[AMA] SEO and Digital Marketing in 2016

[matteoboni]

@JDawg hi men thanks for info, i live in italy in my country seo and social media are a niche for work with a information of value for improve work of entrepreuner and professionist , i have think of realize video tutorial for sell , with one blog for add the articles for create a value? what do you think? social media are a good industry for start a business wit h a sistem of contents??
thanks so much !

 

[speakers4u]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to the questions with some amazing information!

Much appreciated JDawg.

 

[Sean P]

Sites with thin( with not so high quality content) still rank high in Google search results. I have seen a lot of coupon sites and gift stores ranking high in the search engines, even though content might be thin on their pages. What kind of SEO techniques go behind ranking such sites?

Also, do traditional ways like leaving blog comments work for such thin sites?

 

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[DiFerro]

In 2016, relevancy is the only factor. All other factors just show Google how relevant the content is.

It doesn't matter if your content is 500 words long or 1500 words long, top quality 500-word-long article with high relevancy will slay any 1500-word-long article on any day. If your content is 150 words long and it's more relevant than anything else - it will rank #1.
If it has no images, but still has the highest relevancy score, it will outperform any image-rich article.

Leaving comments doesn't work. Neither link building in general is nearly as beneficial as it used to be.
Just create relevant content.

@devine - I agree, content relevancy is the key, which is usually the missed point and everyone harps on 1000+ words. But links are still a widely important factor for search engines, namely Google. Backlinks are "tokens" which help endorse and provide authority for web pages. Without these, you're dead in the water. All the content you write will be for squat if you don't have some measure of backlinking. Funny enough, here's a timely tweet from Gary Illyes,Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, which clears things up.

 

[DoctorNotADoctor]

Hello @JDawg

Lots of good information in this AMA. I know Im late too it, but I had a question, which I hope you could help me with.

How should one proceed, from an SEO point of view, to rank a website in the medical niche, which is competing against authoritative sites, like webMD or Wikipedia, for the top positions in Google Rankings ? Is it possible, or is it a really steep hill which cannot be climbed ?

If anybody else has some input regarding ranking their website in a competitive niche, i'm open to hear your experiences.

 

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[devine]

Hello @JDawg

Lots of good information in this AMA. I know Im late too it, but I had a question, which I hope you could help me with.

How should one proceed, from an SEO point of view, to rank a website in the medical niche, which is competing against authoritative sites, like webMD or Wikipedia, for the top positions in Google Rankings ? Is it possible, or is it a really steep hill which cannot be climbed ?

If anybody else has some input regarding ranking their website in a competitive niche, i'm open to hear your experiences.

Details?

 

[DoctorNotADoctor]

@devine

I don't want to go into too much detail about the exact niche, but i'll give a close approximation. Lets say I want to rank for the keywords "Lung cancer". If you google this, you will see that top ranking sites include MedicineNet, WebMD, Wikipedia, Cancer.org etc. I know lung cancer is a very broad keywords, but even if i was to write a post on keywords branching from it, like lung cancer treatment, lung cancer signs and symptoms, lung cancer life expectancy, those same authority sites would come forward for the top rankings. How should one proceed to outrank them ?

 

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[devine]

@devine

I don't want to go into too much detail about the exact niche, but i'll give a close approximation. Lets say I want to rank for the keywords "Lung cancer". If you google this, you will see that top ranking sites include MedicineNet, WebMD, Wikipedia, Cancer.org etc. I know lung cancer is a very broad keywords, but even if i was to write a post on keywords branching from it, like lung cancer treatment, lung cancer signs and symptoms, lung cancer life expectancy, those same authority sites would come forward for the top rankings. How should one proceed to outrank them ?

Then don't ask competent specialists for advice if all you have is hypothetical nonsense.
However, if you really have some serious agenda, I'll post a thread here at TFLF today on this exact topic: competing with BIG companies. Consider yourself lucky.

 

[DoctorNotADoctor]

@ApparentHorizon

I have been casually blogging for 4-5 years now, but have now only decided to get into it full time, to shift my slow-lane, albeit high paying profession, to the fast-lane.

Back then, I had a tech-blog, where I blogged for fun, later realizing that money could be made too. I followed all standard SEO protocols which were advocated back then, on-page and off-page. Everything from blog commenting, PBNs, directory links, guest posting etc etc.
Back then, I wasn't really serious about the quality of links, but still began to rank well.

But now the dynamics have changed. It is all about quality backlinks, quality content, relevancy etc. Compared to the old days of SEO, the approach today is very nihilistic. So how should one proceed to rank content, taking in view the way SEO has progressed in the recent years?

Is content truly the only thing that matters now? I have tried this approach too, writing detailed articles (4-5000 words), which completely blow authority sites out of the water, only to find myself on the 5th page of Google, seeing very pathetic websites, forums or even youtube videos ranking before me. It is very frustrating to say the least.

 

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[Andy Black]

@ApparentHorizon

I have been casually blogging for 4-5 years now, but have now only decided to get into it full time, to shift my slow-lane, albeit high paying profession, to the fast-lane.

Back then, I had a tech-blog, where I blogged for fun, later realizing that money could be made too. I followed all standard SEO protocols which were advocated back then, on-page and off-page. Everything from blog commenting, PBNs, directory links, guest posting etc etc.
Back then, I wasn't really serious about the quality of links, but still began to rank well.

But now the dynamics have changed. It is all about quality backlinks, quality content, relevancy etc. Compared to the old days of SEO, the approach today is very nihilistic. So how should one proceed to rank content, taking in view the way SEO has progressed in the recent years?

Is content truly the only thing that matters now? I have tried this approach too, writing detailed articles (4-5000 words), which completely blow authority sites out of the water, only to find myself on the 5th page of Google, seeing very pathetic websites, forums or even youtube videos ranking before me. It is very frustrating to say the least.

Have you tried paid search?

 

[DoctorNotADoctor]

@devine

It is not hypothetical at all. Im new to this forum, and just getting a feel for it, and wasn't sure if I should be posting things like my niche or domain name on this public thread. I'd be very thankful if you could post that thread you have mentioned regarding competing with big companies. If you don't mind, I can PM you my domain so that you can check it out

 

[devine]

@devine

It is not hypothetical at all. Im new to this forum, and just getting a feel for it, and wasn't sure if I should be posting things like my niche or domain name on this public thread. I'd be very thankful if you could post that thread you have mentioned regarding competing with big companies. If you don't mind, I can PM you my domain so that you can check it out

PM is fine.

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

@ApparentHorizon

I have been casually blogging for 4-5 years now, but have now only decided to get into it full time, to shift my slow-lane, albeit high paying profession, to the fast-lane.

Back then, I had a tech-blog, where I blogged for fun, later realizing that money could be made too. I followed all standard SEO protocols which were advocated back then, on-page and off-page. Everything from blog commenting, PBNs, directory links, guest posting etc etc.
Back then, I wasn't really serious about the quality of links, but still began to rank well.

But now the dynamics have changed. It is all about quality backlinks, quality content, relevancy etc. Compared to the old days of SEO, the approach today is very nihilistic. So how should one proceed to rank content, taking in view the way SEO has progressed in the recent years?

Is content truly the only thing that matters now? I have tried this approach too, writing detailed articles (4-5000 words), which completely blow authority sites out of the water, only to find myself on the 5th page of Google, seeing very pathetic websites, forums or even youtube videos ranking before me. It is very frustrating to say the least.

Distribution.

Forget about "backlinks" ... "quality content" ... in the traditional sense, which just a year ago, was 80% of the algorithm.

Google has its roots deep within human behavior:

• Analytics in millions of websites
• Chrome browsers in millions of computers
• Android devices in millions of hands

Your every move is tracked, from the link you click, to the keyword you highlight with your cursor.

Get people talking. Create centers of influence. Get an understanding of semantic search.

A traditional search engine (G, Y!, b) is just 1 channel.

You still have social media, secondary search engines (YouTube, Amazon, ...), apps, .... Are you on VR yet??? - "shoot where the target is going to be, not where it is now."

 

[DoctorNotADoctor]

@Andy Black

I have briefly looked into it. I started a small Adwords campaign, which worked pretty well. In fact, I saw some keyword arbitrage opportunities. I will look into it more deeply.