CRASH COURSE IN SEOTips and tools for promoting exposure to your website, via search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc)

Joshua Sciarrinojoshua@refugedesign.org

Assumed Knowledge What is:

Link & Co-citation Anchor Text Keyword Webpage Website

Pages rank individually

Basic HTML Optimization=Better

ment Search Engines

(Google, Yahoo, MSN)

My Goal = Three Main Concepts (and two bonuses)

How many Search Engines do you need to optimize for? (ONE)

What are some on-page/site tactics that safe (white hat)? (CONTENT)

What are some off-page tactics? (NETWORK/LINKS)

250$ Prize given to one attendee

Gift to Chamber Members (FREE questionnaire PDF)

Outline of what IS CoveredAnswers to the following: What is SEO? What are Search

Engines? What are their market

shares? And how do they work?

On-site Optimization Off-site Optimization Non-direct SEO Efforts List of Do’s and Don’ts Hiring an SEO Resources to learn

more

Things NOT Covered in this WebinarSearch Engine HistoryExtensive Details on Each TopicBlack/Gray Hat TechniquesVertical Optimization (Video, Images, etc)

How to rank #1 in 3 days (run away, if you hear this from a ‘SEO’)SEO ‘software’ (90% of it is wrong, or misinformation)Sitemaps

Web AnalyticsEmail MarketingPay Per Click AdsWeb AdvertisingRSS FeedsConversion OptimizationBuying Links (with & without PR)301/302 Redirects & 404 pagesNofollow, noindex, & other META tags

What is SEO? – Search Engine Optimization

Driving quality traffic to your website via Search Engines

Strictly organic listing Has only been around

since 1997(11 years!) It’s used as noun (John is a SEO) It’s used as a verb (I’m doing SEO)

It’s a confusing term to use.It should be called ‘Increasing Search Engine Listings’ or ‘ISEL’ or ‘INSEL’ because it’s inbound marketing

We are stuck with SEO, but it’s fine.

What is SEO? – (cont.)

SEO=Search Engine Optimization

SEO=Organic Results

SEO=5 times more effective than traditional media advertising (Source: ComScore, 2005-2008)

Our Source: Hubspot

Search Engines – Who? How much?

Search Engine

US UK Rest of the World

Exceptions

Google 70% 88% 70% Russia (31%), China (20%), Japan (27%)

Yahoo 20% ~7% 20% Japan (64%)

MSN 9% ~6% 5-10% None

Top 3 totals ~99% ~95-100% ~95-100% N/A

Others ~1-4% ~0-5% ~0-5% N/A

Sources: Hitwise 06-07; Compete.com 07-08; ComScore 07-08; Analysys International 08; MarketingVOX 06; 1ere Position 07; LiveInternet.ru 07; 50bang.com 07; Webcreate.ga-pro 08

Search Engines

If you had a checklist of 10 Search Engines to market to, this is the break down:1 = most urgent. 10 = least urgent.•Google is your main concern (1-7)•Yahoo is some concern (8-9)•MSN is last (10)•Others is 0.

Source: Refuge Design 2008

Google – How does it work?

90% automated

10% manual editing

Two Main Factors:1.Pagerank™

2.Text relevanceSource: Google

Pagerank™ or ‘PR™’Inbound links, every link is NOT equalAnchor text

Text RelevancePlain Text on a WebpageHow it corresponds to the Website

Google Pagerank™ – It changed Search

•Pagerank™ is off-page factors (links)•Each link counts as an editorial ‘vote’.•Each ‘vote’ has a different weight.•Quality Links + Quantity Links = high PR™

Example: If president-elect Obama says ‘John A. is a good guy’ that would carry more weight/impact than Mary, a stranger, saying ‘John A. is a bad guy’. Since Obama is more authoritative/popular.

Google Pagerank™ - Averages

Google - Text Relevance Are the words on

the page? Are those words

in the title, h1, h2, and other indicators as the topic

Used cars in Florida

Golfing in the UK

My Used Cars

Google Manual 10% editing

Ways Manual edits occur

Matt Cutts hears about your paid links

A major flaw is exposed (Ex: George Bush ranking for ‘miserable failure’)

Your competitors reported you for breaking Google’s TOS (terms of service)

Source: Refuge Design 2008

Things to note Google, Yahoo!,

and MSN are NOT the government. They don’t control US, UK, nor any nation’s laws.

All three can have a major impact on your website traffic (and revenues).

It’s best to abide by their rules, to insure higher ROI for your site.

Yahoo! & MSN Yahoo! has

Trustrank™ which starts from 200 seed sites and the closer you are to the top 200, the better you are.

MSN is stuck in the 1990’s

Yahoo might be in early 2000’s

Together have 30% market share

Differences between G vs. Y/MSN Google doesn’t

highly favor on-page unless it has a high Pagerank™ (relevant

and authoritative links)

Yahoo/MSN favors on-page more

Google has many spam filters

Yahoo/MSN are easier to ‘domain game’

Google highly favors co-citation and anchor text (plus ~100 other factors)

Simple Put – Only One To Optimize for now Currently Google is

the only search engine to really optimize for.

Typically people say ‘I can rank in Yahoo/MSN but Google I have trouble’

Google has 70% of the share everywhere

This might change 2 years from now but there aren’t major differences between Search Engines.

Time to Announce the WINNER of 250$

Pick One!!!

Congrats!!!

Rewarding Good Behavior (The desire to learn)

Sources: www.ferndave.com/ccc/ & http://thefuntimesguide.com/2008/04/cmt_music_awards_2008.php & http://www.sizzledcore.com/2008/07/16/apple-ipod-touch-firmware-115-released/ & http://www.breakitdownblog.com/iphone-review-part-1-of-3/

How to and How Not to do Search Engine Optimization

The General Concepts to Search Engine Optimization

STEPS to do SEO (white hat seo)

On-Page/Site Keyword Research Keyword

Placement Site architecture Content Creation Internal Linking

Off-site Optimization Link Building (large

topic) Viral Content Widgets/Quizzes Reciprocal Links Guest Posting

Keyword Research & LongTail Start “wise” (Research) Continue “wise”

(Brainstorm) Rince and repeat Use tools and your brain. Google Adwords, Keyword

Discovery, and WordTracker

LongTail is 3+ words together

85% of Traffic is in the Long Tail

If you were #1 for the top 10,000 terms, you’d only get 18.5% of all searched traffic

Source: Hitwise Study, Nov. 08

Examples:Dog Vs. DogsHow to feed a dog?Cleaning a dog vs. How to clean a dog?Great Dog Collars for x type dogs

Content Creation

Blog Posts Industry-

Related Articles

Industry-Related News

Linkbait Funny Images

Great Videos

Quizzes Contests Free

Stuff Widgets Source:

SEOmoz

On-page Optimization – Keyword Placement

#1: Title Tag & Meta Description

H1,H2, etc; Alt tags of images; Bold; A few times on the page

Source: FashionMista

Source: SEOmoz

SERPS Show: Title tag of pageMeta DescriptionURL

On-site Optimization – Architecture and Internal Linking

Site Architecture (Navigation, Search Box?, breadcrumb, tag cloud, etc)

Internal Linking (high priority, big issue)

Don’t use ‘home’ for homepage link (use short phrase keyword)Source:

SEOmoz

Don’ts to On-site Optimization

Keyword Stuff

Hide Text, Links

Cloak (show something different to users than the Search Engines)

Target same word on different pages

Have same Title tag on multiple pages

Keyword Stuff

Hide Text, Links

Cloak (show something different to users than the Search Engines)

Target same word on different pages

Have same Title tag on multiple pages

Waste Time Submitting to Search Engine’s

Spread your content over multiple domains (blog, company, affiliate)

Links in Javascript

Site in Flash

Putting a page in iFrames

Worry about a sitemap (case-by-case)

Do’s to On-site Optimization Sprinkle Keywords throughout the page

Blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just write!!!

Be Transparent without revealing nitty-gritty details

Be Humble and Be Honest

Be consistent. Two-Three times a week

Love what you do (Passionate)

Be Creative

Be willing to make mistakes

TRY new things

Most Important; BE YOURSELF

Link Building 1st make sure site is complete and no

‘under construction’ pages are on the site

Directory Submission (Paid and Industry relative)

Article Syndication Press Release Syndication Social Bookmarking Blog/Forum commenting

Be relational with Industry related sites

Guest Blog Post Industry-related

widgets Contests & Free gifts Be Creative

Don’ts to Off-site Optimization

Don’t buy links with follow attribute

Don’t partake in excessive link exchanges

Don’t use link farms

Don’t have the same anchor text to one page.

Don’t get links from totally unrelevant places (no porn, pills, poker, unless that’s your niche)

Don’t buy links with follow attribute

Don’t partake in excessive link exchanges

Don’t use link farms

Don’t have the same anchor text to one page.

Don’t get links from totally unrelevant places (no porn, pills, poker, unless that’s your niche)

If you make a badge, don’t lie about the backlink. (E.g. If the image says ‘x’ don’t make the link say ‘y’.)

Don’t be scared of Google (just be aware of their TOS and obey, you’ll be fine)

Don’t be hesitant.

Do’s to Off-site Optimization

Focus on Contributing Quality Content (via blogging, linkbait, widgets, etc)

Quality Content doesn’t rule, Quality & Contributing Content does!

Reciprocal Links (Just don’t over do it)

Directory Submission

Article Syndication

Social Media promotion(via Digg, Slashdot, DesignFloat, etc)

Press Release & Syndication

Contribute to Industry Related Blogs & Forums

Use natural anchor text (http://example.com, click here, company name, etc)

List of SEO Resources Read books

SEObook SEOmoz articles

Subscribe to RSS feeds Sphinn, SEOmoz, &

Eric Ward (my top 3)

Join a forum & ask/listen Cre8asite forums High Rankings Digital Point SEO book Webmaster World

“In-house SEO’s who consulted an SEO 3rd party increase traffic by 73%” Source: Marketing Sherpa 2007

BONUS: How to Hire An SEO

Source: HulaSoftware

Hiring an SEO (Third party person/company)

Important: Always start with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN’s guidelines. Skim through SearchEngineLand or another Search Engine News website and the past month’s articles and look for ‘bad practices’ and ask the ‘SEO’ their opinion on these ‘bad practices’.

Important: Always start with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN’s guidelines. Skim through SearchEngineLand or another Search Engine News website and the past month’s articles and look for ‘bad practices’ and ask the ‘SEO’ their opinion on these ‘bad practices’.

Take This Serious By: Acting as if the ‘SEO’ were being

interviewed for a job at your company.

Being familiar with Search Engine Guidelines

Testing the ‘SEO’ on their knowledge. Get a feel for them, are they White Hat? Gray? Black?

Do they sound honest? Call up their case studies or

companies that are in their portfolio. DON’T take this lightly, this is a

million dollar decision for your company. I’m not kidding

Chamber Member, don’t forget to look in your mailbox, we will send you a questionnaire for when you want to outsource.

Most Important – Your Feedback

Refuge Design wants your feedback on the presentation.

Rate the presentation 1-10

How can we make better it?

If you provide feedback, we will give you 2-3 SEO suggestions for YOUR personal website (delivered within 2 weeks of receiving)

Example Feedback (Bad=General; Good=Specific [answer WHY])

GOOD FEEDBACK To Joshua, I like the webinar because you

provided resources at the end, rate 7 (I gave you a 7 because I didn’t like ustream’s functions and it was confusing but I liked the content of your webinar, good job.)

To Joshua, I didn’t like the webinar, Ustream caused my PC to crash, and I missed out on the prize, rate 1 (I gave you a 1 because too many issues with watching the webinar on Ustream and I was fustrated and angry).

BAD FEEDBACK To Joshua, I loved the webinar.

Nothing to improve on, rate 10.

To Joshua, I hated it, do better next time, rate 2

To Joshua, I didn’t like it but I learned stuff, rate 5.

Contact Me – Refuge Design – Joshua Sciarrino

Email: JOSHUA@REFUGEDESIGN.ORG Twitter:

http://twitter.com/joshuaseo Phone: 727-366-6474 Skills: SEO/PPC, Reputation

Management, Email Marketing, Web Analytics

Specials: 500$ entry for SEO services

Joshua Sciarrino (Sure-Reno)Cell: 727-366-6474joshua@refugedesign.org