search engine optimization (seo) workshop 2
Post on 19-Oct-2014
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DESCRIPTION
Gab Goldenberg's class on SEOTRANSCRIPT
Where We’re Going Today
Where We’re Going Today
• Where does SEO fit in marketing?– Interruption vs permission marketing– Who finds ads annoying? Who ignores ads? – Why do SEO?
Where We’re Going Today
• Under The 600 HP Hoods of Modern Search Engines:
- Content discovery- Crawling - Indexing- Ranking- Filtering and Penalizing
Where We’re Going Today
• How do we do SEO?– Same as offline marketing campaign:
• Research • Plan • Execute • Measure• Optimize
Where We’re Going Today
• We will do group work to: – Research – Keyword ideas and value– Measure – Link building efforts
INTRO
Image: PropsUnlimited.com
Interruption Marketing
Via 10steps.sg
Via DimensionsGuide.com
Via Hongkiat.com
SearchEngineLand.com
An Experiment With Fonts & Font Size
• Group M, please visit seoroi.com/test-1
• Group R, please visit seoroi.com/test-2
Do Ads Annoy You?
Scam ads. Screenshot via BattelleMedia.com
Permission Marketing
Via B2HMarketing.com
Via Calgary-city-maps.com
Search: The New Yellow Pages
Why do SEO?
• Highly Effective - Permission
• 98% of clicks on page 1. When did you last click # 53?
Under Search Engines’ Hoods
How Search Engines Work
1. Finding out about content
2. Visit
3. Decide what it’s about
4. Store it
5. Rank it against other sites on the topic
6. Get the query and add query-based filters:
– Geo, personalized search, video, news etc
Finding Content
• There are over a dozen different ways that search engines will discover new content– Links– Chrome / toolbar visits– Searches– Tweets– Submissions– PPC– More ways: http://seoroi.com/shotland-index
IsMarkDavidsonReal.com
Full case study:
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-i-got-16-links-in-20-minutes-with-9
Crawling Content
Q: How do search engines know what is on a webpage?
A: With spiders and robots.
Via Examiner.com
The Index• Where information on the web is stored.
Rankings
Rankings depend on Relevance and Importance.
Relevance
Relevance is the minimum threshold for a page to be considered to be shown.
Image via: StuartDuncan.name
Relevance Signals
Signals of a page’s relevance include
• Content on the page
• Clickable text (aka anchor text) in – internal links– external links
• The relevance of pages and sites that link to the page
Rankings • Rankings depend on
Relevance and
ImportanceVia Topspots003.blogspot.com
Rankings
• It’s not enough to have a relevant page…
• You need to be The. Most. Important. Page.
What’s The Most Important Page?
The most visitors?
Via VisualPhotos.com
The most known brand?
Good analysis here: http://www.seobook.com/potential-brand-signals
Via BrandXCulture.com
The one paying Google the most?
The hottest designed page?
Via Visual-Blast.com
Importance
Importance in rankings depends on what others say.
Links
Via Wasauna.com IPL.org
Factors In Link Building
• Amount
• Prominence and location
• Authority
• Relevance of linking site, page, person
Social Signals
Importance depends on social media signals like tweets and Facebook shares
Visitor Data
• Browsers and toolbars
Rankings Cat & Mouse
Penalties and Filters
• Penalties for guideline violations
• Filters for geo, language, news etc.
Via J-walkblog.com
How do we do SEO?
How do we do SEO?Step 1: Research
Research: Keyword Ideas
Tools1. Get 2-3 partners2. Pick 3 products you’ve all researched or
bought online (suggest: not CPG)3. Visit Google’s general keyword tool:
http://seoroi.com/google-kw-tool
4. Enable Cost Per Click columns, months, and brainstorm keywords for each product
Research: Keyword Ideas
People
• Switch products with the group sitting next to you
• Brainstorm & write down all keywords and modifers – 15 mins – note who came up with each keyword
• Good work gets candy!
Via layoutsparks.com
Research: Keyword Ideas
Competitors
1. Google some keywords
2. Visit sites
3. Read navigation / sitemaps
Research: Keyword Value
1. Individually: Write answers to these questions about your group’s products:
1. Have you bought this product/service before? If so, how many times?
2. How often do you buy this product/service?3. Are you a new or returning client to the last
place you bought from?
2. Put answers aside- we’ll return to them soon.
Research: Keyword Value
• Lego: Big mistake or PPC intricacies?
Research: Keyword Value
CPC data, Surveys and Competitor Review
1. Compare keyword ideas with keyword value info from surveys and G CPCs
Designing Sites for SEO
Keep It Simple
• Text links
• Avoid Flash & Frames
• Use keywords liberally
• Answer the query
• Organize for users
• When in doubt, delete.
Clinique Revolution
Full disclosure: They are a current client.
Link Building
‘Why would anyone link to me?’
That’s What They Do
• Directories of websites and resources:– General: Yahoo– Niche: Hockey-Community’s Hockey Blogs– Discounts for students
What is a “Hub”?It’s the center of a wheel.
What is a “Hub”?A wheel made up of pages and links.
Why Hubs Matter To SEO
• A Partial History of Google’s Algos
• PageRank: Absolute scores
• Offtopic pages can rank with high PR
• Hilltop: Relevance within a field
Hubs Link Within A FieldSo Hub Links And Relevance Correlate
Topical relevance can be measured using hub links
Larry King Bob Vila
PageRank:
General Fame
HillTop:
Niche Expertise
Tool: Competitive Link Finder
Tool: Competitive Link Finder
• Pros:
• See actual linking pages
• Sorted by SEOmoz’s mozRank and mozTrust• Saves time
• Cons:
• Starts at $99/mo > competitors
• Fewer results than competitors
And Sites With Other Purposes’ Motivation?
Sweeeeeeet content.
News
500K links, per OpenSiteExplorer.org
Tutorials
Compliments or Controversy
• Jason Cherniak from Liblogs
• Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc.
Via DigitalTechNews.comVia Liberal.ca
Practice: Link Analysis
• In groups, download these four CSV files and visit the URLs.
• Why did they get each link? What was remarkable?
• http://seoroi.com/links-oatmeal
• http://seoroi.com/links-wordpress
• http://seoroi.com/links-degrees
• http://seoroi.com/links-seomoz
And If You Don’t Create Content?
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Friends
Assumed: Initial Attention
Distribution doesn’t happen on its own. You have to ask. And for many of us,
that’s uncomfortable.
Why is it uncomfortable?
Why is it uncomfortable?Typically because we’re interrupting.
Via 10steps.sg
The solution? Permission.
– Relationships: BuzzStream, ConnectedHQ– Social Media & Reciprocity– Subscribers – RSS and Email