SEO for CEOs

@ashnallawalla – www.trainsem.com

SEO for CEOs(Getting the most from your SEO)

by Ash NallawallaCEO,

TrainSEM.com/Twemps.com


Bio• SEO consultant and trainer – TrainSEM.com

– Clients include SEO agencies and businesses.

• Social networking outsourcer – Twemps.com– We engage on behalf of clients.

• Local Search forum moderator, webmasterworld.com

• Past SEO agency manager (2000+ clients)• Past in-house SEO: YellowPages.com.au,

WhitePages .com.au, CitySearch.com.au, WhereIs.com.au, etc

• Email: [email protected]• Personal blog: www.netmagellan.com


Should this happen to a new site?

• Blog reaction:

http://authoritylabs.com/blog/omg-target-really/


When customers hate the new site

http://www.change.org/petitions/singapore-airlinesbrplease-give-us-back-the-old-website


When customers can’t open your site

• It’s bad enough to be down, but worse when your error message is indexed.


Involve your SEO agency…

• What is wrong with this Google search result for “target”?

• Ask your SEO.


It’s all about the customer, right?

• Gift registries broken? (sitelink)• Never mind SEO, but why annoy

customers?


And why annoy Google?

• This is a bit technical — server headers.

• Say, this was a link onsome page.

• Ask your SEO why this isbad for Google.


What can go wrong with a new site?

• Poor information architecture• Web platform not search engine

friendly• Poor usability• Poor accessibility• Inadequate server• Poor search engine optimisation (SEO)• etc


Poor specification

• A website spec might address security, interoperability, functionality, etc.

• But it might suck at search engine visibility and need to be propped up with paid advertising indefinitely.

• Most high-end ecommerce platforms are not search friendly out of the box.

• Get your SEO included in the specification team.


Visits = Customers

• If a prospect can’t find your pages in Google Search, they won’t come.– If they do come but can’t use the site,

they won’t buy or return.

• For every website decision, ask, “will this increase our web conversions, or not?”

• Include your SEO in usability and accessibility discussions.


Avoid lawsuits

• One of the sites mentioned earlier was sued in 2006 for a lack of accessibility (Alt tags missing in images)

• Their new site had some missing Alt tags.

• Ask your SEO why legislation such as the ADA (in U.S.) or DDA (in Australia), etc cannot be ignored.


Perfection is difficult

• There are tools to check accessibility, e.g. http://validator.w3.org/ or http://atutor.ca/achecker/

ada.gov


Which tail wags the corporate dog?

• A major ecommerce platform decision usually dictates the website portal and infrastructure around it.

• A single vendor or integrator is chosen because it makes life easy for the IT and Finance people.

• Don’t fall for it! They are not accountable for revenues.

• Get the CMO and CIO to agree before making a platform decision. Include your impartial SEO in these meetings.


Keep your SEO informed

• Invite to important meetings that affect the website, e.g.:– Discussions of new functionality– Vendors who come to pitch their

offerings– When drafting Request for Quotations– When evaluating RFQs– During Business Acceptance Testing

(BAT)


Finally — Promote your SEO

• If you have an in-house SEO, elevate that position as high as you can in the marketing hierarchy.

• If you have an SEO agency arrangement, include them in internal senior level meetings (preferably ones they can attend in person).


Download this preso

• If you are reading this as a PDF on the conference CD, you won’t see the brief notes. Grab the PPT from: http://www.trainsem.com/pubcon/

• Contact: USA: +1 (310) 424-9296 (rings in AU) or AUS: +61 (3) 9600 3993

• [email protected]• Thank you