what you don't know about seo can hurt you

What you think you know about SEO can hurt you

Hosted by Leading Results

Agenda

• Introductions• Why We Host These• Main Presentation

Leading Results Overview• Marketing services firm – coaching and consulting

1:1 Coaching, Group Coaching Fractional VP of Marketing Social Media Coaching and Learning Referral Marketing Coaching and Classes

• Authorized Duct Tape Marketing coaches• Offices in Boston and Philadelphia• Clients throughout North America• We help our clients stop wasting money on marketing that

does not create results

Why do we do these seminars?

From: Outbound(Prospecting, Hunting, Interrupting)

To: Inbound(Attracting, Educating, “Getting Found”)

Print Ads Blogs, e-books, white papers

Radio Ads Podcasts

Television Ads Videos

Tradeshows Webinars

Cold Calling Search Engine Optimization

E-mail Blasts RSS, Feeds

a) Marketing has fundamentally changedb) Better informed prospects make better customers

Marketing is…

Getting someone, who has a need, to know, like and trust you….

So that they will try, buy, repeat purchase and refer you and your organization.

Introduction

• Steve Kinney President and founder of Search Optimizers High-end SEO service for 13 years Priced so small companies can afford

Learning Objectives

• What is SEO?• Why is SEO important?• What affects ranking? • What are effective SEO Strategies?• How to employ an effective SEO campaign?

How do search engines work?

• Spiders (a.k.a. robots) Always running... 24 x 7 x 365 Visit frequency… hourly, daily, or weekly Purpose… to maintain the freshest content


• Index database – Google stores over 100 billion web pages


• Algorithm

White hat vs. black hat SEO

Learning Objectives


Why is SEO important?

• What is happening• Why it is happening• The rest of the story

What is happening?

• Tighter marketing budgets are limiting choices

Why is it happening?

• Lower cost of sales

And now, the rest of the story…

• Technology puts consumers in control Push marketing

• TV TIVO• Talk radio Pod casts • Newspaper ads Online news Ad blockers

Pull marketing• Yellow pages Online yellow pages Search Engines

3 parts to an effective Internet Marketing campaign

• Getting the right people to your website• Converting some % of the visitors• Growing your relationship over time

Not all visitors are created equal

• 2 types of web site visitors Browsers

• Ex. - Reading a blog or twitter posts• Link, link, link, link

Searchers• Type in a specific phrase, click search

Difference in value of browsers vs. searchers

Intent

Learning Objectives


What affects ranking (dispel myths)?

• Quality of traffic• Links to your site• Quantity of traffic• How your site is built• How long your site has been registered• Frequency of updates to your site• Size of your website• …… Hundreds of factors

Quality of traffic

• Visitor comes to your site and stays for 6 seconds – BAD

• Visitor comes to your site and stays for 60 seconds – GOOD

• Visitor comes to your site and stays for 6 minutes – GREAT!

Links to your site

• Organic is key• Circular linking has almost no value• Using social media sites like Twitter to link has no SEO value

Anchor attribute rel="nofollow“

• Link weighting has been devalued in the last few years• Example: IDAHollywood.com vs. Juilliard.edu (dance school)• Example: SouthBayFord.com vs. automotive.com (ford

dealer)

Quantity of Traffic

• Alexa.com

How your site is built

• Use unique page names Not:

• Session IDs should be managed in cookies, not URLs

• Use HTML links, not AJAX links• Create a sitemap.xml and put that name in

robots.txt

What adversely affects ranking?

• Text displayed graphically• Linking to a link farm• Redirecting using refresh meta tags• Manipulative cross linking• Keyword stuffing • Keyword dilution• Cloaking• Over optimization

Spamming

• Use these techniques and you get put in the penalty box

Search Engine Spamming

• Anything that tries to display different results to the spiders White text on white background Cloaking

• Outlier densities Use of keyword much more frequent than competition Use of SEO techniques much more frequently than

competition

• Link farming

Learning Objectives


Goal determines strategy

• What is the end goal of an Internet Marketing campaign? Hits – no Conversions – not usually

Sales – optimize for this result

Maximize sales

• Where to optimize: ingestion or conversion rate? 200 visitors per month 4 conversions 1 sale Optimize conversion rate:

• 200 visitors per month 8 conversions 2 sales Optimize ingestion rate:

• 2000 visitors per month 40 conversions 10 sales

Strategy #1: Focus

Strategy #1: Focus

• Search engines prefer focused sites• The greater your SE credibility, the less you

need to focus

Strategy #2: Not too hard, not too soft, just right

Strategy #2: Not too hard, not too soft, just right

• Too hard No value going from 800th to 50th Lost time

• Too soft Leaving $$ on the table Allows competition to gain momentum faster

Strategy #3: Establish/leverage a beachhead

Strategy #3: Establish/leverage a beachhead

• Find some phrases to begin the SEO process• As you get those ranked, go after more• …because if you add too fast and prior phrases

will drop

Strategy #4: Momentum

Momentum example - Space Shuttle

• Solid Rocket Boosters 3,000,000 lbs thrust, 2 minutes, 25 miles

• Main Engines 400,000 lbs thrust, 8.5 minutes, 794 miles

• Orbital Maneuvering System 6,000 lbs of thrust, 2 weeks, 5M miles

Search Engine Momentum = Search Engine Credibility

• It explains why a new page on Wikipedia will rank much higher than the exact page on a brand new domain.

• Some indicators of a site’s SE cred are: Alexa number Links to your site Google PR # of pages indexed for a site

Search Engine Credibility

• Why is search engine credibility important The keyword phrases (KPs) you pick should be

relative to the SE cred you currently have If you pick KPs that are out of your SE cred league,

even the most up-to-date SEO techniques will be useless

If you target KPs that are way lower than your current SEO cred, you are leaving money on the table

Strategies in action

• South Bay Ford #1 Focus: 6 Initial KPs #2 Not too hard…: Locale based KPs #3 Establish/leverage a beachhead: Once 6 KPs

ranked, targeted 11 KPs #4 Momentum: Now targeting much higher value

KPs such as ‘Ford Dealer’

Learning Objectives


What are the steps to get started?

• Choosing a focused set of valuable Keyword Phrases (KPs)

• Getting ranked high for valuable KPs• Staying ranked high for valuable KPs• If done correctly, SEO is often the lowest cost

form of lead generation

3 step process for choosing KPs

• Choosing a focused set of valuable Keyword Phrases (KPs)

• 3 step process for picking KPs Brainstorm Sort Filter


• Step 1 – Brainstorm Think about your ideal client What might they be searching for when looking

for a product or service like yours? “Be the buyer” Build as large a list as possible


• Step 2 – Sort Use tools like Digital Point or Word Tracker

• http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion (Free)• http://www.wordtracker.com/ ($$)• https://adwords.google.com/select/

KeywordToolExternal (Free) Sort first by # searches per day Then adjust by gut feeling and relative probability

of sale


• Step 3 – Filter Using the following Search Engine Credibility

Indicators • Google Page Rank• Alexa Number • Links to your site• Pages indexed for your site

Use these numbers as a baseline to compare against other sites

What to do after picking keyword phrases?

• Making your website SEO friendly Each page on your site has its own page name Create a sitemap.xml and put that name in robots.txt Any text contained in flash components should be moved

out into html Make sure your CMS allows page level updates for all html

<head> components Session IDs should be managed in cookies, not URLs Use HTML links, not AJAX links

What to do after picking keyword phrases?

• Now I’ve found phrases… Add the KPs to your meta-tags Use the KPs frequently in the text of your home

page Build a subpage specific to each phrase Measure results Try new ideas Shampoo, rinse, repeat

Types of SEO campaigns

• In-house – very difficult to find non-competitive KPs

• Outsource Once and out (aka “hit and run”) Long term contract Pay as you go

How do I decide on an SEO service provider?

• Ask each SEO firm for 3 reports showing: Website optimized Keyword phrases targeted Positions for each in major Search Engines

• Share each of these reports with the other SEO firms• Make the SEO firms explain the differences

More/less aggressive phrases More/less lucrative markets

• Call the companies for first hand account of effect on their business

Summary

1. Identify the keyword phrases you should be ranked for based on your current Search Engine Credibility

2. Begin targeting your site for those phrases3. Enlist the help of a professional if you can’t

find enough phrases in your credibility range

Special Offer

• Free Offer Initial KP analysis (20-30 minute phone call) Within 3-5 business days we will deliver a report

that shows • Your rankings for KPs that are frequently searched• Proposal with pricing for our service

» Call Steve Pitchford [email protected]

what you don't know about seo can hurt you

Business

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effective seo strategies

black hat seo

seo value anchor attribute

site size

site organic

site quantity of traffic