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Optimizing Your Website’sArchitecture for SEOJOHN DOHERTY – INTERACTIVITY DIGITAL MIAMI 2013

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JOHN DOHERTYHead/Senior Consultant, Distilled NYCJohn.doherty@distilled.net@dohertyjf

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JOHN DOHERTYHead/Senior Consultant, Distilled NYCJohn.doherty@distilled.net@dohertyjfThis is my conferenceshirt.

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Site Architecture is criticalto SEO

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But a bad site architectureis the #1 issue I see onmany websites.

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It often looks something likethis.

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What’s this guydoing?

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What’s this guydoing?Are all of these pages really thesame value?

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Categorize and Prioritize

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A page that is linked to by many pages with highPageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are nolinks to a web page, then there is no support for thatpage.

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This applies to both external and internal links.Internal linkbuilding can be very effective as well!

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Categorization

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Categorizing your pages into “types” will help you to organize your sitearchitecture and provide more internal links to your important pages tohelp them rank better.@dohertyjfJohn DohertyCategorization

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Linking from down in the architecture back up to pages higher in thehierarchy prioritizes the higher pages for competitive terms. If you’rehaving issues with the wrong page ranking, your site architecture isprobably wrong.@dohertyjfJohn DohertyCategorization

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CategorizationHomepageDeeper pages

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CategorizationHomepageDeeper pagesLongtail 

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Site Architecture BestPractices

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyThe higher the page is in yourarchitecture, the stronger it will be.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn Dohertyhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyond

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn Dohertyhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyondMost powerful

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CategorizationThis one

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn Dohertyhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyondMost powerfulSecond powerful

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CategorizationThese guys

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn Dohertyhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyondMost powerfulSecond powerfulLeast powerful

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CategorizationThis little guy

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn Dohertyhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyondLinks tocategoryLinks to deepand homeLinks to category and home

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyCompetitive pages must be linked fromstrong and many pages internally (justlike external links)

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertySome of the strongest pages on yoursite will be category or hub pages.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyUse the anchor text you want for rankwith in your internal links.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyUse top navigation sparingly, and it maynot pass much juice equity.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyIt can work though.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertyBreadcrumbs are a great way to link upthe architecture, providing both moreinternal links and a way for the crawlersto navigate your website.

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Best Practices for Site Architecture@dohertyjfJohn DohertySitemaps by category (if your site is bigenough) can help to make sure that all ofyour pages are indexed (doesn’t helpwith ranking).

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Prioritization

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Site Architecture Toolbox@dohertyjfJohn DohertyVisioLucidChartScreamingFrogExcel

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfJohn DohertyUsing some Excel magic you can find which pages you shouldprioritize internally. Download the spreadsheet here.

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfJohn DohertyCrawl your site with Screaming Frog

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfJohn DohertyDownload HTML and delete all but Leveland Inlinks

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfJohn DohertyInput Target Keyword, Volume, andCompetitiveness for all terms.

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfhttp://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/understanding-site-architecture-with-xenu-and-excel/Get averages of Level and Inlinks, thenadd together to get final score.

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Ranking Pages with Excel@dohertyjfhttp://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/understanding-site-architecture-with-xenu-and-excel/This are the pages that will be crawledmost often on your site and pass themost internal link equity.

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Quick Case Study

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Had a client with architecture issues@dohertyjfJohn DohertyNot goingto rank

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We implemented internal links to thepage.@dohertyjfJohn Doherty

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We saw great improvements inrankings.@dohertyjfJohn DohertyTell me smart linkingdoesn’t work 

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In Conclusion

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Site Architecture Best Practices@dohertyjfJohn DohertyQuantity + qualityof internal links.Link with authoritative pages to pagesyou want to rank.Breadcrumbs linkup easily.More competitive terms on top pages,long tail terms on deep pages.

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Site Architecture Best Practices@dohertyjfJohn Doherty

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Go Forth and Optimize@dohertyjfJohn DohertyDownload The Excel Sheet!http://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyond

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Thanks.Any questions?JOHN DOHERTYJohn.doherty@distilled.net@dohertyjf