1. A Beginner’s Guide to Search
Engine Optimization
Josh Braaten

2. Who is Josh Braaten?
Online Marketing Manager, Blogger & Founder Raised in the Great
Rasmussen College BigPictureWeb.com State of Minnesota
8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 2

3. SEO is Misunderstood
• “SEO is black magic and/or witch craft.”
• “SEO is a fraud. Everyone knows you just
buy Google ads and you’ll rank higher.”
• “Just take the rel canonical tag and point
the page to the permanent URI on your
root domain.”
• “Get hundreds of links and rank #1 in a
week!!!”
8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 3

4. The Truth About SEO
• Some aspects are technical, but it’s
mostly common sense and/or intuitive
• SEO isn’t evil, but it can be used that
way
• Mastering SEO takes time, resources,
and excellent content on your website
• Marketing investment, not advertising
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5. Objectives
• Learn how search engines operate
• Identify the key factors involved in SEO
• The difference between good and evil SEO
• A mental framework for using SEO and
inbound marketing
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8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential.

6. How Search Engines Work
• Crawling
• Indexing
• Search
• Relevancy
• Search Results
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
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7. Search Engines - Crawling
• Spiders visit websites and
“crawl” content they find
• Spiders note new links found
and crawl them too
• Spiders report all content
back to the index
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
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8. Search Engines - Indexing
• The Index is a mirrored
copy of the entire web
• Spiders work hard to
keep the index fresh
• Low quality & duplicate
content don’t make it
into the index.
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
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9. Search Engines – Relevancy
• How relevant is each page
for a given search query?
• Links, anchor text, site
speed, keyword prominence
& users drive algorithm
• 200+ factors, 600+ tweaks to
the main algorithm in 2009
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
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10. Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)
• SERPs consist of query,
retrieval, rankings & results
• #1 result: ~18% of clicks
• #2 result: ~10% of clicks
• #3 results: ~7% of clicks
• <1% on page two
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
Source: http://bit.ly/ql10f1
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11. How Search Engines Work
• Crawling
• Indexing
• Search
• Relevancy
• Search Results
Crawl Index Search Relevance Results
8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 11

12. What’s Important in SEO?
• Architecture
• On-Page
• Links
• Social Media
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13. SEO Architecture
• Organized, “flat” site
• Human-friendly URLs
• Pages that spiders can read
(i.e., not flash, iframes)
• Build on your own domain
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14. On-Page Keyword Research
• Google AdWords
Keyword Tool standard
• Cast a wide net
• Use the right words
• Balance volume and
competition
• Keyword mapping
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15. On-Page SEO Guidelines
• Each page should target 1 or 2 keyword phrases
• Small pages (<400 words): use keyword(s) 2-3x
• Large pages (>400 words): use keyword(s) 4-6x
• Page Titles should not exceed 65 characters
• Keywords should be used first and last 100 words
• Images, videos, and audio should be optimized, too
• Keyword synonyms, partials and deviations are good
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16. On-Page SEO Visualized
Source: http://mz.cm/rorHV7
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17. Links: Google’s Currency
• Links are the cornerstone
of the Google algorithm
• A link from one site to
another is a vote in the
eyes of Google
• Not all links are created
equal
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18. Links are Like Flight Patterns
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19. Links: Google’s Currency
• Authority: Is the linking
page/site authoritative?
(e.g., Wall Street Journal)
• Relevant: Is the linking
page/site relevant? (e.g.,
Regional/Industry sites)
• Trust: .gov/.edu sites
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20. Social Media and SEO
• Social media increases
reach of content
• Search engines index
much of social media
• Social media also has
relevance and authority
• Soon: Likes and Links
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21. What’s Important in SEO?
• Architecture
• On-Page
• Links
• Social Media
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22. SEO Rankings Factors for 2011
2009 2011
Links decreased in importance by ~50% but still remain most important signal. On-page
factors still very important as well. 2011 introduced more factors than ever before.
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23. Good and Bad SEO
• Excellent Content • Manipulated Links
• Earned Links • “Spammy” Content
• Earned Social Media • Purchased links is a
gray area
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24. SEO through Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing: Earning new customers by gaining attention, trust and permission before
the sale through the creation and sharing of engaging, entertaining and/or educational content.
Graphic Source: SEOmoz - http://bit.ly/gM7OGb
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8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential.

25. The Principles of Inbound Marketing
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26. The Principles of Inbound Marketing
Identify – Find your online audience
Listen – Understand how you can help
Create – Publish what you know
Share – Share content to solve problems
Measure – Fine tune your progress
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8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential.

27. Identify Your Audience
• Who is your ideal customer?
• Search for resources,
influencers and
communities where your
customers gather
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28. Listen to Your Audience
• Be quiet and listen
• Understand what your
customers need
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29. Create Content Your Audience Loves
• Publish to educate, engage
and entertain
• Publish content to build
inbound equity
8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 29

30. Share Content with Your Audience
• Solving problems through
sharing
• Building relationships
through solving problems
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31. Measure Your Efforts
• Online media is
measurable
• Identify and work
towards goals
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32. Inbound Marketing in Action
Search social networks and the web for your audience and their needs
Monitor social conversations to determine content needs of your audience
Create optimized text, images, audio and video to solve problems
Share content with audience & influencers via blog and social networks
Measure impact of social media and blog content on business goals
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8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential.

33. Inbound Marketing Visualized
Your Blog
Your Website
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34. The Relative Costs of Marketing
Source: Hubspot – http://bit.ly/fxzOLd
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35. Small Business Boosted by Inbound
“Social media helped consultant
Deborah Dolan, owner of Senior Life
Transitions, more than double her
business last year.
The key was using social media to
establish herself as a credible
resource -- a social authority -- on
aging issues, through a blog, a new
Advocate on Aging podcast and
other social and search marketing
efforts.”
Source: Star Tribune -
http://bit.ly/dR09bP 35

36. Additional Resources
Rasmussen.edu/student-life/online-community/
Facebook.com/RasmussenOcala
BigPictureWeb.com
@JLBraaten
8/16/2011 Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2010. Proprietary and Confidential. 36

37. Internet Marketing Education
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38. Small Businesses: The Time is Now
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