Search Training with Brian MacDonald from Barefoot Proximity at the Digital Day event of Proximity BBDO Sweden September 27th 2011.

1. SIMON PEARCE
DIGITAL STRATEGY
SEO Fundamentals

2. Agenda
ProximitySearchMarketing.com
Introductions
SEO Fundamentals
SEO Strategy & Planning
SEO & Keyword Use
Global Sites - SEO Targeting
SEO Measurement & ROI

3. Who is Proximity Search?
ProximitySearchMarketing.com

4. Who is Proximity Search?
ProximitySearchMarketing.com

5. Who is Proximity Search?
ProximitySearchMarketing.com
5th highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters in the U.S.

6. Who is Proximity Search?
ProximitySearchMarketing.com
More Fortune 500 headquarters per resident than NYC, Chicago & LA

7. Proximity Search Capabilities
Organic Paid Domains &
Search Search Naming Strategy
Research, Design & Research, Planning & Name Evaluation
Development Input, Optimization Our team evaluates
Ongoing Optimization When augmenting organic concepts, product/brand
Our team integrates with results with paid names and domain
existing timelines to provide placement, our team opportunities to ensure
strategic SEO feedback at performs keyword they match existing
every step of the process - research, consumer consumer trends and
from IA to QA. We then work behavior research, copy behavior.
to optimize and improve the writing, landing page
site on an ongoing basis. creation and ongoing
optimization
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9. SIMON PEARCE
DIGITAL OVERVIEW
search STRATEGY

10. The Future
Personalization
Unique search engine results pages based on search history,
location, preferences, profile data, friends, etc.
Keyword-less Search
Providing what users want, when they want it, based entirely on
their behavior.
Best Practice vs. Best Content
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11. The Role of SEO
External /
Public Relations
Ideation &
Naming
SEO
Copywriting
User Experience
Social Media
Design &
Development
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12. The Role of SEO
Inbound Links 48%
Branding 5% SEO
16%
7% Keyword Use
User Behavior
10%
14%
Social Metrics
Design &
Development
2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors - SEOMoz 12

13. The Role of SEO
Inbound Links 48%
Branding 5% SEO
16%
7% Keyword Use
User Behavior
10%
14%
Social Metrics
Design &
Development
13

14. What is search marketing?
Organic / Natural Paid Ads
(Owned & Earned Media) (Paid Media)

15. Why is it important?
When paid ads are present 15-20% of users click them
80%-85% 15%-20%

16. Why is it important?
Over 85% of organic clicks occur “above the fold”
Percent of Clicks: 40%
25%
12%
4%
4%

17. SIMON PEARCE
DIGITAL STRATEGY
organic search

18. Organic Search - What is it?
Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Designing, developing, updating and promoting
online content in ways which increase its ability to
appear in search results.
SEO is a Process, not a Project!

19. Organic Search - Domain & Naming Strategy
Involve search teams early in the
strategy development process Domains For Sale Price Search Volume
Ingredients $1M+ 2M
Hormel recipe sharing site: KitchenSink $500K+ 1M
We examined over 3,000 domain RecipeBook $500K+ 246K
combinations and used keyword/
RecipeNut $2K 74K
consumer research to identify top
domain opportunities in three Easy-Recipe $400 1.2M
categories. Best-Recipes $1K 450K
SaveMyRecipe $10 1.6K
ShareMyRecipe $10 1K
RecipePool $10 590
MyOnlyCookbook $10 150

20. Organic Search - Domain & Naming Strategy
HelpStopHeartworm.org
Very Little Search Volume around ‘Stop Heartworm’
HeartwormPrevention.org
Tons of volume, but extremely competitive (FDA, Wikipedia,
HeartWorm Society, etc.)
PreventHeartworm.org
Larger audience than ‘stop heartworm’ and more likely to
rank than ‘heartworm prevention’

21. Organic Search - Information Architecture
Every section, topic, category, idea, etc. should live on a page uniquely
dedicated to that theme.

22. Organic Search - Information Architecture
Bad - All Products on One Page Good - Separate Pages for each product

23. Organic Search - Information Architecture
Every section, topic, category, idea, etc. should live on a page uniquely
dedicated to that theme.
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24. Organic Search - Information Architecture
Every FAQ has its own
dedicated page, making it much
more likely to appear in search
results for related question-
based queries
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25. Organic Search - Information Architecture
URL Structure
Domain, sections, categories, and pages all combine to form your site’s URL structure.
Good - http://www.campbellskitchen.com/quick-easy/creamy-ranch-pork-chops-rice
Bad - http://www.campbellskitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?
recipeId=25085&categoryId=1&ref=%2fRecipeCategory.aspx%3fcategoryId%3d1%26fbid
%3dc1t2rh5HMG8&fbid=c1t2rh5HMG8
Page Titles
One of the most important aspects of optimizing a page for search engines. The keywords
chosen, order of keywords and number of keywords should be carefully and consciously
chosen for every page on a website.

26. Organic Search - Flash Optimization
What humans see... What search engines see...
The page is HTML with a large Flash
component highlighting key customer
segments with simple animation.
The entire page is HTML with legitimate text
descriptions and links to deeper content
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27. Organic Search - Image Optimization
Images should not be
split into multiple files
or have background
elements included

28. Organic Search - Image Optimization
Product images should link out to themselves.

29. Organic Search - Image Optimization
File name: teach-your-kid-to-surf.jpg
Alt tag: Teach Your Kid to Surf
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30. Organic Search - Image Optimization

31. Organic Search - Video Optimization
Video Hosting
Utilize an existing platform - i.e. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Not Flash or other custom video players
Include Real Content
Use transcripts and custom written content to support videos
Allow Videos to be Shared
Include embed code to earn inbound links and broader
distribution
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33. Original Content

34. Transcript

35. 35

36. 36

37. Organic Search - Internal Linking
Anchor Text
The links you create to other pages on your site should use
relevant keywords.
Good Bad
“This is the first time “This is the first time
finding a job has been finding a job have been
available. It was actually available. It was actually
pretty easy, and required pretty easy, and required
no regulatory hurdles at no regulatory hurdles at
all.” all. Read More.”

38. Offsite Optimization

39. The Role of SEO
Inbound Links 48%
Branding 5% SEO
16%
7% Keyword Use
User Behavior
10%
14%
Social Metrics
Design &
Development
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40. Organic Search - Inbound Linking
What matters most?
1. Keyword(s) used in the anchor text
2. Quality & Authority of the linking site
3. Position of the link on the linking site (i.e., Body vs. Footer)
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41. Organic Search - Inbound Linking
41

42. Organic Search - Inbound Linking
42

43. Organic Search - Inbound Linking
43

44. What’s Next?
(what’s going to matter the most moving forward?)

45. The Role of SEO
Inbound Links 48%
Branding 5% SEO
16%
7% Keyword Use
User Behavior
10%
14%
Social Metrics
Design &
Development
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46. What’s Next?
Increased Algorithm Importance:
Social signals at the page/domain level
• Facebook Like, Google+, Tweets, comments
User behavior data
• Click-through from search results pages, search history/
behavior, bounce rate
Design & Development
• Readability/accessibility, ease of navigation, ratio of
advertising to content, page load speed
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47. Organic Search - Facebook Likes & Google +1’s

48. Organic Search - Reviews & Ratings

49. Organic Search - Reviews & Ratings

50. Organic Search - FAQ’s
Why bother with Search Engine Optimization?
80% of Internet sessions begin with a search. You need to be there when
consumer is “raising his hand” about your offering and is more receptive to
your content.
When should I do Search Engine Optimization?
Whenever you are producing relevant content for your consumer. Start
planning for SEO during the pitch/estimating process.
My site is live...can we optimize it now?
Not easily. Site architecture, content structure and coding really matter. The
best time to think about SEO is when the project is being scoped for the client.
Is organic search a new first moment of truth?
Yes. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are the new home page. Page
titles and descriptions often determine whether consumers see your content.

51. Organic Search - FAQ’s
Can I guarantee top organic rankings for my client?
No search consultancy can legitimately guarantee #1 rankings and this should
never be promised to a client. Results will vary based on the client’s
commitment to producing stellar content, ongoing optimization efforts, the
actions taken by competitors and other factors.
Can I “launch it and forget it”?
Not if you want great results. While the initial architecture, content structure
and coding set you on a good path toward organic search visibility, they alone
do not ensure success. Ongoing monitoring is required to identify opportunities
and create action plans for seizing these opportunities.

52. SIMON PEARCE
DIGITAL STRATEGY
paid search

53. Paid Search - Quality Score
Click-Through
Rate
Quality
Score
Landing Relevance
Page

54. Paid Search - How ads are ranked
Position Quality Score Bid
1 10 $5
2 9 $5
3 9 $4
4 3 $12
5 6 $3
6 8 $2
7 7 $2

55. Paid Search - How ads are ranked
Position Quality Score Bid Ad Rank
1 10 X $5 = 50
2 9 X $5 = 45
3 9 X $4 = 36
4 3 X $12 = 36
5 6 X $3 = 18
6 8 X $2 = 16
7 7 X $2 = 14

56. Paid Search - How ads are ranked
Position Quality Score Bid Ad Rank
1 10 $5 50
2 9 $5 45
3 9 $4 36
4 3 $12 36
5 6 $3 18
6 8 $2 16
7 7 $2 14

57. Paid Search - Landing Page Best Practices

58. Paid Search - Landing Page Best Practices
Testing various landing pages and content areas within landing pages
will help to guide data-driven decisions around how best to convert users.
A/B Testing
Separate Landing Pages
Multivariate Testing
Same Landing Page
Variable Content

59. SIMON PEARCE
DIGITAL STRATEGY
Final Thoughts

60. Final Thoughts
Search engines are constantly changing - It is imperative
for an SEO partner to stay on top of these updates
Pagination Elements - September 15, 2011
To help fix crawl and duplication problems created by pagination, Google introduced the rel="next" and rel="prev" link
attributes. Google also announced that they had improved automatic consolidation and canonicalization for "View All"
pages.
Expanded Sitelinks - August 16, 2011
After experimenting for a while, Google officially rolled out expanded site-links, most often for brand queries. At first, these
were 12-packs, but Google appeared to limit the expanded site-links to 6 shortly after the roll-out.
Panda Goes Global - August 12, 2011
Google rolled Panda out internationally, both for English-language queries globally and non-English queries except for
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Google reported that this impacted 6-9% of queries in affected countries.
Panda 2.3 - July 23, 2011
Webmaster chatter suggested that Google rolled out yet another update. It was unclear whether new factors were
introduced, or this was simply an update to the Panda data and ranking factors.
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61. Final Thoughts
Focusing on 16% of the algorithm is still important
There is often work that needs to be done to bring sites up-
to-date on basic keyword usage and SEO best practices.
However, the rest of the algorithm should not be ignored.
48%
5%
7% 16% Keyword Use
10% 14%
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62. Final Thoughts
The opportunity extends beyond brand terms.
“Almost all of our search traffic comes from brand terms”
This does not mean that all users are searching for brand
terms. It simply means that your site is not appearing for
anything other than brand searches.
Monthly Search Volume - Aleve vs. Arthritis Related Terms
Aleve 135,000
Arthritis Pain/Relief 1,617,000
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63. There’s more to ‘Search’ than PPC ads...
Competitive Research & Strategy Analysis
What are my online and offline competitors doing to attract
my target audience? How can I stay ahead of the
competition?
Content Strategy & Development
What content should live on my site? Will content,
functionality or a mix of both best serve my audience?
User Experience & Engagement Optimization
What happens after a user clicks an ad or organic search
listing? What types of users are more likely to convert? What
pages on my site are attracting/repelling users? Am I taking
advantage of every monetization opportunity available?
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64. There’s more to ‘Search’ than PPC ads...
Technical Platform & Programming
What platform is the best match for my site? Does my site’s
programming follow best practices? Is my site’s programming
detracting from user experience and hurting my ability to rank
organically?
Local Search Optimization
Can users easily find where to buy our products in-store?
How are users looking for our brand/product related to their
location (e.g. zip code, city name, device GPS, mobile app,
etc.)
Mobile Search & Engagement Optimization
How are mobile users finding out site? What content are they
looking for and engaging with?
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