3 seo-fundamentals-establishing a domain strategy-slides

SEO FundamentalsEstablishing A Domain Strategy

Paul Wilsonhttp://search.cxpaul@search.cx

Building the Right Domain Strategy

Picking the Right Domain for SEOPicking the Right Domain for SEO

Things to Consider When Buying a Domain

Avoid-Lots-of-Hyphens-At-All-Cost

Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDS)

Have your domain under 15 characters

Brand domains vskeyword domains

Does an Old Domain Help?

source: http://plw.me/14t0Yo3

Personal Case Study

Site A: Brand New Site B: 10 Years Old

6 Month ResultsSite A = Some Long tailSite B = Ranked on all

Similarities• Vertical • Keywords• Content • Backlinks

1 Year ResultsSite A = Ranked on allSite B = Ranked top 3 for difficult keywords

2 Year ResultsSite A = Ranked on 1st

page for most keywordsSite B = Considered a brand

Monthly RevenuesSite A = less than $100Site B = $1,000 - $1,500

Monthly RevenuesSite A = $300 - $400Site B = $4,000 - $5,000

Monthly RevenuesSite A = $800 - $1,200Site B = $16,000 - $20,000

Problems• Correlation not

Causation• Algorithm Changes• 1 – 2 year efforts

changed• Deprecation of

backlink similarity

Case Study: Take Aways

2.5 years 5 years

How to Find an Old Domain

Resource Sheet• SEDO (http://plw.me/14Ruw3r) • GoDaddy Auctions (http://plw.me/XaLBfu) • Afternic (http://plw.me/14RuBnE) • DomainTools (http://plw.me/Vy4d5j)• NameCheap Marketplace (http://plw.me/XMiy1R) • Flippa (http://plw.me/12naLMG) • DomCop (http://plw.me/12naRUB)

Pros & Cons of a New Domain

Brandable

Cheap

Clean

Not Indexed

No Strength

No Trust

Tools for Brainstorming

Resource Sheet

• Psychic Whois (http://plw.me/12uOCM9) • Panabee (http://plw.me/12uOHzm) • Dot-o-mator (http://plw.me/12uORqA) • Blungr (http://plw.me/12uOV9T) • BustaName (http://plw.me/12uP25c) • Domize (http://plw.me/12uP1hI) • IWMN (http://plw.me/12uP8tM)

Subdomains or Subfolders?

Fresh Content

Root Association

Social Metrics

Segment Traffic

Off Topic

Easy to Replace

Dominate rankingsBetter User Experience

Synergy Separation

Does Hosting Matter to SEO?

Uptime

Speed

Shared

Location

"You may have heard that here at Google we'reobsessed with speed, in our products and on theweb. As part of that effort, today we're includinga new signal in our search ranking algorithms:site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly awebsite responds to web requests." (Google Blog)

“[Server speed] has a direct impact on thesatisfaction a user has when they visit yourwebsite. Slow load times can lead to a visitorsimply leaving your website, seeking theirinformation elsewhere. If they came from oursearch results that may appear to us to be anunsatisfactory result that we showed. Faster isbetter, but take care to balance absolute pageload speed with a positive, useful userexperience." (Bing Webmaster)

Code to Speed Up HerbalDoc

Search Engine Land Article:http://plw.me/11JU27AGoogle Webmaster

Backlinks

Sample IP: 192.0.2.0

www.example.co.ukwww.example.ca

<meta name="geo.region" content="US-CO" /><meta name="geo.placename" content="Denver" /><meta name="geo.position" content="39.740045,-104.984416" /><meta name="ICBM" content="39.740045, -104.984416" />

Using Search Engine Webmaster Tools

VERIFY DOMAIN VERIFY DOMAINSITEMAP ADDED UPON DOMAIN VERIFICATION

NO PREFERRED DOMAIN SETTING

NO GEOGRAPHIC TARGETING SETTING

ADD GEOGRAPHIC TARGET

SELECT PREFERRED DOMAIN

ADD OR TEST SITEMAP.XML

www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasterwww.google.com/webmasters/tools

SUBMIT TO INDEX SUBMIT URLS

GOOGLE WEBMASTER >> YOUR SITE >> CONFIGURATION >> SETTINGShttp://ww1.herbaldoc.com/sitemap.xml.gzBING WEBMASTER >> DASHBOARD >> CONFIGURE MY SITE >> SUBMIT URLSGOOGLE WEBMASTER >> YOUR WEBSITE >> HEALTH >> FETCH AS GOOGLE

SEO ANALYZER

The Power of your .htaccess

URL Rewrite

WWW

Move Pages

Server Speed

http://www.example.com/productus.php?blue=101http://www.example.com/products/blue/101

Understanding Robots.txt

Everything Indexed

User-agent: *Disallow:

Ignore Everything

User-agent: *Disallow: /

Specific Folder Ignored

User-agent: *Disallow: /folder/

Block Google from Specific Folder

User-agent: googlebotDisallow: /folder1/

Ignore any URL with a question mark in it

User-agent: *Disallow: /*?

Except URLs ending with question marks

User-agent: *Allow: /*?$Disallow: /*?

A Guide For Search Bots

Predetermine Your Site’s Overall Theme

DEPRESSION REMEDIES

HOLISTIC HEALTH

ARTHRITIS REMEDIES

HERBAL DETOX

HOLISTICHEALTH

DEPRESSION REMEDIES

ARTHRITIS REMEDIES

HERBAL DETOX

Building the Right Architecture

Authority

Bad Example

Looking at Flat Architecture

Only 3 Clicks Away from the

Home

source: http://plw.me/TS9A7c

AGE ALLOWS A DOMAIN TO REACH BRAND STATUS QUICKER

USE .HTACCESS TO 301 NON-WWW TO WWW

(OR VICE VERSA)

REMEMBER THAT YOUR ROBOTS FILE IS PUBLIC

FOR ANYONE TO SEE

SPEND TIME CREATING A SOLID SITE HIERARCHY

Key Take Aways

SEO FundamentalsEstablishing A Domain Strategy

Paul Wilsonhttp://search.cxpaul@search.cx