how to seo a terrific - and profitable - user experience
DESCRIPTION
Tune in for Portent SEO Marianne Sweeny’s January webinar: “How to SEO a Terrific – and Profitable – User Experience.” Learn how search engine algorithms are now incorporating IA, UX and content strategy, as well as methods for directing Google, Bing & Co. to perform better for your users.TRANSCRIPT
Marianne Sweeny@msweeny
How to SEO a Terrific & Profitable User Experience
The Portent Webinar Series
#PORTENTUThis is the hashtag
PORTENT.CO/WUDS77These are the links
(Yes, use .co, not .com)
Locked in Technology• Information Retrieval model• Term frequency
Search Engine Optimization• Algorithms• User dependency
Search engine retaliation• Panda• Penguin
User Experience and SEO• Interaction Design• Site Structure• Navigation• Content• Links
Bs of New SEOKey takeaways
What We’ll Cover Today
Locked in Technology
Digital Maoism: Panda focuses on abstraction more than real people
Computational-ism: Penguin sees a world that can be understood by computer processes with humans as sub-processes
6
IR is Locked-in Technology
Traditional IR Model
7
File organizationindexed documents
Acquisitiondocuments, objects
Representationindexing, ...
Probleminformation need
Representationquestion
Querysearch formulation
Matchingsearching
Retrieved objects
feed
bac
k
System User
Search Engine Optimization
t = how many times the query appears in a document
T = total number of terms in a document
D = set of all documents
d = number of documents with that term
Pick the document with the highest
Term Frequency/Document Frequency
All Time Algorithm
Hits
10
The sounds of crying and teeth grinding inspire
me…
• Quality of links more important than quantity of links
• Segmentation of corpus into broad topics
• Selection of authority sources within these topic areas
Hilltop Algorithm
Pre-query calculation of factors based on subset of corpus
• Context of term use in document• Context of term use in history of
queries• Context of term use by user
submitting query
Consolidation of Hypertext Induced Topic Selection [HITS] and PageRank
Topic-Sensitive PageRank
WE HAVE A NEW & BETTER WAY
13
Search Engine D
ependency
Search Engine Retaliation
No one manipulates
search results but US!!!!
March 2012
A Year in the Life of Panda Updates
• Expanded image results (ALT text)• More accurate detection “official
pages”• Improved safe search (NS)• Freshness (3)• Non-custom 404 detection• Use of Web history for refinement• Demote link analysis (NS)
• Symbol indexing• Google+ profile indexing• Speed up offline Panda processing• High quality sites algorithm update
(NS)• IMG search refinements• Anchor text refinement (Penguin
preview)• Freshness (video, “stale results”• Synonyms update• Site quality detection update (Panda)
June/ July 2012• New improved ranking function
(NS)• Improved image search (on topic)• Improved safe search (NS)• Find more high quality content
from trusted sources (2)• Freshness improvements• Data refresh for Panda high quality
sites algorithm• Page quality: help finding high
quality pages with unique content• Panda launch Japan/Korea• Freshness bug fix
February 2012
• Related query refinements• Parked domain detection
algorithm• Deeper indexing (more “long-tail”
documents)• Wider auto-complete suggestions
(search suggest)• Fresher, more complete blog
search results• Duplicate content detection
refinement (better original content signals)
• Better image freshness determination (news queries)
• Top Results code refinements: not too many from same site, e.g. host crowding, easier to maintain (and quicker to change)
More Search Updates 2012August/September 2012• Find more high quality content
from trusted sources• Term proximity scoring• Handling stale content – more
granular based on document age• <title> and content semantic
match improvement• Bug fix to way links are used in
ranking (Penguin)• Panda high quality sites data
refresh (2)• Improved video indexing (NS)• Improved cursor aware predictions
(CN, JPN, KO)• PDF optimization• Results based on document
freshness
October/November 2012
Sarge, this link war doesn’t make sense?
Shut up and stop thinking kid. Talk like that can get you de-
indexed.
Hey, how come
you’re not wearing pants?
Spam detection update/algorithmTargets “over optimization”
• Anchor text distribution• Inbound link distribution• Cluster analysis
Good links are (according to Google)• From respected sites/brands/people• Exist on popular pages• Provide value to user• Are contained in the page text (not sidebar components)• Are not duplicated too many times throughout linking site
Penguin Basics
21
So, what are you going to do about it?
OPTIMIZE THE USER EXPERIENCE & MAKE MONEY
Interaction Design: Orientation
Interaction Design: Site Search
Interaction Design: User Controls
Interaction Design: User Assistance
• Distance reflects relevance
• Page structure now a factor
• URLs are guides
Site Structure
Navigation
• Users lose orientation on the site• They suffer “navigational blindness”
• Intersection of what you have/do with how customers look for what you have/do
• Use online tools to mine customer search behavior around offerings
• Check to see if you have relevant content and fill gaps
Content
Content: Relational Content Modeling
• Guided Tours: built on analysis of other user pathways and knowledge of corpus
• Produced Views: page of assembled content items focused on a single subject
• Task List Drop Downs: “I Want To…” links to pages of assembled content focused on single common task
Content: Relational Content Modeling
• Related Links: related as in “next steps” not what Marketing wants to be a next step
• Best Bets: editorially assigned result that may not be chosen by the search engine
Links are intended as a human-mediated relationship between sites (not a one night stand)Source and destination must share contextual relationshipCreate a positive experience with links to information users may not find, may not know they needBuild link-based relationship model of relevance
• Create or find Authority resources (on and off site)• Connect to HUBS
Links
Bs of NEW SEO
• Be realistic about where you can place visibly
• Let every page be about some “thing”
• Focus the user attention
• Maximize the real estate to maximize user focus
Be Focused
Google+ & Google LocalOther Social channels (FB, Twitter, Linkedin)
Be Social
• Connect to related content on and off the site
• Make it easy for users to connect to you • RSS feed/subscription• Alerts• Social channels
• Link building is out, link “earning” is in
• Keep them engaged and on the site
• Make sure site search works
Be Connected
Search engine Webmaster accounts to look at• Indexing profile• link to the site
Competitive Landscape• Review competitors placement for certain phrases• Use SEMrush or Majestic SEO to review key pages
against yoursEmerging Authorities• Look at the SERP for your phrases, who holds the top
spots, those are the authorities to the search engineCustomer behavior• Site analytics• Google Trends & Yahoo Clues
Be Aware
• Search engines are not smart
• Search engine companies have an agenda
• User Experience was an early influencer of relevance
• User Experience is a recent influencer of relevance
• Search is a user experience
• Creating an optimal user experience is the new SEO
Key Takeaways
PORTENT.CO/WUDS77These are the links
(Yes, use .co, not .com)
Q&A#PORTENTU
Me:@msweeny
February Webinar
30 Tricks for Presentations That Don’t Suck
Ian Lurie, CEO