crash course in seo
DESCRIPTION
Our webinar on SEO basics.TRANSCRIPT
CRASH COURSE IN SEOTips and tools for promoting exposure to your website, via search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc)
Joshua [email protected]
Assumed Knowledge What is:
Link & Co-citation Anchor Text Keyword Webpage Website
Pages rank individually
Basic HTML Optimization=Better
ment Search Engines
(Google, Yahoo, MSN)
My Goal = Three Main Concepts (and two bonuses)
How many Search Engines do you need to optimize for? (ONE)
What are some on-page/site tactics that safe (white hat)? (CONTENT)
What are some off-page tactics? (NETWORK/LINKS)
250$ Prize given to one attendee
Gift to Chamber Members (FREE questionnaire PDF)
Outline of what IS CoveredAnswers to the following: What is SEO? What are Search
Engines? What are their market
shares? And how do they work?
On-site Optimization Off-site Optimization Non-direct SEO Efforts List of Do’s and Don’ts Hiring an SEO Resources to learn
more
Things NOT Covered in this WebinarSearch Engine HistoryExtensive Details on Each TopicBlack/Gray Hat TechniquesVertical Optimization (Video, Images, etc)
How to rank #1 in 3 days (run away, if you hear this from a ‘SEO’)SEO ‘software’ (90% of it is wrong, or misinformation)Sitemaps
Web AnalyticsEmail MarketingPay Per Click AdsWeb AdvertisingRSS FeedsConversion OptimizationBuying Links (with & without PR)301/302 Redirects & 404 pagesNofollow, noindex, & other META tags
What is SEO? – Search Engine Optimization
Driving quality traffic to your website via Search Engines
Strictly organic listing Has only been around
since 1997(11 years!) It’s used as noun (John is a SEO) It’s used as a verb (I’m doing SEO)
It’s a confusing term to use.It should be called ‘Increasing Search Engine Listings’ or ‘ISEL’ or ‘INSEL’ because it’s inbound marketing
We are stuck with SEO, but it’s fine.
What is SEO? – (cont.)
SEO=Search Engine Optimization
SEO=Organic Results
SEO=5 times more effective than traditional media advertising (Source: ComScore, 2005-2008)
Our Source: Hubspot
Search Engines – Who? How much?
Search Engine
US UK Rest of the World
Exceptions
Google 70% 88% 70% Russia (31%), China (20%), Japan (27%)
Yahoo 20% ~7% 20% Japan (64%)
MSN 9% ~6% 5-10% None
Top 3 totals ~99% ~95-100% ~95-100% N/A
Others ~1-4% ~0-5% ~0-5% N/A
Sources: Hitwise 06-07; Compete.com 07-08; ComScore 07-08; Analysys International 08; MarketingVOX 06; 1ere Position 07; LiveInternet.ru 07; 50bang.com 07; Webcreate.ga-pro 08
Search Engines
If you had a checklist of 10 Search Engines to market to, this is the break down:1 = most urgent. 10 = least urgent.•Google is your main concern (1-7)•Yahoo is some concern (8-9)•MSN is last (10)•Others is 0.
Source: Refuge Design 2008
Google – How does it work?
90% automated
10% manual editing
Two Main Factors:1.Pagerank™
2.Text relevanceSource: Google
Pagerank™ or ‘PR™’Inbound links, every link is NOT equalAnchor text
Text RelevancePlain Text on a WebpageHow it corresponds to the Website
Google Pagerank™ – It changed Search
•Pagerank™ is off-page factors (links)•Each link counts as an editorial ‘vote’.•Each ‘vote’ has a different weight.•Quality Links + Quantity Links = high PR™
Example: If president-elect Obama says ‘John A. is a good guy’ that would carry more weight/impact than Mary, a stranger, saying ‘John A. is a bad guy’. Since Obama is more authoritative/popular.
Google Pagerank™ - Averages
Google - Text Relevance Are the words on
the page? Are those words
in the title, h1, h2, and other indicators as the topic
Used cars in Florida
Golfing in the UK
My Used Cars
Google Manual 10% editing
Ways Manual edits occur
Matt Cutts hears about your paid links
A major flaw is exposed (Ex: George Bush ranking for ‘miserable failure’)
Your competitors reported you for breaking Google’s TOS (terms of service)
Source: Refuge Design 2008
Things to note Google, Yahoo!,
and MSN are NOT the government. They don’t control US, UK, nor any nation’s laws.
All three can have a major impact on your website traffic (and revenues).
It’s best to abide by their rules, to insure higher ROI for your site.
Yahoo! & MSN Yahoo! has
Trustrank™ which starts from 200 seed sites and the closer you are to the top 200, the better you are.
MSN is stuck in the 1990’s
Yahoo might be in early 2000’s
Together have 30% market share
Differences between G vs. Y/MSN Google doesn’t
highly favor on-page unless it has a high Pagerank™ (relevant
and authoritative links)
Yahoo/MSN favors on-page more
Google has many spam filters
Yahoo/MSN are easier to ‘domain game’
Google highly favors co-citation and anchor text (plus ~100 other factors)
Simple Put – Only One To Optimize for now Currently Google is
the only search engine to really optimize for.
Typically people say ‘I can rank in Yahoo/MSN but Google I have trouble’
Google has 70% of the share everywhere
This might change 2 years from now but there aren’t major differences between Search Engines.
Time to Announce the WINNER of 250$
Pick One!!!
Congrats!!!
Rewarding Good Behavior (The desire to learn)
Sources: www.ferndave.com/ccc/ & http://thefuntimesguide.com/2008/04/cmt_music_awards_2008.php & http://www.sizzledcore.com/2008/07/16/apple-ipod-touch-firmware-115-released/ & http://www.breakitdownblog.com/iphone-review-part-1-of-3/
How to and How Not to do Search Engine Optimization
The General Concepts to Search Engine Optimization
STEPS to do SEO (white hat seo)
On-Page/Site Keyword Research Keyword
Placement Site architecture Content Creation Internal Linking
Off-site Optimization Link Building (large
topic) Viral Content Widgets/Quizzes Reciprocal Links Guest Posting
Keyword Research & LongTail Start “wise” (Research) Continue “wise”
(Brainstorm) Rince and repeat Use tools and your brain. Google Adwords, Keyword
Discovery, and WordTracker
LongTail is 3+ words together
85% of Traffic is in the Long Tail
If you were #1 for the top 10,000 terms, you’d only get 18.5% of all searched traffic
Source: Hitwise Study, Nov. 08
Examples:Dog Vs. DogsHow to feed a dog?Cleaning a dog vs. How to clean a dog?Great Dog Collars for x type dogs
Content Creation
Blog Posts Industry-
Related Articles
Industry-Related News
Linkbait Funny Images
Great Videos
Quizzes Contests Free
Stuff Widgets Source:
SEOmoz
On-page Optimization – Keyword Placement
#1: Title Tag & Meta Description
H1,H2, etc; Alt tags of images; Bold; A few times on the page
Source: FashionMista
Source: SEOmoz
SERPS Show: Title tag of pageMeta DescriptionURL
On-site Optimization – Architecture and Internal Linking
Site Architecture (Navigation, Search Box?, breadcrumb, tag cloud, etc)
Internal Linking (high priority, big issue)
Don’t use ‘home’ for homepage link (use short phrase keyword)Source:
SEOmoz
Don’ts to On-site Optimization
Keyword Stuff
Hide Text, Links
Cloak (show something different to users than the Search Engines)
Target same word on different pages
Have same Title tag on multiple pages
Keyword Stuff
Hide Text, Links
Cloak (show something different to users than the Search Engines)
Target same word on different pages
Have same Title tag on multiple pages
Waste Time Submitting to Search Engine’s
Spread your content over multiple domains (blog, company, affiliate)
Links in Javascript
Site in Flash
Putting a page in iFrames
Worry about a sitemap (case-by-case)
Do’s to On-site Optimization Sprinkle Keywords throughout the page
Blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just write!!!
Be Transparent without revealing nitty-gritty details
Be Humble and Be Honest
Be consistent. Two-Three times a week
Love what you do (Passionate)
Be Creative
Be willing to make mistakes
TRY new things
Most Important; BE YOURSELF
Link Building 1st make sure site is complete and no
‘under construction’ pages are on the site
Directory Submission (Paid and Industry relative)
Article Syndication Press Release Syndication Social Bookmarking Blog/Forum commenting
Be relational with Industry related sites
Guest Blog Post Industry-related
widgets Contests & Free gifts Be Creative
Don’ts to Off-site Optimization
Don’t buy links with follow attribute
Don’t partake in excessive link exchanges
Don’t use link farms
Don’t have the same anchor text to one page.
Don’t get links from totally unrelevant places (no porn, pills, poker, unless that’s your niche)
Don’t buy links with follow attribute
Don’t partake in excessive link exchanges
Don’t use link farms
Don’t have the same anchor text to one page.
Don’t get links from totally unrelevant places (no porn, pills, poker, unless that’s your niche)
If you make a badge, don’t lie about the backlink. (E.g. If the image says ‘x’ don’t make the link say ‘y’.)
Don’t be scared of Google (just be aware of their TOS and obey, you’ll be fine)
Don’t be hesitant.
Do’s to Off-site Optimization
Focus on Contributing Quality Content (via blogging, linkbait, widgets, etc)
Quality Content doesn’t rule, Quality & Contributing Content does!
Reciprocal Links (Just don’t over do it)
Directory Submission
Article Syndication
Social Media promotion(via Digg, Slashdot, DesignFloat, etc)
Press Release & Syndication
Contribute to Industry Related Blogs & Forums
Use natural anchor text (http://example.com, click here, company name, etc)
List of SEO Resources Read books
SEObook SEOmoz articles
Subscribe to RSS feeds Sphinn, SEOmoz, &
Eric Ward (my top 3)
Join a forum & ask/listen Cre8asite forums High Rankings Digital Point SEO book Webmaster World
“In-house SEO’s who consulted an SEO 3rd party increase traffic by 73%” Source: Marketing Sherpa 2007
BONUS: How to Hire An SEO
Source: HulaSoftware
Hiring an SEO (Third party person/company)
Important: Always start with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN’s guidelines. Skim through SearchEngineLand or another Search Engine News website and the past month’s articles and look for ‘bad practices’ and ask the ‘SEO’ their opinion on these ‘bad practices’.
Important: Always start with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN’s guidelines. Skim through SearchEngineLand or another Search Engine News website and the past month’s articles and look for ‘bad practices’ and ask the ‘SEO’ their opinion on these ‘bad practices’.
Take This Serious By: Acting as if the ‘SEO’ were being
interviewed for a job at your company.
Being familiar with Search Engine Guidelines
Testing the ‘SEO’ on their knowledge. Get a feel for them, are they White Hat? Gray? Black?
Do they sound honest? Call up their case studies or
companies that are in their portfolio. DON’T take this lightly, this is a
million dollar decision for your company. I’m not kidding
Chamber Member, don’t forget to look in your mailbox, we will send you a questionnaire for when you want to outsource.
Most Important – Your Feedback
Refuge Design wants your feedback on the presentation.
Rate the presentation 1-10
How can we make better it?
If you provide feedback, we will give you 2-3 SEO suggestions for YOUR personal website (delivered within 2 weeks of receiving)
Example Feedback (Bad=General; Good=Specific [answer WHY])
GOOD FEEDBACK To Joshua, I like the webinar because you
provided resources at the end, rate 7 (I gave you a 7 because I didn’t like ustream’s functions and it was confusing but I liked the content of your webinar, good job.)
To Joshua, I didn’t like the webinar, Ustream caused my PC to crash, and I missed out on the prize, rate 1 (I gave you a 1 because too many issues with watching the webinar on Ustream and I was fustrated and angry).
BAD FEEDBACK To Joshua, I loved the webinar.
Nothing to improve on, rate 10.
To Joshua, I hated it, do better next time, rate 2
To Joshua, I didn’t like it but I learned stuff, rate 5.
Contact Me – Refuge Design – Joshua Sciarrino
Email: [email protected] Twitter:
http://twitter.com/joshuaseo Phone: 727-366-6474 Skills: SEO/PPC, Reputation
Management, Email Marketing, Web Analytics
Specials: 500$ entry for SEO services
Joshua Sciarrino (Sure-Reno)Cell: [email protected]