introduction to seo
DESCRIPTION
This deck was created as a supplement to a presentation on SEO given to students at MSU.TRANSCRIPT
Search Engine OptimizationLet’s get nerdy
Matt GreenSEO Strategist, Ethical SEO Consulting
@MChuckGreen
DOWNLOAD THIS DECK: http://www.slideshare.net/ethicalseo/
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@MChuckGreen
What is a Search Engine?
Think of a search engine as a librarian that is responsible for organizing EVERY BOOK ON EARTH
As the librarians of the web, search engines have a process by which they organize every page on the web.
That process is their indexation algorithm. Search engine robots use the stipulations of the algorithm to crawl through websites and index them in a useful way.
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What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
The process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines.
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All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.
Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
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Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
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But, what does SEO look like in practice?
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The job of a SEO is to optimize a website so that it
can be found in search results when users input
queries for which that site provides answers.
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The 2 areas where SEOs work:
1. On The Website (on-site optimization)
2. Off The Website (off-site optimization)
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On-site OptimizationWhen we optimize a website for search engines, we are trying to make it as easy as possible for the search engines to access and index the various pages of the website according to relevance.
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On-site Optimization Elements
Page TitlePage title as a human sees it:
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On-site Optimization Elements
Page Title
Page title as a search engine sees it:
More on page titles: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
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On-site Optimization Elements
Meta Description
Meta Description as a human sees it:
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Meta Description
Meta Description as a search engine sees it:
On-site Optimization Elements
More on meta descriptions: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description
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On-site Optimization Elements
Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc)
Heading Tags as a human sees them:
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Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc)
Heading Tags as a search engine sees them:
On-site Optimization Elements
More on heading tags: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/on-page-factors
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On-site Optimization ElementsPage Content
Page content as a human sees them:
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Page Content
Page content as a search engine sees it:
On-site Optimization Elements
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These elements are only a small piece of the optimization puzzle.
If there are 1 million pages on the web that are all about “How to make spaghetti”, the search engines need other signals to tell them how those 1 million pages should be ordered in the SERPs.
This is where off-site optimization signals comes in!
So the page is about spaghetti…now what?
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Off-site Optimization
PageRank
Each search engine has it’s own way of measuring the importance of pages.
Google uses system called PageRank. Each page on the web has a PageRank, from 0-10. In general, the greater the PageRank of the page we want to rank highly for a given search phrase, the better.
“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Pageand used by the Google Internet search engine, that assigns a
numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set ofdocuments, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of
"measuring" its relative importance within the set.”
Fun Fact:
The PageRank system was invented by Google co-founder Larry Page. While at Stanford, he wrote a paper on his PageRank idea, which has since shaped how we access the world’s information. You can read that paper here: http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/1/1999-66.pdf
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Off-site Optimization
How is PageRank determined?
PageRank is a reflection of the number and quality of the inbound links pointing at a particular web page.
In general, the more inbound links and the higher the quality of those links, the higher the PageRank will be.
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Off-site Optimization
In other words…
Off-site optimization = ACQUIRING INBOUND
LINKS (aka “Link Building”)
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Off-site Optimization
What is a Link?
A link (or hyperlink) is a reference to a page that a user can follow. Links help search engines evaluate the content of different pages on the web.
To a human, a link looks like this:
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Off-site OptimizationWhat is an inbound link?A link that points at an external domain:
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Off-site Optimization
What do inbound links communicate to search engines?
1.AuthorityThink of an inbound link to Site A from Site B as a Vote cast by Site B for Site A. This vote passes some of Site B’s authority to Site A.
2. RelevanceThe 2 primary ways that search engines use links to determine the relevance of a site are the link’s anchor text, and the context surrounding the link.
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Off-site OptimizationThe Anatomy of a Link:
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Off-site Optimization
How do we build links?
The best SEO’s are the best link builders. We can’t go to in-depth here, but here are the 2 basics ways to build links at the highest level:
Naturally
Publish content, and hope other websites link to it.
Manually
Find places on the web where you can put a link to your site, and put your link there.
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When on-site and off-site optimization are done
properly, you get:
Higher organic rankings for relevant search
phrases
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For commercial enterprises this means more $$$$$
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And…more happy dances
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Interested?
• Learn SEO series from SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo• SEO Overview from SEJ: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo• Inbound Marketing Community, Inbound.org: http://inbound.org/ • My company’s blog: http://www.ethicalseoconsulting.com/seo-blog/• My personal blog: http://milehightwaddle.com/
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Really Interested?
• Internet marketing jobs: http://www.inbound.org/jobs• Career opportunities with my company:
http://www.ethicalseoconsulting.com/about/careers/• Have questions for me?
Email: [email protected] Twitter: @MChuckGreen
Google+: +MattGreen