What % Page Metrics & Social, What % Links?

[DerekP]

It seems that a lot of the focus of SEOs, especially whitehat SEOs like SEOMoz and Distilled has shifted a lot more towards improving page metrics (bounce, return rate, etc) and social metrics.

I'm curious - And of course, I'm just asking for guesses - But what percent of ranking do you think is page metrics, social metrics and other non-link based metrics and what percent do you think are link based metrics?

[gfiorelli1]

Hi Derek,

the change of focus from pure/classic SEO to a larger Inbound Marketing vision that you have noticed both by SEOmoz and Distilled is the consequence of the evolution of Search Marketing itself.

I suggest you to check out the 2011 Search Engine Ranking Survey by SEOmoz itself, which is showing how just the 42% of the ranking factors are links related (Page Level and Domain Level). Summed the links' factor still have a relative majority. And surely they lost % respect the 2009 version of the survey.

Social Signals have taken a great importance and the survey shows how it is common the idea they will be even more important in the future. Just for this reason it is good to talk and dive deeper into the relation existing between SEO and Social Media.

And regarding the page metrics, the survey again shows how them are considered to be important now and more in the future. The reason is quite clear: Panda. CTR, Bounce et al are probably to be considered Panda factors... as it is the duplication issue. Because of that it is overly important to talk and dive into what cause those metrics to be good or bad, and it is usually the Content.

Are links neglected. I don't think so, and a lot of posts I've read both here and in the Distilled blog confirm my belief. Just that links acquisition is thought differently, "inboundly", that says: as content and expertise redistributed in any possible online channel that can lead traffic, generate social buzz and cause natural linking. Because, and that is the strength of the Inbound Marketing approach, it is now not possible anymore to rely on just one tactic to gain visibility, traffic, conversions and ROI, but a strategy that sees the integration of SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media.

Ok... I hope I helped you understand why this "change".