Figaro Digital Search Seminar 2014, Martin Dinham Barracuda Digital

Figaro Digital Search Seminar,

Dec 2014

“Now and then” –

Google & SEO over

the past 10 years

(plus a bit…)

Who Are Barracuda ?

London based Search Marketing Agency

Since 2000

28 strong team

Recognised by our peers for expertise and

innovation within SEO

Huge cross sector experience, both B2B and B2C

Blend of best in class and proprietary technology,

including our own Panguin Algorithm analysis tool

http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/

Easy analysis of impact of algorithm updates on YOUR site

Linked to your Google Analytics

Free, and doesn’t collect any data

Panguin Tool

Some of our clients

Some trends as to the direction of travel for SEO

Based on agency and personal experience

Now and then – Google 10 years on

1995 – Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet on Stanford Computer Science

PHD

1996 Invent “Back Rub”, later renamed Google

First, some history…

Named after Larry Page

Still the underpinning principle of the algorithm, despite subsequent

evolution

• Based on the academic “citation” principle

We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pages' PageRanks will be one.

PageRank or PR(A) can be calculated using a simple iterative algorithm, and corresponds to the principal eigenvector of the normalized link matrix of the web.

Page Rank

Google in 2000

Google in 2000

Google in 2000

Google in 2004

Google in 2014

The fundamental principle of Page Rank still exists

But the details of this have changed hugely….

So, what about SEO…?

So, what about SEO…?

Thanks to Searchenginewatch

So, what about SEO…?

So, SEO – what were we doing then ?

So, SEO – what were we doing then ?

Buying links

Sitewide links

Anchor text rich links

Text links embedded in widgets

Things everyone was doing

What does that mean ?

There’s just some history…

So, a thorough backlink audit should be the starting point of any SEO

campaign

Supported by technology, but you can’t get away from manual review

Regular update of a disavow file

Actually it means

First, some history…

Thanks to Moz

Thanks to Moz

If you have site level issues, address them

It really is about content

But, even the best content doesn’t outreach itself….

What didn’t exist in 2004 ?

- Mobile (well, kind of….)

- Personalisation

- Mark ups

So, what’s the takeaway from all that ?

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

Thanks to Moz

Paying proper attention to site level SEO

Measuring success through means other than rankings

Proper, editorially driven link acquisition

The dreaded C word…

What should we be doing…?

Our 4 rules for content

On Brand Evergreen

Outreachable to multiple sectors

Best In Class

4 rules of content

http://www.musement.com/en/s/map-out-your-favourite-films

http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/

Be pragmatic about the past – if the site / domain has some age, its

almost going to have some history. Especially if they were employing an

SEO agency in 2004…

The basic principles behind Google are still very similar

But the details and the execution are very different

Review and disavow. With technology, but also with people….

So, what does this mean

And what SHOULDN’T we be doing in 2014…?

[email protected]

www.barracuda-digital.co.uk

0207 593 2980

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/martindinham

Thankyou !