seo secrets of wise bread

SEO Secrets ofWise Bread

Greg GoWise Bread

FINCON11

Chicago, October 1-2, 2011

2SEO Secrets of Wise BreadFINCON11, Chicago

Agenda

I. Introduction

II. SEO Overview & Best Practices

III. Wise Bread’s SEO Mentality

IV. Day-to-Day Tactics

V. Tools We Actually Use

VI. Q&A

Slides, links, notes at www.wisebread.com/fincon11


Wise Bread’s SEO Credentials

• 570,000 monthly Google referrals.

Search traffic = 54% of all Wise Bread traffic

• Rank in top 20 for 17,000 keywords.

credit card guide, frugal living, change your life, best personal finance blogs, best ways to save money, credit karma


About Greg

• Wise Bread co-founder and tech lead.

• About.com Guide to Online Business (’07-’08).

The Secret

Get relevant links

to high quality content

from trusted authorities.


Keyword Markets

personal finance

saving moneyrecipes

homemadeorange chicken

credit cards

20 something finance

savings accountsfor college students


Keywords to Target

1. Plenty of traffic.

2. Easy to beat competition.

3. High value readers.


Can I Beat Top 10 Results?

192m

443m

682m

Search Results

(Google)

$8.39+4611,000credit card college

first card

$6.8760301,000credit card college

$4.728116,600,000credit card

Value / CPC

(AdWords)

Ranking Difficulty

(SEOmoz)

Search Volume

(Google)Keyword

SEOmoz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool:

1. Who are the top 10 results?

2. Who links to them?


Takeaway #1: Be a Niche Authority

personal finance

saving moneyrecipes

credit cards

20 something finance

savings accountsfor college students

You?

homemadeorange chicken


What’s a High-Quality Site?

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?

• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine,encyclopedia or book?

All 23 questions:http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html


After Google’s “Panda” Update

300k300k300k300k350k350k350k350k400k400k400k400k450k450k450k450k500k500k500k500k550k550k550k550k600k600k600k600k

FebFebFebFeb MarMarMarMar AprAprAprApr MayMayMayMay JunJunJunJun JulJulJulJul AugAugAugAugGoogle Search Referrals

994kDec – Feb

+31%1,310kMar – May

+24%

Q/Q

Change

1,629kJun – Aug

GoogleReferralsQuarter

Panda update 2/24/11


Takeaway #2: Think Long Term

Consistent quality > Perfect tactics

Wise Bread lifetime search traffic

Wise Bread’s SEO PlaybookStrategy, Tactics, Tools


Wise Bread’s SEO Playbook

Big Picture Strategy

1. Always be link building.

2. Engage the sphere.

3. Slow and steady.

Day-to-Day Tactics

1. Magazine quality articles.

2. Article checklist.

3. Monitor, test, analyze, tweak.


Wise Bread’s Strategy


• From high quality sites that are bigger, more influential, nicheauthorities, etc.


Some Regular PF Roundups

• PT MoneyWeekend Link Roundup

• Wise BreadBest Money Tips

• Get Rich SlowlySpare Change

• Money CrashersPersonal Finance Roundup

• MoolanomyPersonal Finance Roundup

• The Simple DollarWeekly Roundup

• Budgets Are SexyWeekly Roundup

• Financial HighwayWeekly Review

• Sweating the Big StuffBest of the Rest

• Green Panda Tree HouseWhat’s Cool Around the Web





• Find and engage niche authorities (thought leaders, subject matter experts, influential personalities, passionate rising stars, etc).

• Make sure everyone knows us.


Engage Anywhere and Everywhere

Weekly twitter chat at #wbchat


Takeaway #3: Social Media = SEO

LifeRemix by@GlenStansberry





3. Slow and steady.

• Be cautious. Move slowly. Beware of fads.


Don’t Panic!

Look at those peaks and valleys.

Wise Bread lifetime search traffic


Wise Bread’s SEO Playbook

Big Picture Strategy



3. Slow and steady.

Day-to-Day Tactics





Wise Bread’s Tactics


• “Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?”


Magazine Quality Content

• 800-1,000 words• Long enough to be authoritative.

• Short enough to be built upon with related articles.

• Pretty picture.• In-depth Flickr search is worth the time.

• Editing is more important than writing.• Formatting matters to bots: <h1> <h2> <strong> <em> <a>

• Typos matter to human readers.





• Help readers and search engines understand.


Article Checklist

Places for Keywords

� Article Title (<h1> tag)

� Page Title (<title> tag)

� Meta Description

� URL

� H-headings, bold, italics

� <img> “alt” and “title” properties

� <a> “title” property

Editorial Considerations

� Authority

� Readability

� Categories & Tags

� Links out – related articles.

� Links in – update related old posts.

Tip! Mix up keywords. Use related phrases.






• Questions we ask. Tools we use.


Tools We Actually Use

• Research

• SEOmoz

• Open Site Explorer

• KW Difficulty Tool

• SEMRush

• Google

• Search Results

• AdWords

• Wise 1000

• (fka Wise Bread’s Top PF Blogs)

• Monitoring

• Google Analytics

• Mint

• Sitemeter

• CrazyEgg

• Facebook Insights

• Klout


SEMRush – Blog’s Best Rankings

http://www.semrush.com/info/fiscalgeek.com

This blog is an authority on… ?


CrazyEgg – Heatmaps!

Winning SEO Strategy

Get relevant links

to high quality content

from trusted authorities.


Action ItemWork the list. Get a link from every relevant, high-quality blog.


Questions?

• What SEO mistakes have you made?

• How much time do you spend on SEO? (As a percentage of your effort.)

• Do link exchanges work?


The End – Thanks!

Slides, links, notes• wisebread.com/fincon11

Get the Entire Playbook

• Advanced Blog Monetization – Lynn Truong

• 1 Million Page Views on a Small Budget –Will Chen

seo secrets of wise bread

Self Improvement

wise breads tactics1

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wise breads seo credentials

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greg wise bread cofounder

magazine quality articles

magazine quality content