digital summit 2014 seo case studies

@ArnieK #DSUM14

ADVANCED SEO STRATEGIES

Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures

@ArnieK #DSUM14 About Your Presenter…

• Vertical Measures is a 45 person search,

social & content marketing agency in

Phoenix, AZ

• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute

& Online Marketing Institute

• Columnist for Marketing Land, Chief Content

Officer & LinkedIn

• Been an Internet marketer longer than

Google has existed.

@ArnieK #DSUM14 What I’ll Cover

• Most common mistakes we see

• How to optimize specific types of

content like video and images

• How to know if you have been

penalized and what to do about it

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Most Common Problems We Find?

• Unintentional duplicate content

• Duplicate title tags

• Blocked pages or site

• Over optimization of anchor text in backlinks and footer

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Another example…

• After 5 months of intense content marketing and no results.

– Identified a penalty back in August of 2012

– Duplicate content issue: same text snippet shows up on 259 pages

– There is wide use of duplicate or near-duplicate content in titles and page content

– A big issue: 100% of their image content and 45% of their HTML/text content is hosted externally (not under the domain).

– Lots of spammy anchor text in their backlink profile

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Core Elements to Optimization

Web Pages, Images or Videos 1. Links pointing to your content (Internal too)

2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)

3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)

4. Image alt text tags

5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)

6. Page load times

7. Freshness of content

8. AuthorRank

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Title Tag

An important on-page element (~55 characters). <title>Your Keywords Need be Here</title>

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Meta Description

• Mainly for conversions

• First time a visitor is understanding who you are

• ~115 characters

<meta name="description"

content=“On this site we talk all about everything you just

searched for!">

@ArnieK #DSUM14

• Should include keywords but not spammed

• Mainly within 3 subfolders

URL Structure

@ArnieK #DSUM14

Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007TJ5OG/102-8372974-4064145?v=glance&n=502394&m= ATVPDKIKX0DER&n=3031001&s=photo&v=glance

Canon.com - http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=11158

DPReview.com –

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd400/

URL Structure

Which of these are you most likely to share?

@ArnieK #DSUM14

• Should be similar to page title

• Tell the bots what to expect on the page

• Hard coded into the CSS (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

• Only one H1 tag per page

<h1>My Post is About SEO</h1>

<h2>SEO is Awesome</h2>

<h2>What is Google</h2>

<h2>People Love SEO</h2>

<h3>Matt Cutts Loves SEO</h3>

H Tags

@ArnieK #DSUM14

Your website should NOT look like this

@ArnieK #DSUM14

Your website should look like this

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14 How To Optimize Images

• Image files should be compressed as much as

reasonably possible to reduce file size. Smaller

files mean faster site load speeds. JPGs

generally offer the best balance of file size &

quality.

• Use relevant keywords in image filenames.

Instead of "DL000031.jpg", use something like

"red-sports-car.jpg"

• Make sure <img> tags have their "alt" and "title"

attributes defined with descriptive, concise,

keyword-related text. Do not stuff <img> attributes.

• Context matters. Google looks at content placed

around the image, like titles and captions, for

context about your image. BusinessInsider.com

@ArnieK #DSUM14 How to Optimize Videos

• Specific, Compelling Title –Would you click on

“XYZ Company” or “V00023.mov?” neither will

your audience.

• Tags –This is where you can help your video

appear in the “Suggested” or “Similar” videos

section.

• Description - Say as much as you can in the

first sentence or two, because many video sites

will hide the bulk of your description. Include at

least one link placed at the start of the

description – with http://.

• Video Quality / Resolution – Shoot, edit and

export the video in the highest quality available

on the devices and software you use.

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Penalized?

@ArnieK #DSUM14 How to Tell if You’ve Been Affected

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Webmaster Tools - Message

v

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Recovery is possible

@ArnieK #DSUM14 Manual Penalty Recovery

• Removing Links Is Highest Priority

• Be Thorough in Your Link Pruning (Machete time)

• Shouldn’t Need to Prune Nofollowed Links

• Ask Nicely For Your Link to be Nofollowed or Removed

• Make Sure Links on Your Disavow File Are Valid

• Disavow at the Domain Level

• Be Patient & Detailed - Auditing Links Takes Time

• Admit Your Sin, Detail Your Penance, Promise to Never

Do It Again

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14

@ArnieK #DSUM14

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

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