The document discusses benchmarking SEO efforts. It provides tips for benchmarking keywords and competitors, including using tools to analyze domain age, inbound links, page indexing, on-page elements, and more. Benchmarking examples are given comparing the document author's site to competitors for the keywords "dental software" and "gift ideas". The document concludes with tips for improving SEO position based on benchmarking, such as being realistic about competition, focusing keywords, optimizing on-page elements, and tracking changes.

2. www.echampions.co.uk SEO Benchmarking This evening… :: What do you look for when benchmarking your SEO efforts? :: What are the (free) tools available to help you? :: How could you improve your ranking as a result of benchmarking your SEO? :: Action points for eBusiness Champions

3. www.echampions.co.uk SEO Benchmarking – two types of factors… :: Distinguish between factors that are search term specific and factors that apply across the site unrelated to search phrases For example “ Anchor text of inbound links” is very key word specific, while the age of the site / domain isn’t at all related to the individual search phrases but very important overall.

4. www.echampions.co.uk SEO Benchmarking – assessment :: Know and justify your key phrase choices? :: How many sites are chasing the same phrase(s) as you? :: How well optimised are those other sites? i.e. Why are they ranking better than you for those phrases?

5. www.echampions.co.uk An example for this evening… “dental software” vs

6. www.echampions.co.uk How many sites are chasing the same phrase as you? Establish where you are and where you want to be…

7. www.echampions.co.uk How many sites are chasing the same phrase as you? Google Webmaster Tools www.google.com/webmaster

8. www.echampions.co.uk What are the search volumes and competition? Google external keyword tool Shows you a rough estimate on the competition for different phrases… Not a very clear image of the situation, let’s drill down a bit more…

9. www.echampions.co.uk Tools to establish the competition for the phrase allintitle: dental software Will return only pages that contain the words “dental” and “software” anywhere in the title

10. www.echampions.co.uk Tools to establish the competition for the phrase allintitle: dental software

11. www.echampions.co.uk Tools to establish the competition for the phrase allinurl: dental software Will return only documents that contain the words “dental” and “software” in the URL, such as - www.dental.com/solutions/software.html

12. www.echampions.co.uk Tools to establish the competition for the phrase allinurl: dental software

13. www.echampions.co.uk Benchmarking – what to look for? :: How many pages are in Google main index :: Age of site :: Directory listings :: Inbound links :: On-page - title, h1, h2, internal links :: Keyword rich URLs and page names

14. www.echampions.co.uk How many of your pages are in Google’s main index? site:www.tabdental.co.uk/ site:www.tabdental.co.uk/* 105 pages 24 pages

15. www.echampions.co.uk Domain age - http://whois.domaintools.com/

16. www.echampions.co.uk Inbound links (via Yahoo site explorer) http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

17. www.echampions.co.uk Directory listings (eg. DMOZ, Yahoo etc)

18. Benchmark table for “dental software” www.tabdental.co.uk www.dentaldesktop.co.uk Domain age 08-Nov-2004 03-Nov-2001 DMOZ listing Yes No Alexa Trend/rank #4,278,310 N/A IP location UK Germany Inbound links 48 13 Pages in main index 25 of 102 12 of 58 title, meta, h1, p … title : Dental Software - TAB Dental Practice Management Software h1 : Dental Software to Organize, Control and Simplify your Practice p : TAB Dental is a powerful yet easy to use practice management software suite designed to simplify the running of a busy dental practice. title: Dental Desktop Practice Management Software h1: Dental Desktop Practice Management Software (after main content) p: Dental Desktop V4 is state-of-the-art Practice Management Software for Dentists. Internal links Secondary navigation repeated on most pages. Bottom navigation. Sitemap. In text links. Better than before, consistent navigation. Site map. Probably still scope for improvement. Page names Don’t think they are SEO really. Dental-software-feature.php Dental_software.html Notes Clean code, logical sequence content The code will hinder SEO

19. www.echampions.co.uk Another quick example vs

20. Benchmark table for “gift ideas” www.notonthehighstreet.com www.giftwrappedandgorgeous.co.uk Domain age 11-Oct-2005 22-Jun-2009 DMOZ/Yahoo listings 2 Yahoo listings None Alexa Trend/rank #36,882 #1,085,980 IP location UK UK Inbound links 8080 127 Pages in main index 5,370 of 12,600 130 of 586 title, meta, h1, p … title: Gift Ideas, Unique Gifts and Personalised Gifts - notonthehighstreet.com h1: Gift ideas you'll love p: For the most original and personal gift ideas for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and events in the year, our pages are full of thoughtful gifts to inspire you. For something unique, choose a… title: Gift Ideas for a Gift Less Ordinary - Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous.co.uk h1: Are You Looking For A Gift Less Ordinary? p: Our website showcases the very latest handmade gift ideas created with love by talented British Designers Choose from… Internal links Key word heavy navigation Single navigation with keywords Page names Good clean page names jewellery/wedding-engagement-rings Good page names, some noise category-handmade jewellery-type-wedding_jewellery.htm Notes Clever positioning to get text at the top of home page code Good clean design – some tweaks could help

21. www.echampions.co.uk How to improve your own position? 1. Be realistic about what you can achieve against large established sites 2. Do your keyword research and target specific phrases 3. List in the industry relevant directories that your competitors do 4. Be on top of your stats (use Google Analytics and Webmaster tools) 5. Create a schedule for measuring the effectiveness of changes

22. www.echampions.co.uk SEO Benchmarking – How to improve your own position? Action points 1. Run your own site and a competing site through http://whois.domaintools.com/ 2. Look at the competition for each of your chosen phrases – it the chase realistic? 3. Could you get any of the inbound links that the competition is getting? 4. Compare your title, h1, meta and first paragraph with the competitors – are they as strong and keyword rich? 5. Check how many of your pages are in the main index of Google

23. www.echampions.co.uk Next events :: Not to be missed! :: Excellent speaker! :: Last event before the summer holiday Leicester 29th of June Nottingham 1st of July