June 26, 2011 39 Comments

SEO Tips from SEOMoz

I love Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz. I found myself watching a recent Whiteboard Friday, where Rand talks about how Google’s Panda update changes SEO. There’s lots of it that might not make sense to you right away, but somewhere around 6 minutes in, there are some nuggets that you’ll get for sure. Listen to the whole thing, but you’ll get a taste of what you might want to think about with regards to your own site. (Oh, and the video is transcribed here.)

If you can’t see a video below, click here.

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  • Xaxii Fashion

    Excellent post. This explains why we are getting some good traffic from Google

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  • http://www.nailyener.com/ Nail Yener

    I think the last update from Google has been a very nice one for all of us. It not only increased the quality of search results, but also made webmasters realize the value of quality content instead of zillions of spam backlinks.

  • http://twitter.com/kenfaw Ken Faw

    Chris, thanks for bringing this post to my attention. I have 

  • Kimberly

    I am thrilled WI the changes that Panda is making across the board. Yes it does cause us to change how we are doing some things. As a webdesigner, it makes a strong emphasis on the user experience and enjoyment of a site, which I think makes the web overall a better place in the end. Thanks for sharing the video Chris.

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  • http://aberrantcrochet.wordpress.com/ AberrantCrochet

    For a artist who is still very much an infant in the web development/ internet marketing world, this was extremely helpful.  I had no idea.  Thank you for sharing this Chris.

  • http://twitter.com/steveqshannon steveqshannon

    For one who does not give a damn about SEO, because Chris says pay attention…I pay attention. Good or good?

  • http://ClimbingEveryMountain.com Mary E. Ulrich

    Sounds like Google is trying to be fair on an impossible task. But I think running into a thinking machine/software program would be as scary as running into a real Panda in the wilderness. It makes me feel powerless and vulnerable.

    I have used the “Hubspot rater” and understand how the technical setup of a site can be measured and be fair and valuable (site easy to use…). But,as for content, no way

    As I understand it from this article, the Panda measures are not measuring apples and apples: ie. If the same 1000 visitors went to two sites, and they loved–or hated–one (used social media to spread their joy/despair, made comments, linked, went to multiple pages, spent long period of time on the site…) and basically had no feelings for the other (bounced away, didn’t come back, no links….) then that would be a reasonable way to rate the content of a site.

    However, if you have “quality raters” judging the sites (not the visitors), and you only have 30 visitors. It could be amazing content, but a small niche, or visability–then no way. Also the sophistication of the audience would impact the number of responses. i.e. many people who are novices to social media (don’t use Avitars, don’t make comments…) they can’t be compared to web strategists, and social media veterans.

    Again, an impossible task. I’m betting we will continue to see lots of changes as SEO evolves.

  • http://www.nashvilletechfeed.com/ David Beronja

    A very interesting change. The first thing that comes to mind is that the all mighty Google referral may no longer be king for all in the future. 

    A new ecommerce company a few on my friends and I recently launched has a marketing plan is isn’t primarily depending on Google referrals. We’re creating community by curating content to help our visitors get what they need done. Hopefully they will think of us as a source for content and products going forward.

    I believe the term is social commerce. Connect and help. Some of the very lessons I learned from Chris.

  • Al Pittampalli

    Wow, thanks for pointing to this Chris. This change is tremendously significant. SEO, as a process of gaming search is dying quickly (if Panda hasn’t already killed it). In fact, the new SEO advice seems to be: just make really good stuff. I’m not sure if companies are going to continue to pay consultants a lot of money for that advice.

  • http://backlinkstechniques.info Tikyd

    Can we trust everything Google says? In my opinion, it is in their advantage to make SEO’er believe that ranking is something that cannot be easily manipulated. This being a website that have superb content is not like a site with a low quality content.

  • Amber

    I was planning to embed this video into my WordPress site, but the code is not working. Anyone else having this problem?

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    Wow. That was the best explanation I’ve seen about all the ins and outs of the Panda update. 

    One sentiment from the other commenter’s that I’d like to echo is the uncertainty about adapting to google’s desires. Yes, it’s great when google loves you, but if you change you’re entire site strategy only to find it’s now ‘bad’ 1 year from now, that can be devastating! 

    I for one will keep this information in mind, but go ahead and keep trying to create the best content I can, not worrying if one or two ‘bad’ pages tank my SEO. Because one single change, and it might be good again!

    I will say: I’m very happy that google is going after the spam farms. I get tired of finding 2-3 paragraph posts that look like they were written in 20 minutes and so full of keywords that they almost become unreadable!

    Thanks for the post, Chris. Very useful.

    • http://camcollins.com Cam Collins

      This needs to be shouted from the rooftops: “I for one will keep this information in mind, but go ahead and keep
      trying to create the best content I can, not worrying if one or two
      ‘bad’ pages tank my SEO.” Excellent point…

      • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

        This reply made my day. I’m glad you agree! And thanks for the compliment.

        It’s not an easy plan to stick to, especially when you see people pumping out ‘piles’ of content with little to no substance, simply to game the system and get to the top of the heap. Being the king of the hill can be alluring, but not if it’s a hill off garbage.

        I’d rather follow the advice of Seth Godin: be remarkable. Do things that no one has ever done, get out there, do the best you can, etc. If you truly are remarkable, then you’ll be rewarded with better attention than SEO could ever bring.

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    • http://jasondoucette.ca Jason Doucette

      This is awesome. I’ve spent the last 3 minutes trying to figure out if SVC watched the video or not.

  • http://www.online-business-virtual-assistant.com/ Virtual Business Assistant

    Great
    post and great video. Thanks for the share Chris.
     

  • http://www.webmaisterpro.com/ Kaloyan Banev

    This is an excellent video, many things have changed in SEO during 2011 and especially after so called Panda update.

  • http://www.sevenbranding.com/ Tamal Anwar

    This is very very good news I say from a viewer’s perspective. I design websites and I take note on the user experience, with Panda I home more junk content stuffed with keywords will go to the drain and better quality websites will come up on top. Thanks for whiteboard video, love it! thanks for informing.

  • http://jasondoucette.ca Jason Doucette

    Thanks for posting this Chris – I’d heard some noise about metrics like bounce rates not being a factor in Panda, at least not using the data from Google Analytics, but I hadn’t thought about Chrome and Android as data sources.  Whether or not it’s happening now, I believe it’s pretty much inevitable, and Rand’s explanation about the enhanced scalability of the algorithms makes a lot of sense with both what I’m seeing and how I’m picturing the future of Google-sourced traffic.

  • http://www.thedatingspecialist.com Nick

    I honestly had no idea that panda was that involved. I had been wondering why I was getting ranked decently for some things when other sites were more established (length of time). I guess maybe my design / stats play a part? My metrics seem good (high read time, low bounce rate) so I’m really happy if that’s influencing the search results. Bring on more Panda!

  • http://www.thedatingspecialist.com Nick

    I honestly had no idea that panda was that involved. I had been wondering why I was getting ranked decently for some things when other sites were more established (length of time). I guess maybe my design / stats play a part? My metrics seem good (high read time, low bounce rate) so I’m really happy if that’s influencing the search results. Bring on more Panda!

  • http://www.myoldohiohome.com/ Ed H

    Thanks for pointing out the video and to Rand Fishkin also. I’m just getting my site started and seem to be ranking pretty well, but the video showed me where I could make some changes.

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  • http://www.seanrox.com/ seanrox

    Firstly, wow. Secondly, intelligence based upon happiness… the ultimate UX mission…

  • http://www.searchramble.com/ Search Ramble

    I seriously yet to find our the changes… i was thinking of observing on some website : .. fingers crossed.. because rite now i’m involved with every kind of Website :|

  • http://www.WhatDidEricSay.com Eric Miltsch

    Thanks Chris.

    Great to see Google being more transparent with the ranking factors. I also like how they’re differentiating content written for SEO & content that is truly awe-inspiring. (Watch again at 7:00 for this item)

    There’s so much plain vanilla content on the web; this should start a new wave of pushing great websites back to the top based on their overall quality rather than just b/c someone who knows how to use basic SEO elements to their advantage.
     

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  • http://www.aabuk.com Abaya

    I am a big fan of seomoz. Whenever i go there i learn something new which helps me in SEO.

  • http://www.wfgwomen.com/WFG-Reviews/ WFG Reviews

    Great tips!! there are some SEO best practices that are so well established that everyone should know and be able to describe them to other people. thanks for sharing such a great post..

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  • Raluca

    This is all very good in theory but unfortunately things have not changed that much in practice. I have noticed tons of micro sites, stuffed with keywords with links directing to the actual main site. These sites rank first on SEPR for a very specific but competitive keyword just because the URL is formed of that specific keyword and because they are stuffed with text links. No content, no links, no nothing. Now is it just me or is this SERP manipulation and goes against Google policy? How does anyone fights against this? Would love to discuss this if anyone has any ideas.

  • http://www.mgtdesign.co.uk/web-design-northampton/ adam

    Great video.Thanks for this post.