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1. SLIDE MASTER – COVERPAGESearch Engine Optimization:
Understanding the Engines & Building Successful Sites
Rand Fishkin – August 2010

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Content in this Presentation
• The Search Landscape
• How Search Engines Work
• Building Accessible Sites
• Conducting Keyword Research
• Link Building Strategies
• Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

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The Search Marketing Landscape

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100 Billion Searches
Each Month!

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Organic vs. Paid Search
Organic
Paid

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Organic vs. Paid Search
90% of Clicks
10% of Clicks

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Click-Through Rates

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Vertical Search

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Local Results
Probably doesn’t get traffic
like most “#1” results
Completely different ranking
algorithm than standard
search results

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Image Results

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Video Results

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News & Blog Results

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Shopping Results

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers

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Instant Answers
News Results
Real Time Results
Local Results
Image Results

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This Presentation Focuses on:

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How Search Engines Work

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Crawling & Indexing
Without links, the
engines might
never find this page

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Calculating Query-Independent Metrics
Via www.opensiteexplorer.org

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Many Domains vs. One Domain
VS.

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Domain Authority

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PageRank

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The Flow of PageRank

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PageRank is Split Evenly Between the
Links on a Page

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PageRank is an Iterative Algorithm

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Technically, Every External Link
“Leaks” PageRank

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Nofollowing or Removing Links Can
Alter the Flow of PageRank

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Or, at least it used to...
www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

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Google Says they use PageRank to Crawl

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors

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Query Deserves Freshness (QDF)
QDF
QDF
Normal Results

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Query Deserves Diversity (QDD)

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors

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Building Accessible Sites

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Crawlability / Link Architecture

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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

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Duplicate Content & Canonicalization

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Canonical URL Tag

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301 Redirects
302s

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Duplicate Titles & Meta Descriptions

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Search Friendly URLs
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/african-elephants
Single domain
Shallow folder structure
with relevant words
Keywords in page name,
separated by hyphen

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Search UN-Friendly URLs
Xyz3.nationalgeographic.com/a/?q=31z&mg=vv7z&sd=8
Unnecessary
Subdomain Dynamic URLs don’t perform as well
as static and engines recommend
against more than two parameters
No keywords in the URL string

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Fixing Broken Links & 404s

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Blocking Robots

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Blocking Robots

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XML Sitemaps
www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

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Webmaster Tools (Google)

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Webmaster Tools (Bing)

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Search Engine Guidelines
www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

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Important Tags & Signals

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Title Tags

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Meta Descriptions

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Tag Length Recommendations

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Anchor Text

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Page Copy

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Image Alt Attributes
Good keyword
usage in the alt tag

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Not So Important

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Meta Keywords Tag

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H1, H2, H(x) Tags

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Search Engine “Submission”

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Keyword Research + Targeting

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The Goals of Keyword Research

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Determine Relative Volume Levels

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Identify High Value Keywords

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Predict the Effort Required to Rank Well

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Choose the “Best”
Words/Phrases to Target

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The Keyword Demand Landscape

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The Long Tail of Keyword Demand

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Tools & Tactics for Brainstorming
& Refining Your Seed List

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Salespeople & Customers

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Google AdWords Tool
Be Wary of
Match Type
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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MS AdCenter Excel Plug-In
www.seomoz.org/blog/using-the-adcenter-excel-plugin-for-keyphrase-research

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Google Trends
Not Very Accurate
Sign In for Y-Axis Numbers

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Internal Site Search Stats

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Competitive Keyword Research
Restrict query
to competitor’s
domain

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The Keyword Research Process

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Start with Your Seed List

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Create Spreadsheet w/ these Columns

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Get Google Search Demand Numbers

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Guesstimate Conversion Rate Numbers

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Or Use PPC Campaign Data

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Add Keyword Difficulty Data for Top Terms
We like using a weighted average of
the Page Authority metric

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Target High Volume, High Value,
Low Difficulty Terms First

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Measuring Keyword
Difficulty & Competition

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Run Queries for Desired Term + Engine
Watch for vertical
results, which can skew
CTRs & visibility

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Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Metrics

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Tools Can Help Provide Scores

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Tools Can Help Provide Scores
www.seomoz.org/mozbar

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Link Building Strategies

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What Goals Can Link Building
Help Us Achieve?

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Bolster Individual Rankings

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Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages

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Achieve More Complete Indexation

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Drive Traffic & Branding Awareness

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Send Converting Traffic
Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com

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The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

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#1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests

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#2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition

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#3 - Links via Embedded Content

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#4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns

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#5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing

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#6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades

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#7 - Paid Links

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#8 - Link Reclamation

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Matching the Right Link Building Strategies
to Your Organization’s SEO Goals

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Links for Individual Rankings

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Links for Domain “Authority”

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Links for Indexation

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Links for Traffic & Branding

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Links for Conversion

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Using Tools & Processes to Ease the
Challenges of Link Building

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Tools for Competitive Link Research
• Yahoo! Site Explorer & Link Commands
• Open Site Explorer
• Top Pages
• Google Blog Search

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Yahoo! Site Explorer
Directionally indicative
within ~50%
Not necessarily followed & in
a somewhat random order

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Yahoo! Link Commands
Less “accurate” than
Site Explorer
Lots of cool, useful modifiers
available

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Yahoo! Link Commands
Full list available in PRO Guide to Advanced Search Operators:
www.seomoz.org/article/the-professionals-guide-to-advanced-search-operators

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Open Site Explorer

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Open Site Explorer
Highly Correlation w/ Rankings
Data updates monthly from the
Linkscape web index (approx. 60% the
size of Yahoo!/Google/Bing)

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Open Site Explorer
Poor Anchor Text Spells Opportunity

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Link Intersect
Link Intersect uses the same principle – sites
w/ links in common that don’t point to you.

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Top Pages
Find which pages are
earning links (your
own & competitors)
404s? Reclaim them!

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Metrics for Evaluating a Link’s Value
• Numeric (Objective) Metrics
• Subjective Metrics
• Attainability and Effort

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Numeric Metrics for Link Valuation
• # of Linking Root Domains to URL
• # of Linking Root Domains to Domain
• Homepage PageRank vs. Domain mozRank
• URL PageRank vs. URL mozRank
• # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape)
• Twitter mentions (Backtweets.com)

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Numeric Metrics (Backtweets)
Results count
(in a weird location)

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Subjective Metrics for Link Valuation
• Brand name reach/recognition
• Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain)
• Attainability and Effort
Jumping through Hoops (via WKA on Flickr)

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Scalable Link Acquisition Processes
• Written Process + Checklist
• Tools + Metrics for Quick Analysis
• Training & Incenting Link Builders
• Building & Refining a Link Acquisition Funnel

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Written Process/Checklist
Checklist (via adesigna on Flickr)
• Run through the link building process yourself
• Document every step thoroughly
• Pass it on to others (w/ some training time)

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Tools for Quick Analysis
Get usable metrics
quickly as you surf

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Tools for Quick Analysis

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Training & Incenting Link Builders
Training Camp (via Gil Searcy on Flickr)
• Do link building together
• Create consistent metrics
• Reward like a sales team
• Record reasons why links
didn’t happen (like objections
to sales) and work on these
(things like design quality,
affiliations, language, etc. will
come up)

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Building a Link Acquisition Funnel
Visit Link-Targeted Content
Grab Link Code
Link to the Site

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Social Media & the Web’s Influencers

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Influencers on the Web

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The Power of the “Linkerati”

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Content that Appeals to Influencers

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Making Content Easy to Share

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Making Content Easy to Share

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Incenting/Rewarding Link Behaviors

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Cannibalization of the Link Graph
MMM… LINK
GRAPHS ARE
DELICIOUS!

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The Rise of the Social Graph

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Algorithmic Ranking Factors
You have to do these
right, before you can
do these right

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