demystifying seo

Demystifying seoSocial Media Breakfast Montreal – June 2011

1

WHO IS THIS GUY?

2

Marketing Hack @nvisolutions

Consultant @websitetogo.ca

Musician @weswalls

#SMBSEO

WHY IS HE HERE?

3

SEO is not scary

How SEO can fit into your business strategy

Where to start with your SEO campaign

How to put SEO into action for your business

Measuring SEO

Getting results

#1

4

ASK YOURSELF SOME QUESTIONS

STEP #1: ASK YOURSELF SOME QUESTIONS

5

Is SEO worth considering for my business?

5

• 78% of Canadians online will use search engines to research online and offline purchases

• 27% of those who researched product info online purchased online

• 45% of those that searched for product information online still purchase via traditional retail

• In 2009, search represented over 41% of overall online revenue, $741 million in Canada

• 106 million search engine queries a day in Canada

• 77% of all Canadian internet traffic starts from a search engine

• 98% of online users rely on search engines to find websites

Source : IAB 2010 & Comscore 2009.


6

Who is my target user?

6

7


• What unique offering can I add to the internet?

• Why would people want it?

• How would people seek it out?

• How would I want them to engage with me?

8


With over 100 million websites on the internet

How do I avoid being another BLAH ?

9


Know your niche

#2

10

RESEARCH & STRATEGY

11

STEP #2: RESEARCH & STRATEGY

Getting to know your playing field

12


Keyword Research

13


Keyword ThemesBlank/White T-shirtsblank tshirtswhite tshirtsblank t-shirtswhite t-shirtsblank t shirtswhite tshirtblank shirtblank shirts blank tshirtwhite t shirtt shirt blankblank tee shirtwholesale blank t shirtscheap blank t shirtsplain white tshirts

Custom T-shirtscustom tshirtscustom t-shirtscustom t shirtcustom made t shirtscustom t-shirts torontocustom t shirts calgarycustom t-shirts canadacustom t shirts ottawatoronto custom t-shirtscustom print t shirtscustom t shirts cheapcustom t shirtcustom tshirts torontocustom t-shirts winnipegcheap custom tshirts

T-shirt Printingt shirt printingtshirt printingtee shirt printing custom shirt printingt shirt printing companiesonline t shirt printingshirt printingshirt screen printingt shirts printedt shirt printst shirt printing companyt shirt printing torontoshirts printingt shirt screen printingt shirt printing machines

14


Keyword Spreadsheet• Organize themes and subthemes into tabs • Global and local searches

• Weed out irrelevant keywords

• Sort by search volume

• Start to get an understanding of search patterns

15


Low Hanging Fruit

Keyword Search Volume

Actual Traffic

Current Rankings

Low Hanging Fruit?

t shirt printing 1,900 80 87 No

cheap t shirts online 28 10 12 No

custom t-shirts canada 320 90 14 Yes

shirt printing 170 40 22 No

white t shirts 170 80 11 Yes

Rank Checker by SEOBook.com

16


Who is Ranking?

17


What are my competitors doing?

18


What do I want out of all this?

KPI’SKPI’SKPI’S

NOT A KPI

19


20


• Set goals

• Establish budget

• Get ready for the long haul

#3

21

BUILD!!!

22

STEP #3: BUILD

Audit Your WebsiteThe Basics:

• Unique content strategy & hierarchy

• Interlinking

• Duplicate content

• Title tags

• Meta descriptions

• Indexation

• No shortcuts

23

STEP # 3: BUILD

Unique Content Strategy & HierarchyContent is still king! Content must be:

• Unique and different to other content on the web• Useful and informative• Well-written, 250 words/page min. recommended• Well-organized throughout the site

• Theme silo concept http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm

• Organizational chart• Content content content!

http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm

http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm

24

STEP # 3: BUILD

InterlinkingGood interlinking ties all of the content on your site together in a clear hierarchy.• Crawlable text main navigation links• Main category links• “Quick links” • Breadcrumbs• Footer links & sitemap• Contextual links (deeper in site)

25

STEP # 3: BUILD

Duplicate Content

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro?mco=MTM3NjU5MzU

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro

Two different URLS + same page =POTENTIAL DUP CONTENT

Always use exact same version of URL






26

STEP # 3: BUILD

Title Tags

27

STEP # 3: BUILD

Meta descriptions

28

STEP # 3: BUILD

Indexation

• Get to know how your site is indexed. Use Google query site:yoursite.com to browse the indexation of your site.

• Use a tool like Xenu Link Sleuth to crawl your site.

• Remove pages that do not have a purpose such as internal search results pages or dup content pages, using rel=“noindex, follow” or robots.txt

• Submit XML sitemap via Google Webmaster Tools

#4

29

PROMOTE

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/altterrain-guerilla-marketing-wild-posting-alternative-outdoor-advertising/

30

STEP # 4: PROMOTE

Backlinks• Popularity contest

• Each backlink is like a “vote”

• “Who is voting” is as important as “how many votes”

• Backlink profile matters as much as individual links

• How to become popular?

31

STEP # 4: PROMOTE

Linkbuilding“Who would want to link to you, and why?”

• Write linkable content

• Contests, widgets, incentives – be creative

• Reach out and build relationships with thematically similar websites

• Going the extra mile will pay off

• No link exchanges

• Avoid “over-optimization” and spammy techniques at all costs

• Vary your strategies and activities as much as possible.

32

STEP # 4: PROMOTE

What is a good link?• From a relevant page or website

• Page is in good neighbourhood with good links pointing to the page

• Has purpose for user

• Pagerank of page and website (a signal, not absolute)

• Page is cached by Google

• HTML, not javascript, etc

• Direct (not a redirect) and not nofollowed

33

STEP # 4: PROMOTE

Engage

“Who would want to engage with you, and why?”

• Social signals are becoming increasingly important in SEO • Google +1, Facebook Shares & Likes, Tweets

• Become active in social media, beyond simply posting content

• Talk to people

• Build your community as an investment

#5

34

Measure

35

STEP # 5: MEASURE

Google Analytics

36

STEP # 5: MEASURE

Keyword Themes

• Use Advanced Filter to drill right down to main keyword themes identified during Research & Strategy • Measure/analyze the performance of each keyword theme separately

• Ties into your theme silo site structure • The more you granular you get in your analysis, the better you can attribute specific activities to specific results over time, as well as more accurately prepare new strategies

37

STEP # 5: MEASURE

Keyword Depth vs Width• Within each theme, how much long-tail?

• 500 visits from 400 keywords is much different than 500 visits from 100 keywords

• Should get a balance of short- and long-tail, otherwise indicates and issue or opportunity

38

STEP # 5: MEASURE

Reference Points

• Reference points helps put your data in context

• Compare this month to last, or the same period last year

• Use Google Insights to find out if there are larger search trends and patterns

http://www.google.com/insights/search

http://www.google.com/insights/search

39

STEP # 5: MEASURE

Where is the $$?

• If website is e-commerce, ensure that analytics is tracking this • If not e-commerce, set up goal conversion tracking based on KPIs

• Find a way to put a $$ value to your traffic in order to measure ROI

• Also allows you to refine strategy and activities to pursue the $$

40

Any Problem is an Opportunity

• There will always be issues and problems with your SEO marketing campaign

• If you have taken the right steps, you can turn any SEO issue into an opportunity

THANK YOU

demystifying seo

Business