confoo montreal : seo for dynamic websites

TECHNICAL SEO FOR DYNAMIC WEBSITES

Confoo, 2011

1

SEO FOR DYNAMIC WEBSITES

2

INTRO

CT Moore

• Agency Hack with @nvi

• Staff Editor with @revenews

• Blogger/Geek @gypsybandito

SEO for Dynamic Sites

3

CONFOO

Agenda• Intro / Overview

• SEO – 3 Core Principles

• Information Architecture

• Linkjuice 101

• Coder Cheat Sheets

• Do’s & Don’ts

• Canonicalization Issues

• Site Speed

THE SEO OPPORTUNITY

4

OVERVIEW

Search Behaviour

• 73% of users don’t go past 1st page of SERPs.

• 71% don’t go past the first 5 results.

• Only 10% go to the 3rd result.

• Only 4.5% go to the 5th result.

THE SEO OPPORTUNITY

5

OVERVIEW

Americans spend 138 million hours a

month searching.

– AdAge, Aug. 2010

THE SEO OPPORTUNITY

6

OVERVIEW

• 78% of Canadians online will use search engines to research online and offline purchases

• 27% of those who researched product info online purchased online

• 45% of those that searched for product information online still purchase via traditional retail

• In 2009, search represented over 41% of overall online revenue, $741 million in Canada

• 106 million search engine queries a day in Canada

• 77% of all Canadian Internet traffic starts from a search engine

• 98% of online users rely on search engines to find websites

Source : IAB 2010 & Comscore 2009.

FORECAST : US INTERACTIVE SPEND FROM 2009 – 2014

7

OVERVIEW

Source : Forrester’s Interactive Advertising Models, 4/09 and 10/08 (US only) .

SEO SEEN AS MOST EFFECTIVE IN GENERATING CONVERSIONS

8

Search

Most effective digital marketing tools for generating conversations

Source: © Copyright FORBES 2009

SEO & PPC ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE TACTICS WHEN IT COMESTO RESULT ACHIEVEMENT

9

Search

Results vs. expectations for digital marketing compaigns

Source: © Copyright FORBES 2009

SEO FOR DEVELOPERS

10

CONFOO

Really? Why Bother?• SEOs often recommend developing more sites / widgets / apps

• SEO needs ongoing web dev monitoring to preserve momentum

• SEO revenues can crash after poorly executed site revamp

• SEO = #1 strategy to grow user-base more dev work

• SEOs depend on web devs knowlege to create tools & tricks

• SEOs always want the same stuff over and over (easy to please)

• SEOs hate outsourcing to India

SEO “101”

11

CONFOO

INDEXATION + RELEVANCY + POPULARITY

• Removing any hurdle to the crawlers is key for a perfect indexation• Map your site architecture in accordance with semantic verticals to reach ideal relevancy• Balance the quantity, quality, aging & regularity of your linkgraph to maximize popularity

3 CORE PRINCIPLES OF SEO

12

CONFOO

INDEXATION• Technical Solution that respects SEO Best Practices• Site Architecture Mapped to Semantic Verticals• Archiving that preserves content integration & interlinking forever

RELEVANCE• Optimizing Keywords into Silos• Internal linking strategy that distributes SEO & PageRank value

POPULARITY• Quantity / Quality / Age / Frequency of links obtained• Semantics aspect of backlinks (anchor text)• Diversification of backlink entry points (hub pages)

SERIOUS STUFF

13

SITE ARCHITECTURE

14

CONFOO

Building Content

• Sites Categories

• Content Siloing

• Keywords & Categories

• Short Tail vs Long Tail Keywords

SITE ARCHITECTURE - CATEGORIES

15

CONFOO

More than half of all traffic comes through search.

SITE ARCHITECTURE – SILOS

16

CONFOO

Categories should be defined by keyword themes.

SITE ARCHITECTURE – KEYWORDS

17

CONFOO

Shorter tail keyword = more competitive they need more support from the long tail.

KEYWORDS – SHORT vs LONG TAIL

18

CONFOO

Long tail often has 5-10 times the searches of short tail root keyword – i.e. “laptops” vs “buy HP laptop”

Linkjuice

19

CONFOO

Link Basics

•Search engines ‘crawl’ sites by following HTML and other links

•They consider the quality and quantity of links pointing to a page =

Link Popularity

•Pages Need Link Popularity (or juice) to get indexed and rank

•YOU get to control which pages on your site get indexed, and

which ones get linkjuice.

•A page being indexed by search engines is different from that

page’s ability to accumulate or pass on link juice.

AgendaAgenda

Agenda

LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET

20

CONFOO

Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice

Robots.txt (file in root)

EG: Disallow: /news/pdf-copies/

Stops pages or directories from appearing in Search Engine indexes

Pages ‘blocked’ by robots.txt can still accumulate and pass linkjuice

Block what you don’t want indexed:

Session IDs / dupe URLs: Disallow: *partner=*Entire directories: Disallow: /news/pdf-copies/ Internal SERPs: Disallow: *car-search-query=*External affiliate links: Disallow: *GO.cgi*

If excluded pages have external links, expect 'URL-only' listings: No title, snippet, size or cache. For no listing at all, allow bots & use Meta noindex


21

CONFOO


On-Page Meta No-Index(<head> of page)

EG: <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”>

Stops the page from appearing in Search Engine indexes entirely.

Pages ‘blocked’ by robots.txt can still accumulate and pass linkjuice.

You may want to use Meta Noindex if: you can’t alter your robots.txt, or if robots.txt standard is not flexible enough, or if you don’t want URL listings.


22

CONFOO


On-Page Meta No-follow(<head> of page)

EG: <meta name=“robots” content=“nofollow”>

Stops spiders from following the links on the page (which may still get indexed via other links)

The pages can still accumulate linkjuice (and rank), but can’t pass it on

You may wish to nofollow an entire page like a list of paid sponsors.


23

CONFOO


Rel=nofollow(in an <a href> link)

EG: <a href=“http://non-trusted-site.com” rel=“nofollow”>

Stops spiders from following a specific link. They don’t crawl or discover through nofollow links.

Stops Linkjuice from flowing through a specific link.

Past controversy on its use within a domain to ‘sculpt PR flow’ and if that is still enforced by Google. For pre-established or efforts already in place, consider switching nofollowed links to javascript links to ensure a similar effect.


24

CONFOO


301 Redirection(many types of implementation)

EG: redirect /old/page.php /new_page.php [301, permanent]

Spiders follow redirect and discover new pages.

Search Engines transfer linkjuice from old pages to new pages.

If any URLs change, this is the best way to shift linkjuice from old to new.301s are the only way to transfer linkjuice from one domain to another.


25

CONFOO


Canonicalization tag(<head> of page)

EG: <canonical =“/proper/product/page.php“>

Spiders go to referred page like a 301 redirect . Does not work across domains.

Search Engines transfer linkjuice from variation pages to real page.

• A new approach to both indexation control and linkjuice control• Supported by The Big Three: Google, Yahoo, MSN• May be cheaper than redoing your entire site from scratch, for now• May see faster results than redoing your entire site• May become a maintenance nightmare• Can turn out to be as or more complex than doing it right from scratch


26

CONFOO


Javascript Link EG: <div onclick="document.location.href='http://www.domain.com/'">

Google tries to crawl and index if URL is easily to access – in onclick or href

If crawlable, Google will try to pass linkjuice

• Before rel=nofollow, many SEOs used uncrawlable JS links for sculpting. This is starting to get popular again.• May not carry as much weight, and should not be used as main navigation

FREE SEO TOOLS #1

27

CONFOO

Google Webmaster Tools

•Identify Crawl problems (spider data over time!)

•Find duplicate titles and meta descriptions

•Quickly identify 404 issues

•List your pages by internal or external links

•Manage and find errors in sitemaps

•Test your robots.txt file against specific URLs

•Basic domain canonicalization (www to non-www)

FREE SEO TOOLS #2

28

CONFOO

Xenu Link Sleuth•Find broken links (sort by status)

•Find duplicate title tags (sort by title)

•Find heavy pages (sort by size)

•Find pages too many clicks from home (sort by level)

•Find pages with too few internal links (sort by In links)

•Find images without ALT text (sort by type, scan title field)

•Test non-canonical URLs (from a text file) and view status

•Find outgoing links to broken pages or expired content

•Find bot traps (like open ended calendars)

Free SEO Tools #2

29

CONFOO

DO’S & DONT’S – 101

30

SEO

Source : SEOmoz Search Ranking Factors 2009

TOP 5 FACTORS

1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links

2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)

3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)

4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag

5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains

TOP 5 NEGATIVE FACTORS

1. Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent.

2. Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers

3. Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages

4. Cloaking by User Agent

5. Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility

DO’S & DONT’S – ONSITE

31

CONFOO

SEO To-Do•Define your IA and determine canonical URLs for hub pages across all

major categories, with expansion ability

•Use breadcrumb style navigation – Put all new content in it!

o EG: Home > Kitchen > Major Appliances > Stoves

•Include relevant category-specific navigation at each level

•Make interlinking mandatory! Include in-content links to similar pages

around the site, and give links from other pages

•Keep updated HTML and XML sitemaps for all new content

•Learn all the (new) ways to control indexation and linkjuice flow

DO’S & DONT’S – ONSITE

32

CONFOO

SEO Don’ts•Let the same content appear on more than one URL

•Just throw content up without linking to it, or linking from it

•Spread your linkjuice thin over pages without unique content

•Leave open ended page scripts like calendars

•Archive poorly (or not at all) without respect to your IA

•Return server headers other than 404 for error pages

•Think you can fix linkjuice distribution issues with robots.txt

CANONICALIZATION ISSUES

33

CONFOO

Duplicate Content•Domain.com VS www.domain.com VS www.domain.com/ VS

www.domain.com/index.php

Category & Product Pages

•…/product.php?category=clothing&sub-category=pants&gender=mens

•…/product.php?gender=mens&category=clothing&sub-category=pants

•…/product.php?category=clothing&sub-

category=pants&gender=mens&color=blue

CANONICALIZATION ISSUES

34

CONFOO

Quick Checklist

•No Capital letters, special characters, or spaces use dashes

•Parameters in URLs are fine but only if variable order / useless

variables are taken care of – try to also limit to up to 5 parameters

•Use standard HTML tags (<H1>, <ul>, <a>)

•Session ID variables should likely use the canonical tag

•Avoid code-bloating: place visible content higher in the code

ROADBLOCKS 101

35

CONFOO

•In the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox, turn off javascript and Meta Refresh.

Visit your homepage again. Ensure you get the same page and not a blank one.

•Leave javascript turned off and click around your site. If navigation is fluid, fine. If

you are not able to navigate for your main pages, fix it.

•Ensure that there is no content that can only be reached after filling a form or xyz

signup.

•Make sure your www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt file doesn’t block all visiting

spiders. This is the most deadly and most common mistake when a website

relaunch occurs.

•Ensure you have installed Google and Bing webmaster tools and that both of them

run without any major crawling issue. Fix everything!

http://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt

SITE SPEED

36

CONFOO

• Page speed matters (now). So benchmark yourself against leaders. In a

way, that’s fun, you can create “Page speed contests” now.

• To do so, install Google Page Speed and Yahoo’s Yslow.

• Run them on your home page and at least a few random internal pages

• Follow every recommendations for: image optimization, gzip

compression, javascript “minification”, CSS “minification”.

• Once this is done, look at subtler speed improvements they recommend.

• Moving to a stable Cloud environment isn’t a bad idea either.

CONTACT COORDINATES

37

OUTRO

Drop Me a Line...

• Email: [email protected]

• Site: NVIsolutions.com

• Blog (EN): NVIsolutions.com/BLOG

• Blog (FR): Go-Referencement.org

• Twitter: @nvi – @gypsybandito

confoo montreal : seo for dynamic websites

Technology