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(The Real) SEO Gold Rush By Brandon Na CEO, Ethicus Group , [email protected] Principal, Seattle Organic SEO , [email protected] Presented to Small business Owners on March 22, 2011 at the Community Capital Development , Seattle, WA, http://wbc.seattleccd.com/node/167

Seo gold rush

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SEO is the most efficient form of marketing in history for all sizes of business. This powerpoint by SEO Consultant and Principal Brandon Na of Seattle Organic SEO exhibits basics of SEO, a brief history of marketing and the major tenets of SEO that all people should be paying attention to regardless of the changes in the Search Engine algorithms. **Pls note: Slide 9 has a mistake. It was suppose to be "The most effective in the short term" instead of the "The most efficient" for PPC.

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Page 1: Seo gold rush

(The Real) SEO Gold RushBy Brandon NaCEO, Ethicus Group, [email protected], Seattle Organic SEO, [email protected]

Presented to Small business Owners on March 22, 2011 at the Community Capital Development, Seattle, WA, http://wbc.seattleccd.com/node/167

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1st tip: Always question the source

In H.S., I was taught this (primary, secondary, biases, etc.)

Who is Brandon Na? (brandonna.com)• SEO, CEO, & Social Entrepreneur • Was a “practicing entrepreneur” for 38 yrs (amazon, expedia, r.e., cdi [140 ppl

in/directs; 7000 students], RMS, rSolutions, semcommonsense, almostfreephone & various other websites)

• Son of 2 serial entrepreneurs (still advise & will probably take over in a few years)• Used SEO to build 2 businesses into very profitable and succesful

entities that decreased marketing $’s drastically

• Sold house to Adrian Beltre, sold personal house to JJ Putz Sahalee Country Club member

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Never has there been a time in business history where one marketing strategy been so efficient, so effective and so powerful. If you don’t take advantage of this opportunity, you might as well fall by the waste side as many businesses have done in the Past 5 years. -(author tbd)

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January 24, 1848 The California gold rush began when gold was discovered at Sutter’s MillAs the news of discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California from the rest of the United States and abroad

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These early gold seekers called “49ers” traveled to California bysailing ships, covered wagons acrossthe continent.

Basically they did ANYTHING to get their gold. Sound familiar?

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The Real Benefactor: Samuel BrannanSamuel Brannan was the first millionaire because of the California gold rush. Brannan established the first newspaper in San Francisco called the California Star and also established the first school in San Francisco. He was also credited with developing banks, railroads, and telegraph companies.

Recent scholarship confirms that merchants made far more money than miners during the Gold Rush. Brannan was a prime example. Brannan opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots in the gold fields. Just as the Gold Rush began, he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit.

Basically, he got therefirst.

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Many Gold Rushes have occurred since

• Black Hills of S.D. and Wyoming (1874)• Mount Baker (1897) & Klondike (1896)• Peruvian Amazon (2009)

• Dot Com Bubble (1995-2000)• Real Estate Bubble (2006 - ???)• Basically people want money that

grows on trees; very few believe in the phrase, “in order to make money, you need to ‘earn it.’”

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(There have even been) Marketing Gold Rushes

Early days of: Newspapers (1704)Magazines (1742) Billboards (1867)Telemarketing (1895)Radio (1906)Television (1935)(Direct) Mail Marketing (1954)

Early days = Not fully provenCheaper prices & early adopters awarded

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One of the most powerful, but…One of the most annoying! (est early 1990s)

At the beginning of Internet MarketingIn the first stage for several & at worst, the 2nd.

The most efficient– Has 2 major periodsBefore Google, After Google (est 1999/2000)

The most efficient– Has 2 major periodsBefore Google, After Google (est 1999/2000)

Just Started (2010)– Facebook, Twitter (still mostly noise)

Important, but…Social Media

Email Marketing

SEO

PPC

Mobile Marketing VERY earlyImportant, but…

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What is SEO? Why do we care? Search Engine Optimization aka “Super Efficient Opportunities”

Position Click thru Click thru1 42.30% 33.84%2 11.92% 9.54%3 8.44% 6.75%4 6.03% 4.82%5 4.86% 3.89%6 3.99% 3.19%7 3.37% 2.70%8 2.98% 2.38%9 2.83% 2.26%

10 2.97% 2.38%

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It’s a Google Dominated (Search) World

US Searches – Feb 2011• 66.69% Google.com• 28.48% Bing Powered• 14.99% Search.Yahoo.com• 13.49% Bing.com

*Experian Hitwise (Data based on 4 week rolling periods (ending Feb 26, 2011) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. InternetUsers. Figures are for Web Searches only.

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Most Important SEO Factors

There are 2 Big C’s to focus on• Content

• On-site/page Optimization• Credibility

• Links

“The Internet is a an Economic Library”

Content

Credibility Chaos,:

(Creativity, Cunning, Collaboration,

Conditions [luck])

2’s

4’s

3’s#1

20th page

2nd page

3rd page

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CONTENT

MA = Media (website) Attributes• Describing your website to

Google with website attributes• URL (#3)• Most Imp Tags

• Title(#1, #2)• H1 Headline Tags (#4)• In/Ex-ternal link anchor text• Much more (imgs, meta)

PA = Page Authority• Links• Page Rank

• Determines importance on ‘net

CREDIBILITY

What exactly is Content & Credibility?How are people successful in every day business?

MA & PA do it the

right way!

SEO Factors Survey Results (2009)24% Trust/Authority of the Host Domain22% Link Popularity Of the Specific Page20% Anchor Text of Internal Links15% On-Page Keyword Usage7% Traffic and Click-Through Data6% Social Graph Metrics5% Registration and Hosting Data

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors

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Keyword Research B4 Content & CredibilityDefining what you will target is key!

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Real World Case Study #1Deviant Seattlehttp://deviantseattle.com

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TYPICAL FIRST LINE CHECKS• Title Tag• About Page• Scan the site (on the outside

[visually] & inside [view source]• Header tags• Meta tags (imp/not imp)

• Use Online Tools to determine important SEO factors

• Look for the website online• Conduct searches on what the

site appears to be focused on

• Title is not site’s focus, but brand name or business name

• Keywords are stuffed and not natural; in wrong places

• Fails to show up in searches

TYPICAL PROBLEMS

Content: What is the site about?

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Consensus Rank On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors

66% 1 In Title Tag

63% 2 In 1st Word - Title Tag

60% 3 In Root Domain

49% 4 In H1

47% 5 In Internal Link Anchor Text on Page

46% 6 In External Link Anchor Text on Page

45% 7 In 1st Word - H1 Tag

45% 8 In 1st 50-100 words of HTML on Page

42% 9 In SubDomain Name

38% 10 Keyword Use in the Page Name URL

37% 11 In Page Folder URL

35% 12 in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)

33% 13 in Image Alt Text

33% 14 Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page

33% 15 Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page

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ON PAGE ELEMENTS• Change title tag• Add kw focus in h1 tags• Add h2 tags w/ kw focus• Change meta description to be

sth consumers would like (click)• Current Meta Desc looks like a

kw list; meta kws not important & actually gives competition insight

• Create logos with kw in name• Use kws in alt text• Apply to all pages

• GA & GW’s a must!!!• Change url structure to be

semantic not id=123• Create folders/sub dirs that

reflect kw focus• Add sitemap that google

understands (url structure?)• Age = new?

SITE ARCHITECTURE

Some SEO Suggestions for Deviant

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Not as important, but could effect your rankingsThere are 200+ factors in the algorithm

Rank On-Page (Non-Keyword) Ranking Factors1 Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page2 Recency (freshness) of Page Creation

3Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this Domain

4Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has been updated)

5 Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page6 Query Parameters in the URL vs. Static URL Format7 Ratio of Code to Text in HTML

Rank Site-Wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors

1Site Architecture of the Domain (whether intelligent, useful hierarchies are employed)

2 Use of External Links to Reputable, Trustworthy Sites/Pages3 Length of Domain Registration

4Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed, etc.)

5 Server/Hosting Uptime

6Hosting Information (what other domains are hosted on the server/c-block of IP addresses)

7

Domain Registration Ownership Change (whether the domain has changed hands according to registration records)

8 Inclusion of Feeds from the Domain in Google News9 Use of XML Sitemap(s)

10Domain Ownership (who registered the domain and their history)

Rank Site-Wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors11 Domain Registration with Google Local

12Domain “Mentions” (text citations of the domain name/address even in the absence of direct links)

13 Inclusion of Feeds from the Domain in Google Blog Search

14Citations/References of the Domain in the Yahoo! Directory (beyond the value of the link alone)

15Citations/References of the Domain in DMOZ.org (beyond the value of the link alone)

16Citations/References of the Domain in Wikipedia (beyond the value of the link alone)

17 Use of Feeds on the Domain

18Citations/References of the Domain in the Librarian’s Internet Index - Lii.org (beyond the value of the link alone)

19 Domain Registration with Google Webmaster Tools

20 Activation of Google’s “Enhanced Image Search” (aka image labeler)

21 Use of Security Certificate on the Domain (for HTTPS transactions)

22Validity of Mailing Address/Phone Numbers/Records from Domain Registration

23Citations/References of the Domain in Google Knol Articles (beyond the value of the link alone)

24 Use of a Google Search Appliance on the Domain25 Use of Google AdSense on the Domain

26 Use of Google AdWords for Ads Pointing to the Domain

27 Alexa Rank of the Domain (independent of actual traffic)

28 Compete.com Rank of the Domain (independent of actual traffic)

29 Use of Google’s Hosted Web Apps (not App Engine) on the Domain

Other On Site/Page SEO Factors

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Click icon to add picture

Real World Case Study #2College Solutionshttp://solvingcollege.com

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ON PAGE ELEMENTS• Title tag is o.k. BUT, “college

placement consultants” has only 12 searches/mo & is very competitive

• Title is 122 characters; limit is 65 characters

• No h1 tags• Titles remain the same on different

pages• Meta description misspelling• Meta keywords not imp• Images & alt text (ok, but could be

better)

• No sitemap• No Analytics? • Very few links• Young site? • More pages? • Google Webmasters?

SITE ARCHITECHTURE & LINKING

Some SEO Suggestions for College Solutions LLC

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Link building is the missing part of the SEO puzzleCreates “credibility” for your website

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Anchor Text is Critical

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Ideal Results

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Never has there been a time in business history where one marketing strategy been so efficient, so effective and so powerful. If you don’t take advantage of this opportunity, you might as well fall by the waste side as many businesses have done in the Past 5 years. -(author = me, you & everyone)

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Thanks & If You’re Thankful, Please…This advice could be worth thousands, millions or nothing…

Search Engine Marketing by Top Seattle SEO Firm SOS and National SEO Marketing Agency Ethicus Group

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References

Advertising History Timeline, http://adage.com/century/timeline/index.htmlBillboards, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BillboardCalifornia Gold Rush, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_RushDirect Marketing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_marketingDot-com Bubble, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_com_bubbleHow Radio Drives Ad Awareness Four Times more Cost Effectevely than TV, http://www.rab.co.uk/rab2009/showcontent.aspx?id=466Radio Advertisement, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_advertisementRadio Advertising Costs Demystified, http://www.tradelinkabc.com/index.php/2010/03/radio-advertising-costs-demystified/ (hard to read, but nuggets in here definitely)The Birth of Telemarketing, http://directmag.com/history/birth-telemarketing/

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