RETechTO Meetup - March 1, 2010 - Search Engine Optimization

Sasquatch, SEO ExpertsANDOTHER Mythical Creatures

GREGORY LAM

DRIVINGWEB TRAFFIC

I’m Gregory Lam. I help create user experiences

and technical solutions with digital media, online

content management systems, mobile applications, and social networking.

Source: Woolley’s Steakhouse, MN

Search

Engine

Optimization

Search Engine Market Share

Google57%

Yahoo!18%

Microsoft10%

Other15%

Source: Zscalar Labs, State of the Web - Q4 2009

What Searchbots look for*

25%

22%

20%

15%

7%6% 5%

Trustworthiness of your Domain

# of Links to you

Link Text

On-Page Keywords

Web host data

Traffic + CTR

Social Media

*Educated guesses from SEO folks (Source: SEOMoz)

What Searchbots look for*

67%

33% What others say about you

What you say about yourself

“The holy grail of search is to understand what the user wants. Then you are not matching words; you are actually trying to match meaning.”

- Amit Singhal, Google Fellow“How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web”, Wired Magazine 23 Feb 2010

1. Who links to you

2. How many link to you

3. What do those links say about you

Who links to you

• Encourage links from popular + authoritative sites

• Discourage links from spammers + non-relevant sites

How many link to you

• Blog! Take photos! Shoot video

• Have an opinion

• Ask for referrals

What do those links say about you

“Suzie is a great real estate agent in Toronto.”

vs.

“Suzie is a great real estate agent in Toronto.”

Why SEO doesn’t matter

• Word of mouth

• Social media

• You still need to close the deal

Having an online presence is important as having a credit rating.

Build it out.

GREGORY’S RULES

Be true to your brand.

Have a very specific goal when executing any online strategy.

GREGORY’S RULES

The Internet is a tool, not an anathema

The Internet is just one piece of your marketing strategy, not a magic bullet.

GREGORY’S RULES

What Searchbots look for*

67%

33% What others say about you

What you say about yourself

www.linkedin.com/in/gregorylam

@gregorylam