Summary of SEO recommendations based on articles by different SEO experts, supplemented with my own insights.

1. Summary of SEO recommendations based on articles by
different SEO experts, supplemented with my own insights
1. Punishment for minimal SEO as well as for aggressive
SEO
Web pages with minimal SEO and web pages with over-optimization, keyword stuffing, will
be punished. You’d better leave SEO works to experts who can elaborate on-page and off-
page SEO flawlessly.
2. Devaluation and deterioration with decreasing freshness
of content (QDF / Query Deserves Freshness score,
FreshRank score)
Today, algorithm refreshing influences 35-39% of searches. Refreshing rate score is based on
two factors: how frequently the page changes and to what extent – e.g. number of comments,
depth and time data of archives. It is recommended to have blogs both on the web page and on
an external domain (with a sitemap notification system + XML-RPC ping allowing the use of
publication protocols and alternative “pinging”. Content and backlinks deteriorate as time
passes so it is recommended to maintain a continuous flow of information based on page
views. You have a number of possibilities to build on the effect of QDF preventing to lag
behind competition:
 Using RSS feed (e.g. news aggregator sites)
 Dynamic XML sitemap (mobile+image)
 Social media signals (active and regular, two / week at least)
 Increasing the number of fresh links – building links continuously, you should
gradually build links less and less via link catalogues, use only relevant and useful link
catalogues, and finally abandon link catalogues completely to be taken over by
corporate blog writing with anchor texts
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2.  Blogging – WP, Tumbr, Posterous, Blogger, etc., continuous posting by different
authors, in different categories and tags, with different authorizations
3. Optimization of keyword frequency is not almighty
anymore
Recently Mark Collier posted his research on The Open Algorithm blog, which was basically
a ranking factor study on 12,000 keywords. It analysed the first 100 hits for each keyword, so
1.2 million websites were included. The result was a correlation of -0.028126693, which
means that there is no (or very little negative) correlation between keyword frequency and
ranking. That is why it is important to have relevant content. In general, lengthier content is
better, but this notion is not based on rock solid facts. Generating long lasting quality content
(FreshRank) is a hard job. Nowadays, good quality, relevant and important text content
should be more detailed. For a blog post it is recommended to contain 700+ words (formerly a
minimum number of 250 and 500 words was enough).
4. LT domain + LT keyword + little content + website left
to its fate
Pages that contain too little content can expect poorer ranking. E.g. when the whole site
consists of one single landing page focused and over-optimized on a certain long tail.
5. Use of automated link-exchange pages not recommended
(paid link farms and references)
It is expected that in every language area appearances in link farms will be continuously
deleted, starting with the largest link farms in the widespread languages. Other “irrelevant”
links, such as comment link spams, forum signature “stacking”, filtering and overview of paid
links and link references of aggregators and reblog networks.
6. Increasing role of schema.org
It is wise to assign programmers to study and use it as soon as possible. You should read their
blog as well.
7. Professional use of meta tags
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3. Google evaluates negatively the “stacking” of title tags and descriptions (Google WMT,
schema.org). Meta tags should be checked and set properly at the Title/Keywords/Description
in the header (e.g. author, publisher, geo position, audience, etc.).
8. It is vital to use a sitemap (XML)
It should be a hierarchic website map based on an updated ranking system, with appropriate
anchor texts. A very deep “folder structure” is not recommended. Site maps for images and
mobile site maps should be considered as well.
9. URL friendly systems are appreciated
Avoid non-URL-friendly CMS’s. They should be corrected or redirected, changing the coding
with a programmer if necessary. These should be done in line with the preferred principles
and platforms (Caconical, schema.org, WMT). The same content should not be accessible via
different URL’s.
10. Increasing role of images and Alt/Title texts
It is recommended to try different versions and write relevant descriptions for images. Use
more unique, preferably exclusive or own images. Copied or very widely used images are
boring, and Google’s guidelines are likely to touch this area as well. It is not worth taking the
risk. Buying stock images is an alternative, but users are now more aware that these are not
“on the spot” or genuine images. It is expected to have an integrated image gallery system
with good quality images, on a single page.
11. Test and optimize web browser in terms of
compatibility
Always use your web browser in the most updated form. Optimize your web pages according
to the most recent developments for web browsers. Check RWD, Responsive Layout,
resolution (Full HD recommended), and how people use their browsers locally.
12. Contact form, CAPTCHA, spam filters
Contact forms are generally less preferred, it takes time for users to fill them out. A real,
reliable company should not hide its contact info behind a contact form. Showing an e-mail
address is the simplest and most credible way. The e-mail address should not be by a public
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4. provider (e.g. gmail or yahoo mail) since it creates mistrust. We can use contact forms for
orders or communication with other departments. In this case set the CAPTCHA code. Take
care of filtering spam, don’t type spaces or @ signs.
13. SEO role of webshops becoming more important
The number of good e-commerce CMS’s is very small these days. Generally, these systems
contain many errors, which should be corrected by experts. Basic SEO problems are mainly
due to URL structure, unnecessary word repetitions, missing breadcrumbs, little original text
at product pages, a lot of text copied from other sources. In addition, more care should be
taken in terms of posting corporate news regularly and managing anchor texts. Use
microformats (schema.org.)
14. Google Suggest becoming better in spelling
correction
So you don’t have to deliberately misspell titles and meta tags. Otherwise, this would lead to
unnecessary keyword cumulation.
15. Breadcrumbs
It is important to reduce the number of “back steps” and besides, breadcrumbs are essential in
user experience (ease of use and clarity) as well.
16. Proper use of anchor texts
To this date, many companies still do not know how to use these properly. “Read more”,
“Download here”, “Click here” are still improper anchor references. Too many keyword
anchor texts lead to over-optimization, when some keywords are present in backlinks in an
abnormal quantity. Google probably will not tolerate this so these pages will likely be ranked
poorer.
17. Use “share” on your web pages
Use “Share this” or “Add this”. Put the icons of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest,
Youtube, G+, RSS, and of other local social media sites on your page. Don’t forget to check
how much it may increase the downloading time of the web page. Compatible scripts should
also be inserted in xhtml / html5 coding.
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5. 18. Apply map services
Insert one of the maps from Google / Bing / Yahoo / Viamichelin / 3D / Streetview. Place
scripts relevant to the local language and market.
19. Microformats gaining ground
Rich snippets, Author, rel-tags, hCard, hReview, hProduct, hCalendar, XFN, etc. Only a few
companies use these at present. They are very useful and effective. It is worth studying and
using them.
20. Prepare product or service presentation videos
Audio-visual content is still becoming more important since people have decreasing time for
learning and gathering information. A corporate video channel at Youtube, Vimeo, or at a
locally relevant video sharing site is crucial. The videos should be interesting and of good
quality in terms of content, filming, editing, etc. and they also should include cross links.
21. Page speed and server speed
Only fast servers can provide fast page downloading. SSD RAID and Cloud SSD are
recommended. Optimize the download of your page – Gzip, Js and “merging” other scripts,
use of CSS3 / CSS4, compression of images. Programming errors and xhtml / html5 errors
should also be corrected.
22. Role of algorithms of TrustRank, SemRush,
Compete, MozRank
At present they seem to be neutral within the algorithm, however, it is better to keep an eye on
their weight.
23. Mobile SEO
When considering mobile SEO, the most important task is to harmonize the content and
design with the search behaviour on mobile devices. After coming up with a strategy, you
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6. should decide, which is more beneficial: using a Responsive Web Design (RWD) or using
separate mobile URL’s. Creating a mobile sitemap can also be useful.
24. Copying content entails more severe punishment
The number of notifications on rights infringement, sent out by Google to the site owner, will
be considered. Even the rewritten texts are being monitored, so the one who copies a text and
rewrites some words in it will not get any further, since the algorithm watches the number and
type of the words used in the rewriting. So there’s no free meal. Compose individual texts, do
not try to rephrase someone else’s sentences. You can also assign bolggers, journalists, or
copywriters to do the job.
25. Role of Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI)
This shows you the estimated performance of a word or phrase on the “market”. It is the
monthly number of searches for a keyword divided by the number of search results. The
higher the better. So a very popular keyword can have a poor KEI if it is used very much
across the net, so it would be very hard, and not necessarily effective, to be among the first
results for that keyword.
26. Benefits of a ccTDL domain name and suggestions
for storage space types
In 2012, primarily company names or brand names + keywords were suitable, or even 2-3
long tail keywords (up to 15 characters in length) – because of WOM + Google. You should
not use numbers or special characters if you can help it. Country-code top-level domains are
preferred (e.g. .de, .ca) followed by .com, .net, .org, .eu in terms of effectiveness. Other
endings are not recommended.
Storage space:
 Possibility for data base use and management
 Capability of running own .htaccess
 Speed and innovation: SSD Raid, Private (SSD) Cloud, Vmware (vSphere), (e.g.
Amazon Cloud, Dropbox, SugarSync, Bitcasa, Google Drive, Akamai, Cloudflare).
 Certificate of Web server SSL (recommended for https webshops and Google
favours it)
 Capability of running PHP5 scripts (WP, Joomla, Drupal), physical place of storage
space is not relevant any more from a SEO perspective
 High FTP security: SSL support, regular backup saving (including databases)
 High speed / broadband internet access
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7.  Private virtual FTP server, FTP antivirus system, antivirus system for e-mails, spam
filter. Extras: Photo sharing, PayPal, other CMS, Blog, Forum, E-commerce, Video
streaming, Green hosting, money-back guarantee, etc.
Those highlighted above are highly important for SEO.
27. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Channelled communication: redirection of content to enhance CTR and increase sales.
28. Go more visual
Use familiar font types (Times New Roman, Verdana, Arial, etc.) and flexible web design that
automatically adjusts to the web browser parameters. Make font enlargement available for
partially sighted people. Offer possibility for commenting, printing, referring your page to
others. If your site’s structure is sophisticated, teachusers how to get along. If your service is
complex to describe, use videos, RWD, UX, info graphics, presentations, etc.
29. Web ergonomics
SEO is part of user experience. When designing a website, SEO principles should be taken
into account. Conversion is the main purpose of both SEO and web ergonomics.
30. Role of User Experience (UX)
SEO works from text codes and is not related to design. Design is for users and not for search
engines. Without positive user experience, SEO won’t do the job. Therefore your site should
be user-friendly, easily scanned by the eye, understandable, and retina-friendly with beautiful
images and high resolution graphic solutions. It should be a joy to use and look at your
website.
31. Social graph and social signals
 Number of brand likers on Facebook
 Number of shares and comments on Facebook
 Twitter shares and company name appearances
 Presence in Google+ circles
 Pinterest posts, Klout scores (maybe)
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8. People spend more time on social network sites and tend to be more in contact with their
favourite brands through these sites.
If it is people that consider a website trustworthy and relevant (Google +1), it counts more
than a search engine’s “opinion”. Google takes this into account, and the role of AuthorRank
is rising as well. As for SMO, direct the users to your website with comments and posts you
wrote on social sites. Furthermore, there is always a risk of acquisition of these sites and the
new owner can implement new regulations. Thus you may lose links pointing to your website
and the social sites can be turned into “paid” sites (like PRO versions).
32. AuthorRank
It has an effect on ranking. It is important what position your company has in G+ circles, how
often you publish or post on social network sites, how many links you have, etc.
33. Content rules, but…!
Think about what percentage of content stays relevant and useful in a year’s time. Google is
focusing on that too. A professional blogger’s regular publications attract a great number of
readers to his or her blog page. This number gets even bigger when the page is backed by
SMO and other channels of communication. Employing a star blogger can be expensive, but
you can use experienced journalists and copywriters as well to provide fresh, reliable,
credible, unique, and interesting content regularly on your company and the products,
services, events, etc.
34. More real experts and much more spoilers in SEO
According to Search Engine Watch, SEO companies and experts knew and monitored 63%
better the SEO figures and meters in 2012 than they had done in 2011. As SEO people get
smarter, companies should as well – continuously managing their SEO activities with real
experts in order to stay on the surface.
35. Invest in mobile technology
A recent study by Morgan Stanley shows that mobile internet usage will possibly outperform
desktop usage as early as the beginning of 2014. So the number of searches on tablets and
mobile phones will soon surpass that of PC’s. This is an astonishing forecast and even now
takes an impact on international corporations. If you haven’t yet invested in a strategy
focusing on mobile technology, it would be wise to do so in 2013, hopefully before your
competitors. For news reading and shopping, mobile devices are the most suitable. However,
they still have some disadvantages: small size (excluding tablets), long download times (pages
lacking RWD), and mobile internet network flaws. But users have an increasing demand for
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9. getting information as fast as possible on their mobile devices. Web pages should get
downloaded very fast, and preferably without resizing (RWD). According to mobile
ergonomics, good quality and more compact content is expected by users. Search engines will
take into account if a user searches on a mobile device or not. Google’s search engine today
prefers sites that use RWD.
36. Taking local specifications into consideration
Leading local search engines should also be examined when optimizing, e.g. Baidu in China,
Yandex in Russia. Consider automatic language redirection based on IP addresses, local date
formats, and pay attention to the meaning of certain graphic elements and colours in different
countries. Examine local user behaviour and don’t leave translating jobs to a software. It can
be useful to register in significant local catalogues and to choose an appropriate local domain
name (ccTDL). Don’t forget about local data protection and internet laws, and ethical or
copyright regulations.
37. Monitoring and web analytics are a must
So you get information about local search trends, user behaviour, rankings, local keywords,
new competitors – elaborating a competitive research is recommended every three months. It
is wise to use more (2-4) analytics systems and draw conclusions on an objective basis. The
use of Google and Bing WMT is highly recommended. Unfortunately, when people sign in to
their Google accounts, they are redirected to an https connection, so you do not see the traffic
going to your website. An increase of proportion of not provided keywords is expected to rise
because of this.
38. Integrate instant communication features within
your website
Give users more chance to communicate instantly, use several API’s – Twitter, Facebook
Chat, Skype, Chat, etc. Don’t forget about time differences and always have someone who
can answer users immediately. If you don’t have the capacity, use a sub-contractor, but it is
more credible if you assign in-house staff with these tasks.
Summary
We, SEO experts are no oracles, nor Google software engineers. So we cannot state with total
confidence what kind of changes will come in 2013 and whether these will be included in the
algorithm or not. However, based on the insights mentioned before, it is very likely that a
significant improvement will occur in terms of user experience of web pages optimized for
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10. mobile devices – regardless of what SEO efforts will be rewarded or punished. I definitely
advise you to follow SEO trends (either with the help of an expert), analyse the probable
effects in your own area of operations, and think about what you should change and when.
Search engine optimization may have a somewhat misleading meaning because it suggests
that we should optimize only for search engines. I have always considered it important to
focus on the aspect of user experience because it will also enhance our search engine results
in the long run. The new direction seems to be Search Experience Optimization (SXO), which
combines Search Engine Optimization and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
As a final thought, please bear in mind the words of Charles Darwin:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is
the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
ChrisDry.com Budapest, 21/12/2012
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