10 steps to effective seo & great ranking's

10 Steps to Effective SEO & Great Rankings
A checklist web marketers can use to build a foundation in strong,
white-hat SEO and inbound marketing.

Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz CEO, March 2011

SEOmoz Makes Software! We don’t offer consulting.

In Feb. 2011, Google said they
had 2 Billion+ searches/day!
Global Search Volume Growth
Millions of Searches (Monthly)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Data via Comscore Qsearch: http://www.comscore.com

Search Engine Market Share
Most of the World (except
China, Russia, Korea + Czech
Republic) look like this

http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre/main/dashboard-7323.html http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_Januar
y_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/search-engine-news/google/search-engine-market-share-statistics-%E2%80%93-february-2011-18271/

Organic vs. Paid Search
Paid

Organic

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

Organic vs. Paid Search
~20% of Clicks

~80% of Clicks

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

Click-Through Rates

Ranking #2, #3 and #4
would send less traffic than
just ranking #1

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/google-organic-seo-click-through-rates/

Step 1: Good Isn’t Good Enough;
Make Your Content Great.

“Good” Content vs. “GREAT” Content
Satisfies the searcher’s basic Surprises and delights the
information requirements searcher by being remarkable

Written by a human and not Produced by extraordinary
duplicated elsewhere writers/designers/producers

Long enough to fulfill basic May leverage video, audio,
needs of engines for graphics & photos to convey a
depth/uniqueness unique, shareable experience

Grammatically correct; free of Produced by extraordinary
spelling/punctuation errors writers/designers/producers

OK Cupid Dating Blog

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

Oyster.com Hotel Reviews

http://www.oyster.com/new-york-city/hotels/the-gem-hotel-chelsea/

Unbounce Marketing Guide

http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/

Searchers LOVE Great Content &
People SHARE Great Content

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-social-networking-sites-dominate-sharing-2009-7

A Blog Alone Doesn’t Cut It.

http://www.wirthmoorerealty.com/real-estate-articles-greater-new-orleans-area

You Must Become a Hub for Great
Answers on Q+A
Content in Your Niche Referenced
sites reference by industry
its resources Site that offers: blogs
• Unique Research
Forum discussions Mentioned in
• Informed Opinions
link to its pages news
• News/Trend Analysis publications
• Multimedia Content
Links are Tweeted People email
• Authentic Expert Contributors
links to each
• Quality Discussion/Interaction other
Liked/Shared
on Facebook Cited at conferences
+ events
Sometimes, a single piece of content or just a few, can yield these results but, more
often, it takes dozens to hundreds of attempts to become a resource hub.

Step 2: Make that Great Content
Accessible to Search Engines.

Substantive, Descriptive, HTML Text Content

http://www.hipmunk.com/ is a great site, but there’s no real text content for engines to see!
http://adioso.com doesn’t have a ton more, but there’s at least something for Google/Bing to grab onto.

Google’s “Cached Snapshot” is a Great Way to Check

Using the “Cached” link on any search result, you can see what Google’s seen.

Clean, Crawlable URLs
Better www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights
www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

Worse cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

More on good URL structures here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/11-best-practices-for-urls

Preferably All on a Single Sub/Root Domain

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

Logical, Shallow Information Architecture

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/diagrams-for-solving-crawl-priority-indexation-issues

No Duplicate Content

Duplicate content causes problems beyond just rankings – it can hurt your esteem/trust in the engines’
eyes: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-block-redirect-or-canonical

Rel Canonical to the Rescue (Sometimes)

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-
sitemaps

Proper Redirects (301 v. 302, etc.)
Good for Users

301 = Permanent Redirect Good for Search Engines

Good for Web Servers

Fine for Users

302 = Temporary Redirect Bad for Search Engines (treated as temporary)

Good for Web Servers

Fails for non-JS Users (including many mobiles)

Javascript Redirect May not be counted by Search Engines

Slower on Web Servers

Fine for Users

Meta Refresh Search Engines Don’t Always Treat as Permanent
Slower on Web Servers

Effective Error Handling

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/06/crawl-errors-now-reports-soft-404s.html

Step 3: Delight Your Visitors with
Phenomenal Design + Usability.

Search Engines Finally Care About Design

http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=5168

Panda/Farmer Update was a First Step

Generic design is one of the features highly correlated with lost traffic in Panda/Farmer.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-farmer-update-analysis-of-winners-vs-losers

Great Design is Surprisingly Easy & Affordable

Using the search query “CSS Gallery” will bring up tons of sites like http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/

Many Usability Basics are Intuitive

http://www.usability.gov/basics/index.html

Buy “Don’t Make Me Think.” Memorize It.

A great sample chapter is here: http://www.sensible.com/chapter.html

Use Your Analytics to Establish Baselines
and Measure Progress

Google Analytics is totally free! http://www.google.com/analytics

Employ Usability Testing Software to Get Specific

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/information-gathering-a-roundup-of-ux-applications/

Step 4: Use Words Your Customers Use;
Do Keyword Research.

The Best Keywords Are:

High Volume
(many searches/month)

Low Competition
(weak sites/pages in the top 10)

High Value
(large % of visitors convert)

The tricky part is finding these terms/phrases

Keyword Research Starts w/ the Right Brainstorming Process

Graphic via Elliance: http://www.elliance.com/aha/infographics/keyword-research-part-2.aspx?page=1&category=ROI

Researching Keyword Volume:
Google’s AdWords Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Microsoft AdCenter Keyword Data

https://adcenter.microsoft.com

Determining Keyword Difficulty

Number of results is
meaningless

We want to know how “strong”
these sites/pages are

And how our site’s/page’s
metrics compare

SEOmoz Has a Tool to Help With This

http://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty

Determining a Keyword’s “Value”
1,000 200
Visitors Searched “Usability Visitors Searched “User Testing
Testing” and Arrived at the Site Software” and Arrived at the Site

20 40
Visitors Took the Product Tour Visitors Took the Product Tour

Conversion Rate:
2 0.2% 5% 10
Visitors Bought the Software Visitors Bought the Software

Keyword volume is initially appealing, but conversion rate is critical to the evaluation!

Buying PPC is a Great Way to Test

How do these
visitors perform?

Just be aware that PPC behavior isn’t always the same as organic click behavior

Put the Data Together and Start with
Low-Hanging Fruit

I like to use heat indices based on estimated value: Excel can do this automatically

Step 5: Optimize your Pages Properly;
Get Keyword Targeting Right.

Title Tags
Better Usability Testing Software | UserTesting.com
UserTesting.com | Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing Software

Usability Testing, Usability Test, User Testing, User Software

UserTesting.com

Worse NA

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag

Keywords in the URL Help, Too
Better www.adioso.com/seattle/british-airways-flights
www.adioso.com/cat61/british

www.adioso.com/cat61/174

www.adioso.com/f?ID=174

www.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174

Worse cdn6.fly.adioso.com/f?cat=61&?ID=174&CustID=5afsdf21

Not only is there direct benefit, but people who link using the URL will pass good anchor text, too

Meta Description
TITLE: Low Cost Usability Testing - UserTesting.com

META DESCRIPTION: Usability testing has never been easier.
UserTesting.com's online usability testing is the cheapest, fastest
way to find out why visitors leave your website.

A good meta description acts like ad copy and draws the searcher in:
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

Meta Keywords?

The search engines don’t use these at
all (and haven’t since the early 2000s)

http://searchengineland.com/meta-keywords-tag-101-how-to-legally-hide-words-on-your-pages-for-
search-engines-12099

Body Text Keyword Usage

Not only do search engines like to see keywords in copy, but visitors will be comforted to see
that you have content that addresses their query, too.

Keyword Density vs. TF*IDF vs. Topic Modeling

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lda-and-googles-rankings-well-correlated

Images & Alt Attributes

Keywords in alt attributes are
surprisingly well correlated
with higher rankings


H1, H2, H3 Headlines

Keywords in H(x) tags are not
particularly well correlated
with high rankings, but may
provide some, minor value.

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/_H35n.html

The Trouble with Domain Names

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/exact-match-domains-are-far-too-powerful-is-their-time-limited

Rel=Canonical on Every Page?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/dispelling-a-persistent-rel-canonical-myth

Step 6:
Make Search Engine Tools & Protocols
Work for You.

XML Sitemaps

This program can help - http://gsitecrawler.com/

HTML Sitemaps

The Sitemap Page from http://nymag.com/sitemap/

RSS Feeds

Feedburner - http://feedburner.google.com – is a great tool for setting up and monitoring feeds

Google Webmaster Tools

It’shttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Free! Available at http://google.com/webmasters

Crawl Errors & Error Sources

Most of the time, you’ll want to fix these up.

SEOmoz Does a Good Job of This, Too

Via the PRO Web App: http://pro.seomoz.org

Bing Webmaster Tools

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/bings-duane-forrester-on-webmaster-tools-metrics-and-sitemap-quality-
thresholds

Step 7: Earn Citations Engines Can See;
Build Links, Tweets, Likes & Shares.

From 1999 – 2008, What Page Ranked #1
for the Queries “Exit” and “Leave”?

http://searchengineland.com/google-kills-bushs-miserable-failure-search-other-google-bombs-10363

Ahh… The Power of Links

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-vs-bing-correlation-analysis-of-ranking-elements

What Makes a Great Link?

Editorially given

From a trusted source

Uses descriptive anchor text

Points to the right page

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

Google + Bing Now Counting Facebook & Twitter

Danny Sullivan: If an article is retweeted or referenced much in
Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-
nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Google: Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our
organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news
universal by marking how many people shared an article

http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389

SEO Properties of Classic HTML Links
URL Rel=“Nofollow”
(the link target) (a tag that indicates search engines
shouldn’t trust/count this link)

<p><a href=http://www.seomoz.org rel=“nofollow”>
SEOmoz’s Website </a> is a good resource for those seeking
to learn more about search engine optimization.</p>

Anchor text Surrounding Text
(tells the engine what (may provide context on
this link is about) the link’s relevance)
Text goes here

SEO Properties of Tweets
Tweeter URL
(the authority/importance of (the link target)
the tweeting person matters)

Retweets
(possible signal that a link/
tweet is more important)

Surrounding Text
(in tweets, this sometimes
seems used like anchor text)
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study

SEO Properties of Facebook Shares

URL
(the link target)

Shares
(how many users have
shared the link)

Shares, Likes + Updates must be PUBLIC or Google/Bing can’t “see” them.

Why Do People Link/Tweet/Share?

Many of these blogs will
use the badge and link to
the list, because it makes
them look good!

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-emotions-that-make-us-link

Link Building & Social Sharing Resources

• Beginner’s Guide: Chapter 7 – Growing Links & Popularity
• Link Building Blog Posts on SEOmoz
• Webinar on Link Building Strategies
• 101 Ways to Build Links from SEOBook
• Link Building Presentations on Slideshare
• The Science of Retweets from Dan Zarrella

These should help you get started!

Step 8: Don’t Go it Alone;
Help Your Community Help You.

Encourage & Reward Community on Your Site

At Moz, we’ve made community central to our site: http://www.seomoz.org/community

Spread Your Message Across the Web
News/Media/PR
SEO Email
Blogs + Blogging Research/White Papers

Infographics
Comment Marketing

Social Networks
Online Video
INBOUND MARKETING! Webinars
Forums
(Find Your Audience Organically on the Web)
Document Sharing

Social Bookmarking Word of Mouth

Direct/Referring Links Podcasting
Type-In Traffic Q+A Sites

Blogs & Blog Comments


Forums & Discussion Boards

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/headsmacking-tip-18-use-discussion-search-as-competitive-intel

Social Profiles & Interaction
Facebook Company Page Google Profile SlideShare Profile

Twitter Profile Crunchbase Page Reddit Account

LinkedIn Company Page Quora Profile StumbleUpon Account

YouTube Account About.me Page StackExchange Account

Crunchbase Page Scribd Profile Wikipedia Profile

This is my top list of social sites to register with, but there’s likely more that are relevant to your niche.

Answer Questions on Q+A Sites

http://www.quora.com/Rand-Fishkin/answers

Syndicate Your Content

Dozens of sites syndicate
SEOmoz’s blog helping to
send links and traffic
back to the site

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-leveraging-syndicated-content-effectively

Find Unique Ways to Engage & Reward

UrbanSpoon’s Blogger Outreach Program Sparked Thousands of Links + Great Awareness in Each City:
http://www.urbanspoon.com

Step 9: Get Analytics Set Up Right;
Track What Matters.

Basic Google Analytics Installation

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=66983

Key SEO Metric #1:
Visits / Search Engine

These ones here!

This tells you how many searches resulted in a click on your site in the results

Key SEO Metric #2:
Keywords Sending 1+ Visits / Search Engine

This One!

Track this over time to see if you’re ranking for more unique keyphrases

Key SEO Metric #3:
# of Pages Receiving Traffic from Each Engine

This One!

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/indexation-for-seo-real-numbers-in-5-easy-steps

SEOmoz PRO Can Help Here Too

Traffic tab of http://pro.seomoz.org

Tracking Keyword Rankings

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-when-to-track-rankings

Critical: Set Up “Goals” / “Conversions”

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-setup-goals-in-google-analytics.html

Understand Your Website’s Conversion Funnel

Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions
15% 10%
Hopefully, this means a
customer is going to
come buy some cheese!
This is the weakest form of a funnel – applying actions to things like forms, emails,
“buy” buttons, checkout pages, etc. is a better way to go.

Step 10: The Web is Not Static;
Test & Improve

More Traffic

15% 10%
More visits to the home page means
more people will decide to visit

It’s http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
a lot of hard work to get more visits, though, and we don’t know if they’ll be the kind who love cheese!

A Better Funnel

25% 20%

A better “conversion rate” means more people
who already visit the site will come to the store!

Woo hoo! Now for every 1,000 people that visit the site, 25 are potential cheese buyers!

A/B Split Testing Resources:
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ - Awesome tool – easy
to use, popular, good plugins

http://www.optimizely.com/ - Another great option with
excellent visuals

http://unbounce.com/ - Hosted, so no dev required!
Very easy to use and well made

http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer - Free, but
sometimes complex/confusing

http://www.sitespect.com/ - Don’t personally have
experience with this one

Test Content Types
Blog Videos

Photos Email Newsletters

Embeddable Content Webinars

Slideshows Questions + Answers

Infographics Research/White Papers

Web Apps Community Forum
Some of these may resonate with you and your audience, others may not. You’ll never know
until you experiment!

Test Marketing Channels
Step #1: Discover
Find inbound marketing paths that look promising and make a list.

Step #2:Test
Invest a few days/hours building authentic value in that niche/sector.

Step #3: Measure
Use your web analytics to track primary + second-order impact

Step #4: Repeat
Throw out low ROI projects; repeat high ROI ones.

We Must DESERVE to Rank in Order to
Win in the Long Run

Q+A
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz

• Twitter: @randfish
You can now try SEOmoz PRO Free!
• Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog http://www.seomoz.org/freetrial

• Email: rand@seomoz.org

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