What is SEO? What Effects SEO?

Live Examples What Can You Do? Tracking Results Resources & Tools Q & A

Search Engine Optimization A definition: The modification of a web site’s

build and content to better position the site in the natural/organic results of the major search engines.

Pull vs. push marketing Why Search is So Hot The SEO Process White Hat vs. Black Hat Which Engines to Target?

Consumer skepticism towards advertising Consumer trust in advertising has plunged 41% in the

past 3 years – only 10% of consumers say that they “trust” ads today

With today’s media choices, the consumer is increasingly in control 70% of consumers are actively trying to block out, opt-

out or eliminate advertising iProspect study shows that 61% of internet

searchers think natural listing are more relevant B2B users have a 63% preference for organic

listings Organic listings get higher conversion rates than

paid

Source: “Searchonomics: Search Statistics Made Fun,” by Christine Churchill

5 step process: Reporting Research Optimization Submission Follow Up Reporting

White Hat Quality content creation Light keyword

optimization Sound website building

tactics Everything out in the

open Nothing designed to trick

the search engine or the user

Black Hat Cloaking Hidden text or tiny text Keyword stacking or

stuffing Use non-related keywords Duplicate pages/ duplicate

content Domain spam /

cybersquatting Re-directs Page swapping

Most the traffic surfing through Google. It around 83.46% of total searches

Yahoo have 7.83% & Bing have 4.85%

Where does the optimization happen? On-Page Factors

Content is King Evaluate existing content Make recommendations for additional content with targeted keyword phrases

in mind Prominence of keywords in content Regular updates will bring spiders more often >> higher rankings

Build Spiderability or Indexability

Site Navigation & Site Map Stop Characters

Title, <H1>, meta and alt tags Trim down code

Off-Page Factors Link Popularity

Quality of Incoming Links (backlinks) e.g. PR4+ Age of backlinks Links in prominent directories (ODP, Yahoo Directory) Anchor text of inbound links

Age of Site

Spiderability A measure of if or how well a site can be

indexed (or crawled) by a search engine spider Site Navigation Site Map Splash Pages Frames

A view from a spiders’ eyes SE Spider Simulator:

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

Live Examples Seek out victim(s)

Use keywords only once in each tag Use unique tags for each page – don’t copy and paste

throughout Title

Lead with most important keyword phrase 8-10 words, or shorter Max of 75 characters, including spaces Will be used as the search results listing link Write titles that serve as an ad campaign

Heading Lead with single most important phrase for that page See my site as example

Meta Description Maximum of 150 characters, including spaces Will be used to describe site in some SEs search results

Use to your advantage – treat as an ad Alt

Keep it related to a description of the image Live Examples

Move JavaScript and CSS to external files Moves site content (read keywords) up in the

code, giving them more importance Decreases download time for the user Decreases download time for the SE spiders Makes universal changes easy with edits to only

one document

Encourage your clients to spend time on quality content development

Build sites that have the following: Text-based navigation Site map with a text link to it on every page No splash pages Contact info on every page Design layout that allows for plenty of content Use the page titles and other tags to your advantage Move css and javascript code to external files Don’t build with frames Limit the use of flash In a re-build, keep pages names the same if possible

Site Traffic Log Analysis

Web Trends Tracking Script

Net Applications Information

Tracked Level of traffic Source of traffic Changes over time

Site Rankings Web Position

Specify engines and phrases

Shows rankings and changes over time

Sample Report

Search Engine Watch (and SearchDay newsletter)

www.searchenginewatch.com Link Popularity Checker

http://www.linkpopularity.com/ Yahoo Search Marketing Keyword Tool

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/ Search Engine Spider Simulator

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php SEMPO

www.sempo.com Google Local (now called Google Maps)

http://local.google.com/ Yahoo! Local

http://listings.local.yahoo.com/ Online Web Training (certification programs)

http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/ Search Engine Visibility (by Shari Thurow)

http://www.searchenginesbook.com/