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Presentation given at C2's $5 Friday Event on September 18th, 2009. Presented by Andrew Wintheiser as a introduction for search optimization, link building and the factors that are generally associated with search engine rankings
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Search Optimization – Demystified
SEO Demystified - Introduction
Co-Founder: Lightburn
• Interactive Agency focused on helping client
drive revenue via the web
www.lightburndesigns.com
Founder: Cooper Safety Supply
• Online ecommerce company that sells safety equipment
• Started in late 2006 as an experiment within Lightburn to sharpen our skills in
ecommerce, search marketing and search optimization
• Multi-million dollar business
www.coopersafety.com
SEO Demystified - Introduction
• What is SEO? Why is it so darn important anyways?
• Getting Started with SEO
• Improving your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Rankings
• Factors• Tactics• Tools• Examples
• Setting Expectations and Measuring Your Results
SEO Demystified
What is SEO?
Why is it important?
SEO Demystified
What is it?
SEO simply refers to the techniques and strategies that help your
website rank higher within the search engines.
Why is it important?
Higher rankings = more site traffic = more potential to sell your products
or services
SEO Demystified
A few facts and figures:
• Americans conducted 13.6 BILLION searches in July 2009
Google - 8.9 Billion
Yahoo! - 2.6 Billion
Bing - 1.2 Billion
• Google dominates with 65% market share, but….
• Bing is emerging as a search challenger and is the fastest growing
search engine in the US
SEO Demystified
What are people clicking?
SEO Demystified
SEO Demystified
SEO Demystified
Enough already…
How do I get better rankings?
SEO Demystified
The key things you need to understand and do for better rankings
• Understand the factors
• Keyword research and selection
• Knowing where you stand and start with the basics
• Content Development
• Link Building
SEO Demystified
Understanding the factors used for rankings
On Page Factors (35%):
• Content & Meta Data
• Friendly URLs
• Linking Structure
• Freshness of Content
• Broken Links & Redirects
Off Page Factors (65%):
• Links
Off Page Factors65%
On Page Factors35%
SEO Demystified
On Page Factors
SEO Demystified
Off Page Factors65%
On Page Factors35%
Unique Page Titles
Text Based Navigation
HTML H1 Tags
HTML Text
SEO Demystified
Off Page Factors65%
On Page Factors35%
Page Title
Meta Description
SEO Demystified
Detecting Duplicate Page Titles & Content
Use the search engines to help you determine if you have duplicate
content and page title.
SEO Demystified
On Page Factors35%
Duplicate Page Titles and Meta Descriptions for different pages.
Technique is also good for finding content that is available via more the one unique URL.
SEO Demystified
Know your domain(s)
• Is your site available on both non-www and www URLs? Regardless of
what a user types, they should always end up on one or the other via
a 301 redirect.
http://www.coopersafety.com
http://coopersafety.com
• Do you own multiple domain names? Do these domains serve up the
same content or redirect? (misspellings, etc.)
SEO Demystified
Know your CMS
• Make sure you understand how your CMS handles it’s content.
If your page URLs are based off of the title of the content, what
happens if you change that title. Does the old URL still server up
content or does it redirect? It needs to 301 redirect.
• Does your CMS show friendly URLs, but then use parameter based
URLs for internal linking? Resulting in a non-301 redirect?
SEO Demystified
Friendly URLs
Keep your key URL’s free of parameters as much as possible
Good
www.coopersafety.com/hardhats.aspx
Not So Good
www.coopersafety.com/category/page.aspx?topic=hard%hats
SEO Demystified
Friendly URLs
Keep your site structure as flat as possible
Good
www.coopersafety.com/hardhats.aspx
Ok, but not great
www.coopersafety.com/category/hardhats/hardhats.aspx
Bad
www.coopersafety.com/cat/124/125/hardhats/hardhats.aspx
SEO Demystified
Search engines like
clear directions to your
content
SEO Demystified
Funnel similar links to a single source
• Don’t point links that say the same
thing to different pages on your site
• Identify pages that are similar and consolidate
if possible
Single Hard Hat Content Page
Hard Hats
Hard Hats
Hard Hats
SEO Demystified
Off Page Factors65%
On Page Factors35%
Don’t lock away your content in graphics.
SEO Demystified
Keep your content fresh & updated
• The more often content is
added, tweaked and revised
the more often the bots will
visit your site.
• More frequent visits provide more opportunity
for improved ranks.
SEO Demystified
Gauging Visit Frequency
View the cache version of your page/site
SEO Demystified
Shows ~ date of last index of the page/site.
This date should be within the last 24/36 hours ideally for your home page and key landing pages.
SEO Demystified
Avoid, Detect and Repair ALL broken and redirected links
• Your site should NOT have any broken links. Use a link checker
to see how you stand. You might be surprised!
Web Link Validator detects broken links and on page redirects
www.relsoftware.com/wlv/
• Make sure your site does not have any redirected links within it.
SEO Demystified
Most site owners don’t realize that something is broken or redirecting,
because it usually doesn’t affect the experience of human visitors.
Check your site for broken or non-301 redirected links at least one per
month.
SEO Demystified
Off Page Factors
SEO Demystified
Off Page Factors (65%)
Site
Links
LinksLinks
Links
Links
SEO Demystified
Inbound links from credible 3rd
party sites are a critical factor in
determining your ranking
SEO Demystified
What those links “say” and
where they point IS important
SEO Demystified
Which link from a 3rd party website
would be better for C2?
www.c2gps.com
Adobe TrainingWhen possible, try to suggest link text when getting sites to link to you
SEO Demystified
Link Building
SEO Demystified
Building Good Links
• Make sure your site is listed with the top paid directories
• Business.com
• BBB
• Yahoo! Directory
• Vendors and Business Partner Websites
• Press Releases
• Answers, Forums, Blogs (Yahoo! Answers, Linked In)
• Associations & Community Sites (i.e. Third Ward Association)
SEO Demystified
Building Good Links
• Develop unique, useful and compelling content
• Calculators
• Tools
• Humor
• Sponsor events and charitable organization and ask for links!
• Focus on one-way links. It’s ok to be selfish in this case
• Understand where your competition is getting it’s links.
SEO Demystified
Link Building Examples: BlendTec / WillItBlend.com
29000+ Inbound Links
http://www.willitblend.com
SEO Demystified
Link Building Examples: Astuteo / Project Estimator
3500+ Inbound Links
http://estimator.astuteo.com
SEO Demystified
Bad, Bad Links…
• Avoid buying links on blogs. Commercial directories are ok
• Avoid services like www.Text-Link-Ads.com
• Avoid trading links with non-relevant sites
• Link farms are bad
SEO Demystified
Keyword Research
SEO Demystified
Types of KeywordsLong-tail Search TermsLow Volume / High Conversion Rate“Copper Bird Feeder”
Mid-tail KeywordsAverage Volume / Average Conversion Rate“ Cardinal Bird Feeder”
Short-tail Search TermsHigh Volume / Low Conversion Rate“Bird Feeders”
SEO Demystified
SEO Demystified
Research and Test Keywords
• Use a tool such as Google Adwords for keyword ideas and search
volume “guess-timates”. (www.google.com/adwords)
• The highest volume keywords are NOT always the best.
• Low conversion rate (window shoppers)
• Highly competitive
• Test keywords using Pay-Per-Click is a great way to determine value
and more accurate search volumes.
• Determine the page on your site that can support those keywords
SEO Demystified
Additional Paid Keywords Tools
• Word Tracker (www.wordtracker.com)
• Keyword Spy (www.keywordspy.com)
• Compete.com (www.compete.com)
SEO Demystified
Setting Expectations
SEO Demystified
Search Optimization
• Search optimization is a never-ending process.
• Link building takes time. Lots of time.
• Don’t expect #1 rankings for highly competitive keywords overnight.
• Plan on investing a minimum of 4-5 hours a week on search
optimization.
• Content Development
• Evaluation & Monitoring
• Link Building
SEO Demystified
You can’t rank for a keyword
that isn’t supported by content
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