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Search Engine Optimization
Rob Ruchte & Jon Williams
April 22, 2009
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Why should we trust your information about SEO?
-Jonathan Champ
We’re not SEO salesmen - we’re developers
What makes you an expert?
We’ve been building sites since BG (Before Google), have witnessed the evolution of SE technology
We work for ad agencies who promise their clients big SE results - we have to deliver.
For which keywords do you rank well?
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How does Google’s PageRank work?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
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Strategic Outline
(Text) Content Tactics
(Graphic) Design Tactics
Technology Tactics
Social Tactics
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Content: Kingis, was, and will always be.
Secret sauce = snake oil
Spend 80% of your efforts developing great content.
Keyword refinement & SEM comes last. (20%)
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Content: Be Remark-able!
Be Remarkable.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html
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Content: Be Remark-able!
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Content
Safe = Boring = Death
As fresh as possible, as often as possible.
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Content: Semantics
Sprinkle keywords (lightly!) across hierarchy of semantic tags.
<TITLE>
<H1>, <H2>, <H3>, etc
<strong>, <emphasis>
<img alt=”Image Description” />
<meta> (deprecated?) Yahoo still considers keywords
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Content: Keywords
Work your target keywords and keyword phrases into header, link, and paragraph content.
Use synonyms: http://thesaurus.com
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Content: K.I.S.S.
Quality over Quantity
Web users favor scanning over reading. Keep it short and specific.
Google favors pages with high (relevant) keyword density.
Break longer pages into parts.
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Content: Generic vs Specific
Both! Create a content hierarchy
From more generic to more specific.
Allow users to read (and link to) the appropriate level of detail.
For example: http://www.instructables.com/
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Content: ISO Perfection
In Search Of Perfection
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
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Content: ISO Perfection
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Content
There is no perfect page.
There are only perfect pages.
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Content: Outgoing Links
Your outgoing links help search engines place you in the right “neighborhood.”
Pick a neighborhood with high PageRank.
Misconceptions
PageRank dilution
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Design
Before you’ve read a single word, you’ve already formed an opinion about a site’s quality based purely on an emotional response to the design.
So do visitors to your site. Don’t give them an excuse not to link to you.
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Design: Typography
Typography for Dummies: http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_better_typography/
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Design: Typography
No more than 2 - 3 alphabets per line in length. (~80 characters)
Leading wider than word spacing
White text on black?
Increase the leading & tracking
Decrease your font-weight.
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Design: Typography
size relationships between body copy, headers, subheaders, etc. For example:
<H1> 24px, <H2> 18px, <H3> 16px, <H4> 13px,<body> 11px
weight relationships - For example:primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, QUINTARY
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Design: Whitespace
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace
Striking a balance between the page’s whitespace and areas of high detail allow you to guide the eye from element to element in a predictable way.
Notice how bullet-to-bullet linespacing is greater than the linespacing within rows of a single bullet?
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Design: Minimalism
Minimalist designs:
are more easily achieved because there are fewer page elements to create and make work together.
can be scientifically compared for effectiveness.
can be aggregated into more complex designs.
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Technology: Semantics
<TITLE>, <H1><H2><H3>, <strong><emphasis>,<img alt=”Image Description” />, <a href=”http://domain.com/human-readable.html” />
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Technology: HTML
Google uses the first 70 characters of page titles
Titles should be More Specific -> Less Specific
For example: Product Feature | Product Name | Companyinstead of:Company | Product Name | Product Feature
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Technology: CSSUse advanced CSS to implement the designer’s vision
Style lists with sprites for attractive yet usable multi-state navigation
Style headings with background images for non-standard fonts
Download demo of these techniques:http://karoshiethos.com/seo/http://karoshiethos.com/seo.zip
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Technology: Syndication
Indicates that you want people to share and promote your content
RSS
embed-able contentFor-example: YouTube video
free PDFs
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Technology: Multimedia
Search Engines see HTML replaced via Progressive Enhancement (requires JavaScript)
Flash Video - http://karoshiethos.com/seo/video/
sIFR - http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr3/
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Technology: Bookmarked Video
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/link-to-youtube-minute-second/
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Technology: Accessible Flash
SwfAddress: http://www.asual.com/swfaddress/
Gaia Flash Framework: http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/
Example: http://therepublik.net
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Technology: Apache mod_rewrite
If your site is accessible via multiple domains, choose and enforce a canonical domain for your site:
RewriteCond %{http_host} ^(www.)?site.com$ [NC]RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.site.org/$1 [R=301,L]
Choose and enforce a canonical subdomain too:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]RewriteRule .* http://www.site.edu%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
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Technology: Apache mod_rewrite
Implement human/search engine friendly URLs for systems that use query parameters
Turn /page.php?id=231 into /page-title.htmlRewriteRule ^page-title.html page.php?id=231 [nc]
Turn /search.php?q=term into /search/termRewriteRule ^search/(.*) search.php?q=$1 [nc]
mod_rewrite docs: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html
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Technology: On-site Search
Lucene - http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/
Zend Framework Implementation
Done correctly, represents a dynamic index of content matching search criteria. Linkable, bookmarkable, sharable.
Use semantic URLs to link to Lucene searches to auto-categorize content using chosen keywords/phraseseg. http://example.com/search/engineering
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Technology: Google Tools
AnalyticsMeasure what's working, what isn't.
Optimizerhttps://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/splash?hl=en
Google Sitemap Filehttps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/protocol.html
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SocialThe Cluetrain Manifestohttp://www.cluetrain.com
The first markets were markets. Not bulls, bears, or invisible hands. Not battlefields, targets, or arenas. Not demographics, eyeballs, or seats. Most of all, not consumers.
These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.
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Social: Bookmarking
Digg (and delicious, and StumbleUpon, and...)
Make it easy for visitors to share your content (sharethis.com)
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Social: Viral
Flickr
More than just photos, you can upload documents & video
YouTube (Vimeo, Revver, etc...)
Avoids encoding/format issues
Sharing is built into the player
Save bandwidth, server space
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Social: Networking Facebook
Network with other subject matter experts
Post links to your content
More than just, “I forgot how much I like pickles!”
Follow subject experts, stay in tune with your subject
Tweet about your subject
Link to relevant content on your site and others.
Join the conversation.
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Pitfalls
100% Duplicate Contenthttp://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html
RedirectsUse 301 redirects to retain the “juice” from incoming links. Avoid using 302 redirects in all but a few specific cases (eg. same-domain page redirects)http://www.bigoakinc.com/blog/when-to-use-a-301-vs-302-redirect/
If you use a URL shortener for posting links to your site (tinyurl.com, bit.ly, etc...), make sure they use 301 redirects.
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Pitfalls
Paid Linksuse nofollow in <a><a href=”http://advertiser.com” rel=”nofollow”>
Incestuous LinkingSites that only link amongst themselves
Keyword/Link StuffingOverloading pages with terms and links that do not provide benefits to visitors
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Pitfalls
Spamdexinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamdexing
Shared ServersDouble-check server blacklists
Bot DOS “Attack”Crawl-Delay: 10 in robots.txt
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Q&A
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Useful Linkshttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet
http://www.addedbytes.com/apache/url-rewriting-for-beginners/
http://www.addedbytes.com/apache/mod_rewrite-cheat-sheet/