I have spent some time reading and talking to a SEO - thought I would include some of the things I have learned.
SEO is about exposing good quality content not ticking the google-bot. blackhat SEO and spammers get punished. It is becoming harder each year to trick the algorithm.
image source: http://www.redcardinal.ie/
The top link on the SERP (search results page gets 42% of the clicks)
In EU, all SEO should focus on pleasing the googlebot - Yahoo! is only 8% of EU market - its not worth the effort and Y!bot is harder to please.
user tracking
google tracking is an essential tool for an SEO
basic SEO steps
- define site taxonomy by theme vectors
- implement homepage linking to themes
- build theme pages, add content
- link themes to leaf layer
- echo incoming link theme in leaf content
- generate chaotic interlinking for crawler (google bores after 4 clicks)
- ensure pagination surfaces content
- leaf layer has an agnostic url
step 1) define as many taxonomies are we can think of
- genre
- show category hierarchy
- celebrity / presenter
- time of show
think of the site as 3 types of page
- home page
- category-style page per taxonomy
- article/product page
Step 2)
plaster the homepage with these taxonomies
have a different type of category page for each taxonomy
each leaf page(article/product) wants links from every category page
This basically creates in the google-bots mind a well connected graph - with loads of links pointing to the leaf page.
Echo themes
you want to reinforce the theme from the category page in the destination page. eg. if you have a link from a "harddrive" page - you want to have the word "harddrive" in the leaf page. This boosts the strength of the vote created by the incoming link saying this page is about "harddrive" by 20%.
the CMS needs to support dynamic meta descriptions because you cannot handcraft meta descriptions for every page. So you want a system that allows the SEO to login and edit strings like - "get your $category_name tips here" for a subset of the pages on the site.
Url structure
for url structure you want
http://www.example.com/ - homepage -
http://www.example.com/hardware/hardrives-1231.html - category page
http://www.example.com/westerndigital-1tb-13331.html - article page
- google likes "exact matching" words and gives words to the left in the url more weight - so its ok to have category node numbers or article ids on the right of the url
- you don't want the category name in the article url because you want the words the user searched for eg. "katie price" as close as possible to the left of the url
Call to action
seo is about call to action for the user - in the google SERP there are 3 things displayed - you want to reinforce the users action in all 3 elements
Katie Price Official Fanclub - Home - "the page title"
Official Katie Price (Jordan) website. ... And welcome to the official home of Katie Price. This is where you can keep in touch with me, find out about my ... - "the meta description"
www.katieprice.co.uk/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages - "the url"
example of bad title:
Page on Red Pandas from the Wellington Zoo:
- Current Title: Red Panda
- Recommended: Red Panda - Habitat, Features, Behavior | Wellington Zoo
- google likes old urls - so get holding pages like "low-price-videos" in now
- google likes domains that are registered for 10 years (it shows commitment)
- google does not like it when the regista details for the domain name change (it looks like someone may have stolen the domain)
- google really really doesnt like a change is hosting provider and a change in registra details at the same time(really really looks like someone has stolen the domain) (this is of moderate importance)
page format
- title, h1 and meta description should be unique and relevant to each page
- inline links in body content are worth more than anything
- do things a little at a time - build the reputation of the site
- never change urls
- urls are lower case with hyphens and push in a slash or .html at leaf level
- nerves of steel, dont panic
- have a inbound link strategy-(distribution strategy)
- dont use google site map - no matter what anyone says
hosts migration strategy
- need to define the re-hosting process very carefully. Changes in host can affect SEO ranking.
- Changes in host and domain registration details can make it look as if the domain has been stolen.
- Changes in url should be migrated using a 302 followed a month later by a 301.
distribution strategy
youtube is a sandbox - very hard to link out of - problem for distribution
link bait brainstorming
(from http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners )
"When attempting to create the most link-worthy content, thinking outside the box and creating a document, tool or service that's truly revolutionary can provide a necessary boost. Even on corporate image or branding sites for small companies, a single, exciting piece of content that gets picked up en masse by your web community is worth a small fortune in public relations and exposure. Better still, the links you earn with an exciting release stay with your site for a long time, providing search visibility long after the event itself has been forgotten.
With content that generates links becoming such a valuable commodity, creating solely for the purpose of gaining links has become a popular practice for talented SEOs. In order to capitalize on this phenomenon, it's necessary to brainstorm. Below are some initial ideas that can help you build the content you need to generate great links.
- Free Tools
Automated tools that query data sources, combine information or conduct useful calculations are eminently link worthy. Think along the lines of mortgage calculators and site-checking tools, then expand into your particular area of business/operation.
- Web 2.0 Applications
Although the term Web 2.0 is more of a buzzword than a technicality, applications that fit the feature set described by the O'Reilly document do get a fantastic number of links from the web community and followers of this trend. Think mashups, maps, communities, sharing, tagging, RSS, and blogs.
- Collaborative Work Documents
Working in concert with others is a good way to produce content more quickly and with generally higher quality. If you can get high-profile insiders or several known persons in an industry to collaborate, your chances for developing "link-bait" substantially increase.
- Exposes of Nefarious Deeds
Writing a journalistic-style exposé detailing the misdeeds of others (be they organizations, websites, individuals or companies) can generate a lot of links and traffic if done in a professional manner (and before anyone else). Make sure you're very careful with these types of actions, however, as the backlash can be worse than the benefit if your actions provoke the wrong type of response.
- Top 10 Lists
Numbered lists (of tips, links, resources, etc.), particularly those that rank items, can be a great way to generate buzz. These lists often promote discussion and thus, referencing.
- Industry-Related Humor
Even the most serious of industries can use a bit of humor now and again. As with exposés, be cautious not to offend (although that too can merit mentions) - use your knowledge of stereotypes and history inside your market to get topical laughs and the links will be yours.
- Reviews of Events
Industry gatherings, from pubcrawls to conferences to speeches and seminars, can all garner great links with a well-done review. Write professionally, as a journalist, and attempt to use as many full names as possible. It's also wise to link out to all the folks you mention, as they will see the links in their referral logs and come check you out.
- Interviews with Well-Known Insiders
Anyone inside an industry whose name frequently appears in that industry's internal press is a great candidate for an interview. Even if it's a few short questions over email, a revealing interview can be a great source of links, and esteemed professionals are likely to answer requests even from smaller sources, as they can benefit from the attention, too.
- Surveys or Collections of Data
Offering large collections of industry data culled from polling individuals, an online survey, or simply researching and aggregating data can provide a very link-worthy resource.
- Film or Animation
Particularly in industries where video clips or animations are rare (i.e. Geology, not Movie Reviews), a high quality, entertaining, or informative video or animation can get more than a few folks interested.
- Charts, Graphs, or Spreadsheets
These standard business graphics should certainly include analysis and dissection, but can provide a good source of links if promoted and built properly.
- High Profile Criticism
Similar to the exposé system, well-written critiques of popular products, companies, sites, or individuals in a sector have the ability to pull in quite a few links from folks who agree and disagree
- Contests, Giveaways, and Competitions
Giving away prizes or public awards (even if they're just website graphics) can get a lot of online folks interested and linking.
- Trend-Spotting
Identifying a story ahead of the crowd is commonly called "scooping" in journalism. Do this online, and all (or many) blog posts on the subject will reference your site as the first to "call it."
- Advice from Multiple Experts
If you're creating an article that offers advice, pulling opinions from the well-known experts in the industry is a great way to make sure links flow your way. The experts themselves will often be inclined to link.
There are dozens of other great ways to get bloggers, writers, and website editors in your field to add links to your site. Imagine yourself as an industry blogger, seeking to cover the most exciting, unique trends and pages in the sector. If this individual stumbled across your content, would they be likely to write about it? If the answer is yes, it qualifies as link-bait."
Traffic quality
concept: A user who searches for "Hugo Boss Men's Suit" is more likely to make a purchase decision than someone who searches for "mens suit"
therefore people are prepared to pay more for more specific search terms.
Traffic growth
important to manage clients expectations with regards to sudden spike after launch - due to buzz of the site being new
what is the PPC budget to keep traffic up while we wait for SEO to kick in
(return on $PPC vs $SEO is 1000 vs 1million - SEO hours are much cheaper(although I guess it depends on the size of the site:) )
After 6 hours of messing around - I finally have a wysiwyg editor working on the the new drupal site
- as table names have mixed singular(eg. ox_channel) and plural names(ox_banners), primary keys and foreign keys have no standard such as _id (zoneid is the same thing as zone_id). The name of the key also changes (ad_id is the same thing as banner_id).
I have ended up spending a huge amount of time setting up my macbook so that I can use it for contract work. I had created a massive debt in setup time by relying on work laptops and machines in the past.
