This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and best practices. It discusses the importance of SEO given that most internet users begin their sessions through search engines. The document then outlines a seven step process for improving search engine rankings, including getting a site fully indexed, optimizing page content and structure, building links, leveraging PageRank, encouraging clicks, tracking metrics, and avoiding bad practices. Specific techniques are provided for each step, such as optimizing title tags and meta descriptions. The presentation warns against spammy techniques and emphasizes creating useful, relevant content.

1. SEO – HIGH TRAFFIC ROUTING
 Global Information Internship
Program from BUDNET
 www.budnetdesign.com

2. Today’s Agenda
 What is SEO?
 The Seven Steps to Higher Rankings
 Get Your Site Fully Indexed
 Get Your Pages Visible
 Build Links & PageRank
 Leverage Your PageRank
 Encourage Clickthrough
 Track the Right Metrics
 Avoid Worst Practices

3. Part 1: What Is SEO?

4. Everything
Revolves
Around Search

5. Search Engine Optimization
 6 times more effective than a banner ad
 Delivers qualified leads
 80% of Internet user sessions begin at the
search engines (Source: Internetstats.com)
 55% of online purchases are made on sites
found through search engine listings
(Source: Internetstats.com)

6. SEO is NOT Paid Advertising
 SEO – “Search Engine Optimization” – seeks to
influence rankings in the “natural” (a.k.a.
“organic”, a.k.a. “algorithmic”) search results
 PPC – paid search advertising on a pay-per-click
basis. The more you pay, the higher your
placement. Stop paying = stop receiving traffic.
 SEM – encompasses both SEO and PPC

7. Paid
Natural Paid

8. Google Listings – Your Virtual
Sales Force making 6-7 figures a month from
 Savvy retailers
natural listings
 Savvy MFA (Made for AdSense) site owners
making 5-6 figures per month
 Most sites are not SE-friendly
 Google friendliness = friendly to other engines
 First calculate your missed opportunities

9. Not doing SEO? You’re Leaving
Money on the Table
 Calculate the missed opportunity cost of not ranking well
for products and services that you offer?
# of people engine share expected click- average average
searching for (Google = through rate conversion rate transaction
your keywords x 60%) x x x amount
 E.g.10,000/day x 60% x 10% x 5% x $100 = $3,000/day

10. Most Important Search
Engines
 Google (also powers AOL
Search, Netscape.com, iWon, etc.) – 60.29%
market share (Source: Hitwise)
 Yahoo! (also powers
Alltheweb, AltaVista, Hotbot, Lycos, CNN, A9
) – 22.58%
 Live Search (formerly MSN Search) – 11.56%
 Ask – 3.63%

11. People Are Googling… Are You
There?

12. What Are Searchers Looking
For?
 Keyword Research
 “Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will
be in vain.”
 The “right” keywords are…
 relevant to your business
 popular with searchers

13. Keyword Research
 Tools to check popularity of keyword
searches
 WordTracker.com
 Trellian’s KeywordDiscovery.com
 Google’s Keyword Tool
 Google Trends
 Google Suggest

14. WordTracker.com
 Pros
 Based on last 60 days worth of searches
 Singular vs plural, misspellings, verb tenses all separated out
 Advanced functionality: keyword “projects”, import data into
Excel, synonyms, …
 Cons
 Requires subscription fee ($260/year)
 Data is from a small sample of Internet searches (from the minor search
engines Dogpile and MetaCrawler)
 Contains bogus data from automated searches
 No historical archives

15. Keyword
Popularity –
According to
WordTracker

16. Trellian’s
KeywordDiscovery.com
 Pros
 Full year of historical archives
 Data is from a large sample of Internet searches (9 billion searches
compiled from 37 engines)
 Singular vs plural, misspellings, verb tenses all separated out
 Can segment by country
 Advanced functionality: keyword “projects”, import data into Excel,
synonyms, …
 Cons
 Access to the historical data requires subscription fee (~$30/month)
 Contains bogus data from automated searches

17. Keyword Popularity
–
According to
KeywordDiscovery

18. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
 Pros
 Free! (Must have an AdWords account though)
 Data is from a large sample of Internet searches (from Google)
 Singular vs plural, misspellings, verb tenses all separated out
 Can segment by country
 Synonyms
 Cons
 No hard numbers
 Augment this tool with other free Google tools:
 Google Suggest (labs.google.com/suggest)
 Google Trends (www.google.com/trends)

19. Keyword
Popularity –
According to
Google
AdWords
Keyword Tool

20. Keyword
Popularity –
According to
Google
AdWords
Keyword Tool

21. Keyword
Popularity –
According to
Google Trends

22. Keyword
Popularity –
According to
Google
Suggest

23. Keyword Research
 Competition for that keyword should also be
considered
 Calculate KEI Score (Keyword Effectiveness
Indicator) = ratio of searches over number of
pages in search results
 The higher the KEI Score, the more attractive the
keyword is to target (assuming it’s relevant to
your business)

24. SEO. A Moving Target.
 A lot is changing…
 Personalization & customization
 Vertical search services (Images, Video, News, Maps, etc.)
 “Blended Search” – aka “Universal Search”
 Fortunately, the tried-and-true tactics still work…
 Topically relevant links from important sites
 Anchor text
 Keyword-rich title tags
 Keyword-rich content
 Internal hierarchical linking structure
 The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

25. The Search Engines Are Your
Friend
 Sitemaps.org
 Webmaster tools (e.g. Google Webmaster Central, Live
Search Webmaster Center, Yahoo Site Explorer)
 Rel=“nofollow” tag
 Meta NOODP tag
 Speaking at search engine conferences
 Publishing blogs dedicated to helping webmasters
 Participating on SEO forums
 “Weather reports”

26. SEO Can Dramatically Improve
Traffic/Sales
Non-optimal site with Optimized site with many
few pages indexed pages indexed
=$
Few visits/sales per day Many visits/sales per day!

27. Part 2: Seven Steps to High
Rankings

28. Begin The 7 Steps
1) Get Your Site Fully Indexed
2) Get Your Pages Visible
3) Build Links & PageRank
4) Leverage Your PageRank
4) Encourage Clickthrough
6) Track the Right Metrics
7) Avoid Worst Practices

29. 1) Get Your Site Fully
Indexed
 Search engines are wary of “dynamic” pages - they fear “spider traps”
 Avoid stop characters (?, &, =) ‘cgi-bin’, session IDs and unnecessary
variables in your URLs; frames; redirects; pop-ups; navigation in
Flash/Java/Javascript/pulldown boxes
 If not feasible due to platform constraints, can be easily handled
through proxy technology (e.g. GravityStream)
 The better your PageRank, the deeper and more often your site will be
spidered

30. Common Barriers to Spidering:
!  Lack of links down into all
content pages; navigation;
Non-textlink sitewide
• Search-form-only;
• Javascript/Java-only (ie: dynamic menus);
• Flash apps / Splash pages;
Non-optimal URL formats of pages;
http://www.example.com/app.jsp?sid=abc123xyz
URL Framed Content

31. 1) Get Your Site Fully Indexed
(cont’d)
 Page # estimates are wildly inaccurate, and include non-indexed
pages (e.g. ones with no title or snippet)
 Misconfigurations (in robots.txt, in the type of redirects used,
requiring cookies, etc.) can kill indexation
 Keep your error pages out of the index by returning 404 status code
 Keep duplicate pages out of the index by standardizing your URLs,
eliminating unnecessary variables, using 301 redirects when needed

32. Results in
“Supplemental Hell”

33. Example of Non-Optimal Site Design:
PR 8 site has META refresh redirect on homepage – spiders not
redirected to destination page:
Also, indexed “shell” page doesn’t contain any text content!

34. Not Spider-Friendly
 GET http://www.bananarepublic.com --> 302 Moved Temporarily
 GET http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/home.do --> 302
Moved Temporarily
 GET
http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/home.do?targetURL=h
ttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bananarepublic.com%2Fbrowse%2Fhome
.do&CookieSet=Set --> 302 Moved Temporarily
 GET http://www.bananarepublic.com/cookieFailure.do --> 200
OK

35. 2) Get Your Pages Visible
 100+ “signals” that influence ranking
 “Title tag” is the most important copy on the page
 Home page is the most important page of a site
 Every page of your site has a “song” (keyword theme)
 Incorporate keywords into title tags, hyperlink text, headings
(H1 & H2 tags), alt tags, and high up in the page (where
they’re given more “weight”)
 Eliminate extraneous HTML code
 “Meta tags” are not a magic bullet
 Have text for navigation, not graphics

36. Pretty good title

37. Not so good title –
where’s the phrase
“credit card”?

38. Dynamic Site Leaves Session IDs in
URLs:
Titles not specific to page (“jewelry”)
Main text on page just nav labels –
Little text/keyword content

39. Good link text
and body copy

40. Good link text
and body copy

41. No link text or
body copy

42. No link text or
body copy

43. Take a peek
under the
hood

44. The “meta tags”

45. Unnecessarily
bloated HTML

46. 3) Build Links and PageRank
 “Link popularity” affects search engine rankings
 PageRank™ - Links from “important” sites have more impact on
your Google rankings (weighted link popularity)
 Google offers a window into your PageRank
 PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar (toolbar.google.com)
 Google Directory (directory.google.com) category pages
 3rd party tools like SEOChat.com’s “PageRank Lookup” & “PageRank
Search”
 Scores range from 0-10 on a logarithmic scale
 Live Search and Yahoo have similar measures to PageRank™

47. Google’s Toolbar –
with handy PageRank
Meter

48. Google
Directory –
listings are
organized by
PageRank

49. Conduct any
Google query
and get results
organized by
PageRank

50. 4) Leverage Your PageRank
 Your home page’s PageRank gets distributed
to your deep pages by virtue of your
hierarchical internal linking structure (e.g.
breadcrumb nav)
 Pay attention to the text used within the
hyperlink (“Google bombing”)
 Don’t hoard your PageRank
 Don’t link to “bad neighborhoods”

51. Ideal internal site linking
hierarchies:
Homepages often will be Good link trees inform
highest-ranking site search engines about
pages since they which site pages are
typically have most most important.
inbound links.
*Sitemaps can also be used to tell SEs about pages, & to define
relative priority.

52. 4) Leverage Your PageRank
 Avoid PageRank dilution
 Canonicalization (www.domain.com vs. domain.com)
 Duplicate pages: (session IDs, tracking codes,
superfluous parameters)
 In general, search engines are cautious of dynamic
URLs (with ?, &, and = characters) because of “spider
traps”
 Rewrite your URLs (using a server module/plug-in) or use
a hosted proxy service (e.g. GravityStream)
 See
http://catalogagemag.com/mag/marketing_right_page_
web/

53. Duplicate
pages

54. Googlebot got
caught in a
“spider trap”

55. Search engine
spiders turn
their noses up
at such URLs

56. Thus, important
content doesn’t
make it into the
search engine
indices

57. 5) Encourage Clickthrough
 Zipf’s Law applies - you need to be at the top of page 1 of the
search results. It’s an implied endorsement.
 Synergistic effect of being at the top of the natural results &
paid results
 Entice the user with a compelling call-to-action and value
proposition in your descriptions
 Your title tag is critical
 Snippet gets built automatically, but you CAN influence
what’s displayed here

58. Where do
searchers
look?
(Enquiro, Did-it,
Eyetools Study)

59. Search
listings –
1 good,
1 lousy

60. 6) Track the Right Metrics
 Indexation: # of pages indexed, % of site indexed, % of
product inventory indexed, # of “fresh pages”
 Link popularity: # of links, PageRank score (0 - 10)
 Rankings: by keyword, “filtered” (penalized) rankings
 Keyword popularity: # of searches, competition, KEI (Keyword
Effectiveness Indicator) scores
 Cost/ROI: sales by keyword & by engine, cost per lead

61. Indexation tool –
www.netconcepts.com/urlcheck

63. Link popularity tool –
www.netconcepts.com/linkcheck

65. Avoid Worst Practices
 Target relevant keywords
 Don’t stuff keywords or replicate pages
 Create deep, useful content
 Don't conceal, manipulate, or over-optimize
content
 Links should be relevant (no scheming!)
 Observe copyright/trademark law & Google’s
guidelines

66. Spamming in Its Many Forms…
 Hidden or small text
 Keyword stuffing
 Targeted to obviously irrelevant keywords
 Automated submitting, resubmitting, deep
submitting
 Competitor names in meta tags
 Duplicate pages with minimal or no changes
 Spamglish
 Machine generated content

67. Spamming in Its Many Forms…
 Pagejacking
 Doorway pages
 Cloaking
 Submitting to FFA (“Free For All”) sites & link farms
 Buying up expired domains with high PageRanks
 Scraping
 Splogging (spam blogging)

68. BMW.de
hosted many
“doorway
pages” like
this one

69. “Sneaky
redirect” sent
searchers to
this page

70. Not Spam, But Bad for
Rankings content-less home page, Flash intros
 Splash pages,
 Title tags the same across the site
 Error pages in the search results (eg “Session expired”)
 "Click here" links
 Superfluous text like “Welcome to” at beginning of titles
 Spreading site across multiple domains (usually for load
balancing)
 Content too many levels deep

71. What Next? Conduct an SEO
Audit!
 Is your site fully indexed?
 Are your pages fully optimized?
 Could you be acquiring more PageRank?
 Are you spending your PageRank wisely?
 Are you maximizing your clickthrough rates?
 Are you measuring the right things?
 Are you applying “best practices” in SEO and
avoiding all the “worst practices”?

72. Review Errors/Messages in Webmaster Tools

73. Content Opt Opportunities via Webmaster
Tools

74. Check Robots.txt Exclusions in Webmaster
Tools

75. Case Study: Homestead.com
 What worked
 Comprehensive SEO & usability audit
 Intensive on-site training sessions with their IT
and marketing teams
 6 months of support
 What didn’t work
 No significant changes to the look of the home
page were allowed for political reasons,
significantly reducing the options available

76. Case Study: Homestead.com
 Results
 Within 8 weeks of launch of some preliminary
optimization work, on page 1 for “website
hosting” in Google
 With our audit as a blueprint, later that year
launched an internally built site redesign which
landed them the #1 Google position for “website
hosting”
 Consistently held #1 position for 2 years

81. In Summary
 Focus on the right keywords
 Have great keyword-rich content
 Build links, and thus your PageRank™
 Spend that PageRank™ wisely within your site
 Measure the right things
 Continually monitor and benchmark

82. Further Reading
 blogs.cnet.com/seosearchlight
 google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
 www.google.com/webmasters/
 www.mattcutts.com/blog
 googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com
 blog.outer-court.com
 www.searchengineland.com
 www.seroundtable.com
 www.naturalsearchblog.com
 www.stephanspencer.com

83. Q&A!
Special White Papers Available:
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New Link Building Paradigms
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Tips & Tricks for Local Search Ads