10 steps to great seo: infusioncon 2011

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10 Steps to Effective SEO & Great Rankings Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz CEO, March 2011 A checklist web marketers can use to build a foundation in strong, white-hat SEO and inbound marketing.

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Rand Fishkin's presentation at InfusionCon March 2011 on the fundamentals of SEO.

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Page 1: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

10 Steps to Effective SEO & Great Rankings

Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz CEO, March 2011

A checklist web marketers can use to build a foundation in strong,

white-hat SEO and inbound marketing.

Page 2: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEOmoz Makes Software! We don’t offer consulting.

Page 3: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Why is SEO so Important?

Page 4: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

In Feb. 2011, Google said they had 2 Billion+ searches/day!

Mill

ions

of S

earc

hes (

Mon

thly

)

Global Search Volume Growth

Data via Comscore Qsearch: http://www.comscore.com

Page 5: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Search Engine Market Share

http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre/main/dashboard-7323.html http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

Most of the World (except China, Russia, Korea + Czech

Republic) look like this

http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/search-engine-news/google/search-engine-market-share-statistics-%E2%80%93-february-2011-18271/

Page 6: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

Organic vs. Paid SearchPaid

Organic

Page 7: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

Organic vs. Paid Search~20% of Clicks

~80% of Clicks

Page 8: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Click-Through Rates

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/google-organic-seo-click-through-rates/

Ranking #2, #3 and #4 would send less traffic than just

ranking #1

Page 9: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

How Can My Website Compete?

Page 10: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 1: Good Isn’t Good Enough;Make Your Content Great.

Page 11: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

“Good” Content vs. “GREAT” ContentSatisfies the searcher’s basic

information requirements

Written by a human and not duplicated elsewhere

Long enough to fulfill basic needs of engines for depth/uniqueness

Grammatically correct; free of spelling/punctuation errors

Surprises and delights the searcher by being remarkable

Produced by extraordinary writers/designers/producers

May leverage video, audio, graphics & photos to convey a unique, shareable experience

Produced by extraordinary writers/designers/producers

Page 12: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

OK Cupid Dating Blog

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

Page 13: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Oyster.com Hotel Reviews

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.oyster.com/new-york-city/hotels/the-gem-hotel-chelsea/

Page 14: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Unbounce Marketing Guide

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/

Page 15: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Searchers LOVE Great Content &People SHARE Great Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-social-networking-sites-dominate-sharing-2009-7

Page 16: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

A Blog Alone Doesn’t Cut It.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.wirthmoorerealty.com/real-estate-articles-greater-new-orleans-area

Page 17: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

You Must Become a Hub for GreatContent in Your Niche

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlSometimes, a single piece of content or just a few, can yield these results but, more often, it takes dozens to hundreds of attempts to become a resource hub.

Site that offers:• Unique Research• Informed Opinions• News/Trend Analysis• Multimedia Content• Authentic Expert Contributors• Quality Discussion/Interaction

Referenced by industry

blogs

Mentioned in news

publications

Cited at conferences + events

Liked/Shared on Facebook

Links are Tweeted

Answers on Q+A sites reference its resources

Forum discussions link to its pages

People email links to each

other

Page 18: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 2: Make that Great Content Accessible to Search Engines.

Page 19: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Substantive, Descriptive, HTML Text Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.hipmunk.com/ is a great site, but there’s no real text content for engines to see! http://adioso.com doesn’t have a ton more, but there’s at least something for Google/Bing to grab onto.

Page 20: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Google’s “Cached Snapshot” is a Great Way to Check

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlUsing the “Cached” link on any search result, you can see what Google’s seen.

Page 21: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Clean, Crawlable URLs

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlMore on good URL structures here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/11-best-practices-for-urls

Better

Worse

www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights

www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

Page 22: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Preferably All on a Single Sub/Root Domain

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

Page 23: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Logical, Shallow Information Architecture

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/diagrams-for-solving-crawl-priority-indexation-issues

Page 24: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

No Duplicate Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlDuplicate content causes problems beyond just rankings – it can hurt your esteem/trust in the engines’ eyes: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-block-redirect-or-canonical

Page 25: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Rel Canonical to the Rescue (Sometimes)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps

Page 26: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Proper Redirects (301 v. 302, etc.)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

301 = Permanent Redirect

Good for Users

Good for Search Engines

Good for Web Servers

Javascript Redirect

Fails for non-JS Users (including many mobiles)

May not be counted by Search Engines

Slower on Web Servers

302 = Temporary Redirect

Meta Refresh

Fine for Users

Search Engines Don’t Always Treat as Permanent

Slower on Web Servers

Fine for Users

Bad for Search Engines (treated as temporary)

Good for Web Servers

Page 27: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Effective Error Handling

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/06/crawl-errors-now-reports-soft-404s.html

Page 28: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 3: Delight Your Visitors with Phenomenal Design + Usability.

Page 29: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Search Engines Finally Care About Design

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seobythesea.com/?p=5168

Page 30: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Panda/Farmer Update was a First Step

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGeneric design is one of the features highly correlated with lost traffic in Panda/Farmer. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-farmer-update-analysis-of-winners-vs-losers

Page 31: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Great Design is Surprisingly Easy & Affordable

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlUsing the search query “CSS Gallery” will bring up tons of sites like http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/

Page 32: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Many Usability Basics are Intuitive

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.usability.gov/basics/index.html

Page 33: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Buy “Don’t Make Me Think.” Memorize It.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlA great sample chapter is here: http://www.sensible.com/chapter.html

Page 34: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Use Your Analytics to Establish Baselines and Measure Progress

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGoogle Analytics is totally free! http://www.google.com/analytics

Page 35: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Employ Usability Testing Software to Get Specific

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.uxbooth.com/blog/information-gathering-a-roundup-of-ux-applications/

Page 36: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 4: Use Words Your Customers Use; Do Keyword Research.

Page 37: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

The Best Keywords Are:

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThe tricky part is finding these terms/phrases

High Volume(many searches/month)

Low Competition(weak sites/pages in the top 10)

High Value(large % of visitors convert)

Page 38: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Keyword Research Starts w/ the Right Brainstorming Process

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGraphic via Elliance: http://www.elliance.com/aha/infographics/keyword-research-part-2.aspx?page=1&category=ROI

Page 39: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Researching Keyword Volume: Google’s AdWords Tool

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Page 40: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Microsoft AdCenter Keyword Data

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttps://adcenter.microsoft.com

Page 41: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Determining Keyword Difficulty

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Number of results is meaningless

We want to know how “strong” these sites/pages are

And how our site’s/page’s metrics compare

Page 42: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEOmoz Has a Tool to Help With This

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty

Page 43: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Determining a Keyword’s “Value”

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlKeyword volume is initially appealing, but conversion rate is critical to the evaluation!

1,000Visitors Searched “Usability

Testing” and Arrived at the Site

200Visitors Searched “User Testing

Software” and Arrived at the Site

20Visitors Took the Product Tour

40Visitors Took the Product Tour

2Visitors Bought the Software

10Visitors Bought the Software

5%

Conversion Rate:

0.2%

Page 44: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Buying PPC is a Great Way to Test

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlJust be aware that PPC behavior isn’t always the same as organic click behavior

How do these visitors perform?

Page 45: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Put the Data Together and Start with Low-Hanging Fruit

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlI like to use heat indices based on estimated value: Excel can do this automatically

Page 46: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 5: Optimize your Pages Properly; Get Keyword Targeting Right.

Page 47: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Title Tags

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag

Better

Worse

Usability Testing Software | UserTesting.com

UserTesting.com | Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing, Usability Test, User Testing, User Software

UserTesting.com

NA

Page 48: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Keywords in the URL Help, Too

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlNot only is there direct benefit, but people who link using the URL will pass good anchor text, too

Better

Worse

www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights

www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

Page 49: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Meta Description

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlA good meta description acts like ad copy and draws the searcher in: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

TITLE: Low Cost Usability Testing - UserTesting.com

META DESCRIPTION: Usability testing has never been easier. UserTesting.com's online usability testing is the cheapest, fastest way to find out why visitors leave your website.

Page 50: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Meta Keywords?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://searchengineland.com/meta-keywords-tag-101-how-to-legally-hide-words-on-your-pages-for-search-engines-12099

The search engines don’t use these at all (and haven’t since the early 2000s)

Page 51: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Body Text Keyword Usage

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlNot only do search engines like to see keywords in copy, but visitors will be comforted to see that you have content that addresses their query, too.

Page 52: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Keyword Density vs. TF*IDF vs. Topic Modeling

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/lda-and-googles-rankings-well-correlated

Page 53: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Images & Alt Attributes

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Keywords in alt attributes are surprisingly well correlated

with higher rankings

Page 54: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

H1, H2, H3 Headlines

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/_H35n.html

Keywords in H(x) tags are not particularly well correlated with high rankings, but may provide some, minor value.

Page 55: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

The Trouble with Domain Names

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/exact-match-domains-are-far-too-powerful-is-their-time-limited

Page 56: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Rel=Canonical on Every Page?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/dispelling-a-persistent-rel-canonical-myth

Page 57: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 6:

Make Search Engine Tools & Protocols

Work for You.

Page 58: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

XML Sitemaps

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThis program can help - http://gsitecrawler.com/

Page 59: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

HTML Sitemaps

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThe Sitemap Page from http://nymag.com/sitemap/

Page 60: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

RSS Feeds

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlFeedburner - http://feedburner.google.com – is a great tool for setting up and monitoring feeds

Page 61: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Google Webmaster Tools

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlIt’s Free! Available at http://google.com/webmasters

Page 62: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Crawl Errors & Error Sources

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlMost of the time, you’ll want to fix these up.

Page 63: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEOmoz Does a Good Job of This, Too

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlVia the PRO Web App: http://pro.seomoz.org

Page 64: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Bing Webmaster Tools

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/bings-duane-forrester-on-webmaster-tools-metrics-and-sitemap-quality-thresholds

Page 65: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 7: Earn Citations Engines Can See; Build Links, Tweets, Likes & Shares.

Page 66: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

From 1999 – 2008, What Page Ranked #1for the Queries “Exit” and “Leave”?

http://searchengineland.com/google-kills-bushs-miserable-failure-search-other-google-bombs-10363

Page 67: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

From 1999 – 2008, What Page Ranked #1for the Queries “Exit” and “Leave”?

http://searchengineland.com/google-kills-bushs-miserable-failure-search-other-google-bombs-10363

Page 68: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Ahh… The Power of Links

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-vs-bing-correlation-analysis-of-ranking-elements

Page 69: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

What Makes a Great Link?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

Editorially given

From a trusted source

Uses descriptive anchor text

Points to the right page

Page 70: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Google + Bing Now Counting Facebook & Twitter

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389

Danny Sullivan: If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Google: Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article

Page 71: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEO Properties of Classic HTML Links

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlText goes here

<p><a href=http://www.seomoz.org rel=“nofollow”> SEOmoz’s Website </a> is a good resource for those seeking to learn more about search engine optimization.</p>

Anchor text(tells the engine what

this link is about)

URL(the link target)

Surrounding Text(may provide context on

the link’s relevance)

Rel=“Nofollow”(a tag that indicates search engines

shouldn’t trust/count this link)

Page 72: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEO Properties of Tweets

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study

Surrounding Text(in tweets, this sometimes

seems used like anchor text)

URL(the link target)

Retweets(possible signal that a link/ tweet is more important)

Tweeter(the authority/importance of the tweeting person matters)

Page 73: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

SEO Properties of Facebook Shares

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlShares, Likes + Updates must be PUBLIC or Google/Bing can’t “see” them.

URL(the link target)

Shares(how many users have

shared the link)

Page 74: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Why Do People Link/Tweet/Share?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-emotions-that-make-us-link

Many of these blogs will use the badge and link to the list, because it makes

them look good!

Page 75: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Link Building & Social Sharing Resources

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThese should help you get started!

• Beginner’s Guide: Chapter 7 – Growing Links & Popularity

• Link Building Blog Posts on SEOmoz

• Webinar on Link Building Strategies

• 101 Ways to Build Links from SEOBook

• Link Building Presentations on Slideshare

• The Science of Retweets from Dan Zarrella

Page 76: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 8: Don’t Go it Alone;Help Your Community Help You.

Page 77: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Encourage & Reward Community on Your Site

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlAt Moz, we’ve made community central to our site: http://www.seomoz.org/community

Page 78: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Spread Your Message Across the Web

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Blogs + Blogging

Comment Marketing

News/Media/PRSEO

Social Networks

Word of Mouth

Q+A Sites

Forums

Online Video

Podcasting

Webinars

Research/White Papers

Infographics

Social Bookmarking

INBOUND MARKETING!(Find Your Audience Organically on the Web)

Direct/Referring Links

Type-In Traffic

Email

Document Sharing

Page 79: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Blogs & Blog Comments

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Page 80: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Forums & Discussion Boards

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/headsmacking-tip-18-use-discussion-search-as-competitive-intel

Page 81: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Social Profiles & Interaction

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThis is my top list of social sites to register with, but there’s likely more that are relevant to your niche.

Facebook Company Page

Twitter Profile

LinkedIn Company Page

YouTube Account

Crunchbase Page

Crunchbase Page

Quora Profile

About.me Page

Scribd Profile

SlideShare Profile

Reddit Account

StumbleUpon Account

StackExchange Account

Wikipedia Profile

Google Profile

Page 82: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Answer Questions on Q+A Sites

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.quora.com/Rand-Fishkin/answers

Page 83: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Syndicate Your Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-leveraging-syndicated-content-effectively

Dozens of sites syndicate SEOmoz’s blog helping to

send links and traffic back to the site

Page 84: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Find Unique Ways to Engage & Reward

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlUrbanSpoon’s Blogger Outreach Program Sparked Thousands of Links + Great Awareness in Each City: http://www.urbanspoon.com

Page 85: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Step 9: Get Analytics Set Up Right;Track What Matters.

Page 86: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Basic Google Analytics Installation

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=66983

Page 87: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Key SEO Metric #1:

Visits / Search Engine

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThis tells you how many searches resulted in a click on your site in the results

These ones here!

Page 88: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Key SEO Metric #2:Keywords Sending 1+ Visits / Search Engine

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlTrack this over time to see if you’re ranking for more unique keyphrases

This One!

Page 89: 10 Steps to Great SEO: InfusionCon 2011

Key SEO Metric #3:# of Pages Receiving Traffic from Each

Engine

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/indexation-for-seo-real-numbers-in-5-easy-steps

This One!

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SEOmoz PRO Can Help Here Too

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlTraffic tab of http://pro.seomoz.org

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Tracking Keyword Rankings

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-when-to-track-rankings

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Critical: Set Up “Goals” / “Conversions”

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-setup-goals-in-google-analytics.html

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Understand Your Website’s Conversion Funnel

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThis is the weakest form of a funnel – applying actions to things like forms, emails, “buy” buttons, checkout pages, etc. is a better way to go.

Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions

Hopefully, this means a customer is going to

come buy some cheese!

15% 10%

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Step 10: The Web is Not Static;

Test & Improve

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More Traffic

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlIt’s a lot of hard work to get more visits, though, and we don’t know if they’ll be the kind who love cheese!

Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions

More visits to the home page means more people will decide to visit

15% 10%

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A Better Funnel

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions

A better “conversion rate” means more people who already visit the site will come to the store!

25% 20%

Woo hoo! Now for every 1,000 people that visit the site, 25 are potential cheese buyers!

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A/B Split Testing Resources:

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer - Free, but sometimes complex/confusing

http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ - Awesome tool – easy to use, popular, good plugins

http://www.sitespect.com/ - Don’t personally have experience with this one

http://www.optimizely.com/ - Another great option with excellent visuals

http://unbounce.com/ - Hosted, so no dev required! Very easy to use and well made

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Test Content Types

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlSome of these may resonate with you and your audience, others may not. You’ll never know until you experiment!

Blog Videos

Infographics

Community Forum

Questions + Answers

Research/White Papers

Webinars

Slideshows

Email NewslettersPhotos

Embeddable Content

Web Apps

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Step #1: Discover

Step #2:Test

Step #3: Measure

Step #4: Repeat

Find inbound marketing paths that look promising and make a list.

Invest a few days/hours building authentic value in that niche/sector.

Use your web analytics to track primary + second-order impact

Throw out low ROI projects; repeat high ROI ones.

Test Marketing Channels

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Ranking Well is Not Enough

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We Must DESERVE to Rank in Order to Win in the Long Run

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Q+ARand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz

• Twitter: @randfish

• Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog

• Email: [email protected]

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