Suffolk University

Integrating SEO into Your Organization

More Traffic from Search Than Any Other Source

Of Search Traffic:• 78% from SEO• 22% from Paid

Position Matters

Search Engines are Software Programs

They Have a Big Job• Crawl one trillion web pages• Perform semantic analysis on All of

Them• Map ALL the links on the web• Use this data to map results for

ANY search query• Respond to any query in < 0.2 seconds• Result: One tired spider

They have Limitations

Images:

Videos (including Flash):

Can’t “read” the file

Can read clean HTML text

Hundreds of other considerations

On Page SEO

• Making your site understandable to search engines

• Work around search engine limitations• Search engines use more than 200 factors in

ranking decisions

Key Points

• Your developers may not know anything about SEO– SEO is not taught in schools

• Your Content Management System may not be SEO friendly– In fact, it may be SEO hostile

• Must review choices before writing the first line of code, or picking a CMS

SEO Must be Part of Your Engineering Plan!

Links are Like Votes in an Election

Who Rank’s First?

Joe’sBookStore

Links Are Not Created Equal

Web Site A

Web Site B

KillerLink 1

Link 1Link 2……..…1,000

#1!

#2

Search Results

The Flow Of PageRank

Pages are given an “innate”, albeit tiny, amount of PageRank

Pages then accrue PageRank from every link that points to them

The Flow Of PageRank

The amount of PageRank that a page can pass is a function of that page’s PageRank

X

F(X)

PageRank

Passable PageRank

PageRank is Split EvenlyBetween the Links on a Page

X

Link

Link

F(x)*0.5

F(x)*0.5

PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm

X

Link

Link

F(x)*0.5

F(x)*0.5

F(y) Link

y

y

Google Toolbar

• View PageRank of current page, once turned on.

• Available for:– Firefox– Internet

Explorer

Toolbar PageRank

• Not the same as “Real” PageRank

• Logarithmic scale from 0 to 10

• Assigned to web pages, not sites

• Still, a useful metric

Culligan

0

ebay

10

12

34

5

6

7

8

9

Google

Amazon

Disney

Gap

Relative number of pages with PR ratingRelative number of pages with PR rating

E

F

F

O

R

T

Sampling of Homepage PageRank Ratings

Sampling of Homepage PageRank Ratings

Boston Store

Role of Relevance

Your Page

(Used Ford Mustangs)

CasinoGambling

Online Prescriptions

Car and Driver

Magazine

Ford vehicles .c

om

Low Value

High Value

The Concept of Authority

A A

A

All Websites about Used Cars

Search Engines Do Not Count All Links

• Links they can’t read:– Encrypted JavaScript– In an iFrame

• Links on pages that they can’t crawl– Can’t find– Marked as NoCrawl in Robots.txt

• Links marked with NoFollow Attribute

Why do People Link?

SEO Ranking Factors

•Source: SEOmoz SEO Ranking Factors Survey

Summary of Ranking Factors

• 66% related to Links• 6% social media

• 7% traffic and click through data

• 15% on page keyword usage• 5% registration and hosting related

72% “ExternalRecognition”

Link Building Must be Part of Your Marketing Plan!

Volume

IncreasingRelationshipValue

Engaging in Social Activity

Social Connectivity Pyramid

1 on 1

Meeting

Blogging

Meetups

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Higher Value

Higher Effort

Volume

IncreasingSocialEffort

Social Link Building

IncreasingLink Value

Social Media Signals• Twitter mentions– Author quality matters

• Facebook Links• Facebook Likes not a factor … yet• More to come• Ways Google can look in walled gardens:– Google Analytics– Goo.gl– Google Toolbar

Where does SEO go?• SEO is a marketing function because …– It’s purpose is to get new customers

• SEO is a development function because …– It affects CMS selection and site coding and design

• Senior management must understand SEO because …– Otherwise they will make decisions that blow your

SEO out of the water! (C-Suite example, site ain’t no freaking brochure!)

• When to outsource …

My Preferred Structure

• Marketing person who owns it• Development team that understands the

importance• 4 hour training session for the management

team so they “get it”• Work with outside SEO to get leverage from

their multi-dimensional experience

Thank You!

Eric Engeeenge@stonetemple.com@stonetemple(508) 485-7751www.stonetemple.com For a One Sheet SEO Checklist, email me, or

drop off a business card