Advanced SEO Techniques: Putting It In Play

Advanced SEO Techniques: Putting It In PlayPutting It In Play

Sanger & Eby29 June 2011

About Sanger & Eby

• Strategic design & technology firm focused on specialized business communications

• Services Include:

– Strategic planning and research

– Social media strategy and execution

– User experience planning– User experience planning

– Print and interactive design

– Interactive and multi-channel marketing

– Content development

– Search marketing (SEO & SEM)

– Website development

– Custom business and web applications

– Mobile applications and sites

29 June 2011Advanced SEO Techniques Copyright 2011 Sanger & Eby

All Rights Reserved2

Quick Facts about Sanger & Eby

• Founded in 1988 by Lisa Sanger & Donna Eby (certified WBE)

• All strategy, design, programming done in-house

• 15 years experience creating websites

• 700+ Sites designed and developed

• 95% client retention rate year over year

• Clients include:• Clients include:– Macy’s

– Fifth Third Bank

– Luxottica

– AT&T

– RotoRooter

– Crayons to Computers

– Children’s Hospital

– Turner Construction



How Important Is Search?

• 57% of Internet users search the web every day

• 46% of daily searches are for info on products or services

• 20% of Google searches are for local companies

• 50% of consumers start purchase with online research

• 63% of B2B buyers start with online research

• 85% of B2B buyers do online research during purchase cycle

• To buy from you, they have to find you

• 1 trillion websites and not counting any more

• 75% don’t look beyond the first page of results

• Rankings 1-5 10 times more likely to be clicked on than 6 & 7

• 70% of links clicked on are on organic (natural) links



What Effective SEO Can Do for Business

• Increased visibility and awareness

• Strengthened credibility and leadership perception

• Powerful branding

• Long-term visibility

• Increased targeted traffic

• Increased conversion rates for call to action

• Decreased cost per lead and cost per sale

• Increased sales

• Measurable



Defining SEO: What It Is…and Isn’t

• The process of improving the visibility of a website or specific page in search engines through natural or organic search

• Uses search engine algorithms to elevate sites to top rankings

• Considers how search engines work and what people search for

• Thousands of criteria in algorithms, with constant change

• Trend toward more human-oriented results• Trend toward more human-oriented results

• Key techniques include:

– Editing content and HTML within a site

– Increasing relevance for specific keywords and phrases

– Removing barriers to search engine indexing

– Building inbound links

• Related negative category: Black Hat SEO



How Do Search Engines Work?

• Automated site crawlers(AKA “spiders” or “bots”)

• Index content in search engine database

• Return results from index based on user search queries

• Utilize specialized algorithms to determine relevance

• Continually adjust and refine algorithms• Continually adjust and refine algorithms

– Better user experience

– More relevant search results for users

– More traffic for search engines

– Level playing field for quality sites



How to Get Started

• Determine your objectives

• Determine how search fits into overall marketing strategy

• Develop a search strategy based on targeted objectives

• Identify strategic keywords (including long-tail keywords)

• Develop quality content featuring identified keywords• Develop quality content featuring identified keywords

• Promote it

• Don’t wear a black hat (more on that later)



SEO Techniques and Best Practices

• Well-written, value-added content

• Strategic keywords including long-tail keywords

• URLs

• Page titles

• Headings

• Body text

• Alternate text for images and interactive components

• Accessibility

• Meta tags

• Social media

• Inbound links



How to Choose Keywords

• Relevant to your business

• Leverage for both PPC and SEO…but in different ways

• Brand keywords

– What is our brand about?

– What is our equity?

– What products/services do we want to be known for?– What products/services do we want to be known for?

– What are our business goals?

• Non-brand keywords

– Think like your audience

– “Footwear” v. “shoes”

– “low fares” v. “cheap flights”



Do Your Research!

• Relevant blogs and blog comments

• News sites, trade and industry sites

• Media contacts and press releases

• Discussion boards and forums

• Trade associations and chambers of commerce

• Suppliers and partners

• Competitive sites and related category sites

• Groups on social media sites

• Start over (keep looking for new news!)

• Bookmark the links (we’ll use them again later)



Building Your Keyword List

• Long-tail keywords: 44% of clicks are for 2-3 word phrases

• Keyword identification tools

– Google AdWords

– Microsoft AdCenter Labs

– Google Analytics

– WordTracker– WordTracker

• Think about intent: what is the user trying to accomplish?

• Don’t forget frequently misspelled words



Writing Effective Content

• People buy. Search engines don’t.

• Search engines are getting “smarter” about content

• The primary purpose of your content is to inform, inspire, and

engage your audience

• Ensure your content adds value—understand target needs

• Write for the target audience and the search traffic will follow• Write for the target audience and the search traffic will follow



Blogging and SEO Results

• Search engines love rich, frequently updated content

• Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages

• 97% more inbound links

• 55% more website visitors

• Blogging B2C companies get 88% more leads per month

• Blogging B2B companies get 67% more leads per month



Domain Names and Page URLs

• Work the keyword into the URL when practical

• Domain name and subdomains

– macysdiversityleadership.com

– ecommerce.macysjobs.com

• Individual page URLs

– macysjobs.com/districtplanner– macysjobs.com/districtplanner

– macysinc.com/aboutus/sustainability/socially-responsible-

products-at-macys.aspx



Page Titles

• If the keyword isn’t in the title of the page, it is going to be

tougher to rank for that keyword

• Content in the <title> tag near the beginning of the code

• Displayed by search engines as the “headline” for your site

• Inbound links often utilize titles as well

• Should be written for users and designed to engage• Should be written for users and designed to engage



Page Title Example



Search Engine Headline Example



Headings or Header Tags

• Section headings within a page

• Range from <H1> to <H6>, in descending priority

• H1

– H2

• H3

– H4– H4

• Signal priority and content organization

– For search engines

– For users

– Write for the human audience



Headings Example



Body Copy

• Body copy is the text content on a page visible to users

• Does not include graphics, Flash, or functional code

• If the keyword isn’t on the page , it isn’t going to rank well

• Optimize for one keyword or phrase per page

• Keyword density and keyword stuffing

• Antonyms and synonyms

• Search engines include a brief excerpt in results

• Your homepage has the highest priority for search engines

• The homepage is not always the entry point



Body Copy Excerpt in Google Results



Alternate Text & Anchor Text

• Search engines can’t “read” images – so copy contained in an

image has no search relevance

• Alternate text (AKA alt text)

– Text associated with an image

– Displayed on mouse rollover

– Displayed when images aren’t shown– Displayed when images aren’t shown

– Used extensively in accessibility compliance

– Should meet both SEO & accessibility needs

• Anchor text

– Visible, clickable text within a link

– Must link to something relevant to the keyword



Example of Text in Images



Meta Tags

• Informational tags describing the content of a page

• Description meta tag

– brief summary of page content

– 155 characters or fewer (shorter than a Tweet)

– Used by Bing and Yahoo!

– Used by Google in “related:” query– Used by Google in “related:” query

– Often displayed on search engine results page (in place of content

excerpt)

• Keyword meta tag

– Listing of keywords relevant to a given page

– Less relevant as it was often used for spamming

– Included as a “just in case” tactic



Inbound Links

• Number of external websites that link to your site

• Building your inbound links boosts search engine visibility

• Develop linkable content and promote it

• Ask for links (make it easy, and give back)

• Put your keywords in your inbound links (link popularity)

• Track your efforts and results

• Check your inbound links:

– Google search

– Linkto: yoursite.com



Building Your Inbound Links

• Existing site check (fix 301 and 404 redirects)

• Search engines for relevant keywords and topics

• Relevant blogs and blog comments

• News sites, trade and industry sites

• Media contacts and press releases

• Discussion boards and forums

• Trade associations and chambers of commerce

• Suppliers and partners

• Survey the competition

• Groups on social media sites

• Start over (keep looking for new news!)



Social Signals and Search

• Search engines are indexing social media content

– Facebook

– Twitter (most influential)

– LinkedIn (particularly Groups and Answers)

• Increases visibility and inbound links

• Impact is increasing, fast

• Generates multiple and unique listings• Generates multiple and unique listings

• New category: social search

– Google +1 Initiative

– Bing Facebook Social Graph Tie-In (Universal “Like” Button)

– More personalized search results

– Shows users content friends have “liked”

– From page 89 to page 1

• Optimized video and images are less competitive, good targets



Black Hat SEO (What Not to Do)

• Using unethical techniques to improve search engine rankings

• Presents content differently to search engines than to users

• Creates a poor user experience

• Violates search engine rules and policies



What Not to Do – Black Hat SEO

• Hidden text & Hidden links: written content not visible to users

– e.g, white text on a white background

• Cloaking: presenting content differently to spiders and users

• Spamdexing: long lists of keywords without other content

• Doorway pages: little content, many keywords

– Often includes “click here to enter site”

• Link Farms: long lists of unrelated links that artificially boost

inbound links

• Link Spamming: Posting your URL on unrelated sites

• Mirror sites: the same site with a different URL

• Presenting another site’s branding or content as your own



Well, if it works…why not?



Black Hat SEO According to Dilbert



Why Not to Use Black Hat SEO

• “Black Hat SEO techniques are your Golden Ticket to that

infamous Google blacklist.” –Lin Wright

• Sites are penalized or even delisted when caught

• Short-sighted solution to a long-term problem

• JCPenney link buying case study

• BMW doorway pages case study• BMW doorway pages case study



SEO & Accessibility

• Accessibility makes websites usable for those with disabilities

– Visual impairment

– Auditory impairment

– Cognitive disabilities

• Screen readers and voice browsers

• Increasingly relevant for mobile devices• Increasingly relevant for mobile devices

• Most SEO techniques also help achieve accessibility compliance

• Some techniques conflict with accessibility

– Use of alt text for SEO versus image description

– Screen readers read every word



Want to Know More?

35

Kat Jenkins

Vice President of Strategic Planning

[email protected]

513.784.9046

Twitter: sangereby

LinkedIn: Sanger & Eby

Advanced SEO Techniques: Putting It In Play

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