The document outlines best practices for implementing technical SEO on dynamic websites, emphasizing the importance of site architecture, link management, and keyword optimization. It highlights key statistics about search behavior, stressing that a significant portion of users do not venture beyond the first page of search results. The document also provides practical tools and techniques for improving website indexation and link juice flow while avoiding common pitfalls.

1. TECHNICAL SEO FOR DYNAMIC WEBSITES Confoo, 2011

2. SEO FOR DYNAMIC WEBSITES INTRO CT Moore Agency Hack with @nvi Staff Editor with @revenews Blogger/Geek @gypsybandito

3. SEO for Dynamic Sites CONFOO Agenda Intro / Overview SEO – 3 Core Principles Information Architecture Linkjuice 101 Coder Cheat Sheets Do’s & Don’ts Canonicalization Issues Site Speed

4. THE SEO OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW Search Behaviour 73% of users don’t go past 1 st page of SERPs. 71% don’t go past the first 5 results. Only 10% go to the 3 rd result. Only 4.5% go to the 5 th result.

5. THE SEO OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW Americans spend 138 million hours a month searching. – AdAge, Aug. 2010

6. THE SEO OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW 78% of Canadians online will use search engines to research online and offline purchases 27% of those who researched product info online purchased online 45% of those that searched for product information online still purchase via traditional retail In 2009, search represented over 41% of overall online revenue , $741 million in Canada 106 million search engine queries a day in Canada 77% of all Canadian Internet traffic starts from a search engine 98% of online users rely on search engines to find websites Source : IAB 2010 & Comscore 2009.

7. FORECAST : US INTERACTIVE SPEND FROM 2009 – 2014 OVERVIEW Source : Forrester’s Interactive Advertising Models, 4/09 and 10/08 (US only) .

8. SEO SEEN AS MOST EFFECTIVE IN GENERATING CONVERSIONS Search Most effective digital marketing tools for generating conversations Source: © C opyright FORBES 2009

9. SEO & PPC ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE TACTICS WHEN IT COMES TO RESULT ACHIEVEMENT Search Results vs. expectations for digital marketing compaigns Source: © C opyright FORBES 2009

10. SEO FOR DEVELOPERS CONFOO Really? Why Bother? SEOs often recommend developing more sites / widgets / apps SEO needs ongoing web dev monitoring to preserve momentum SEO revenues can crash after poorly executed site revamp SEO = #1 strategy to grow user-base  more dev work SEOs depend on web devs knowlege to create tools & tricks SEOs always want the same stuff over and over (easy to please) SEOs hate outsourcing to India

11. SEO “101” CONFOO Removing any hurdle to the crawlers is key for a perfect indexation Map your site architecture in accordance with semantic verticals to reach ideal relevancy Balance the q uantity, quality, aging & regularity of your linkgraph to maximize popularity INDEXATION + RELEVANCY + POPULARITY

12. 3 CORE PRINCIPLES OF SEO CONFOO INDEXATION Technical Solution that respects SEO Best Practices Site Architecture Mapped to Semantic Verticals Archiving that preserves content integration & interlinking forever RELEVANCE Optimizing Keywords into Silos Internal linking strategy that distributes SEO & PageRank value POPULARITY Quantity / Quality / Age / Frequency of links obtained Semantics aspect of backlinks (anchor text) Diversification of backlink entry points (hub pages)

13. SERIOUS STUFF

14. SITE ARCHITECTURE CONFOO Building Content Sites Categories Content Siloing Keywords & Categories Short Tail vs Long Tail Keywords

15. SITE ARCHITECTURE - CATEGORIES CONFOO More than half of all traffic comes through search.

16. SITE ARCHITECTURE – SILOS CONFOO Categories should be defined by keyword themes.

17. SITE ARCHITECTURE – KEYWORDS CONFOO Shorter tail keyword = more competitive  they need more support from the long tail.

18. KEYWORDS – SHORT vs LONG TAIL CONFOO Long tail often has 5-10 times the searches of short tail root keyword – i.e. “laptops” vs “buy HP laptop”

19. Linkjuice CONFOO Link Basics Search engines ‘crawl’ sites by following HTML and other links They consider the quality and quantity of links pointing to a page = Link Popularity Pages Need Link Popularity (or juice) to get indexed and rank YOU get to control which pages on your site get indexed , and which ones get linkjuice . A page being indexed by search engines is different from that page’s ability to accumulate or pass on link juice. AgendaAgenda Agenda

20. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice Robots.txt (file in root) EG: Disallow: /news/pdf-copies/ Stops pages or directories from appearing in Search Engine indexes Pages ‘blocked’ by robots.txt can still accumulate and pass linkjuice 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: *GO.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

21. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice On-Page Meta No-Index (<head> of page) EG: <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”> Stops the page from appearing in Search Engine indexes entirely. Pages ‘blocked’ by robots.txt can still accumulate and pass linkjuice. 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.

22. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice 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 linkjuice (and rank), but can’t pass it on You may wish to nofollow an entire page like a list of paid sponsors.

23. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice 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 Linkjuice from flowing through a specific link. Past controversy on its use within a domain to ‘sculpt PR flow’ and if that is still enforced by Google. For pre-established or efforts already in place, consider switching nofollowed links to javascript links to ensure a similar effect.

24. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice 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 linkjuice from old pages to new pages . If any URLs change, this is the best way to shift linkjuice from old to new. 301s are the only way to transfer linkjuice from one domain to another.

25. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice 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 linkjuice from variation pages to real page . A new approach to both indexation control and linkjuice 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

26. LINKJUICE - CHEAT SHEET CONFOO Tag/Command Indexation Linkjuice Javascript Link EG: <div onclick=&quot;document.location.href='http://www.domain.com/'&quot;> Google tries to crawl and index if URL is easily to access – in onclick or href If crawlable, Google will try to pass linkjuice Before rel=nofollow, many SEOs used uncrawlable JS links for sculpting. This is starting to get popular again. May not carry as much weight, and should not be used as main navigation

27. FREE SEO TOOLS #1 CONFOO Google Webmaster Tools Identify Crawl problems (spider data over time!) Find duplicate titles and meta descriptions Quickly identify 404 issues 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)

28. FREE SEO TOOLS #2 CONFOO 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 clicks 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)

29. Free SEO Tools #2 CONFOO

30. DO’S & DONT’S – 101 SEO TOP 5 FACTORS Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links) Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains) Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains Source : SEOmoz Search Ranking Factors 2009 TOP 5 NEGATIVE FACTORS Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent. Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages Cloaking by User Agent Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility

31. DO’S & DONT’S – ONSITE CONFOO SEO To-Do Define your IA and determine canonical URLs for hub pages across all major categories, with expansion ability 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 mandatory! Include in-content links to similar pages around the site, and give links from other pages Keep updated HTML and XML sitemaps for all new content Learn all the (new) ways to control indexation and linkjuice flow

32. DO’S & DONT’S – ONSITE CONFOO SEO Don’ts Let the same content appear on more than one URL Just throw content up without linking to it, or linking from it Spread your linkjuice thin over pages without unique content Leave open ended page scripts like calendars Archive poorly (or not at all) without respect to your IA Return server headers other than 404 for error pages Think you can fix linkjuice distribution issues with robots.txt

33. CANONICALIZATION ISSUES CONFOO Duplicate Content Domain.com VS www.domain.com VS www.domain.com/ VS www.domain.com/index.php Category & Product Pages … /product.php?category=clothing&sub-category=pants&gender=mens … /product.php?gender=mens&category=clothing&sub-category=pants … /product.php?category=clothing&sub-category=pants&gender=mens&color=blue

34. CANONICALIZATION ISSUES CONFOO Quick Checklist No Capital letters, special characters, or spaces  use dashes Parameters in URLs are fine but only if variable order / useless variables are taken care of – try to also limit to up to 5 parameters Use standard HTML tags (<H1>, <ul>, <a>) Session ID variables should likely use the canonical tag Avoid code-bloating: place visible content higher in the code

35. ROADBLOCKS 101 CONFOO In the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox , turn off javascript and Meta Refresh. Visit your homepage again. Ensure you get the same page and not a blank one. Leave javascript turned off and click around your site. If navigation is fluid, fine. If you are not able to navigate for your main pages, fix it. Ensure that there is no content that can only be reached after filling a form or xyz signup. Make sure your www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt file doesn’t block all visiting spiders. This is the most deadly and most common mistake when a website relaunch occurs. Ensure you have installed Google and Bing webmaster tools and that both of them run without any major crawling issue. Fix everything!

36. SITE SPEED CONFOO Page speed matters (now). So benchmark yourself against leaders. In a way, that’s fun, you can create “Page speed contests” now. To do so, install Google Page Speed and Yahoo’s Yslow. Run them on your home page and at least a few random internal pages Follow every recommendations for: image optimization, gzip compression, javascript “minification”, CSS “minification”. Once this is done, look at subtler speed improvements they recommend. Moving to a stable Cloud environment isn’t a bad idea either.

37. CONTACT COORDINATES OUTRO Drop Me a Line... Email: [email_address] Site: NVIsolutions.com Blog (EN): NVIsolutions.com/BLOG Blog (FR): Go-Referencement.org Twitter: @nvi – @gypsybandito