Conference Buddies

SEO/SEM

Speakers:

Rhea Drysale: Outspoken Media
Stephen Spencer: Net Concepts
Brett Tabke: WebmasterWorld, PubCon
10/16/2009, 4pm – 5pm

SEO/SEM Tools

• seo-browser.com: scans websites for SEO content. Tells you what type of redirect it is.
• Yahoo Site Explorer: free tool, log in to get comprehensive data, exclude internal links, only inbound links from other sites, lists not all, but most of your inbound links
• getlisted.org to claim your business on several local search engines & see how your business is listed at Google, Yahoo, and other top local search engines

SEO/SEM Tips

• Duplicate content is never going to rank as well as original content
• Keyword research: Google Adwords, sort by search volume, use it to base content around those words or phrases
• Every time you get a redirect, you lose a little value. (www versus non-www). Always stick with the same thing.
• Website problems: Lack of 301 redirects, too much duplicate content, http versus https, default is 302 redirect, broad keywords, title tags & body copy should be used, in “description”, title matters.
• Site:yourdomain on Google search. Checks the site for www versus non-www redirects
• Use this at the end of “Site:yourdomain”: &start =990&filter=0
• Shorter, keyword-rich content is better for your page rank and click thru rate
• No index (for Google: don’t index, don’t include in data page) and disallow (page is not accessible), no follow (don’t link the page rank, i.e. all your social buttons so you don‘t hemorrhage on page ranks), don’t vouch for sites that are not relevant to you
• Google webmaster central: verify your website, tell them what pages you want included & not included, lists your back links, have multiple people verify for you to find 404 errors, never use the removal tool because you can’t change your mind for six months,
• SEO Title Tags: a plugin for WordPress. Related words in title tag, but not in the post title, mass edit your title tags, get custom title tags for your various pages and posts without going into each page for editing, they do not conflict
• Blog posts: Use the more tag after the first paragraph, links back to your articles, don’t use your home page, use a tiny URL, (some services do not use a 301, always use one with a 301, NOT a 302) or use a hand-crafted optional excerpt, define that with a code to display the unique content.

Moderator:
Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land

Speakers:
Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
Laura Lippay, Dir. Technical Marketing, Yahoo
Marty Weintraub, President, aimClear

• How much does that H1 tag really matter, versus the number of links pointing at a domain?
• Do “authority” sites always have an advantage over other sites with less reputation?
• Is brand recognition now a bigger issue?

This session looks at on-the-page and off-the-page factors that influence web search, to understand what remains useful and what new signals are growing in importance.

Speaker: Rand Fiskin

Rand presented data based on 70 top SEO survey respondents plus data correlations based on several hundred real search results (Feb-May 2009).

Keywords used in the title tag and root domain had the highest impact on SEO ranking

On page factors:

• Header Tags (has a low correlation) – H1, H2, H3 less than 1% impact
• Alt Text (higher correlation)
• Keyword in URL (very high correlation)
• Keyword Location (closer the better)

Top Factors:

1. URL
2. Title Tag
3. Domain, path, query, sub-domain

Other Factors:

• Number of linking domains
• Link popularity
• Page content

Speaker: Marty Weintraub

Is my page strength comparable for a specific keyword query in light of keywords, page, or domain attributes?

Page Strength & SERP competitiveness in charts takes hours

Brands are now ranking higher due to Google cranking up authority score

Moderator:
Rae Hoffman

Speakers:
Brent Csutoras, Social Media Marketing Consultant, Brent Csutoras, Inc
Jen Miller, Manager, Delta.com Onsite Marketing & Content, iProspect
Dave Snyder, Co-Founder, Search & Social

Think social media has nothing to do with search? Think again.

QDF = Query Deserved Freshness

Social Signals (What are the signals?)

• Engagement
• Methods and systems for personalized network searching
• Relevancy Feedback Indicators
• Upstream and Downstream data (where you go)
• User Reviews (how people rate things)

Drive Early Traffic from Twitter

• Plan out your campaign
• Utilize well crafted DMs
• Engage Top Users
• Track via Query String Paramenters
• Add Retweet Capabilities to the page (add retweet badges)
• Control the bookmarking of your site (Delicious)
• Increase use of site (javascript)
• Add Engagement Points (i.e. video, voting, widgets, quizzes, review)

Speaker: Brent Csutoras

Using Stumble Upon!

Stumble Upon is a social aggregation site, showing users popular content based on votes.
Stumble Upon will only show a page once per person (category with 30 people, only 30 visits)

2 Ways To Add:

• Browser Tool Bar
• StumbleUpon.com/submit

Tagging:

• StumbleUpon.com/ads
• Be targeted, pick the right category or you will get negative reviews
• Cross tagging
• Look at what other people are tagging, edit yours

Add and make friends:

• Subscribers, testimonials, votes
• Post to your blog
• Vote videos and photos
• Tag and Review
• Choose a niche

Tips:

• Don’t review the same site multiple times, this looks like spam (by promoting yourself)
• Avoid patterns in voting, discoveries, shares (i.e. It looks like spam if you only stumble friends, click on the same button too many times in a row, or discover too much from one section)
• Choose and Use the Right Tags
• Most importantly…Make Your Profile Rock!

Speaker: Dave Snyder

Creative Commons license:

• Find pictures
• Use their picture in your article (we liked your picture, featured in our article and gave you credit) – they may link to you. They are pro amateurs (but not pros – top professionals won’t let you use their photos).
• Join flickr, start contributing, creative commons commercial reuse picture work the best

Speaker: Jen Miller, Delta.com

Integration is key to success

Interlinking tactics:

• Target keyword list & link to main site
• Blog links to YouTube & Flickr
• Links back to specific blog post

Tracking & Listening Tactics:

• Measure with a dashboard
• Action on key metrics
• Give ‘em more! They’ll talk and link

Other tactics:

• Be flexible
• Specify Goals
• Cross promote
• Give customers what they want

SMX Advanced 2009 – Seattle
June 2-3, 2009

Attend SMX Advanced for:

• Exceptional content so compelling, you’ll want to implement what you’ve learned before leaving the conference. Super-charged sessions on PPC, SEO, social media marketing and other hot button topics will help you flourish today, tomorrow and in the future.
• Invaluable connections made possible by the ultimate mix of structured networking opportunities and social events. Meet new contacts, reconnect with colleagues – SMX makes it easy to interact and exchange ideas with other industry thought leaders.
• Essential conveniences to help you juggle your every-day responsibilities while maximizing your conference time. Always available and free Wi-Fi; hot lunches, snacks and beverages all day; access to all presentations and tools to pre-plan your custom itinerary – SMX has got you covered.

Search Engine Optimization 301 – Miva Merchant 2009

Speakers:
Nikki Patrick, Tampa-SEO.com
Gillian Muessig, SEOMoz.org

Inner Linking for SEO success

Nikki Patrick
Nikki@Tampa-SEO.com

If Content is King then Linking is Queen

Inner linking is taking keyword rich text and linking to to another page on your site with the content of your website. This allows the Search Engine spider to easily spider all the pages of your site.

Don’t over do it! You want to add a few links withi the content of each page that link to other pages that may be related. Only do this if it makes sense.

Google doesn’t like to see more than 100 links per page, including your navigation.

Inner Linking:

• Search engines place more value on links within the content than links from your navigation
• Use the bold tag around your anchor text to add value to the link, do not style it in the CSS. Don’t overdue it on the same keyword.
• Your home page should have links to category pages to push link juice to them.

Add a SEO friendly site map to your website. Use both HTML and XML
www.xml-sitemaps.com
www.sitemappro.com

A well structured inner linking campaign will give you those indented listing in the SERP’s as well as the internal pages

Page Sculpting

Page sculpting is the art of pushing link juice or value to certain pages of your site for increased rankings. Each link is assigned a certain amount of value.

The search engines don’t need to index every page of your site. Add the rel=”nofollow” tag inside of a link if you don’t want the search engine spiders to follow it.

You want to “nofollow: pages like

• shopping cart, checkout pages
• abous us, contact us, company info

You DO want to follow category pages, product pages, resource pages, affiliate pages, and the home page

You can also add rel=”follow” to tell the spiders to follow those links

Be careful when page sculpting. It is an advanced technique that can hurt your rankings if not done correctly.

SEO Tip: Use the no follow tag for “more info” link and buttons to give more link juice for keyword rich anchor text

Advanced Linkbuilding

So Juicy, You’ll Need a Napkin!

Gillian Muessig
SEOMoz.org

Pull Marketing
Push Marketing (Ads to your website)
Mold the two

How to perform searches that will result in high quality link acquisition targets:

The Obvious:

Seek permutations of keywords from top 100 ranking sites:
snowboard equipment (with quotes, no quotes, etc.)

Reciprocal Linking Tactic that Works

• Email sites or people you want to trade links with
• Offer to link to a piece of conte on their website an articel a grpph a tool a blog post
• In exchange, ask them to find something they like about your website,
• Write something review to them and visa versa

Creating a mobile stylesheet has more than just usability benefits. There are hundres of directories on the webs that list mobile/PDA-friendly websites

Image links on Steroids

Use a CSS image replacement so the link looks like HTML

Tickle the Blogger

• Compel bloggers
• Comment
• Write about them, then alert them

Unbelievable link sources:

Certain blog sections at Amazon
Check out pages examples on Amazon like:

• Jennifer Wilson Witch Books
• Blogging with MSN Saces
• How to Profit from Art

The following is a summary of a session at SMX West 2009 on Search Engine Friendly Web Design presented by Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive

5 Basic Rules of Web Design

When centered on the user, there are specific rules that form the foundation of successful web design. These are:

1. Easy to Read

The code and text should be written in a way where it is easy to read. It should continue the “scent of information” (contain relevant keywords from acquisition source) so that a user can easily discern that they are in the right place.

2. Easy to Navigate

The web site should be, first and foremost, designed for users and searchers, not for search engines. All elements that appear to be clickable should be and users should have a sense of where they are at when navigating the site.

3. Easy to Find

Being easy to find refers to both the before and after of users arriving on a page. The web site should be found/linked from major search engines/relevant sites. Important elements and contents should be found above the fold (portion of the site that is shown upon initial loading without scrolling). Contact information should be easy to find, usually in the header, footer, about us, or contact area.

4. Consistent layout, design & labeling

Consistency communicates a sense of trust, security, reliably, and branding. Consistency is based on many factors, such as, use of space, color scheme, logo usage, placement of content, etc.

5. Quick to download

Speed is determined by both actual and perceived download. If what users want is hard to see at first, then the download appears to be slower. Larger downloads can be applicable if the important elements can be found easily.

3 Building Blocks to SEO

The build blocks to SEO are centered on how crawlers/robots can index your site. These are:

1. Text Indexing

If the content of a site does not have any text or “indexable” content, it won’t rank well, which in turn, makes it difficult to find.

Some other important factors:

• A site should make use of Primary Text, which includes title tags, visible copy, text within the header, and anchor tags/links as all search engines index these and use them in determining rankings.
• If time allows, a site should make use of Secondary Text, which includes meta tags, filenames/domain names, and alt text, as only some search engines index these.
• Breadcrumbs can help a lot, giving a sense of organization to users, as well as provide relevant keywords to links.
• If applicable, try to use captions for images because visible copy weighs more heavily than alt text.

2. Follow Links

The link component refers to internal liking within the site. These should factor in site navigation scheme, as well as other page interlinking.

Some other factors include:

Navigation menu

From most search engine friendly to least friendly:

Text Links > Nav buttons > Image Maps > Form/DHTML Menus > Flash

If using non-text links, always provide 2 forms of navigation. 1 for target audience and 1 for search engines. The search engine friendly one can be a navigation placed within the footer.

Embedded Text Links

Text links placed within visible copy can help to enhance usability and search engine friendliness. However, it is important to not overdo it. Too many embedded text links can decrease usability and legibility.

Site Maps

Site maps do not refer to the URL list that can be submitted to search engines. In this case, a site map refers to a page that provides users a hierarchy to your site structure. When creating a site map, it should not just be a list of URLs or links. Having annotations great helps with legibility.

Others

There a number of other helpful ways to improve usability and search engine friendliness. Some involved linking to related pages, upselling, and having a horizontal navigation vs. a vertical navigation.

3. Site Popularity (Link Development)

Popularity is based on number of external links, the quality of external links, and click popularity.

Some other factors that influence popularity include:

• Having substantial and unique content
• How other sites link to your site (What is the anchor text being used? What are the annotations?)
• Having keyword rich text on homepage
• Having at least one crawl-friendly navigation (even if it’s the footer)
• Having links to relevant information/sites
• Having a visible site map

Miscellaneous

Some other factors to think about in regard to search engine optimization and web design:

• Always design for searchers, not search engines
• When redesigning a site, SEO should be put into consideration in the initial phases and not after the site is built
• Test the usability of a site to determine the effectiveness of a site. If users can’t find the information, most likely, it’s not good for SEO either

Speakers/Panelists:
Lance Loveday, Founder, President and CEO, Closed Loop Marketing
Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization, Performics

Conference Notes/Description:

• 1/3 of searches are ready for purchase
• 77% are for research
• 50-70% bounce rate for landing pages

awareness > consideration (clicks) > (post-click) preference > purchase

Holiday pages:

• Valentine’s day offer – after valentine change to story about valentine’s day surrounding the gift purchased = fresh content and keeping content
• sitemap = search engine customer service
• 800 # gives sense of: not beging afraid to talk to me, reputable, established

ROI = Visibility x Effectiveness

ROI = Traffic x Conversion

ROI = SEO x Usability

SEO, Design, Usability

It is possible to have all 3, it’s just more work & planning
Goes hand in hand.

Flash

Progressive Enhancement – still allow SE to see flash elements
ie. Flash on left side, and static scenes and descriptions on right hand side

Usability

Good usability does not make the user think. Everything is spelled out and easy to find.

1. 25%-400% increase in conversion from usability enhancement
2. functional tagline: tell people what you do
3. Men and Women navigate through the site differently:
   • Men scan the nav bar first
   • Women more interested in looking at images and read content
4. Length of URL does matter
   • long URL = complex and a turn off (2.5 times less likely to click on than short URLs)

User judges your website within 1/20th of a second

• 75% of web users admit making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its web site.
  -Fogg BJ Standford Guidelines
  • lack of clutter; openness
  • navigation
  • professional design

Resources

• Book: Web Design for ROI

Speaker: Network Solutions

5 Key Elements for SEO

1. Build Content
2. Build Inbound Links
3. Launch PPC Campaigns
4. Measure results
5. Maintain and update the site continually

Key On-page Factors

1. Title tags
2. Meta Description
3. Meta Keywords (not high weighted but should still include)
4. Headlines
5. Body copy

Bad for Search Engines

Must consider SEO impacts when deciding to implement these development tools

• Flash Website/Pages
• Dynamic Content Website/Pages
• Ajax Pages