14 steps to successful SEO.

About Us: Sample Companies

“Think about what a user is going to type.” Matt Cutts, Google

Intro

- I spent 2003-2007 at eBay, in part focused on user acquisition and SEO

- While the web has evolved, the basics of SEO

remain the same… and SEO is arguably more important today: - Google is dominant search engine, and - Paid acquisition gets more expensive by the day

How it works: basic overview.

Google’s three steps: 1. Google must first FIND your content. 2. After CRAWLING your site, they INDEX the pages. 3. And ultimately RANK them within the greater index.

3. Ranking

2. Indexing

1. Crawling

14 guidelines From very high level :)

1. Content is King.

Google’s goal is to match each search query with the best, unique content. That can come from any site / author. (obviously NYT.com has advantage over ryanspoon.com)

But: the best content wins in the long term. It’s that simple :)

1. Content is King.

Search “Nike Air Max 95” Nicekicks.com #1, #2. Nike.com #3, #4. Why? Better content.

Search “Canon Rebel”. Amazon #1. Canon #2, #3. Why? Better content.

Page is huge! Product description, reviews, related products, etc

2. Keyword Portfolio.

What queries do you want to target? Considerations: - How realistic & relevant is the query? - Will target customers search it?

- Is there enough volume for that query? - Is it already too competitive? - Who is the competition: big brands?

Once you target queries, build a corresponding keyword portfolio.

2. Keyword Portfolio.

A great way to build the right keyword portfolio: 1. Use Google’s Traffic estimator 2. Then analyze results for those queries

3. Findability.

Content is King…. But Google has to be able to find it! Best practices: - Link to content from high ranking / traffic pages - Feature mix of popular, recent & ‘random’ content - Create topical hubs, guides, and lists - Leverage header, footer and/or sidebars - Update robots.txt (overview coming, #4) - Create Google Sitemap (overview coming, #11)

3. Example: Yelp

Best of lists: best content, continuously refreshes, easy to navigate.

Homepage content includes: popular and new places. Content & categories refresh.

Top locations linked right from the top. “More” links to sitemap.

Category list: each link goes to topical hubpages.

3. Example: Wordpress.com

Content mix: popular, new and changing variety.

Each tile features specific blog post and blogger. Each linked respectively.

Links to topic pages (“posts about Cars”). This goes to a topical homepage.

4. Accessibility.

- Not all content should be accessible to search engines. - Robots.txt files declare what should / shouldn’t be crawled. - Note: it’s a public file. Anyone can see what sections you ‘hide’. Learn more: - About: http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html - Robots.txt checker: http://www.robotstxt.org/checker.html

5. URL Structure.

URLs are as important as the text! Should be descriptive and reflect the content.

Good Bad

5. URL Structure: Tips

- Use keywords - not encoding! - For needed encoding, minimize and move towards end - URL keywords should reflect content & headers - shorter URLs put more weight on keywords (“pitchdeck”) - URLs that are too long appear spammy & dilute keywords

6. Page Titles & Headers.

Similar strategy to URL structure: 1. Remember your query goal / keyword mix 2. URL + Page Title + Header should be related 3. Short and crisp > long and descriptive extra words are dilutive! 4. Headers should read like a newspaper: - most important (H1) go atop - declines left-to-right and top to bottom

6. Example: HuffingtonPost.

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/mitt-romney-new-hampshire-primary-results-2012_n_1195638.html

Page Title: Mitt Romney Wins: New Hampshire Primary Results 2012

Header: Mitt Romney Wins: New Hampshire Primary Results 2012

Content: reflects the above

7. Meta Tags.

- Less important than URLs, Titles and Headers… - But meta tags are easy, small wins and can impact conversions by improving search result content:

Notice the search title & description are same as meta tag. OPTIMIZED by Amazon.

8. Anchor Tags.

Anchor Tags are important for two reasons: 1. They’re hyperlinks so they improve findability 2. They give context to links The same keyword targeting / optimization should apply to anchor tags as it does to URL, Title, Headers, Metas.

9. Google Sitemaps

Google Sitemaps are automated feeds that alert Google of new, updated content. Particularly useful for: - large amounts of content (i.e. Yelp locations) - dynamic content (i.e. eBay listing pages) - tough-to-crawl sites (i.e. search driven, lots of AJAX) Improves findablity and crawling. …but does not affect rankings.

10. Indexing Images

Images are integrated into core search & in Google Images Use Alt Tags to optimize images for surrounding target keyword(s)… and to provide another route to accessing that demand: <img src=”URL.gif” alt=”shawn marion” title=”shawn marion dallas mavericks”/>

11. Blogging (Wordpress)

Blogging is a tremendously powerful. And under-utilized. Wordpress is a great tool for SEO, traffic acquisition. Tips: - install All in One SEO Pack Plugin - make sure site “visibility” & “pingomatic” are on - Optimize URL permalinks (per step #5!)

11. Blogging (continued)

Other tips: Write about what’s currently being searched (Google Hot Trends is a great tool)

Distribute & spread Submitting to Twitter, Facebook (public), Reddit, etc helps with findability. Having other sites cover & link is better!

11. blog.readyforzero.com

11. blog.kissmetrics.com

12. Adopt New Media, New Formats

Search results pages continue to change. Google wants the most relevant and current content & formats. It’s your advantage to be a first-mover and to adopt new platforms & formats: - Social: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc - Local: Yelp, Google Places, etc - Images & media: ie YouTube

12. New Media (Example)

From images to videos to blogs to location – each format is a chance to optimize and drive traffic.

13. Track, Track, Track.

Look at the data to determine what’s working & what to target: - Referring queries - Rankings for those keywords - Your competitors rankings - Related keywords, queries - Breakdown by source / search engine Tools: Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, SEOmoz, Seobook

14. Bounce Rate.

Remember: Traffic from search is usually a first time visit. You must also optimize for retention, conversion. The landing page must be descriptive, welcoming and actionable. SEO is top of the funnel. Reducing bounce means increasing conversion.