New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Enterprise-Level SEO Tactics
John Shehata @JShehata
2013
#C3ny
1
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
SEO Roadmap
SEO Process
SEO Tools
17 Tactics
@JShehata | John Shehata 2
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
@JShehata | John Shehata 3
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
@JShehata | John Shehata
Discover Inform Quick
Wins
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Analyze
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
@JShehata | John Shehata
• Discover
– What are the main objectives of the site (sales, Pageviews, etc.)
– Know the Team (Design, IT, Legal, Editorial, Marketing, PM, Technology, Analytics)
– SWOT Analysis / Challenges and Opportunities
– Extensive Site Audit (GWT, Screaming Frog, Crawl Errors, etc.)
– Competitive Analysis (SEO, Social Media, Links, Rankings, etc.)
– Understand The PM Process / Editorial Workflow
– Understand Technology & Code
– Build Targeted KWs lists (KW research, Analytics, etc.)
– Build Baseline Reports (Setup – Analytics Team)
– Define your SEO Metrics (Visits, SEO Visits, etc.)
– Identify Conversion Points (Signups, sales, etc.)
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Understand your Weaknesses and Strengths
– Media Sites
– Lots of content
– Videos vs. Text?
– Lots of Links
– No Sales
– Ecommerce
– Lots of Products
– Same Product Description across multiple sites
– Little Unique Content
– Duplicate content
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Issues
– Content Overlap
– Inefficient Crawling (Millions of Pages)
– Too much content to optimize
– One man department
– Tech/Dev/Company has other priorities
– Duplicate Content On Site/Off Site
– Etc..
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Questions to ask (before you start):
– SEO Budget
– Resources
– Legal
– Tools
– Usability
– Previous SEO?
– Previous link building??
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
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• Inform “Develop Institutional Knowledge”
– Training (SEO 101, Tech/Dev Training, PM/Product Training)
– Executive Training: C-level executive buy-in is a must (It is not Voodoo Magic!)
– Best Practices Guides (BPG) / One Sheet Checklist
– SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki
– Search Monthly Newsletter
– Answering emails
– SEO Compliance Test
– Customize your training material
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On-Page Optimization (Content)
Page Title Tag
URL
Image/Video
Optimization
Meta Data
Content
Code Internal
Links
Internal
Links
Headline
H1 Header
Social Media
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On-Page Content Freshness
Content Frequency
Content Authority
Content Relevancy
Content Uniqueness
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Project Management Process Integration
– SEO is not an afterthought (It starts before development)
– Understand The Process
– Kick Offs / Traffic Sources Expectations
– Requirement gathering
– IT / Development
– Design Comps
– Content / Internal Links
– Do your own QA
– Reports
– Check Changes to the site [changedetection.com]
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
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• Quick Wins “Low Hanging Fruit: Low Effort, Big Wins”
– Site Level Optimization
– Duplicate Content
– 302/301 Redirects
– Robots.txt fixes
– Canonical Tags
– Crawl Errors, Error Pages
– Link Building (partners, affiliates, widgets, etc.)
– Template Level Optimization
– On Page Optimization (layout, Heading Tags, etc.)
– Page Titles, Meta Description, SEO Tags
– Inline Linking / Deep Linking
– Pagination
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– Page Level Optimization
– Money Terms
– Top 10 Paid Keywords - PPC
– Top Keywords
– 2nd Page Rankings
– Top Exit Pages (Bounce rate)
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Low Hanging Fruits
2nd Page Rankings
1 KWs = 1,000,000 Total Local Volume
If #11 generates 2% CTR
And #10 generates 4% CTR
Moving 1 KWs from page #2 to page #1 will generate 20K more clicks
Low CTR-High Ranking Terms
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
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• Big Wins “Big Projects”
– Rich Media Optimization: Videos, Photo Galleries, Etc.
– Mobile SEO
– Content Verticals Optimization (entertainment, tech, etc.)
– Universal SERP Optimization (News, Videos, Shopping, Local, Google+, etc.)
– Rich Snippets
– Link Building Campaigns
– Crawl Efficiency / Duplicate Content / URL Architecture
– Syndication
– Social Media
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
@JShehata | John Shehata
• Support
– Support ongoing and new projects
– SEO Recos to seasonal content
– Provide SEO Recos to Breaking/Trending News
– SEO Recos to all new design and tech projects
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
@JShehata | John Shehata
• Reports & Analysis “Tell A Story”
– Executive Summary is a Must
– Daily/Monthly Reports
– YOY, Seasonal Reports
– Author/Content/Product/Vertical Reports
– Social Media Reports
– Project/Event Reports
– Content Reports
– Lag/Lead Reports
– Promote your work //// Track traffic changes for all work done
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny SEO Roadmap
@JShehata | John Shehata
Company Goals
Team/Departments
SEO Challenges & Opportunities
Strengths & Weaknesses
Workflow/Process
Analytics/Baseline reports
researching / info gathering
Technology, Code
Content, Links, Social Media
Building Targeted Keyword lists
Crawl Errors
Comp. Analysis
PM Process
Training
SEO 101 Training
SMO 101 Training
Tech/Dev Training
PM/Product Training
Executive Training
Best Practices
Guides (BPG)
SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki
Search/Social Media
Monthly Newsletter
Answering emails
SEO/SMO
Compliance Test
Content Strategy
Low Effort, Big Wins
On Page
Optimization
Page Titles, Meta
Tags
HP / Section Pages
302/301 Redirects
Robots.txt fixes
Error Pages
Meta Tags / Social
Tags Optimization
Rich Snippets
Duplicate Content
Canonical Tags
Big Projects List
Videos / Photos
Mobile
Content Vertical
Optimization
Universal SERPs
Rich Snippets
Link Building
Crawl Efficiency
Social Media
Syndication
Daily Reports
Monthly Reports
Author Reports
Category/Product Reports
Social Media Reports
Project Reports
Seasonal Reports
Support ongoing
and new projects
SEO Recos to
seasonal content
Provide SEO Recos
to Breaking News
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Discovery
Understand Project Goals and
objectives
Traffic Sources: Search, Social, Internal traffic?
Top Keywords: what is the search
interest?
Location on site: directory,
subdomain, page, sections, etc.?
Do we need a CName?
Do we need a landing page
(/blogs/) for all created templates
Content: is it new content, new content
replacing existing content, removing old content, etc.?
Will page content be delivered via
Javascript, AJAX, other un-friendly
SEO technologies?
do we need a separate XML
sitemap?
Design
wireframes/design comps
review
breadcrumbs placements
text placement
social integrations
H1 heading tags
SEO recommendatio
ns for label, layout and links
Pre Dev.
Meta Date (page titles, meta description, keywords)
SEO friendly URL formats
Copy Reviews: does the page
need intro/closing
copy?
Canonical tags
Social tags / Other tags
robots.txt updates if
needed
analytics integration
secure 5 links to new content
Schema Implementation
QA
Quick SEO QA
Baseline analytics reports
Content in Feeds
Live
SEO BPG
if needed
3,6,9 months
reports
Link Building
Ranking Reports
SEO
Process
John Shehata 2013
@JShehata | John Shehata 18
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Tools & Resources
• Excel
• MOZ
• SEObook
• Screaming Frog
• Google/Bing Webmaster Tools
• Google Analytics / Omniture
• Conductor
@JShehata | John Shehata 19
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
17 Tactics that help you succeed at Enterprise SEO
@JShehata | John Shehata 20
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
1. Develop Technical, Excel, and Analytics Skills
@JShehata | John Shehata 21
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Consolidate & Segment
GWT (Search Queries) + Google KWs + GA Traffic + Rankings
Screaming Frog + SEOmoz Top Pages + SEOmoz Crawl Test + GWT Errors
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
2. SELL Your Projects
Align your Goals with the Company’s Goals
i.e. Align your Projects with the Company’s Projects
Find a project sponsor
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
3. Show Value
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
4. Big Projects
– Small Projects Justifies Big Projects
– Divide Big Projects into smaller tasks
– Find projects that can include these tasks
– Focus on quick wins
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
5. Your Platform is no longer just desktop!
– Mobile (+social) is a must
– App/Tablet Optimization
– YouTube
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
6. Tech/Dev Teams
• Great ally or the worst hurdle
• Push Back when appropriate
• Your strategy is Dead-On-Arrival without technical resources.
• Never say “it is easy”
• Never say “is it doable?”
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
7. Build Relationships
Communicate in Person, Emails are not enough
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
8. Stop Long Emails
Tell A Story / Promote your success / Use Numbers
@JShehata | John Shehata 29
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
9. Task, Reports, Meetings, etc.
Stop whatever
doesn’t provide
VALUE
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
10. Choose your Battles Wisely
Prioritize / Ask your manager to prioritize your work
@JShehata | John Shehata 31
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
11. Find Hidden resources
– Sister companies
– Cross promotions,
– Talents in other departments
– Link Building
– Internal
– Vendors/affiliates
– Sponsorships
– Legal contracts
– Content syndication
– etc
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
12. Center of Excellence [COE]
– SEO Ambassadors (across sites, global, editorial, IT, etc.)
– Highlight the Champ
– Badges / Compliance Certificate
– Train the trainer
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
13. We are consultants; we provide recommendations to other teams to implement!!
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
14. Develop A Content Marketing Strategy
– Editorial calendar
– Evergreen content
– Product Reviews
– Best/Worst Lists
– Trending topics
– National vs. Local Content
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
15. Working with others
• Make others great! Focus on making the other people successful, and you’ll earn their trust.
• Make your emphasis how SEO will make them successful.
• Make a big deal of giving public acknowledgement of their vital contribution.
• Respect the hard work these folks have to do that has nothing to do with your SEO needs
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
16. Less Is More SEO
• Focused recommendations
• Focused emails
• Focused reports
• etc.
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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
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17. SEO is not dead, it is Evolving,
and so must you too!!
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny Maximize Enterprise SEO
#Bonus: Be a Good Person
– Approachable
– Available
– Share Knowledge
– Train and Train Again
– Invest in People, Develop Skills
– Optimize for Users not SE
@JShehata | John Shehata
SEO
39
New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Thanks
John Shehata
@JShehata
@JShehata | John Shehata 40