© ZEON SOLUTIONS INC.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Algo’s or Mammals? Ross Monaghan

OCTOBER 11, 2012

About Me

• Director of Search Engine Marketing

• 6+ Years Experience

• Global Optimization Experience

• B2B & B2C Small - Fortune 50-1000 Clients

• Connect via LinkedIn or @rossmonaghan

Periodic Table for “SEO”

Panda

Penguin

Exact Match Domains (EMD)

Exact Match Domains (EMD)

Above-the-fold Algorithm

Definitions please…

Panda

Panda Vulnerabilities Targets: Content

• Low quality content

• Thin content

• Duplicate Content

• Low engagement rates on page or site (high bounce rates, low time on site, etc.)

• Lack of original content

• High amount of irrelevant adverts

• High % of boilerplate content

Panda Timeline • Panda Update 1.0, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)

• Panda Update 2.0, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)

• Panda Update 2.1, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

• Panda Update 2.2, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

• Panda Update 2.3, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

• Panda Update 2.4, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)

• Panda Update 2.5, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

• Panda Update 3.0, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)

• Panda Update 3.1, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)

• Panda Update 3.2, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

• Panda Update 3.3, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)

• Panda Update 3.4, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)

• Panda Update 3.5, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)

• Panda Update 3.6, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)

• Panda Update 3.7, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)

• Panda Update 3.8, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)

• Panda Update 3.9, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)

• Panda Update 3.91, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)

• Panda Update 3.92, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)

Have you have been Panda Kicked?

• Check organic traffic on dates of algo changes

• Analyze Webmaster Tools Impression Share

• Analyze Rank Changes for Top KW’s

Ok…I was hit…HELP!

• Isolate problem

• Which pages were affected

• Find pages which were not affected and identify differences

• Analyze content vs. quality high ranking sites

• Remove weak content

• Edit “over-optimized” data to be user rich

Penguin

Penguin Vulnerabilities Targets: Webspam

• Unnatural inbound links

– Exact same anchor text as on-page optimization

– Irrelevant sources of inbound link

– Paid links using exact match anchor text

• Over Optimization

– Spammy title tags

– Keyword stuffing

• Low-quality article marketing & blog spam

PenguinTimeline

• Penguin 1.0 April 24, 2012

Have I been hit by Penguin?

• Check dates associated with algorithm updates or Matt Cutts tweets

• Significant traffic or ranking changes

• Webmaster Tools direct messages

Panda & Penguin

• Updates have been rolled out periodically

• Don’t hack your links

• Don’t waste time changing content

Until…

You have truly identified which algorithm you have been impacted by…otherwise you are WASTING your time

Final Thoughts…

• Focus on developing content to support a fantastic user experience that is useful, sharable, or insightful

• Leverage the entire marketing mix to support digital efforts

• Target the user and NOT the search engine

Thank You

Additional Questions or Need Support: Ross Monaghan Director, Search Engine Marketing Zeon Solutions, Inc.

www.zeonsolutions.com

ross.monaghan@zeonsolutions.com

Twitter: @rossmonaghan

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rossmonaghans