Last week, Dan’l and I had the pleasure of attending Inbound 2012 in Boston. Aside from mastering the art of bar hopping on Boylston Street (actually part of the agenda), we spent two days absorbing as much knowledge as possible – most of which was content that we love to dish about right here at The Core.
Topping our list of must-see keynote speakers was Rand Fishkin, CEO and Co-Founder of the web’s most popular SEO Software provider; SEOmoz.com. During his presentation, Rand outlined the 12 misconceptions (or biases as he refers to them) of Search Engine Optimization. Since we all have much to learn about the constantly shifting SEO “sands”, we wanted to share a few of our big takeaways from Rand’s creative presentation:
Bias #1: Ranking Position Is All That Matters
Of course it doesn’t hurt to appear as the top result for a web search of your company name, service or product, but if you’re like us and still improving your SEO skills, take note. There are other factors that search engine crawlers detect when determining your page rank such as star ratings, reviews and price, author photo, date of publication (the more recent, the better) and appropriate media (like video clips).
Bias #4: Twitter & Facebook are the Only Networks that Matter
With hundreds of millions of people searching the Internet for information and a connection, who can settle on just two.
There are many social networks that can add value to your SEO arsenal. Don’t believe me? Check out the photo to the right showing the number of users per social network. Could they be looking for you?
Bias #5: If a Viral Content Effort Fails, It’s Over
Never fear! Your content lives on when its digital. One way to keep your content fresh and SEO friendly is to update the elements mentioned in Bias #1. Want to keep a blog post relevant by SEO standards? Update the title and publish date to keep it being found by search engine crawlers. According to Rand, 9/10 viral attempts fail. He encourages us to “try again.”
He outlines nine other SEO misconceptions in his presentation from Inbound 2012 here.
Both Dan’l and I were amazed and encouraged at how Rand was able to take a seemingly arduous marketing task, describe the biases and offer realistic actions for marketers to deploy. Maybe SEO is easier than us creatives realize? Regardless we are a lot more confident.
We’re curious to hear your thoughts! Do any of the biases that Rand spoke about during his presentation sound familiar to you? We believed them all before we walked in the door so don’t be shy and share your thoughts on Rand’s presentation in the comments section below. Go ahead…it will help your SEO.
Posted by: The Optimist (Megan Zweig)
