A4U Europe – Barcelona J Martin MacDonald

June 19th, 2012

Martin MacDonald Director Inbound Marketing Expedia (EAN) @searchmartin

@searchmartin

The New Rules (affiliate site architecture)

Vince Venice Panda

MayDay

Florida (or farmer)

Instant Caffeine

Big Daddy

Jagger

Austin

“The Google Dance”

Penguin

Why Have I lost all my traffic?

Stop Ruining Cute Animals!

http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

My two favourite questions…

So, how much… …of my spun/copied/generated/ templated/markov/scraped/ripped/ content can I keep?

All of it!

All of it! …as long as you de-index it

seriously.

L

So, how many… …of my bought/rented/traded/ acquired/widget/directory links can I keep?

Any Guessing?

Well, it depends. Seriously. It does. Sorry.

Good. Bad. Real links*

*well… lets discuss that.

Blogroll Links Footer Links Widget Links

Sitewide Links Lists of Links

‘Over optimized’ Anchors ‘Over optimized’ Internal Links

Article Submissions Anything with the word “network”.*

*and… lets discuss this as well.

Stop chasing the algorithm

Work out where google are going

Get there first

Why Social Signals are Important

Why Social Signals are Important

AKA: who shot PageRank?

Why Social Signals are Important

Network Topography Social Networks* are currently a much more reliable authoritative representation than links.

* currently….

Why Social Signals are Important

Network Topography Un-natural social profiles are ignored by the search engines as a ranking factor

Social groups are easy (to see)

This shit isn't that straightforward

If we care about deeplinking…

If we care about deeplinking…

If we care about deeplinking…

If we care about deeplinking…

Authority is tough to fake..

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Delta Spam

Authority is tough to fake..

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lets think about “social-spread”

lets think about “social-spread”

lets think about “social-spread”

Want beta access?

Hi @Ysekand just heard @searchmartin Talking at #A4U, your tools look great! Can I get beta access?

DIY Social

this works right? URL   Links   Domains   Unique  IPs  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/63   1510   184   163  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   536   247   236  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/63   4026   312   271  

h"p://staJc.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   153   66   38  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/22897   685   119   105  

h"ps://www.seomoz.org/users/register   167   73   69  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/81197   667   68   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/218981   510   66   62  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/21379   206   62   58  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/49007   703   98   93  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/22897   575   86   82  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/155620   406   75   71  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/30546   532   65   61  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21348   1127   76   70  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/78590   486   66   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21379   437   64   59  

this works right? URL   Links   Domains   Unique  IPs  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/63   1510   184   163  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   536   247   236  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/63   4026   312   271  

h"p://staJc.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   153   66   38  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/22897   685   119   105  

h"ps://www.seomoz.org/users/register   167   73   69  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/81197   667   68   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/218981   510   66   62  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/21379   206   62   58  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/49007   703   98   93  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/22897   575   86   82  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/155620   406   75   71  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/30546   532   65   61  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21348   1127   76   70  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/78590   486   66   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21379   437   64   59  

this works right? URL   Links   Domains   Unique  IPs  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/63   1510   184   163  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   536   247   236  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/63   4026   312   271  

h"p://staJc.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf   153   66   38  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/22897   685   119   105  

h"ps://www.seomoz.org/users/register   167   73   69  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/81197   667   68   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/218981   510   66   62  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/21379   206   62   58  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/49007   703   98   93  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/22897   575   86   82  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/155620   406   75   71  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/30546   532   65   61  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21348   1127   76   70  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/78590   486   66   63  

h"p://www.seomoz.org/users/view/21379   437   64   59  

but I can’t do it on site L

but I can’t do it on site L

use someone else’s

hijacking communities Sometimes Linkbuilding opportunities come out of nowhere...

hijacking communities Sometimes Linkbuilding opportunities come out of nowhere...

Now I’m interested

hijacking communities

Now I’m interested

Sometimes Linkbuilding opportunities come out of nowhere...

Seed my content to the right people..

hijacking communities

hijacking communities

what happened next?

what happened next?

what happened next?

what happened next?

WTF?

what happened next?

what happened next?

Normal traffic: 30-50 visits/day

But what about the links?

What's the worst that can happen?

1) You build a network of great contacts

2) You make your web properties more involving and interactive

3) You improve customer service levels

4) You get free referral traffic from your social profiles

What downside?

Key Points

1) No you can NOT carry on using “rubbish” content 2) Stop going for the “easy” link 3) Lets all forget about the “algo”. Lets build good stuff. 4) We shot PageRank. Sorry. 5) Faking social profiles is really quite hard. 6)  If you don’t have your own network, use someone else’s. 7) Always be on the lookout!

Questions?

Best Practices

1) You have to remove all copied content, de-index it etc. 2) Everything spiders see on your site should be good – if it

isnt, then de-index. Everything. 3) Stop buying links off anyone – you can still “make” some

though, as long as its done sensibly. 4) Don’t even bother trying to game the social system. 5) Bring your community “in house” (or on site)

6) Engage! Even if you don’t think its worth it now, it will be in a few years. Rel Author is a great example of where things are going….

Who’s that guy?

martin macdonald @SearchMartin�

bit.ly/GplusMartin linkd.in/martinmac