Competitive SEO Strategies | John Caldwell

John Caldwell

061 513267

086 2410295

Google Queries

http://www.quora.com/How-many-search-queries-does-Google-serve-worldwide-every-day

1. SEO Strategy

Strategy

� Language? Culture?

Search Pyramid

Search Pyramid

You have to get these

right first

Search Pyramid

Before you get these

right first

The search demand curve

Source: SEOMoz

Search and targeting

1


1 2


1 2 3-4


1 2 3-4 4+

2. Which?

- search engines!

Be found on the internet

� Ranking

= 2a+0.7b+12c+9d+2(a-b+d)-1.5e+2f …………..


� Ranking

= 2a+0.7b+12c+9d+2(a-b+d)-1.5e+2f …………..

Google has approximately 200 items in its algorithm

1 Search terms in the HTML title tag2 Search terms in the HTML body copy3 Search terms in bold typeface4 Search terms in header tags5 Search term in anchor text in links to a page6 PageRank of a page (the actual PageRank, not the toolbar PageRank)7 The PageRank of the entire domain8 Quality of link partners9 Type of backlinks that bring anchor text juice for search terms10 The speed of the web site

11. Search terms in the URL - main URL and page URLs 12. Search term density through body copy (About 3 - 5%?) 13. Fresh content 14. Good internal linking structure 15. Age of the domain 16. Links from good directories 17. Image names 18. Image ALTs 19. Reputable hosting company 20. Sort of the same as your number 8 but I'd also add to have good diverse link partners too :) 21. Geo located search results

22. Rate of new inbound links to your site 23. Relevance of inbound links - subject specific relationship with target page negative factors too:


� Ranking

= 2a+0.7b+12c+9d+2(a-b+d)-1.5e+2f …………..

Search Engine Market Share

Learn how the

search engines work

� Algorithmic search

� What about ads?

� Webmaster Tools

� Make sure Google knows about your site

What do Search Engines think?

3. Geographic

Targeting

Trading internationally

� Common situations:

� one country, several languages

� one language, several countries


� What can be done?

� domains by country?

� main domain and subdirectories per language?

� main domain and directories per language?


� Best option domains by country

� creatorseo.com

� creatorseo.fr

� creatorseo.de

� but

� complicated to manage and coordinate

� one CMS for all or one per domain?


� Directories by country/language

� creatorseo.com US

� creatorseo.com/fr/

� creatorseo.com/de/

� One language, several countries

� creatorseo.com/es/

� mycompany.com/es-pu/ (Peru)

� mycompany.com/es-mx/ (Mexico)


� Directories by country/language

� Cheaper

� Less technical resources required

� Easier to manage and coordinate

� directories contribute to increase the general relevancy

of a domain


� Subdomains by country

� Search Engines consider subdomains almost a

completely different entity than their domain

� they don’t inherit most of the domain's relevancyX

Internet Protocols

� Country Top Level Domain's automatically

associated to country

� Webmaster tools help directories-by-country

sites

4. Competition

Search is a process

www.creatorseo.com

5. PPC versus SEO

PPC versus “Organic” SEO

Pay-Per-Click “Organic” SEO

� results in 1-2 days

� easier for a novice or one with

little knowledge of SEO

� ability to turn on and off at any

moment and easily updated!

� results take 2 weeks to months

� requires ongoing learning and

experience to achieve results

� very difficult to control flow of

traffic



� generally more costly per visitor

and per conversion

� fewer impressions and exposure

� easier to compete in highly

competitive market space (but it

will cost you!)

� generally more cost-effective,

does not penalize for more

traffic

� SERPs are more popular than

sponsored ads

� very difficult to compete in

highly competitive market

space



� Ability to generate exposure on

related sites (AdSense)

� ability to target “local” markets

� better for short-term and high-

margin campaigns

� ability to generate exposure on

related websites and directories

� more difficult to target local

markets

� better for long-term and lower

margin campaigns

Which one?

� You shouldn't be limited to SEO or PPC.

� Integration is the best approach. Each has

different strengths and weaknesses.

Which one?

� You shouldn't be limited to SEO or PPC.

� Integration is the best approach. Each has

different strengths and weaknesses. And they

compliment each other well. A company with the

time and resources should leverage both to reach

its marketing goals.

6. Audience

Audience

� Know your audience

� Cultural

� In Mediterranean counties

- Internet use is driven more by social factors rather

than anything else,

� where Nordic countries rely on the internet for more

pragmatic, functional purposes.

� Language

7. Local content

Local content

� Use local addresses and contact information

� Add local case studies/ testimonials

� with names and images

� Customise content for each country or market

� More relevant, increases local link building

opportunities, and decreases duplicate content

� Currency

8. Design and

usability

Design and usability

� Different countries prefer different design

esthetics

� Recreating your website in a different language

may not be enough

� Get feedback on your site from locals in your

target country

9. Be local

� Register each site with Google Places, Bing

Business Portal for example.

9. Tools

Google tools to use

10. Google guidance

Guidance

� Create useful page titles

� Use informative URLs

� Provide relevant page descriptions

� Add your business to Google Places

� Manage your site links

Guidance

� Value proposition

� Call to action

� Relevance

� User experience

Things to watch out for

� Spelling, stylistic, or factual errors

� Is your content mass-produced by or outsourced

to a large number of creators, or spread across a

large network of sites?

� Does your page have an excessive number of ads

that interfere with the main content?

� Are the articles short or lacking in helpful

specifics?

� Is your main content below the fold?

11. Conversions

Sales funnel

Conversion

John Caldwell

061 513267

086 2410295

Competitive SEO Strategies | John Caldwell

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