a beginner's guide to seo

A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Josh Braaten

8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 2

Who is Josh Braaten?

Online Marketing Manager,Rasmussen College

Blogger & FounderBigPictureWeb.com

Raised in the GreatState of Minnesota


SEO is Misunderstood

• “SEO is black magic and/or witch craft.”• “SEO is a fraud. Everyone knows you just

buy Google ads and you’ll rank higher.”• “Just take the rel canonical tag and point

the page to the permanent URI on your root domain.”

• “Get hundreds of links and rank #1 in a week!!!”


The Truth About SEO

• Some aspects are technical, but it’s mostly common sense and/or intuitive

• SEO isn’t evil, but it can be used that way

• Mastering SEO takes time, resources, and excellent content on your website

• Marketing investment, not advertising

Objectives

• Learn how search engines operate

• Identify the key factors involved in SEO

• The difference between good and evil SEO

• A mental framework for using SEO and inbound marketing



How Search Engines Work

• Crawling

• Indexing

• Search

• Relevancy

• Search Results

Crawl Index Search Relevance Results


• Spiders visit websites and “crawl” content they find

• Spiders note new links found and crawl them too

• Spiders report all content back to the index

Search Engines - Crawling



• The Index is a mirrored copy of the entire web

• Spiders work hard to keep the index fresh

• Low quality & duplicate content don’t make it into the index.

Search Engines - Indexing



• How relevant is each page for a given search query?

• Links, anchor text, site speed, keyword prominence & users drive algorithm

• 200+ factors, 600+ tweaks to the main algorithm in 2009

Search Engines – Relevancy



• SERPs consist of query, retrieval, rankings & results

• #1 result: ~18% of clicks

• #2 result: ~10% of clicks

• #3 results: ~7% of clicks

• <1% on page two

Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)

Source: http://bit.ly/ql10f1Crawl Index Search Relevance Results

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How Search Engines Work

• Crawling

• Indexing

• Search

• Relevancy

• Search Results



What’s Important in SEO?

• Architecture

• On-Page

• Links

• Social Media


• Organized, “flat” site

• Human-friendly URLs

• Pages that spiders can read (i.e., not flash, iframes)

• Build on your own domain

SEO Architecture


• Google AdWordsKeyword Tool standard

• Cast a wide net

• Use the right words

• Balance volume and competition

• Keyword mapping

On-Page Keyword Research


On-Page SEO Guidelines

• Each page should target 1 or 2 keyword phrases

• Small pages (<400 words): use keyword(s) 2-3x

• Large pages (>400 words): use keyword(s) 4-6x

• Page Titles should not exceed 65 characters

• Keywords should be used first and last 100 words

• Images, videos, and audio should be optimized, too

• Keyword synonyms, partials and deviations are good


On-Page SEO Visualized

Source: http://mz.cm/rorHV7

http://mz.cm/rorHV7�


• Links are the cornerstone of the Google algorithm

• A link from one site to another is a vote in the eyes of Google

• Not all links are created equal

Links: Google’s Currency


Links are Like Flight Patterns


• Authority: Is the linking page/site authoritative? (e.g., Wall Street Journal)

• Relevant: Is the linking page/site relevant? (e.g., Regional/Industry sites)

• Trust: .gov/.edu sites

Links: Google’s Currency


• Social media increases reach of content

• Search engines index much of social media

• Social media also has relevance and authority

• Soon: Likes and Links

Social Media and SEO


What’s Important in SEO?

• Architecture

• On-Page

• Links

• Social Media


SEO Rankings Factors for 20112009 2011

Links decreased in importance by ~50% but still remain most important signal. On-page factors still very important as well. 2011 introduced more factors than ever before.


Good and Bad SEO

• Excellent Content

• Earned Links

• Earned Social Media

• Manipulated Links

• “Spammy” Content

• Purchased links is a gray area

SEO through Inbound Marketing


Inbound Marketing: Earning new customers by gaining attention, trust and permission before the sale through the creation and sharing of engaging, entertaining and/or educational content.

Graphic Source: SEOmoz - http://bit.ly/gM7OGb

http://bit.ly/gM7OGb�


The Principles of Inbound Marketing

The Principles of Inbound Marketing

Identify – Find your online audience

Listen – Understand how you can help

Create – Publish what you know

Share – Share content to solve problems

Measure – Fine tune your progress



• Who is your ideal customer?

• Search for resources, influencers and communities where your customers gather

Identify Your Audience


• Be quiet and listen

• Understand what your customers need

Listen to Your Audience


• Publish to educate, engage and entertain

• Publish content to build inbound equity

Create Content Your Audience Loves


• Solving problems through sharing

• Building relationships through solving problems

Share Content with Your Audience


• Online media is measurable

• Identify and work towards goals

Measure Your Efforts

Inbound Marketing in Action


Search social networks and the web for your audience and their needs

Monitor social conversations to determine content needs of your audience

Create optimized text, images, audio and video to solve problems

Share content with audience & influencers via blog and social networks

Measure impact of social media and blog content on business goals

8/16/2011 33

Inbound Marketing Visualized

Your Website

Your Blog


The Relative Costs of Marketing

Source: Hubspot – http://bit.ly/fxzOLd

http://bit.ly/fxzOLd�

Small Business Boosted by Inbound

35

“Social media helped consultant Deborah Dolan, owner of Senior Life Transitions, more than double her business last year.

The key was using social media to establish herself as a credible resource -- a social authority -- onaging issues, through a blog, a new Advocate on Aging podcast and other social and search marketing efforts.”

Source: Star Tribune -http://bit.ly/dR09bP


Additional Resources

Facebook.com/RasmussenOcala

BigPictureWeb.com@JLBraaten

Rasmussen.edu/student-life/online-community/


Internet Marketing Education

8/16/2011 38

Small Businesses: The Time is Now