Todd Friesen

1
SEO Workshop Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco
Todd Friesen
April, 2007
2
SEO The Free Traffic
3
The Golden Triangle
Pay Per Click () Natural (Free)
4
Golden Triangle Statistics

• 85 click on natural (unpaid) results
• 72 of searchers click on the first link of
  interest
• 25.5 read all listings first, then decide
• Position 7-10 in natural listings top 4 PPC
  slots on the right hand side of the page

5
On Page SEO Techniques

• Title Tags HTML element that displays the
  title of a web page in your web browser and in
  the search results.
• Meta Description HTML element that summarizes
  the content of your web page and enforces your
  marketing message.

6
On Page SEO Techniques

• Body Content must be readable and contain your
  key phrases.
• ALT Tags HTML element describes images in the
  page. Alt tags boost relevancy as well as provide
  a new avenue of traffic from image searches.

7
On Page SEO Techniques

• Heading Tags an HTML element that provides
  structure and tells search engines which parts of
  your page are most important.
• Internal Linking proper linking leads to
  better indexing. Using your keywords in your
  internal links helps boost relevancy.

8
Things To Avoid

• Dropdown boxes for navigation
• Java or JavaScript navigation
• Flash-based or overly graphical website
• Splash pages
• Too many parameters in the URL
• Nonstandard characters in the URL
• Session IDs or user IDs in the URL
• Site spread across multiple domains
• Title tags same on all pages
• Error page returning a 200 status code
• Incorrect redirects

9
1 Thing To Avoid
AJAX
10
Google PageRank and TrustRank

• Early PageRank
• PageRank was the primary factor used to
  determine organic rankings.
• Each web page (not site) has its own PageRank
  score
• PageRank scores were recalculated every 30 days.
  
• New PageRank scores were immediately available
  in Googles toolbar.
• PageRank Today
• PageRank is no longer the primary factor used to
  determine rankings
• PageRank is no longer recalculated on a 30 day
  cycle
• Toolbar PageRank data is now 3 to 4 months old
• PageRank is used to determine crawl frequency,
  crawl depth, and database selection. (Main Index
  or Supplemental Index)

11
Google PageRank and TrustRank

• Trust Rank
• TrustRank uses a human selected set of trusted
  domains.
• TrustRank is passed down from the initial set of
  human reviewed sites.
• The closer your site is (in terms of linkage) to
  sites in the human reviewed set, the more
  TrustRank you will have.
• TrustRank is domain specific, not page specific.
  
• Sites with high TrustRank combined with high
  PageRank is money in the bank.

12
Link Based Algorithms

• All major search engines use linking data in
  their ranking algorithms
• Factors analyzed include popularity of the
  linking page, context of the linking page, and
  the context of the anchor text used in the links.

13
Linking Strategies

• Competitive Intelligence Analyze the backlinks
  of your competitors. Try to get links from the
  same sites
• Submit to Quality General Directories
• Submit to Verticals/Topical Guides
• Search Ad Networks AdBrite, Adwords, Blog Ads,
  etc.
• Use Blogs and RSS Google loves blogs
• Create Podcasts/Screencasts Bloggers love
  posting them
• Buy Text Links But be careful. Google doesnt
  like it

14
Linking Strategies To Avoid

• Participating in link farms or FFA (Free For
  All) sites
• Splogging, comment spamming, guestbook spamming
• Linking to bad neighborhoods
• Hiding links
• Hoarding all your PageRank
• Unnatural link structures

15
Search Engine Link Commands

• To a page
• Googles and MSN Searchs link query operator
• To your site
• Yahoos linkdomain query operator
• Subtract your site from the results (MSN Yahoo
  only)
• E.g. linkwww.yoursite.com -siteyoursite.com
• NOTE Google displays only a sampling of
  backlinks

16
Free Link Research Tools

• Yahoos Site Explorer - siteexplorer.search.yahoo
  .com
• Netconcepts Link Checker - www.netconcepts.com/l
  inkcheck
• WeBuildPages Neat-o Tool - www.webuildpages.com/
  neat-o/
• SEO For Firefox - tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-f
  or-firefox.html
• TouchGraph GoogleBrowser - www.touchgraph.com/TGG
  oogleBrowser.html
• Tattler - www.webguerrilla.com/down-loads/tattler
  .zip

17
Linking Strategies To Use Carefully

• Types of links that are likely to get discounted
• Reciprocal links
• Affiliated sites (on the same IP range or
  hostname)
• Footer links (at the bottom of the page)
• Site-wide links
• Links contained on a page called links.htm /
  links.asp
• Remember the more links on the linking page, the
  less PageRank youll get

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Linking Summary

• Best links are
• Topically relevant
• One way (not reciprocated)
• Not in footer and not site-wide
• Earned by merit, rather than bought, bartered or
  stolen
• Not crowded with many other links on the page
• On a high PageRank/TrustRank, high Alexa-ranked,
  .edu/.gov/.mil authority site

19
www.rangeonlinemedia.com www.webguerrilla.com www.
oilman.ca www.webmasterradio.fm todd_at_rangeonline
media.com greg_at_webguerrilla.com