Bastian Grimm, CEO & Founder, Grimm Digital

WordPress SEOLondon Affiliate Conference

January 2012

http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

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516 Updates in 2010

In 2010 Google tested around 13.000 changes to their algo, 516 are still „live“.

Main focus of those updates were technical, marketing and usability changes, including:– Caffeine: New infrastructure– Suggest: Usability (trying to simplify navigation)– Instant & Instant Previews

In 2011 we mainly talked „Panda“

And why’s that?

BECAUSE… Google sucks!

And now: Let’s have some fun, shall we?

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About me

Background: PHP & Java– Dev. CMS, shops & forums– Wazap! Game Search Engine

Online Marketing since 2004– SEO strategy consulting, in-house

trainings & workshops, WordPress SEO, etc.

– Just an Affiliate Links, Links, Links…need some? Stuff to play with…

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#1: WordPress Setup 1/3

1. Setup WP w/ optimized settings– Permalinks, Plug-ins, Settings

2. Use Xcloner to multiply setup– Easier vs. re-doing 1/ over & over again

3. Use ManageWP for maintenance– Perfect mass management solution

4. Or: Update using browser favorites– Just replace hostnames in your list

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#1: WordPress Setup 2/3

1. Use default WordPress and install2. Edit wp-config.php:– define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

3. Install WP “MU Domain Mapping”– Copy “sunrise.php” to “wp-content”

4. Edit wp-config.php, again:– define('SUNRISE', 'on');

Bonus: “Clone Sites for WPMU“

More: http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

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#1: WordPress Setup 3/3

1. Do a standard WP MU installation2. Use a static export of a single blog

using HTTrack– Search & replace tasks using “find” and

“sed” at command line-level

3. FTP upload & distribution using LFTP– Unlimited hoster; no PHP/ MySQL req.

Hint: Don’t do “wget”, not all path’s (like in CSS / JS) will be replaced

http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 1/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 2/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 3/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 4/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 5/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 6/7

#2: WordPress SEO by Yoast 7/7

Some more plug-in awesomeness!

#3: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/

#4: Back WP up

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backwpup/

#5: WP Permalauts

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-permalauts/

#6: Redirection

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

#7: Eclipse Link Cloaker

http://eclipsecloaker.com/ (57$ one-time fee)

#8: Custom Image SRC

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-image-src/

<link rel=”image_src” href=”preview-image-here.jpg” />

WordPress Security

#9: Do updates regularly!

Keep your installation „clean“– Remove all non-active Themes and Plug-ins

Keep WordPress and Plug-ins updated– WP Updates Notifier to get emails on out-dated

components (core, themes & plug-ins) for all blogs:• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-updates-notifier/

– ManageWP can do one-click mass updates (core, themes, plug-ins again) for all your blogs:• http://managewp.com/features

#10: WP AntiVirus

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antivirus/

#11: Secure WordPress

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/secure-wordpress/

#12: WP Security Scan

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

#12: WP Security Scan

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

Themes & Theme Frameworks

#13: Premium Themes 1/4

themeforest - http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress~1.400 themes, starting at $ 30

#13: Premium Themes 2/4

WOO Themes - http://www.woothemes.com/~120 themes, 3 starting at $ 70

#13: Premium Themes 3/4

simple themes - http://www.simplethemes.com/ ~15 themes, starting at $ 49

#13: Premium Themes 4/4

elegantthemes - http://www.elegantthemes.com/~70 themes, starting at $ 39 per year

#14: Premium Theme Frameworks 1/2

Thesis Theme Framework - http://diythemes.com/Unlimited developer license for $ 164

#14: Premium Theme Frameworks 2/2

STUDIOPRESS Genesis Framework - http://www.studiopress.com/Unlimited developer license for $ 300 (~44 Themes)

Let’s talk content…

#15: Scale Content Creation

Textbroker WordPress Plugin - http://www.textbroker.com/wordpress/Order & check content from within WP; auto-publish new content as post or page.

#16: Auto re-build content

#16: Auto re-build content

#16: Auto re-build content

#16: Auto re-build content

http://redir.ec/warrick

Technical stuff to consider…

#17: Avoid footprints & patterns

1. Google AdSense & Analytics

2. Affiliate Codes / IDs3. Content (# words, #

pages, etc.)4. Always the same

theme / mark-up

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#18: Don‘t over-do it!

H1 vs. H2 „PageRank Sculpting“ “nofollow”-usage CSS positioning „Keyword density“ etc.

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#19: Fails aka what NOT to do! 1/4

DO NOT inter-link all domains with all other domains from your network…

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#19: Fails aka what NOT to do! 2/4

DO NOT put all your domains in one GWT account…

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#19: Fails aka what NOT to do! 3/4

DO NOT sell links too obviously (footer, sidebar, etc.)…

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#19: Fails aka what NOT to do! 4/4

DO NOT MAKE THEM LOOK (TOO) STUPID!

Expired Domains and what to know…

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#20: Expired Domain Provider 1/4

www.expireds.net

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#20: Expired Domain Provider 2/4

www.snapnames.com

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#20: Expired Domain Provider 3/4

www.pool.com

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#20: Expired Domain Provider 4/4

www.namejet.com

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#21: Go „exotic“

PRO: Less competition PRO: Google without direct NIC-

access; this results in slower (or) no actions because of owner changes

PRO: Way easier to change theme or content of that domain

CON: Registration harder & more expensive (trustee service, etc.)

CON: Backlink profile probably with wrong geo-focus

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#22: Pre-Select carefully

1. Create a huge domain list– Seed sources like DMOZ, Wikipedia, competitor BL‘s

2. Rate and filter your results– Use SEO metrics like BL quality, age, PR / mR /

ACrank, visibility, etc.

3. Prefer domains most likely to be deleted– Already in transit, error & under construction sites

4. Be creative– Yearly re-occurring events, insolvency , etc.

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#23: Consider long-time expireds

Crawl the web w/ Xenu Use publicly trusted

sources to start:– Yahoo!, DMOZ– Wikipedia– Universities

BUT… “no such host” does not

necessarily mean you can get that domain

You need to check DNS, Whois, link-profile, etc.

THAT’s A LOT OF WORK!

… this is how I do my work:

WAY too much stress…

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#23: Consider long-time expireds

http://80legs.com/

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#24: Rebuild those domains

1. Try to re-create content and URL-structures2. Have a look at old URLs with rankings3. Re-check old inbound anchor-texts and targets4. Use strong URLs for internal link-juice

distribution (aka hubs)5. Redirect the ones (depending on theme and

content) you don‘t need

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#25: Watch out for errors

Knowledge is power Use a 404 logger – Analytics software– Redirection (built-in)– Webserver logs

Setup 301 redirects accordingly

Image stolen from: http://bit.ly/Fuw8

13.10.2011 64

OMCap 2011 - Online Marketing Konferenz Berlin

And that’s it! … Wait, still not enough?

Bastian Grimm, CEO & Founder, Grimm Digital

Thanks for your time!mail@grimm-digital.comtwitter.com/basgrlinkedin.com/in/bastiangrimmfacebook.com/grimm.digital