How Top Ranking Brands Like Moz and HubSpot REALLY Do SEO

How TOP RANKING BRANDS

Really DoSEO

By @ChadPollitt & @BradleyGSmith

Like &

#drSEO

Content Promotion For Serious Content Marketers

Chad PollittVP of Marketing

317.575.8852 Extension [email protected]

Bradley SmithInbound Consultant317.575.8852 ext. [email protected]

relevance.com | @drelevance

Cision’s Content Marketing Suitebrought to you by

• Create & publish content to your customized social newsroom or blog

• Share your story with your followers, and pitch it to over 1.6 million media outlets and contacts

• Amplify your content, wherever it lives, on over 90k+ top publisher sites including TIME, FastCompany & CNN

• Analyze what content performs best and delivers your highest ROI with integration into Google Analytics

A look at the

AGENDA:

1. SEO: A Brief History

2. Google’s View

3. How Moz & HubSpot do SEO

4. How you can do it, too

SEO has come a long way since the 90’s . . .

Goneare the days ofSPAMMY METHODS like:

Keyword Saturation

Forum & Blog Commenting

Guest bloggingat scale

Caffeine Treasure Map

Those who frequently publish good content shall find the hidden treasure

Google Panda & Penguin

ALGORITHM UPDATE

Panda/Penguin Treasure Map

Those who only publish rich, high-quality content cited by authoritative sites will find the hidden treasure

Keyword ‘Not Provided’

SSL Encryption

Keyword ‘Not Provided’ Treasure Map

Those who write naturally and measure organic traffic & conversions at the page level will find the hidden treasure.

Hummingbird

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

Hummingbird Treasure Map

Those who write naturally using synonyms and normal language, while catering to mobile users, will find the hidden treasure.

X

What does Google want?!

What does Google want?!do users

“I would concentrate on the stuff that people write, the utility that people find in it, and the amount of times that people link to it.“

-Matt Cutts

“I would concentrate on the stuff that people write, the utility that people find in it, and the amount of times that people link to it.

All of those are ways that implicitly measure how relevant or important somebody is to someone else.”

-Matt Cutts

“The philosophy that we’ve always had is if you make something that’s compelling then it would be much easier to get people to write about it and to link to it.”

-Matt Cutts

“The philosophy that we’ve always had is if you make something that’s compelling then it would be much easier to get people to write about it and to link to it. And so a lot of people approach it from a direction that’s backwards.”

-Matt Cutts

“The philosophy that we’ve always had is if you make something that’s compelling then it would be much easier to get people to write about it and to link to it. And so a lot of people approach it from a direction that’s backwards. They try to get the links first and then they want to be grandfathered in or think they will be a successful website as a result.”

-Matt Cutts

In other words . . .WHAT USERS WANT IS MOST IMPORTANT

But links to COMPELLING CONTENT that provide utility are ALSO IMPORTANT

But links to COMPELLING CONTENT that provide utility are ALSO IMPORTANT

Google has improved at identifying and

penalizing links to content it doesn’t find to be

a compelling utility.

“Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.”

-Matt Cutts

“Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice,”

-Matt Cutts

“Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.”

-Matt Cutts

Shortly thereafter,

hundreds of brands around the world were manually penalized for guest blogging at scale.

“A guest post is something that a fantastic author has thought deeply about, labored over, polished, put a lot of work into and then publishes on a highly reputable domain name.”

-Matt Cutts

Dozens of the most correlated attributes for optimized search

engine visibility are mostly off-page and link related, according to

Moz.

This means off-page SEO has the biggest impact on a brand’s

search engine visibility today.

Dozens of the most correlated attributes for optimized search

engine visibility are mostly off-page and link related, according to

Moz.

According to Moz’s search engine correlation survey, dozens of

the most correlated attributes for optimized search engine visibility

are mostly off-page and link-related.

This means off-page SEO has the biggest impact on a brand’s

search engine visibility today.

However, links to and from content that do not provide utility

(guest blogging at scale) can do more harm than good.

Grow SEARCH VISIBILITY by promoting helpful contentSee how ElectricFireplacesDirect.com grew their

YOY organic traffic 22% in three months

bit.ly/22percent

http://bit.ly/22percent

http://bit.ly/22percent

How Moz and HubSpot Really Do On-Page SEO(hint: it’s not rocket science)


Brands like Moz and HubSpot publish copious amounts of helpful content.


Brands like Moz and HubSpot publish copious amounts of helpful content.

Their large audiences consume, contribute to, share, comment on and cite their posts, which further helps drive up SERP relevance.

How Moz and HubSpot Really Do On-Page SEO(some other best practices they do)

ª User-Generated Content

ª Gamification

ª Strategic Internal Linking

ª Authorship

ª Keyword Research & Optimization

ª Site Architecture

ª Metadata Conventions

ª Blogging & more


They’ve built up these large audiences by establishing themselves as some of the first brands in their industries to regularly publish helpful content online in the last decade.

This is great for them, but most brands don’t have

an AUDIENCE OF SIGNIFICANCE to help facilitate

this level of engagement today.

Even if a brand chooses to publish content this often, it’s

unlikely to drive the kind of search visibility those brands

experience for many years, if at all.

How Moz and HubSpot Really Do Off-Page SEO


Their on-page content ends up driving lots of organic off-page signals today. However, that hasn’t always been the case.


They publish guides, studies and other forms of

advanced content that are newsworthy to the audience that consumes them.

Moz published its Beginners Guide to SEO and regularly surveys and publishes the results of its bi-annual Search Engine Ranking Factors questionnaire.

Moz published its Beginners Guide to SEO and regularly surveys and publishes the results of its bi-annual Search Engine Ranking Factors questionnaire.

As a result, they are newsworthy utilities and get cited thousands of times by journalists, marketers and SEOs.

“. . . the Beginner’s Guide to SEO and the Search Engine Ranking Factors were seminal works.”

-Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder of Moz

“. . . the Beginner’s Guide to SEO and the Search Engine Ranking Factors were seminal works. They helped establish our brand, build an audience, and create credibility in the market.”


“. . . the Beginner’s Guide to SEO and the Search Engine Ranking Factors were seminal works. They helped establish our brand, build an audience, and create credibility in the market. Without them, it’s tough to imagine that Moz could be where it is today.”


HubSpot’s groundbreaking

grader.com tool and annual State of Inbound Marketing report are inherently useful and represents a true contribution to the marketing industry – they’re newsworthy.

HubSpot also publishes hundreds of

guides, templates, tools and videos that have provided help, guidance and utility to millions of marketers around the world.

“. . . grader.com has been our best performing piece of content, ever. This is based on the number of leads it generates on an ongoing basis. ”

-Dharmesh Shah, Co-Founder and CTO of HubSpot

“. . . grader.com has been our best performing piece of content, ever. This is based on the number of leads it generates on an ongoing basis. Of course, like other high-impact content, building a tool does require an investment -- but when it works, it can work really well.”


“. . . grader.com has been our best performing piece of content, ever. This is based on the number of leads it generates on an ongoing basis. Of course, like other high-impact content, building a tool does require an investment -- but when it works, it can work really well. We can trace millions of dollars of revenue over the years to grader.com.”


Most brands don’t have this

type of inherently useful advanced content.

Most brands don’t have this

type of inherently useful advanced content. And if they do, their lack of audience prevents it from being seen as well as it should.

Marketers and PR pros need to be proactive and pitch their advanced content to media outlets and

niche industry sites to earn the coverage they deserve.

Understand the power ofCONTENT

PROMOTIONthrough their success story

OVER 2.8 MILLIONMEDIA IMPRESSIONS

bit.ly/content-promo

http://bit.ly/content-promo

http://bit.ly/content-promo

Here’s how you can do it, too!

Since most brands don’t have large audiences like HubSpot or Moz,


Since most brands don’t have large audiences like HubSpot or Moz, it’s important to focus resources on building and growing an audience.


Since most brands don’t have large audiences like HubSpot or Moz, it’s important to focus resources on building and growing an audience. This helps drive the signals Google uses to determine SERP relevance.


This is done by tapping into other websites’ audiences and being inherently useful to them.


This is done by tapping into other websites’ audiences and being inherently useful to them. This is also known as EARNED MEDIA.

This activity is very similar to the work of traditional PR.

This activity is very similar to the work of traditional PR.

Instead of pitching the media a brand or product story, pitch inherently useful advanced content.

The multiple media citations can drive SIGNIFICANT

brand awareness, website traffic and conversions.

These links represent some of the most powerful off-page search signals a website can EARN.


Search benefits resulting from this audience growth strategy is the tertiary benefit after referral traffic and conversions.


Search benefits resulting from this audience growth strategy is the tertiary benefit after referral traffic and conversions.

Notice the word used is “earn,” and not “build.”

To have the best shot at getting content coverage and driving real marketing returns, you must follow four proven steps.

ResearchThis is the most important step for earning media coverage and should start before the content is created.

ResearchThis is the most important step for earning media coverage and should start before the content is created.

This helps determine what advanced content to produce, who wants to consume it, and where and who to pitch it to.

Creative

Create the inherently useful content and utility to pitch.

It could be an ebook, guide, study, survey results, widget or even a mobile app.

Promotion Based on the research from step one, marketers and PR pros should have a valuable list of media outlets, journalists and bloggers to pitch.

Promotion Based on the research from step one, marketers and PR pros should have a valuable list of media outlets, journalists and bloggers to pitch.

Native and advertorial paid media placement can help accelerate distribution.

Conversion

Having a clear understanding of the GOALS OF THE CAMPAIGN and making sure its ALIGNED WITH THE BUYER JOURNEY is very important.

Conversion

Having a clear understanding of the GOALS OF THE CAMPAIGN and making sure its ALIGNED WITH THE BUYER JOURNEY is very important.

¿ Marketing Automation¿ Remarketing¿ Retargeting¿ Landing Page Testing¿ Email Campaigns

Not all brands can achieve the same type of search success that Moz and HubSpot enjoy.


Their recipe for success isn’t a mystery.

Earning real media citations with inherently useful content is the path to optimum search engine visibility, both today and for the foreseeable future.


Their recipe for success isn’t a mystery.

Those benefits, however, are merely tertiary to the ample volume of traffic and conversions the referring media outlets drive.

Cision’s Content Marketing SuiteBrought to you by:

• Create & publish content to your customized social newsroom or blog

• Share your story with your followers, and pitch it to over 1.6 million media outlets and contacts

• Amplify your content, wherever it lives, on over 90k+ top publisher sites including TIME, FastCompany & CNN

• Analyze what content performs best and delivers your highest ROI with integration into Google Analytics

Only 10 campaign slots remaining for Q2

bit.ly/contr-assess

@ChadPollitt’s Phone: 317-575-8852 x256

http://bit.ly/contr-assess

http://bit.ly/contr-assess

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How Top Ranking Brands Like Moz and HubSpot REALLY Do SEO