seo demystified by havas digital

SEODecember, 2009

Demystified

Review The Basics and LeaRn How to appLy advanced on- and off-page Seo tacticS to impRove siTe VisiBiliTy

http://www.havasdigital.com

© 2010 Havas digital

Havas Digital

Mark eganSvp, director of global new BusinessHavas [email protected]

MarTa MarTinezglobal Business development Havas digital [email protected]

roB griffinSvp, director of Search, data & analyticsmedia contacts [email protected]

leaD conTriBuTors

raVi kaBramanaging director center of excellence [email protected]

Polyana oliVeiraSeo analyst media contacts São [email protected]

sTeVen skroceSeo manager media contacts Boston [email protected]

carolina VicenTe Head of Search media contacts United [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]







Havas Digital

1. what is Search engine optimization? types of Seo . . . . . . 4

2. Seo Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3. Research Keyword Research | competitor Research 7

4. on-page Seo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5. off-page Seo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

6. a case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

8. contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

conTenTs

· Robots.txt (13)

· Sitemap.xml (13)

· HtmL & cSS (13)

· internal Link Building (14)

· anchor texts (14)

· nofollow attribute (14)

· HtmL Site map (15)

· URL migration (15)

· content (9)

· title (9)

· ia, URL - the website address (10)

· content Heading Hierarchy (11)

· accessibility & HtmL Use (11)

· Use of flash (12)

· JavaScript (12)

· frames (12)

· webmaster portal (13)

· Social networks (22)

· not So white (23)

· who Links to the Site? (24)

· videoSeo (24)

· images (26)

· Sharing tools (18)

· Building Links (19)

· directories (20)

· other methods of Link Building (21)

· Social Bookmarking (22)

4

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of structuring a website and devel-oping links to the website so “crawlers” or search engine robots can easily find, read, understand and categorize the content.

once the search engines have completed the site crawl this data is then stored in the search engine’s index and used to retrieve the most relevant content based on a search engine user’s query. a well optimized website that includes relevant keywords and au-thoritative inbound links will, over time, rank well in organic search.

Search engine optimization is ultimately a communications plan for search engines so a website can be found during a relevant inquiry.

WhaT is search engine oPTiMizaTion? 1

Why is SEO important?

according to nielsen over 75% of consumers use a search engine to find information about products and suppliers. for many businesses, up to 50% of new traffic is sourced from a search engine.

However, most of the traffic tends to go to the top ranking websites for any specific search term. click through rates for a number 1 ranking are typically 40% falling to 15% for a number 3 ranking. a recent study showed that most consumers will modify their search query if a suitable listing is not found within the first Search engine Results page (SeRp).

generating traffic requires term-discovery which in turn requires high ranking within search engines. Search engine optimization provides the steps to achieve a top ranking for any given search term.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION IS A COMMUNICATIONS PLAN FOR SEARCH ENGINES

SO A WEBSITE CAN BE FOUND DURING A RELEVANT SEARCH ENGINE ENQUIRY.

According to Nielsen, over 75% of consumers use a search engine to find out information about products and suppliers. For many businesses, up to 50% of new traffic is sourced from a search engine.

5

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

1. what is Seo?

Types of seo

Seo has been around since the late 1990’s when google’s first appearance forced yahoo, inktomi, altavista and Looksmart to move away from a directory approach. the basic strategies and campaigns have since matured into different types of Seo that vary depending on the businesses objectives.

for Seo campaigns the most common priorities are campaign support, brand awareness, customer retention and customer acquisition. these will decide the breadth and time of the project as well as where and how the site is optimized.

Campaign support tends to involve brand or language specific optimization for online video, micro-sites and page/page clusters within a site. more recently, optimization for brand awareness has focused on social media. Brand awareness is wider with the goal of increased exposure on search engines earlier in the ‘search journey’ or buying process of the consumer.

Customer retention usually involves concentrating on specific brand-based searching so returning customers have easy access to the company’s website and any unique product lines. Customer acquisition (ca) targets high sale-converting search phrases that tend to be used when a customer is looking for a supplier and wants to purchase immediately. ca may also involve targeting Local Search for offline sales or vertical search engines like youtube, yahoo finance and google product search. all campaigns are complicated by the customer’s domain knowledge, price sensitivity and frequency of purchase.

every communications plan begins with the business marketing objectives and the priorities placed on each objective. Seo is no different. in addition, the path a Seo campaign takes is also swayed by the technical support and capability of the business and the timeframes in which the business must achieve those objectives.

once the business priorities are revealed, Seo campaigns will go through a process to develop a strategy.

caMPaign suPPorT

cusToMer reTenTion

cusToMer acquisiTion

BranD aWareness

6

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

generally, when devising a full search engine optimization strategy, Havas digital looks at the following elements:

• Research · the words search engine users apply compared to those directed by

the business objectives.· Search trends to understand what is emerging or reducing.· targeted phrases and strategies employed by competitors.· gaps between the business objectives and what the customers are searching for.

• Technical analysis· the overall capability of the website to allow search engines to access,

understand and index well.· identifying any impediments and improvements.· Understanding how search engines currently interpret a website.

• Content Optimization· identifying any gaps between what the search engines understand

and what is trying to be communicated.· developing content and recommending coding techniques to bridge these gaps.

• Link analysis· Understanding whether other websites and search engines see the site

as an authority on the subjects being optimized for.· developing a plan to increase that level of authority.

• Strategy· developing projections and targets for particular rankings.· providing a recommendation on the best way to optimize towards

the business objectives.

• Delivery· ensuring campaigns are implemented alongside changes to the website.

• Measurement· Key performance indicators (Kpi) developed during the strategy are reported.· the progress of each campaign is tracked.

seo sTraTegy 2

7

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

the next stage of any Seo project is research. the first step is to understand the keywords targeted by the business and what is searched by users. when developing the content for a site, questions that should be asked are: “what does my site do for my users?”; “How would my users search?”; and “what will make my users eventually convert?”

Keyword research

These questions bring together the business goals with consumer behaviour and turn it into customer actions. do the words on a website tell the user what the website will do for him or her and reinforce why the visit is valid. is the site e-commerce oriented? are words such as, “buy,” and “price of” in your product’s pages? is the site an online bank?

for a new visitor unfamiliar with the Brand, make sure emphasis is on the products by function and not by name per se. make sure that marketing speak is also integrated with what consumers are looking for. for example, in the case of banking sites, preference is given to “checking account” and “savings account,” over special product names. (ide-ally product names would be created to be search friendly).

Since search terms are incredibly important, a number of keyword research tools exist that identify the words and phrases people use when they search. Some of these tools also identify geo-targeted searches, topics, demographics and the target visitors’ user behaviour according to historical search trends.

research 3

keyWorD research Tools useD By search MarkeTers WorlDWiDe*, 2008 (% of ReSpondentS)

note: *US (65%), canada (12%), UK (11%), australia (4%),

new Zealand (1%) and other (7%).Search engine marketing insight,

“Sem pro Series 2008”, december 9, 2008.

Source: www.eMarketer.com

google keyWorD Tool 24.1%

WorDTracker 19%

coMPeTiTiVe research 17.2%

keyWorD DiscoVery (Trellian) 15.5%

google TrenDs 8.6%

google / yahoo! / suggesT5.2%

Msn laBs3.5%

yahoo! search assisTanT1.7%

oTher5.2%

http://www.eMarketer.com

8

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

3. Research

the keywords suggested by these tools identify terms to integrate into the content of the site. they also provide information on whether the business is aligned with con-sumer preferences. the historical volumes of search data should also prioritize terms and project traffic levels from rankings.

after selecting keywords for optimization, a brand can use paid search to test the results. the key performance indicators from this test help highlight the terms that drove results as candidates for Seo. web analytics can also provide additional insights to the terms already drawing users to a website.

if the site wants to target a specific user, then focusing on the “long tail” is important. long tail keywords are those which contain more than two words and are often descriptive. with more sites competing on search engines, this strategy has become more important. However, success with generic one-word keywords (shoes, tires, cruises, etc.) for a well optimized website may negate the long tail effect.

the following are strategic examples for marketers and site owners. if a site owner no-tices people looking for store locations, then local search optimization would be part of the Seo strategy. if the competition includes dominant domains like amazon or wikipe-dia, then leveraging a vertical or specialist search engine like google products or yahoo finance can also work.

additionally for local search, if a customer is looking for pizza to be delivered in Brooklyn, “pizza delivery,” is not going to provide a satisfactory search. the right way to help that customer find relevant results would be to optimize the site for, “pizza delivery Brooklyn Heights new york”.

compeTiTor research

Identifying competitors and their share of voice within search engines provides valuable insight into delivering successful strategies.

an assessment of each com-petitor should reveal the overall ranking position of the website in relation to top keywords and phrases within the targeted key-word list. identify strengths, op-portunities, and content strate-gies in use by the competition. checking competitors’ back links used to increase distribu-tion of competitor brands will help identify techniques for building a website’s authority and ranking capabilities within search engines.

9

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

the technical capability to access information and the content on the website determine whether a website will index well on search engines. for content there are also various elements that search engines look for as clues to the subject of the website and impor-tance of particular words.

conTenT

put simply, a website needs to say in text what it is about. it needs to use the language, words and phrases of your audience. websites that fail to optimize content will not be included within the search engine’s index for those terms. the placement, use, and detail around the words must be relevant and repeated in a normal, logical syntax.

TiTle

the ‘title tag’, besides attributing a name to the page, is also displayed in the top left corner of the browser window when open to the page in question.

the ‘title tag’ text also represents the first line of information a user will see in Search engine Result pages (SeRps) in the form of a link to the page.

some points worth making on Title Tags and their bearing:

• Search engines will provide more emphasis to the subject of a page based on the page’s title.

• This title is the link in the SERP results. It also gives the potential user an idea as to what the page is about.

• The title should be limited to 66 characters. This is the highest number of characters major search engines will show in SeRps for a single result. pages which have longer titles than this will risk having important keywords cut off from search results. it is also helpful to be exact in the description to avoid diluting the target phrase.

on-Page seo 4

10

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

• It is crucial that key phrases relevant to the content of the page be used for the title. in addition to giving the user information about its content, it raises the importance and density of terms that should be ranked in SeRps.

• Meta Keywords provide clues to some search engines of the related content. Although google and yahoo do not use them as a determining factor, representatives from major search engines recommend including meta Keywords as there may be use for them in the future. notwithstanding, they pass on information to search engines if aligned with each page’s content.

• Meta Descriptions often show in SERPs so it’s important to provide information about a page’s content. they are, in essence, promoting a call-to-action to the page.

• It is also important the Meta Description is aligned with the content of the page. The meta description must make use of important keywords from the page itself. these meta tags should be developed individually according to the content of each page on a website, highlighting targeted keywords.

ia, Url - The websiTe address

the information architecture (ia) provides the crawl path for search engines to in-dex a website. websites designed with few internal links are difficult to index as search engines’ primary source of discovering content is by following these links. a well struc-tured, three-level website with strong internal linking between similar subjects and an easily accessible menu structure will provide accessible crawl paths for search engines. the information architecture can also provide unique, strong opportunities to index well on search engines by leveraging anchor links (see internal link building).

URLs that contain keywords related to the page’s content will also help in the ranking position of a site in SeRps. all search engines publicly support optimized keywords in URLs. additionally, they are intuitive for the user. generally what is good for users is also beneficial to search engine indexing.

<meta name ="pagename" content ="Havas : Home Page" /> <meta name ="title" content =" Havas is a worldwide communications Group " /> <meta name ="description" content =" Havas is organized in 2 worldwide networks: Havas Worldwide & Havas Media" />

<meta name ="keyword" content =" Havas , vincent bolloré, jacques séguéla, fernando rodes, david jones, havas group, publicité, advertising, marketing, media planning, media buying, branding, market research, communications, communication, euro rscg

11

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

URL Keyword Optimization

• Name site categories with keywords that are also search terms typed in by search engine users.

• Use keywords in different levels of the site’s URLs (each word in the URL should be separated by a hyphen).

• Use keywords that are the same as or similar to the page’s title.

conTenT heading hierarchy

Search engine robots follow heuristic guidelines pointing out which parts of a page contain more important text than others. this helps search engines to crawl through the page more easily while prioritizing certain words over others and defining what the page is attempting to portray. in addition to defining page content hierarchy, it is also important to note that cleaner HtmL (no in-line formatting or JavaScript) also helps raise content weight.

the image below shows the importance of HtmL code units in the eyes of the search engines. this should serve as a guide in determining the site’s semantics.

accessibiliTy & hTml Use

in order for a site to be Seo accessible, search engine crawlers should be able to read all important information on a site. think of google as a site’s most influential user. Barri-ers to accessibility exist on many sites and this handicap is seen in their SeRp rankings. a few of these barriers are the use of flash, JavaScript, and frames.

how to optimize a url?

12

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

Use of flash

Sites in flash without the use of alternative text can be virtually invisible to search en-gines. Search engines can only read text, so when a site in flash is not built with instruc-tions for where to go for non-flash enabled browsers the content is effectively non-ex-istent to search engines. the issue is simply remedied by inserting alternative content. this will only be visible to the user without an installed flash player and will be indexed by search engines. it’s important that the content inserted in this placeholder match the content in the flash file so it will not be considered spam. if the flash is inserted via Java-Script, the <noscript> tag can be used. a better option is to use the Swfobject (code.google.com/p/swfobject/). this method allows for a javascript-based standards-friendly way of making flash content accessible to browsers without flash installed, including screen readers, text-based browsers and search engines.

JavascripT

JavaScript should only function to change the page’s behaviour (e.g., form validation, user interaction with the page) and not to generate content. this is recommended be-cause search engines’ robots cannot parse between text and code in content-generated JavaScript. therefore the robots will not index relevant page content. ajax based sites will need to ensure that the code is written in a way that allows search engines to index the content in the specific modules created by the designers.

frames

Using a frame allows web developers to divide a site’s page into two or more sections. each section has different HtmL and is compiled into a sole “master” HtmL which iden-tifies each section. when a user solicits a page with frames, many pages will be shown in different frames.

these frames are used often to separate parts of a page that are usually fixed (menus, headers, etc.) from those that are dynamic or alternative (content). despite facilitating the maintenance of a site with many pages, the use of frames can be inconvenient to search engine robots. it is not rare to see frames indexed separately from their pages in search engine results where the user is only able to see one part of the page’s content when clicking on the result. However, used properly, frames can also be a logical divider between the content to be indexed and the content that shouldn’t be indexed, while presenting visitors with a complete picture. if a marketer or individual decides to use frames, it is important to include the <noframes> tag.

13

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

webmasTer porTal

a website owner is able to authenticate ownership of the website, run diagnostics on links and direct search engine robots through the search engine’s webmaster portal. this helps in small measure to identify how well the website has been optimized, as well as ensuring that the robots.txt file works correctly on the website.

roboTs.TxT

a robot.txt file can be used to tell robots which pages to crawl. it is placed in the server root and often notified to search engines through the webmaster portal. the robot.txt protocol permits unimportant content to be separated allowing for search engines to crawl relevant content only.

siTemap.xml

a sitemap.xml is a file inserted into the site’s root directory which lists all URLs on the site. a verified account on google, yahoo & Bing allows access to the site. from there the site map directs the search engines to all the URLs to be crawled, how often to return to each page and what priority is put on each page. as of this year priority is not taken into account by the engines. a great place to read about the sitemap protocol can be found at www.sitemaps.org.

hTml & css

when developing a site with Seo in mind, HtmL formatting should be kept minimal to provide quick access to content . this should be done using cascading style sheets (cSS). the HtmL simply points to the externally referenced file. cSS can also ma-nipulate the Heading Hierarchy to fit the design while still placing importance on the hierarchy itself.

http://www.sitemaps.org

14

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

inTernal linK bUilding

when link building, many sites focus on external link building and forget about the benefits of internal linking. internal linking shows search engines what the most im-portant content is. it also allows the site to be crawled easily. a good example of this can be found at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wiki).

anchor TexTs

anchor text is the text inside a link that informs the user and search engines of the page’s content. a link with “click here,” or “Read more Here,” does not indicate to either the search engine or the user what the link is about when isolated from its surrounding text. this is why having an optimized link with relevant keywords is crucial for Seo.

the construction of an anchor text in HtmL is:

<a href=“http://www.sitename.com/.../...” texttexttext </a>

in order to keep user navigation on a desired page, a link to open the link in another tab or window can also be developed. this allows the user reading an article to view linked pages in separate tabs or windows and return quickly to the original article. the code for this would incur a “target blank” attribute:

<a href=“http://www.sitename.com/.../...”target=“_blank”>texttexttext </a>

nofollow aTTribUTe

the rel=nofollow attribute tells search engines that a link is not vouched for by the site on which it is found. it is supported by many search engines and in most, including google, nofollow links do not pass link influence to the referenced page.

overall, this attribute is only recommended for pages like ‘terms and conditions’ that add no value in “sculpting” a websites’ pageRank. a better way to help search engine robots reach important pages on a website is to avoid burying valuable goal-convert-ing pages within the website. as discussed above, pages should be easily accessible through proper use of anchor links.

l2Pr 3

hPPr 1

hPPr 2

l2Pr 0

hPPr 0

hPPr 3

hPPr 1

hPPr 2

hPPr 3

hPPr 3

hPPr 0

hPPr 0

hPPr 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

15

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

hTml siTe map

a page with links to main sections of the site eases indexing of pages by search engine robots. By presenting it in a summarised format, the use of a site map is important for improving the site’s visibility, especially for sites that have content inside flash files. it can also be used as a default for 404 and 500 pages to present consumers with naviga-tional options when a page link is no longer valid and has been archived or removed.

the site map helps users and search engines find important information quickly and relevant links for the site.

Some of the characteristics of this informational page are:

• It should be in the same directory as the main website in order to increase its popularity and relevance.

• The links and anchor text should be in the page’s HTML code.

• The site should contain a link to the “Site map” page on the page’s footer and all other site pages.

• For very visual products a sitemap using pictures and anchor text allows in-creased repetition of key words on the page in an acceptable format.

• Google also recommends limiting the site map to a maximum of 100 links per page. if the limit exceeds 100 links per page, divide the site map into multiple pages. XmL sitemaps can be much larger in size. their limit is 50,000 URLs per file.

Url migraTion

a website’s pages sometimes expire or are removed as time passes and business needs change. whether the site is changing its domain, redesigning or evolving as part of normal business practice, the expired url still exists within search engine indexes. to guard against poor user experiences and to retain any Seo benefit from the expired page, the old URL can be migrated. for this migration process, two optimized strategies should be followed:

• use 301 redirects for removed or moved pages (an exception can be to use a 302 or temporary redirect if the site is going through a product update and the link will not be deleted).

• For very large sites, redirect the more important pages and have the less important pages generate a custom 404 error page (page not found error) that includes a mean-ingful sitemap. the use of 301 redirects should be solely for pages worth the effort.

16

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

4. on-page Seo

the 404 pages are to a great extent more natural when developed adequately. an ex-ample would be “whichever combination of characters in the URL that aren’t pages, should return a 404,” guaranteeing the non-existent pages on the site bring the correct response to search engines (404) and that the site’s internal pages don’t point to non-existent pages.

multiple domains can also redirect traffic using a 301 server redirect. this prevents the search engines seeing duplicate content as well as passing Seo benefits to the main website. a redirect is also necessary to ensure search engines only index the preferred dnS landing page (i.e. http://widget.com lands on http://www.widget.com).

Some tips on expired pages:

• Search engine robots seem more interested in sites that present 404 pages and index them better (they return more frequently to verify if the 404 pages continue to be unavailable).

• Using a Robots.txt stops search engines from indexing non-existent site pag-es or temporary pages, such as calendars, programs, etc

• Optimize 404 pages. Once search engines get there, they will most likely find a path in which to follow to other pages on the site. this page should be a qual-ity page that presents positive options for the user.

• Check to ensure that the site’s internal navigation is updated frequently so as to prevent users and search engines from following outdated links

17

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

off-Page seo 5the internet is, simply put, a series of interlinked websites. the formulas employed by search engines use these links to assign authority to each website. the more reference links from a website, the more authority the search engines assign to that website which boosts its rank. the key to link building is distribution and link bait. Link bait is content people will want to link to. Link bait for an e-commerce site will be different than that of a magazine or bank, and so on. However, some general examples of linkable content are:

• Articles

• Press Releases

• Tools/Gadgets

• Videos

• Graphs/Charts

• Instructional Texts

18

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

sharing Tools

in order to encourage sharing of all this interesting content, there are a number of tools that are Seo friendly and help with external link building. However, many websites, espe-cially social networking sites, are limited by nofoLLow tags on links so the Seo ben-efit is not passed back to the website. these should be viewed as alternative mini-sites that allow indexing of further information about the business. this information relies on what other people are saying rather than conferring direct link benefits for the website.

“share This” Buttons

these buttons facilitate sharing in social networking sites. they can be developed by the site owner or found on sites that develop the buttons, such as “add this,” which even helps track the analytics of the button and its effectiveness (http://addthis.com). the buttons usually link to the site author and the technology can be leveraged to optimize titles as anchor text, depending upon the blog or social network.

Badges

Badges are like stickers people can paste onto their sites’ pages through a simple and already optimized HtmL code. they are not only beneficial linking tools; they bring the brand closer to the user by allowing the user to interact with it.

employing catchy phrases or making the badge a sort of affiliation sticker are some in-centives for users to place these badges on their pages.

http://addthis.com

19

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

Widgets/search tools

these small applications that people can place on their personal blog or website are natural links with controllable link quality. they can constantly feed into the page (like a twitter widget) or provide interaction and direct traffic (like google search box). once a marketer or site owner has built a widget or application, it is important to promote it in directories and social networks. two of the best widget directories are widgetbox (www.widgetbox.com/) and google’s gadget directory (www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open).

bUilding linKs

effective link building must always consider link quality as high quality links improve search ranking.

The quality of a link is based on multiple factors:

1. Website authority. website authority plays a key role in determining the quality of a link. the more the important the website (wSJ.com or mSn.com) the better the link value.

2. Pagerank (Pr). pageRank is google’s measure of the popularity of any web-page based on the way it is linked to other websites. Links coming from pages with high pageRank are considered to be of better quality than low pR links.

3. link Position. the position of a link on a webpage also determines its qual-ity. while stand alone links might be good, in-content contextual links are bet-ter. google in particular does not pay much importance to footer links or site wide links when evaluating them for quality.

4. outgoing links. the number of outgoing links on a page also influences the quality of a link. fewer outgoing links on a page increases the quality of those links.

5. link Volume. Quality is important in link building. volume cannot be ignored either. the higher the number of links to a page the better its Seo value.

6. relevancy. Relevancy is another key factor that search engines take into consideration while evaluating back links for any website. if the links to a web-site comes from other websites that are in the same niche, those links are given much more importance.

7. anchor Text optimization. Successful Seo campaigns require a well coor-dinated strategy. anchor text optimization highlights the need for coordination among all parties involved in the success of the site. this can include the crea-tive agency writing the copy for the site, the public relations agency crafting the

http://www.widgetbox.com/

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open

20

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

direcTories directories were the original search engines and a classic method of building links to a website. directories are websites that list other websites in a systematic and categorical way. webmasters can submit their websites to directories for consideration and once approved can list website properties within specific categories.

given the importance of directory links in the initial years of Search engine optimiza-tion, thousands of directories have mushroomed. not all of them are of good quality. as a consequence today, directory links are no longer valued as much as they used to be. there is however still a handful of directories that are considered of high quality by search engines. the fact remains that directory submissions are one of easiest way to build links for new websites.

the following criteria will help discern the quality of a directory:

• Good quality directories are human edited.

• Try to find how old the directory is – the older the better.

• Check how many websites are listed in the directory. If the directory requires payment that is a good sign.

• Check the sites listed in different categories and see if any spam sites are listed.

• Identify whether the directory is part of a search engine.

press releases, the Seo agency, etc. ensure the links to a webpage use targeted keywords as the anchor text. also ensure the anchor text used for the links are the same or are variations of the keywords that are used on the landing page. take care however, variations of keywords are important in the anchor text. Us-ing the same anchor text across all links might result in anchor-text spamming and raise an alarm with search engines.

8. no follow links. make sure the links established for a website are not using the “rel=nofollow” tag. when a link has the “nofollow” tag attached to it that tells the search engines not to follow the link and or pass on any pR credit to that website. these links typically do not contribute to search engine rankings.

9. Bad neighborhoods. as good quality links are appreciated by the search engines, links that associate a website with other bad websites are typically frowned upon. in any link building exercise it is important to avoid not becom-ing a part of any bad neighborhood (a cluster of bad sites involved in unethical optimization practice) or ffa (free for all) directories.

21

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

oTher meThods of linK bUilding

Besides directory submission there are a few other popular methods that help to build links for websites at no additional cost.

1. arTicle MarkeTing

writing informative articles with links to an individual or marketer’s website and syndi-cating them. the various article directories help to generate one way links to websites, augmenting the use of optimized anchor text.

2. rss feeDs

most web properties today have an RSS feed. if a site has an RSS feed with high content quality, make sure to submit the feed to RSS directories. this will help build links from RSS feed directories. also many publishers on the web scour these directories to find new sources of content. as readership to the RSS feed increases, the likelihood of ad-ditional links to the website grows.

3. Press releases

press Releases can also effectively build links. they function much the same way as article marketing, the only difference being in this case Havas digital submits press releases to various press release distribution services. while there are a lot of websites that provide free distribution of press releases, paid distribution services like pRwire offer a much wider reach. Submission into services like Reuters can also facilitate higher authority for the article as well as getting links from high authority press websites.

4. WeBsiTe reVieW

there are various websites and forums that conduct website / product / service reviews. Submitting websites to these review sites can be a good way to garner new links. these sites deliver the added benefit of a few suggestions on how to improve the website / product / service.

5. freeBies

distributing small freebies can be an excellent way to get links. a site can increase inbound links by creating useful shareable apps, widgets or tools for the webmaster/blogger community.

22

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

social booKmarKing

Social bookmarking is one of the most popular activities on web 2.0 and it is useful for Seo. Social bookmarking websites allow users to bookmark any content that they like on any website and share the same content with other users on their network.

a popular variation of this niche is content voting websites. Users submit content to the website and the community members vote on whether they like the site or not. crowd sourcing selects the best quality content.

how Does it help seo?

marketers and individuals can take advantage of social bookmarking services in multi-ple ways.

• While most of the social networking websites provide no-follow links to websites, some do provide a normal link without any no-follow tag. this increases link volume.

• Publishing an article on a social bookmarking website may put it in front of millions of users and there is the possibility that the content can become viral. with an expand-ing blogosphere it might be cited in blogs and websites generating additional links and traffic for a website.

for a brand new website, social bookmarking websites can be an easy way to index your website in the search engines. these websites house the submissions from millions of people with fresh content added continuously. Search engines are always indexing these websites to keep pace. Leveraging popular social bookmarking websites can provide additional links for search engines to reach a website.

social neTworKs

Social networks like twitter, facebook, Stumbleupon, etc. have also become a crucial part of the seo puzzle. these platforms bring tremendous marketing potential. now brands can develop presences within twitter and facebook that can be crawled and indexed by search engines. while each of these social networking platforms have their own dynamics, the underlying principle remains the same. it’s all about rapport building and sharing.

any content shared through these social networks can easily go viral due to the “net-work” level connectivity among members. in addition, when a piece of content reaches someone through a friend, it carries with it additional credibility compared to a mes-sage from an advertiser. according to facebook, “Huffington post launched facebook connect in mid-august, and now facebook accounts for 15% of Huffington post’s 2.2m monthly comments.”

marketers, brands, and individuals are reaching out to a larger audience through these platforms. providing link-worthy content through the social networks generates links. a caveat is that these social networks are increasingly carrying nofoLLow tags and thus

23

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

do not pass Seo benefit to the linked website. the key take away is to ensure that all Seo efforts are done to benefit the site user. algorithms may change in the future to take advantage of crowd sourcing, as seen in google’s selection of ratings and reviews for business.

noT so whiTe

Search engines’ approved methods for Seo and link building are referred to as White hat. other methods they do not approve of are referred to as Black hat or grey hat (when it’s a marginal issue). for link building and off page optimization, two major black/grey methods are link exchange and link buying.

link exchange - also referred to as link swapping or link trading, this is the most primi-tive method of link building. this is where a website links to another website in exchange for a link from that website. with the advance algorithms in place google has been able to discount these links; however, the links still work as it is extremely difficult to classify a true link exchange and a friendly linking practice. to elaborate, if a blogger links to a brands blog and the brand links back, it is a link exchange but the exchange might not have beeen done for the sake of manipulating search ranking. Rather it is part of the fluid nature of hyperlinking. cases like this can be determined by judging the intent and rely-ing on the webmaster/Seo community to report known sites engaged in the process.

link Buying - Link buying as the name suggests is simple – marketers pay a website to add a link to their site. google discounts these links as they unfairly influence search rankings. while search engines try to identify paid links they also rely on the webmaster community to report to them. the best strategy is to invest in tactics that will draw or-ganic links to a domain.

24

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

who linKs To The siTe?

as link building is a major component of any Seo campaign, it is important to monitor link growth. at the same time it is always helpful to keep a tab on competitors’ links. there are various ways to do this and search engines even provide tools to do so.

in yahoo!, link:http://www.mydomain.com highlights yahoo Site explorer’s feature al-lowing webmasters to see a detailed list of the link count under the “inlinks” tab. also, webmasters can use the other options to view links for a page/domain/sub domain etc.

in google, the link:http://www.mydomain.com command also works, however, goog-le is more conservative. they do not display the complete list of links to a website for this search query. to protect pageRank google displays just a few links.

google Webmaster Tools however provides a much more comprehensive link report to webmasters. it will provide page-by-page lists of the number of links. further, by clicking each page it displays the exact links to those pages along with the date when google crawled that link.

video seo

all major search engines have adopted the universal search model which serves results from videos, images, news and other verticals beside the regular web results for a search query. this has opened a great opportunity for Seos to work and optimize videos for specific keyword results.

getting a video to rank for certain keywords requires obtaining a thumbnail exposure within the text based environment of an organic search results list. videos are highly ef-fective as modes of communication compared to textual content and thus have much stronger engagement.

25

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

while the basic Seo principles apply to video optimization here are a few extra tips that can provide an edge:

:: hosTeD ::

• 1 video per URL

• Videos in Root site.com/videos

• Navigation links to content

• Embed not pop-up

• Contextual related links to product pages

• On page text

• Allow sharing/interaction

• Optimize permalink

• RSS 2.0 or MRSS sitemap

• Include thumbnail

• Set <video:player_loc allow_embed=”yes”>

• Bookmarking esp to FB

• File name

:: PosTeD ::

• File name

• Titles very important (<= 63 char)

• Vary titles across sites to cluster

• Descriptive text

• Tag liberally

• URL at start of description

• Branded channels

• Watermark inside URL

• Allow commenting/rating

Video Page Videoseo Benefit

Description

h1

Video

Transcriptrelated

content links

comments

Video content

category

include kP

key phrase

Video

index-able content

More link equity

ugc authority

link equity - Make

it similar to the

authority

26

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

5. off-page Seo

images

images are a vital component in the content of a website and if deployed properly they will drive a lot of traffic. Seos often overlook the number of searches in image search engines but there is a substantial amount of traffic for certain products and services. this traffic will also convert for specific categories.

Few things that can be done for image optimization:

• Image Naming

Use descriptive file names for images and include keywords where applicable. Use hyphens as separators for multi-word file names.

• Alt Attribute

add proper descriptive alt attributes to images with proper inclusion of key-words.

• Long Desc Attribute

for images with strategic importance to a website’s content, use a Long desc attribute to explain the image in detail. the attribute allows a developer to cre-ate a HtmL page with the description.

• Surrounding Text

the text surrounding a website’s images also helps search engines determine what the image is about. place images in context to suitably optimized text for best results.

• Image Size

optimizing image size is an extremely important step, not just for search engines. it helps the pages to load faster thereby enhancing the website’s usability.

27

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

a case sTuDy 6acme (not the real brand name) is a consumer packaged-goods brand, a global house-hold name since the 1990s. Havas digital manages acme’s display and ppc campaigns, but until recently acme declined Seo services. the client chose a time during a site redesign to implement a complete search engine optimization.

acme challenge

acme’s main business goals are to attract new and retain existing customers. Because acme’s product cannot be purchased online through its website, one of the key perform-ance indicators Havas digital uses to measure campaign success is volume of coupon page views. although not every consumer who downloads a coupon redeems it (and views of this page show purchase intent without segmenting visitors into new or existing customers), the metric can still be used to represent customers in that slice of the pur-chase funnel.

The challenge

To work with the creative agency tasked with the redesign; increase organic site traffic; and be accountable to the kPis.

Seo services provided prior to the redesign:

• Gained a baseline understanding of the old site performance.

• Keyword research.

• Recommendations on building and implementing a custom 404 error page.

• Mapped old URLs to new ones using 301 redirects.

• Wrote meta descriptions and meta keywords for each page.

• Wrote custom titles for each page.

Measuring success

Havas digital’s plan contributed significantly to site exposure and site ranking. Using the example of the term “acme coupon” the strategy:

• Increased Google ranking from the 60th position to the 1st position.

• Decreased cost per click 200% in the first month and 500% in the second month for the same time period last year.

• Increased organic traffic to the landing page over 400%.

28

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

6. a case Study

an additional measure of success calculates the total cost of the keyword and de-termines the effective cost per landing page view. from this data a savings is deter-mined. the formula used:

(time spent on keyword research / number of keywords) / 12 months = seo cost per month

(cpc x clicks) + Seo cost = Total spend

cpc pageviews + Seo pageviews = Total Pageviews

total Spend / total pageviews = ecPPV (effective cost Per PageView)

once the ecppv was calculated for pre- and post-optimization the savings is derived by:

• Post-Optimization Total PageViews x Pre-Optimization eCPPV = X

• Post-Optimization Total PageViews x Post-Optimization eCPPV = Y

• X - Y = savings

this bottom-line metric determines the effectiveness of the Seo efforts using dollars as a reporting criteria. the metric proves the Seo campaign pays for itself.

• The savings from the one coupon keyword alone was 4% of the entire Seo cost so far.

• The increase in organic traffic has driven the eCPPV down 67%.

29

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

suMMary 7search engine optimization provides one of the best ways to increase traffic to a web-site. the key to optimization is no longer shrouded in mystery. Seo can be easily applied by, first, understanding the keys to what makes search engines function and, second, providing relevant content to consumers. a study undertaken by Seomoz in 2008 looked to discover what the best practitioners of Seo agreed upon and tallied the results. the following are the top 5 Search engine Ranking factors:

• keyword focused anchor Text from external links

· 73% very high importance

• external link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)


• Diversity of link sources (links from many unique root domains)


• keyword use anywhere in the Title Tag


• Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. trustRank, domain moztrust, etc.)


this shows that content is still king. By starting with well optimized content and improv-ing link building, any marketer will reap the rewards of search engine optimization.

ToP 5 ranking facTors

1. keyword focused anchor Text from external links73% very high importance

2. external link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)

71% very high importance

3. Diversity of link sources (links from many unique root domains)


4. keyword use anywhere in the Title Tag66% very high importance

5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. Trustrank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)


Source: http://www.seomoz.org/

http://www.seomoz.org/

30

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

we encourage you to contact us directly to discuss, in more details, any concerns you may have regarding this Havas digital insight issue. We will be happy to assist you.

· [email protected]




or contact your haVas DigiTal local office:

conTacT DeTails 7

haVas DigiTal aRgentina

addReSS Humberto primo 101, capital federal. c1103acc, ciudad Buenos aires, argentina. office pHone +54 11 5777 7400 faX +54 11 5777 7401 coUntRy manageR germán abaroa emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal aUStRaLia

addReSS 1 Level 16, town Hall House. 456 Kent Street, Sydney nSw 2000. office pHone +61 2 9266 1717 faX +61 2 9283 9024

addReSS 2 113 york Street South, melbourne vic 3205. office pHone +61 3 9693 8107 faX +61 3 9690 5706

coUntRy manageR nick Behr emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal BeLgiUm

addReSS Rue maurice charlent, 53. 1160 auderghem, Belgium. office pHone +32 2 349 1560 faX +32 2 349 1570 coUntRy manageR Stephanie Radochitzki emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal BRaZiL

addReSS Rua Luigi galvani 42, 11º andar. conj. 115. Brooklin 04575-020. São paulo, Brazil. office pHone +55 11 2889 5650 faX +55 11 5506 4753 coUntRy manageR andré Zimmermann emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal canada

addReSS 473 adelaide Street west, Suite 300, toronto. ontario, m5v1t1. office pHone +1 416 487 9393 faX +1 416 920 5043 coUntRy manageR chris williams emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal cHiLe

addReSS almirante pastene 333, floor 7, of. 701. 7500506 - providencia, Santiago, chile. office pHone +56 2 7148100 coUntRy manageR gonzalo parra emaiL [email protected]











31

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

7. contact details

haVas DigiTal cHina

addReSS 1 Room 8011-8012, 8/f, novel Building no. 887, Huaihai Zhong Road. Shanghai, china, 200020. office pHone +86 21 6467 6368 faX +86 21 6467 6369

addReSS 2 Room 2001, 20/f, tower B, global trade center no.36, dong San Huan Road, dongcheng district. Beijing, china, 100013. office pHone +86 10 5923 2923 faX +86 10 5825 6173

coUntRy manageR Leon Lu emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal coLomBia

addReSS carrera 7, no. 71-21, torre a, piso 12. edificio avenida chile. Bogotá, d.c. colombia. office pHone +57 1 325 8341 faX +57 1 317 3464 coUntRy manageR david posada emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal denmaRK

addReSS Jagtvej 169B, dK 2100. copenhagen o denmark. office pHone +45 7733 4300 faX +45 7733 4433 coUntRy manageR Soren Bronee emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal eStonia

addReSS pärmu mnt, 102c, tallinn, estonia. office pHone +372 669 1000 faX +372 669 1001 coUntRy manageR Kaarel oja emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal finLand

addReSS arabianranta, 6, Helsinki, finland. office pHone +358 4 0746 1441 coUntRy manageR ismo tenkanen emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal fRance

addReSS 11 Square Leon Blum, puteaux cedex, f92806 france. office pHone +33 1 46 93 33 33 faX +33 1 46 93 35 37 coUntRy manageR christophe dané emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal geRmany

addReSS Hedderichstrasse 49. 60594 frankfurt, germany. office pHone +49 69 603 292 400 faX +49 69 603 292 470 coUntRy manageR Joerg manthey emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal Hong Kong

addReSS 32 floor, chinachem Building. exchange Square, 338 Kings Rd, northpoint. Hong Kong, china. office pHone +852 2590 1814 faX +852 2516 5411 coUntRy manageR margaret fung emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal HUngaRy

addReSS 1117 Budapest, alíz u.1 (hrsz.3990/5) office garden Building 5th floor (Szerémi; u-Hengermalom u.corner) Hungary. office pHone +36 1 799 1820 faX +36 1 799 1821 coUntRy manageR attila eros / Zsuzsa czagler emaiL [email protected] / [email protected]

32

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

7. contact details

haVas DigiTal india

addReSS 1 30, Hauz Khas village, 3rd floor.new delhi - 110016 india. office pHone +91 11 398 444 00/11 faX +91 222 491 5766

addReSS 2 Brady glady’s plaza, Unit 1, 2nd floor. Senapati Bapat marg, Lower parel, mumbai - 400 013 india. office pHone +91 22 300 364 00/33

addReSS 3 6-3-899/i, Second floor, R.v.’s Kamala castle. Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082 india. office pHone +91 40 645 631 86 / 661 399 68

coUntRy manageR Rajeev Balasubrahmanyam emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal itaLy

addReSS Bastioni di porta volta, 10. 20121 milano, italy. office pHone +39 02 6744 3201 faX +39 02 6744 3222 coUntRy manageR gionata La torre emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal Latvia

addReSS Kr. Barona Street 36-9. Lv 1011 Riga, Latvia. office pHone +371 2961 5655 faX +371 6728 5666 coUntRy manageR Janis Krauklis emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal LitHUania

addReSS totoriu, 20. vilnius, Lt-01013, Lithuania. office pHone +370 5261 1522 faX +370 5269 0100 coUntRy manageR vytautas Kubilius emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal maLaySia

addReSS f-39-11, Level 11, the crest, 3two Square, no. 2. Jalan 19/1, 46300 petaling Jaya, Selangor darul ehsan. Kuala Lumpur - malaysia. office pHone +603 7628 6658 faX +603 7628 6777 coUntRy manageR Rajeev Balasubrahmanyam emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal meXico

addReSS prolongación paseo de la Reforma 1015, torre a, piso 24. col. desarrollo Santa fé. 01376 méxico df. office pHone +52 55 9177 6081 faX +52 55 9177 6005 coUntRy manageR mauricio vazquez emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal netHeRLandS

addReSS Burg. a. colijnweg 2. 1182 aL amstelveen, netherlands. office pHone +31 (0) 20 408 90 00 faX +31 (0) 20 408 90 01 coUntRy manageR Bjorn Brouwer emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal peRU

addReSS av. victor andrés Belaunde 147, torre Real Uno, oficina 902. centro empresarial San isidro, Lima - perú. office pHone +511 611 8800 faX +511 611 8803 coUntRy manageR gonzalo parra emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal pHiLippineS

addReSS yehey.com 38/f discovery center. 25 adB avenue ortigas complex, pasig city, philippines. office pHone +632 910 6387 faX +632 910 6420 coUntRy manageR eduardo mapa emaiL [email protected]

33

seo DeMysTifieD


Havas Digital

7. contact details

haVas DigiTal Spain

addReSS 1 avda. general perón, 38, 14ª. 28020 madrid, Spain. office pHone +34 91 456 90 50 faX +34 91 770 15 86

addReSS 2 dr. fleming, 17. 08017 Barcelona, Spain. office pHone +34 93 205 87 71 faX +34 93 414 72 13

addReSS 4 c/ Roger de Lauria, 19-4c. 46002 valencia, Spain. office pHone +34 96 353 08 74 faX +34 96 351 15 69

coUntRy manageR Javier navarro emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal poLand

addReSS ul postepu 13, 02-676 warsaw - poland. office pHone +48 22 843 66 60 faX +48 22 843 66 61 coUntRy manageR Robert Bernaciak emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal poRtUgaL

addReSS avenida duque de Ávila, 46 - 5ºav. 1050-083 Lisboa, portugal. office pHone +351 21 791 3388 faX + 351 21 791 3340 coUntRy manageR José frade emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal SingapoRe

addReSS 3 anson Road #06-01. Springleaf tower, Singapore 079909. office pHone +65 6317 6698 coUntRy manageR Rajeev Balasubrahmanyam emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal tHaiLand

addReSS Jasmine city Bldg, 19th fl., 2 Sukuhumvit 23 Klongtoey_nue, wattana, Bangkok 10110 - thailand. office pHone +66 2 259 9030 faX +66 2 259 9499 coUntRy manageR Rajeev Balasubrahmanyam emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal Uae

addReSS dubai media city, cnn Building. number 2, office 511, 5th floor. po Box 21448 dubai, Uae. office pHone +971 4366 4100 faX +971 4391 8001 coUntRy manageR Joe Hanoun emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal USa

addReSS 1 101 Huntington avenue, 16th fl. Boston ma 02199 USa. office pHone +1 617 425 4100 faX +1 617 425 4101

addReSS 2 195 Broadway, 12th. new york, ny 10007. office pHone +1 646 587 5000 faX +1 646 587 5005

addReSS 3 5301 Blue Lagoon drive, Suite 850, miami, fL 33126. office pHone +1 305 377 1907 faX +1 305 377 1906

addReSS 4 36 east grand, 5th floor.chicago, iL 60611. office pHone +1 312 337 4400 faX +1 312 337 3898

coUntRy manageR ed montes emaiL [email protected]

haVas DigiTal UK

addReSS 11 great newport Street, wc2H 7Ja London, UK. office pHone +44 (0) 20 7393 9000 faX +44 (0) 20 7393 2525 coUntRy manageR John mcLoughlin emaiL [email protected]

www.havasdigital.com

