Search Engine Optimization

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Search Engine Optimization 12/06/07 Anil Sezer,
MMIS 651 E-Business
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Agenda

• Introduction
• Researching and Planning an SEO
• Search Visibility Factors
• SEO Implementation Off Page
• Resources for More Information
• Questions

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Introduction (What are you optimizing for?)

• Search Engines (SE) help us with the findability
  of meaningful information, which in the current
  state of the art means locating relevant
  documents, images, and media of interest.
• Excite, Lycos and Hotbot, in the early days then
  later, Alta Vista and now Google, Yahoo and
  Ask!.

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Three part of a search engine

• A database of web documents
• Size of database
• Freshness
• Completeness of text
• Types of documents offered
• Speed and consistency

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Three part of a search engine

• A search engine operating on that database
• Basic Search options and limitations
• Advanced Search options and limitations
• General limitations and features

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Three part of a search engine

• Results display
• Ranking
• Display
• Collapse pages from the same site

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What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

• SEM
• Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a form of
  Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites
  by increasing their visibility in the Search
  Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and has a proven ROI
  (Return on Investment).
• SEO
• 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.
• PPC
• Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used
  on websites, advertising networks, and search
  engines where advertisers only pay when a user
  actually clicks on an ad to visit the
  advertiser's website.

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What is Search Engine Optimization?

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improves
  organic rankings of a website in the search
  engine listings.
• SEO is not a short-term, quick-result tactic, but
  rather a long-term solution with potentially high
  returns.

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What is Paid Search Advertising?

• Paid Search Advertising, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC),
  places advertisements on the search engines based
  on the keywords searched.
• PPC is auction-based and prices are set at the
  keyword level.
• Results are quick, messages can be modified, and
  results easily tracked.

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What are the differences?

• SEO
• Longer-term results
• Increase credibility
• Limited number of keywords
• Upfront investment
• No per click charges

• PPC
• Fast results
• Control message
• Unlimited keywords
• Ongoing expense
• Charged for each click

Both methods can provide significant levels of
traffic. Optimal results are typically achieved
by combining both options.
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Why should I worry if Im invisible to Google?

• About 80 of Internet traffic begins at a search
  engine. (source Harris Interactive)
• 41 of Web users employ search for simple
  navigation such as typing known URLs into the
  search box. (source DoubleClick)
• 75 of searchers never look further than page one
  of SERPs. (source Georgia Institute of
  Technology)
• The World Wide Web contains more than 2.1 billion
  documents and is growing at the rate of seven
  million pages per day (source http//www.cyveilla
  nce.com).
• People who find your site via search engines are
  typically very qualified targets for your
  products and services.
• Search engines are becoming integrated into our
  daily lives.

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Researching and Planning an SEO
• Search Visibility Factors
• SEO Implementation Off Page
• Resources for More Information
• Questions

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Developing an SEO Strategy

• Cost Considerations
• Costs
• Tools
• Resources
• Time Considerations
• Ensure time to see results
• Ongoing
• Success Considerations
• May require full site redesign
• No guarantees third party dependent, no hard
  fast rules, just guidelines

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Campaign Goals and KPIs

• Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
• Return On Investment (ROI)
• Gain key stakeholder buy in
• Are expectations realistic?
• How will results be measured?

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Geary SEO Philosophy

• Human users come first!
• Use common sense
• is this going to improve my users
• experience?
• Not algorithm chasing
• Develop a site that deserves rankings
• Integrate into other marketing efforts
• Ongoing

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Search Engine Algorithms

• Three major factors in major search engine
  algorithms
• Site architecture
• Content
• Link popularity
• Other factors
• Time/age
• Conversion rates
• Size
• Domain name
• Art and Science

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Keyword Selection

• Finding potential keywords
• Brainstorm
• Branded
• Long tail
• Geo-targeting
• Misspellings
• Sales cycle considerations
• Tools
• Competitive research
• Paid search and analytics data
• Selecting High Priority Keywords
• Search counts
• Plurals, synonyms, word order
• Searchers motivation
• Competitiveness

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Researching and Planning an SEO
• Search Visibility Factors
• SEO Implementation Off Page
• Resources for More Information
• Questions

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Site Architecture

• Main navigation
• Breadcrumbs
• Footer links
• Content linking
• Sub-domains
• Folder structure

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Components

• Text (Keyword) Component
• Words and phrases that match what your target
  audience types into search engines.
• Title tags, Meta description and meta keyword
  tags, header tags, alt, title, span, no-follow.
• Link Component
• Site navigation and URL structure that search
  crawlers can easily follow.
• Popularity Component
• Are sites link to you?
• Coding
• CMS and shopping carts
• Externalize JavaScript and CSS
• Avoid frames
• Static site map

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Content Writing

• Choose one or two keywords or phases to optimize
  for each page
• Do not over use - avoid keyword stuffing
• Over use of keywords can result in being
  penalized or ignored
• Incorporate other complimentary words and
  phrases
• Check Keyword Density
• http//www.webjectives.com/keyword.htm
• http//www.keyworddensity.com/

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Content Writing (contd)

• Watch for duplicate content
• URL variations
• Printer friendly pages
• Natural-sounding language
• Compare keyword density to successful
  competitors
• Proximity
• Headline
• Near top of page
• Links (anchor text)

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The Metadata Myth

• Quote Metadata improves search relevancy
• False. Except for title and description tags, Web
  search engines ignore other metadata. However,
  Metadata does matter to enterprise search.
• Quote Using standard metadata is a best
  practice.
• False. It is only a best practice if the metadata
  is used by your agency for specific applications
  (e.g. enterprise search or content syndication).
  It is not a best practice among professional web
  designers.

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The Metadata Myth

• Quote If more agencies were diligent about
  adding metadata, Google would pay attention
• False. Industry is focused on developing
  algorithms that determine relevancy based on
  content rather than what an author or metadata
  creator says about the content
• Key points
• Metadata is not the key to high rankings
• Only use metadata if it is important to your
  agencys mission
• Paying more attention to keyword usage in other
  areas will have a greater impact on relevancy

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Researching and Planning an SEO
• Search Visibility Factors
• SEO Implementation Off Page
• Resources for More Information
• Questions

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Off Page SEO

• Search Engine Sitemaps
• RSS syndication
• Robots.txt
• 301 redirects
• Custom 404 page
• W3C Validation
• Broken Links
• Page Loading Times

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SEO Reporting

• Ranking Reports
• Baseline
• Monthly
• 90 of traffic can come from
• long tail keywords, which are
• typically not tracked as closely
• KPI progress Reports
• Conversions
• Traffic
• Branding
• Phone calls

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SEO Reporting (contd)

• Other Potential Metrics
• Pre-SEO total site traffic vs. post-SEO
• SEO efforts will indirectly drive more visitors
  to site
• increase the return on investment of other
  marketing efforts by allowing a viewer to come
  back and find the site via search engines
• Search engine referrals/diversification overall
  and on a specific keyword level
• Amount and quality of traffic
• increase in page views, time on site,
  conversions, downloads, etc.
• Branded Search Counts
• Reduction of necessary PPC spend
• Watch for synergistic effects
• The lifetime value of the new business
• Increase in links from search engines
  perspective
• Increase in number of pages indexed by search
  engines

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Researching and Planning an SEO
• Search Visibility Factors
• SEO Implementation Off Page
• Resources for More Information
• Questions

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Resources for More Information on the Internet

• Search Engine Webmaster Guidelines
• http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answe
  r.py?hlenanswer35769
• http//help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/index.html
• http//search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?tSEARCH
  _WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm
• http//www.webmasterworld.com/
• http//www.sempo.org/home
• http//searchenginewatch.com/
• http//searchengineland.com/
• http//www.searchenginejournal.com/
• Conferences
• http//www.searchenginestrategies.com/
• http//searchmarketingexpo.com/
• http//www.pubcon.com/

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Recommended Reading

• Grappone, Jennifer and Couzin, Gradive. Search
  Engine Optimization An Hour A Day. Indianapolis,
  IN. Wiley Publishing Inc, 2006.
• Battelle, John. The Search How Google and Its
  Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and
  Transformed our Culture. New York. Penguin,
  2005.
• Kent, Peter. Search Engine Optimization for
  Dummies. Hoboken, NJ. Wiley, 2004.
• Moran, Mike, Hunt, Bill. Search Engine Marketing,
  Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. IBM Press, 2006.
• Thurow, Shari. Search Engine Visibility.
  Indianapolis, IN New Riders, 2003.

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Questions? You can access the presentation at
www.anilsezer.com/seo/seo.ppt Thank you!