Search Engine
Optimization
The Basics of SEO

What is SEO

Everything
Revolves
Around
Search

How Search works?
http://youtu.be/Md7K90FfJhg
http://youtu.be/KyCYyoGusqsIn depth

This matters?

80% of Internet user
sessions begin at the
search engines
(Source: Internetstats.com)

Google is the new
Yellow Pages.
FACT

Who gets the clicks?

60% of all organic
clicks go to the top
three organic search
results.
(MarketingSherpa, February 2007)

Ranking high on search
engines is no longer
optional, it’s critical.
FACT

This is were SEO
enters the
conversation

What is Search Engine Optimization?
The process of improving web pages so they rank higher in search
engines for your targeted keywords.

SEO Key Factors
Internal Link Structure
Link Popularity / Relevance
Crawlability / Optimized Code
Content Relevance

These measurements
are turned into
algorithms
That’s how the Page Ranks are determined

Each page has a business goal
• To improve branding
• To increase direct sales
• To get more leads
• To increase web site traffic

Page Elements
To control this

Keywords
• Keyword analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Select those search terms used frequently but with the least
competition
• Optimum page placement
• 4 – 9% page frequency
• Use phrases vs. words

Long tail
http://youtu.be/3qfzpBey6n0

Document Relevance
Google determines document relevance by looking at:
• How people find information
• What they do when they access a document
• Which document in a site they tend to land on
• How long users spend on that document
• How much time does a user spend exploring information in a domain,
(http://searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2572)

Usability
• Intuitive site navigation
• Easy to find content
• Consistent use of terms and icons
• Use of Alt tags with images
• Chunked and bulleted text
• Short sentences, grammatically correct
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C http://www.w3.org/

Site Design
• Title tag
• Meta keyword tag
• Meta description tag
• Body text
• H1 and H2 headings
• Internal links
• Alt tags

Content
• Content elements
• Digital rhetoric
• Audience
• Purpose
• Style and format

Linking
• Significance -- Link popularity: PageRank
• Votes
• Link building
• On-page vs. Off-page

Why Are Links Important?
The visibility of your site is affected by:
• How you link to other sites
• How other sites link to you
• How your web pages link to each other

Getting Valuable Links
• Distinguishing between one-way vs. reciprocal links
• Making your web site attractive
• Improving your link popularity
• Finding relevant, credible websites
• Determining link popularity for incoming links
• Arranging for the link

Overview of Steps in SEO
1. Select and assign keywords
2. Develop and post quality content
3. Get quality inbound links
4. Use your on page elements correctly
5. Make your site usable for visitors
6. Design and implement a comprehensive PR plan

Easy right?

So… what’s the big deal?
The internet changes everyday!
Competition sites change everyday
User needs and searches change everyday
We can’t redo everything every day

What can we do?

Content is king

SEO Optimization
35

Top SEO mistakes
http://youtu.be/421aTJI2Nxc

Work the content
#1 factor attracting visitors

Content must
• Be relevant
• Easy to understand
• Add value
• Exclusive
• Up to date
Which sites
do we visit?

Create content to
users not to crawlers

40
SEO Optimization Categories
• Keywords
Keyword selection and keyword-rich text
• Crawler
A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme
• Links
Link popularity

41
Keyword Recommendations
• Page title: visible HTML text ,“Above the fold”
• Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely held. The
optimum page size is 500-3000 words (or 2000 to 20,000
characters)
• Be specific
• Example: “Apple iPod” verses “iPod”
 exact phrase should appear generously throughout your site copy on
every page

42
More Keyword Recommendations
Meta tags: use but don’t stuff
• <meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML, CSS, XML, and XHTML">
Alt tags: use for graphics
• <IMG src="star.gif" alt=“star logo">
Content is king
• Write good content with relevant and important keywords in mind.
Geo Targeting
• Add geocentric terms to target local areas
Domain Names
• Use keywords as part of domain name

Which keywords?
Google AdWords tool: keywords planner

44
Crawler-friendly
• Engine spiders are primitive beings
 choose simplicity over complexity
• Goal
 All your web pages seen by crawlers
 Google: enter in searchbox “allinurl:utexas.edu”

45
Suggestions to be Crawler Friendly
• Traditional <a href> tag
• Keywords in subfolder names
• Minimize quantity of subfolders
• Cross link relevant terms and phrases within the site
• Multiple paths to pages to eliminate orphans

46
Avoid or Minimize: May Negatively
Impact Crawler
• Flash (slow to load and difficult to navigate)
• Frames
• Java navigation
• Session ID to track visitors
• exact same Title tags on every page
• set to require a cookie when a visitor gets to the page

47
Link Development Inbound
Links Impact PageRank
PageRank (Popularity, importance)
• Number and quality of links pointing to a website
• Measure of usefulness of site

48
Link Development Tradeoffs
• Advantage
 it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to imitate
• Disadvantage
 takes time (vs. advertising)

49
Link Development Approaches (White
Hat)
• Quality content
• Cultivate quality link (not quantity)
• Begin with web directories
• Harness online publicity
• Use Blogs and forums wisely
• Investigate competitors

Variation in Approaches
Black Hat
• Breaches search engine
terms and conditions
• May provide short-term gains
• You run the risk of being
penalized by search engines
White Hat
• Abide by terms and
conditions set forth by search
engines
50

51
Conclusion and Summary
Website Success
• Search-friendly
• User-friendly
• Persuasive
Search-friendly Optimization components
• Keywords
• Crawler
• Links

Search engine optimisation
In summary…
Critical elements
- domain name, links, keywords, title, meta description, alt tags,
submitting your website to SEs
- keywords galore: include in page copy, title, description, domain name,
alt tags
No-nos
- flash, image-only sites, image maps, frames, password protected
pages, PDFS, dynamic pages, drop-down menus

Online Resources
The Value of Ranking Position No. 1 in Google
http://socialmediatoday.com/weidertgroup/1575356/value-ranking-position-no-1-
google-new-study
SEO 101: The 23-Point SEO Checklist
http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2012/06/seo-checklist/
2012 Search Ads Pause Experiments
http://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/search-ads-pause-2012_infographics.pdf
Introduction to SEO: How Do Search Engines Work?
http://www.searchdecoder.com/how-do-search-engines-work/