Agenda
• • • Introduction Review of SEO today Content strategies and customer intent – Keyword Research Techniques & Tools – C t t hubs Content h b – WordPress SEO – Content Case Study y Link Building – Shades of grey – Content for links – Link Building Case Study Open Discussion Close
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Introduction • Who we are – UTalkMarketing com UTalkMarketing.com – Ralph du Plessis (Red Mud Media) Why we have launched the SEO Master Class Series – To keep you up to date with the latest thinking and techniques in SEO – Highlight the people doing good things that you can copy – Give you a chance to take time out from the office to consider your SEO strategy
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SEO Today
• • • • • • Google Search Options – Are rankings dead? To follow or not to follow – Google moves the goalposts…again JavaScript links can be followed – Eek! What about my paid links? BING – What does it mean for you? WolframAlpha – Does it change everything? Google Wave – Google the next generation?
Google Search Options
• • Personalised search Everyone sees something different E thi diff t – Rankings dictated by user search history – Rankings dictated by station – Rankings dictated by IP address – Rankings dictated by date Provides users with more ways to find your information Basic rules of SEO still apply More i M important than ever t optimise f PEOPLE t t th to ti i for
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To follow or not to follow
The nofollow tag - An easy way for a website to tell search engines that the website can’t or does want to vouch for a link. An approved method by which to indicate a paid link i.e. to play it clean in terms of buying links for SEO benefit.
Link Sculpting – Using nofollow tags to concentrate the link juice g page g y flowing from a p g into strategically selected links for maximum benefit.
To follow or not to follow
Forget about Link Sculpting…. – Where x is the total link juice value of a page….
BEFORE
Link 1 –> x/5 link juice Link 2 –> x/5 link juice Link 3 –> x/5 link juice Link 4 –> x/5 link juice Link 5 –> x/5 link juice
BEFORE
Link 1 –> x/4 link juice Link 2 –> x/4 link juice Link 3 –> x/4 link juice Link 4•NO FOLLOW juice –> x/5 link Link 5 –> x/4 link juice
NOW
Link 1 –> x/5 link juice Link 2 –> x/5 link juice Link 3 –> x/5 link juice Link 4•NO FOLLOW juice –> x/5 link Link 5 –> x/5 link juice
JavaScript links and SEO
• JavaScript link architecture one of the first items highlighted as a problem for internal navigation. It looks great with clever drop down menus, but until recently, couldn’t be crawled. crawled This caused a big problem when trying to get a site indexed.
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JavaScript links can be followed
• Google used to say “Use JavaScript to stop paid links passing SEO value value” Now they’re saying they can crawl JavaScript links which means most advertisers will appear to have loads of paid links. Google now says, use “no follow or a redirect to somewhere says no follow” controlled by robots The question is, how long before they penalise me???
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Javascript Action Points
• • Do you use javascript instead of no follow tags on your site? Is your advertising correctly tagged – needs to have no follow
– Served ads – In-house advertising / partnerships – Classified
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Good news is that you can now use Javascript in site design! y g What’s the latest on Flash?
BING - Not a “Google Killer”
• • • • • • Much more competitive product than Live Search, but effectively the same thing in different clothes. Competes well with Google in terms of visual aesthetics $80 million in marketing to attract new users and encourage those who gave up on Live to try again Already being nick-named “Bin” Bing may struggle to make market share gains vs Google Potential gains may come from Ask, AOL or Yahoo.
BING vs Google
Bing shows .co.uk first whereas Google shows .com co uk com Bing is advertising on Google
BING vs Google
Google has twice as many pages indexed Bing’s results more visual above the fold
BING vs Google SEO
The same rules apply, just in a different order. Google and Yahoo are more trust-focused, while Microsoft is more individual page focused. Google’s dominance means you HAVE to prioritise them. High level view of Google’s algorithm:
– – – – – – – Trust authority of host domain – 25% Link population of specific page - 22% Anchor text of external links - 20% On page keyword use - 15% Traffic and CTR data - 7% Social graph metrics - 6% g p Hosting and registration - 5%
Bing SEO
Bing's FAQs state that you should do the following on-site seo to rank well in their search engine: · Target no more than two keywords per page · Use unique tags on each page · Use unique description tags on each page · Use H1 tags · Use text navigation links · Create content for your human visitors, not the Bing web crawler · Incorporate keywords into URL strings
Bing – Off to a Good Start
• comScore released a preliminary study of the performance of Bing during the first week of its public launch Study confirms earlier reports that Bing had a good start and even overtook Yahoo as the no.2 search engine, albeit for a day, according to StatCounter According to comScore, Microsoft Sites increased its average daily penetration among searchers in the United States from 13.8% during the period of May 26-30 to 15.5% during the period of June 2-6, 2009, an indication that the search engine is reaching g g g more people than before Microsoft’s share of search engine results pages (SERPs) in the U.S., increased from 9.1% to 11.1% during the same time frame
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Bing – Off to a Good Start
• Still has a long way to go
WolframAlpha
• • • • • The project of Stephen Wolfram, a noted physicist and mathematician Self t l d itself S lf styled it lf as a “ “computational k t ti l knowledge engine” l d i ” Not a search engine in the traditional sense Its goal isn’t to index the Web and direct you to Web pages quickly But rather, to make computations based on a rich database of historical knowledge The only “SEO” you can really apply is Good Quality Information
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WolframAlpha
• To make the most of Wolfram Alpha you really need to shake off the ‘search engine’ state of mind – ask it the right questions and it will search engine give you the right answers Five things that WolframAlpha does ‘better’ than Google:
o Complex Que es searches in Goog e a e usua y s p e, g e it a lot o data Co p e Queries: sea c es Google are usually simple, give t ot of and it will get confused because Google searches it doesn't compute. This is where WolframAlpha shines – like a calculator it doesn’t matter how many arguments you give it o Localisation: Wolfram Alpha, for the most part, does not depend on other sites for the data it’s giving you, and therefore its localization works better
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WolframAlpha
o Precision: you can rely on WolframAlpha to give you the right answer or no answer at all – if there is no information on your term you will get no response
WolframAlpha
o Calculation: not many users will type in complex mathematical formulas, but a lot of users need to know how much calories should they take daily, how to calculate their mortgage, and what’s the distance between two cities g g ,
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Comparison: Google forbids you from asking certain queries because you know you won’t get an answer e.g. you probably wouldn’t even try to find a comparison of sales tax rates for five US cities, but on Wolfram Alpha you can
WolframAlpha
• What it doesn’t do:
o Doesn’t crawl the web and scrape information o Doesn’t help with Google like searches i.e. If you search for hotels in New Y k it’ h t l i N York it’s not going to be much use o However this isn’t really the point of Wolfram Alpha – at least for now p
WolframAlpha
• • WolframAlpha is set to exceed 100 million queries Over 1.5 million unique visitors i M O 1 5 illi i i it in May
Google Wave
• Previewed at the Google I/O Developer Conference at the end of May Google Wave is a real-time communication platform p It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social i iki b h t i l networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files
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Google Wave
• • Developed in response to the question “what would email look like if we set out to invent it today?” Google Wave aims to move application functions off the desktop
Google Wave
• • Preview demoed only a small part of what wave can do Features include:
o Real-time: see what someone is typing character by character Real time: o Embedability: waves can be embedded on any blogs or website o Applications and Extensions: just like Facebook developers can build their own apps within waves, can be anything from bots to complex real-time games real time o Drag-and-drop file sharing: no attachments, just drop files straight into the wave
Google Wave
• Features continued...
o Wiki functionality: anything written within Google Wave can be edited by anyone else because all conversations within the platform are shared. You can correct or amend information or add commentary to a developing conversation o Open source: Google Wave code will be open source to encourage innovation and adoption amongst developers o Pl b k you can playback any part of the wave to see what was Playback: l b k t f th t h t said o Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling – has the capacity to know the difference between similar words like ‘here’ and ‘hear’
Google Wave
• Terminology – a few phrases to learn to help you understand this new platform:
o Wave: a wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation – can include one person a group or even robots person, o Wavelet: subset of a larger wave – can be created and managed separately from the main wave o Blip: a single individual message like a single line of an MSN conversation o Document: characters, words and documents within a blip o Extension: a mini application that works within a wave – two types; gadgets and robots o Gadgets: an application that users can participate with o Robots: automated participants within waves – can talk with users and interact with waves as well as providing links from outside sources i.e. Twitter p g o Embedded Wave: a way placing a Google Wave and the conversation within it on your website
Google Wave
• Wave Gadgets: one of two types of Google Wave extensions Primarily for changing the look and feel of waves Any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget can run within Google Wave meaning thousands of applications that have already been created will work within Google Wave A gadget built within Google Wave can take advantage of live interaction with g multiple users i.e. a live online game with multiple users Gadgets are specific to waves not users – the gadget belongs to everyone in the wave
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Google Wave
• Wave Robots: the other type of Google Wave extension Like having another person in the Wave conversation, except they’re automated Because it acts like a user, you can define its behaviour based on what happens in the chat Could build one as simple as “change the word dog to the word cat” cat Or one that acts as a fully-functional debugger
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What Does Wave Mean For You?
• • • • • Search entirely personalised Social graph becomes much more important SEO sign offs become easier to manage and monitor Keyword research & content planning benefits from the “twitter effect” f f “ ff Collaboration between SEO | Tech | Marketing | Design becomes easier
Content & Consumer Intent
Consumer Intent
– Before: Understanding what they are looking for when they search for a particular subject E G E.G.
OR…
– After: Understanding what they expect to find and hope to do once they arrive at your site.
Developing personas
• Personas developed using interviews, user data (eg purchase patterns), contextual interviews, focus groups, usability testing and online surveys. Task analysis. What will these personas typically try to achieve on your site? y Internal circulation. Make sure everyone involved knows your personas – CEO to junior designer
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Engagement: A New Perspective on Marketing
Elements OF Engagement
• The four paths of engagement:
– Involvement: Measures and individual’s relationship with a p company or brand. Includes store visits, pages viewed and time spent per page – Interaction: Measures events in which individuals contribute content about a brand, request additional information, provide contact information or purchase a product or service information, – Intimacy: This component goes beyond interaction to measure the affection or sentiment an individual holds for a brand – Influence: This component looks beyond even sentiment to determine an individual’s likelihood to encourage a fellow customer to consider or buy a brand, product, or service
Keyword Research & Content Planning
WHAT
WHY
Natural keyword selection process. Natural keyword selection process Helps form keyword categories based on needs and wants.
HOW
Ask yourself •Why would I need a hotel ? •Why would I need a “hotel”? •Am I visiting friends? •Did I get an idea from a TV programme? •Am I planning a honeymoon? Create lists of keywords for each section of the site. site Overlaps in some generic terms may occur, but the category name/genre will differentiate them. Identify ways in which content is categorised. Look at keywords used in headings, title tags, URLs. Do a site:www.competitor.com search on Google to view their listings and see what their g g Title and Description tags look like. For example: Kuoni.co.uk
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Brainstorming and site content
Positioning yourself as a user and Positioning yourself as a user and coming up with what you would type into a search engine.
Looking at existing / planned site content.
The existing and planned site content The existing and planned site content provides a clear outline of keyword requirements. It generates new keyword and content ideas. ideas It identifies keywords being specifically targeted by competitors. Sites ranking for your keywords are directly competing with you, even if not in a head to head business sense. i h dt h db i Visiting these sites can offer many clues on how to get that top 10/ number 1 rank. Authority sites carry more weight and generally have better quality content. These sites can provide ideas for authoritative/informative content, organisation names etc. These provide clues as to which keywords you need to build content and links around. This gives you an insight into what This gives you an insight into what terminology your customers use e.g. “things to do” is a very popular location based search.
Looking at site content on Looking at site content on competitor* sites.
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Competition and authority sites
Seeing which sites rank well for some S i hi h it k ll f of your main search terms.
Looking at authority sites to identify topics, areas of expertise.
Look at the site categories. Look at “what you need to know” sections. Look at “top 10” lists.
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PPC and site data
Look for high volume, high converting, high cost keywords.
High volume = Popular Hi h l P l High converting = Improved conversion rates for SEO High cost = Reduce dependency on PPC budget Pull postings on a category by category basis. Pull postings on a category by category basis Look at the most recent postings first. Look at customer feedback on competitor sites too!
Internal search terms, customer reviews, key categories.
Content Hubs
Universal Search Accelerates
• Content needs to appear in multiple formats…
– In early 2008, 17 % of searches contained some type of universal search result result. – In late 2008, it was 31 % of all search results.
(comScore)
Evolving Role of Search
• The Human Algorithm has arrived…
– Optimising a site without understanding consumer intent is less likely to succeed. – This shifts the role of search from pure acquisition to reputation management tool. p g – This also makes SEO significantly more difficult to execute. execute – Client expectation management is crucial throughout p g g the process.
What makes a good restaurant?
What makes a good restaurant?
TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION CONTENT AND PR (Great food and customer experience)
Venue, Venue Kitchen Equipment, Decor
Hygienic, Hygienic Fresh, Chef
If you build it right they may come but will they stay right, come, and tell their friends about it?
What makes an SEO friendly site?
TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION CONTENT AND PR
Indexable pages, URL optimisation optimisation, Accessibility. Tagging gg g
Indexable content, Keyword targeting, Link building. PR Social Media
Making M ki it easy for the search engines to find, i d f th h i t fi d index and categorise the content is only half the battle…
Content Planning
1. 2. 3. Put the user first – What are they actually looking for? Differentiate – It needs to stand out! Be clear on the role of content for your business:
Example: Focus group Magazines Scissors, Glue and Paper
“Create Your Ideal Destination Guide”
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Inform Inspire Entertain Sell
Content Production Process
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
1. 2. 3.
4.
Identify topic. Keyword research. Choose site section or category. Write content brief.
1. 1. 2. 2 3. Produce content Edit content t t Sign off content 2. 2 3.
Write Title and Description tags Assign A i contextual links Assign URLs
Publish P bli h
SEO
SEO
WordPress
• • One of, if not the most popular platform amongst SEOs Quick set up allows you to execute content strategy without huge technical planning process. Comes with a wide selection of SEO add-ons Literally “Plug and Play”
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WordPress SEO
• In short, the same rules apply: – Choose your keywords first y y – Use important keywords in the title of the post and in the body. – Remember to tag all forms of content with keywords i.e. images, videos etc. – Structure your content to fit into categories e g hotels e.g. and restaurants – Add a description to y p your categories. g • Other things you need to know: – Install the following WP SEO plugins –
• • • • Platinum SEO Pack – Core – Must have! SEO Smart Links – I would, but bear in mind it isn’t fully tested so you may want to wait. SEO Slugs – This is quite new, so the same applies here as with Smart Links. SEO Friendly Images – As above
Content Case Study
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Digital content agency Create content to help brands engage with audiences in a digital world Websites, content management systems, web and mobile applications, email and other multi-media content
Charles Tyrwhitt
• • • • • Founded by Nick Wheeler in 1986 Originally a mail order business 12 stores, including Jermyn Street, London and Madison Avenue, New York More than £50m annual turnover More than 60% through online
Brief
• Develop a content strategy to improve Charles Tyrwhitt’s organic search performance
Strategy
• • • Build authority status around shirts as the primary keyword Build B ild content around secondary k t t d d keywords: f d formal shirts, white shirts, l hi t hit hi t casual shirts etc Create an editorial device to link all of the content – both technically and creatively
Editorial Edit i l execution ti
“Hints for the Hints Modern Gentleman”
Results
Results
Results
• • • • Strong performance in organic search Pages attracted new visitors but also read b existing customers – P tt t d i it b t l d by i ti t Jan-Mar more than 110,000 page impressions Average time per page 1 min 11 seconds Strong conversion performance – comparable with product pages
Results: video
Results
• • • • • • Traffic Brand Engagement Conversion Revenue ROI
Summary
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Search isn’t only about metadata, link structure, site maps and keywords A long-term search strategy is about creating great content for individuals, not for search engine spiders Content delivers a return on investment – in traffic engagement traffic, & sales
Case Study: Compare the Meerkat.com
Leveraging Content To Generate Links
Compare the Market
• Issue: price comparison market has no differentiation • Solution: Create some “borrowed” interest • Use social media to bring the character alive
ComparetheMarket.com
ComparetheMarket.com
comaparethemeerkat.com
Aleks’ YouTube Channel
Aleks’ Twitter Account – 15,198 followers
Aleks’ Facebook Fan Page – 433,575 fans g ,
Online buzz…
•Meerkat has true talk ability with most posts overwhelmingly •surprised and positive.
Google searches 08/09
Brand world + search results
4,400 links to comparethemeerkat.com
Linking Strategy
• Every page has link to comparethemarket.com
Campaign also drives links to main site
How are you leveraging your content?
• • Many of you have very skilled content creators Are they churning out article after article or can you get them to stop for a while and create something that will cut through? Can you create content that will impact the social graph? Have you thought through how you orchestrate links from your exceptional
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Link Building
Shades of Grey
• • • • It works, but it’s risky. If you’re using a 3rd party you must insist on you re transparency. It doesn’t take as much time and effort as you’d think to do it legitimately. A handful of good quality links can get that top10 listing.
Detecting Paid Links
• • • • • • Link Brokers – Network of sites + Automated + Sellers place code on their sites for brokers to distribute links Relevance – If a link to a site bears no relevance then what value does it offer. These are often the kinds of links you get for the “500 links per month” kind of service. Anchor text – Although the right keywords are important, variety is key because too many of the same l k unnatural and will attract attention. looks t l d ill tt t tt ti Types of links – A natural link relationship pattern will have a selection of text, image, flash, JavaScript followed, no follow, affiliate etc. Rate of acquisition – A rapid increase in the number of inbound links needs to be justified e.g. product launch, newsworthy incident etc. Placement – Footers, directories, link farms are all obvious. Aim for contextual links every time.
Content for Links
• • • • • Technically still buying links. The key lies in making sure the content is useful to the consumer consumer. Make sure the links compliment the article and user experience. Try and keep links to a minimum. Matt Cutts: …”If you end up with hundreds of links on a page, Google might choose f f G not to follow or to index all those links. At any rate, you’re dividing the PageRank of that page between hundreds of links, so each link is only going to pass along a minuscule amount of PageRank anyway. Users often dislike link-heavy pages too…”
Good content lasts
Article Published Date : 31-Jan-2007 Still a Top 10 listing today!
The Human Algorithm has arrived arrived… we need to react.
Content for Links
Identified authoritative, credible and industry related sites. Publishing compellingly written, impartial and useful articles centred around the target keyword or related industry terms, (in this case ‘car hire’) Some examples of the articles include:
Article Title 6 Ways to get cheaper Airfares A brief guide to visiting the cities of Spain‐ old and new A day out in San Francisco Different Types of Airport Parking Different Ways to Get to Gatwick Airport How to get to the Airport New Vs Used Cars: Whats right for you? N V U dC Wh t i ht f ? Top Tips for Airport Parking Top Tips for Booking Gatwick Airport Parking Article URL http://www.thebrandywine.com/travelnotes/6ways.html http://www.cardiffontheweb.com/showpageonly.asp?id=959 http://isauci.org/post/2008/03/a‐day‐out‐in‐san‐francisco.aspx http://www.adgolfsheraton.com/post/2008/04/Different‐Types‐of‐Airport‐Parking.aspx http://www.balihai‐helitour.com/post/2008/04/Different‐Ways‐to‐Get‐to‐Gatwick‐Airport.aspx http://www.britannia.com/travelnotes/airport‐ways.html http://moneyning.com/about/new‐versus‐used‐cars‐whats‐right‐for‐you/ htt // i / b t/ d h t i ht f / http://www.sunupes.com/post/2008/04/Top‐Tips‐for‐Airport‐Parking.aspx http://www.usaarl.org/default.aspx
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Examples of articles
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Ranking shift as a result…
Over 20 days of implementing this strategy, ranking in Google UK for the term ‘car hire’ rose from position 10 to 3.
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Link Building Case Study
• Holiday Autos launched Hybrid car hire: – Step 1: 6 point SEO compliance adopted on dedicated page – Step 2: Links from main pages on HA site – Step 3: Press release with appropriate use of keywords and link back to Hybrid car hire page distributed to relevant sites - easier Travel Ranked above HA for HA press release!! – Result: Top 10 within 7 days – Today: Number 1
What’s going to happen? g g pp
Managing SEO Expectations
3 Part Strategy
SE Rank R k
Traffic T ffi
Conv. rate C t
House keeping
Content
Link building
n/a
Setting Expectations
Sample site characteristics: • Some SEO – Relatively good URLs – Basic keyword targeting – Well str ct red pages structured • Nothing of major concern • Areas of opportunity – Link architecture fresh content architecture, content, digital PR
What to Expect
SE Rank
Traffic
Conv. rate
House keeping
Top 30
0- 20%
+20%
Content
Link building
n/a
Page 99
What to Expect
SE Rank
Traffic
Conv. rate
House keeping
Top 30
0- 20%
+20%
Content C t t
Top 10 20 T 10-20
15-30% 15 30%
++50% 50%
Link building
n/a
Page 100
What to Expect
SE Rank
Traffic
Conv. rate
House keeping
Top 30
0- 20%
+20%
Content
Top 10 20 10-20
15-30% 15 30%
++50%
Link building
Top 10
30-40%
n/a
Page 101
Strategy Accountabilities
SE Rank Traffic Conv. rate
House keeping
25%
25%
25%
Content
30%
40%
75%
Link building (Digital PR)
45%
35%
n/a
1. 2. 3. 3
The % figures are a guide, not exact science, as there are obviously some cross-overs. The order of importance is Link Building > Content > House Keeping This matrix demonstrates that there needs to be a balance for a long term SEO strategy
• • Link Building alone can achieve high rankings, but without good content and a good user experience, the users will hit the back button. Links could become obsolete as algorithms become more sophisticated so it pays to get all bits right.
Strategy Expectations
Getting the basics right is important so that you can focus on the strategic stuff. It might not create fireworks, but if two sites sit side by side having done exactly the same on content and link building, then the site with the basics right will win.
House keeping p g
Content
Optimising the existing content and adding a load of new content is just the start. Once the existing content is optimised and the first load of new content is created, an ongoing conveyor belt of content needs to be put in place. There is no end to content creation because content gets old and stale and if you stand still, another site will come along with newer, fresher content.
Link building (Digital PR)
Link building is an essential part of any SEO campaign. A good digital PR strategy is a great way to achieve links without the need to employ the more time consuming “traditional” link building tactics such as contacting sites and asking for links. Like content, your inbound links need to be kept fresh and Quality is more important than Quantity!
Open Discussion
Credits
• • • • http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk http://www.seomoz.org http://www seomoz org http://econsultancy.com Amanda Davies