seo crash course: website rebuild
DESCRIPTION
Creating a friendly site structure to improve search presence.TRANSCRIPT
@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
SEARCH RANKING CRASH COURSE
@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
WEBSITE REBUILD
CREATING A FRIENDLY SITE STRUCTURE TO IMPROVE SEARCH PRESENCE
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Search engines find important pages
Users navigate to important pages
Search engines value page relevance
Users quickly get to relevant pages
Search friendly website
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Link & Navigation Structure
Document & Page Structure
URL & Site Structure
Three components of great architecture W
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@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
WEBSITE REBUILD
URL & Site Structure
Part 1
b-e-a-utiful.com
PerfectBeauty.blogspot.com
HowToImproveYourImage.com
TotalBeauty.com
PerfectBeauty.com
BeautyIsBeautiful.com
Get your own
Keep it short
Make it memorable
Use keywords if possible
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Choosing your domain name
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Abbreviated
Misspellings
.net, .org
.com
What to do with alternate domains
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Use canonical tag! <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com"/>
www.example.com
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/home.asp
Fix bad canonical issues W
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Keep it Short
Use Keywords
site.com/chanel/perfume/alure.html
site.com/category/page-name.php
Make your URLs search engine friendly W
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Keep your home page at the root level W
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Prevent secure / non-secure page duplication
1 Product 2 URLs
Prevent breadcrumb page duplication W
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www.thehomedepot.com/building-materials/electrical/books/123book www.thehomedepot.com/doors-windows/doors/books/123book
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Hyphens eMarketingPerformance.com/my-dog-ate-my-homework/
Vs
Underscores eMarketingPerformance.com/my_dog_ate_my_homework/
Is that a space?
Use hyphens, not underscores
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Avoid using session IDs
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Home
This directory structure is too flat
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Home
This directory structure is too tall
Home
Keyword Keyword Keyword
This directory structure is just right W
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@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Link and Nav Structure
Part 2
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Home Contact
Basket
Categories & Brands
Search
Link to Primary Site
Sections
Link to Most Important
Pages
Organized site navigation
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Keep anchor text descriptive
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No: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
No: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
Yes: Learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
Yes: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
Use keyword rich link text
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Build optimizable filters, not pagination
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Don’t allow cart links to be followed
Index product pages
Keep search engines out of cart pages
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password protected areas
Pages found through search, forms,
dropdowns or select boxes
Don’t block content from engines
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Good Link
Implement search friendly links
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Bad Link
Run away from search un-friendly links
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Meh Link
JavaScript:window.open(‘http://www.smartfurniture.com/product/5670/’, ‘newWindow’)
Avoid meh-friendly links
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User-agent: *
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /land/
Disallow: /RP/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /misc/
Disallow: /archive/
Disallow: /can-spam.php
Blocking pages via the robots.txt file
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<meta name=“robots"
content=“noindex,nofollow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“noindex,follow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“index,nofollow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“index,follow”/>
Blocking pages via robots meta tag
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<a rel=“nofollow”
href=“blocked.htm”>
Blocked Link</a>
Blocking pages using the NOFOLLOW attribute
Rel=“NoFollow”
Category & Tag Pages
Untrusted Sites
Ads
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New Old
X Link redirect
Visitors &
Engines
301 redirect old URLs WEB
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@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Doc and Page Structure
Part 3
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Home
Topic A Topic B Topic C
Amazingly similar to directory structure!
Create strong link hierarchy
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. mollit anim id est laborum. • mollit anim id est laborum • mollit anim id est laborum • mollit anim id est laborum id est laborum id est laborum
Link to related content wherever possible
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Create fan-freaking-tastic content!
Clearly written
Accurate
Keyword driven
Text, not images
Organize your content WEB
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Purpose Beginning Middle
End Exposes
Need Provides Benefits
Call to Action
Personas Personalities
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Proper HEADING tag hierarchy <h1>One H1 per page.</h1>
<h2>Use outline format.</h2>
<h3>Keep content organized</h3>
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Streamlined code: No bloat!
No • HTML Tables
No • On-Page Styles
No • On-Page Javascript
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Clean code helps
Reduces Code Errors
Improves code/text ratio
Increases Page Speed
Validated HTML WEB
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Cleaner Code
• Additional keyword signal. Make sure you use it right!
• Generally not an issue with smart phones, but for those who pay for downloads…
• Browsers for the visually impaired will read the descriptions of images
• Yes, some people still surf with images off. Image navigation disappears.
Text only browsers
Accessible browsers
Search Engines
Mobile browsers
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Use image ALT attributes
Ensure multi-browser accessibility WEB
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Build mobile compatible sites
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Ensure sight-impaired accessibility
Use CSS to Style Print
Duplicate Content Free
Create printer friendly CSS, not pages WEB
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Don’t force cookies until needed
@PolePositionMkg #SearchRankCC
Wrap up
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Delight your visitors WEB
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The Pole Position Marketing Library
http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/library
Keep making it better WEB
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19 usability improvement areas • Website design • Global navigation • Content • Home page • About us page • Contact us page • Product pages • Shopping cart • Forms and errors • On-site search
• Help and FAQ • Login & my account • Privacy & security • Site maps • Audience engagement • Customer satisfaction • Point of purchase • Visitor trust • Accessibility • General issues
Don’t forget usability issues
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Thank You! Next Up Content Overhaul
Get noticed, drive traffic and convert visitors with relevant content marketing