@duaneforrester 
what does duane do at bing 
Bing Webmaster Tools 
Speaks at shows, runs forums and blog, 
provides guidance on new WM tools 
www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters 
Does he have a clue? 
14+ years as an inhouse SEO; ran seo at 
MSN; has helped Disney, GAP, Walmart + 
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dforrester 
And this helps me how? 
Blogging since 2001; owns 150 domains; 
makes money online 
http://twitter.com/DuaneForrester
Man’s History of Marketing 
Throwing rocks Smoke signals 
Mercantile shops 
Mail order catalogues 
Billboards 
Radio 
Television 
Social 
Email 
SEO 
Trading goods PPC 
Image credit: www.conducthq.com
Orange 
• Paid ads – you pay per click for traffic 
• Auction-based system 
• Higher bid; higher placement 
Green 
• Organic results 
• SEO works here 
• Trusted results 
• Clicks are free 
Red 
• Shopping results 
• Combination of organically sourced and 
paid inclusion results 
• Not as wide a net as organic, but more 
focused than paid ads 
M 
o 
r 
e 
O 
r 
g 
a 
n 
i 
c
•Increase relevancy 
•Increase exposure 
•Increase visits 
•Increase page views 
•Increase revenue 
•Better UX 
•Low cost 
•Investment in future 
•Users starting here
1. SEO isn’t an overnight success story or a one-time effort. Like wealth-building, investing in SEO takes time 
and continued effort to earn full benefits. 
2. Research targeted keywords, create a targeted list per page, and use them in multiple places (in key meta 
tags, folder & file names, etc.). 
3. The <title> tag is one of the most important tags for SEO – put most valuable keywords at start, write 
unique titles for each page. 
4. Add page-relevant, descriptive alt text to content images with copyrights at the end – search bots can’t 
“see” image contents like humans. 
5. Write one keyword-rich <h1> tag per page to serve as the page’s headline. 
6. Write compelling <meta> descriptions for SERP snippets – this is what converts SERP impressions. 
7. Every page should offer crawlable text for bots to create more keyword relevance. 
8. Submit a validated Sitemap.xml file to search engines via their webmaster tools. 
9. Canonicalize your URLs to eliminate duplicate content and diluted page rank in the index. 
10. Never put content to be crawled inside images, JavaScript, Silverlight, or Flash – bots can’t read it. 
11. Don’t expect to get high rank for a newly-published page. Search engine “trust” takes time to build. 
12. Use social media to build a community that supports and amplifies your content/products.
• Build social followers & fans 
organically 
• Wall posts/tweets with links are 
perceived as more credible and 
useful 
• Get the basics of SEO covered, then 
focus on content 
• Its worth repeating: unique, 
compelling content still works
• The engines really respond 
to unique, useful content 
• Your visitors respond to 
this as well 
• It’s a wise investment of 
your time 
• Don’t take shortcuts – limit 
syndicated content 
image credit: http://mashable.com/2011/01/10/social-content-strategy/
• The Internet is B.I.G. Slice and 
dice to find your niche. 
• Plenty of niche areas to 
explore/exploit – start your 
fight where you can dominate 
• Choose your voice wisely; 
don’t be afraid to express an 
informed opinion 
• Watch what users respond to, 
then amplify along those lines
• Know exactly what users 
are searching for 
• Data can help you uncover 
new niches or refine your 
focus 
• Helps keep you focused on 
creating compelling 
content 
• Got writers block? Check 
your keyword research for 
inspiration
• Start with your Home page, 
categories, products, etc… 
• Then…when you have numbers… 
• Every area of your site has a value 
- $, PV, Emails, etc. 
• Determine what the value is 
• Sort your site by value to see 
what really matters 
• Organize work around high-value 
areas first
• SEO is not just content 
• SEO can be affected by 
technical elements 
• You need both 
• Content can win, but 
technical SEO helps 
• Clean domain 
• Clean, keyword rich URLs 
• Page Load times 
• Layout of pages – content v. ads 
• Tech hiding elements – javascript nav.
• Crawlability 
– Xml sitemaps 
– Navigational structure 
– Rich media cautions 
– Graceful degradation 
– URL structure 
– Robots.txt 
• Site Structure 
– Internal Links 
– URL structure and keyword usage 
– Clean URLs – no extraneous parameters (sessions, 
tracking, etc.) 
– HTML & XML sitemaps 
– Content hierarchy 
– Rel-canonical usage to manage duplication issues 
– Rich media – don’t bury links in Javascript/flash 
/silverlight/AJAX 
– Responsive design for managing mobile & web 
• On-Page 
– Head copy 
• Titles – unique, relevant, 60 characters or so long 
• Descriptions – unique, relevant, grammatically correct, 
160 or fewer characters 
– Body Copy 
• H1, H2 and other H tag usage 
• ALT tag importance & usage 
• Keyword usage within the content/text 
• Anchor text – using target keywords to support other 
internal pages 
• Content 
– Build based on keyword research 
– Down-level experience enhances discoverability 
– Keep out of rich media and images 
– Produce new content frequently 
– Make it unique – don’t reuse content from other 
sources 
– Content management – using 301s to reclaim value 
from retiring content/pages 
– Rel canonical to help engines understand which page 
should be indexed and have value attributed to it 
– 404 error page management to help cleanse old pages 
from search engine indexes 
• Links 
– Plan for incoming & outgoing link generation 
– Internal & external link management 
– Content selection – planning where to link to 
– Link promotion via social spaces – direct traffic & seo 
value 
– Managing anchor text properly 
– URL structure can help insert keywords where they are 
needed 
• Social 
– Be an authority 
– Build your community 
– Interact often 
– Share useful content 
– Be consistent and useful 
– Grow facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc.
• Skip m. domains 
• m. domains produce unwanted 
duplication 
• Responsive design is your friend 
• HTML5 can help
Authority Building Short List 
Know the topic inside out 
Engage your community 
Share useful content freely 
Be consistent and useful 
Market your strengths 
Be a go-to resource 
Learn to spot trends in data
Where does SEO fit in? 
Content Social User Experience Link Building SEO
Search – you’re trying to solve… 
When optimizing your site for search, you invest in these major areas 
QUALITY TRUST POPULARITY TIMELINESS 
Content 
Links 
Appearance 
Authority 
Usefulness 
Resource 
Traffic 
Repeat Visits 
Links 
Current 
Fresh 
Relevant
A Changing Web of Your Objects 
Schema.org can help 
Mark up your content
• Signal of topical authority 
• Real-time – engines want fresh 
content, fast 
• Integrated social signals influence click 
actions of searchers 
• Social signals remain only a few of 
thousands of signals for organic 
ranking 
How users click on your results can impact rankings and when we show cues like your 
Facebook friends with results, click rates can be impacted.
• Different sources must be handled 
differently 
• Organic traffic is building trust 
• Paid traffic is ready to open their wallets 
• Email traffic is ready to buy…now 
• Ensure your conversion path is short 
and sweet 
• Off the shelf carts can usually be tweaked 
to gain improvements in conversions.
Core Strategies Op. Strategies Tactics 
Plan … or #FAIL
Oh, and here’s a streamlining trick for ya! 
Trusted RSS feeds 
Copy & 
Paste 
AUTOMATED 
AUTOMATED 
MANUAL
www.bing.com/webmaster 
www.hootsuite.com 
tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/ 
www.echofon.com/ 
statigr.am/ 
inst.me/ 
www.curalate.com/ 
www.evernote.com 
www.ifttt.com 
http://elastic.io/about.html 
https://zapier.com/ 
www.trackur.com 
www.sprinklr.com/ 
www.visibletechnologies.com/ 
www.socialmention.com 
mehdoh.com/
6 seconds to start a relationship 
http://socialmediatoday.com/julie-blakley/ 
1516266/7-brands-getting-creative- 
vine
18 Social Media Management Tools 
Alexa.com 
Board Reader 
Sysomos 
Facebook Insights 
Follower Wonk 
Google Insights 
How Sociable 
Ice Rocket trends 
Buffer 
• Klout 
• Peerindex 
• Kred 
• Mention Map 
• Social Mention 
• Statigram 
• Twitter Counter 
• Tweetreach 
• Visual.ly
Search Engine Optimization 101 with Duane Forrester

Search Engine Optimization 101 with Duane Forrester

  • 2.
    @duaneforrester what doesduane do at bing Bing Webmaster Tools Speaks at shows, runs forums and blog, provides guidance on new WM tools www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters Does he have a clue? 14+ years as an inhouse SEO; ran seo at MSN; has helped Disney, GAP, Walmart + http://www.linkedin.com/in/dforrester And this helps me how? Blogging since 2001; owns 150 domains; makes money online http://twitter.com/DuaneForrester
  • 3.
    Man’s History ofMarketing Throwing rocks Smoke signals Mercantile shops Mail order catalogues Billboards Radio Television Social Email SEO Trading goods PPC Image credit: www.conducthq.com
  • 4.
    Orange • Paidads – you pay per click for traffic • Auction-based system • Higher bid; higher placement Green • Organic results • SEO works here • Trusted results • Clicks are free Red • Shopping results • Combination of organically sourced and paid inclusion results • Not as wide a net as organic, but more focused than paid ads M o r e O r g a n i c
  • 6.
    •Increase relevancy •Increaseexposure •Increase visits •Increase page views •Increase revenue •Better UX •Low cost •Investment in future •Users starting here
  • 7.
    1. SEO isn’tan overnight success story or a one-time effort. Like wealth-building, investing in SEO takes time and continued effort to earn full benefits. 2. Research targeted keywords, create a targeted list per page, and use them in multiple places (in key meta tags, folder & file names, etc.). 3. The <title> tag is one of the most important tags for SEO – put most valuable keywords at start, write unique titles for each page. 4. Add page-relevant, descriptive alt text to content images with copyrights at the end – search bots can’t “see” image contents like humans. 5. Write one keyword-rich <h1> tag per page to serve as the page’s headline. 6. Write compelling <meta> descriptions for SERP snippets – this is what converts SERP impressions. 7. Every page should offer crawlable text for bots to create more keyword relevance. 8. Submit a validated Sitemap.xml file to search engines via their webmaster tools. 9. Canonicalize your URLs to eliminate duplicate content and diluted page rank in the index. 10. Never put content to be crawled inside images, JavaScript, Silverlight, or Flash – bots can’t read it. 11. Don’t expect to get high rank for a newly-published page. Search engine “trust” takes time to build. 12. Use social media to build a community that supports and amplifies your content/products.
  • 8.
    • Build socialfollowers & fans organically • Wall posts/tweets with links are perceived as more credible and useful • Get the basics of SEO covered, then focus on content • Its worth repeating: unique, compelling content still works
  • 9.
    • The enginesreally respond to unique, useful content • Your visitors respond to this as well • It’s a wise investment of your time • Don’t take shortcuts – limit syndicated content image credit: http://mashable.com/2011/01/10/social-content-strategy/
  • 10.
    • The Internetis B.I.G. Slice and dice to find your niche. • Plenty of niche areas to explore/exploit – start your fight where you can dominate • Choose your voice wisely; don’t be afraid to express an informed opinion • Watch what users respond to, then amplify along those lines
  • 11.
    • Know exactlywhat users are searching for • Data can help you uncover new niches or refine your focus • Helps keep you focused on creating compelling content • Got writers block? Check your keyword research for inspiration
  • 12.
    • Start withyour Home page, categories, products, etc… • Then…when you have numbers… • Every area of your site has a value - $, PV, Emails, etc. • Determine what the value is • Sort your site by value to see what really matters • Organize work around high-value areas first
  • 13.
    • SEO isnot just content • SEO can be affected by technical elements • You need both • Content can win, but technical SEO helps • Clean domain • Clean, keyword rich URLs • Page Load times • Layout of pages – content v. ads • Tech hiding elements – javascript nav.
  • 14.
    • Crawlability –Xml sitemaps – Navigational structure – Rich media cautions – Graceful degradation – URL structure – Robots.txt • Site Structure – Internal Links – URL structure and keyword usage – Clean URLs – no extraneous parameters (sessions, tracking, etc.) – HTML & XML sitemaps – Content hierarchy – Rel-canonical usage to manage duplication issues – Rich media – don’t bury links in Javascript/flash /silverlight/AJAX – Responsive design for managing mobile & web • On-Page – Head copy • Titles – unique, relevant, 60 characters or so long • Descriptions – unique, relevant, grammatically correct, 160 or fewer characters – Body Copy • H1, H2 and other H tag usage • ALT tag importance & usage • Keyword usage within the content/text • Anchor text – using target keywords to support other internal pages • Content – Build based on keyword research – Down-level experience enhances discoverability – Keep out of rich media and images – Produce new content frequently – Make it unique – don’t reuse content from other sources – Content management – using 301s to reclaim value from retiring content/pages – Rel canonical to help engines understand which page should be indexed and have value attributed to it – 404 error page management to help cleanse old pages from search engine indexes • Links – Plan for incoming & outgoing link generation – Internal & external link management – Content selection – planning where to link to – Link promotion via social spaces – direct traffic & seo value – Managing anchor text properly – URL structure can help insert keywords where they are needed • Social – Be an authority – Build your community – Interact often – Share useful content – Be consistent and useful – Grow facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc.
  • 15.
    • Skip m.domains • m. domains produce unwanted duplication • Responsive design is your friend • HTML5 can help
  • 16.
    Authority Building ShortList Know the topic inside out Engage your community Share useful content freely Be consistent and useful Market your strengths Be a go-to resource Learn to spot trends in data
  • 18.
    Where does SEOfit in? Content Social User Experience Link Building SEO
  • 19.
    Search – you’retrying to solve… When optimizing your site for search, you invest in these major areas QUALITY TRUST POPULARITY TIMELINESS Content Links Appearance Authority Usefulness Resource Traffic Repeat Visits Links Current Fresh Relevant
  • 20.
    A Changing Webof Your Objects Schema.org can help Mark up your content
  • 21.
    • Signal oftopical authority • Real-time – engines want fresh content, fast • Integrated social signals influence click actions of searchers • Social signals remain only a few of thousands of signals for organic ranking How users click on your results can impact rankings and when we show cues like your Facebook friends with results, click rates can be impacted.
  • 22.
    • Different sourcesmust be handled differently • Organic traffic is building trust • Paid traffic is ready to open their wallets • Email traffic is ready to buy…now • Ensure your conversion path is short and sweet • Off the shelf carts can usually be tweaked to gain improvements in conversions.
  • 27.
    Core Strategies Op.Strategies Tactics Plan … or #FAIL
  • 28.
    Oh, and here’sa streamlining trick for ya! Trusted RSS feeds Copy & Paste AUTOMATED AUTOMATED MANUAL
  • 29.
    www.bing.com/webmaster www.hootsuite.com tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/ www.echofon.com/ statigr.am/ inst.me/ www.curalate.com/ www.evernote.com www.ifttt.com http://elastic.io/about.html https://zapier.com/ www.trackur.com www.sprinklr.com/ www.visibletechnologies.com/ www.socialmention.com mehdoh.com/
  • 30.
    6 seconds tostart a relationship http://socialmediatoday.com/julie-blakley/ 1516266/7-brands-getting-creative- vine
  • 31.
    18 Social MediaManagement Tools Alexa.com Board Reader Sysomos Facebook Insights Follower Wonk Google Insights How Sociable Ice Rocket trends Buffer • Klout • Peerindex • Kred • Mention Map • Social Mention • Statigram • Twitter Counter • Tweetreach • Visual.ly

Editor's Notes

  • #32 Refer to this article for more details on each item in the list: http://prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10711.aspx The list on that page is older – I’ve removed dead links and added a couple new ones to this current list.