Algorithm Chaos - PubCon NOLA 2014 by Jake Bohall of Virante

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

Algo ChaosWTF just happened?

About the Presenter

Jake Bohall is the VP of Marketing for Virante, where he has worked since 2008. He has co-founded several start-ups, sits on the board of an educational non-profit, and assists entrepreneurs in implementing their start-up ideas.

Jake's expertise lies in identifying opportunities for business growth and determining appropriate search engine marketing strategies to fit a company’s objectives.

www.Virante.org@JakeBohall

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

Good Will Hunting?

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

“So why do you think I should work for Google?”

“Well, you would be working on the cutting edge. You would be exposed to the kind of technology you wouldn’t see anywhere else, cause we hid it in complicated patents and only apply the information when we feel like it. Superstring theory, chaos math, advanced algorithms.”

“Ranking websites based on what I think is best?”

“Well that’s one aspect”

“C’mon that is what you guys do. You guys handle 25% of internet traffic in North America. You are bigger than Facebook, Netflix, and Twitter combined.

“We don’t like to brag about that Jake, but you are exactly right. So the way I see it, the question isn’t why you should work for Google, the question is… Why shouldn’t you?”

“Why shouldn’t I work for Google? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot at it.”

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

Let’s say I’m working at Google and someone puts an algorithm issue on my desk, something no one else can figure out, maybe I take a shot at it, and maybe I figure out a way to improve it. I’m real happy with myself because I did my job well.

… But maybe that algorithm update identifies anchor text over optimization as a primary indicator of spammy techniques. Now Google sends out manual penalties to 1,000’s of small business websites that I never met or had any problem with, suddenly these entrepreneurs… the same guys we are trying to leverage to help build our economy, have their livelihood destroyed.

The legal team and Matt Cutts don’t care, because they say they had it coming and ad revenue is up. Meanwhile, some of these families can’t pay for their house, it gets foreclosed, wrecks their credit for any near-future small business loan and they have to move to a slummy neighborhood where they get a divorce because one of them thought it was a good idea to buy links and they still argue about how they didn’t do anything different than RapGenius or Interflora other than be slightly less knowledgeable about what they were attempting to do.

Why Shouldn’t I Work for Google?

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

cha·os nouncomplete disorder and confusion.

cha·os the·o·ry nounthe branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to

strikingly great consequences.

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Chaos Theory

Sensitivity to initial conditionsSite structureSearch queriesIncoming links

Topological MixingInbound LinksSocial SignalsContent

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

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Major Algorithm Updates

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

www.Virante.org@JakeBohall

… Algo Updates

Image Credit: www.2varanasi.com

www.Virante.org@JakeBohall

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Image Credit: www.omarkattan.com

… Negative SEO

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

Inconsistency with Guidelines

Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you, or to a Google employee.

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Image Credit: somewhere on blogspot… they probably stole it

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Image Credit: somewhere on blogspot… they probably stole it

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Be Smarter … EVOLVE!

Image Credit: www.steve-dale.net/

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

VIRANTE WEB MARKETING@JakeBohall

The common principal:

Better Content && Better Links Relevance Authority

www.Virante.org@JakeBohall

Image Credit: www.mybloggerlab.com

Stop doing spammy stuff… Quality CONTENT matters!

UNIQUE - Implement rich snippets, microdata and UGC

RELEVANT- Topical relevancy

AUTHORITY – Share and Create content in social

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Unique Content…

Rich snippets, microdata, Schema.org Article Markup Better user experience, increased click through rates

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Image Credit: www.highervisibility.com

Unique Content…

User generated content

Your content should prove your users are engaged!

Make your audience sneezers, marketing your product/content for you….

Hello social media!

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Relevant Content…

New Trends: Topical Relevancy

Ben Hendrickson (seoMoz) told us about LDA…

Were you listening?

To Do:Use LDA Scoring and keyword concept themes to create content that is more semantically relevant to the keywords you are trying to rank. Consider…nTopic.org

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

What is LDA?

SEOSEMNetworkingBrett TabkeLinking

DrinkingFrench QuarterGamblingConvention Center Late Nights Jazz

PubCon NOLA NOLAMarketing

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Authority Content…

New Trends: Google + is real worth pursuing “It’s really the unification of all of Google’s services, with a common social layer.”

Head of  Google+, Vic Gundotra

Author Rank and Brand Rank are Driven by Content!

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Authority Content…

New Trends: Google + is real worth pursuing To Do:Create an account - google.com/+/business/ 

Implement rel=author and rel=publisher to attribute your knowledge graph to your profile and brand pages.

Do #RCS - “Real Company Shit” -- Wil Reynolds

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Stop doing spammy stuff… Quality LINKS matter!

BRAND - Engagement with company, citations

PEOPLE - Social Media, inspire conversation

DIVERSITY - Diversity in anchor text, strategies, etc.

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Better Links…

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Better Links…

Digital Outreach / PR / Social Media

They all converge to PROMOTE YOUR BRAND!!!

Let Google know you care more about your business than you do about Cheap Discount Widgets.

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Diversify Your Links

Low volume of linking from different types of sources

Proactive at pruning bad/spammy links

Anchor text diversity and commitment to brand is critical to avoid Penguin.

To Do:http://www.removeem.com/ratios.php

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Better Content && Better Links

Cheating at new content with BLB Want to become the authority… find out who is/was and how they captured attention in the past!

Broken Link Building is prospecting for content ideas …that already have links!

Create awesome link bait content (don’t copy!!)

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Better Content && Better Links

“The success of the campaign is directly proportional to how much good you do for the web.

You profit only if you create good content to replace lost or abandoned content that webmasters still want to link to.”

To Do:http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-broken-link-building-bible

(http://tinyurl.com/blblinking)

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Takeaways…… Stop doing spammy stuff… Quality matters!

Content- Implement rich snippets and UGC - Check out LDA tools, focus on topical relevancy - Find new content opportunities based upon success

Links - Focus on your brand authority - Remove bad backlinks and/or dilute with good ones - Anchor text and link source diversity

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

If you can’t evolve…

@JakeBohall

www.Virante.org

Virante, Inc.

http://www.virante.org1-800-650-0820

@virante

Jake [email protected]

919-459-2834@jakebohall

http://www.virante.org/blog/http://www.thegooglecache.com/

http://www.ntopic.org/http://www.removeem.comhttp://pro.authorrank.org

http://www.penguinanalysis.comhttp://outreachapp.com

www.Virante.org@JakeBohall