big dog & enterprise level seo tactics by john shehata

BIG DOG

SEO

TACTICS

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John Shehata

ABCNews.com

@JShehata

#SMX #31D

October 3, 2013

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New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesnySEO Roadmap

@JShehata | John Shehata

• Discover

– What are the main objectives of the site (sales, Pageviews, etc.)

– Know the Team (Design, IT, Legal, Editorial, Marketing, PM, Technology, Analytics)

– SWOT Analysis / Challenges and Opportunities

– Extensive Site Audit (GWT, Screaming Frog, Crawl Errors, etc.)

– Competitive Analysis (SEO, Social Media, Links, Rankings, etc.)

– Understand The PM Process / Editorial Workflow

– Understand Technology & Code

– Build Targeted KWs lists (KW research, Analytics, etc.)

– Build Baseline Reports (Setup – Analytics Team)

– Define your SEO Metrics (Visits, SEO Visits, etc.)

– Identify Conversion Points (Signups, sales, etc.)

Discover InformQuick

Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze

New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesnyMaximize Enterprise SEO

• Understand your Weaknesses and Strengths

– Media Sites

– Lots of content

– Videos VS. Text?

– Lots of Links

– No Sales

– Ecommerce

– Lots of Products

– Same Product Description across multiple sites

– Little Unique Content

– Duplicate content



• Issues

– Content Overlap

– Inefficient Crawling (Millions of Pages)

– Too much content to optimize

– One man department

– Tech/Dev/Company has other priorities

– Duplicate Content On Site/Off Site

– Etc..



• Questions to ask (before you start):

– SEO Budget

– Resources

– Legal

– Tools

– Usability

– Previous SEO?




• Inform “Develop Institutional Knowledge”

– Training (SEO 101, Tech/Dev Training, PM/Product Training)

– Executive Training: C-level executive buy-in is a must (It is not Voodoo Magic!)

– Best Practices Guides (BPG) / One Sheet Checklist

– SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki

– Search Monthly Newsletter

– Answering emails

– SEO Compliance Test

– Customize your training material


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze

On-Page Optimization (Content)

Page Title Tag

URL

Image/Video

Optimization

Meta Data

Content

CodeInternal

Links

Internal

Links

Headline

H1 Header

Social Media

@Jshehata | John Shehata 7

On-Page Content Freshness

Content Frequency

Content Authority

Content Relevancy

Content Uniqueness


• Project Management Process Integration

– SEO is not an afterthought (It starts before development)

– Understand The Process

– Kick Offs / Traffic Sources Expectations

– Requirement gathering

– IT / Development

– Design Comps

– Content / Internal Links

– Do your own QA

– Reports

– Check Changes to the site [changedetection.com]




• Quick Wins “Low Hanging Fruit: Low Effort, Big Wins”

– Site Level Optimization

– Duplicate Content

– 302/301 Redirects

– Robots.txt fixes

– Canonical Tags

– Crawl Errors, Error Pages

– Link Building (partners, affiliates, widgets, etc.)

– Template Level Optimization

– On Page Optimization (layout, Heading Tags, etc.)

– Page Titles, Meta Description, SEO Tags

– Inline Linking / Deep Linking

– Pagination


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze

– Page Level Optimization

– Money Terms

– Top 10 Paid Keywords - PPC

– Top Keywords

– 2nd Page Rankings

– Top Exit Pages (Bounce rate)



• Big Wins “Big Projects”

– Rich Media Optimization: Videos, Photo Galleries, Etc.

– Mobile SEO

– Content Verticals Optimization (entertainment, tech, etc.)

– Universal SERP Optimization (News, Videos, Shopping, Local, Google+, etc.)

– Rich Snippets

– Link Building Campaigns

– Crawl Efficiency / Duplicate Content / URL Architecture

– Syndication

– Social Media


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze



• Support

– Support ongoing and new projects

– SEO Recos to seasonal content

– Provide SEO Recos to Breaking/Trending News

– SEO Recos to all new design and tech projects


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze



• Reports & Analysis “Tell A Story”

– Executive Summary is a Must

– Daily/Monthly Reports

– Author/Content/Product/Vertical Reports

– Social Media Reports

– Project Reports

– Promote your work

– Track traffic changes for all work done


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze



Company Goals

Team/Departments

SEO Challenges & Opportunities

Site Audit

Workflow/Process

Analytics/Baseline reports

researching / info gathering

Technology, Code

Content, Links, Social Media

Building Targeted Keyword lists

Crawl Errors

Comp. Analysis

PM Process

Training

SEO 101 Training

SMO 101 Training

Tech/Dev Training

PM/Product Training

Executive Training

Best Practices

Guides (BPG)

SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki

Search/Social Media

Monthly Newsletter

Answering emails

SEO/SMO

Compliance Test

Content Strategy

Low Effort, Big Wins

On Page

Optimization

Page Titles, Meta

Tags

HP / Section Pages

302/301 Redirects

Robots.txt fixes

Error Pages

Meta Tags / Social

Tags Optimization

Rich Snippets

Duplicate Content

Canonical Tags

Big Projects List

Videos / Photos

Mobile

Content Vertical

Optimization

Universal SERPs

Rich Snippets

Link Building

Crawl Efficiency

Social Media

Syndication

Daily Reports

Monthly Reports

Author Reports

Category/Product Reports

Social Media Reports

Project Reports

Support ongoing

and new projects

SEO Recos to

seasonal content

Provide SEO Recos

to Breaking News


Wins

Big

WinsSupport

Report &

Analyze

New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny

Discovery

Understand Project Goals and

objectives

Traffic Sources: Search, Social, Internal traffic?

Top Keywords: what is the search

interest?

Location on site: directory,

subdomain, page, sections, etc.?

Do we need a CName?

Do we need a landing page

(/blogs/) for all created templates

Content: is it new content, new content

replacing existing content, removing old content, etc.?

Will page content be delivered via

Javascript, AJAX, other un-friendly

SEO technologies?

do we need a separate XML

sitemap?

Design

wireframes/design comps

review

breadcrumbs placements

text placement

social integrations

H1 heading tags

SEO recommendatio

ns for label, layout and links

Pre Dev.

Meta Date (page titles, meta description, keywords)

SEO friendly URL formats

Copy Reviews: does the page

need intro/closing

copy?

Canonical tags

Social tags / Other tags

robots.txt updates if

needed

analytics integration

secure 5 links to new content

Schema Implementation

QA

Quick SEO QA

Baseline analytics reports

Content in Feeds

Live

SEO BPG

if needed

3,6,9 months

reports

Link Building

Ranking Reports

SEO

Process

John Shehata 2013@JShehata

New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesnyTools & Resources

• Excel

• SEOmoz

• SEObook

• Screaming Frog

• Google/Bing Webmaster Tools

• Advanced Web Rankings

• Google Analytics / Omniture

• Raven Tools



17 Tactics that help you succeed at Enterprise SEO



• Develop Technical & Excel Skills



SELL Your Projects

Align your Goals with the Company’s Goals

i.e. Align your Projectswith the Company’s Projects

Find a project sponsor



Show Value



• Big Projects

– Small Projects Justifies Big Projects

– Divide Big Projects into smaller tasks

– Find projects that can include these tasks

– Focus on quick wins



• Your Platform is not just desktop!

– Mobile is a must

– App/Tablet Optimization

– YouTube


+94%


Tech/Dev Teams

• Great ally or the worst hurdle

• Push Back when appropriate

• Your strategy is Dead-On-Arrival without technical resources.



Build Relationships

Communicate in Person, Emails are not enough



Stop Long Emails

Tell A Story / Promote your success / Use Numbers



Task, Reports, Meetings, etc.

Stop whatever

doesn’t provide

VALUE



Choose your Battles Wisely

Prioritize / Ask your manager to prioritize your work



• Find Hidden resources

– Sister companies

– Cross promotions,

– links

– Talents in other departments



• Center of Excellence [COE]

– SEO Ambassadors (across sites, global, editorial, IT, etc.)

– Highlight the Champ

– Badges / Compliance Certificate

– Train the trainer



We are consultants; we provide recommendations to other teams to implement!!



• Develop A Content Marketing Strategy

– Editorial calendar

– Evergreen content

– Product Reviews

– Best/Worst Lists

– Trending topics

– National vs. Local Content



Working with others

• Make others great! Focus on making the other people successful, and you’ll earn their trust.

• Make your emphasis how SEO will make them successful.

• Make a big deal of giving public acknowledgement of their vital contribution.

• Respect the hard work these folks have to do that has nothing to do with your SEO needs



Less Is More SEO

• Focused recommendations

• Focused emails

• Focused reports

• etc.



Be a Good Person

– Approachable

– Available

– Share Knowledge

– Train and Train Again

– Invest in People, Develop Skills

– Optimize for Users not SE


SEO


Thanks

John Shehata

@JShehata


http://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo

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