SEO 101: What is SEO?
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Transcript SEO 101: What is SEO?
seo 101
The goal of this presentation is to understand SEO:
• what “SEO” is
•
how it works
•
why SEO should be part of every web project
We will:
• define “SEO”
•
show how SEO works, including examples
May 2011
Tracy Rabold
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credit tracyrabold.com
1
what is SEO?
Search engine optimization is the process
of improving the volume or quality of
visits from search engines to a website.
• It’s also called:
70%
60%
Market Share
“Natural Search”
A search engine is a tool that finds
information on the Web based on a
specific search query.
• The most popular search engines are:
65% 64%
40%
30%
20%
17%
10%
Google
Yahoo
18%
14%
13%
4%
5%
0%
Google
bing
Yahoo
bing
Other
Source: comScore & Compete.com
May 2011
Tracy Rabold
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comScore
Compete.com
50%
“Organic Search”
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March 2011 Search Engine Market Share
2
organic search results on the SERP
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Tracy Rabold
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organic search results on the SERP
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Tracy Rabold
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18 billion searches per month
US Search Engine Queries per Month
20,000
comScore
Compete.com
whoa!
18,830
Search Queries (millions)
18,000
15,598
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000
data source: comScore & Compete.com
analysis source: TracyRabold.com
6,000
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May 2011
Tracy Rabold
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organic search growth = 20%
Web search continues to
grow.
•
•
The total number of
search queries grew
20% in the U.S. from
March 2010 to March
2011.
Search Queries per Year (U.S.)
(millions)
Comscore Change Compete Change Average Change
2008
136,900
116,756
126,828
2009
168,925
23.4%
151,206
29.5% 160,066
26.2%
2010
198,675
17.6%
174,107
15.1% 186,391
16.4%
Last 12 Months
March 2010
173,060
155,986
164,523
March 2011
207,912
20.1%
178,586
14.5% 193,249
17.5%
See also A Quick & Easy SEO Metric:
Search Query Growth.
The number of people
searching the Web grew
7% in the U.S. year-overyear.
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Tracy Rabold
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how it works:
the 3 pillars of SEO
Site
Indexation
Content
Optimization
Link
Building
Making the site
clearly visible to
search engines is
crucial to getting
web pages indexed
To get indexed
accurately, web
pages needs to be
optimized for the
right keywords
Links help the
search engines find
web pages &
determine their
“importance”
CODE
CONTENT
CONNECTION
Source: Stephen Spencer, netConcepts
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Tracy Rabold
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“site indexation” means…
Don’t
block
the
bot.
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site indexation
example
The search engine bot spends a fixed amount of time crawling any website.
Compare this URL, which is long and contains useless keywords:
1.
https://www.companyname.com/randomletters/product/product_228.jhtml
…to this one:
2. https://www.companyname.com/product/
URL 1 a lot more characters than URL 2. Multiply that over the total number of
URLs on your website.
That extra crawl time could be used to crawl real, useful content on your
website.
This is a very small example. How much other non-essential content is
embedded inside, behind, all over your website?
May 2011
Tracy Rabold
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“content optimization” means…
Use
words
your
users
use.
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content optimization example:
an easy tool to find good keywords
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content optimization example:
more easy tools to find keywords
Useful FREE tools:
•
Google Insights for Search
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
•
Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends
•
Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
•
Google Wonder Wheel or Google Related Searches
Go to Google, click “Show Options” then choose from the left
You don’t need the URLs for these; just Google them!
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“link building” means…
Get
them
there.
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link building
example
Contextual
linking means
linking within
the body copy
of the web
page (“within
context”).
Linking to the
HMO plans
page1 would
give that page
more authority
with search
engines.
1https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/fi
ndaplan/ifp/look/accesshmo.jhtml
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https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/findaplan/ifp/learn/
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a rising tide lifts all boats…
Search engines see a domain
not a…
• department
•
business unit
Good SEO helps everyone
&
Weak SEO hurts everyone
A rising tide would lift all of the
boats in this Thai floating market.
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web best practices
Usability
SEO
Accessibility
Good Code
except for
Search Demand
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the least you need to know
SEO is…
…an arms race
•
Your competition on the web is likely
to change.
•
Search engine algorithms change
less frequently. Good practices
mitigate possible negative effects.
…almost always achieved in inches, not
miles
•
Don’t expect to see huge jumps in
quantity or quality of organic search
visits with one change.
…baked into the website, not spread on
top
•
Good SEO begins at the planning
stages.
•
Organic Search traffic is valuable, so
SEO should be part of every web
project.
May 2011
Tracy Rabold
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questions or comments?
Contact me
with any questions
http://TracyRabold.com
or
[email protected]
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