Jawad Khan - 10 Steps to Effective SEO

10 Steps to Effective SEO & Great Rankings

How to make SEO work for your business?

Why is SEO so Important?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

In Feb. 2011, Google said they had 2 Billion+ searches/day!

Mill

ion

s o

f Se

arch

es

(Mo

nth

ly)

Global Search Volume Growth

Data via Comscore Qsearch: http://www.comscore.com www.JawadKhan.net

http://www.comscore.com/

http://www.jawadkhan.net/


Search Engine Market Share

http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre/main/dashboard-7323.html http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

Most of the World (except China, Russia, Korea + Czech

Republic) look like this

http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/search-engine-news/google/search-engine-market-share-statistics-%E2%80%93-february-2011-18271/

www.JawadKhan.net

http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre/main/dashboard-7323.html



http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings
























Organic vs. Paid Search

Paid

Organic

www.JawadKhan.net



Organic vs. Paid Search

~20% of Clicks

~80% of Clicks

www.JawadKhan.net



Click-Through Rates

Ranking #2, #3 and #4 would send less traffic than

just ranking #1

www.JawadKhan.net


How Can My Website Compete?

Step 1: Good Isn’t Good Enough;

Make Your Content Great.

“Good” Content vs. “GREAT” Content

Satisfies the searcher’s basic information requirements

Written by a human and not duplicated elsewhere

Long enough to fulfill basic needs of engines for depth/uniqueness

Grammatically correct; free of spelling/punctuation errors

Surprises and delights the searcher by being remarkable

Produced by extraordinary writers/designers/producers

May leverage video, audio, graphics & photos to convey a unique, shareable experience

Produced by extraordinary writers/designers/producers

Searchers LOVE Great Content &

People SHARE Great Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlwww.JawadKhan.net


A Blog Alone Doesn’t Cut It.



You Must Become a Hub for Great

Content in Your Niche


Site that offers:• Unique Research

• Informed Opinions

• News/Trend Analysis

• Multimedia Content

• Authentic Expert Contributors

• Quality Discussion/Interaction

Referenced by industry

blogs

Mentioned in news

publications

Cited at conferences + events

Liked/Shared on Facebook

Links are Tweeted

Answers on Q+A sites reference its resources

Forum discussions link to its pages

People email links to each

other

www.JawadKhan.net


Step 2: Make that Great Content

Accessible to Search Engines.

Substantive, Descriptive, HTML Text Content

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.hipmunk.com/ is a great site, but there’s no real text content for engines to see!http://adioso.com doesn’t have a ton more, but there’s at least something for Google/Bing to grab onto. www.JawadKhan.net

http://www.hipmunk.com/

http://adioso.com/


Clean, Crawlable URLs


Better

Worse

www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights

www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

www.JawadKhan.net


Logical, Shallow Information Architecture



No Duplicate Content



Rel Canonical to the Rescue (Sometimes)



Proper Redirects (301 v. 302, etc.)


301 = Permanent Redirect

Good for Users

Good for Search Engines

Good for Web Servers

Javascript Redirect

Fails for non-JS Users (including many mobiles)

May not be counted by Search Engines

Slower on Web Servers

302 = Temporary Redirect

Meta Refresh

Fine for Users

Search Engines Don’t Always Treat as Permanent

Slower on Web Servers

Fine for Users

Bad for Search Engines (treated as temporary)

Good for Web Servers

Effective Error Handling



Step 3: Delight Your Visitors with

Phenomenal Design + Usability.

Search Engines Finally Care About Design



Panda/Farmer Update was a First Step



Many Usability Basics are Intuitive



Use Your Analytics to Establish Baselines

and Measure Progress



Step 4: Use Words Your Customers Use;

Do Keyword Research.

The Best Keywords Are:


High Volume(many searches/month)

Low Competition(weak sites/pages in the top 10)

High Value(large % of visitors convert)

www.JawadKhan.net


Keyword Research Starts w/ the Right Brainstorming Process



Researching Keyword Volume:

Google’s AdWords Tool



Microsoft AdCenter Keyword Data



Determining Keyword Difficulty


Number of results is meaningless

We want to know how “strong” these sites/pages are

And how our site’s/page’s metrics compare

Determining a Keyword’s “Value”


1,000Visitors Searched “Usability

Testing” and Arrived at the Site

200Visitors Searched “User Testing

Software” and Arrived at the Site

20Visitors Took the Product Tour

40Visitors Took the Product Tour

2Visitors Bought the Software

10Visitors Bought the Software

5%

Conversion Rate:

0.2%

www.JawadKhan.net


Buying PPC is a Great Way to Test


How do these visitors perform?

www.JawadKhan.net


Put the Data Together and Start with

Low-Hanging Fruit



Step 5: Optimize your Pages Properly;

Get Keyword Targeting Right.

Title Tags


Better

Worse

Usability Testing Software | UserTesting.com

UserTesting.com | Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing, Usability Test, User Testing, User Software

UserTesting.com

NA

www.JawadKhan.net


Keywords in the URL Help, Too


Better

Worse

www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights

www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

www.JawadKhan.net


Meta Description


TITLE: Low Cost Usability Testing - UserTesting.com

META DESCRIPTION: Usability testing has never been easier. UserTesting.com's online usability testing is the cheapest, fastest way to find out why visitors leave your website.

www.JawadKhan.net


Meta Keywords?


The search engines don’t use these at all (and haven’t since the early 2000s)

www.JawadKhan.net


Body Text Keyword Usage



Keyword Density vs. TF*IDF vs. Topic Modeling



Images & Alt Attributes


Keywords in alt attributes are surprisingly well correlated

with higher rankings

H1, H2, H3 Headlines


Keywords in H(x) tags are not particularly well correlated with high rankings, but may provide some, minor value.

www.JawadKhan.net


Step 6:

Make Search Engine Tools & Protocols

Work for You.

XML Sitemaps



HTML Sitemaps



RSS Feeds



Google Webmaster Tools



Crawl Errors & Error Sources



Bing Webmaster Tools



Step 7: Earn Citations Engines Can See;

Build Links, Tweets, Likes & Shares.


From 1999 – 2008, What Page Ranked #1

for the Queries “Exit” and “Leave”?

www.JawadKhan.net


Ahh… The Power of Links



What Makes a Great Link?


Editorially given

From a trusted source

Uses descriptive anchor text

Points to the right page

www.JawadKhan.net


Google + Bing Now Counting Facebook & Twitter


Danny Sullivan: If an article is retweeted or referenced much in

Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-

nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Google: Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our

organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news

universal by marking how many people shared an article

www.JawadKhan.net


SEO Properties of Classic HTML Links


<p><a href=http://www.seomoz.org rel=“nofollow”> SEOmoz’s Website </a> is a good resource for those seeking to learn more about search engine optimization.</p>

Anchor text(tells the engine what

this link is about)

URL(the link target)

Surrounding Text(may provide context on

the link’s relevance)

Rel=“Nofollow”(a tag that indicates search engines

shouldn’t trust/count this link)

www.JawadKhan.net

http://www.seomoz.org/


SEO Properties of Facebook Shares


URL(the link target)

Shares(how many users have

shared the link)

www.JawadKhan.net


Step 8: Don’t Go it Alone;

Help Your Community Help You.

Spread Your Message Across the Web


Blogs + Blogging

Comment Marketing

News/Media/PRSEO

Social Networks

Word of Mouth

Q+A Sites

Forums

Online Video

Podcasting

Webinars

Research/White Papers

Infographics

Social Bookmarking

INBOUND MARKETING!(Find Your Audience Organically on the Web)

Direct/Referring Links

Type-In Traffic

Email

Document Sharing

Blogs & Blog Comments


Forums & Discussion Boards



Social Profiles & Interaction


Facebook Company Page

Twitter Profile

LinkedIn Company Page

YouTube Account

Crunchbase Page

Crunchbase Page

Quora Profile

About.me Page

Scribd Profile

SlideShare Profile

Reddit Account

StumbleUpon Account

StackExchange Account

Wikipedia Profile

Google Profile

www.JawadKhan.net


Answer Questions on Q+A Sites



Syndicate Your Content


Dozens of sites syndicate SEOmoz’s blog helping to

send links and traffic back to the site

www.JawadKhan.net


Step 9: Get Analytics Set Up Right;

Track What Matters.

Key SEO Metric #1:

Visits / Search Engine


These ones here!

www.JawadKhan.net


Key SEO Metric #2:

Keywords Sending 1+ Visits / Search Engine


This One!

www.JawadKhan.net


Key SEO Metric #3:

# of Pages Receiving Traffic from Each Engine


This One!

www.JawadKhan.net


Tracking Keyword Rankings



Critical: Set Up “Goals” / “Conversions”



Understand Your Website’s Conversion Funnel


Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions

Hopefully, this means a customer is going to

come buy some cheese!

15% 10%

www.JawadKhan.net


Step 10: The Web is Not Static;

Test & Improve

More Traffic



More visits to the home page means more people will decide to visit

15% 10%

www.JawadKhan.net


A Better Funnel



A better “conversion rate” means more people who already visit the site will come to the store!

25% 20%

www.JawadKhan.net


A/B Split Testing Resources:


http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer - Free, but sometimes complex/confusing

http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ - Awesome tool – easy to use, popular, good plugins

http://www.sitespect.com/ - Don’t personally have experience with this one

http://www.optimizely.com/ - Another great option with excellent visuals

http://unbounce.com/ - Hosted, so no dev required! Very easy to use and well made

http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/

http://www.sitespect.com/

http://www.optimizely.com/

http://unbounce.com/

Step #1: Discover

Step #2:Test

Step #3: Measure

Step #4: Repeat

Find inbound marketing paths that look promising and make a list.

Invest a few days/hours building authentic value in that niche/sector.

Use your web analytics to track primary + second-order impact

Throw out low ROI projects; repeat high ROI ones.

Test Marketing Channels

Ranking Well is Not Enough

We Must DESERVE to Rank in Order to

Win in the Long Run

www.JawadKhan.net

Jawad Khan - 10 Steps to Effective SEO

Technology

Transcript of Jawad Khan - 10 Steps to Effective SEO