MozCon 2022 Recap #1: Doing What’s Hard Has the Greatest Impact

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MozCon 2022 Recap #1:

Doing What’s Hard Has the Greatest Impact

At MozCon’s archetypal in-person lawsuit since 2019, SEOs shared what they’ve learned and however they’ve failed. We’ve compiled the breakout themes from day 1 speakers beneath successful lawsuit you missed it oregon wanted to relive immoderate of the cardinal highlights:

What is the Job of an SEO?
How to Generate Ideas and Prioritize Content
Focusing connected ROI and High-Impact Efforts

What is the Job of an SEO?

In decades of hunt marketing, SEOs inactive person occupation defining what their relation is.

As Areej AbuAli enactment it, “SEO is precise cross-functional and nary 1 has decently figured retired wherever it should beryllium yet.” Though galore of america archetypal deliberation astir things similar the content, URLs, sitemaps, links — MozCon’s time 1 speakers challenged america to deliberation much broadly astir the relation of an SEO.

The SERP Means More Than Just Words

When utilizing the SERP arsenic a usher for what types of contented acceptable your people query, Andy Crestodina tells america that we person to person skills beyond penning and coding.

Google’s SERP displays videos, images, directories, large blogs, associations, idiosyncratic generated contented sites, work pages, articles, and prima ratings. And we, arsenic SEOs, request to fig retired however to make the types of contented that Google wants to amusement users for our people hunt terms.

So, we can’t conscionable beryllium focused connected the words connected the page, Andy Crestodina reminded us. “Your occupation besides includes integer PR, video creation, representation creation, impermanent posting, estimation management, and concern development.”

Image Optimization Requires Brand Consistency

In her speech entitled “Visual Search Tactics and Tools,” Crystal Carter took america a measurement further, focusing specifically connected our roles arsenic photographers and marque marketers. As Google displays much images to searchers, “we request to marque it casual for Google to recognize if the representation is applicable to the hunt query.”

But however bash we marque it wide that an representation is relevant to our business?

Consistent branding crossed every medium, truthful Google tin ever place your marque successful a photo
Creating thing radical want to instrumentality photos with, truthful users tin get “that pic”

With consistency crossed branding and entities, Google tin recognize however images subordinate to your business, which means much marque visibility.

How to Generate Ideas and Prioritize Content

As SEOs, we each cognize that we should make contented that users emotion and reporters privation to nexus to. But, however bash we get there?

MozCon gave america first-hand examples of tools and frameworks to make caller ideas and however to validate those ideas earlier putting resources down them.

Deepening Our Use of Tools We Already Have

As creatures of habit, we often usage the aforesaid tools for the aforesaid research, looking to caller resources to lick an existing problem, alternatively than viewing our existing toolset with fresh, captious eyes.

MozCon’s time 1 speakers re-introduced SEOs to the tools we already cognize by showing america however to usage them better. Andy Crestodina taught america however to look much profoundly astatine the SERPs to find what’s moving for your people keywords. Noah Learner showed america however to instrumentality related topics from Wikipedia, the SERP, Autocomplete and Google Trends and analyse them astatine scale.

In her speech entitled “Getting Your Local SEO Recipe Right,” Emily Brady encouraged america to look astatine schema not arsenic a markup language, but arsenic an thought generator for unsocial contented connected section landing pages.

“Schema informs your contented strategy,” she told us. “There are 145 types of section concern schema.” Use that database arsenic an thought generator for unsocial contented connected your landing pages.

New Frameworks for Link-Building Idea Generation

Link-building campaigns are among the slightest predictable efforts of SEOs. As time 2 talker Hannah Smith enactment it, “Luck played a bigger portion successful my ain [PR campaign] successes than I’ve ever been comfy with admitting.”

But adjacent among the unpredictability, MozCon’s time 1 speakers provided frameworks to make ideas for applicable link-building campaigns.

In her talk “How to Capitalize connected the Link Potential of a Research Report,” Debbie Chew gave america a model to validate probe study topics done a “HOT score” rating. High ratings mean greater accidental of relevancy and reach. HOT scores are determined based on:

Headline: looking astatine the relevancy of the imaginable headline
Other teams: asking different departments, similar PR and information teams, what they deliberation of the idea
Timeliness: reasoning done which ideas representation backmost to existent events

Paddy Moogan, connected the different hand, challenged MozCon attendees to deliberation of link-building campaigns with the lawsuit successful mind. “Why bash we make content? To link with customers connected their journey,” helium says.

Too often, our link-building campaigns absorption connected who tin nexus to us, alternatively than connected the lawsuit themselves. So, erstwhile we’re brainstorming ideas for link-building campaigns, Paddy encourages america to lone absorption connected the customer’s travel and thing else.

Focusing connected ROI and High-Impact Efforts

One of the biggest struggles for SEOs is figuring retired how to measurement the ROI of our recommendations. Day 1 speakers not lone talked done however to measurement the interaction of our efforts, but however to representation our efforts backmost to the metrics our teams and clients attraction about.

Figuring Out Which Efforts are High-Impact

On time one, MozCon’s speakers introduced america to antithetic ways of measuring the imaginable interaction of an implementation. Areej AbuAli encouraged america to look astatine conversions, focusing e-commerce efforts connected merchandise pages that person the most.

Lidia Infante, successful her speech entitled, “SEO Gap Analysis: Leverage Your Competitor’s Performance,” told america to benchmark the spot of our SEO pillars against our competitors, focusing efforts successful the pillar wherever we’re beneath mean among competitors.

Will Critchlow, connected the different hand, encouraged america to absorption lone connected testable implementations. The much we test, the much apt we are to find high-impact changes that we tin use to the remainder of our site. Like casinos successful which the location ever wins — when we trial constantly, we summation our likelihood of winning.

Measuring Efforts Against Metrics Others Care About

It’s casual for SEOs to measurement occurrence by rankings oregon sessions. But our teams and clients are held to antithetic metrics.

“Align yourself with metrics that different teams are measured on, and you’re much apt to get their attraction and help,” Areej AbuAli said.

She told america a communicative of putting her method requests successful the connection of developers and telling the communicative of its value utilizing metrics they attraction about. Her recommendations were implemented successful conscionable 2 sprints. “Measuring your enactment against concern goals starts with knowing the concern goals,” Noah Learner reminded us.

Ask questions like:

Who is your perfect customer?
What services bash you offer?
What is astir profitable?
What is simply a conversion worth?
How bash you marque money?
When bash you marque money?
Where bash you marque money?
What questions are tied to conversions?
What is your income process?
How tin contented enactment the income process?

Getting these answers upfront helps you representation each deliverable backmost to dollars and conversions that the C-suite cares about.

In Conclusion

As method SEOs and marketers, we crave efficiency. We privation much automation.

But the speakers astatine MozCon, peculiarly galore time 1 speakers, kept america focused connected the enactment ahead. “It’s harder. But that’s the point,” said Paddy Moogan. These efforts, oregon the metaphorical three-point shots successful Will Critchlow’s hoops analogy, are “harder, but worthy more.”

“If it doesn’t scale, but is bully for your SEO … your competitors astir apt aren’t doing it,” Emily Brady said.

It’s not what we privation to hear, but we tin find a competitory borderline by putting successful that other effort that others aren’t consenting to.