search engine optimizing your website · 2008-10-23 · search engine optimizing your website from...

Search Engine Optimizing Your Website

From Soup to Nuts

Mark Kaufman – CBS InteractiveStephan Spencer - Netconcepts

October 22, 2008

© 2008 CBS Interactive and Netconcepts. All rights reserved.

Today’s agenda

• What is SEO?

• How Search Engines work

• Seven Steps to Higher Rankings

1. Get your site indexed

2. Identify your target keywords

3. Optimize your pages

4. Build links and PageRank

5. Encourage click-through

6. Track the right metrics

7. Avoid these mistakes

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© 2008 CBS Interactive and Netconcepts. All rights reserved. 3

What is SEO?


What is SEO?

• Higher rankings – more search traffic

• SEO can target different kinds of searches: web, image, news, blogs, local search, etc.

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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords.

-Wikipedia


What is SEO?

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What is SEO?

• Google – 71%

• Yahoo! – 18%

• MSN/Live Search – 5%

• Ask – 3%

Data from Hitwise (4 wks ending Sept. 5th, 2008)

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Search engine market share:


What is SEO?

• Develop great content and a site that has value to users

• Follow SEO best practices

• Encourage other sites to link to you

• Be diligent!

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How to achieve good rankings:


How Search Engines Work


How search engines work

• Search engine spiders (a.k.a. ”bots”) crawl the internet, following links and indexing content

• Based on quantity and importance of links pointing to a page, Google’s PageRank is determined

• Ultimately, PageRank is simply a metric representing the importance of any page to the search engine.

• MSN and Yahoo! have similar models for their algorithms

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Modern search engines are based on links.



• Use the Google toolbar to see PageRank for any page

– http://toolbar.google.com

• Scores range from 0-10 on a logarithmic scale

• There’s a delay in what Google surfaces in the toolbar and what they use in their search results algorithms

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So, what’s my PageRank?



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External links are important, but internal links,

content and code are also crucial to SEO.

These are controlled entirely by you!


Seven Steps to Higher Rankings

Step 1: Get Your Site Indexed


Get your site indexed

• Site maps are good “spider food”

• Ideally, link to all “leaf-level” pages. Definitely link to key pages.

• Use SEO-friendly navigation

Good example: http://spiderbites.nytimes.com/

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DO create an html site map with text links



• Industry standards at: www.sitemaps.org

• Assists indexation of site

• Google has vertical search specific sitemaps: e.g. news, video

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DO create an xml sitemap to submit to search engines



• Minimize the number of slashes in the URLs

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/apple-iphone-8gb-at/4505-6452_7-32309245.html

better than:

http://reviews.cnet.com/mobile-connectivity/personal-communication/cell-phones-and-accessories/smartphones/apple-iphone-8gb-at/4505-6452_7-32309245.html

• Find the sweet spot for usability and SEO

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DO ensure your site has a flat directory structure



http://www.domainname.com/directory/filename.html?param=123&id=456&var=somevalue

• Search engines are leery of dynamically generated pages

• Google recommends at most 3 parameters

– “I'd keep it to 1-2 parameters if possible” – Matt Cutts, Google

– “It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.”– Google Guidelines

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

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AVOID URLs that include numerous parameters in a query string



• “Rewrite” URLs or recode to embed variables in the directory path rather than the query string– http://www.nextag.com/Samsung-Plasma-LCD--a-Screen+Size-_-40%22+-+50%22--

zz500021zSamsungzB10z5---html

• Redirect bots to a more bot friendly URLUser version:

http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Photo-Film-Canon-Sony/b/ref=sa_menu_p4?ie=UTF8&node=502394&pf_rd_p=328655101&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=14BHXQF2P94EPHYSE55G

Google version:

http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Photo-Film-Canon-Sony/b?ie=UTF8&node=502394

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AVOID URLs that include numerous parameters



• Don’t redirect users when they hit your site’s home page

• Don’t redirect users when they enter your site from a search engine

• When necessary employ 301 (permanent) redirects to pass on PageRank to the new destination page

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AVOID unnecessary redirects



• (Most) search engines can’t fill out forms

• If you do use a dropdown, make sure there is an alternative, spider-friendly means of navigating to those pages

– You can use JavaScript <noscript> tag for alternate code

– See dropdown forms in CNET.com footer for example code

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AVOID dropdown forms for navigation



• Search engines spiders have limited ability to execute Flash or JavaScript to access links

• If you do use JavaScript or Flash navigation, make sure there isan alternative spider-friendly means of navigating to those pages

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AVOID using JavaScript or Flash for primary navigation


Step 2: Identify your target keywords


Keywords and keyword tools

• Relevant to your business

• Popular with searchers

• Obtainable– based on your PageRank, # and strength of competitors

– Consider two or three word phrases rather than individual words

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Target the right keywords (a.k.a. search terms)

Keywords should be:



• Provide data on search volume of keywords

• Provide keyword suggestions

• Can provide data on search traffic to sites/industries

• Can provide metrics on search engine market share

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Keyword research tools:



• Pros

– Free!

– Provides keyword suggestions

– Allows “broad” or “exact” matches to terms

– Allows comparisons of multiple search terms

• Cons

– No date filters

– Can’t save keyword portfolios

– Keyword suggestions sometimes weak

– Data limited to Google searches/AdWords

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Google AdWords Keyword Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal



• Pros

– Free!

– Gives data on related terms – top and rising search terms

– Filters by date and location

• Cons

– Limits term comparisons to 5 terms at once

– Doesn’t provide comprehensive term suggestions

– Can’t save keyword portfolios

– Data limited to Google searches/AdWords

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Google Insights for Trendshttp://google.com/insights/search/#



• Pros

– Data from over 180 search engines

– Provides keyword suggestions

– Can create and save keyword portfolios

– Lots of bells and whistles

• Cons

– Not free

– Data is from preceding 12 months – hard to gauge rising terms

– Suggestions are sometimes too broad

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Keyword Discoveryhttp://www.keyworddiscovery.com/



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• Pros

– Can modify date ranges to identify fast rising terms

– Data from many ISPs and panel

– Can create and save keyword portfolios with huge number of terms

– Competitor gap analysis tool

– Can break out Paid vs. Organic

• Cons

– Expensive

– Suggestion tool is limited -- all suggestions contain substring of term

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Hitwisehttp://www.hitwise.com/



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• Track search engine rankings for user inputted search terms

• Eliminates ambiguity of seasonal search traffic

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Keyword ranking tools:



• Caphyon – Advanced Web Ranking:

– http://www.advancedwebranking.com/

• CleverStat – Accurate Monitor for Search Engines

– http://www.cleverstat.com/en/search-engines.htm

• Covario – Organic Search Insight

– http://www.covario.com/products_organic_search_insight.shtml

• Firefox Rank Checker extension:

– http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

• Link Assistant – Rank Checker

– http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/

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Some Keyword ranking tools:


Step 3: Optimize Your Pages


Optimize your pages

• The page title is the most important element on the page

• Text at the beginning of the tag is given more weight

• Place your brand name at the end of the tag, not the beginning

Use: <title>Canon Digital cameras – CNET Reviews</title>

Not: <title>CNET Reviews – Canon Digital cameras</title>

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DO create unique page titles for each page that lead

with your targeted keywords


Optimize your pages

• H1 tags are more important than the rest of body copy

• Should align with your title tag keywords

• H1 content doesn’t have to be visually prominent if it conflicts with design – use CSS to style appropriately

Example code:

<h1 class="v1" style="font-weight:bold;”>Apple

iPhone</h1>

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DO use H1 html heading tags for content title with important keywords


Optimize your pages

• Particularly important for Google

• Separate terms with hyphens, not underscores

http://news.cnet.com/blackberry-bold-debut/

better than

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9940313-7.html

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DO create file and directory names that include

targeted keywords


Optimize your pages

• Incorporate at 200 to 250 words in a paragraph to provide search engines with the theme of the page

• Particularly effective on Yahoo! -- seen a 60% increase in Yahoo search referrals

Example: http://www.download.com/Antivirus-Software/3150-2239_4-0.html

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DO ensure body copy is sufficiently long and keyword-rich


Optimize your pages

• Eliminate extraneous HTML

• Use external files for JavaScript and CSS when possible

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DO keep your code clean and succinct


Optimize your pages

• Page titles and section headings should be text (and should often using heading tags)

• Avoid embedding page content in Flash files

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DON’T use Flash or images as a substitute for text


Optimize your pages

• Don’t put the same keyword everywhere, such as every image alt tag

• Don’t put keywords in places that aren’t rendered on the page

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DON’T stuff keywords


Step 4: Build Links and PageRank


Build links and PageRank

• Has implications to site architecture

• Home pages are generally the highest ranked pages of a site

• Leverage site linking to pass PageRank to other important pages

• Flatter hierarchies can more easily pass PageRank

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PageRank cascades through a site



• Passes PageRank to key pages

• Association of text link to the destination page

• Use text rather than graphical navigation buttons. Or, at least, include alternate text link navigation somewhere else on the page.

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DO ensure your home pages link (with text) to your most important pages



• All major search engines associate the anchor text with the pagebeing linked to

• Keep link text succinct and focused on one keyword or key phrase

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DO ensure internal links use good keywords in the

anchor text



http://www.google.com/search?q=click+here

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DON’T use “Click here” or other non-specific text in links



• Duplicate content can dilute PageRank

• Be wary of content syndication

– When syndicating content, insist on attribution links back to the source page

• Realize dynamic sites often inadvertently create duplicate content

– Limit crawling of duplicate pages where possible (i.e. use no-follows, or pull-down forms for sorting)

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AVOID duplicate content (when possible)



• Use 301 redirects to enforce a single, canonical domain name

– www.example.com

– example.com

• Canonicalization is the process of using and enforcing the best URL when there are several choices

• Multiple domain names create duplicate content for every page on the site!

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DON’T allow multiple versions of your domain name


Step 5: Encourage Click-through


Encourage click-through

• Top 3 results: 79% of clicks

• Top 5 results: 88% of clicks

Source: http://www.seoresearcher.com/distribution-of-clicks-on-googles-serps-and-eye-tracking-analysis.htm

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DO, obviously, strive for top of page 1 rankings



• Should include your target keywords

• Should be unique

• Should include your brand name at the end if you have a known, trusted brand

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DO create targeted title tags



• Should be keyword rich

• Should be a compelling, grammatically correct sentence

• Should be unique

• Should include your brand name if you have a known, trusted brand

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DO create effective meta descriptions


Step 6: Track the right metrics


Track the right metrics

• Search engine referrals

– # of pages where referring page is Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live, Ask

• Rankings on major engines

– For important keywords

Other metrics to look at

• Pages indexed per search engine

– Use site:www.yourdomain.com as the search term on the search engine

• PageRank of home pages

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Most important metrics


Step 7: Avoid these mistakes


Avoid these mistakes

• 200 status code means the page is “OK” and these pages can be indexed by search engines

• Use a 404 status code – file not found

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DON’T return a 200 status code on your custom error pages



• This is seen as “cloaking”, a bait-and-switch, and is often used maliciously to trick search engines and improve rankings

• Some limited acceptable uses

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DON’T provide different content to search engines

and humans



• Hidden or extremely small text

• Keyword stuffing

• Key fields targeted to obviously irrelevant keywords

• Automated submitting, resubmitting, deep submitting

• Competitor names in meta tags

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DON’T employ any of these spam techniques


Thank you!Q & A

search engine optimizing your website · 2008-10-23 · search engine optimizing your website from...

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