SLIDE MASTER – COVERPAGESearch Engine Optimization:Understanding the Engines & Building Successful Sites

Rand Fishkin – August 2010

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Content in this Presentation

• The Search Landscape• How Search Engines Work• Building Accessible Sites• Conducting Keyword Research• Link Building Strategies• Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

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The Search Marketing Landscape

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100 Billion SearchesEach Month!

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Organic vs. Paid Search

Organic

Paid

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Organic vs. Paid Search

90% of Clicks

10% of Clicks

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Click-Through Rates

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Vertical Search

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Local Results

Probably doesn’t get traffic like most “#1” results

Completely different ranking algorithm than standard

search results

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Image Results

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Video Results

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News & Blog Results

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Shopping Results

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers

News Results

Real Time Results

Local Results

Image Results

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This Presentation Focuses on:

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How Search Engines Work

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Crawling & Indexing

Without links, the engines might

never find this page

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Calculating Query-Independent Metrics

Via www.opensiteexplorer.org

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Many Domains vs. One Domain

VS.

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Domain Authority

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PageRank

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The Flow of PageRank

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PageRank is Split Evenly Between the

Links on a Page

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PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm

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Technically, Every External Link

“Leaks” PageRank

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Nofollowing or Removing Links Can

Alter the Flow of PageRank

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Or, at least it used to...

www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

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Google Says they use PageRank to Crawl

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors

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Query Deserves Freshness (QDF)

QDF

QDF

Normal Results

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Query Deserves Diversity (QDD)

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors

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Building Accessible Sites

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Crawlability / Link Architecture

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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

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Canonical URL Tag

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301 Redirects

302s

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Duplicate Titles & Meta Descriptions

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Search Friendly URLs

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/african-elephants

Single domain

Shallow folder structurewith relevant words

Keywords in page name,separated by hyphen

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Search UN-Friendly URLs

Xyz3.nationalgeographic.com/a/?q=31z&mg=vv7z&sd=8

UnnecessarySubdomain Dynamic URLs don’t perform as well

as static and engines recommend against more than two parameters

No keywords in the URL string

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Fixing Broken Links & 404s

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Blocking Robots

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Blocking Robots

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XML Sitemaps

www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

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Webmaster Tools (Google)

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Webmaster Tools (Bing)

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Search Engine Guidelines

www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

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Important Tags & Signals

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Title Tags

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Meta Descriptions

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Tag Length Recommendations

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Anchor Text

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Page Copy

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Image Alt Attributes

Good keyword usage in the alt tag

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Not So Important

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Meta Keywords Tag

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H1, H2, H(x) Tags

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Search Engine “Submission”

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Keyword Research + Targeting

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The Goals of Keyword Research

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Determine Relative Volume Levels

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Identify High Value Keywords

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Predict the Effort Required to Rank Well

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Choose the “Best”

Words/Phrases to Target

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The Keyword Demand Landscape

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The Long Tail of Keyword Demand

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Tools & Tactics for Brainstorming

& Refining Your Seed List

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Salespeople & Customers

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Google AdWords Tool

Be Wary ofMatch Type

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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MS AdCenter Excel Plug-In

www.seomoz.org/blog/using-the-adcenter-excel-plugin-for-keyphrase-research

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Google Trends

Not Very Accurate

Sign In for Y-Axis Numbers

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Internal Site Search Stats

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Competitive Keyword Research

Restrict queryto competitor’s

domain

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The Keyword Research Process

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Start with Your Seed List

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Create Spreadsheet w/ these Columns

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Get Google Search Demand Numbers

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Guesstimate Conversion Rate Numbers

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Or Use PPC Campaign Data

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Add Keyword Difficulty Data for Top Terms

We like using a weighted average ofthe Page Authority metric

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Target High Volume, High Value,

Low Difficulty Terms First

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Measuring Keyword

Difficulty & Competition

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Run Queries for Desired Term + Engine

Watch for verticalresults, which can skew

CTRs & visibility

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Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Metrics

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Tools Can Help Provide Scores

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Tools Can Help Provide Scores

www.seomoz.org/mozbar

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Link Building Strategies

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What Goals Can Link Building

Help Us Achieve?

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Bolster Individual Rankings

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Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages

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Achieve More Complete Indexation

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Drive Traffic & Branding Awareness

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Send Converting Traffic

Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com

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The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

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#1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests

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#2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition

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#3 - Links via Embedded Content

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#4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns

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#5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing

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#6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades

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#7 - Paid Links

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#8 - Link Reclamation

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Matching the Right Link Building Strategies

to Your Organization’s SEO Goals

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Links for Individual Rankings

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Links for Domain “Authority”

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Links for Indexation

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Links for Traffic & Branding

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Links for Conversion

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Using Tools & Processes to Ease the

Challenges of Link Building

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Tools for Competitive Link Research

• Yahoo! Site Explorer & Link Commands• Open Site Explorer• Top Pages• Google Blog Search

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Yahoo! Site Explorer

Directionally indicativewithin ~50%

Not necessarily followed & in a somewhat random order

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Yahoo! Link Commands

Less “accurate” than Site Explorer

Lots of cool, useful modifiers available

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Yahoo! Link Commands

Full list available in PRO Guide to Advanced Search Operators:www.seomoz.org/article/the-professionals-guide-to-advanced-search-operators

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Open Site Explorer

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Open Site Explorer

Highly Correlation w/ RankingsData updates monthly from the

Linkscape web index (approx. 60% the size of Yahoo!/Google/Bing)

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Open Site Explorer

Poor Anchor Text Spells Opportunity

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Link Intersect

Link Intersect uses the same principle – sites w/ links in common that don’t point to you.

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Top Pages

Find which pages are earning links (your own & competitors)

404s? Reclaim them!

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Metrics for Evaluating a Link’s Value

• Numeric (Objective) Metrics• Subjective Metrics• Attainability and Effort

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Numeric Metrics for Link Valuation

• # of Linking Root Domains to URL• # of Linking Root Domains to Domain• Homepage PageRank vs. Domain mozRank• URL PageRank vs. URL mozRank• # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape)

• Twitter mentions (Backtweets.com)

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Numeric Metrics (Backtweets)

Results count(in a weird location)

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Subjective Metrics for Link Valuation

• Brand name reach/recognition• Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain)• Attainability and Effort

Jumping through Hoops (via WKA on Flickr)

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Scalable Link Acquisition Processes

• Written Process + Checklist• Tools + Metrics for Quick Analysis• Training & Incenting Link Builders• Building & Refining a Link Acquisition Funnel

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Written Process/Checklist

Checklist (via adesigna on Flickr)

• Run through the link building process yourself• Document every step thoroughly• Pass it on to others (w/ some training time)

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Tools for Quick Analysis

Get usable metrics quickly as you surf

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Tools for Quick Analysis

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Training & Incenting Link Builders

Training Camp (via Gil Searcy on Flickr)

• Do link building together• Create consistent metrics• Reward like a sales team• Record reasons why links

didn’t happen (like

objections to sales) and

work on these (things like

design quality, affiliations,

language, etc. will come up)

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Building a Link Acquisition Funnel

Visit Link-Targeted Content

Grab Link Code

Link to the Site

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Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

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Influencers on the Web

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The Power of the “Linkerati”

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Content that Appeals to Influencers

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Making Content Easy to Share

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Making Content Easy to Share

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Incenting/Rewarding Link Behaviors

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Cannibalization of the Link Graph

MMM… LINK GRAPHS ARE DELICIOUS!

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The Rise of the Social Graph

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors

You have to do these right, before you can

do these right

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