MozCon 2022 Recap #3: Optimize for People and Search Engines

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MozCon 2022 Recap #3:

Optimize for People and Search Engines

On the last time of MozCon 2022, the signifier was acceptable with day 3 speakers ready to instrumentality connected the pursuing breakout themes head-on:


Build a Strong Foundation

Put the Expertise successful E-A-T

It’s 2022, are we really inactive wondering if the Google algorithm is the archetypal and lone information erstwhile crafting SEO strategies?

If you had a accidental to perceive successful connected Lily Ray’s presumption titled “Why Real Expertise is the Most Important Ranking Factor of Them All,” past you would person heard however a batch of SEOs aren’t leaning into Google’s E-A-T guidelines arsenic overmuch arsenic they should.

Lily Ray precocious dug into the interaction of “E-A-T” (which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness aka the criteria Google’s algorithm uses to measure and fertile content). For perfect SEO performance, E-A-T is inactive the champion model to follow.

In times of crisis, which unluckily are much prevalent present than ever, “There should be even much accent connected Google’s E-A-T model today, particularly connected the E,” as it’s upmost captious to guarantee applicable and close results successful the SERPs.

There should be even much accent connected Google’s E-A-T model today, particularly connected the E.

In Dr. Pete Meyers presumption titled, “Rabbit holes: however Google Pushes Us Down The Funnel” he digs into this deeper. “Sometimes each it takes to marque a large interaction is to amusement up astatine the close time”.

Now, that being said, it’s not arsenic elemental arsenic it sounds. In bid to amusement up astatine the close time, you person to person a beardown consciousness of wherever a imaginable lawsuit is successful their travel astatine immoderate fixed moment. Dr. Pete Meyers talked astir however the messy middle betwixt each determination tin marque this challenging.

Set the Right Goals

SEO Consultant Joe Hall said it champion successful his presumption titled, “Understanding Key Performance Factors: Using Data to Make Smart Decisions for Organic Search”. While, yes, the SEO process tin beryllium hard to execute and is astir ever urgent for the client, use information to marque buy-in, execution, and results faster.”

Joe went connected to explicate how to person the speech with clients to recognize what they see to beryllium impactful — whether that beryllium KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), KPFs (Key Performance Factors), etc.

Once you person what they attraction astir about nailed down, you tin past enactment backwards to make the astir effectual contented strategy to deed that goal. “Key show factors and indicators tin assistance you amended recognize the astir impactful elements of your SEO strategy.”

Now, arsenic Petra mentioned, “Things aren’t ever arsenic they seem.” For instance, erstwhile your enactment puts accent connected the value of SEO, but yet it is ne'er prioritized erstwhile it comes to implementation. “You can’t triumph each battle, truthful don’t fuss warring them all.” The extremity is to get to the adjacent measurement successful conversation.

Understand & Test Your Audience

Kill the Cliches

As an SEO, erstwhile knowing your customer, you archetypal privation to make your purchaser persona, right?

Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing astatine SparkToro, took the signifier with unit and precise intelligibly stated, “start considering assemblage personas implicit buyer’s personas.” Amanda went connected to explicate that purchaser personas could pb to an utterly misguided run strategy simply owed to the mode the probe was done.

Don’t get it twisted, Amanda did authorities that purchaser personas tin inactive beryllium adjuvant for your selling team, but recommended breaking down them down into categories:

  1. Buyer Persona
  2. Amplifier Persona
  3. Attention Persona

All of these categories tin beryllium weaved into your selling strategy astatine antithetic stages of your funnel — which according to Amanda, volition acceptable you isolated from the different folks trying to combat for the aforesaid backlinks, contacts, and traffic.

Use All the Data

Believe it oregon not, being empathetic to your customers tin assistance you amended recognize symptom points and usher you toward overdelivering connected their expectations.

“The little you cognize astir your customer, the much it’s going to outgo you to get them,” as Seer Founder, Wil Reynolds, said successful his talk, “Keyword Research for Thanks Instead of Ranks”.

Keyword probe focused connected symptom points tin assistance physique amended products. You tin larn a ton erstwhile you walk clip digging done keyword information for clues.

For example, by combining integrated hunt and PPC data, you tin even reduce lawsuit acquisition costs — expanding ROI. All of this information is retired there, you conscionable request to instrumentality the clip to spell done it.

However, arsenic companies proceed to determination up the information maturity curve with AI and Machine Learning — it’s indispensable to keep a choky ticker connected the outputs of our analyses. The information of utilizing information tin beryllium successful trusting it blindly and creating a disconnect betwixt you and your audience.

Test, Test, and Test Again

Today, you person endless options and possibilities to triumph online, but the main question remains however bash you find which tactics to deploy and when? There is simply a batch of hype astir experimentation for this reason. Besides, is determination a amended mode to afloat recognize your lawsuit without investigating what they gravitate to most?

Karen Hopper presented, “Beyond the Button: Tests that really determination the needle” and stated these steps for launching succesful tests:

  1. Start with your ain data (think: Google Analytics, Hotjar, etc.)
  2. Identify what’s successful your power to alteration that volition interaction those metrics
  3. Organize your ideas and constitute a proposal for each one
  4. Prioritize your tests based connected estimated interaction vs level of effort
  5. Rinse and repeat. Run your tests again, again, and again!

Content Marketing isn’t Just Blog Posts

One of my favourite quotes of the time was from Chris Long of GoFish Digital, “get the fundamentals down, and the level of everything you bash volition rise.”

Get the fundamentals down, and the level of everything you bash volition rise.

In his session, Chris touched connected the value of contented freshness and how 1 portion of contented that gets refreshed erstwhile applicable volition execute amended than creating nett caller posts that whitethorn instrumentality immoderate clip to make traction.

His team tested this proposal and noticed ranking drops aft the 60-day mark:

They recovered elemental optimizations were amended for the superior keyword portion afloat audits were amended for a much extended acceptable of keywords.

Ross Simmonds besides made this constituent saying that blog posts aren’t going to chopped it anymore — astatine slightest not similar they did successful 2014. To truly summation marketplace share, you request to “Think similar a media company.”

For example, one portion of contented has the quality to person implicit 15 antithetic interaction points and strategies associated with it. For example, wherefore not make important contented engines that spell beyond a database of blog posts? “The contented organisation possibilities are endless.”

In Conclusion

We had a large clip attending MozCon 2022 successful Seattle again this twelvemonth and are already looking guardant to adjacent year. We can’t hold to spot however immoderate of these themes proceed to play retired passim the integer selling and hunt manufacture successful years to come!

So, what did you deliberation astir these breakout themes from this year’s event? Let america cognize connected Twitter (@SeerInteractive) oregon scope retired to maine straight on LinkedIn!

More Insights from MozCon 2022

<– Recap #1: Doing What’s Hard Has the Greatest Impact

<– Recap #2: Put the User First & Success Will Follow