Griffith College SEO Presentation

1. Search Engine Optimisation

2. Best Practices Explanations
• Are the keywords that you are targeting not only relevant but also
popular with searchers?
• Do your page titles lead with your targeted keywords?
• Is your body copy of sufficient length and keyword-rich?
• Does the anchor text pointing to various pages within your site
include good keywords?
• Do you employ text links from your home page to your most
important secondary pages?
• Does your Web site have an XML Sitemap, as well as an HTML site
map with text links?
• Are the URLs of your dynamic (database-driven) pages short,
simple and static-looking?

3. Best Practices
• Does your site have an optimized internal linking structure?
• Do your pages have keyword-rich meta descriptions with a
compelling call to action?
• Does your site have a custom error page that returns the correct
“status code”?
• Do your filenames and directory names include targeted
keywords?
• Are you actively building links to your site?

4. Some Key Factors
www.seomoz.org/article/search-
ranking-factors

5. Top 5 Ranking Factors
• Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
– 73% very high importance
• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of links)
– 71% very high importance
• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
– 67% very high importance
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
– 66% very high importance
• Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from
Trusted Domains
– 66% very high importance

6. Next 5 Important Factors
• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page
– 47% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page
– 46% moderate importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag
– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words on the Page
– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name
– 42% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL
– 38% low importance

7. On Page : Keyword Specific Factors

8. On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
– 66% very high importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag
– 63% high importance
• Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)
– 60% high importance
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag
– 49% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page
– 47% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page
– 46% moderate importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag
– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page
– 45% moderate importance

9. On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name (e.g.
keyword.seomoz.org)
– 42% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g.
seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html)
– 38% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g.
seomoz.org/keyword/page.html)
• 37% low importance
• Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)
• 35% low importance
• Keyword Use in Image Alt Text
• 33% minimal importance

10. On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the
Page
– 33% minimal importance
• Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page (e.g.
keyword.jpg)
– 33% minimal importance
• Keyword Use in <b> or <strong> Tags
– 26% minimal importance
• Keyword Density Formula (# of Keyword Uses ÷ Total # of
Terms on the Page)
– 25% minimal importance

11. On-Page (Non-keyword factors)

12. On Page: Non-Keyword
• Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page
– 65% very high importance
• Recency (freshness) of Page Creation
– 50% moderate importance
• Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this
Domain
– 41% low importance
• Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has
been updated)
– 39% low importance
• Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page
– 37% low importance

13. On Page: Non-Keyword
• Query Parameters in the URL vs. Static URL Format
– 33% minimal importance
• Ratio of Code to Text in HTML
– 25% minimal importance
• Existence of a Meta Description Tag
– 22% very minimal importance
• HTML Validation to W3C Standards
– 16% very minimal importance
• Use of Flash Elements (or other plug-in content)
– 13% very minimal importance
• Use of Advertising on the Page
– 11% very minimal importance

14. Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors

15. Links
• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links
– 73% very high importance
• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
– 71% very high importance
• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
– 67% very high importance
• Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has
earned links from trusted sources)
– 65% very high importance
• Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity (PageRank)
– 63% high importance

16. Links
• Topic-Specificity/Focus of External Link Sources (whether
external links to this page come from topically relevant
pages/sites)
– 58% high importance
• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links
– 55% high importance

17. Site Wide : Non-Link Based

18. Site Wide: Non-Link
• Site Architecture of the Domain (whether intelligent, useful
hierarchies are employed)
– 52% moderate importance
• Use of External Links to Reputable, Trustworthy Sites/Pages
– 37% low importance
• Length of Domain Registration
– 37% low importance
• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to
the same party, number of times renewed)
• Server/Hosting Uptime
• 32% minimal importance

19. Site Wide: Non-Link
• Length of Domain Registration
– 37% low importance
• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to
the same party, number of times renewed, etc.)
– 36% low importance
• Server/Hosting Uptime
– 32% minimal importance
• Hosting Information (what other domains are hosted on the
server/c-block of IP addresses)
– 31% minimal importance

20. Social Media

21. Social Media Related
• Delicious Data About the Domain or Page
– 21% very minimal importance
• StumbleUpon Data About the Domain or Page
– 19% very minimal importance
• Twitter Data About the Domain or Page
– 17% very minimal importance
• LinkedIn Data About the Domain or Page
– 15% very minimal importance
• Facebook Data About the Domain or Page
– 12% very minimal importance
• MySpace Data About the Domain or Page
– 11% very minimal importance

22. Search Engine Land - Worst Practices

23. Worst Practices
• Does your primary navigation require Flash, Java or Javascript to
function?
• Is your web site done entirely in Flash or overly graphical with
very little textural content?
• Is your home page a “splash page” or otherwise content-less?
• Do the URLs of your pages include “cgi-bin” or numerous
ampersands?
• Do the URLs of your pages include session IDs or user IDs?
• Do you unnecessarily spread your site across multiple domains?
• Are your title tags the same on all pages?

24. Worst Practices
• Do you have pop-ups on your site?
• Do you use “click here” or any other superfluous copy for your
hyperlink text?
• Do you have superfluous text like “Welcome to” at the beginning
of your title tags?
• Do you have any hidden or small text meant only for the search
engines?
• Do you engage in “keyword stuffing”?
• Do you repeatedly submit your site to the search engines?
• Do you incorporate your competitors’ brand names in your meta
tags?
• Do you have duplicate pages with minimal or no changes?
• Are you submitting to (“Free For All”) link pages and farms?