This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. It discusses how search engines work, including crawling, indexing, and ranking factors like PageRank. It also covers building accessible sites through link architecture, canonicalization, and search-friendly URLs. Additional sections explain keyword research, link building strategies, and how social media can help influence search through engaged influencers and shareable content. The goal is to help SEOs understand ranking algorithms and apply effective on-page and off-page optimization techniques.

1. Search Engine Optimization: Understanding the Engines & Building Successful Sites Rand Fishkin – August 2010

3. How Search Engines Work

4. Building Accessible Sites

5. Conducting Keyword Research

6. Link Building Strategies

8. 100 Billion Searches Each Month!

11. Organic vs. Paid Search Paid Organic

12. Organic vs. Paid Search 10% of Clicks 90% of Clicks

13. Click-Through Rates

14. Vertical Search

15. Local Results Completely different ranking algorithm than standard search results Probably doesn’t get traffic like most “#1” results

16. Image Results

17. Video Results

18. News & Blog Results

19. Shopping Results

20. Instant Answers

21. Instant Answers

22. Instant Answers

23. News Results Instant Answers Real Time Results Local Results Image Results

24. This Presentation Focuses on:

25. How Search Engines Work

26. Crawling & Indexing Without links, the engines might never find this page

27. Calculating Query-Independent Metrics Via www.opensiteexplorer.org

28. Many Domains vs. One Domain VS.

29. Domain Authority

30. PageRank

31. The Flow of PageRank

32. PageRank is Split Evenly Between the Links on a Page

33. PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm

34. Technically, Every External Link “Leaks” PageRank

35. Nofollowing or Removing Links Can Alter the Flow of PageRank

36. Or, at least it used to... www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

37. Google Says they use PageRank to Crawl

39. Algorithmic Ranking Factors

40. Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) QDF Normal Results QDF

41. Query Deserves Diversity (QDD)

42. Algorithmic Ranking Factors

43. Building Accessible Sites

44. Crawlability / Link Architecture

45. Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

46. Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

47. Canonical URL Tag

48. 301 Redirects 302s

49. Duplicate Titles & Meta Descriptions

50. Search Friendly URLs www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/african-elephants Keywords in page name, separated by hyphen Single domain Shallow folder structurewith relevant words

51. Search UN-Friendly URLs Xyz3.nationalgeographic.com/a/?q=31z&mg=vv7z&sd=8 No keywords in the URL string Unnecessary Subdomain Dynamic URLs don’t perform as well as static and engines recommend against more than two parameters

52. Fixing Broken Links & 404s

53. Blocking Robots

54. Blocking Robots

55. XML Sitemaps www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

56. Webmaster Tools (Google)

57. Webmaster Tools (Bing)

58. Search Engine Guidelines www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

59. Important Tags & Signals

60. Title Tags

61. Meta Descriptions

62. Tag Length Recommendations

63. Anchor Text

64. Page Copy

65. Image Alt Attributes Good keyword usage in the alt tag

66. Not So Important

67. Meta Keywords Tag

68. H1, H2, H(x) Tags

69. Search Engine “Submission”

70. Keyword Research + Targeting

71. The Goals of Keyword Research

72. Determine Relative Volume Levels

73. Identify High Value Keywords

74. Predict the Effort Required to Rank Well

75. Choose the “Best” Words/Phrases to Target

76. The Keyword Demand Landscape

77. The Long Tail of Keyword Demand

82. Tools & Tactics for Brainstorming & Refining Your Seed List

83. Salespeople & Customers

84. Google AdWords Tool Be Wary of Match Type https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

85. MS AdCenter Excel Plug-In www.seomoz.org/blog/using-the-adcenter-excel-plugin-for-keyphrase-research

86. Google Trends Sign In for Y-Axis Numbers Not Very Accurate

87. Internal Site Search Stats

88. Competitive Keyword Research Restrict query to competitor’s domain

89. The Keyword Research Process

90. Start with Your Seed List

91. Create Spreadsheet w/ these Columns

92. Get Google Search Demand Numbers

93. Guesstimate Conversion Rate Numbers

94. Or Use PPC Campaign Data

95. Add Keyword Difficulty Data for Top Terms We like using a weighted average of the Page Authority metric

96. Target High Volume, High Value, Low Difficulty Terms First

97. Measuring Keyword Difficulty & Competition

98. Run Queries for Desired Term + Engine Watch for vertical results, which can skew CTRs & visibility

99. Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Metrics

100. Tools Can Help Provide Scores

101. Tools Can Help Provide Scores www.seomoz.org/mozbar

102. Link Building Strategies

103. What Goals Can Link Building Help Us Achieve?

104. Bolster Individual Rankings

105. Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages

106. Achieve More Complete Indexation

107. Drive Traffic & Branding Awareness

108. Send Converting Traffic Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com

109. The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

110. #1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests

111. #2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition

112. #3 - Links via Embedded Content

113. #4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns

114. #5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing

115. #6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades

116. #7 - Paid Links

117. #8 - Link Reclamation

118. Matching the Right Link Building Strategies to Your Organization’s SEO Goals

119. Links for Individual Rankings

120. Links for Domain “Authority”

121. Links for Indexation

122. Links for Traffic & Branding

123. Links for Conversion

124. Using Tools & Processes to Ease the Challenges of Link Building

126. Open Site Explorer

127. Top Pages

129. Yahoo! Link Commands Less “accurate” than Site Explorer Lots of cool, useful modifiers available

130. Yahoo! Link Commands Full list available in PRO Guide to Advanced Search Operators: www.seomoz.org/article/the-professionals-guide-to-advanced-search-operators

131. Open Site Explorer

132. Open Site Explorer Highly Correlation w/ Rankings Data updates monthly from the Linkscape web index (approx. 60% the size of Yahoo!/Google/Bing)

133. Open Site Explorer Poor Anchor Text Spells Opportunity

134. Link Intersect Link Intersect uses the same principle – sites w/ links in common that don’t point to you.

135. Top Pages Find which pages are earning links (your own & competitors) 404s? Reclaim them!

137. Subjective Metrics

139. # of Linking Root Domains to Domain

140. Homepage PageRank vs. Domain mozRank

141. URL PageRank vs. URL mozRank

142. # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape)

145. Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain)

146. Attainability and EffortJumping through Hoops (via WKA on Flickr)

148. Tools + Metrics for Quick Analysis

149. Training & Incenting Link Builders

151. Document every step thoroughly

152. Pass it on to others (w/ some training time)Checklist (via adesigna on Flickr)

153. Tools for Quick Analysis Get usable metrics quickly as you surf

154. Tools for Quick Analysis

156. Create consistent metrics

157. Reward like a sales team

158. Record reasons why links didn’t happen (like objections to sales) and work on these (things like design quality, affiliations, language, etc. will come up)Training Camp (via Gil Searcy on Flickr)

159. Building a Link Acquisition Funnel Visit Link-Targeted Content Grab Link Code Link to the Site

160. Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

161. Influencers on the Web

162. The Power of the “Linkerati”

163. Content that Appeals to Influencers

164. Making Content Easy to Share

165. Making Content Easy to Share

166. Incenting/Rewarding Link Behaviors

167. Cannibalization of the Link Graph MMM… LINK GRAPHS ARE DELICIOUS!

168. The Rise of the Social Graph

169. You have to do these right, before you can do these right Algorithmic Ranking Factors

170. Learn More w/ the Free Beginner’s Guide: http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization Feel free to distribute this presentation for educational use. We love to help SEOs learn!