SEO is important because search engines have become the primary way people find information online. To succeed at SEO, a website needs to make its content accessible and relevant to search engines through techniques like optimizing titles, URLs, meta descriptions and on-page content for target keywords. It also needs to build links, social shares and citations from authoritative sources to gain the search engine's trust. Regular tracking and testing of rankings, usability and conversions is required to continuously improve search performance.

1. Why is SEO so Important?

2. The Traditional Mental Model of Marketing
Stimulus First Second
Moment Moment
of Truth of Truth
At shelf Experience
In-store
2

3. The New Mental Model of Marketing
Stimulus First Second
Moment Moment
of Truth of Truth
Pre-shopping |
In-store | In-home
At shelf Experience
In-store
3

4. Global Search Volume Growth
In Feb. 2011, Google said they
had 2 Billion+ searches/day!
Millions of Searches (Monthly)
Data via Comscore: http://www.comscore.com

5. Search Engine Market Share
Most of the World Including
South Africa (except China,
Russia, Korea + Czech
Republic) look like this
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_201
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre/main/dashboard-7323.html
http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/search-engine-news/google/search-engine-market-share-statistics-%E2%80%93-february-2011-18271/

6. Organic vs. Paid Search
Paid
Organic

7. Organic vs. Paid Search
~20% of Clicks
~80% of Clicks
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnec

8. ERP Click-Through Rates
Ranking #2, #3 and #4 would
send less traffic than just
ranking #1
http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/google-organic-seo-click-through-rates/

9. How Can My Website Compete?

10. Step 1:Make Your Content
Great.

11. “Good” Content vs. “GREAT” Content
Satisfies the searcher’s basic Surprises and delights the
information requirements searcher by being remarkable
Written by a human and not Produced by extraordinary
duplicated elsewhere writers/designers/producers
Long enough to fulfill basic May leverage video, audio,
needs of engines for graphics & photos to convey a
depth/uniqueness unique, shareable experience
Grammatically correct; free of Produced by extraordinary
spelling/punctuation errors writers/designers/producers

12. Step 2: Make Content Accessible to
Search Engines.

13. Create Substantive, Descriptive, HTML Text
Content
http://www.hipmunk.com/ is a great site, but there’s no real text content for engines to see!
http://adioso.com doesn’t have much more, but there’s at least something for Google/Bing to use.

15. Create Clean, Crawlable URLs
Best www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights
www.adioso.com/cat61/british
www.adioso.com/cat61/174
www.adioso.com/f?ID=174
www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174
Worst cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/11-best-practices-for-urls

16. Step 3: Usability.

17. Use Your Analytics to Establish Baselines and
Measure Progress...
http://www.google.com/analytics

18. Step 4: Keyword Research.

19. The Best Keywords Are:
High Volume
(many searches/month)
Low Competition
(weak sites/pages in the top 10)
High Value
(large % of visitors convert)
The tricky part is finding these terms/phrases

20. Keyword Research Starts w/ the Right Brainstorming Process
Graphic via Elliance:
http://www.elliance.com/aha/infographics/keyword-
research-part-2.aspx?page=1&category=ROI

21. Researching Keyword Volume: Google’s
AdWords Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

22. Determining Keyword Difficulty
Number of results is
meaningless
We want to know how “strong”
these sites/pages are
And how our site’s/page’s
metrics compare

23. Determining a Keyword’s “Value”
1,000 200
Visitors Searched “Usability Visitors Searched “User Testing
Testing” and Arrived at the Site Software” and Arrived at the Site
20 40
Visitors Took the Product Tour Visitors Took the Product Tour
Conversion Rate:
2 0.2% 5%
10
Visitors Bought the Software Visitors Bought the Software
Keyword volume is initially appealing, but conversion rate is critical to the evaluation!

24. Put the Data Together and Start with Low-Hanging
Fruit

25. Step 5: Get Keyword Targeting Right.

26. Keyword Optimised Title Tags:
Best Usability Testing Software | UserTesting.com
UserTesting.com | Usability Testing Software
Usability Testing Software
Usability Testing, Usability Test, User Testing, User Software
UserTesting.com
Worst NA
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag

27. Keyword Optimise Your URL’S
Best www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights
www.adioso.com/cat61/british
www.adioso.com/cat61/174
www.adioso.com/f?ID=174
www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174
cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21
Worst

28. Optimise Meta Descriptions:
TITLE: Low Cost Usability Testing - UserTesting.com
META DESCRIPTION: Usability testing has never been easier.
UserTesting.com's online usability testing is the cheapest, fastest
way to find out why visitors leave your website.
A good meta description acts like ad copy and draws the searcher in:
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

29. Optimise website Content:
Not only do search engines like to see keywords in copy, but visitors will be
comforted to see that you have content that addresses their query, too.

30. Keyword Optimise Images & Alt Attributes
Keywords in alt attributes are
surprisingly well correlated
with higher rankings

31. Keyword Optimise H1, H2, H3 Headlines
Keywords in H(x) tags are not
particularly well correlated
with high rankings, but may
provide some, minor value.

32. Step 6: Make Search Engines Work for You.

33. Create Up To Date XML Sitemaps

34. Create HTML Sitemaps

35. Implement Google Webmaster Tools

36. Step 7: Build Links, Tweets,
Likes & Shares.

37. What Makes a Great Link
Editorially given
From a trusted source
Uses descriptive anchor text
Points to the right page
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

38. Step 8: Help Your Community Help
You.

39. Spread Your Message Across the Web
News/Media/PR
SEO Email
Blogs + Blogging Research/White Papers
Infographics
Comment Marketing
Social Networks
Online Video
INBOUND MARKETING! Webinars
(Find Your Audience Organically on the Web)
Forums
Document Sharing
Social Bookmarking Word of Mouth
Direct/Referring Links Podcasting
Type-In Traffic Q+A Sites

40. Step 9: Track What Matters.

41. Basic Google Analytics Installation

42. Tracking Keyword Rankings:

43. Step 10: Test & Improve

44. Improve the Conversion Funnel:
Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions
25% 20%
A better “conversion rate” means more people
who already visit the site will come to the store!

45. Test Content Types
Blog Videos
Photos Email Newsletters
Embeddable Content Webinars
Slideshows Questions + Answers
Infographics Research/White Papers
Web Apps Community Forum