Presentation given on June 27, 2013 by Top Floor Technologies' Justin Kerley and Seth Stauber.

1. Maximizing Your SEO Results
June 2013
Welcome!

2. Agenda
• Introductions and Overview
• How SEO Can help your business
• Search Engine Basics
• Keyword Research & On-Page
• Link Building
• SEO Tools
• Questions & Answers

3. Introductions

4. A Brief Introduction to Top Floor
Technologies

5. Top Floor Technologies
• Website Design &
Development
• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics &
Conversion Improvement
• Marketing & Branding
Strategy
Maximizing Online Marketing Results
for Hundreds of Businesses Since 1999

6. Getting the Most
From Today’s Workshop
Write down 2-3 learning points
that you will begin putting into
action within the next two
weeks. Then – follow through.

7. When you search for
something
online, where do you
start?

8. When your prospects &
customers search for
vendors online,
where do you think
they start?

9. Overall Share of Searches
Source: ComScore
Google
66%
Yahoo
14%
Microsoft
15%
Ask
3%
AOL
2%

10. B2B Preferred Search Engines
Source: Enquiro Business to Business Survey
Google
77%
Yahoo
14%
Microsoft
7%
Others
2%

11. The Power of Search
• Over 100 billion global searches each month.
• Inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound
leads.
• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while
outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate.
Source: searchenginejournal.com

12. Being found
on Google

13. SEO – Organic Results
 Over 80% of
activity on the first
results page (top
10 results)
 Keys to success:
 Keyword
analysis
 Content
development
 Linking strategy
 Monitoring &
updating

14. Justin Kerley
SEO Manager, Top Floor Technologies
Seth Stauber
SEO Specialist, Top Floor Technologies

15. Search Engine Basics

16. Search Engines Crawl The Web
Search engine “spiders” follow links around the
internet, downloading the pages they discover to
their index.

17. Indexation
• In order to appear in search results your website
must be in the search engine’s index.
• It is essential that search engines can find your
website and crawl the content of the website you
want to appear in search results.

18. A User Does a Search
When someone does a web search, the search engine
pulls all of the pages they feel are relevant for the query.

19. The Results are Ordered
Search engines use an algorithm to determine the
relative authority of each page and ranks the pages.

20. • Uses the link structure of the
Web to assign a quality score to
individual pages.
• An objective measurement of a
page’s citation importance on a
scale of 1 to 10.
• Not all links are equal!
PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web

21. PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web

22. Maximizing Your SEO Efforts
• Ensure Google can find and index your website.
– Technical SEO
• Build a target keyword list.
– Keyword Research
• Optimize you website for your target keywords.
– On-Page Optimization
• Build a quality back link profile.
– Link Building for Penguin
• SEO/Data Analysis Tools

23. Technical SEO

24. Is Your Website Indexed?
Do a search to test using the “site:” search operator.

25. Is Your Website Indexed?
The number of results found should be close to the
actual number of pages on your site.
…too few pages indexed may mean
there are crawl issues on your
website...
…too many pages indexed may mean you are
introducing duplicate content into search
results or are failing to properly redirect old
pages...

26. Crawl your website to identify potential crawl issues.
Crawl Your Website
• Find improper redirects
• Find crawl loops
• Understand the content and structure of your website.
Xenu Link Sleuth Screaming Frog

27. Crawl Your Website: Screaming Frog
Example
Enter domain and hit startSet filter to HTML and export to Excel

28. What to Look For
• 302 Redirects
• 404 Errors
• Title Tags, URL structure, Meta Descriptions.
• Was all your content found?

29. Certain lines of code in your website’s source code, or files on
your website, can prevent your website from being crawled and
indexed.
Common Indexation Barriers
• Improper meta robots tags
• No followed links
• Improper robots.txt file

30. This meta robots tag tells search engines not to index
the page and not to pass PageRank to any pages link
to on this page.
Improper Meta Robots Tags

31. This no follow tag tells search engines not to pass
PageRank to the linked page.
No Followed Links

32. Improper Robots.txt
This robots.txt file tells search engines not to crawl the
entire website.

33. Proper Robots.txt
Robots.txt files can be used to tell search engines not
to waste their time crawling sections of the website or
content you do not want indexed.

34. Speed Up Indexation With an XML
Sitemap
• An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of the URLs of your website
that you want indexed.
• Rather than relying on search engines discovering your
website, submit your sitemap to search engines via Google
Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure they
will find your website.

35. Create an XML Sitemap
Use Screaming Frog or Xenu to create an XML sitemap.

36. Create an XML Sitemap

37. Google Webmaster Tools

38. Site Architecture

39. Example Website

40. Keyword Research

41. Your keywords
Your SEO
Importance of Keywords

42. Is this person having a heart attack or is he
experiencing acute myocardial infarction?
Speaking the Right Language

43. Words
Phrases
SEO
Search
SEO Keywords
Keyword for SEO
Keyword Research: The Process

44. Keyword Research: Start Small

45. Get Larger: Visit Your Website

46. Get Larger: Visit Competitors’
Websites

47. Go to any page and hit ctrl + u (Chrome and Firefox)
Get Larger: Visit Competitors’
Websites – Source Code

48. Get Larger: Google Analytics

49. Three Questions to Answer:
• Are people searching for this term?
• Can my site rank for this term?
• Is it relevant to your product/service?
How to Choose the Right Keywords for
You

50. Google Keyword Tool

51. Google Keyword Tool

52. Desired keyword:
2 dozen roses
Refine Your Keywords: Test in SERPs

53. On Page Optimization

54. Keyword Mapping
• Keyword mapping is the process of assigning
target keywords to specific landings pages.
– Helps focus optimization efforts.
• One keyword idea per page.
– Target synonyms and variations of keywords on one page.
• Avoid keyword cannibalization.

55. On-Page Ranking Factors
• URLs
• Title Tags
• HTML Headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Keyword Usage in Copy
• Image Optimization
• Internal Linking
• Meta Descriptions*
*Does not impact rank but are important for SEO

56. URLTitle Tag
Headings
Keyword
Usage in
Copy
Image
Optimization
Internal
Linking

57. URL Optimization
The URL is the address of a page on the World Wide Web

58. VSStatic Dynamic
• Static URLs are easier for search engines to read.
• It can be hard to manage the length of dynamic
URLs.
• Static URLs experience greater click through rates in
search results (dynamic URLs look “spammy”).
• Dynamic URLs can create duplicate content.
• Dynamic URLs are sometimes necessary for large
websites with a lot of content.

59. URL Best Practices
• Incorporate target keywords in your URLs.
– Do not “stuff” keywords in URL.
• Separate words in with hyphens.
– Spaces and Strange characters can break URLs.
• URLs are case sensitive, do not use capital
letters.
– Can create duplicate content issues.
• Shorter URLs are better than long URLs.
– Limit page and subfolder names to 4-5 words.

60. URL

61. Old URL
New URL
URL Optimization Example
301 redirect old URL to new URL!

62. Title Tag Optimization
The title tag, or title element, defines the title of a document and is
required for all HTML/XHTML documents.

63. Title Tag SEO Practices
• Keep URLs under 70 characters.
– Only 70 characters displayed in a search result.
• Use Keywords near the front of the title tag.
– Do not over use keywords.
• Brand your title tags.
– Place your company name last in your URLs
• Use hyphens or pipes ( | ) to separate
keyword phrases.

64. Title Tag

65. Title Tag Optimization Example
Old Title Tag
New Title Tag

66. HTML Heading Optimization
• Headings provide a hierarchical
structure to the content of an HTML
document.
• A way to divide content into
subcategories.
• Tags range from H1 to H6 with H1
signifying top of the hierarchical
structure.
• Use CSS to style headings
appropriately.

67. HTML Heading Best Practices
• While title tags are the title of your
document, the H1 tag is the title of your
content.
• Only one H1 tag per page.
– Heading tags are for structure not design.
– Can use multiple H2 – H6 tags.
• Use keywords naturally in H1 tags.
– In H2 and H3 tags where it makes sense.

68. Headings

69. HTML Heading Optimization Example
Old H1 Heading
New H1 Heading

70. Keyword Usage in Content
• Use keywords in the copy of the page.
• No magic formula for keyword usage.
– Keyword density?
• Synonyms can count.
• Diminishing returns on keyword usage.
• Write for users, not search engines!

71. Keyword
Usage in
Copy

72. Keyword Usage Example
Old Keyword Usage
New Keyword Usage

73. Image Optimization
• Search engines cannot see images.
• Use descriptive image alt text.
• Use keywords in the file name of the image.
• Be mindful of file size.
– Large files slow down page load times.
– PNG of GIF
– Compress image files, save for web.

74. Image Optimization

75. Image
Optimization

76. Image Optimization Example
Old Image Details
New Image Details

77. • Anchor Text is the word or phrase highlighted when creating a
link
• This text is an indicator to what the destination page is about for
both users and search engines
• Use targeted keyword in your anchor text
Internal Linking Optimization

78. Internal
Linking

79. Old Navigation
New Navigation
Internal Linking Example

80. Meta Descriptions – Don’t Be Afraid to Advertise!

81. 155 Character Limit
Meta Descriptions – Don’t Be Afraid to Advertise!

82. Old Meta Description
New Meta Description
Meta Description Example

83. Final Product

84. It’s time for a
coffee break.

85. Link Building for Penguin

86. Your Website
• Authority
• Trust
• Higher Rankings
High Quality Link Building

87. • NoFollowed vs. Followed
• Only pursue links from quality
websites.
– Check to see if site has PageRank
and is indexed.
• Never purchase large volumes of
links.
• Avoid link schemes.
Link Building Basics

88. • Current Business Relationships
– Partnerships
– Associations
– Distributors
– Chamber of Commerce
• Local and Industry Directories
– Make sure the site is indexed and
has PageRank
• Company Mentions
– Search for your brand and find
people already talking about you.
Start With Low Hanging Fruit

89. • Identify direct competitors as well
as website competing for the
same keywords.
• Analyze back links with Open Site
Explorer and pursue any links that
would be relevant for you.
• Identify your competitors’ linkable
assets.
View Competitors Backlinks

90. View Competitors Backlinks

91. Identify Linkable Assets

92. • Most time intensive, but highest
quality links.
• Blogging and Guest Blogs
• Videos, Images, and Digital Media
Content Creation

93. Tools
• home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
• www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
• www.google.com/webmasters/tools
• www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
• www.google.com/analytics
• adwords.google.com
• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pagerank
-status/hbdkkfheckcdppiaiabobmennhijkknn?hl=en
• www.opensiteexplorer.org

94. Q & A

95. Advertising on Google’s
Display Network
Thursday, July 25, 2013 – 1:00 to 3:30 PM
Visit www.topfloortech.com/seminars for
details or to register
Join us next month for a new
seminar event …

96. Thank You!
Please leave your comments on the
seminar feedback forms.