21:44
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Advanced search engine optimization,
as I (and others) have noted in the past, is a poorly defined topic.
There are relatively few people who have the luxury of practicing
advanced SEO on a daily basis. Search engine optimization is not like
some multi-layer maze where after you defeat all the first and
second-tier monsters you can finally advance to the third tier and face
down the evil dark overlord.
In 2008 I wrote:
Even link acquisition specialists are being asked to think both theoretically and strategically. It would be unfair and insulting to them to say that link acquisition is simple and easy. Sure, you can write a lot of great content and over time the links come pouring in but even the best writers among us eventually burn out or find themselves distracted from writing by other needs. The one flaw with acquiring links through content publication is that once you stop publishing the links drop off quickly.
So what qualifies as “advanced search optimization” in 2012? Here are a few suggestions. Your mileage may vary.
That said, I think Bryson Meunier shot so many holes in the “Google favors brands” myth at SMX West 2012 that anyone who wants to be taken seriously as an “advanced SEO” needs to rethink the whole “search and brand” story.
An advanced search optimization specialist — a so-called “Master SEO” — has to figure out how to make all the parts of the process work together as if the Website being promoted is a brand. That is, we have to “assume that brand value exists and act accordingly”. This just isn’t something that happens with the typical SEO campaign that starts out with keyword research, moves into link building, and assesses success on the basis of conversions.
In other words, an advanced SEO practice that focuses on brand strategy looks at different metrics. One simple example is tracking the number of brand queries and brand references to the Website in search and social. But I think the Master SEO is also going to think about how many partnerships the assumed brand value can be leveraged to assist, create, promote, or enhance. People want to work with brands so there should be some real opportunities for advanced search strategy in this area.
What would those opportunities look like? Think of mining search results data for extrapolative analysis. I’m not talking about developing consumer personas or profiles; rather, I’m talking about mining the data for opportunities to which only the brand can respond. That may call for creating new products and services, redesigning Websites, offering new types of content to searchers — in effect, leveraging the branded site’s intrinsic value to solve new problems — preferably before other branded sites offer their own solutions.
This falls into that “always be looking six months ahead” part of the process I have written about in the past. The advanced SEO practitioner lives in the future more than in the moment. But you need to develop the ability to recognize pivotal moments and take advantage of them. Some people may be quick to point out that not everyone can do this, and that’s fair enough. However, I suspect that the people who are most successful at leveraging pivotal moments are aggressive risk-takers who are constantly looking for new things — not necessarily The Next Big Thing — but “new things”.
A pivotal moment might be the launch of a new product or service that for whatever reason doesn’t catch on for a year or two, but which nonetheless has enough going for it that it survives and thrives until it becomes popular. Think of learning about Twitter in July 2006. What could you have done if you had known then what you know now about Twitter, its community, and its evolution of capabilities? In retrospect I don’t think anyone really capitalized on Twitter for search engine optimization in 2006 and 2007 but I could be wrong. I don’t remember exactly when I first joined Twitter but I think it was in 2008 after I had seen a number of people talking about their use of the service for several months. I kept thinking, “What is the point of the service?”
I have, of course, had better luck with some other pivotal moments. I began using RSS feeds in 1998 when Netscape introduced them, for example. Most people didn’t hit the RSS feed circuit until 6-8 years later. I got a lot of SEO mileage out of those feeds. So an advanced SEO practice in 2012 is developing a strategy that most other people won’t replicate for at least a year (you have to keep your mouth shut for that to happen, of course — no sharing).
An advanced SEO practitioner is constantly tinkering with stuff. Think of the guy who has all the power tools in his garage or workshop and he is constantly working on new projects. He walks into a store filled with all sorts of wild electronic gadgets and immediately starts playing with them, imagining how he can integrate them into his projects — summoning up images of NEW projects to work on. The advanced SEO practitioner is not only ready to adapt something new into a current project, he or she is ready to abandon everything and start something completely new — assuming there is a compelling reason to do so.
You have to be fearless, bold, and calculating in today’s advanced search engine optimization. We know that the SERPs won’t look the same in six months as they do today. So what are we going to do today that will help us be in the right place six months from now? That question may call for completely tearing down a Website, or maybe creating a new test site, or maybe just adding a widget to some random page. The answer to the question may come in the next cold call to ring at your desk.
You have to be a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow, looking like you’re fumbling around as you subtly maneuver everyone into position to execute your strategy so that you come out on top. And that leaves your competition asking, “Do you think he plans it all out in advance or just makes it up as he goes along?” It’s a little of both but the execution depends on knowing when to hold your cards and when to fold them.
As an example, suppose you spent three years building links through blog networks. You should have seen this month’s Google crusade against blog networks coming at least a year ago and started preparing for the failure of thousands of links. Most link spammers don’t do that — the majority of them are always caught flat-footed by major search algorithmic events (even though history teaches us there are two to four such events each year). If you’re never creating Plan B strategies that smoothly fall into place when Plan A strategies fail you’re not doing advanced SEO in 2012 terms.
Your stress tests don’t have to predict the next SEO apocalypse. You should also be looking at what happens to a Website under the weight of its own success. How much growth can a typical Website’s design tolerate? My experience teaches me that all Website structures founder at some point. So what do you do after someone has added one page too many to the site? Being prepared for that eventuality is part of what it means to be an “advanced SEO practitioner”.
In 2008 I wrote:
An advanced SEO (practitioner) is more interested in mastering the trends and less concerned with studying the day-to-day tasks associated with optimization. You know how to write good content, you know how to get links. Advanced SEO is not about link building and analytics, it’s about resource building and metrics.After four years it seems like a lot of people have gotten the memo. Many practices I would have felt were advanced SEO four years ago are probably now intermediate tasks for today’s search optimizers.
Even link acquisition specialists are being asked to think both theoretically and strategically. It would be unfair and insulting to them to say that link acquisition is simple and easy. Sure, you can write a lot of great content and over time the links come pouring in but even the best writers among us eventually burn out or find themselves distracted from writing by other needs. The one flaw with acquiring links through content publication is that once you stop publishing the links drop off quickly.
So what qualifies as “advanced search optimization” in 2012? Here are a few suggestions. Your mileage may vary.
Brand Value Cultivation and Nourishment
I don’t want to say “brand building” because that just seems inadequate. Technically, I don’t think search engine optimization can really build a brand. I think SEO enhances brand value and leverages brand value to assist in growing search referral traffic. And there are secondary order effects of good search engine optimization for brand-quality Websites, but SEO does not create or build brand.That said, I think Bryson Meunier shot so many holes in the “Google favors brands” myth at SMX West 2012 that anyone who wants to be taken seriously as an “advanced SEO” needs to rethink the whole “search and brand” story.
An advanced search optimization specialist — a so-called “Master SEO” — has to figure out how to make all the parts of the process work together as if the Website being promoted is a brand. That is, we have to “assume that brand value exists and act accordingly”. This just isn’t something that happens with the typical SEO campaign that starts out with keyword research, moves into link building, and assesses success on the basis of conversions.
In other words, an advanced SEO practice that focuses on brand strategy looks at different metrics. One simple example is tracking the number of brand queries and brand references to the Website in search and social. But I think the Master SEO is also going to think about how many partnerships the assumed brand value can be leveraged to assist, create, promote, or enhance. People want to work with brands so there should be some real opportunities for advanced search strategy in this area.
What would those opportunities look like? Think of mining search results data for extrapolative analysis. I’m not talking about developing consumer personas or profiles; rather, I’m talking about mining the data for opportunities to which only the brand can respond. That may call for creating new products and services, redesigning Websites, offering new types of content to searchers — in effect, leveraging the branded site’s intrinsic value to solve new problems — preferably before other branded sites offer their own solutions.
Event Analysis and Responsive Strategic Planning
Suppose you have five years’ worth of data for a Website. With that kind of information you have no excuses for missing seasonal variations in search referral traffic; with that kind of data you should be able to map out a product cycle lifespan for any executive-level presentation. So none of this is advanced search engine optimization. But what about using unexpected events to define completely new strategies and executing upon them?This falls into that “always be looking six months ahead” part of the process I have written about in the past. The advanced SEO practitioner lives in the future more than in the moment. But you need to develop the ability to recognize pivotal moments and take advantage of them. Some people may be quick to point out that not everyone can do this, and that’s fair enough. However, I suspect that the people who are most successful at leveraging pivotal moments are aggressive risk-takers who are constantly looking for new things — not necessarily The Next Big Thing — but “new things”.
A pivotal moment might be the launch of a new product or service that for whatever reason doesn’t catch on for a year or two, but which nonetheless has enough going for it that it survives and thrives until it becomes popular. Think of learning about Twitter in July 2006. What could you have done if you had known then what you know now about Twitter, its community, and its evolution of capabilities? In retrospect I don’t think anyone really capitalized on Twitter for search engine optimization in 2006 and 2007 but I could be wrong. I don’t remember exactly when I first joined Twitter but I think it was in 2008 after I had seen a number of people talking about their use of the service for several months. I kept thinking, “What is the point of the service?”
I have, of course, had better luck with some other pivotal moments. I began using RSS feeds in 1998 when Netscape introduced them, for example. Most people didn’t hit the RSS feed circuit until 6-8 years later. I got a lot of SEO mileage out of those feeds. So an advanced SEO practice in 2012 is developing a strategy that most other people won’t replicate for at least a year (you have to keep your mouth shut for that to happen, of course — no sharing).
Passive Network and Social Mobilization
Essentially today’s Advanced SEO practitioner needs to be a little cold and distant. Everyone is your pawn and you are moving them across the chessboard on which you play out your unspoken strategy. You, yourself, are also a pawn in someone else’s game. We are all pawns playing in someone else’s game while we direct our own strategies for our games. Most people simply are not that complex and abstract. They remain focused in the moment.An advanced SEO practitioner is constantly tinkering with stuff. Think of the guy who has all the power tools in his garage or workshop and he is constantly working on new projects. He walks into a store filled with all sorts of wild electronic gadgets and immediately starts playing with them, imagining how he can integrate them into his projects — summoning up images of NEW projects to work on. The advanced SEO practitioner is not only ready to adapt something new into a current project, he or she is ready to abandon everything and start something completely new — assuming there is a compelling reason to do so.
You have to be fearless, bold, and calculating in today’s advanced search engine optimization. We know that the SERPs won’t look the same in six months as they do today. So what are we going to do today that will help us be in the right place six months from now? That question may call for completely tearing down a Website, or maybe creating a new test site, or maybe just adding a widget to some random page. The answer to the question may come in the next cold call to ring at your desk.
You have to be a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow, looking like you’re fumbling around as you subtly maneuver everyone into position to execute your strategy so that you come out on top. And that leaves your competition asking, “Do you think he plans it all out in advance or just makes it up as he goes along?” It’s a little of both but the execution depends on knowing when to hold your cards and when to fold them.
Stress-testing the System in Safe Mode
The Searchable Web Ecosystem resets itself every now and then, and when that happens there is usually much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again, this is an area where the advanced SEO practitioner needs to get his ducks in a row before everyone else figures out what is going on. You need to look for points of failure and figure out what you CAN do should the worst-case scenario befall your Website(s).As an example, suppose you spent three years building links through blog networks. You should have seen this month’s Google crusade against blog networks coming at least a year ago and started preparing for the failure of thousands of links. Most link spammers don’t do that — the majority of them are always caught flat-footed by major search algorithmic events (even though history teaches us there are two to four such events each year). If you’re never creating Plan B strategies that smoothly fall into place when Plan A strategies fail you’re not doing advanced SEO in 2012 terms.
Your stress tests don’t have to predict the next SEO apocalypse. You should also be looking at what happens to a Website under the weight of its own success. How much growth can a typical Website’s design tolerate? My experience teaches me that all Website structures founder at some point. So what do you do after someone has added one page too many to the site? Being prepared for that eventuality is part of what it means to be an “advanced SEO practitioner”.
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