Inbound Marketing and SEO

Rand Fishkin is the CEO & Co-Founder of Moz, a leader in the field of search engine optimization tools, resources & community. In 2009, he was named among the 30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 by BusinessWeek, and has been written about it in The Seattle Times, Newsweek and the NY Times among others. Rand has keynoted conferences on search from Sydney to Reykjavik, Montreal to Munich and spoken at dozens of shows around the world. He co-edited The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization: Theory in Practice (O'Reilly). Thomas H?genhaven works as CSO in Chrisper Economy, primarily focusing on SEO and inbound marketing. He is pursuing a PhD degree in Information Science at Copenhagen Business School and is a visiting research fellow at Cornell University. Thomas was the co-author of N?r internettet har magten (about inbound marketing, written in Danish), and editor of Politisk Psykologi (political psychology anthology, written in Danish).

• Introduction 1SEO Is Changing 2From SEO to Inbound Marketing 2Inbound Marketing 3Investing in Inbound Marketing for the Long Term 4Why Read This Book? 4Part I: Search Engine Optimization 5The Birth of SEO 5Life After Google 6Cracking Down 6How Search Engines Make Money 7Tactics That Never Stop Working 8The Future of Search 8Chapter 1: White Hat SEO: It F@$ing Works 9Some Points on Kris’ Post 11Black Hat ≠ SEO 15Why We Can’t Ignore Black Hat Entirely 17Why White Hat Is Always Better 18Chapter 2: Schema.org: Why You’re Behind If You’re Not Using It 23Myth: Schema.org Markup Doesn’t Get Rich Snippets! 24Schema.org Is Not a Language 25Five Underused Schema.org Applications 261 Events 262 Jobs 273 Reputation Management 284 News Sites 295 Ecommerce 29Wrap-Up 29Chapter 3: Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization 31Best Practices for Optimizing Pages 33HTML Head Tags 33URLs 34Body Tags 35Internal Links and Location in Site Architecture 36Page Architecture 36Why Don’t We Always Obey These Rules? 37Best Practices for Ranking  1 37Chapter 4: Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World 39What Is Duplicate Content? 40Why Do Duplicates Matter? 40The Supplemental Index 40The Crawl Budget 41The Indexation Cap 41The Penalty Debate 41The Panda Update 42Three Kinds of Duplicates 42True Duplicates 42Near Duplicates 42Cross-domain Duplicates 43Tools for Fixing Duplicates 43404 (Not Found) 43301-Redirect 43Robots.txt 44Meta Robots 44Rel=Canonical 45Google URL Removal 46Google Parameter Blocking 46Bing URL Removal 47Bing Parameter Blocking 47Rel=Prev and Rel=Next 48Internal Linking 49Don’t Do Anything 49Rel=“alternate” hreflang=“x” 49Examples of Duplicate Content 49www versus Non-www 50Staging Servers 50Trailing Slashes (“/”) 51Secure (https) Pages 51Home page Duplicates 51Session IDs 52Affiliate Tracking 52Duplicate Paths 53Functional Parameters 53International Duplicates 54Search Sorts 54Search Filters 55Search Pagination 55Product Variations 56Geo-keyword Variations 56Other “Thin” Content 57Syndicated Content 57Scraped Content 57Cross-ccTLD Duplicates 58Which URL Is Canonical? 58Tools for Diagnosing Duplicates 59Google Webmaster Tools 59Google’s Site: Command 60Your Own Brain 61I Hope That Covers It 61Chapter 5: Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings 63How Google Scores Fresh Content 641. Freshness by Inception Date 652. How Much a Document Changes Influences Freshness 663. The Rate of Document Change (How Often) Impacts Freshness 664. Freshness Influenced by New Page Creation 675. Changes to Important Content Matter More 686. Rate of New Link Growth Signals Freshness 697. Links from Fresh Sites Pass Fresh Value 698. Changes in Anchor Text Signals May Devalue Links 709. User Behavior Indicates Freshness 7110. Older Documents Still Win Certain Queries 72Conclusion 73Chapter 6: All Links Are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations of Search Engines’ Valuation of Links 75Principle 1: Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes 77Principle 2: External Links Are More Influential Than Internal Links 78Principle 3: Links From Unique Domains Matter More Than Links From Previously Linking Sites 79Principle 4: Links From Sites Closer to a Trusted Seed Set Pass More Value 80Principle 5: Links From “Inside” Unique Content Pass More Value Than Those From Header/Footer/Sidebar Navigation Do 81Principle 6: Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value Than Those in Alt Attributes of Linked Images 82Principle 7: Links From More Important, Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value 82Principle 8: Links Contained Within Noscript Tags Pass Low, If Any, Value 83Principle 9: A Burst of New Links May Enable a Document to Outrank “Stronger” Competition 83Principle 10: Legitimate Links on Pages That Also Link to Web Spam May Be Devalued 84Conclusion 85Chapter 7: The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded 87Part II: Content 91History of Content within SEO 91Types of Content 92Turning Challenges into Opportunities 93Video Content 93High-Quality Content 93Producing Content on Budget 94Content at Scale 94The Future of Content 95Chapter 8: Beyond Blog Posts: A Guide to Innovative Content Types 97Q&A Content 98Presentations 99Curated Content 100Magazine and Long-Form Content 102Imagery and Photojournalism 102Video 103Interactive Infographics 105Product Marketplaces 105Facebook Notes 106Why Everyone Needs a Marketing Oracle for Their Content Platform 107Chapter 9: Scaling White Hat Link Building—Scaling Content 109Scalable Content 110Cost 111Scale 111Quality 111What’s This All Have to Do with Link Building? 112Great Content? 112Use Only Great Writers 113Quality Control 113Automation 113Filling the Hopper with Good Content 114Scaling 114Do We Have All This Stuff? 115Chapter 10: 10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building 1171. Write for Power Skimmers 1182. Why Headline Formulas Work 1193. Get 20% More with Numbers 1194. Free and Easy Power Words 1205. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Clicks 1206. Use Sub-Headlines or Die Trying 1217. When in Doubt, List It Out 1218. Quotes 1229. The Bold and the Italic 12210. Be Honest 122Part III: Social Media 123Social Media Marketing: The Early Years 123Social Media Awakening: It’s Not Just About Me, It’s About You 124Example 1 124Example 2 125Social Media Management: The Online Community Manager Is Born 125Social Media Strategy: A Part of the Team 125Social Media: What Does the Future Hold? 126Chapter 11: The Rich Get Richer: True in SEO, Social, and All Organic Marketing 127Chapter 12: Life After Google Is Now: 9 Pieces of Advice on How a New Site Can Succeed Without Search 131What Does Designing For Social Mean? 1321. Only the Best Goes Online 1322. Twitter Is for the Insider’s View 1323. Facebook Is for Debate 1324. It’s All One Product Concept = Better Use of Time and Energy 133What We Learned 1335. Do More of What Is Successful 1336. Not Everything Succeeds 1337. Jump on Every Opportunity 1338. Partnerships = Win-Win 1349. Tools Help 134In Conclusion 135Chapter 13: Tracking the KPIs of Social Media 137Why and Where Social Matters 138Which Social Metrics to Track 140Facebook 141Twitter 142LinkedIn 146Google+ 149Reddit, StumbleUpon, Quora, Yelp, Flickr, and YouTube 152Blogs and Forums 152Tools for Measuring Social Media Metrics 153Chapter 14: Everyone Should Hire “Social Media Experts” 157Chapter 15: A Peek Under the Hood: How We Manage the Moz Community 163Who Are We? 164Keri Morgret 164Erica McGillivray 165Megan Singley 165Lindsay Wassell 166Christy Correll 166Melissa Fach 167Miriam Ellis 167Jen Lopez 168Community Doesn’t Stop There 168Ashley Tate 169Peter Meyers (aka Dr. Pete) 169Mozzers 169What Do We Do? 170Blog 170YouMoz 172Q&a 173Social Community 175Twitter 175Facebook 177Google+ 180LinkedIn 181Whew 183Part IV: Outreach 185Why Outreach Is Important 185Good Outreach versus Bad Outreach 186How Outreach Has Changed 186The Dangers of Buying Links 187The Challenges of Outreach 188The Importance of Exceptional Content 188Chapter 16: Throw Away Your Form Letters (or 5 Principles to Better Outreach Link Building) 1891. Talk to People Like People (Throw Out Your Form Letters) 190Opening 191Sustaining 193Closing 1952. Stand out in the Inbox 1973. Do Your Research 1984. Offer Value 1995. Maintain the Rapport 199Conclusion 200Chapter 17: A Link Builder’s Gmail Productivity Setup (with Outreach Emails from 4 Industry Link Builders) 203Gmail Tools and Tips 204Gmail Shortcuts 204Canned Responses 205Rapportive 206Boomerang 207Undo Send 208Send and Archive 208Link Building Email Templates from Industry Link Builders 209Broken Link Building 209Guest Posting 210PR 210Push Content 211Exchange for a Link (But Not a Link Exchange) 212Incentivized Reviews for Ecommerce 213Chapter 18: Putting Guest Post Outreach Theories to the Test [With Some Real-World Data] 215Theory 1: Being a Woman Will Get You More Links 216Battle of the Sexes: Who Performed Better? 216Theory 2: Job Title Matters 217Theory 3: Timing Is Important 218Theory 4: Personalisation Is Worth It (or Is It?) 219The Results 219What Did We Learn? 220Theory 5: The Style of Outreach Email Has an Impact 221Theory 6: Persistence Pays Off 221What’s the Perfect Combination? 222Part V: Conversion Rate Optimization 223The Evolution of CRO 224Testing and CRO 225The Future of CRO 226Chapter 19: An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Influence and Persuasion 2271 Reciprocation 2282 Commitment and Consistency 2293 Social Proof 2314 Liking 2325 Authority 2336 Scarcity 234Chapter 20: The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program 237Establishing a Conversion Baseline—The Conversion Scorecard 239Scoring Your Page 239Step 1: Use a Separate Landing Page for Each Inbound Traffic Source 239Sponsor’s Advice 240Step 2: A/B Test Your Landing Pages 240Sponsor’s Advice 241Step 3: Match Your Landing Page Message to the Upstream Ad 241Sponsor’s Advice 241Step 4: Context of Use 242Sponsor’s Advice 242Step 5: Use Videos to Increase Engagement and Conversions 242Sponsor’s Advice 243Step 6: Use Directional Cues to Lead the Way 243Sponsor’s Advice 245Step 7: Find the Optimal Balance of Data versus Conversion Rate 245Sponsor’s Advice 245Step 8: Be Honest About Your Writing and Edit Ruthlessly 246Sponsor’s Advice 246Step 9: Make It Desirable to Share 246Sponsor’s Advice 246Step 10: Leverage Social Proof and Trust Devices 247Sponsor’s Advice 247Step 11: One Page, One Purpose 247Sponsor’s Advice 248Step 12: Post-Conversion Marketing 248Sponsor’s Advice 249What Now? 249Chapter 21: Lessons Learned from 21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization 251The Role of Design 252The Role of Social Proof 254The Role of Headline and Copy 258The Role of Call-to-Action 260Your Role 262Chapter 22: An Illustrated Guide to Web Experiments 263A/B or MVT 264MVT Face-off: Full Factorial versus Fractional Factorial 265Testing the Test Environment with the A/A Test 266Statistical Significance 267Pro Tip: Ramp Up Traffic to Experimental Conditions Gradually 268Part VI: Analytics 269Ecommerce Budget Allocation Decision 270Burning Question 270Data Needs 270Analysis 270Paul’s Grief Over His Lack of Blogging Success 271Burning Question 271Data Needs 271Analysis 271Naoki’s Obsession with Being  1 272Burning Question 273Data Needs 273Analysis 273To Shoot or Not to Shoot; That Is the Question 273Burning Question 274Data Needs 274Analysis 274Chapter 23: 11 Google Analytics Tricks to Use for Your Website 2751. Set Up Your Analytics Goals 2762. Connect Your Google Webmaster Tools Account 2773. Leverage Site Speed Reporting 2784. Enable Site Search 2805. Track Events 2806. Real-Time Reporting 2827. Multi-Channel Funnels 2838. Use Custom Campaign Tracking 2839. Plot Rows 28410. Custom Dashboards 28511. Flow Visualization 286Visitors Flow 287Goal Flow 287Conclusion 287Chapter 24: Eye-Tracking Google SERPs—5 Tales of Pizza 289The Equipment and Methodology 290Local 1: “best pizza in Chicago” 290Local 2: “pizza” 292Video Thumbnails: “how to make a pizza” 293Product Images: “pizza cutters” 294Expanded Site Links: “Pizza Hut” 295Some General Implications 296Chapter 25: Calculating and Improving Your Twitter Click-Through Rate 297Q: Do My Wordier Tweets Earn Higher CTR? 300Q: Do My Shorter Tweets Perform Better? 300Q: Do On/Off-Topic Tweets Affect My CTR? 301Q: Is My CTR Improving Over Time? 302Part VII: Conclusion 305Chapter 26: Launching a New Website: 18 Steps to Successful Metrics and Marketing 3071: Install Visitor Analytics 3082: Set Up Google and Bing Webmaster Tools Accounts 3083: Run a Crawl Simulation of Your Site 3104: Test Your Design with Browser Emulators 3105: Set Up RSS Feed Analytics 3116: Tag the Actions That Matter 3127: Conduct an Online Usability/Branding Test 3128: Establish a KPI Dashboard 3139: Build an Email List of Friends and Business Contacts for Launch 31310: Create Your Google Alerts 31411: Bookmark Brand Tracking Queries 31412: Make Email Signup/Subscription Available 31513: Create Your Site/Brand’s Social Accounts 31614: Connect Your Social Accounts 31715: Make a List of Outreach Contacts 31716: Build a List of Keywords to Target in Search Engines 31817: Set Targets for the Next 12 Months 31818: Plug into Moz Analytics 319Meet the Authors 321Index 325