What’s Up in SEO Land?Observations and curious happenings from Nov + Dec 2011

Rand Fishkin | CEO

http://bit.ly/mozcationsea2011

1) Advertising Gone Too Far?

Whoa. That’s a Lot of Vertical Ad Space.

https://www.google.com/search?q=credit+card+offers

Those Are Some Aggressive Ads!

https://www.google.com/search?q=led+tvs

Privacy? Ack!

If Your Keyword Referrals Fluctuate, Look at:

Rankings Drop Seasonal Fluctuation

Changes to Auto-Suggest

Query VolumeYour Performance SERP Changes

Snippet Changes

Brand Sentiment

Verticals

Advertising Blocks

Visual Changes

Demand Shifts

Rankings vs. Visits in the Moz Web App

2) Rich Snippet Changes

No More Whitelisting?

http://yoast.com/rich-snippets-everywhere/

Single Reviews as Snippets

Note the review given by Jsoczka

Rel Author + Rich Snippets

https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+series+9

16 reviews

4 reviews

One dude’s review?

3) Video in SERPs

Whoa. Video is Everywhere…

https://www.google.com/search?q=police+slog

Whoa. Video is Everywhere…

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/it-should-be-harder-to-rank-in-googles-universal-results-than-this/5164/

Not actually a video

4) Keyword Data

There’s a Lot of Not Provided

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/quantifying-googles-keyword-referral-data-shutdown

23.4% of visits are (not provided); up from 18.34% the 1st 2 weeks of Nov.

Dick Move!

http://www.everywhereist.com/category/dick-move/

5) Bing vs. Google

Relevancy starts with the long tail

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l80eb/why_i_use_google_a_comparison_vs_bing_yahoo/

Bing = keyword matching

http://www.bing.com/search?q=%2bthat+movie+where+those+two+guys+look+for+the+hamburgers

Google = deeper connections

http://www.google.com/search?q=that+movie+where+those+two+guys+look+for+the+hamburgers

SEOs Need to Think “Relevant,” Not Just “Keywords”

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/advanced-onpage-optimization-whiteboard-friday

6) SEO Tip: Be a Brand

Brand Domain Names Get Clicks

http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/1021/1/wsdm12-domain-bias.pdf

Brands Get Preferential Visibility

https://www.google.com/search?q=thin+laptops

These clearly bias to well-known brands

But brand also extends to SERP rankings

Brands Get Local Bias, Too

https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+pizza

Who’s Under This Blue Box?

Brands Get Local Bias, Too

https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+pizza

Happy Mozcation! Let’s do some Q+A

@randfish

www.seomoz.org/blog

rand@seomoz.org

http://bit.ly/mozcationsea2011