This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) and the key factors that search engines like Google consider when ranking websites. It discusses the importance of SEO for businesses and outlines a 3-phase SEO process involving keyword research, on-page optimization of content and metadata, and off-page link building strategies. The document emphasizes the importance of high-quality, relevant content tailored around targeted keywords and suggests techniques for optimizing page titles, URLs, and other on-page elements.

1. A behind the scenes
look at the world of SEO
Aaron Lee, President
Illuminati Studios

3. A quick check of the facts…
#1 Google
position
receives 20.3 Average U.S.
18.2% of all Billion searches per month
click-
throughs
Google
People using
properties
search engines to
find local 76% drive
67.7% of
businesses:
all searches
59% of
Annual Projected
adults use a growth of $77 interactive
search engine search: billion marketing spending
daily 20% by 2016
(compared to 61%
for email)

4. First let’s address some
fundamentals
Just what is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it’s the practice
of improving and promoting a website in order to increase the
number of visitors a site receives from search engines.
SEO is not a form of web “dark
magic” performed by “gurus”
The practice is simply the combination of search traffic research
& planning strategies with specific web content & coding
techniques.
Effective SEO experts develop strategies and tactics that continue
to evolve in response to advancements of the major search
engines and the internet in general.

5. Why is SEO so important?
The internet has become a massively large
set of data and is growing at exponential
rates. Google consistently dominates
the search traffic market and
In response, search engine services were it’s share continues to grow.
developed to help users discover content
relevant to their immediate interest. Current Usage breaks down as:
As search technology has continued to
deliver better results, users have begun Google
adapting their behavior to begin their web 66%
experience on a search engine more often
than not. Yahoo
Bing
15% 14%
As brilliant as search engines are, they aren’t AOL
perfect. They benefit from sites that 2%
structure their content in a way that makes it ASK
easier to discover and rank. 3%
Comscore report as of April 2012

6. Core Google search algorithm
components include:
Popularity of the overall website and
webpage based on how many and which
sites link to your site & page
Specific use of keywords on the
webpage, URL and throughout the
website
How popular your site is on
social media networks
Website level brand popularity
Non-keyword specific factors such a
speed, link usage, word count, etc.
The physical location of the user

7. So what makes Google happy?
In a word… “Quality”
Remember that Google wants to make …So Google invests vast amounts of
it’s users happy and it’s effort to make their engine as smart as
users want to quickly discover possible by trying to detect the best
and experience the most relevant “quality” result. And they want to help
content based on their search… you provide them with better results to
make their job easier.

8. What’s the big deal about Panda?
Google hired a guy named Navneet Panda to help make it’s algorithm
“think” more like a human through “Machine Learning”.
The updated Google algorithm, named “Panda” was released in February
2011 and caused an uproar in the SEO community.

9. ...And now there’s a Google
Penguin?
In April of 2012 introduced yet another significant update to their search
algorithm named “Penguin” that affected about 3% of their index.
The focus of penguin was to further police websites using “SEO spam”
tactics to drive traffic.
You will get slapped by Penguin if
you:
 …have inbound links from questionable sites that Google
suspects as being link farms or spam based content.
 …have overly optimized pages, with stuffed or hidden
keywords
 …try to cloak your site by optimizing for one version of
content and then showing users a different version

11. What does Google see when
they visit your site?

12. What do search engines still struggle with?
Determining
Difficulty indexing Matching content
popularity based on
your content with searches
content alone
• Poor linking structures make it • Content that doesn’t match the • Search engines are effective at
difficult for engines to find all terms people use to search with determining the relevancy of
content won’t be ranked high the content on a site but need
external help with assigning
• CMS tools often present • As geography has become a how much of an authority the
duplicate pages to search more important factor, sites page or site is on the keyword.
engines. often lack or misrepresent this
critical content • Search engines assign a quality
• Content protected behind forms value based on how popular a
won’t be found • Misaligned content terms can site is based on how many
attract the wrong traffic causing “quality” sites link to them.
• Content within rich media such the site to be ranked lower
as Flash, images, video can’t be
easily indexed if at all

13. Now it’s time to walk
through the process of
search optimization
and the secrets of
the SEO wizards…

14. The Almighty Keyword
Search engines organize their relational databases around keywords
Keywords form the basis of how engines translate users intentions into results
You must determine which relevant keywords are used by your target audience
After researching & analyzing potential keywords, select the best set to optimize for
Develop relevant content around your targeted keywords and optimize your site
Execute a complete inbound marketing strategy by integrating your targeted keywords
into offsite marketing channels like social media & PR

15. A quick keyword example…
A Google Search for “Mainsail” Search for “Mainsail investments”
1st position
2nd position
3rd position
4th position
5th position
5th position
6th position
7th position

17. 3 Phases of Search Engine
Optimization
Phase 1:
Keyword Research & Analysis
Phase 2:
Content Development & Onsite
Implementation
Phase 3:
Monitoring, Maintenance &
Offsite Implementation

19. Phase 1 |
Which keywords Low
are the “right” Audience
ones? Relevancy
High
The first step in a
successful search SWEET
optimization SPOT
High Low
program is to
conduct research Search Competitive
into which search Volumes Difficulty
terms should be Low High
targeted.

20. Phase 1 | Finding Relevant Keywords
This first step is to draft a set of
initial search term assumptions
based on
industry, audience, business
objectives and if possible any
historical traffic analytics.
The pool of keywords is then
evaluated using software to
develop additional related
suggestions.

21. Phase 1 | Wagging the “Long Tail”
People don’t usually just search
for a single generic keyword.
“shoes” vs. “cheapest patent
leather men’s shoes”
These multi-keyword
searches are known as
“Long Tail” terms and
they make up 70% of all
web searches.

22. Phase 1 | Assess the past
performance
Even if there has been no concerted effort to
optimize a site already, a review of the historical
web traffic analytics is in order.
Analytics tools will reveal how
people are currently arriving at
your site and what search
terms people are already using
to find your site and can reveal
unexpected opportunities.

23. Phase 1 | Evaluating Volume &
Competitiveness
Search Term
Search Term Volume
Competition
• Once the pool of targeted • Next a keyword competitive or
keywords has developed, the “difficulty” analysis is conducted
second step is to perform an via a software tool.
analysis to determine the
estimated number of monthly • These tools evaluate a variety of
searches happening for each term. weighted factors based on
predicted search engine ranking
• Generally the higher the volume patterns to determine how difficult
the better but make sure you are it will be to obtain a top 10
looking at U.S. vs. global ranking for the term.
• Keep in mind relevant “long tail”
opportunities.

24. Phase 1 | Additional thoughts
on SEO competitiveness…
Your keyword difficulty score is a
reflection of how much work will be
required to achieve a top 10 search
engine ranking.
Typically a difficulty score
of 50 or less (on a scale of
0-100) is easily worth
pursuing. A score above 80
will present serious
challenges to obtain.

25. Phase 1 | How many keywords
should you have?
Each unique page of your
website should be optimized for
one primary search phrase.
Some pages might share some common keywords,
for example if you manufacture shoes you may
have many pages with “shoe” as a keyword but you
would have unique pages for “men’s leather shoe”,
“women’s designer shoe”, “infant shoes” etc.

26. Phase 1 |
Remember
your geography
during analysis
Including geographic
considerations in your
keyword research will
allow you to focus your
SERP’s on local
opportunities.
Search engines are
continuously including
geo-targeted based factors
in their indexes

28. Phase 2 | Content Creation
& Onsite Implementation
There are several key components required to
effectively implement the results of your SEO research
and analysis:
ONE TWO THREE FOUR
Update or Implement Review Implement or
Develop Site Keyword Existing Configure Web
Content that Targeted On Indexed Site Traffic
reflects the Page, URL’s & Pages and Analytics Tools
targeted search Metadata Update Search to Measure
terms for each Content Behavior Code Effectiveness
page. (Robots code)

29. Phase 2 | Content is King
This subject simply can not be
emphasized enough.

30. Phase 2 | Page Titles, the low
hanging fruit of SEO
The page title serves as a primary and concise summary of the page.
The page title is currently one of the single most important SEO
functions and is frequently misused or forgotten.
Best practices for Be mindful of Place important
optimizing page titles length – don’t keywords close to
include: exceed 75 the front of the
characters title
Leverage Consider
branding, at the readability and
end of the title – emotional impact
not the front when writing titles

31. Phase 2 | Metadata, an invisible
SEO treasure box.
Meta Robots Tags
The Meta Robots tag can be used to control search engine spider activity (for all of
the major engines) on a page level.
Meta Description
The meta description tag exists as a short description of a page's content.
Meta Keywords
Although it would seem obvious to place page keywords in this field, search engines
has stopped considering anything in here due to spam abuse in the past.

32. Phase 2 | URL – The Universal Record
Locator (or another place for a keyword)
Since search engines display URLs in the results, they can
impact click-through and visibility.
Best practices for optimizing page URL’s include:
Include the Use hyphens to
Make URL’s easy
Shorter is primary keyword separate words
to understand by
better here. but don’t cram instead of other
a human
more in characters

34. Phase 2 | Know what’s working with
Web Traffic Analytics
If you don’t measure it,
you can’t manage it.
 Implementing a professional web
analytics tool prior to launching
the new site changes is a critical
resource that needs to be in place.
 If possible, integrate with CRM
tools to track lead conversions
 Decide what actions and content is
most meaningful and establish
conversion goals around these calls
to action

35. Phase 2 | Avoiding SEO
paralysis by analysis.

37. Phase 2 | Additional suggestions
to be search engine friendly…
 Present a site design and  Consider that people tend
content that users want to to search with three
return to and even better different intents, make sure
want to recommend to your content is aligned.
others.  Image names & ALT tags
 Provide search engines give search engine more
with a easy shortcut to context about your content
index your site with a  Remember that some
SEF sitemap. Learn more content may be best served
at: Sitemaps.org “off site” via social
 Include your brand at the networks such as
end of your title tags YouTube, flickr, etc.

39. Phase 3 | Now let the search world
know you’re online…
1. Establish Webmaster
accounts with Google & 2. Submit XML sitemaps to
Bing the search engines via
Major search engines provide webmaster Webmaster accounts
services that allow you to review and submit Using either a CMS based plugin or a third-
information about your website for their party tool build a dynamic sitemap that is
index. submitted to the major search engines. This
will allow your full site to be quickly and
repeatedly indexed.

40. Phase 3 | Keeping tabs on what
matters most.
• Setup monthly
reporting to monitor
effectiveness and
opportunities
• The web is not a “set
it and forget
environment”.
You’ve got to track
your SEO KPI’s and
monitor for
opportunities and
threats in the data.

41. Phase 3 | So you’ve got some good
results, now how to keep it going?
Ongoing Content Optimization
• Develop strategies & resources to continuously
generate new “optimizable” quality content:
Blogs, PR, Social Media, Presentations, White
Papers, expanding on existing content…
• Evaluate search rankings to determine
opportunities for new content or to monitor for
new competition
• Make sure content, search and development
teams are in communication early and often to
improve optimization efficiency
• Establish regular optimization reviews to
measure progress and implement new content

42. Phase 3 | Google loves links that love your
site. Here’s how to create them…
• The more traffic a link source site has the better. Basically it’s
Global Popularity means of saying that someone popular thinks your interesting.
• An inbound link from a site that is closely related by topic to
Topic Specific Popularity your site will be valued higher than a generic one
• Having a referring site include your search terms in the actual
Anchor Text link will be valued more than a generic “Read more” inbound
link
Trust Rank & • Considering that as much as 60% of webpages are spam, before
listing your site on a directory or domain carefully evaluate their
Link Neighborhood Trust Score & Domain Authority
• The more recent the link the more weight the search engines will
Freshness place on it. Therefore an ongoing link campaign will ensure that
fresh links are being created
• Although the exact weight of inbound links from Social
Social Sharing Networks is unclear, they are still a rising factor in the search
algorithms.

43. Phase 3 | Getting on the right list.
• Research free & paid
directories and determine
their value based on domain
trust and cost.
• Submit site to select free
industry or web directories
• DMOZ.org
• Industry Associations
• Consider submitting site to
paid web & industry
directories

44. Phase 3 | The art and science
of link building.
• These links are generated through PR, Social and
“Natural” Viral sharing of good content. The more inspiring
Editorial or meaningful the content the further these links
will spread.
• These links are generated through direct requests
Manual from customers, vendors and other website
“Outreach” owners. Directory listings would also fall in this
category.
• Many websites offer any visitor the opportunity to
Self-created, create links through guest book signings, forum
Non-editorial signatures, blog comments, or user profiles. While
lower in value they can be helpful in aggregate.

45. Phase 3 | Does SEO “like”
Social Media? Oh yes.
Social Media can play an important
role in your link building strategy
Facebook, Twitter, Go Social Shares vs. Rich content, image
ogle+ Links galleries and more.
• Google has begun to • Although there is • Publishing optimized
incorporate a huge evidence that social images, videos, etc. to
number of social signals shares such as content networks such
into its search results. Tweets, Likes, and as
This involves serving Plusses effect YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr
personalized results to rankings, at this time and others can create
logged-in users that links are considered a additional inbound links
include content shared far superior and more to your site and extend
by the searcher’s social lasting way to promote the network effect of
circle (Facebook, the popularity of your your online brand.
Twitter and others). content than any other
method.

46. Phase 3 | Things every good SEO’er
needs to know but may not…
• Does Paid Search • SEO SPAM doesn’t
Actually Improve pay in the long run and
SERP’s?
Not literally but does add to the can cost you dearly J.C.
clickable real estate on a results Penny learned the hard way
page
• If you try
• The useless
“keyword” metatag cloaking, you’re going
Search engines don’t even bother to get a dagger
reading them due to abuse and just
give your competition access to Don’t optimize for one set of search
easy research terms and then try to present
different content to the visitor.
• Keyword density
stuffing Stop loading your • How to tell if you’ve
pages with keywords and just make
your page read well to humans and upset Google…
include your keywords in copy as Site index check, domain/brand
it’s relevant. check, top title tag terms = check
Webmaster tools

47. Whether you’re a SEO pro, a
curious DIY’er or just
looking for a complete
integrated inbound
marketing platform we’ve
got some options for you.

48. Tools of the Trade: Research & Analysis
There are countless tools available to research keywords, competition & traffic. Here are some of
our favorites depending on your needs and budget.
Tools Comments Cost
adwords.google.com/select/ Google’s PPC planning tools provide valuable insight into Free
KeywordToolExternal traffic demand and volumes
www.google.com/insights/s Compare Google search volume patterns across specific Free
earch regions, categories, time frames and properties.
www.google.com/trends Explore macro search trends on Google Free
advertising.microsoft.com/sm A Bing based keyword research tool that allows you to build Free
all-business/adcenter- and expand on your keyword list in an excel interface.
downloads/microsoft-
advertising-intelligence
www.wordtracker.com Keyword research & discovery tools $69mo.
www.seomoz.org Huge keyword database and research tools including on-page Free/$499mo.
recommendations and browser toolbar
www.raventools.com Integrated SEO, PPC & Social research, implementation & $99mo.
management tools combining multiple sources of data
www.webceo.com Combined SEO tool platform including research Free - $799
www.hubspot.com Fully Integrated inbound marketing platform (SEO, Email, $200mo. - $5,000mo.
CMS, CRM) with research tools for SEO keyword discovery, based on email accts.
competition

49. Tools of the Trade: Implementation
To assist with implementation there are several tools available to improve search indexing and
keyword integration. In many cases a modern CMS will provide admin users with the ability to
add meta/SEO content directly or your developer can assist with specific code edits.
Tools Comments Cost
www.google.com/webmaste “Get data, tools and diagnostics for a healthy, Google-friendly site.” Free
rs
www.bing.com/webmaster View how Bing sees your site, submit site info for indexing & Free
optimize for Bing
www.opensiteexplorer.org SEOMOZ based tool to evaluate domain & page ranking Free/$499mo.
www.raventools.com Integrated SEO, PPC & Social research, implementation & $99mo.
management tools combining multiple sources of data
www.webceo.com Combined SEO tool platform Free - $799
www.hubspot.com Fully Integrated inbound marketing platform (SEO, Email, CMS, $200mo. -
CRM) with implementation tools for SEO optimized site, blog & $5,000mo.
landing page content based on email
accts.
www.xml-sitemaps.com XML based sitemap generator (Note most CMS tools have custom Free
extensions for this as well)

50. Tools of the Trade: Web Analytics
Tools to monitor site traffic are widely available but some are better for SEO than others. In
addition we’ve included the best options for managing link building and social signal tracking
Tools Comments Cost
www.google.com/analytics Hard to argue with great and free, but has a bit of learning Free
curve for the uninitiated.
web.analytics.yahoo.com Formerly IndexTools, Yahoo! Web Analytic is an integrated Free
web analytics tool & Yahoo PPC management
smartertools.com/smartersta Site Analytics tool & SEO focused features Free/$499
ts
www.raventools.com Integrated SEO, PPC & Social research, implementation & $99mo.
management tools combining multiple sources of data
adobe.com/marketing Formerly Omniture, Adobe acquired this enterprise web, $1,000mo. -
mobile and social analytics platform and their SiteCatalyst $? based on
analytics tools are among the best web traffic
webtrends.com/products/ana Multi-channel enterprise analytics, testing and optimization $1,500mo. -
lytics platform $? based on
traffic volume
www.hubspot.com Fully Integrated inbound marketing platform (SEO, Email, $200mo. -
CMS, CRM) with integrated analytics reporting based on $5,000mo.
source to customer tracking based on
email accts.

51. Tools of the Trade: Link Building
While quality link building is still best done with some TLC, there are tools to make
the process more informed and intentional through research and investigation
Tools Comments Cost
wordtracker.com/linkbuild Inbound link research, planning and management tool $69mo.
er
seomoz.org SEOMoz publishes a MozTrust domain score via the free Free/$499mo.
OpenSiteExplorer.org or as part of the pro MozBar tool
raventools.com Provides back link research and management tools $99mo.
link-assistant.com Link research, management and directory generation software $100
www.hubspot.com Fully Integrated inbound marketing platform (SEO, Email, $200mo. -
CMS, CRM) with inbound link tracking with competitor $5,000mo.
comparisons based on
email accts.

52. If you are interested in
learning how we can help
you please give us a shout:
Call 305-851-8112 or visit:
www.illuminatistudios.com