Download - Hands-On SEO
Hands-On SEO
Hans RiemerMarket Vantage LLC
IAMCP New JerseyNovember 14, 2012
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� Search Engines vs Directories
� Organic and Paid Search
� Other sources of Traffic
First, just a few BASICS
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Search Engines and Directories
� Directories – Human-Edited
– Yahoo Directory, Google Directory / ODP (DMOZ)
� Search Engines – Crawler-Based / Algorithmic
– Google, Bing, Ask, etc.
� Recent History
– Google started making money in 2001
– Remember AltaVista? Infoseek? HotBot?
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Organic vs Paid Search (2009)
Paid AdsOrganic Results
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Organic vs Paid Search (2012)
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Website Traffic
On-Line AdvertisingReferrals Brand Awareness(Bookmark or Direct)
Pay-PerClick
Banners& Text Ads
Sponsor-ships
ContextualAds On-Line Pubs
OrganicSearch
ReferringLinks
PR(Online / Offline)
Ads (Radio/TV/Print)
Related Sites E-NewslettersPortals
ViralMarketing
Sources of Website Traffic
PaidSearch
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Search Engine’s Mission & Purpose
� Satisfy two stakeholders:� Search users
– Provide the most “relevant” results
� Investors
– Generate revenue from ads (tied to traffic from Search)
� Not: “Push lots of traffic to your site so can make lots of money”
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What Search Engines Do
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Who makes their job harder?
� People who try to get their pages to rank higher than they would otherwise
� Why? Because if they succeed, searchers may not get the best results!
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So search engines keep tweaking0
Panda
Penguin
Venice
Caffeine
Vince
Dewey
Buffy
Big Daddy
Jagger
Gilligan
Bourbon . . .
2012
2010
2008
2006
2004
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1st Generation Search Engine Signals– Keywords and Content
� The site with the most keywords – WINS!
Keyword
Keyword
KeywordKeyword
Keyword
Keyword
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1st Generation Search Engine Signals– Keywords and Content
The Result?
� Keyword-stuffed content
� Lots of spammy, junky content
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2nd Generation Search Engine Signals– Inbound Links
Google arrives on the scene
� Develops an algorithmic approach
� Granted a US Patent for PageRank
� Other search engines follow suit
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2nd Generation Search Engine Signals– Inbound Links
The Result?
� People create lots of junky content that links back to their site
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3rd Generation – User Experience
� Data from Google’s “free” tools– Google Search
– Google Analytics
– Google Toolbar
– Chrome or IE browser (with toolbar)
� Data from Social signals– Google+1
– Etc.
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3rd Generation – User Experience
The Result?
� Lots of pain and rank volatility
How do search engines determine Rank?
� Site crawls / content authority
� Inbound links & anchor text
� Traffic to your site
� Search results clicks
� Stickiness – time on site
� Domain age & hosting longevity
� Social “buzz”
� Hand about 200 other factors17
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How to Show Up at the Top
� Own a famous brand
� Get tons of visitors to your site
� Keep them there
� Become a thought-leader in your industry and write a ground-breaking blog post every week or two
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Three Things Every Website Must Have to Generate Leads:
� Relevant traffic
� A clear value proposition
� A compelling call-to-action
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#1 Mistake We See:
� Investing money and time on driving traffic to a poor quality website
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#2 Mistake We See:
� Unclear, non-unique value proposition
– “At Acme Corporation, our mission is to provide our customers and stakeholders with unparalleled quality, matchless service and unrivaled value.”
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#3 Mistake We See:
� Wasting money on the wrong traffic
– Poor keyword selection
– PPC “gotchas”� Incorrect targeting
� Geography
� Demographics / contextual
� Dayparting
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Do
� Start with a great website– Clear, crisp value proposition
– Straightforward navigation
– Strong calls-to-action
– Visually appealing
– Engaging – use multimedia
– Search engine friendly
– Careful keyword selection and well-optimized pages
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Do
� Keyword research is important– Google Adwords keyword tool
� https://adwords.google.com/o/keywordtool
� Or search: google keyword tool
� Use: “Exact Match” and take with grain of salt
� Understand: limitations
– Search Engine Suggest Feature� Start typing and what do you see?
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� Lateral search using software tools
� Evaluate each term across three axes
� Group by theme
� For SEO: Assign to pages
� For PPC: Assign to ads
Search Frequency
Competition
Relevance
Keyword Research
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Do
� Search engines understand synonyms– No need to “stuff” keywords
– So, write web copy for humans
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Do
� On-Site SEO Basics– Unique HTML title for each optimized page
– Unique description tag for each optimized page
– Keywords in Headline
– HTML or XML sitemap and footer links
– Post to your blog to offer fresh content
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Do
� Natural link development– Vary anchor text – don’t over-optimize for one
keyword
– Diversify links� Article placements
� Business partners
� Press releases
� Review sites
� Industry directories
� Conferences
� Social signals (bookmarks, Pinterest, Google+, etc.)
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Don’t
� Keyword “stuffing”
� On-site SEO “tricks”
� Unnatural links– Link schemes
– Automated links
– Too many links from one site
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Do
� Surprise! SEO = Marketing– Crisp messaging + thoughtful word choices
– Visitor engagement
– Useful, informative content
– Compelling offers
– Impeccable customer service
– Follow-up and nurturing
– PR outreach
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Bottom Line
� Your website should represent you well– Often the first impression of your prospect
– Hire a pro
� Timely follow-up is critical, especially for web leads– Use a marketing automation system like
Leadformix
How to tell if your site got nuked
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How to tell if your site got nuked
� Traffic
� This: instead of This:
� site:www.yoursite.com comes up empty
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What to do if your site got nuked
� Run, don’t walk, to
– Install Google Webmaster Tools
� Find out what needs to be fixed and fix it!
� File a reconsideration request
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And now a few words about
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� Pay-Per-Click
Yearly Revenue
6,332
10,625
14,413 15,723
19,443
26,145
4,160
5,788
6,7147,167
8,793
10,386
$0
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Licensing & Other Network Google.com
$ in millions
PPC Truths
� If your site isn’t converting, the solution is not to spend more money
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PPC Truths
� You’re playing against “the House” and your fellow advertisers
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PPC Truths
� It’s a live auction
– Pay attention
– Don’t “set it and forget it”
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PPC Truths
� Target carefully
– Keyword selections
– Display Network sites
� Sloppy = Expensive
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PPC Tip
� Use AdWords Preview tool to check ads
– Impressions are costly
– Allows geographic testing
– adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview/
– Or search: adwords preview tool
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PPC Tip
� Who is seeing your ads?
– Search: check typed “search terms”
– Display: check Automatic Placements
� NEVER mix Search and Contextual advertising in the same Campaign
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“Typed” vs. “Matched” Keyword
� Keyword matching options– Broad Match
– Phrase Match (“ “)
– Exact Match ([ ])
� Typed keyword is what they typed
� Matched keyword is what you bid on using matching options
� Important to track BOTH in web analytics and CRM
� Use “Negative Match” to filter Broad and Phrase matched misfits
– Modified Broad Match (+)
– Negative Match (-)
PPC Gotchas
� Parked Domains
� MFA’s
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MFA (Made-For-AdSense) Example
SEO & PPC Tools
� Majestic SEO (paid)
– Backlink analysis
– Competitor analysis
– Identify link opportunities
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SEO & PPC Tools
� Spyfu (free and paid)
– Competitor keywords� Organic and paid
– Competitor ad copy variations
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SEO & PPC Tools
� Google Keyword Tool (free)
– Keyword research / suggestions
– Search frequency
� Google Trends (free)
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SEO & PPC Tools
� Wordtracker (paid)
– Keyword research / suggestions
– Link-building
� SEOmoz (subscription)
– Site evaluation
– Rank tracking over time
– DIY advice
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Questions?
Hans Riemer
Market Vantage LLC
978-482-0130
Blog / Tips / Newsletter at
www.market-vantage.com
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