Search Engine Optimization 101

1
Search Engine Optimization 101

• April 2008
• Darryl Peddle
• Head of SEO, Yahoo! Americas

SEO
2
A Little Bit About My Background

• For the past 2 ½ years I have been the head of
  SEO at Yahoo!
• I have been in the SEO industry for more than 10
  years.
• I have SEO experience with businesses of all
  sizes.
• Most importantly, I am very passionate about
  helping small business owners develop the
  knowledge, expertise and necessary skill sets to
  succeed in the online marketplace.

SEO
3
Todays Main Objectives

• To teach you some cool advanced search techniques
  
• To introduce you to SEO how search engines work
• To identify current search trends and the
  importance of the long tail for local businesses
• To destroy 3 common myths that might be holding
  you back from SEO success
• To pull the curtain and reveal some of the
  competitive intelligence you can acquire through
  proper online research
• To provide the basic anatomy of a high ranking
  page
• To provide you with a set of tools and clear
  action steps that you can take to get started
  with SEO immediately

SEO
4
Advanced Search Tapping Into The Real Google

• Search with quotes for better phrase matching
  
• Keyword sitewww.site.com - Search only a
  specific site
• Keyword sitewww.site.com/folder/ - Search
  Folder
• intitlekeyword phrase SEO 101 Metric Titles
  only with kw
• Keyword filetypeppt/doc/mp3/pdf/etc Search
  by filetype
• Kw site folder filetype Starting to see
  the power!
• Kw site folder filetype downthemall
  prefs Research Powerhouse - Check a specific
  folder on a website for a specific file typethen
  show them all and with one click down load
  everything in the folder!

SEO
5
Introduction What is SEO?

• SEO Search Engine Optimization
• Definition
• The process of enhancing both the content and
  reputation of a webpage in order to improve
  search engine rankings and meet your top
  prospects at their immediate point of need.

SEO
6
Why Is Search Important To Your Business?

• Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Start Leveraging SEO
  
• To increase the number of visitors to your pages
  (quantity)
• To bring more relevant visitors to your pages
  (quality)
• To ultimately increase SALES for your business ?
• To PROTECT yourself because people WILL talk!
• The snowball effect There is momentum at the
  top!

SEO
7
How Do Search Engines Work?

• Crawling
• A spider or robot explores your site,
  following links from page to page.
• Indexing
• Data from the crawl is stored in the search
  engine index. The stored copy is referred to as
  the cached page.
• Ranking
• The Search Engine algorithm looks at a variety
  of factors (over 200) to determine the importance
  of a web page and where it should rank for any
  given keyword phrase.

SEO
8
Why is Search So Important?
Some Facts to Know Consider

• How People Are Now Finding Products
  Information
• Links from other sites 88
• Search Engines 82
• Printed Media 63
• Word of Mouth 58
• Email 48
• Newsgroups 32
• Television 32
• Books 28
• Source Marketing Sherpa, 2005

SEO
9
More Evidence!

• Conversion Rates
• Organic Listings 4.2
• Paid Listings 3.6
• Organic Results are 5x more likely to be clicked
  on than paid results.
• 92 of online consumers use search engines to
  shop and/or purchase online.
• Search is the 2nd most popular online activity,
  after email.
• Users are 20x more likely to click on search
  listings than banners or titles.
• Marketing Sherpa, 2005 - Search Marketing
  Benchmark Survey
• NPD Group
• Pew Research, 2005

SEO
10
Anatomy of A Search Result Page

• The average participant took only 6.5 seconds to
  click a link. In that time, they would read
  anywhere from 4 to 5 listings.
• TIP
• Compelling and Attractive TITLES increase
  clickthrough!

SEO
11
Getting Started With SEO
Breaking Through The Myths

• Before you can really take flight with SEO, you
  need to see the facts for yourself and dispel
  some of the common myths.
• There are 3 Myths in Particular To Overcome
• SEO is too complicated for me to understand.
• SEO is too hard because you cant beat the crazy
  engineers, techno-geeks and algorithms at Google,
  Yahoo! And MSN
• I have too much competition to succeed in SEO. I
  cant compete with my big competitors.
• Lets Have a Look At Each With Some REAL FACTS!

SEO
12
Myth 1 SEO is Too Complicated

• For your website to establish a strong SEO
  presence, you really only need to focus on 3
  things
• Relevancy Using SEO Best Practices, matching
  the content of a web page to a prospects specific
  search query.
• Authority The process of acquiring quality
  third party links to each of the web pages you
  want to rank well in the search engines.
• Reputation Ensuring that the links that point
  to you accurately reflect what you sell.
• Lets Have a Look At Some Basic Examples of Each

SEO
13
Myth 1 Some Basic But Powerful Examples
Which One Would You Prefer?

• Relevancy (eg Title Tag)
• Buy a Dozen Red Roses for 39 in Owen Sound or
• Johns Flower Emporium
• Authority
• A link from the homepage of yahoo.com or
• A link from johndoe.com
• Reputation
• Click Here or
• Owen Sound Flower Delivery
• Fact Following these 3 concepts will put you
  ahead of 80 of the businesses online
  today!

SEO
14
Myth 1 Live Examples (Cont.)
Which One Would You Choose?

• URL for a sending a dozen red roses
• www.owensoundflowers.com/dozen-red-roses.html
  or
• dealcatch.com/rsslink.asp?v8m204c1117
• Product Page - Clickable Title In Search Listing
• Send Long Stem Red Roses for 39 in Owen Sound
  or
• Johns Flowers Online Flower Shop
• Product Identification on Product Page
• One Dozen Valentines Day Red Roses with Vase
  or
• D2-0012 R Medium
• Key Lesson Always ask yourself one question
• How can I make this page more relevant to my
  prospect?

SEO
15
Authority Reputation Why Links Are Critical

• Link Popularity / Authority
• Links Votes
• Links from many pages signify an important page
• Links from important pages carry more weight
• Important pages rank higher ?
• More Links More Rep The Expert Choice
• Link Reputation
• Links from related pages enforce the theme
• Links from related words pass on that theme
• Strongly themed pages rank well for related
  queries ?

SEO
16
How Powerful is Link Reputation And Authority?
SEO
17
Myth 2 We Cant Beat The Brains At Y! or Google

• The biggest myth and fear out on the market
  right now is the belief that SEO success is all
  about BEATING the search engine algorithms.
• No! No! No!
• Fact 1 You are not trying to out-hustle,
  out-play, or out-maneuvre Yahoo!, Google or MSN.
  And yes If you tried to do that with any search
  engine, eventually, you will lose.
• Fact 2 You dont have to beat the search
  engines to succeed in SEO, all you have to do is
  RESEARCH, IDENTIFY REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR TOP
  RANKED COMPETITION
• TAKE AIM AT YOUR COMPETITION AND YOU CAN WIN!!!

SEO
18
Myth 3 There Is Too Much Competition Out There

• One of the most common arguments small business
  owners (SMBs) make when it comes to SEO is that
  there is too much competition in the marketplace.
• Fact 1 Most people who are concerned about this
  have not been properly educated on how SEO really
  works and do not understand the opportunities
  that search provides.
• Fact 2 Search is exploding And there is
  plenty of traffic and plenty of sales to go
  around. You just have to know where and how to
  look for it.
• Fact 3 SMBs have it better than ever online
  because you can completely reverse engineer the
  rankings and strategy of ANY SIZE competitor.

SEO
19
How Do People Search Online?

• 1 Word Query 15.2 (flowers)
• 2 Word Query 31.9 (toronto florists)
• 3 Word Query 27 (toronto flower shop)
• 4 Word Query 14.8 (owen sound flower delivery)
• 5 Word Query 11.1 (cheap flowers for mothers
  day)

FACT ! 84.8 of searches online are with 2 or
more keywords....
Source Search Engine Watch 2007
SEO
20
Why This Is HUGE For You
Remember QUALITY Traffic Is Key To Success!

• Fact If you do the right research, opportunity
  presents itself!

SEO
21
How Do I Beat My Competitors?
They are everywhere bigger than Ill ever be

• Ever wondered how a competitor is able to rank
  ahead of you in the search engines and stay
  there?
• Ever come across a competitor that seems to rank
  everywhere and you wish you could tap into their
  campaign or strategy? If only I had their data
  and research I could
• Ever looked around at the paid ads on the search
  engines and wonder what the big players are doing
  so you could tap into their intelligence? What
  IS making that competitor money anyway?
• Well, Now You Can Be One Of The Few Who CAN
  Know!!!

SEO
22
Time To Lift The Curtain
But Shhhh Dont Tell The Big Players!
SEO
23
Lets Take A Look At Some LIVE Keywords
For A Local Toronto Florist

• flowers online toronto
• online flowers toronto
• secretarys day 2005
• valentine day flower online
• valentines day flowers online
• Valentine's Day flowers
• administrative professionals week 2007
• florists toronto
• flower arrangements for a wedding
• flower shops in toronto
• flower shops toronto
• valentine day flower online
• flowers online delivery
• valentines day flowers cheap
• winter flower
• funeral tributes
• flower delivery toronto

• Scarborough flower shop
• Ftd florist toronto
• Flower delivery toronto
• Meanings of flowers
• What are the meanings of flowers
• Hamilton flower shop
• Flowers in oshawa
• Weddings flowers in hamilton
• Florists toronto downtown
• Send flowers to toronto
• Metro toronto funeral flowers
• Birthday flower baskets in toronto
• Order flowers online newmarket
• Florists north york
• Flowers in etobicoke
• Mothers day flowers newmarket
• Canada flower deliveries

SEO
24
Enough Already Where Can I Get The Goods?

• Keywordspy.com Best Tool By Far For Anyone!
• Spyfu.com Close second to keywordspy.com
• Keycompete.com Good for keyword research
• Trellian.com Good group of tools for SMBs
• Googspy.com Spyfu Mini - Limited data but free
• Adgooroo.com Great for paid search analysis
• Hitwise.com - 10k plus enterprise level
• Wordtracker.com Industry standard for keyword
  research and keyword opportunity assessment

25
Top 10 On-The-Page SEO Best Practices Relevancy

• Always have unique and descriptive Title Tags
• Use your meta description tag wisely to SELL the
  click
• Add no more than 10 keywords to your meta
  keywords tag.
• Match the keywords in your title to the main
  heading subheadings on your page.
• Use descriptive anchor text throughout your site.

• Shoot for 250 words of unique text per page
• Add breadcrumb navigation
• Add a search engine friendly sitemap to your
  homepage footer
• Mix in bullets, bold and italics where
  appropriate throughout the page separated by
  subheadings.
• Use keywords in your URLs separated by hyphens

26
Top 10 Off-Page Link Strategies Authority
Reputation

• Get into the Yahoo Directory - 299 p/year. This
  is one of the most trusted links on the net.
• Submit your site to Dmoz Free but can take some
  time.
• Write and distribute articles at
  ezinearticles.com use resource box for links!
• Submit to top 10 article directories (search
  yahoo for top article sites for details)
• Create viral link bait and distribute a press
  release
• Create a blog, post regularly and submit to blog
  search engines.

• Acquire links from top relevant sites that
  complement your market
• Swap quality content / links with relevant sites
  in your market
• Always include (and mix up) your most important
  keywords in the anchor text of your links.
• Reverse engineer the top 20 sites using Yahoo!
  Site explorer as your link building starting
  point
• Leverage the power of social network authorities
  for your own benefit (answers, hubpages, youtube,
  squidoo, myspace, facebook, flickr, blogger,
  viddler)

27
7 Step SEO Summary
Action Plan for Long Term SEO Success

• Step 1 Do Extensive Keyword Research On Your
  Market
• Step 2 Assess the Real Level of Competition
  You Are Facing
• Step 3 Tear Apart Your Top Ranked Competition
  One By One
• Step 4 Apply On Page Relevancy Tips To Your Own
  Site Content
• Step 5 Apply Link Building Strategies For
  Authority Reputation
• Step 6 Get Connected To Search Tools ASAP To
  Track Progress
• Step 7 Dont Ever Stop. SEO is a Constant
  Ongoing Process

SEO
28
Appendix Tooling Up On The Cheap
Free Affordable SEO Tools I Highly
Recommend and Personally Use On A Regular Basis
SEO
29
Wordtracker 1 Industry Keyword Tool
Freekeywords.wordtracker.com
SEO
30
Google Keyword Tool Free and Comprehensive
https//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExte
rnal
SEO
31
Yahoo! Site Explorer - 1 Link Analysis Tool
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
SEO
32
Yahoo! Canada Local local.yahoo.ca
33
Google Local A Must For Local Businesses
Get Your Site Into Google Local
SEO
34
How To Add Your Site Directly To Google Local
Google.com/local/add
SEO
35
Managing Your Google Local Business Listing(s)
Google.com/accounts
SEO
36
Google Webmaster Tools Complete Site Diagnostics
Google.com/webmasters/tools/
SEO
37
Google Analytics All the info you will ever need
Google.com/analytics
SEO
38
Xenu Link Sleuth Free link check / site reporter
home.snafu.de/tilman.xenulink.html
SEO
39
Other Tools / Resources I Use Regularly

• Google Toolbar with Page Rank
• iGoogle Homepage / My Yahoo Homepage
• Google Alerts Track any topic or competitor !
• SEO Elite Software - 1 tool and affordable -
  167
• IBP Internet Business Promoter Good toolset
• Planet Ocean SEO Book Monthly Subscription
• Roboform Toolbar Secure Password Saver 1
  Click Login
• Firefox Addon Extensions Downthemall (research)
  seo tools

SEO
40
Thank You!

• Darryl Peddle Head of SEO Y! Americas
• dpeddle_at_yahoo-inc.com

SEO