How to Piss Off Your SEO Guy

How to piss off your

guyiowa code camp

04-30-2011

What Does Google Look for?

• The Bottom Line – if you get nothing more from this talk than this slide…

• Relevance / Keywords– Title– Anchor text of incoming links– Other textual elements

» Site Navigation Links» Content» Alt tags

• Importance = Power and Number of Incoming Links

iowa code camp :: 04-30-2011


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The Breakdown

• The Basics• The Good Stuff• The Secret Stuff• The High Impact Stuff



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The Basics



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Prevent Google from Accessing Any Indicators of Relevance or ImportanceMake sure the bots and spiders have access to your content.• Render content using technologies inaccessible to search

engines• Use non-descriptive text in key page and site elements• Use dynamic, non-descriptive URLs • Allow the search engines to access your site and its pages from

multiple URLs• Use bad/malformed HTML

How to piss off the SEO guy:

Flash



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This Flash-only website was getting 25-50 visitors per week.

Render Content Using Technologies Inaccessible to Search Engines Use “post-load” technologies

Use “post-load” technologies

HTML



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Creating an HTML version shot the site up to over 1,000 visitors per week.

• Give every unique piece of content its own URLDo not use Default.aspx/index.php and “handle” every page(Apache = cURL / IIS = HttpModules or URLRewriter module under IIS7)

• Use HTML

• Don't use Flash, JavaScript, AJAX, etc. for content you want indexed Google cannot index flash or javascript…yet. :)

• Create “followable” linksFrom the search engine/bot perspective



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The Fix:

Use “post-load” technologies

• Use the same title and meta description on every page• Use images or Flash for site navigation



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Examples:

Use Non-Descriptive Text in Key Page and Site ElementsGet lazy with your code

Get lazy with your code



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Optimo Hat Company probably ranks really well for "optimo hat company"

Examples:


• Allow every URL to have its own unique title and meta description

• Allow internal links to use descriptive text as anchor text• e.g. Don't use images for site navigation



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The Fix:


• Need to highlight meta information via “rich snippits”• Reviews, People (contact information), Products, Businesses, Recipes,

Events & Videohttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=99170http://www.seobook.com/google-local



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Example & Fix:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=99170

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=99170

http://www.seobook.com/google-local

http://www.seobook.com/google-local

• Mix up parameters and you still get the same "page":• http://bashandslash.com/index.php?

option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=30&Itemid=69• http://bashandslash.com/index.php?

option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=30&sectionid=4&task=category

Which one should Google index?– It will try to index both.

Use Dynamic, Non-Descriptive URLs



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Examples:


• URL tells users and the search engines nothing about the content of the page.

– option=com_content– task=category– Itemid=69– id=30– sectionid=4

Mama always said a URL was like a box of chocolates.



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Examples:


• Create static, descriptive URLs:

http://bashandslash.com/bash-webcast/



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The Fix:

Use poor/malformed HTML

• Only one H1 per (rendered) page– H1 should match the keyword/title of the page

• All H-tags must be nested properly– H2’s in H1’s and so on…

• Use strict XHTML whenever possible– Close all tags (</a> or <br />), case sensitive, attributes must use quotes

(type=“text”)



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Issues & Fix:

Use poor/malformed HTML

• Images must have keyword rich file name and “juicy”, keyword filled alt text.



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The Fix:

Not supply meta information for non-text elements

• Audio & Video– Video transcripts are a must if you want the best search indexing power.

YouTube is handled at upload. The file must be plain text and in a YouTube-friendly format. http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166810

– Non-YouTube content needs an HTML version of the transcript– A link to the transcript from the element and link to the element from the transcript

http://www.uiaccess.com/transcripts/transcripts_on_the_web.html



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Example & Fix:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166810

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166810



• Allow the search engines to access your site and its pages from multiple URLs

• Disregard search engines when structuring pages



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Prevent Google from Accessing Any Indicators of Relevance or ImportanceMake sure the bots and spiders have access to your content.

The Good Stuff


Allow the Search Engines to Access Your Site and Its Pages from Multiple URLs



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117 URLs for the home page




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21 URLs for this one internal page on Macys.com


• 301 redirect alternative versions of your domain/home page to the canonical version.

http://bashandslash.com/http://www.bashandslash.com/

http://bashandslash.com/index.phphttp://www.bashandslash.com/index.php

http://www.bashandslash.com/



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The Fix:


• 301 redirect alternative versions of your internal pages to the canonical version.

/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=479833&CategoryID=7502/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=479833&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_results

/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=479833&CategoryID=21624&LinkType=EverGreen/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=479833&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_compare

/catalog/product/waterford-bedding-hannah-comforter-sets/



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The Fix:

Canonical URL

• Ensuring content is only accessible via a single URL.

– Canonicalization eliminates duplicate content issues discussed in the last few slides.



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Define:

Disregard Search Engines When Structuring Pages

• Google generally utilizes the anchor text of the first link to a given URL.



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Explanation :

Primary keywords for which they want to rank:• storage containers• closet organizers


• First link to home page: <a href="/">Home</a>

• Second link to home page:<h1 class="left" id="logo"><a href="/"><span>Space Savers - Closet

Organizers - Kitchen, Bathroom, Garage</span></a></h1>

• The home page is highly optimized for the extremely profitable keyword -> "home"



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Example:




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Example:

11,343 Pages = 11,343 Wasted Links!

11,342 pages point to “home”




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The Fix:

Plan to give the first link a "keyword-rich" anchor text.



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The Secret Stuff


• “Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.” The Art of War – Sun Tzo



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• Google selects only one link to a given URL from another URL.

• We conducted experiments to test which links Google chooses under a set of conditions.

SEO Ninja StrategyHow to piss off the SEO guy:

Experiment:



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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a text link with anchor text such as "home" • Second, a keyword-rich text link...

• Google utilizes the link with anchor text "home".

What We Discovered:


• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a text link with

anchor text such as "home"

• Second, a keyword-rich text link...

• Google utilizes the link with anchor text "home".



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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a link whose anchor text is empty• Second, a link with keyword-rich anchor text...

• Google skips the link with empty anchor text and utilizes the second (not empty) link.

What We Discovered:


• Use: Strategically leave links empty so Google indexes 2nd link and then add background image/text via CSS/jQuery later to make 1st link useable OR don’t.



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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a text link with a single letter anchor text such as "a" • Second, a keyword-rich text link...

• Google utilizes the link with anchor text "a".

What We Discovered:




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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, an image link• Second, a text link...

• Google utilizes the text link (regardless of whether the image's alt attribute contains text or not).

What We Discovered:




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• When only one link to a given URL exists on a page, and that link is an image with a non empty alt attribute...

• Google utilizes the text of the alt attribute as though it were anchor text.

What We Discovered:




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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a JavaScript link• Second, an HTML text link...

• Google utilizes the text link.

What We Discovered:


• Use: Strategically index links with the most “keyword power”



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• When two links to the same URL exist on a page...• First, a text link with rel="nofollow"• Second, a text link without rel="nofollow"...

• Google utilizes neither.

What We Discovered:




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• 301 redirectsWhat We Discovered:


• pass anchor text.• Google doesn't look at the destination URL of 301 redirects

when determining if a given URL “multiple links” to the same URL.

Old

Old

301 New



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• Link type and order matter.• Play it safe…

Make the first link to a URL a keyword-rich text link.

Conclusion:




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• Build heavy, slow-loading pages• Move Stuff and Don't File a Change of Address Form


The High Impact Stuff


Build Heavy, Slow-Loading Pages

• With Google AdWords, slower load times result in a higher cost-per-click and a lower ad position.

• "Load time impacts your landing page quality and, therefore, your Quality Score.“https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87144

• "Quality Score is used....[to determine] your keywords' actual cost-per-clicks....[and] how high your ad will be ranked.“https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10215



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Explanation:

https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87144






Build Heavy, Slow-Loading Pages

• Build lightweight, fast-loading pages. • Tools (many are for firefox only):

• Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/)

• Yslow (http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/)

• Page Speed (http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html)

• Google Webmaster Tools (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en)

• Any Others?



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The Fix:

http://getfirebug.com/

http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en

Move Stuff and Don't File a Change of Address Form

• Virtually all of your site's content should bring in traffic (whether it be from Google or other sources).

• If the URL gets changed, search engines and visitors will still look for it at the original URL.

• The original URL may have incoming links, giving that URL PageRank.



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The Fix:

Move Stuff and Don't File a Change of Address Form

• 301 Redirect• Search engines remove the old URL and

index the new URL.• PageRank from the old URL is passed to

the new URL.• Users who visit the old URL through

links, bookmarks, etc. are redirected to the new URL rather than being sent a 404 response.



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The Fix:

Seriously – don’t piss him off…

• Dave MeindlClickStop SEO/[email protected]

• Tom AltmanClickStop [email protected]://tomaltman.com

Slides available athttp://tomaltman.com/featured-post/iowa-code-camp-and-seo-presentation/



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Contact Us:

http://tomaltman.com/

http://tomaltman.com/featured-post/iowa-code-camp-and-seo-presentation/

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How to Piss Off Your SEO Guy