uncovering seo (it’s really not that complicated)
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Uncovering SEO (it’s really not that complicated)
Prepared by @khaipod and Isabel Jagoe
October 7th, 2010
On the agenda for today.
๏What is SEO?
๏Top 10 ways to improve SEO
๏Keywords are your centerpiece
๏SEO best practices for content development
๏Creating an SEO plan from strategy to measurement
๏Helpful tools & partners
SEO is...a means to drive targeted, relevant traffic to your website. Which means
more people who care what you do. Which means more potential sales.
SEO is not...a way to promote your client’s messaging or latest campaign. Unless your
client is communicating in terms that exactly tally with what your customers
already think they need.
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For Traction there are two ways this impacts our work
Do it right
Build content for our clients with SEO in mind, always apply best practices.
Talk it up
Instruct and inform our clients on the importance of SEO and how they
should have a plan for the long term, constant grooming required.
{ © 2010 Traction }
Let’s play a game.
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Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
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Top 10 Ranking Factors for SEO?
1. 6.
2. 7.
3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10.Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
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Top 10 Ranking Factors for SEO?1. Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External
Links—73%6. Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on
the Page—65%
2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)—71%
7. Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources)—65%
3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)—67%
8. Global Link Popularity of the Domain (e.g. PageRank on the domain graph, Domain mozRank, etc.)—64%
4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag—66%
9. Link Diversity of the Domain (based on number/variety of unique root domains linking to pages on this domain)—64%
5. Trustworthiness of the Domain (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)—66%
10. Links from Hubs/Authorities in a Given Topic-Specific Neighborhood (as per the “Hilltop” algorithm)—64%
Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
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Top 10 Ranking Factors for SEO?
XXXSource: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
{ © 2010 Traction }
Keywords are the centerpiece.
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What are keywords?
Words or phrases that consumers are currently using to search for your
client or their products.
If your marketing materials regularly reflect the same keywords that
consumers are looking for, you are onto a winner.
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How do I make a good keyword list?
Make an intelligent guess. Brainstorm on a list of
relevant keywords (single keywords).
Stripmine websites and marketing materials –
yours and competition.
Use keyword research tools (e.g. free, paid,
social media monitoring tools)
Narrow in on the keyword (e.g. - Bay Area
Bakery, SF Bay Bakery, Gluten-free baked
goods, Best baked goods)
Put yourself in their shoes
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What do I do with them?
1. Make sure your code and content reflect relevant keywords
2. Use them to make your content MORE relevant
3. Base your paid search buy on them
4. Use them to direct your searches in social media monitoring
5. Use them to introduce more unfamiliar terms, products, concepts
{ © 2010 Traction }
Best practices for content development.
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415-962-5800 www.tractionco.com
All content is active. Balance the different goals.
Communicate
company brand
Support SEO
activities
Deliver value
to customers
Drive leads
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Optimize locally, benefit globally.
๏ Identify high performing keywords for individual pages, not the whole
site.
๏ Develop content your target wants to read, not what you want to create.
๏ Identify organic keywords that are relevant to your content, then adjust
your copy to further reflect these terms.
๏ Increase keyword density within content to increase SEO relevance.
๏ Reduce to copy to 250-300 words for regular page, 500-700 for article
page.
๏ Look for ways to increase internal links (anchor links) within your site.
๏ Links should never be “click here” but be specific to content (helps
describe the destination page to search engines).
๏ Make sure new content is reflected in your site map.
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Get into the code.
๏ The more editable the content is, the better.Optimize page tags (meta,
title, description, keywords etc) to reflect high performing search
terms.Pull out the meta keywords – it’s giving the game away.Keywords
should go in every page URL.Any images should have alt tags and be
named consistent with the page keywords.
{ © 2010 Traction }
Creating an SEO plan
It’s no different than a communications plan...
2 Strategy
1 Research
3 Design + Develop
4 Launch + Promote
5Evaluate
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๏ What are the competitors using for keywords (check their code!)
๏ What are trends and key themes for the industry?
๏ Who is the target?
๏ What does the target care about? What might they search for?
๏ What some of the target’s usage patterns, behaviors?
1 Research
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2 Strategy
๏ What are your keywords?
๏ How are you going to promote, use them?
๏ What is your content strategy for your site?
๏ How are you going to extend the reach of your content?
๏ What priority does SEO have within your overall strategy?
๏ How are you going to track?
๏ How often are you going to revisit your keyword glossary?
๏ Do you have a calendar set up for renewable content e.g. blogs
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3 Design + Develop
๏ Create your keyword glossary
๏ Develop the best possible web content that plays to the most relevant
keywords
๏ Develop value content to support your written word
๏ Create engagement funnels based on keyword performance that you
can track.
๏ Set up opportunities for users to share, comment, tag your content
๏ Set up your tracking so you can see the fruits of your labors.
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4 Launch + Promote
๏ Refresh content on a regular basis
๏ Keep refining your keyword list
๏ Encourage sharing, distribution of your content
๏ Set up link exchanges with relevant, related sites
๏ Keep an eye on the content users like to explore and make it more
accessible – fat footer links
๏ Engage with a third party vendor for ongoing SEO external links
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5Evaluate
๏ Has your overall traffic increased?
๏ How about traffic to significant pages or content?
๏ How are your keywords performing? Do you need to reevaluate your
list?
๏ Have the rules of engagement changed - check in with Google.
๏ Have you seen learnings from the engagement funnels you have set up
on your site?
๏ What new opportunities have you seen emerge in this process?
๏ What new trends or concerns would you like to address in your content
and SEO strategy?
๏ Has your brand/product made an impact so that people are searching
for YOU?
{ © 2010 Traction }
Tools and partners
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Tools and partners.Partners
Free tools
Paid tools
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com https://adcenter.microsoft.comhttp://www.seomoz.org/linkscape
{ © 2010 Traction }
All done. Questions?