A presentation I gave @ Search University 2012. Rock solid tips & takeaways on how to improve your overall SEO strategy for large websites. Topics covered, such as: - SIte architecture - Internal linking - Microformats - XML sitemaps - Site speed

1. 1

2. SEO & large websites
Sven De Meyere
10h20 – 10h40

3. SEO & large websites
About me...

4. 4

5. Over there...
5

6. SEO & large websites
Introduction...

7. Why this topic?
‣ Been there, done that
‣ Lot’s of misconceptions
‣ Large is the new ‘normal’

8. Topics
‣ Key factors & quickwins
‣ Optimize the workflow
‣ Which tools to use
‣ How to measure
‣ 8 rock solid takeways

9. SEO & large websites
Key factors & quickwins...

10. Site architecture & internal linking
Image source: https://seogadget.co.uk/solving-site-architecture-issues/

11. Site architecture & internal linking
Image source: https://seogadget.co.uk/solving-site-architecture-issues/

12. Site architecture & internal linking
Image source: https://seogadget.co.uk/solving-site-architecture-issues/

13. Site architecture & internal linking
‣ Horizontal & vertical linking
‣ Navigation
‣ Breadcrumbs
‣ Footer links
‣ Header logo
‣ Impact increases with number of pages

14. Smart use of XML sitemaps
‣ Standard XML sitemaps = band-aid solution
‣ Site architecture > Sitemaps
‣ Index sitemaps
‣ Image sitemaps
‣ Video sitemaps
‣ News sitemaps

15. Smart use of XML sitemaps

16. Index XML sitemaps
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml.gz</loc>
<lastmod>2004-10-01T18:23:17+00:00</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml.gz</loc>
<lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

17. Microformats
Resource to check: http://schema.org

18. Microformats
‣ Improvement in CTR
‣ Small (development) cost
‣ Template -> scalable impact
‣ Semantic data markup
Resource to check: http://schema.org

19. Microformats
Resource to check: http://schema.org

20. Site speed
‣ Crawl rate & indexation
‣ Server costs
‣ User experience
‣ Amazon research: 0,1s loading time = -1% sales

21. SEO & large websites
Let’s get to work...

22. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will
take you there..

23. Get the basics right
Get the basics right
Image source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-seo-fundamentals-pyramid

24. First you automate...
‣ Use the power of templates
‣ <title> template
‣ Meta description template
‣ <h1> template

25. First you automate...
<title>$productname - Buy now, only $price! | $brandname</title>
<meta name="description" content="Looking for $productname? Available in our
webshop at $price. Fast delivery and money back guarantee.">
<h1>$productname</h1>

26. Then you analyze...
‣ Top organic landing pages
‣ Top converting pages

27. Then you digg for gold...
‣ Manual re-optimization of key pages
‣ More specific <title>’s (longtails?)
‣ More specific meta descriptions (advantage?)

28. Get everyone on board
‣ Everyone can help (PR / HR / Marcom / ...)
‣ People like to be involved
‣ Provide training
‣ Share data

29. Some competition, maybe?
‣ Get inhouse people to write content / blogposts
‣ Track author through custom vars in GA
‣
_setCustomVar(1, Author, Sven De Meyere)
‣ Declare winner each month:
‣
Most organic visits / leads / sales / revenue

30. SEO & large websites
The large website SEO toolkit

31. Large website SEO toolset
On-site & off-site monitoring
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Bing Webmaster Tools (seriously!)
• SeoMoz campaigns
Rankings
• Webceo
Link analysis
• MajesticSEO
• Open Site Explorer

32. Use the available API’s
• SeoMoz link metrics
• MajesticSEO
• Webceo online

33. And build your own tools

34. SEO & large websites
Measuring your failure success...

35. Different sets of metrics
• Business metrics
• SEO metrics
• Link metrics

36. Business metrics
• Organic (non) branded revenue!!!
• ROI

37. SEO metrics
• (non) Branded keyword rankings
• # organic (non) branded conversions
• # organic (non) branded visits
• # unique organic landing pages
• Top X organic (non) branded landing pages
• # unique organic keywords
• Top X organic (non) branded keywords

38. Link metrics
• On domain level • On page level
• Domain authority • Page authority
• # external links • # external links
• # referring root domains • # external referring root domains
• % follow vs nofollowed links • % follow vs nofollowed links
• % anchor text VS branded links • % anchor text VS branded links
• # internal links

39. Benchmark your progress
• Short term
• Compare with previous month
• Careful: trends & seasonality?
• Long term
• Compare with same month last year
• Careful: changes on-site or in Analytics config?

40. SEO & large websites
8 rock solid takeaways...

41. 8 key takeaways...
1. Horizontal & vertical internal linking
2. Use index XML sitemaps to discover weak spots
3. Microformats: boost your organic CTR
4. First things first: get the basics right
5. Automate when possible, adjust when necessary
6. Get everyone on board
7. API’s: use them!
8. Larger websites -> different metrics for success

42. Thank you.
And now, coffee please...!
sven@wijs.be
twitter.com/demeyeresven