How to SEO (intro)

Search Engine Optimization:

SLIDE MASTER – COVERPAGE

Understanding the Engines & Building Successful Sites

Rand Fishkin – August 2010

Content in this Presentation
• The Search Landscape
• How Search Engines Work
• Building Accessible Sites
• Conducting Keyword Research
• Link Building Strategies
• Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

The Search Marketing Landscape

100 Billion Searches
Each Month!


Organic vs. Paid Search
Paid


Organic

Organic vs. Paid Search
10% of Clicks


90% of Clicks

Click-Through Rates


Vertical Search


Local Results
Completely different ranking
algorithm than standard
search results


Probably doesn’t get traffic
like most “#1” results

Image Results


Video Results


News & Blog Results


Shopping Results


Instant Answers


News Results

Instant Answers
Real Time Results

Local Results

Image Results

This Presentation Focuses on:


How Search Engines Work

Crawling & Indexing

Without links, the
engines might
never find this page

Calculating Query-Independent Metrics


Via www.opensiteexplorer.org

Many Domains vs. One Domain


VS.

Domain Authority


PageRank


The Flow of PageRank


PageRank is Split Evenly Between the
Links on a Page


PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm


Technically, Every External Link
“Leaks” PageRank


Nofollowing or Removing Links Can
Alter the Flow of PageRank


Or, at least it used to...


www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

Google Says they use PageRank to Crawl


Algorithmic Ranking Factors


Query Deserves Freshness (QDF)
QDF

Normal Results

QDF

Query Deserves Diversity (QDD)


Building Accessible Sites

Crawlability / Link Architecture


Duplicate Content & Canonicalization


Canonical URL Tag


301 Redirects


302s

Duplicate Titles & Meta Descriptions


Search Friendly URLs
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/african-elephants
Keywords in page name,
separated by hyphen

Single domain
Shallow folder structure
with relevant words

Search UN-Friendly URLs
Xyz3.nationalgeographic.com/a/?q=31z&mg=vv7z&sd=8
No keywords in the URL string
Unnecessary
Subdomain

Dynamic URLs don’t perform as well
as static and engines recommend
against more than two parameters

Fixing Broken Links & 404s


Blocking Robots


XML Sitemaps


www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

Webmaster Tools (Google)


Webmaster Tools (Bing)


Search Engine Guidelines


www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

Important Tags & Signals

Title Tags


Meta Descriptions


Tag Length Recommendations


Anchor Text


Page Copy


Image Alt Attributes
Good keyword
usage in the alt tag


Not So Important

Meta Keywords Tag


H1, H2, H(x) Tags


Search Engine “Submission”


Keyword Research + Targeting

The Goals of Keyword Research

Determine Relative Volume Levels


Identify High Value Keywords


Predict the Effort Required to Rank Well


Choose the “Best”
Words/Phrases to Target


The Keyword Demand Landscape

The Long Tail of Keyword Demand


Tools & Tactics for Brainstorming
& Refining Your Seed List

Salespeople & Customers


Google AdWords Tool


Be Wary of
Match Type

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

MS AdCenter Excel Plug-In


www.seomoz.org/blog/using-the-adcenter-excel-plugin-for-keyphrase-research

Google Trends


Sign In for Y-Axis Numbers

Not Very Accurate

Internal Site Search Stats


Competitive Keyword Research


Restrict query
to competitor’s
domain

The Keyword Research Process

Start with Your Seed List


Create Spreadsheet w/ these Columns


Get Google Search Demand Numbers


Guesstimate Conversion Rate Numbers


Or Use PPC Campaign Data


Add Keyword Difficulty Data for Top Terms


We like using a weighted average of
the Page Authority metric

Target High Volume, High Value,
Low Difficulty Terms First


Measuring Keyword
Difficulty & Competition

Run Queries for Desired Term + Engine


Watch for vertical
results, which can skew
CTRs & visibility

Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Metrics


Tools Can Help Provide Scores


Tools Can Help Provide Scores


www.seomoz.org/mozbar

Link Building Strategies

What Goals Can Link Building
Help Us Achieve?

Bolster Individual Rankings


Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages


Achieve More Complete Indexation


Drive Traffic & Branding Awareness


Send Converting Traffic


Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com

The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

#1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests


#2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition


#3 - Links via Embedded Content


#4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns


#5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing


#6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades


#7 - Paid Links


#8 - Link Reclamation


Matching the Right Link Building Strategies
to Your Organization’s SEO Goals

Links for Individual Rankings


Links for Domain “Authority”


Links for Indexation


Links for Traffic & Branding


Links for Conversion


Using Tools & Processes to Ease the
Challenges of Link Building

Tools for Competitive Link Research
• Yahoo! Site Explorer & Link Commands
• Open Site Explorer
• Top Pages
• Google Blog Search

Yahoo! Site Explorer


Directionally indicative
within ~50%
Not necessarily followed & in
a somewhat random order

Yahoo! Link Commands


Less “accurate” than
Site Explorer
Lots of cool, useful modifiers
available

Yahoo! Link Commands


Full list available in PRO Guide to Advanced Search Operators:
www.seomoz.org/article/the-professionals-guide-to-advanced-search-operators

Open Site Explorer


Open Site Explorer


Highly Correlation w/ Rankings

Data updates monthly from the
Linkscape web index (approx. 60% the
size of Yahoo!/Google/Bing)

Open Site Explorer


Poor Anchor Text Spells Opportunity

Link Intersect


Link Intersect uses the same principle – sites
w/ links in common that don’t point to you.

Top Pages
Find which pages are
earning links (your
own & competitors)

404s? Reclaim them!

Metrics for Evaluating a Link’s Value
• Numeric (Objective) Metrics
• Subjective Metrics
• Attainability and Effort

Numeric Metrics for Link Valuation
• # of Linking Root Domains to URL
• # of Linking Root Domains to Domain
• Homepage PageRank vs. Domain mozRank
• URL PageRank vs. URL mozRank
• # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape)
• Twitter mentions (Backtweets.com)

Numeric Metrics (Backtweets)


Results count
(in a weird location)

Subjective Metrics for Link Valuation
• Brand name reach/recognition
• Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain)
• Attainability and Effort

Jumping through Hoops (via WKA on Flickr)

Scalable Link Acquisition Processes
• Written Process + Checklist
• Tools + Metrics for Quick Analysis
• Training & Incenting Link Builders
• Building & Refining a Link Acquisition Funnel

Written Process/Checklist
• Run through the link building process yourself
• Document every step thoroughly
• Pass it on to others (w/ some training time)

Checklist (via adesigna on Flickr)

Tools for Quick Analysis


Get usable metrics
quickly as you surf

Tools for Quick Analysis


Training & Incenting Link Builders
• Do link building together
• Create consistent metrics
• Reward like a sales team
• Record reasons why links
didn’t happen (like objections
to sales) and work on these
(things like design quality,
affiliations, language, etc. will
come up)
Training Camp (via Gil Searcy on Flickr)

Building a Link Acquisition Funnel


Visit Link-Targeted Content
Grab Link Code
Link to the Site

Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

Influencers on the Web


The Power of the “Linkerati”


Content that Appeals to Influencers


Making Content Easy to Share


Incenting/Rewarding Link Behaviors


Cannibalization of the Link Graph
MMM… LINK
GRAPHS ARE
DELICIOUS!

The Rise of the Social Graph


You have to do these
right, before you can
do these right

Algorithmic Ranking Factors


Learn More w/ the Free Beginner’s Guide:
http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization


For more information, visit us at www.seomoz.org
Feel free to distribute this presentation for educational use. We love to help SEOs learn!

All Content and Intellectual Property is under Copyright Protection, SEOmoz 1996-2008

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