Best-Kept Secrets for Search Marketing Success

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]

Best-Kept Secrets for Search Marketing Success

Stephan Spencer,Founder & President, Netconcepts


Advanced SEO: Part Art, Part Science Stay tuned for the tools and tactics that most search

agencies won’t reveal… These tools and tactics will be broken into three major

categories – Technical Optimization– Content Optimization– Link Building


Technical Optimization


Grouped Google Results Science:

– Finding the true position of an indented result by appending &num=9 to the URL of the Google SERP, then &num=8 etc.

– http://searchengineland.com/070705-123736.php Art:

– Knocking out your competitor’s indented second listing


This isn’t really #3


Nope, not yet


Gone! It’s true position was #9


SEO the title of #12 to bump it up to page

1 – it will be grouped to

#2. Then link to #11

and bump it up to page 1 to knock

#4 to page 2


Indexation Science:

– Essential tools: Yahoo Site Explorer, Netconcepts URL Checker, Netconcepts Product Page Checker (www.netconcepts.com/productcheck)

– Set Google preferences to “English Only” to get a more realistic number, minus pages not crawled

– XML Sitemaps generators Art:

– Figuring out the main indexation threshold for your level of PageRank/authority




Results estimate

decreased by 2/3rds


Flowing PageRank Science:

– Using rel=nofollow on low-value internal links– SEOChat PageRank Search tool– SEOChat PageRank Lookup tool– SEO for Firefox tool

Art:– Knowing which of your pages to nofollow– Iterative testing


301 Redirects Science:

– When moving sites– For canonicalization– “Conditional” redirects?

Art:– When to use 301 and when to use 404 or 302


Cloaking Science:

– Viewed cloaked content with Google Translate and translate it from English to English

• http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&u=URLGOESHERE&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result

Art:– Good cloaking vs bad cloaking

• For bots only, drop tracking tags and other superfluous parameters from the URLs of your links

• Use “user agent” detection and don’t “noarchive” the pages to obscure what you’re doing

• http://searchengineland.com/070301-065358.php


Supplemental Index Science:

– Figuring out which pages are and are not in “Supplemental hell”

• http://www.mapelli.info/tools/supplemental-index-ratio-calculator/• site:www.xyz.com -allinurl:www.xyz.com

– Popping pages out of supplemental with robots.txt disallow, rel=nofollow, internal linking, link building


Duplicate Content Science:

– Scanning for duplicate content– Blocking duplicate content without blackholing the PageRank (i.e.

disallowing with rel=nofollow)– If using tracking parameters in URLs, use 301 redirects or JavaScript– http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/444/SEO-The-Duplicate-

Content-Penalty/ Art:

– Augment and/or revise duplicate content with APIs, unique titles/metadata,


CSS Science:

– Reordering content above navigation– Image replacement technique– Progressive enhancement for Flash & AJAX– http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/251/SEO-

Harness-the-Power-of-CSS/ Art:

– Design worthy of CSS Zen Garden


Content Optimization


Keyword Research Science:

– Mastering tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Google Suggest, Spyfu,WordTracker, Google Trends, Googspy, SEOSleuth, Yahoosearchranking.com

Art:– Working in misspellings without looking stupid– Thinking like a thesaurus - finding related words that machines can’t


Keyword Density/Prominence Science:

– Ranks.nl Art:

– Increasing keyword density and prominence in a way that looks natural to the engines and reads well


“Thin Slicing” Science:

– Mass edit admin– Mechanical Turk

Art:– Separating the wheat from the chaff


Link Building


Reverse Engineer Competitors Science:

– Yahoo Site Explorer– link: on Google & on Google Blog Search– Backlink Analyzer or Neat-o tool

Art:– Negotiating links from the same sites– Outing competitors’ dodgy link schemes


High-Value Link Targets Science:

– Build spiders to find sites with super high PageRank, 1 click away from Google, .edu or .gov, high Alexa ranked

– Avoiding situations that erode the value (e.g. reciprocal, in footer, site-wide, adjacent to paid links, too many links on page)

– Use tools like SEOMoz Page Strength tool, SEO for Firefox, SEO-Links Firefox extension

Art:– Identifying sites with a propensity to give link love (e.g. acknowledging

patrons/sponsors) – Crafting approaches & incentives– Buy them






Mining Your Own Links Science:

– Locating inbound links with poor anchor text with BLA or Neat-o

Art:– Negotiating with these linkers to change the anchor text. Pull

some favors with friends who link to you. It helps to be a blogger when reaching out to other bloggers.



Wikipedia Science:

– Wikiscanner– Article monitoring (e.g. trackengine, changenotes, urlywarning,

changedetect, watch function)– Building up a long & virtuous contribution history– Flowing pagerank internally with Disambiguation pages, Redirects,

Categories Art:

– Negotiating with an article’s “owner”– Making friends who will back you up in AfDs– Earning Barnstar awards & adminship status


Digg Science:

– Stripping away all commercial links during the initial Digg swarm– Friending popular Diggers – Timing your presence on the Digg front page for daylight hours

Art:– Crafting a killer title– Getting a powerful Digger to submit your story

http://www.chrisfinke.com/digg/topusers.html


YouTube Science:

– Proper formatting– Tagging– Title and description– Channels

Art:– Entertainment value– Finding that viral hook


MySpace Science:

– Configuration of your profile and page (e.g. profile type)– Establishing critical mass with #s of Friends by targeting bands

Art:– Getting your brand in the URL– Creating a viral MySpace avatar, comment graphic, layout etc.– Having a profile layout that differentiates you without killing usability


Flickr Science:

– Tagging– Title and description– Albums / photosets– Creative Commons licensing– Commenting (note: links in comments no longer pass juice)

Art:– Photo quality– Viral hook


Blogs Science:

– Knowing which blogs pass PageRank to commenters (e.g. Mark Cuban’s)– Decoupling your blog’s title tags from the post titles (e.g. “SEO Title Tag”

WordPress plugin)– Using “Sticky” posts to improve keyword prominence on your blog

Art:– Courting bloggers– Commenting in ways that add to the conversation so they get approved

and stay


More SEO Tools For link analysis and PageRank

– TouchGraph– Live PageRank– WebmasterEyes– Google Webmaster Central– Thumbshots Ranking tool– SEOpen


More SEO Tools Technical optimization

– User Agent Switcher– SwitchProxy– Scrutinizer– Copyscape– Poodle Predictor– Xenu Link Sleuth– Robot Replay– CrazyEgg– What’s That Site Running– Wayback Machine


More SEO Tools Other reporting

– Alexa– DigitalPoint Keyword Rankings– Urltrends– Hitwise ($$)

List and links at– www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/368/SEO-Toolkit/– www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/176/SEO:-Tools-for-Link-Building/


Q&A! For an ebook on Google power searching, SEO

checklists & worksheets, and audio recording, executive summary & transcript of an SEO thought leaders teleconference, email [email protected] or give me your business card

Any questions come to you later, contact me: [email protected]

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Best-Kept Secrets for Search Marketing Success