experts exchange - seo demystified part 2
DESCRIPTION
View the webinar here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8if69iU4YVYIn Part II of "Demystifying SEO," Experts Exchange Search Engine Optimization pro Jonathan Hoekman present tips, tricks and best practices for your on-site and off-site optimization efforts. Specifically, you'll learn about:• Site architecture and why it matters• Keys for successful internal linking strategies• Which on-page elements matter most for SEO• Why social butterflies will rule the SERPs• How engaging your community = building linksTRANSCRIPT
SEO DEMYSTIFIEDPART II
Why SEO Should be Less Like Rocket Science and More
Like 3rd Grade Math
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PART I REVIEWKeyword Analysis
Content Development
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CUSTOMER
KEYWORDS
CONTENT
PART II PREVIEWOn-Site OptimizationOff-Site Optimization
GOALS• Build on lessons learned in Part I• Clear understanding of SEO fundamentals• Give specific examples, tips and tricks• Encourage you to give SEO a try• Show how ExpertBase can help
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ON-SITEOPTIMIZATION
You’ve got great content, now what?
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ACCESSIBILITY
INTERNAL LINKING
ON-PAGE
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ACCESSIBILITY • Helpful Hint
– Don’t worry about your PR!– Focus on crawl rate, crawl depth and
indexation rate
ACCESSIBILITY • Site Architecture
– Allows content to be crawled/indexed– Organized categorically, logically – Static link to every page on your site
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ACCESSIBILITY • Best Practice
– No matter how large or small your site, you NEED to be using sitemaps.
ACCESSIBILITY • Site Maps
– Site Map Page• www.google.com/sitemap.html
– XML Site Map• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sitemaps#File_
format
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ACCESSIBILITY • Site Maps
– Site Map Page• www.google.com/sitemap.html
– XML Site Map• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sitemaps#File_
format
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ACCESSIBILITY • Rules of Thumb
– Include your XML sitemap location in your robots.txt file
– Use both types of site maps whenever possible
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ACCESSIBILITY • Robots.txt
– www.sitename.com/robots.txt• Noindex Tag
– <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex” />
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ACCESSIBILITY • Robots.txt
– www.sitename.com/robots.txt• Noindex Tag
– <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex” />
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ACCESSIBILITY • Why Block Pages?
– Privacy Concerns– Low Value Pages– Duplicate Pages– Etc.
ACCESSIBILITY • Helpful Tip
– Use BOTH robots.txt AND noindex to block content, when possible.
– Especially important information
ACCESSIBILITY • Images, Flash, JavaScript and AJAX
– Does not execute JS files or AJAX calls– Cannot read images or flash– Content using these methods is NOT indexed
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ACCESSIBILITY • Images, Flash, JavaScript and AJAX
– Does not execute JS files or AJAX calls– Cannot read images or flash– Content using these methods is NOT indexed
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INTERNAL LINKING• Google Webmaster Guidelines
– “Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.”
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INTERNAL LINKING• Types of Links
– Navigational Links– Cross-Links
INTERNAL LINKING• Types of Links
– Navigational Links– Cross-Links
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INTERNAL LINKING• Linking Strategy
– Link location matters– Link only to relevant content– Control the # of links on your pages
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INTERNAL LINKING• Rules of Thumb
– The further down the page the link, the less chance that a spider will crawl it
– The more links on a page, the more diluted the link juice or link flow
INTERNAL LINKING• Anchor Text
– Hyperlinked text– Utilize keywords– Provide context
INTERNAL LINKING• Anchor Text
– Examples• Click Here sucks• Experts Exchange is better• Microsoft Help is better yet• [Question Title] is the best
INTERNAL LINKING• When in Doubt
– Use the title of the page you are linking to as your default strategy.
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ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• URL Structure Ground Rules
– Subdomain vs. Subdirectory• subdomain.domain.com/subdirectory/
– Use keyword-rich nomenclature– Separate with dashes (-)
• /microsoft-excel/– Avoid database parameters, queries
• index.php?product=1234&sort=price&print=1
ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• URL Structure
– www.expertbase.com/drive-traffic/search-engine-optimization/seo-demystified.html
ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• Header Tags
– Title Tag (< 70 Characters)• <title>title of page</title>
– H1, H2, H3 Tags• <h1>h1 content here</h1>
– Description Tag (< 155 Characters)• <meta name="description" content=“description here” />
– Keyword Tag • <meta name="keywords" content=“insert, keywords” />
– Rel=”Canonical” Tag• <link rel="canonical" href=“URL” />
ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• Rel=Canonical
– Example • www.domain.com/page-a.html• www.domain.com/category-one/page-a.html • <link rel="canonical" href=“www.domain.com/page-
a.html” />– Best practice to use 301 redirect instead
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ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• Helpful Tip
– Start your Title Tags with keywords• Example:
– [Site Name] | Descriptive Keyword Stringvs.
– Descriptive Keyword String | [Site Name]• vs.
– Descriptive Keyword String
ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• Other Elements
– Keyword Repetition– Keyword Variations
• Microsoft Excel, Excel, Microsoft– Alt Attributes
• <img src=“URL" alt=“alt text" width="" height="" />– File Names
• keywords-here.jpg– Bold/strong and Italic/emphasized
ON-PAGE ELEMENTS• Key Takeaway
– Tags and keywords should be UNIQUE to each page on your site and provide context to what is on the page.
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OFF-SITEOPTIMIZATIONYou’re only as good as others
say you are!
OFF-SITE OPTIMIZATION• Trust/Authority of Domain
– With SEO, trust is not given, it is earned• Elements Impacting Domain Authority
– Quality of Domains Linking to Your Site– Number of Links to Your Site– Growth Rate of Site– Age of Site/Content– Site Usability Metrics
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OFF-SITE OPTIMIZATION• Link Popularity of Pages
– Links = votes– More links = higher perceived value/quality– Links from high authority, highly related sites– Links to specific pages, deep in your site– Quality > Quantity
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OFF-SITE OPTIMIZATION• Anchor Text!!!
– Encourage linkers to use relevant keywords– Links are good, links with optimized keywords
in the anchor text are better!
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OFF-SITE OPTIMIZATION• Social Queues
– Quality content leads to action– Action = shares, tweets, likes, blog posts– Shares = links
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OFF-SITE OPTIMIZATION• Article Stats
– Written on 4/26/2011– 533 Tweets– 114 Likes
• Results– #2 result for ‘great content’ by EOD
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KEYWORDS +GREAT CONTENT +OPTIMIZED SITE +
SOCIAL/LINKS =
SEO SUCCESS!
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STEP #1:KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS
KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS• Audience Analysis
– Needs– Demographics
• Keyword Analysis– Trending– Competition– Volume
STEP #2:OPTIMIZE YOUR
WEBSITE
OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE• Site Architecture
– Indexation– Linking strategy– Link juice
• On-Page– URL, Title Tag, H1 Tag– Keyword use in content body
STEP #3:SECURE YOUR SOCIAL SITES
SECURE SOCIAL SITES• Bare Minimum
– Twitter– Facebook– YouTube– LinkedIn
STEP #4:CREATE KICK-BUTT
CONTENT/TOOLS
KICK-BUTT CONTENT• Become an Expert
– Add value– Thought-leadership– Take a stance
• Content Types– Video– Whitepapers– Articles, Blogs, Podcasts, Answers
STEP #5:SHARE CONTENT,
BUILD LINKS
LINK BUILDING• Make Sharing Easy
– Automate URL shortening– Include social logos on pages– Ask for the share
• Join the Conversation– Engage customers on social sites– Promote content to followers
STEP #6:START A Q&A COMMUNITY
Q&A COMMUNITIES• Use ExpertBase to:
– Engage Customers– Build Online Community– Establish Expertise– Create Valuable Content– Build Links to Site– Drive Targeted, Relevant Traffic
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