seo & personal brand in 2012 - webfest.me presentation
DESCRIPTION
My presentation for WebFest 2012, covering SEO basics and personal branding strategies.TRANSCRIPT
SEO and Personal Brand in 2012
@ruthburr
Why is SEO Important?
@ruthburr
Organic vs. Paid Search
Ads
Organic Results
@ruthburr
Why Organic Search is Important
• 36.4% of searches click the first organic result
• 60% of clicks go to the top 3 organic search results
• 80%+ of clicks go to organic results• Average click-through rate of page 1: 8.9%
– Average click-through rate of page 2: 1.5%
@ruthburr
The SEO Process
@ruthburr
Basic SEO Process
Accessibility
Content
Link Building
Conversion
Crawlability
Site ArchitectureUnique Content
URLs
Errors
Text Content
Keyword Research
Page Copy
Meta Tags
Internal Linking
Content Strategy
Link Research
Scalable Links
Conversion Path/ Shopping Cart Optimization
Social Media
Online PR
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Accessibility
• Can a search engine:– Find your content?– Read your content?– Move from one page to the next?
• Are there errors on site?• How many pages can a search
engine find in one visit?
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Site Architecture
• Each page should be less than 5 clicks away from the home page
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• Unique• Serves user intent• Shareable• Good keyword usage• Link-friendly URL
– www.example.com/keyword not www.example.com/page/145976
• Build content for users, not search engines!
What is Good Content?
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People See: Search Engines See:
Text Content
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• 300-500 words: 2-3 phrases
• 500+ words: 3-4 phrases
• Use in headlines, image file names, image alt text
• Be natural!
SEO Optimized Content
@ruthburr
• Common culprits– http://example.com vs http://www.example.com– Dynamic URLs (look for ?)
• Ex: www.example.com?campaign=email
– Pagination
• Solutions– 301 redirects– Canonical tag:– <head><link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com" /></head>
?
Avoiding Duplicate Content
@ruthburr
• Let search engines and other robots know “here is what this is.”
• Some things you can tell robots with Schema.org:– This is my address– Here is who wrote this piece of content (rel=author)– This is all the reviews for this product/average # of stars it
received– …and much, much, MUCH more!
Semantic Markup: Schema.org
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• A link is a message to Google: “this page is good”• Link volume: Lots of other people tell you I’m good > me just saying it
• Link authority: Barack Obama says I’m good > crazy man says it
• Link breadth– Lots of people tell you I’m good > one person says it over and
over– People who don’t know each other tell you I’m good > my mom
and dad say so
>
Link Signals for Search
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• Anchor text: The text containing the link– Ex: “We are a leading provider of cookies.”
• Keyword-rich anchor text sends a stronger signal– “Read more about cookies” > “Read more
about cookies.”
Anchor Text
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• Find influencers & conversation-starters and engage– Build relationships– Create quality content & encourage sharing:
the best links build themselves!
• Find who links to whom:– www.OpenSiteExplorer.org
Finding Link Targets
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How Search Engines Make Money
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You Are the Product
“I don’t know…just Google it.”
+
=
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Relevancy is About User Satisfaction
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SEO in 2012
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Battle: White Hat vs Black
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Ad
Personalized Result
Rich Snippet
News Results
Universal Search
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Universal Search
Map & Local Results
YouTube Video
Shopping Result
Universal Search
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Social Media and SEO
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Inbound Marketing
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Google Panda: Early 2011
• Target:– Thin content– Keyword-stuffed content– i.e. content for search
engines, not users
• Result: Increased focus on deep, unique content creation (no more eHow & About.com domination)
@ruthburr
Google Penguin: Spring 2012
• Target:– Too many keyword-rich links– Links not matching normal link
profile for your niche– i.e. links probably not earned
naturally
• Result: Increased focus on natural-appearing link profile
• Decreased focus on anchor text
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What Does All of This Mean?
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Inbound Marketing
#RCS
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Personal Branding and SEO
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What Shows Up When Someone Googles You?
me
me
me
me
me
me
not me
@ruthburr
• Twitter• Facebook• LinkedIn• Google+• Company Team Page• Speakers Pages
Own Your Name
• Guest blogging• Your own site
– .com– .me
• Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, EVERYWHERE.
• www.knowem.com
@ruthburr
Own Your Image
NOT
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Target Connections
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How I Got My Job
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Some Useful Resources
http://www.seomoz.org/dp/tools-for-inbound-marketing
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
http://www.seomoz.org/community
http://www.seomoz.org/mozcation
@ruthburr