Bruce M. Clay discusses SEO best practices in 3 key areas: on-page factors like keywords, titles and headings; expertness through links; and copywriting with clarifying words. Additional best practices include using engagement objects, proper site architecture in "silos", and ensuring good server/software performance. The presentation emphasizes writing naturally for the audience, linking appropriately to demonstrate expertise, and grouping related content together with internal links.

1. SMX@ad:tech – Search Engine
Optimization Tactics
Panelists:
Bruce M. Clay – President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
SEO Best Practices
Overview – SEO Best Practice Areas
• On-Page Factors: Tags (Title, Description, Keyword,
Headings, Body Copy) along with a clear subject-
subject
matter focus.
• Expertness: Inbound Links, Outbound Links, Internal
Links. Focus on controlling PageRank movement.
• Copywriting: this is structural content (sentences
versus bullet lists), sentence structure and word
lists)
usage (complexity), clarification words.
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2. Overview – SEO Best Practice Areas
• Engagement Objects™: video, MP3, images, maps,
books, news, blogs, etc., everything in Google
Universal results.
• Site Architecture: aka., Siloing. You need to theme
your content by the search query used. Also,
crawlable sitemap and XML files.
• Server / Software Performance: a slow server
discourages spiders and you need a usable CMS.
Being A Subject Matter Expert
• If you are not a subject matter expert on the subject
of a query why should your site rank well?
– Add substantial unique content about a specific
subject
– To several interconnected (linked) pages on that
same subject (themes)
– That is engaging and easy to understand
– That is spoken about and linked to by other
experts on the subject
– And that is current (often updated and fresh).
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3. On-Page Factors – Head Section
• Should all be used but must be reasonable. Do not
stuff keywords into the content.
y
• Head Section
• Page Title: 6 to 12 words most common
• Page Description: 12 to 24 words most
common
• Keyword Tag: 24 to 48 words most common
(not indexed except Yahoo)
On-Page Factors – Body Section
• Body Section
• Heading Tags: <h1>, etc. are important, but like
<h1> etc important
a table of contents
• Image ALT tags: required for 508 (Disabilities)
compliance.
• Body Text:
– Shopping sites: 250 words, often in bullet
lists
– Research Sites: 500 words mostly in
sentences
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4. Not Everyone Understands
Expertness
• Inbound links: describe content of your page and
give you PageRank value
• Outbound links: demonstrate the “reference site”
aspect of you being an expert
• Internal links: You get to vote for your most
important pages with specific anchor text
• Link to (and get links from) experts within the
geo-targeted zone where you want to get traffic
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5. Copywriting
• Use “clarification words” that help explain the
meaning of your content, such as:
• My apple is a lemon vs. My Apple computer is a
lemon
• My mustang has horsepower vs. My Ford
Mustang has horsepower.
• Write in a natural way for your audience, much
like other subject matter experts
• Be sure to localize (geo-target) if appropriate to
your subject
Engagement Objects
• Flash is a problem if used to excess, but parts of
Flash 10 can be indexed
• MP3 sound tracks are being indexed
• Images are searchable – as an image and as
words on an image (see Google Book Project)
• Blogs have high social value, as do feeds
g g ,
• News, Books, Maps are engaging (see Google
Universal search results).
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6. Site Architecture
• Structure your site in “Silo’s”: theme aligned content
paths with a clear relationship to surrounding pages.
• Align your content by how people search
• With clear hierarchy in the navigation and link
relationships
• And that makes it clear that you have groups of
content about every query term
• Use both “user” and XML Sitemaps.
Server / Software Issues
• Slow servers impact spidering of your content
• Improper technology for search engines can
prevent indexing/spidering
• Technology that prevents page editing (bad CMS)
can prevent content from being properly
implemented
• Improper or missing redirects can harm link value
transfers (bad redirects)
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7. Summary
• Behave in a “natural” way within common normal ranges
• Link out to experts in your areas, and have some experts
from each geographic area link to you
• Write in a sentence structure or bullet list appropriate to
the query keyword intent
• Add engaging content to your site appropriate to the
subject
• Group content about a subject together, and cross-link
p j g ,
within subject pages
• Make sure that you can edit all parts of your page
• Make sure your server is fast and spiders are not kept
from their jobs
SMX@ad:tech – Search Engine
Optimization Tactics
Panelists:
Bruce M. Clay – President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
bclay@bruceclay.com
http://www.bruceclay.com
http://bruceclay.com/presentations/SMX-ad-tech-SEO-Tactics.pdf
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