Understanding SEO

orHow to Help Users Find

Your Stuffs on the Intertronz

MY NAME IS TIM HUEGDONFirst, an introduction…

Qualification

• Web developer for 15 years

Qualification

• Web developer for 15 years

• Client-side specialist for 6 years

Qualification

• Web developer for 15 years

• Client-side specialist for 6 years

• Information architect

Qualification

• Web developer for 15 years

• Client-side specialist for 6 years

• Information architect• Massive Nerd– Quite literally– SEO as a hobby

Results

• Google “Web Development Lead”– Top result

Results

• Google “Web Development Lead”– Top result

• Google “Web Development Manager”– First page

Results

• Google “Web Development Lead”– Top result

• Google “Web Development Manager”– First page

• Google “Object oriented JavaScript”– Top result

Results

• Google “Web Development Lead”– Top result

• Google “Web Development Manager”– First page

• Google “Object oriented JavaScript”– Top result

• Google “Tim”– Third result (above the inventor of the web)

FAIL

</smug>(I cheated; I was logged in)

KNOW THINE ENEMYSun Tzu (paraphrased)

Search Engines

• Google• Microsoft Bing– Now own Yahoo! Search

• Many, many more…

How search engines work

• Army of robots

How search engines work

• Army of robots– Automated spiders

Tree

Home

Products

Wotsits

Oojamaflips

Dinguses

About Us Contact FAQ

Graph

England Team

Football

Internationals World Cup Euro 2012

How search engines work

• Army of robots– Automated spiders

• Work page by page

How search engines work

• Army of robots– Automated spiders

• Work page by page• Cache and analyse content

How search engines work

• Army of robots– Automated spiders

• Work page by page• Cache and analyse content• Index keywords

How search engines work

• Army of robots– Automated spiders

• Work page by page• Cache and analyse content• Index keywords• Assign an arbitrary rank

KEYWORDSBehold! The OARSUM POWAH of…

What is a keyword?

• A word or phrase• Contains high relevance to subject

Keyword == Search Term

Examples

• Sports• Sport• Betting• Gambling• Bet• Gamble• Sports Betting• Sport Betting• Sport Bet• Sports Exchange Betting

But wait…

• World Cup 2014• Wimbledon• British Grand Prix• Cheltenham• Spring racing

Why so important?

• Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices

Why so important?

• Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices

• Vast array of smaller databases

Why so important?

• Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices

• Vast array of smaller databases• Data denormalisation

Why so important?

• Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices

• Vast array of smaller databases• Data denormalisation• Makes searching a whole bunch faster

Choose wisely

• Keyword competition– Low competition can mean low relevancy– “Long tail”

Choose wisely

• Keyword competition– Low competition can mean low relevancy– “Long tail”

• Level of use– More commonly used search terms have higher

competition

Choose wisely

• Keyword competition– Low competition can mean low relevancy– “Long tail”

• Level of use– More commonly used search terms have higher

competition• Keyword tools

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs• Link text

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs• Link text• Page titles

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs• Link text• Page titles• Headings

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs• Link text• Page titles• Headings• Emphasised text

Where you’ll want to use them

• URIs• Link text• Page titles• Headings• Emphasised text• Within your content

Keyword Targeting

• Never mind keyword density…

Keyword Targeting

• Never mind keyword density…• Think about keyword relevancy

Keyword Targeting

• Never mind keyword density…• Think about keyword relevancy• Density no relation to– Quality– Semantics– Content relevancy

The web CHANGES?!I know; it’s terrifying, right?

LINKSThe internet is “a series of tubes…” (c. Ted Stevens, Alaskan Senator 1968-2009)

Links win

• Links trump everything

Links win

• Links trump everything• Link quantity

Links win

• Links trump everything• Link quantity• Link quality

Links win

• Links trump everything• Link quantity• Link quality• Largest single effect on rankings

Link Juice

• PageRank• Based on links into and out of the page• Used to determine page quality• Really is a series of tubes (and sluice gates)

PageRank

The juice will flow!

England Team

Football

Internationals World Cup Euro 2012

rel=“nofollow”

• Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice

rel=“nofollow”

• Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice• Useful for user-generated content

rel=“nofollow”

• Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice• Useful for user-generated content• Designed to prevent link spam

rel=“nofollow”

• Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice• Useful for user-generated content• Designed to prevent link spam• Use for “sculpting” is futile

Improving “crawlability”

• Flat site architecture

Improving “crawlability”

• Flat site architecture• Short link depth to pages

Improving “crawlability”

• Flat site architecture• Short link depth to pages• Recommend max 100 links per page– Misleading value

Improving “crawlability”

• Flat site architecture• Short link depth to pages• Recommend max 100 links per page– Misleading value

• Easily maintain 250-300 links per page– Next level approx. 200 links and so on

Link building

• The art of obtaining links back to content– High quality from high relevance

Link building

• The art of obtaining links back to content– High quality from high relevance

• Fine line between link building and link spam

Link building

• The art of obtaining links back to content– High quality from high relevance

• Fine line between link building and link spam• Full time job

Link building

• The art of obtaining links back to content– High quality from high relevance

• Fine line between link building and link spam• Full time job• Link sharing

Link building

• The art of obtaining links back to content– High quality from high relevance

• Fine line between link building and link spam• Full time job• Link sharing• Social networks

Third-party links

• No direct value

Third-party links

• No direct value• Promotes link sharing

Third-party links

• No direct value• Promotes link sharing• New wave of Social Media Experts

Third-party links

• No direct value• Promotes link sharing• New wave of Social Media Experts• Exercise in marketing

Link bait

• High likelihood of reposts

Link bait

• High likelihood of reposts• Viral

Link bait

• High likelihood of reposts• Viral• Usually created with intent

Link bait

• High likelihood of reposts• Viral• Usually created with intent• One man’s link bait is another man’s quality

content

U.R.I.Addressing the

Anatomy of a URI

http://www.betfair.com/football/barclays-premier-league/arsenal.html?page=4#line-up

Domain

PathProtocol

Query

Fragment

URI Design

• Highly important

URI Design

• Highly important• Embed keywords in domain

URI Design

• Highly important• Embed keywords in domain• Embed keywords in path

URI Design

• Highly important• Embed keywords in domain• Embed keywords in path• TLDs are important

URI Design

• Highly important• Embed keywords in domain• Embed keywords in path• TLDs are important• Order is important

URI Design

• Think about archiving

URI Design

• Think about archiving• Try and avoid “magic numbers”

URI Design

• Think about archiving• Try and avoid “magic numbers”• Use hyphen as space separator– Google doesn’t recognise underscores

URI Depth

• Try to keep URIs shallow

URI Depth

• Try to keep URIs shallow• Subdomains similar to first level– http://soccer.betfair.com/– http://betfair.com/soccer/

Branches and leaves

• Branch URIs end with a slash– http://betfair.com/football/

Branches and leaves

• Branch URIs end with a slash– http://betfair.com/football/

• Leaf URIs don’t– http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html– http://betfair.com/football/the-yid

Branches and leaves

• Branch URIs end with a slash– http://betfair.com/football/

• Leaf URIs don’t– http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html– http://betfair.com/football/the-yid

• Users read URIs in search listings

Branches and leaves

• Branch URIs end with a slash– http://betfair.com/football/

• Leaf URIs don’t– http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html– http://betfair.com/football/the-yid

• Users read URIs in search listings• Sets up an expectation

PAGE CONSTRUCTIONEmpowering your content through

Page vs. Site

• Bots have a vague understanding of site

Page vs. Site

• Bots have a vague understanding of site• Based on URIs and link map

Page vs. Site

• Bots have a vague understanding of site• Based on URIs and link map• Domain-level ranking factors

Page vs. Site

• Bots have a vague understanding of site• Based on URIs and link map• Domain-level ranking factors• Page-level ranking factors

Page vs. Site

• Bots have a vague understanding of site• Based on URIs and link map• Domain-level ranking factors• Page-level ranking factors• Construct as pages, link as site

Duplication

• Duplicating content on two URIs is bad

Duplication

• Duplicating content on two URIs is bad• Serving the same page on different URIs is

duplication

Duplication

• Duplicating content on two URIs is bad• Serving the same page on different URIs is

duplication• Try and avoid syndicated content

Dynamic and static content

• Dynamic content– Blog posts– News stories– Markets

• Static content– About us– Help– Betting rules

• Good to have a balanced mix

Titles

• Page title– <title>Football – Betfair</title>

• H1– <h1>Football</h1>

• Titles should repeat in:– URI– Page title– H1– Throughout content– Links to the page

• This one is important!

Meta elements

• Keywords– Not used by Google– Occasionally used by older search engines

• Description– Not used for rankings– Important for users

• noindex, nofollow

Pertinent mark-up

• Links!– <a href=“…”>Football</a>– <link rel=“index” href=“…”>

• Emphasis– <strong>, <em>– <b>

• Headings

Link element

• Canonical:– http://sportsnews.com/football/– http://sportsnews.com/football/?ads=false

• More subtle:– …/teams/tottenham-hotspur/peter-crouch– …/teams/england/peter-crouch

• Others– next, prev, first, last, index…

Google is Skynet

• Knowledge-based system

Google is Skynet

• Knowledge-based system• Algorithms update regularly

Google is Skynet

• Knowledge-based system• Algorithms update regularly• Features added

Google is Skynet

• Knowledge-based system• Algorithms update regularly• Features added• Try to understand trends in content

Breadcrumbs

• Google looks for them• Tries to understand navigation system• Improves crawlability• Helps the user

Rich snippets

• Microformats, microdata, RDFa– Reviews– People– Products– Businesses and organisations– Recipes– Events

UI Paradigms

• Still learning• Common patterns– Tab widgets– Accordion widgets– Carousel widgets

• Widgets– Common– jQueryUI– YUI

JavaScript

• Headless browser

JavaScript

• Headless browser• Support for JavaScript is limited

JavaScript

• Headless browser• Support for JavaScript is limited• Evaluates some JavaScript– Results vary

JavaScript

• Headless browser• Support for JavaScript is limited• Evaluates some JavaScript– Results vary

• Trawls embedded JavaScript for links

ROBOTSUnleash your army of

Using HTTP

• Correct status codes– 200 OK– 301 Moved Permanently– 302 Moved Temporarily– 404 Not Found– 410 Gone– 500 Errors

robots.txt

• http://www.robotstxt.org/• Automatically looked for• Stored at the root• No robots.txt is a free pass• Use to guide bots, not control

Sitemap Protocol

• http://www.sitemaps.org/• Aids discovery of content• Increases regularity of spidering• Doesn’t have to include every page• Useful for dynamic content

Sitemap Page

• Improves crawlability• Helps users• Can help flatten site architecture

TOOLSA brief overview of

AdWords Keyword Tool

• Analyse potential keywords• Shows competition• Shows search traffic• Useful as a research tool

Webmaster Tools

• Track search queries• Discover crawl errors• Manage sitemaps• Shows Google’s keyword assessment

Analytics

• Track search terms• Adapt user paths• Some tools allow tracking of bot traffic

Log files

• Track bot traffic• Spot errors• Use gnuplot to visualise

BUILDING SEO TEST SITESSearch bot interrogation

TO THE BROWSER!

NEVERENDING STORYSEO is a

Rinse and repeat

• Ongoing analysis

Rinse and repeat

• Ongoing analysis• Keyword evaluation

Rinse and repeat

• Ongoing analysis• Keyword evaluation• Link farming

Rinse and repeat

• Ongoing analysis• Keyword evaluation• Link farming• Keep up with algorithm updates

Questions?