Everything You Need to Know about SEO

INTERACTIVE STRATEGY - 55, AV. MONT-ROYAL O., SUITE 999, MONTRÉAL (QC) H2T 2S6 T 514.524.7149 NVISOLUTIONS.COM Search Engine Optimization: Everything You Need to Know about SEO

Ingredients for Successful SEO

The Holistic SEO Recipe:

One Part Marketing

One Part Editorial

One Part Webmaster

One Part SEO

Someone from each area should learn the essentials of SEO then coordinate on its implementation. INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Marketing | Product Expertise, Keyword Research, Promo INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Editorial | Keywords to Content, Content to draw links INTERAE STRATEGY – CTIV NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Webmasters | Link Tech, Sitemaps, Publishing, etc... INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

SEO :: Inter-department Coordination, Strategy, Reporting INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO GET THE SEO BASICS AND SEE THE SEO BIG PICTURE

What does EVERYBODY need to get? INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Information Architecture | Determine Page Relationships

Hierarchies imply information organization – implement them with breadcrumbs navigation that always links up to ‘parent pages’:

Home Appliances > Kitchens > Stove Cook-tops > Product Page

INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Information Architecture | Content Grouping Similar pages link to other similar pages with breadcrumb and category-specific navigation links present at each level INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Information Architecture | Interlinking Each group of content links heavily to similar content and sparsely to other on-site content that is less similar INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Ranking Targets | Frequency Mirrors Hierarchy INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Information Architecture | Mapping Keywords to Levels Optimize pages higher up for more competitive keywords INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

ROLES AND THE SEO WORKFLOW

Marketing’s Role | Raking Goals, Converting traffic & Popularity

Find & Prioritize Relevant Keywords

Evaluate for ‘Searcher Intent’

Request Content from Editorial

Contribute to Conversion Process

Marketing for External Links

Direct Solicitation

Contest & Widgets

Public Relations

Keyword Research | Start Short & Think Laterally INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Keyword Research | Build Long Lists with a Narrow Focus INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Keyword Research | Dig Down & Identify Searcher Intent INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Marketing & Editorial | Working Together

Convert KW lists to prioritized ranking goals

Brainstorm ideas for bridging searcher intent to conversion

Identify quantity / quality / nature of editorial content required for keyword coverage

Place content appropriately in I/A

Brainstorm ideas for link-attracting or embedded promotion

Contest | Worst Vacation Ever Photo

Viral article | Vacation Villas that Tailor to Ghost Hunting

Widget | Last Minute Luxury Ticket Ticker

Editorial’s Role | Keywords to Content, Titles, Interlinking

Proactively suggest content based on KWs

Write highly clickable <title> tags

Write keyword oriented on-page titles

Link out from content to related areas of the website and to outside authority sites

Editorial’s Role | Page Title, <title> tag, and Interlinking INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Web-Tech’s Role | Integrate content, monitor indexation

Implement Information Architecture

Integrate Content to Spec

Responsible for spider accessibility

Monitor indexation

Fix duplicate content issues

Thorough understanding of indexation control

Understands and utilizes a number of tools

SEO’s Role | Either in-house or consultants

Coordination of all efforts

Define and manage goals

Identify technical issues

Train & Assist Marketing and Editorial

Ensure good interlinking

Coordination of link building

Utilize analytics regularly

Reporting on SEO

Two Free Tools | For Webmasters & SEOs

Google Webmaster Central:

Identify Crawl problems (spider data over time!)

Find duplicate titles and meta descriptions

Quickly identify 404 pages

List your pages by internal or external links

Manage and find errors in sitemaps

Test your robots.txt file against specific URLs

Basic domain canonicalization (www to non-www)

Two Free Tools | For Webmasters & SEOs

Xenu Link Sleuth:

Find broken links (sort by status)

Find duplicate title tags (sort by title)

Find heavy pages (sort by size)

Find pages too many click from home (sort by level)

Find pages with too few internal links (sort by In links)

Find images without ALT text (sort by type, scan title field)

Test non-canonical URLs (from a text file) and view status

Find outgoing links to broken pages or expired content

Find bot traps (like open ended calendars)

Reporting & Evaluating | Non-Paid, Non-Branded Traffic Trends INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Reporting & Evaluating | What Not to Look at Avoid judging SEO efforts based on:

Specific Rankings

Brand-related SE traffic

Portion of overall site traffic derived from organic

Incorrectly defined conversions (e.g. contact form)

Too little time

Expectations of results without team involvement

Incorrect time comparisons (e.g. compare Q4 ‘09 with Q1 ‘08)

Summary | Dos and Don'ts

Do:

Define your IA and determine canonical URLs for all pages

Write original content to accommodate your ranking targets

Use breadcrumb style navigation – Put all new content in it! (EG: Home > Kitchen > Major Appliances > Stoves )

Include relevant category-specific navigation at each level

Make interlinking of all editorial content mandatory!

Keep updated HTML and XML sitemaps for all new content

Learn all the ways to control indexation and link juice flow

Be prepared to weight other priorities against SEO and make sacrifices

Summary | Dos and Don'ts

Don’t:

Let the same content appear on more than one URL

Just throw content up without linking to it, or linking from it

Spread your link juice thin over pages don’t have unique content

Leave open ended page scripts like calendars

Archive poorly without respect to your IA

Return server headers other than 404 for error pages

Think you can fix link juice distribution issues with robots.txt

A CHEAT-SHEET FOR: Indexation and PageRank control methods Contact [email_address] for a PDF INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

Link Juice and Indexation Cheat Sheet: Tag/Command Indexation Link Juice Robots.txt (file in root of site) EG: Disallow: /news/pdf-copies/ Stops pages or directories from appearing in Search Engine indexes – (except ‘uncrawled references’ ) Pages ‘blocked’ by robots.txt can still accumulate link-juice, but cannot pass it Block what you don’t want indexed: Session IDs / dupe URLs: Disallow: *partner=* Entire directories: Disallow: /news/pdf-copies/ Internal SERPs: Disallow: *car-search-query=* External affiliate links: Disallow: *redirect.cgi* If excluded pages have external links, expect 'URL-only' listings: No title, snippet, size or cache. For no listing at all, allow bots & use Meta noindex On-Page Meta No-Index (<head> of page) EG: <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”> Stops the page from appearing in Search Engine indexes entirely The page can still accumulate and pass link-juice You may want to use Meta Noindex if: you can’t alter your robots.txt, or if robots.txt standard is not flexible enough, or if you don’t want URL listings

Link Juice and Indexation Cheat Sheet: Rel=nofollow (in an <a href> link) EG: <a href=“http://non-trusted-site.com” rel=“nofollow”> Stops spiders from following a specific link. They don’t crawl or discover through nofollow links. Stops Link Juice from flowing through a specific link Can be used from one domain to another when a link does not imply trust. Lots of controversy recently on its use within a domain to ‘sculpt PR flow’ 301 Redirection (many types of implementation) EG: redirect /old/page.php /new_page.php [301, permanent] Spiders follow redirect and discover new pages Search Engines transfer link juice from old pages to new pages If any URLs change, this is the best way to shift link juice from old to new. 301s are the only way to transfer link juice from one domain to another. Tag/Command Indexation Link Juice On-Page Meta No-follow (<head> of page) EG: <meta name=“robots” content=“nofollow”> Stops spiders from following the links on the page (which may still get indexed via other links) The pages can still accumulate link-juice (and rank), but can’t pass it on You may wish to nofollow an entire page like a list of paid sponsors.

Link Juice and Indexation Cheat Sheet: Tag/Command Indexation Link Juice Canonicalization tag (<head> of page) EG: <canonical = “/proper/product/page.php“> Spiders go to referred page like a 301 redirect . Does not work across domains. Search Engines transfer link juice from variation pages to real page

A new approach to both indexation control and link juice control

Supported by The Big Three: Google, Yahoo, MSN

May be cheaper than redoing your entire site from scratch, for now

May see faster results than redoing your entire site

May become a maintenance nightmare

Can turn out to be as or more complex than doing it right from scratch

Javascript Link EG: <div onclick="document.location.href='http://www.domain.com/'"> Google tries to crawl and index if URL is easily to access – in onclick or href If crawlable, Google will try to pass link juice

Before rel=nofollow, many SEOs used uncrawlable JS links for sculpting

May not carry as much weight, and should not be used as main navigation

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