Strategy Rank in search for book names (especially in Turkey & other operating regions) Encourage members to link to their profiles & favorite books; partner w/ retailers & authors to earn links from their Link nudges during account setup, and upon completion of activities on the site. Direct outreach to authors/retailers. 1. Links from members 2. Links & mentions from authors/retailer s 3. Rankings for key terms 4. Search visits Link Goals Strategic Approach Tactical Initiatives KPI Metrics

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We Also Need… Buy-In on Experimentation Via PointBlankSEO and Allie Brown Link tactics like an event photo gallery might work, but it also might fall flat. Link building needs room to try and fail.

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The Right Expectations Regarding Time-to-ROI Via WB Friday

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A Balance Between Long-Term Investments & Short-Term Hacks High upfront costs Pay (in time/$$) as you go Long-Term Investments Slow to show ROI Earn links while you sleep Non-existent Spam Risk Can Show Fast ROI Effort In = Links Out Can Have Spam Risk Short-Term Hacks

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Great Link Builders Focus on Their Flywheel

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Moz’s Flywheel KW Research + Industry Intuition Publish Content Promote via Social Channels Push to email + RSS subscribers Earn Links + Amplification Grow social, email, RSS, & WoM channels Grow Domain Authority Earn Search & Referral Traffic Rank for More Competitive KWs

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KW Research + Industry Intuition Publish Content Promote via Social Channels Push to email + RSS subscribers Earn Links + Amplification Grow social, email, RSS, & WoM channels Grow Domain Authority Earn Search & Referral Traffic Rank for More Competitive KWs In 2006, I was lucky if new content led to any links or rankings at all

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KW Research + Industry Intuition Publish Content Promote via Social Channels Push to email + RSS subscribers Earn Links + Amplification Grow social, email, RSS, & WoM channels Grow Domain Authority Earn Search & Referral Traffic Rank for More Competitive KWs But, by 2017, nearly every post earns a handful of links, & some earn a lot!

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Moz is a Business Built on Content

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Dollar Shave Club was Built on a Press & Media Flywheel Via NYTimes

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Dribbble was Built on a UGC/Community Flywheel

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But… Almost Every Flywheel Finds a Point (or Points) of Friction Publish Content Promote via Social Channels Push to email + RSS subscribers Crap… We’re not reaching anyone who will link/amplify us L

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Link Building Growth Hacks Can Accelerate a Flywheel

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Hacks aren’t necessarily evil, spammy, or without value. They can be highly useful when applied to a sound link strategy.

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The Formula for Link Building that Will Work in Google for Years to Come: Strategic Roadmap Scalable Flywheel Long-Term Investments Hacks to Remove Friction + + +

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3 of My Favorite Hacks

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#1: Republishing Take an existing piece of content Re-create a part or the whole Create additional traffic, reach, and/or rankings X Xa Xb Xc 3X

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Medium is a great cheat-code for this: Via Medium The built in network, the ability to use rel=canonical (and/or link to the original post), and the domain’s ranking ability make it a sweet republishing platform.

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Quora, Inc, LinkedIn, Fortune, Forbes, Fox, & More All Accept Republished Content

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More Republishing Tips & Tactics in this Webinar: Via Mozinar

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#2: Guest Contributions Via LitHub The best guest posting advice I’ve ever read

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A Tactical Tip for Guest Contributions: The language you use in these queries matters “submit post” “guest blog” “guest post” Often Sketchy Usually Solid “share your story” “write for *” “guest author”

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#3: Local Links Geography can be a big link opportunity… But it can be a process to find potential sources. Try this: Let’s say you’re Ace Spirits, just off Main Street in Hopkins, MN

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Step 1: Find the two most popular, similar businesses in your region. We’ll skip chains, since Ace is a single-store, and go with Surdyk’s and Zipps (they have the most reviews)

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Step 2: Use a combined query for those businesses plus the region Boom! A link opportunity. And another one. And another! It goes on like this for page after page We can repeat this with combinations of all the other competitors, too

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PSA: Be cautious visiting online liquor stores late at night while building slide decks… I’ve become a cautionary tale…

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But, then I got this note from the owner J

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Searcher Engagement May Be the New Silver Bullet in Rankings #1

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RankBrain is Only the Most Obvious of Google’s ML-Based Ranking Elements Via Gianluca Fiorelli on Moz

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Rankbrain helps Google know that results like these are relevant to searches like this

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And that all of these queries probably share intent and should bring back similar kinds of results

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Google Uses User, Usage, & Engagement Data to Determine How to Rank Content I hate bullet points, but this slide from Google Search Engineer Paul Haahr, shows how clicks are used to grade performance Via How Google Works on Slideshare

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This is a good SERP – searchers rarely bounce, rarely short- click, and rarely need to enter other queries or go to page 2.

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This is a bad SERP – searchers bounce often, click other results, rarely long- click, and try other queries. They’re definitely not happy.

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Via Steve Hammer

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Someday, Algorithms Built by Machines Will Outperform those Hand-Selected by Engineers Potential Ranking Factors (e.g. PageRank, TF*IDF, Topic Modeling, QDF, Clicks, Entity Association, etc.) Training Data (i.e. good search results) Learning Process Best Fit Algo

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Google Leverages Machine Learning Despite Not Knowing for Sure What It Uses: Via SERoundtable

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We may soon hear that algorithmic elements are no longer applied universally. Rather than one algorithm, we get thousands or millions of them.

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Google’s Public About Their Commitment to ML Techniques… Won’t Be Long Now. Via BackChannel

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Focus on Signal:Noise Ratio – Don’t Let Bad Pages Drag Down a Good Site Quantity of Pages Earning SERP Visits Relative Time on Site, Bounce Rate, Pgs/Visit, Searcher Satisfaction Site’s Search Engagement Reputation =

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These don’t look so good; probably worth investigating.

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Find Ways to Beat Your Competition’s & Your Average Ranking Position’s CTR If you rank #3, but have a higher- than-average CTR for that position, you might get moved up. Via Philip Petrescu on Moz

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Serve Multiple Searcher Intents, Not Just Your Own Interests You can’t just try to sell sous vide cooking devices to the <1% of searchers who are ready to buy after performing this query. To compete long term, you’ll need to empathize with and serve ALL of these intents with your ranking content.

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Note that NONE of these SERPs are trying to sell equipment directly. They’re serving the *intent* of the widest range of searchers.

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Speed, speed, and more speed Delivers an easy, enjoyable experience on every device Compels visitors to engage, share, & return Avoids features that dissuade or annoy visitors Authoritative, comprehensive content that’s uniquely valuable vs. what anyone else in your space provides Make UX a Cornerstone of Your SEO:

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Deliver Dramatically Better Engagement Than Your SERP Competitors & They Will Be Hard Pressed to Catch Up See this list of 10X Content for examples and resources on how to create it

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Massive Change… Bring It On.

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Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com Bit.ly/keepup2017