#1nwebinar - transparency in seo: a look inside the black box

9 July 2013

Transparency in SEO:A Look Inside the Black Box

Webinar

Agenda

How do Search Engines Work?

What Has Changed?

Big Picture View of Page Rank Factors

Tools

How Do Search Engines Work?

How Do Search Engines Work?

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/index.html

What Has Changed?

Relevant Results Are Essential

*Search from April, 2009

Google is Being Transparent

• SEO is about creating a great website with great content that users want to visit and share.– “…focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user

experience.” -Matt Cutts, head of Google WebSpam team

• From Google’s perspective:– Sites that deserve to be on top should be on top. – You earn the top spot by being what Google users would

consider the best result for a keyword.

Big Picture View of SEO

The Big Picture

Factors Work Together

On-the-Page SEO

Off-the-Page SEO

On-the-Page: Architecture

Goal: Is it easy to access your website?

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

• Can search engines easily ‘crawl’ pages on the site?

• Does the site manage duplicate content issues well?

• Does the site load quickly?

• Are URLs short & do they contain meaningful keywords?

• Does your site work well for mobile visitors, on smartphones and tablets?

• Do you show search engines different pages than humans?

On-the-Page: HTML

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

• Do HTML title tags contain keywords relevant to page topics?

• Do meta description tags describe what pages are about?

• Do headlines & subheads use header tags w/ relevant keywords?

• Do pages use structured data to enhance listings?

• Do you excessively use words you want pages to be found for?

• Do colors or design ‘hide’ words you want pages to be found for?

Goal: Are you making it clear what your pages are about?

On-the-Page: Content

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

Goal: Are you providing unique value to visitors?

• Are pages well written & have substantial quality content?

• Have you researched the keywords people may use to find your content?

• Do pages use words & phrases you hope they’ll be found for?

• Do visitors spend time reading or ‘bounce’ away quickly?

• Are pages fresh & about ‘hot’ topics?

• Is content ‘thin’ or ‘shallow’ & lacking substance?

• Is your content ad-heavy, especially ‘above the fold?’

Off-the-Page: Links

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

Goal: Do other quality sites link to you?

• Are links from trusted, quality or respected websites?

• Do links pointing at pages use words you hope they’ll be found for?

• Do links point at your web pages?

• Have you purchased links in hopes of better rankings?

• Have you created many links by spamming blogs, forums or other places?

Off-the-Page: Trust

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

Goal: Are you trustworthy?

• Do links, shares & other factors make your site a trusted authority?

• Has your site or its domain been around a long time, operating in the same way?

• Does your site use means to verify its identity & that of authors?

• Has your site been flagged for hosting pirated content?

Off-the-Page: Social/Personal

Source: http://selnd.com/seotable

Goal: Do people share you on social networks and visit often?

• Do those respected on social networks share your content?

• Do many share your content on social networks?

• What country is someone located in?

• What city or local area is someone located in?

• Has someone regularly visited your site or socially favored it?

• Have your friends socially favored the site?

The Big Picture

Tools

Tools

• SEOMoz Site Explorer– http://moz.com

• Microsoft SEO Analysis Tool– http://www.microsoft.com/web/seo

• Google Webmaster Tools– www.google.com/webmasters/tools

• Google Analytics– www.google.com/analytics

Tools – SEOMoz

Tools – Microsoft SEO Analysis Tool

Tools – Google Webmaster Tools

• Search Appearance– mark up your pages – potentially influence how your pages appear

• Search Traffic– how people find your site – who links to your site

• Google Index– Page count– Keyword matches– URL Removal

• Crawl– Crawl Errors– What Google sees

Tools – Google Analytics

• Browser and Device Usage– Make sure you are serving all your users

• How users get to your site– Inbound links, search engine keywords

• Social Media Usage– Facebook, google+, Delicious, etc.

• Page Speed– With Recommendations

An Ongoing Process

Maintain Big Picture SEO View

Prioritize Efforts

Have Great Content

Have a Great User Experience

Get Inbound Links

Get Visibility Through Tools

Thank you!

Questions?