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Have you ever been “burned” by an eBook? Are you jaded by FREE reports that provide little more than statistics and a call to action from another firm that promises “top placement in Google FAST!”
The market for eBooks is so cluttered with lead gen tools that when a thought provoking piece enters the market, I think it deserves a pat on the back. “Sticky SEO” by David Leonhart - President of The Happy Guy Marketing - introduces everyone to the “Usefulness Algorithm” that he predicts will start to take effect as soon as this year in search results.
Leonhart’s theory: if a site visitor hits the “back” button on your site less than your competitors, your rankings will improve in the search engines.
Thus, the “stickier” your site is, the better it is optimized for search engine success.
Why does this make sense? Search engines do not want to be perceived as a provider of non-relevant results. Therefore, Leonhart believes the bounce rate of a webpage or website will begin to play a featured role in how the search engines determine credibility.
I don’t agree with all of Leonhart’s theories on how search engines might measure the usefulness of a website. That said, I think he offers some great perspective on the type of holistic approach SEO’s will need to take in 2009 and beyond if they are going to produce results for their clients.
The six critical elements of bringin’ sticky back in 2009 (with personal side comments included in bold, lowercase italics):
- Quality Web Design (of course)
- Engaging Web Content (always)
- Ignore Nobody (everyone is a customer)
- Segment Your Market (different people want different info)
- Cover All Personality Types (we all search differently for the same thing)
- Be Their Next Search (you want customers to come back, right?)
I don’t want to give away everything Leonhart offers in “Sticky SEO,” but I did find it thought provoking. If you want to take a look at the eBook - a 25-page quick read - and judge it for yourself, check it out at SEO-writer.com - Sticky SEO.
I hate to break the news but this is nothing more than a limited view of the over-all topic of behavioral metrics and indexing and retrieval. To start with, bounce rates are one of the least useful metrics (explicit or implicit). Secondly, this isn’t new, as some folks have been writing about it for more than a year… soooooo.. more hype than anything.
In the end they aren’t all that useful in a non-personalized environment and are considered dirty signals. Bounce rates should be more a function of good webmastering anyways…
It makes me sad to see such poorly research suppositions.. maybe I should write an ebook? Naw.. the 10 or so posts over the last year should do fine… he he….
Anyway, just my 2c as I try to break this myth before it picks up too much speed :0)
Happy new year to U and yours brother… keepin it real!!
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When I read the ebook, I let David know my thoughts, and I decided to share them here as well.
I’m not sold on the premise that search engines are using (or will use) bounceback data as a ranking factor. There are a lot of inherent problems with that data, so it would be a very unreliable indicator of user intent. Still, even if search engines aren’t using it as a ranking factor, the advice in the ebook is still solid advice.
Sticky SEO outlines some great strategies for making sites more usable, more useful, and more sticky. Whether or not those strategies help with ranking, they certainly help with usability, making users happy, and increasing conversions. In the long run, that may indirectly increase rankings as users vote the site up on social networks, link to the site, etc.
So the ebook is a good read, and well worth the price (grin), even IF the premise for the book is flawed (and of course the premise might be true - I’m just not sold on that part of it).
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You’re right about the torrent of “free” SEO advice that turns out to be a loss for me because of the time it wastes. So, thank you for highlighting a good ebook.
One thing I’ve quickly come to admire about ProspectMX is the way you focus on the big picture and the long term. Rather than just keep up with tricks and hacks to boost search results, you continue to emphasis good work and overall best practices.
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