How to separate SEO myths from SEO facts in 2011

SEO MYTHBUSTERS

SEO MYTHS

• Just repeat your keywords throughout your meta

data and your website will rank high in Google

organic results

• An expensive website will guarantee top Google

rankings

• You only need to optimize for one keyword phrase

per page...

You probably heard about one of those common

organic-SEO myths or a similar one, but SEO is far

more complex than that !!!

What if you focused on SEO strategies that really work ??

Take the road to success !!!

THE 8 SEO FACTS

Findability

Indexability

Accessibility Usability

Sharability

Linkability Convertibility

Trackability

FINDABILITY

Make sure your target keyword appears in :

• Meta titles and descriptions

• Domain and folder names

• URLs

• Headers

• Content

• Internal and back links

The combination of those elements will help increase your visibility in search engines such as Google, Bing...

INDEXABILITY

Your websites should not present any of these technical issues:

• No HTML/XML sitemap• Duplicate content (canonicalization)• Geographical location of server is not based

where your customers are searching• Black listing status of your hosting / linking

partners• Domain name suffix does not match the location

of your customers

• Excessive JavaScript code

• Non-branded 404 page errors

• 302 redirects

• No search engine robots commands (accidentally

left in from a testing phase)

ACCESSIBILITY

Disability Discrimination Act (2005)

Your website should comply with the following rules:

• Alt tags with brief descriptions of images and content  • Lists that appear to be navigation should have a title

preceding it • Use transcripts for Video and Flash and ensure it can be

paused• Don’t load audio automatically and ensure it can be

paused  

• Workable navigation when images are turned

off (not all browsers are image capable)

• Cross browser compatibility

• Expandable screen resolutions (no horizontal

scrolling occurring)

• Use CSS for presentation (split into 3 layers -

markup - presentation – functionality) 

• Mobile access (what does your site look like

on a mobile)

USABILITY

All users’ needs should have been considered throughout the website design phase• Persona development• User centred design• User experience design• Information architecture• Taxonomy• Layout• Fonts• Multi-media

LINKABILITY

How to make your content link worthy?

• Unique

• Valuable to your ideal visitors

• Expert on a particular subject

• Entertaining

• Updated regularly

• Extensive with all resources in one

place

SHARABILITY

Make sure your visitors can easily share and return to your content !!!• Add to favourites

• Send to a friend functions

• Social bookmarking functions (e.g. Share This button)

• Twitter feed

• RSS feeds

• Widgets (to add your content to their website without

any web development knowledge)...

CONVERTIBILITY

What do you want your visitors to do next?

• Buy online• Phone• Email • Subscribe by email• Subscribe via RSS• Follow on Twitter• Post on their blog• Link to your site• Start a live chat• Visit other pages...

TRACKABILITY

How can you extract more value from your website?

• Track everything with website analytics • Click path analysis (which paths are your visitors

following)• Bounce rates (which pages have the

highest/lowest)• Goal conversions e.g. Sign-ups / sales• Ensure offline conversions are tracked as well• Cross reference with email analytics and phone

tracking software

Following these principles will undeniably help you improve your website visits as well as your ROI

Have you got an SEO myth for us

to prove or bust ???

Tweet us @whitelabelseos

using #seomyths