SEO Horror Stories

Cory Banks – Client ManagerRuth Burr – Client Manager

February 11th, 2010

Presentation AgendaAbout Point It

• Launched in April 2002

• Seattle’s largest independent search marketing firm

• PPC & SEO

• 12 team members, 40+ yrs of SEM experience

• Servicing clients across all verticals and revenue models

Presentation AgendaOverview

“… the site had been banned!”

“… he knew just enough about SEO to

be dangerous…”

“… they keep focusing on one term…”

“… but we can’t even use the term on their site!”

“… turns out, the whole site

is Flash!”

Presentation AgendaOld Engine Penalties Coming Back to Haunt You

Cloaking

EvilLinks

Keyword

Stuffing

Presentation AgendaCommon Site Penalties

• Cloaking: Creating pages that present different content to search engines than to people.

• Keyword Stuffing: hiding hundreds of keywords in the page’s code.

Presentation AgendaCommon Site Penalties

• Duplicate Content: Content that is the same or substantially similar to another page on the internet.

• Malware: Viruses or spying software that auto-download to a visitor’s computer.

• Bad Links: Selling links, or excessive linking out to other sites deemed to be poor quality or spammy.

Presentation AgendaExorcise Those Ghosts!

• Are you sure you’re being penalized?• Use the site: query

• Yahoo only: Site Explorer• http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Presentation AgendaExorcise Those Ghosts!

• Figure out what was done wrong

• Fix it• Say you’re sorry• Wait• Don’t do it again

Presentation AgendaMake a Reinclusion Request

• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration

• http://www.bing.com/webmaster

• http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/search_support.html

Presentation AgendaIf You Can’t Get Back In

• Start over with a new domain

• Be squeaky clean• Build for users

Presentation AgendaA Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

I’m an SEO expert!

No, I’M an SEO expert!

Let’s ALL

be SEO

Experts! YAAAY!

Presentation AgendaEducate, Don’t Mourn Your Fate

• Set expectations early in the process

• Educate early, educate often

• Set clear goals and deliver

• Get signoff on your “SEO Charter:” timeline of events, deliverables and expectations

Presentation AgendaDon’t Question My Authoriteh!

• Use data to back up your claims

• Report results - Everybody likes charts!

• Don’t be afraid to brag

• Build up your SEO champions

• Go back to the charter when things get rough

Presentation AgendaThe Perils of Flash

Presentation AgendaThe Perils of Flash

Presentation AgendaUsing Too Much Flash

• Limits Your Audience

• No Alternate HTML Content

• Crawlers Don’t Know Where To Go.

• Makes Your Site Look Sloppy

Presentation AgendaFlash Optimization

• Make your site nav static.

• Keep your URLs unique.

• Move away from one lump of Flash.

• Use real text in your flash, not image text.

Presentation AgendaSWFObject 2.0

• Lets you provide alternate HTML content for engines and users.

• Don’t overdo it!

• Beware Cloaking!

Presentation AgendaMore Resources

• Adobe Developer Connection for SEO: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/seo/

• SWFObject – A better way to embed Flash: http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/

• Google’s Blog about Flash Indexing: http://bit.ly/4FXqyF

Presentation Agenda“I want to be #1 on ‘shoes!’”

Presentation AgendaWhy Broad Isn’t Better

“shoes”

“Blue shoes”

“blue shoes for party”

“buy blue shoes”

Presentation AgendaPersonalized Search

Late-20s Urban Male

Middle-Aged Suburban Mother

Presentation AgendaWeb History = Personalized Search

• Turned on for everyone by default.

• Tracks what you search for, what you visit.

• Provides individual SERPS.

Presentation Agenda“C” Is For Cookie

• Text files generated by your site visits.

• Saves login info, personal options.

• Not edible.

• Specific, action-based terms.

• Relevant to your content and services

• Most competitive opportunity.

Presentation AgendaWhat To Target?

Presentation AgendaRanking for Terms You Can’t Use

Don’t say “man

purse.” It’s a

murse. Man +

purse = murse.

Presentation AgendaRanking for Forbidden Words

• Create new content

• Get social or get paid

• Document your conversations

• Educate!

Presentation AgendaCan’t Use It? Go Around It.

• Get creative with your keyword research

Leather murse

murses

Men’s bags

Presentation AgendaQ & A