Max Thomas max@thunderseo.com @ThunderMax (800) 819-6894

SEO Sunday, January 24, 2010

Why Online Matters

SEO – Why Ranking Matters?

1. Ranking = Traffic2. Ranking for Target Keywords = Sales3. Recent Site Example:

Rank: G P2 > G P1 (Bot)

G P1 (Bot) > G P1 (Top 3)

G P2 > G P1 (Bot)

Traffic (Mth): 59% + 87%+ 295%+

Sales: + ++ +++

SOM – Strategic Online Marketing

1. Think strategically.2. Search and Social Media are separate channels,

but they do overlap.3. SEO is not Online Marketing – that’s short

sighted.4. Look at your market – sometimes Search is

better than social, sometimes email, etc.5. Be on lookout for new media, like Mobile.6. SEO = turtle (steady, slow, wins in the end)7. Social = hare (fast, fun, unpredictable)

SEO & Google

White vs Black Hat SEO

“A lot of people think Google hates SEO and nothing could be further from the truth.

SEO when done well and done in a white hat way, can make your site more crawlable, more

accessible and help users find useful content on your site.”Matt Cutts

See State of the Index 2009 on GoogleWebmasterHelp

Youtube.com

Track – Track - Track

“We can’t manage what we don’t measure.”• Keyword Ranking Reports• SEO Stat’s (key indicators)• Webmaster Tools, site performance, etc.• Site Traffic (Analytics)• Call Tracking (Dynamic Call Tracking)• Conversions/Sales (Forms & Purchases)

• Frequency:– Daily: Conversions & Call Tracking– Weekly/Bi-Weekly: Keyword Ranking, Site Traffic– Monthly: SEO Stat’s, Site Performance

Max Thomas | max@thunderinternetmarketing.com | (800) 819-6894

Track – Keyword Ranking Report

Use Proxy Servers Rotate to prevent Google from serving “personalized” search results, or identifying KW software.Example here fromwww.AdvancedWebRanking.com

Track – SEO Stat’s

GI = Google Indexed ContentYI = Yahoo! Indexed ContentInb = Inbound LinksInt = Internal LinksPR = PageRank

Alexa = Site Traffic ComparisonAge = Age Domain RegisteredmR = URL Rank (SEOmoz)mT = URL Trust (SEOmoz)DmR = Domain Rank (SEOmoz)DmT = Domain Trust (SEOmoz)

Date: GI YI Inb Int PR Alexa Age mR mT DmR DmT9/30/2009 151 50 776 - 2 - 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 2.58

10/16/2009 172 52 813 43 2 623,163 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 2.5810/18/2009 147 50 951 47 2 607,845 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.5810/22/2009 135 54 1,715 45 2 644,753 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.5810/30/2009 127 56 1,993 39 3 668,847 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.5811/1/2009 126 55 1,942 50 3 691,249 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.5811/6/2009 129 54 1,727 50 3 699,065 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.5811/9/2009 135 56 1,770 36 3 676,959 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.58

11/17/2009 137 56 1,199 40 3 664,376 10/8/1995 5.34 5.45 3.46 3.581/8/2010 124 110 1,896 82 3 391,624 10/8/1995 4.12 5.38 3.91 3.99

1/23/2010 124 106 1,715 96 3 336,149 10/8/1995 3.98 4.1 4.02 4.09

Track – Site Performance

Webmaster Tools – this is how Google “sees” your website. Very important to be aware of this.

Reference Webmaster Tools for:• Crawl Errors (404 errors)• Crawl Stats (how frequently G bots crawl)• Site Performance (see Resources regarding PageSpeed)

– http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/– webpagetest.org

Track – Site Traffic

Using Analytics, consider (at minimum):• Change in Visitors (month to month)• Traffic Sources• Organic Keywords

Track – Conversion/Call Tracking

Conversions:• Use Analytics for sales & “form submits”

Call Tracking/Leads:• Dynamic call tracking enables tracking by source

• See VoiceStar example

Track – Conversion/Call Tracking

What Impacts Rankings

SEO’s Three-Legged Stool:

1. Content2. Site Freshness

Size & Update Frequency

3. Inbound Links Impacts PageRank (Site Authority)

4. Site Speed Caffeine

1. Content – Site Structure

A. Keyword Relevancy

B. Onpage Keyword Optimization (SEO Elements)

C. PageRank and Navigation

1. Content – Site Structure

A. Keyword Relevancy• Start with “Conversational Terms” – talk with

customers to learn what they search for.• Research Keywords - research keywords and

historical searches using Google’s Keyword Tool and Wonder Wheel .

• Create Keyword Map – prioritize terms in order of importance (e.g., “conversions”), group terms by “theme” (or user experience), then merge with site’s navigation.

1. Content – Site Structure

A. Keyword Relevancy – Keyword Map ExampleAntique Shipping Art Shipping Electronics Shipping

URL:http://gonavis.com/Antiques.aspx

avg. search

http://gonavis.com/FineArt.aspx

avg. search

http://gonavis.com/Electronics.aspx

avg. search

Keywords: ship antiques 2,900 art shipping 9,900 shipping electronics 33,100antique shipping 2,900 ship painting 9,900 electronics shipping 33,100antique movers 880 shipping art 9,900 shipping tv 12,100shipping antiques 590 art packing 1,900 tv shipping 12,100

artwork packaging 1,000 ship electronics 4,400

shipping paintings 720 ship a tv 880

1. Content – Site Structure

B. Onpage SEO/Keyword Optimization• Organize/Optimize page for target keyword(s)• Don’t try to rank homepage for multiple terms; target

keyword-specific pages (the sub-pages)• Key Elements for Onpage Keyword Optimization:

• URL• Title Tag• Description Tag (for user, not for SEO)• <h1> Header• Keyword placement close to top of page• Use of terms related to keyword in copy

• Reference: SEOmoz Term Target Tool

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Primer

• Google’s quantitative measure of a site’s “Authority”• PR’s influence has wavered over time; Cutts now

“says” it’s important• Highly relevant and quality inbound links are primary

determinant of PR; links help determine a site’s Authority.

• Site Goal: Maximize the flow of PR throughout site to important pages.

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

PageRank sculpting is the application of rules regarding the quantity, prioritization and relevance of links on pages throughout a site to efficiently distribute PageRank. For example, suppose a page on my site has 100 PageRank “points” to pass on to the pages that it links to. I will want to be strategic about how those points are distributed rather than squander them indiscriminately.

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• This is our made-up page called “Page 0” with links to 35 pages:

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• “Page 0” has 70 PR points to share. According to Matt Cutts, each of the 35 pages it links to receives two points of PageRank. :

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• “Page 0” has 70 PR points to share. According to Matt Cutts, each of the 35 pages it links to receives two points of PageRank. :

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• Rel=nofollow

• Google introduced rel=nofollow in 2005 so that NoFollowed links “won’t get any credit when we [Google] rank websites in our search results.”

• This made it possible to shape (or “optimize”) the flow of PR through a site by using rel=nofollow on internal links that are secondary. Result: PR would be divided only across dofollow links

• What changed: About a year ago, Google started dividing PR across links on a page (regardless of rel=nofollow) thus undoing SEO’s “PR Shaping”.

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• Prioritize pages by User Experience and SEO impact:

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• Revised “Page 0” with links to 10 primary pages:

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

Previous “Page 0”

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• PageRank Sculpting – by Scott Smigler

• Revised “Page 0” PageRank points allocation now shared 7 points with each page, versus 2 points previously:

Reference: http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-leaves-nofollowed-tags-behind-34120

1. Content – Site Structure

C. PageRank and Navigation (Internal Linking)• Techniques to Reduce Number of Pages HP Links to

• Reorganize Links – there may be links from homepage to low-value sub-pages that can be consolidated under a high-value page; link from homepage to primary page, include links to low-value pages on primary page.

• Remove Low SEO Pages – remove pages from primary navigation that have low value for users and SEO; move them to the blog.

• Drupal Modules & Tools –• -------------• -------------

1. Content – Creating

• Blog• Video• Feeds (RSS, Twitter, Blog Updates, etc.)• “Organic Content”

What content can be created by organic process of doing business?• Ecommerce easy example – new products daily• See if content hosted on 3rd party sites can be brought into the

primary domain (not via frames)• Sign-up Forms – keep them on domain

2. Freshness

• New Content (Frequency)• The more frequently site is updated, the more frequently Google

crawls, updates index and changes rankings.• How often should I add new content?

• As often as possible; depends on ranking goal; local map listings – weekly okay; regional/national organic listings – daily.

• Blogging• Easy and effective way to add content• Blog posts are crawled and indexed quickly by Google• Fast and easy way to add internal links• Expensive because of human involvement – original, non-duplicate

content

3. Inbound Links

• PageRank• Quality Over Quantity• Edu/gov myth• Reciprocal links• Viral links• Tools

3. Inbound Links – Sample Methods

• Manual Link Submissions/Requests• Competitive Link Research/Acquisition• Links via Embedded Content (Widget, Badges, etc.)• Linkbait & Viral Campaigns• Content, Technology & API Licensing• Paid Links (Typically poor quality)

3. Inbound Links – SEO Tools

• SEOmoz.com • Linkscape and others• OpenSiteExplorer.com

• SiteExplorer.Search.Yahoo.com• Google Webmaster Tools• Goolge Search/Experimental

• Social search (google.com/experimental)• Wonder Wheel

3. Internal Links

Guidelines for Building Internal Links for Ranking:• Use target keyword for anchor text• Consistency is key• Target same words as for inbound links• Setup internal tracking – Internal Linking Map

(see Keyword Map example)• Show Sitbetter example

3. Internal Links

Internal Linking Map (ILM)• Confirm target keyword correlates with onpage and code optimized

terms.• Use ILM for all internal links (including navigation)• First link on page to any URL is the only one that Google counts.

Antique Shipping Art Shipping Electronics Shipping

URL:http://gonavis.com/Antiques.aspx

avg. search

http://gonavis.com/FineArt.aspx

avg. search

http://gonavis.com/Electronics.aspx

avg. search

Keywords: ship antiques 2,900 art shipping 9,900 shipping electronics 33,100antique shipping 2,900 ship painting 9,900 electronics shipping 33,100antique movers 880 shipping art 9,900 shipping tv 12,100shipping antiques 590 art packing 1,900 tv shipping 12,100

artwork packaging 1,000 ship electronics 4,400

shipping paintings 720 ship a tv 880

3. Internal Links – Example

Blogging Example for Online Retail Site• Site posts blog “product review” – including target

keyword in post title (and blog url) and product name

• Here, target keyword = office chair• Review url =

http://www.sitbetter.com/blog/2009/06/22/office-chair-preview-the-ray-leather-office-chair/

3. Internal Links – Example

Blogging Example for Online Retail Site• Google SERP after 2-3 days for “ray leather office

chair”

Blog Review URL

3. Internal Links – Example

Blogging Example for Online Retail Site• Google SERP after 3-4 days

Product URL

Blog Review URL

4. Site Speed

• Go Drupal!• Caffeine / Google –What is it?

• Update to how Google indexes urls and displays them in search.

• Google PageSpeed Tool• Other Google Webmaster Tools

• Code.google.com/closure• Compiler – make javascript compact• Library – for code• Google Web ToolKit – easy to write code

CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization

• It’s not only about the traffic – what happens when they get to the site? Sometimes the best strategy is to rethink onpage factors to increase conversions from existing traffic.

• Resources/links:• Conversion Optimization -

http://www.seerinteractive.com/conversion-maximization/

• 11 Conversion Rate Optimization Lessons Learned 2009 http://www.seomoz.org/blog/11-conversion-lessons-learned-2009

SEO Resources

• Google Webmaster Tools• GoogleWebmasterHelp’s Channel on YouTube• Matt Cutts – posts and videos• SEOmoz – blog and tools• SearchEngineLand• Local Search – David Mihm• Local Search/Technical – Mike Blumenthal• SEO/Technical – Stephan Spencer

Thank You!

To Contact Max or Ask Questions:

• max@thunderseo.com• #ThunderMax

- or –• #ThunderSEO