Find the Curatti Blog Post that is the companion piece for this Haiku Deck: http://curatti.com/invisible-giant-hard-see-new-seo/

8.6.14 Added 600 words to Curatti post on Blowing Up Haiku Deck and the big benefits and single challenge with "Widgetizing" your content marketing after my Haiku Deck account was "disappeared" (Giant at work). M

The New SEO
After spending the day in what may prove to be an unsuccessful attempt to explain the "new SEO" to someone whose bookkeeper used to handle their SEO we thought it would be a good idea to share the difference between THEN (a time when SEO could win the day) and NOW.

NOW Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be matched with CSTC:

* CONTENT - Creation of Authoritative content.
* SOCIAL - A COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere) social media marketing engine.
* TESTING - Knowledge about offers and keywords that can only come from testing.
* COMMUNITY An online community built in collaboration with brand, site and product "ambassadors".



Giant image from Behance
https://www.behance.net/gallery/2310566/Invisible-Giant

When there was a single static SERP (Search Engine Result Page) we could type the same search anywhere in the world and see the same result.

Google changed all that with their float. Now GOOGLE determines who sees what. The net impact of this change is more confusion about who is doing what and how much that "doing" is worth.

Metrics are the only way to even partially know anything and they are increasingly difficult to decipher (see "not provided" note later in the deck). Imagine you are on a bullet train moving faster and faster as the signals you use to know where to go become harder and harder to read (welcome to Internet marketing).

YOU are getting harder and harder to reach. Search engines and social networks read your history and present what they think you want to see.

Your Google experience and mine can be very different on the same keyword typed at the same time. Metrics become the only way to understand if your content is connecting...but there is a problem there too.

Not Provided Challenge
As more and more traffic logs in to Google before searching a website's "not provided" numbers may go over half. This means knowing what keywords and content is connecting with your visitors and buyers is becoming increasingly impossible without predictive modeling and/or using a tool such as Curagami to generate data you own.

Google is using social signals to confirm their algorithm. That means if your content blows up you should find your way to page one FOR SOME of Google's searchers. Google's float will determine WHO sees WHAT and WHERE.

Social media is complicated too because:

* Not everyone sharing is equal.
* BIG DOGS don't share as much, but their shares matter more.
* Context is also important if you "BREAK" a big story you get to surf your own wave (until knocked off).
* Important to know what is IMMEDIATE and VIRAL(ish) and so should be bet on NOW (as "tomorrow" won't be worth much) and content you can keep QDFing (Quality Deserves Freshness i.e. keep adding to it because each add increases value).

1:9:90 User Generated Content Rule
* 1% Visitors will CONTRIBUTE.
* 9% SUPPORT especially contributions from the 1.
* 90% Reader (and are important to your traffic but hard to "see").

This means you MUST create a supportive tribe of "ambassadors" from your 10% Contributors and Supporters.

This chart is my "I'm not a graphic designer" attempt to show the recruitment of friends of friends. You can see how marketing via a proxy changes your online marketing. You need:

* Ways your site / brand friends can influence their friends.
* Clearly defined "Ambassador" layer with an ASK (for help).
* Graphics and other tools to help.
* Leaderboards and gamification.

When you market THROUGH someone you are only as good as the weapons you've given your "advocates".

Advocates don't hang around long if they aren't HEARD and feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. This means you need to create MOVEMENT marketing not just a never ending sale.

Sales are and always will be important, but place them in the context of your MOVEMENT and ask for HELP.

Content Marketing is a tricky idea. You need to create authoritative content, but just enough that community is forming comfortably. Talk to much, in the wrong voice or at the wrong time sand you kill your fledgling community (easy to do).

Content has 4 main "TYPES":
NOW vs. Evergreen.
YOU vs. THEM (User Generated Content).

Once your website has authority and community is building switch to content curation. Content curation is how you "listen" online.
See our Social Media Its About The Conversation Stupid Haiku Deck for more on "digital listening":
http://shar.es/Lyqho

Social performance and link building should be how you evaluate your site's content. If a post trends DO MORE. If it seems to flop (never know with attribution being what it is) DO LESS. Our Startup Curagami created a new metric called Link Efficiency Index (LEI) to judge what content is bring in links the fastest. TIME must be part of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

TESTING is important & you are testing in 4 dimensions:

* NOW (content that blew up yesterday, grab that and give it another spin to see if it blows up tomorrow too).

* Evergreen (some content will never go away, the minute you think its dead someone will share it again, should find a way to QDF that content by curating in new content yourself or asking a question to prompt visitors to weigh in).

* US (set KPIs for your content and know when your latest post is above or below baseline).

* THEM (Remember your content's real goal is the creation of community and User Generated Content is the cement of online community so anything that generates UGC is worth its weight in gold).

Content shock (great post by Mark Schaefer and a #mustread) says content can't sale your ideas, products or website. We agree and remind our clients to create only enough content to begin what you really want - the creation of online community with engaged advocates and helpful tribes.)

Your pie may look different, but organic SEO, PPC, social media (and social networks) and email are a few of the MAJOR traffic drivers for most websites. Video,

No matter what your multi-channel marketing looks like understanding what is impact what and how is harder the more channels you have.

Diversification is the only way to go so you can survive a hit in any one channel. The "right" ratio between different channels varies by customer and business vertical.

Never too many eggs in a single basket and diversify your strengths and marketing to protect your brand's future.

What do you think the inside of the web looks like? We imagine the web as a fabric similar to Einstein's "Space/Time". Divots that create gravity are made by you, your content and your website or sites.

Bigger the divot the greater the forces pulling traffic in your direction. Google isn't a democracy. They don't evenly distribute divots. Divots are EARNED by a site's content then their community (sharing and changing that content).

The fabric is never static. You either gained or lost "share" of the fabric today. The only way to gain "fabric" now is via community.

The best way to create community is via Friends of Friends marketing (due to filter bubbles).

As you content adds to the tapestry you've been weaving it will float in the web's "space/time". Some threads you add will be BIG threads with lots of vibrations.

Other threads will be smaller. Every thread has value and you should NEVER pull a thread (remove content). The web is a ADD ONLY environment. If Google has trouble with some of your content believe me you will know.

Even when you've enraged the Google Gods removal is rare. CLEAN UP is much more likely. You "clean" your content by eliminating bad (i.e. untrusted) links and "disavowing" crap when thrown on you (see Google Webmaster tools disavow tool).