presents
Intro to SEO: Get a Bigger Slice of the Pie
DALE BERTRAND@dbertrand
Intro to Search Engine OptimizationGet a Bigger Piece of the Pie
January 13th 2013
Full service, results-driven, digital marketing agency (6 people – headquartered in Kendall Square)
Specializing in SEO, AdWords, content marketing and email marketing automation.
Agenda
• Why Search Marketing?• How Search Engines Work• Building Accessible Sites• Keyword Research• Link Building
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Algorithmic Ranking Factors
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Why Search Marketing?
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100 Billion SearchesEach Month!
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Organic vs. Paid Search
Organic vs. Paid Search
Click-Through Rates
Why such a substantial CTR drop off?• Refined search rather than scrolling• Searchers are satisfiers not optimizers• People assume the best results are first
Blended Search Results
News
Web result
Images
Map
More web results
More Blended Search Results
Video
Product listings
Local Results Carousel
#1 result may not get much traffic
Different ranking algorithm (partially
based Zagat restaurant reviews)
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This Presentation Focuses on:
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How Search Engines Work
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Crawling & Indexing
Without links, the engines might never
find this page
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Calculating Query-Independent Metrics
Via www.opensiteexplorer.org
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Many Domains vs. One Domain
VS.
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Domain Authority
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PageRank
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The Flow of PageRank
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PageRank is Split Evenly Between theLinks on a Page
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PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm
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Nofollowing or Removing Links CanAlter the Flow of PageRank
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Google Says they use PageRank to Crawl
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Algorithmic Ranking Factors
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Algorithmic Ranking Factors
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Building Accessible Sites
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Crawlability / Link Architecture
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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization
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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization
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Canonical URL Tag
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301 Redirects
302s
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Duplicate Titles & Meta Descriptions
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Search Friendly URLs
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/african-elephants
Single domain
Shallow folder structurewith relevant words
Keywords in page name,separated by hyphen
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Search UN-Friendly URLs
Xyz3.nationalgeographic.com/a/?q=31z&mg=vv7z&sd=8
UnnecessarySubdomain Dynamic URLs don’t perform as well
as static and engines recommend against more than two parameters
No keywords in the URL string
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Fixing Broken Links & 404s
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Blocking Robots
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Blocking Robots
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XML Sitemaps
www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php
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Webmaster Tools (Google)
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Webmaster Tools (Bing)
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Important Tags & Signals
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Title Tags
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Meta Descriptions
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Tag Length Recommendations
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Anchor Text
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Page Copy
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Image Alt AttributesGood keyword usage
in the alt tag
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Not So Important
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Meta Keywords Tag
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H1, H2, H(x) Tags
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Search Engine “Submission”
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Algorithmic Ranking Factors
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Keyword Research + Targeting
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The Goals of Keyword Research
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Choose the “Best”Words/Phrases to Target
Example High Value Keyword
- High volume- Low competition- Relevant (likely to convert)
More About High Value Keywords
Other metrics- Revenue- Time on site- Pages visited- Landing page conversion rate- Average basket size (ecommerce)
Measuring Relative Search Volume
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Predict the Effort Required to Rank Well
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Understanding Keyword Demand
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The Long Tail of Keyword Demand
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Tools & Tactics for Brainstorming& Refining Your Keywords
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Salespeople & Customers
Hint: If your budget allows, use broad match to discover new keywords 72
Keyword Research Process
Internal Site Search Stats
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Competitive Keyword Research
Restrict queryto competitor’s
domain
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Keyword Research Tools
Keyword Planner (Google AdWords)
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Measuring KeywordDifficulty & Competition
Run Search Queries
Wikipedia page
High authority domain
Local listings
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Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Metrics
Use Helpful Tools
Keyword difficulty Scale: 1-100%
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Link Building Strategies
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What Goals Can Link BuildingHelp Us Achieve?
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Improve Individual Rankings
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Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages
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Achieve More Complete Indexation
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Send Converting Traffic
Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com
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The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building
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#1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests
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#2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition
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#3 - Links via Embedded Content
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#4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns
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#5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing
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#6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades
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#7 - Paid Links
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#8 - Link Reclamation
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Social Media & the Web’s Influencers
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Influencers on the Web
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The Power of the “Linkerati”
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Content that Appeals to Influencers
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Making Content Easy to Share
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Making Content Easy to Share
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Cannibalization of the Link Graph
MMM… LINK GRAPHS ARE DELICIOUS!
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The Rise of the Social Graph
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Algorithmic Ranking FactorsYou have to do these right, before you can
do these right
