SEO Web 2.0 Era - Johns Hopkins University

1. 360  Digital Influence SEO in the Web 2.0 Era November 10, 2008

2. Agenda <ul><li>SEO vs. SEM </li></ul><ul><li>Keyword Research </li></ul><ul><li>On-page Optimization </li></ul><ul><li>Off-page Optimization </li></ul><ul><li>Personalized Search & Google’s SearchWiki </li></ul><ul><li>Workshop </li></ul>

3. SEO vs. SEM

4. SEO vs SEM <ul><li>If you know the difference you’re already a step a head of the game. </li></ul>

5. SEO vs. SEM

6. SEO vs SEM: Ranking Factors <ul><li>SEO: Google’s organic rankings factor in an estimated 200+ components when determining search rankings ( http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors ) </li></ul><ul><li>SEM: Cost per click and “Quality Score” ( http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10215 ) </li></ul>

7. Keyword Research

8. Keyword Research: Search Behavior <ul><li>Understand How Your Audience is Searching </li></ul><ul><li>55% of all searches are done using 3 or more words </li></ul>

9. Keyword Research: Head of Tail vs. Long Tail Strategy <ul><li>https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal </li></ul>

10. Keyword Research: Head of Tail vs. Long Tail Strategy <ul><li>Long tail keywords lead to more conversions </li></ul><ul><li>Long tail phrases build the foundation for targeting highly competitive phrases </li></ul><ul><li>Interest - "car insurance" </li></ul><ul><li>Research - "sports car insurance“ </li></ul><ul><li>Research - "california car insurance“ </li></ul><ul><li>Research - "best car insurance company“ </li></ul><ul><li>Purchase - "car insurance instant online quote" </li></ul>

11. Keyword Research: Measuring Success <ul><li>Your strategy should be about conversions & engagement NOT rankings. </li></ul><ul><li>Define goals and assess which keywords are leading to traffic that achieves those goals. </li></ul><ul><li>Goals: sale, lead capture, RSS subscription, social bookmark, whitepaper download etc… </li></ul>

12. On-page Optimization

13. On-page Optimization: The Title Tag

14. On-page Optimization: Why Search Engines Loves Blogs <ul><li>Search engine spiders love fresh content and the more frequently you update your content the more frequently spiders crawl your site. </li></ul>

15. On-page Optimization: Choosing the Right Domain <ul><li>Branding vs. Keyword Rich </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Given enough time and effort, any site can rank for any keyword with any domain name. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Having core keywords in your domain can, however, help you rank faster initially. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ideally, you want to accomplish both branding & keyword use in your domain. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Often the domain you want is taken, but it may be worth the price to buy. </li></ul></ul>

16. On-page Optimization: The All Powerful 301 Redirect

17. On-page Optimization: Google Webmaster Tools <ul><li>See What Google Sees: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ </li></ul></ul>

18. Off-page Optimization

19. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page (hence the name Page-Rank) and later Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. The project started in 1995 and led to a functional prototype, named Google, in 1998. Shortly after, Page and Brin founded Google Inc. While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank is a significant factor in determining a site’s organic search ranking. </li></ul><ul><li>Google’s Description of PageRank: </li></ul><ul><li>PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important". </li></ul>

20. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>Google Toolbar PageRank </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Real PageRank is always changing, but “toolbar PageRank” only updates about once every 3 months. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>http://toolbar.google.com </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Settings  Options  More </li></ul></ul>

21. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>How to find quality inbound links? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Competitive Research: Who is linking to the sites that are ranking for your target keywords? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>link:www.npr.org </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>link:www.worldpeace.org </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Which of your properties can you leverage? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>teen resources site:www.pbs.org </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>conflict resolution site:www.seedsofpeace.org </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Strategic searching </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>useful sites library site:.edu </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>helpful links library site:.edu </li></ul></ul></ul>

22. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>rel =“nofollow” Explained </li></ul><ul><li>nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index. </li></ul><ul><li>It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results. </li></ul>

23. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>“ Show your commenters that you appreciate them. Spread the link love.” ( http://randaclay.com/blogging/the-i-follow-movement/ ) </li></ul>

24. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>Twitter uses “nofollow” in profile link: </li></ul><ul><li>“ My personal twitter page has 1700 links, 1500+ followers, contains over 7000 tweets and is a toolbar PR of 5. Last I checked, I got all those links. I wrote all that content. All those people were following me as a person. I developed that link popularity. Why on earth would I not deserve ALL the benefits (including that in the form of a profile link) from building up the value of that page?” </li></ul><ul><li>http://www.sugarrae.com/twitter-lays-down-for-google/ </li></ul>

25. Off-page Optimization: Inbound Links <ul><li>10 Myths about… </li></ul><ul><li>7 Secrets for… </li></ul><ul><li>The Beginners Guide to… </li></ul><ul><li>How to… </li></ul><ul><li>Interviews </li></ul>

26. Off-page Optimization: TrustRank <ul><li>TrustRank is a link analysis technique described in a paper by Standford University and Yahoo! researchers for semi-automatically separating useful webpages from spam. </li></ul><ul><li>The starting point of the algorithm is the selection of good (trusted) pages by hand. These pages are the sources of trust. Trust can be transferred to other page by linking to them. </li></ul>

27. Off-page Optimization: Universal Search

29. Off-page Optimization: Universal Search <ul><li>Content Distribution Strategy </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Website Partners to Host Content </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Article / Whitepaper Submission Sites (EzineArticles, GoArticles, etc…) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Social Media Tagging (Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc…) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>PowerPoint Submissions (SlideShare) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Video Submissions (YouTube, Blip.tv, Google Video, etc…) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Photo & Image Submissions (Flickr, PhotoBucket, Picasa) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Format for All Content </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Allows for content (i.e. blog posts, videos, podcasts, articles, event updates, etc.) to be easily syndicated to other websites. </li></ul></ul></ul></ul>

32. Personalized Search & Google’s SearchWiki

33. WORKSHOP SESSION <ul><li>Divide into client groups (PBS.org / Seeds of Peace) </li></ul><ul><li>Conduct keyword research </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Come up with 10 head of tail keywords and 10 long tail keywords </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Come up with 5 potential domain names for you client’s website </li></ul><ul><li>Inbound Link Research </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Download Google’s PageRank Toolbar </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Find 5 different web pages where your client’s website would benefit by obtaining a link from that page. </li></ul></ul>

SEO Web 2.0 Era - Johns Hopkins University

Will Fleiss

SEO Web 2.0 Era - Johns Hopkins University