1. Advanced SEO: Picking the Right Fights
(And Winning Them, Too)
Byrne Hobart / byrne@byrnehobart.com / (917) 806-0159
2. Intro
● What problems are you solving?
● Where are you starting?
● Your team? Their skills?
3. SEO Fundamentals
Every campaign has a few iterative steps:
1. Identify keywords.
2. Write content.
3. Promote content.
4. Measure results.
5. Repeat.
4. Keyword Research
● The big question: what kinds of terms?
● The variables to look at.
● Managing a keyword list.
● Brand terms, head terms, long-tail, and template terms.
5. SEO Copywriting
● What do you read? What do you link to?
● Long-term: reputation > reader's experience > search
engine experience.
● Short term: invert these.
6. Self-Promotion (It's Not So Bad...)
● Talk to people who will be happy to hear from you.
● Come up with a target list.
● If you're doing PR, think of it in SEO terms. (News cycles
last a day, links last for years.)
7. Social Media
● It's an increasingly big factor in rankings.
● Also an easy way to self-promote.
● Always ask: who shares this, and why?
● Which social networks do you use?
9. Tracking Results
● The "Last-Click" Fallacy
● Numbers to look at.
● How to create new variables to track.
10. Going Black-Hat
● Costs and benefits of link-buying.
● Link-selling.
● Putting it in context. (Check your competitors first!)
● Economics of "outing."
11. In-House, Agency, Hybrid?
● Agencies: good people, bad incentives.
● Kinds of agencies: design/dev, pure SEO, SEO consultants,
and more...
● In-house: a big, uncertain investment. Plus, too much
focus?
● Hybrid model: in-house for core stuff, agencies for
peripheral work.
12. Case Studies
● AirBNB
● OKCupid
● LinkedIn
● Blue Fountain Media
● Digital Due Diligence
● TaxRascal
● Granite Transformations
13. Q&A&more
Some great resources:
● Rank Checker: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-
checker/
● SEOQuake: http://www.seoquake.com/
● The AdWords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.
com/o/Targeting/Explorer
● The SEOMoz guide to SEO: http://www.seomoz.
org/beginners-guide-to-seo
Byrne Hobart / byrne@byrnehobart.com / (917) 806-0159
