1. SEO Optimization: Why You Should Care About
Pandas and Penguins
Adam Proehl
Managing Director
NordicClick Interactive Twitter: @DR_MyCommerce
#MyCommSEO

2. • Google, Pandas, & Penguins
• More than just zoo animals
• Adam Proehl

3. Agenda
Brief History
Pandas & Penguins – More than zoo animals
Things you should be doing
Traps to Avoid
Tools You can Use

4. Search Circa 2001
• No Local
• No Images
• No Video
• No Shopping
• No News
• Just “Ten Blue Links”

5. Now

7. Search Engines:
Understanding
User Intent

8. Two Things…
search engines are
trying to figure out:
• What is the user REALLY
looking for?
• The site content is
compelling enough to care
about.

9. Google: Major Change History
BG
(Before
Google) Launch 1999 First Paid Advertising 2001
1998 2000
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10. Google: Major Change History
Boston NoFollow
Cassandra Allegra
Dominic Bourbon
Esmeralda XML Sitemaps
Fritz Personalized Search
Supplemental Index Gilligan
Google Local / Maps
2002 Florida
2004 Jagger
Big Daddy
2006
1st Documented
Update Austin
Brandy Supplimental Update
(No Name
Given) 2003 IPO
2005 False Alarm
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11. Google: Major Change History
Social Signals
Negative
Reviews
Instant Previews
Google Suggest Google Instant Search + Your World
Dewey Brand Update January 30 Pack
2007 2009 Caffeine (Rollout) 2011
MayDay
Google Places
Overstock.com Penalty
Attribution Update
Buffy Panda / Farmer
The +1 Button
Universal 2008 2010 Panda 2.0
Panda 2.1
2012
Search Jan 30 Pack
Schema.org
Real Time Panda 2.2 Feb 17 & 40 pack
Caffeine Google + March 50 Pack
“Rel-Canonical Tag” Panda 2.3 More Panda
Vince Panda 2.4 (Global) Penguin
Expanded SiteLinks Venice
Pagination Elements
Ads above the fold
516 Algo Updates
Panda 2.5 DCMA Penalty
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12. Let’s visit…
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Photo Credit: Northwest Florida Zoo (Larry the Lion)

13. Definitions
Term Definition
“Index” What the search engines see and take note of for displaying
results
“Crawl” Search engines look all around the web for pages to index.
This is called a “crawl”. Some people use other terms like
“spidering”, but it’s essentially the same thing.
“Bot” The “bot” is basically what “crawls” the web looking for your
site content.

14. Panda
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15. Panda
About
• First Update
• Named a Google engineer
• Major change to the way Google looks at sites
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16. Panda
What it tries to do:
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17. Panda
Black Eyes:
Image Credit: wisestartupblog.com

18. Panda
Some Top No No’s:
• Duplicate Content
• CMS driven duplicate URL’s
• Same meta data on multiple
pages
• Too much un-original content
• Crawl errors
#MyCommSEO Image credit: The logo! factor

19. The Penguin
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Image Credit: Attach M3dia

20. Penguin
What it tries to do:
Notice any recurring themes here?
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21. Penguin
Some Top No No’s:
• Keyword Stuffing
• Link Farms
• Hidden Content
• Copied Content
Image credit: The logo! factor

22. Penguin
Black Eyes:
Image Credit: webpronews.com

23. Ignorance = Not Bliss
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24. Fix It Plan
• Simple
• Bit more complex
• Consult with a pro
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25. Simple Steps
• What you can do
• What you should too
• Some tools
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26. Simple Steps
Webmaster Tools
- Google’s view of your site
- Discover link & query traffic
- Talk to Google about your site
www.google.com/webmastertools

27. Simple Steps
WooRank
• Free (sort of)
• www.woorank.com
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28. Simple Steps
Keyword Research
• Free
• https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool
• Or just Google “Adwords estimator” or “adwords suggest tool”
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29. Simple Steps
Keyword Research Tool
• Soovle
• Free
• www.soovle.com

30. Simple Steps
Keyword Research Tool
• Ubersuggest
• Free
• http://ubersuggest.org/
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31. Simple Steps
Keyword Research Tool
• Wordle
• Free
• www.wordle.net
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32. Simple Steps
Ask yourself:
How do your customers think?
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33. Simple Steps
Establish a Clear Site Hierarchy:
Home
Solution Solution Solution
A B C
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34. Simple Steps
Keep Links to a Reasonable Number
Thumb Rule: 1 every 2-3 paragraphs
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35. Simple Steps
Images
Great, but….
Names Add important stuff in
text next to the image
Text = Good for: Content
Links
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36. Simple Steps
“Mindset”
Search Engines LOVE market
educators
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37. Little More Complex
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38. Little More Complex
Page Speed: No one likes a slow
loading site
Code.google.com/speed

39. Little More Complex
Robots.txt
Root Directory
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40. Little More Complex
Ask Yourself:
• Does this really benefit my users?
• Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?
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41. Avoid
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42. Avoid
Sneaky Redirects
• Text view (what you show search engines) =
• Java View (what you show actual site visitors) =
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Image Credit: blueglass.com

43. Avoid
Stuffing Keywords
Ask yourself:
What grade would my
grammar teacher give
me?
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44. Avoid
How to think about search
engines:
• Like parents: They hate being
fooled or deceived…
• A Vegas Cab Driver: Seen
everything
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45. When to Consult a Pro
Some things you
just shouldn’t
attempt
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46. Consult a Pro
Disavow Tool:
• Bad Link Fixer
• Use with caution
• Try other methods first
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47. Consult a Pro
Been Hacked?
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48. Consult a Pro
Using a CMS Platform
• Not all are created
equal for SEO
• Plugins, Modules, Add
Ons, etc.
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Image Credit: danielbronstein.com

49. Consult a Pro
Content Assessment
• “Content is King”
Overused phrase, but for
good reason
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50. Consult a Pro
Content Tool: WeWe Monitor
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm
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51. Consult a Pro
Content Tool: Keyword Density
• Old school metric, but still useful
• Too much & too little is bad
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/
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52. Consult a Pro
BFF = Big Fat Footer
Just because it works
for Zappos…
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53. Consult a Pro
Author Tag: Declare authorship of content
Written by <a rel=”author”
href=”../authors/Adam Proehl”>Adam
Proehl</a>.
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54. Key Takeaways
Ask hard questions about the quality of your content
Think about the value to the users
Search engines need to think your content is valuable
Remember it’s a machine algorithm making the call
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55. To Do Today:
• Get setup on Webmaster tools if you aren’t
already (www.google.com/webmastertools)
• Go to Woorank.com & run numbers for your site
• Try one of the keyword suggestion tools
– Soovle (www.soovle.com)
– Ubersuggest (www.ubersuggest.org)

56. Tools Covered
Tool Link
Webmaster Tools www.google.com/webmastertools
WooRank www.woorank.com
Google Adwords Estimator (just google “adwords estimator”)
Soovle www.soovle.com
Ubersuggest www.ubersuggest.org
Wordle www.wordle.net
Page Speed Code.google.com/speed
We We Monitor www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm
Keyword Density tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density

57. Thank You
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