7. Search Engine Quality Guidelines
All major search engines
have documentation
Bing: www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2009/09/03/search-engine-optimization-for-
bing.aspx
Google: www.google.com/support/webmasters
8. Google Webmaster Guidelines
What To Do
• Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable
from at least one static text link
• Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately
describe your content
• Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that
your site actually includes those words within it
• Make sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and
accurate
• Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your
site
• Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server
9. Google Webmaster Guidelines
What To Avoid
• Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you
display to users
• Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or
PageRank
• Avoid hidden text or hidden links
• Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects
• Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords
• Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate
content
• Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter"
approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. If your site
participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#1
10. SEO comes down to 2 Aspects
Discovery Relevance
If your pages don’t get How relevant is your content
discovered, you won’t get to the query a user is
any search traffic searching for
If you block access to your If your cooking site ranks for
site, crawlers won’t discover Credit Card, you might be
your content considered a spammer
11. Google is changing…Fast…
Back-end Infrastructure Front-end UI
• Caffeine • SPYW
• MayDay • One-Box
• Panda • Instant Search
• Personalized
• Local
21. SEOmoz Ranking Factors
Yearly survey and data analytics to construct how search engines rank
websites
• Survey among 130+ SEO professionals -> Opinion!
• Data study on 10K+ randomly sampled keywords
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
25. Links – Internal & external Links
• Links are still major ranking factor in SEO
• Internal Links; Site hierarchy & Taxonomy
• External Links; hard to get, no control over Anchor text
• Don’t buy Links! Earn editorial Links by being remarkable!
– http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_likes
25
26. Webmaster Guidelines
Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links
Use text instead of images to display important names, content and links
Next step:
• Which pages have incoming links?
– Webmaster Central
– Referral traffic
• Rank pages with links from high to low
• Group pages on topics
• Interlink relevant pages
– Build strong hierarchy in site structure
– Use keyword rich anchor tags
29. Link Magnets; using remarkable
content to pull more links
Sorts of link bait: • Shock
• Contests • Controversy
• Lists • Insult
• First time
• Give value
• Cool
• Design
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/long-exposure-photography
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/24/the-day-250000-people-showed-up-at-my-blog-case-study/
30.
31. Link Magnets
90 links
1,210 links
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/long-exposure-photography
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/24/the-day-250000-people-showed-up-at-my-blog-case-study/
40. Guest Blogging
Build links through guest
blogging
• Use your best content
• Link to relevant
resources
• Pay attention to your
Bio
http://www.twitip.com/why-twitter-will-go-mainstream-in-2009/
41.
42. SEO Ranking factors framework
Tactic Projects to improve Discovery Relevance
Linking • Internal Link (Plugins)
• Internal links • External links
• External Links • Link bait
• Guest blogging
URL structure
• Canonical URL
• Keyword rich
Meta Tags
• Page title
• Verification
Page Content
• Unique content
• Semantic mark up
Feeds
• Sitemaps
44. URL structure – Control through
Permalink settings
http://thenextcorner.net/5000-miles-journey-of-a-keyboard/
45. • common words like “what”, “you” or “can” out
of your post slug to make it more search
engine friendly
http://www.vretoolbar.com/news/2007/04/01/seo-slugs-
wordpress-plugin/
46. URL structure – Control through
Permalink settings
VS
http://thenextcorner.com/2010/03/fish-free-wifi/
http://thenextcorner.net/men-macro/
47. Date based URL’s vs keywords
Through Advanced segments in
Analytics, I can break out all
traffic on publication dates
49. Canonicalization
Each page should only have one URL
Each specific combination of content should only have
one URL
1. http://www.example.com/?id=1&p=2
2. http://www.example.com/?p=2&id=1
49
50. Rel Canonical
If you cannot prevent duplicate content, pick a
canonical version, and use Rel Canonical to point
duplicates to the Canonical URL
<link rel=“canonical” href=“http://example.com/canonical-url/”/>
Solution: Canonical URL in Plug-in
http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
50
51. SEO Ranking factors framework
Tactic Projects to improve Discovery Relevance
Linking • Internal Link (Plugins)
• Internal links • External links
• External Links • Link bait
• Guest blogging
URL structure
• Canonical URL • SEO-slug plugin
• Keyword rich • Canonical tag plugin
• date vs. non date URL’s
Meta Tags
• Page title
• Verification
Page Content
• Unique content
• Semantic mark up
Feeds
• Sitemaps
53. Meta Tags
Meta tags are HTML elements used to provide structured
metadata about a web page
<head>
<title>eBay Daily Deal: Great items, deep discounts, and free
shipping</title>
<meta name=“description” content=“Attention dealhunters: Save
money on eBay with the Daily Deal. Check back every day for
great items, deep discounts, and free shipping.”>
<meta name=“keywords” content=“deal, deals”>
</head>
56. Short inspiring titles
70 Characters
1. Google Title only shows 70 characters
2. Viral spreading easier if you leave room for RT
Canon 5200mm F14 SLR DSLR Lens http://bit.ly/8v140T What a
BEAST! @problogger
Think about:
• Short URL: 20-26 characters
• RT @username: 12-15 characters
• Twitter only allows 140 characters
61. SEO Ranking factors framework
Tactic Projects to improve Discovery Relevance
Linking • Internal Link (Plugins)
• Internal links • External links
• External Links • Link bait
• Guest blogging
URL structure • SEO-slug plugin
• Canonical URL • Canonical tag plugin
• Keyword rich • date vs. non date URL’s
Meta Tags • SEO for Wordpress from Yoast.com
• Page title • Site verification
• Verification
Page Content
• Unique content
• Semantic mark up
Feeds
• Sitemaps
64. Content Elements
• Use H1 – H6 where relevant
• Use Images
http://customblogging.com/seomike/archives/seo-tips-tricks/strategically-placed-faces-help-conversion
75. Image Optimization
• File name: Graffiti-New-York_Usual-Suspects.jpg
• Alt text: Graffiti New York Usual Suspects New York fotos
• Text on page
http://thenextcorner.com/2007/10/new-york-fotos/
76. SEO Ranking factors framework
Tactic Projects to improve Discovery Relevance
Linking • Internal Link (Plugins)
• Internal links • External links
• External Links • Link bait
• Guest blogging
URL structure • SEO-slug plugin
• Canonical URL • Canonical tag plugin
• Keyword rich • date vs. non date URL’s
Meta Tags • SEO for Wordpress from Yoast.com
• Page title • Site verification
• Verification
Page Content • Unique quality content
• Unique content • Be remarkable (what is your purple cow)
• Semantic mark up
Feeds
• Sitemaps
81. SEO Ranking factors framework
Tactic Projects to improve Discovery Relevance
Linking • Internal Link (Plugins)
• Internal links • External links
• External Links • Link bait
• Guest blogging
URL structure • SEO-slug plugin
• Canonical URL • Canonical tag plugin
• Keyword rich • date vs. non date URL’s
Meta Tags • SEO for Wordpress from Yoast.com
• Page title • Site verification
• Verification
Page Content • Unique quality content
• Unique content • Be remarkable (what is your purple cow)
• Semantic mark up
Feeds • Google sitemap (plugin)
• Sitemaps
83. Keywords
• Create a useful, information-rich site, and
write pages that clearly and accurately
describe your content
• Think about the words users would type to
find your pages, and make sure that your site
actually includes those words within it
110. 301 Redirect
3 302 Redirect
Sign on the front door reads:
Bad for SEO
We Temporarily Moved to
0 534 High Street
Keep coming back to our
old address each visit before going to
124 Main Street 534 High Street to 534 High Street
2 see if we’ve returned
Post Office NOT notified
No history, New Page
PageRank Stays Here
3 301 Redirect
Good for SEO
Sign on the front door reads:
0 We Moved to
534 High Street
124 Main Street
534 High Street
1 Post Office notified
Please update your address book
PageRank Transfers
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.
Meta tags do help you in the search engine results.The way your site is being presented is fully in your control through:Page titleMeta descriptionURLMeta tags check list:Make sure all pages have an unique page titleMeta description is the marketing message you can advertise your site in the SERP’sURL: short has a better user experience
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.
Linking: Focus is to:1: use what we currently have in terms of link juice2: gain more juice through deep links into the siteURL structure: eBay needs to invest in core development to keep up with industry changesMeta content: Page title is still an important ranking factor. Through TFNS we can optimize each individual page title per keywordPage content: Leverage existing content, and especially where we have invested: Catalog content. Removing the PTS module from AMI, has resulted in burrying the PDP’s. These pages cannot be found by SE crawlersSitemaps: Sitemaps is a great tool to help the search engines to find our best content.