SEO…From Past to Present
Brent D. Payne
TRIBUNE INTERACTIVE
Let’s Journey Back, Nearly Two
Decades Ago When . . .
…There Were No Search Engines
Launched
Circa: 1992
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1993
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1994
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1994
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1994
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1994
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1994
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1995
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1995
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1996
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1996
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1996
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1996
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1998
Then… There Were Lots of Search
Engines
Launched
Circa: 1999
Back Then… Yahoo! Dominated
1.25%
0.85%
I had less than
1% of the
market in ‘99.
0.80%
1.58%
2.76%
5.05%
8.91%
11.18%
55.81%
11.81%
Yahoo!
Excite
Altavista
Infoseek
Lycos
Go To
Snap
MSN
Northern Light
Google
But Now… There are Just a Few
And Google Dominates Market Share
Yahoo!
15%
Bing
8%
Ask
3%
All Others
2%
Google
72%
So How Did Google Do It?
Because I am
just the coolest
of all the
robots…of
course!
Well…First Let’s Learn More About
How Google Works
Well, okay but in
the end… you’ll
discover it’s
because I’m the
coolest robot.
How Does Google Find Content?
How Does Google Store and Index a
Page’s Content?
Can you discover
which pages contain
“civil” and “war” and
“reconstruction”?
[Answer: Only documents 35, 48, and 91 contain all three words "civil" and "war" and "reconstruction."]
The Google Differentiator That
Changed Search Engines Forever
Okay…But How Does PageRank Work?
Popularity
Popularity
LOCAL BLOGS
CNN
SMALL
WEBSITES
NYTIMES
PERSONAL
PROFILES
LATIMES
AUTHORITY
Popularity
RELEVANCE
On-Page
Link
Text
OffPage
URL
But…We Don’t Know EVERYTHING!
Authority
Popularity
Relevance
( k 1)
i
x
1 (k )
xj
Bi N j
Page
Rank
j
SEO Is Important If You Want People to
Find Your Content…
Did you know
that people
having me
search for stuff
over 2,000 times
per second?
So What Can We Do to Get Our
Content to the Top of Google?
This is a great piece
of content. I can’t
wait to share it
with the world!
First…Googlebot Psych 101
01100111 01101111
01101111 01100111
01101100 01100101
01100010 01101111
01110100
Literal
• Googlebot doesn’t understand puns
• Googlebot doesn’t get jokes
• Googlebot is a robot not a buddy of yours
Context
• Googlebot only understands what you tell him
• Metromix ‘Get Lucky!’ headline
• Laptop ‘case’ versus laptop ‘bag’
Blind
spots
• Googlebot can’t read iFramed content
• Googlebot can’t read images (needs ALT text)
• Googlebot can’t read javascript
• Googlebot barely understands flash files
RELEVANCE
On-Page
Link
Text
Utilize Keywords
Link to Related Content
NoFollow Competition
URL
Title Tag
H1 Tag
H2 Tag
Bold, Italics
OffPage
Similar Sites
Similar Pages
Toolbar PageRank
Beware of NoFollow
Structured
Minimal Folders
Minimal Parameters
Keyphrase Focused
It Starts With Keyword Research
Weather
Local
News
Fashion
What are
people
searching for?
How can I find
out?
Sports
Movies
Politics
Food
Horoscopes
Travel
<Relevance>
Google Keyword Research
Tool
Provides long list of
related terms (exports)
Shows approx. search
volume
Shows advertiser
competition for terms
Shows keywords by URL
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google Hot Trends:
Introduction
Top 40 Search Terms
• Shows highest volume
search terms by percentage
of increase
• Updated every hour on the
hour
Powerful for . . .
• Breaking news
• Historical top terms by date
http://www.google.com/trends
Google Trends: Michael
Jackson’s Death
http://www.google.com/trends
Google Hot Trends: An Indication
of Hourly Search Trends
Hotness Factor
• Volcanic – Extreme volume, usually high competition
• On Fire – High volume, considerably less competition
• Spicy – Strong volume, not worth chasing unless it’s a
hyperlocal term or you’re a small site though
• Medium – Medium volume, not worth chasing after
Other Things to Consider
• Graph – Watch it and catch terms while they’re still peaking
• Related Searches – Use them in your body text,
subheadlines, etc.
http://www.google.com/trends
Google Trends: Compare
Search Volume by Terms
Compare multiple terms to
determine which term
receives the highest volume of
search traffic.
Use the drop down menus to
change the date range and
regional data sets.
Export the data to a CSV
(Opens in Excel, must be
logged into Google Account).
http://www.google.com/trends
Find Top Volume Search Terms
by Category (3 Day Lag)
Discover the top volume search terms by
category
Discover fastest rising search terms by category
http://www.google.com/insights/search
Microsoft’s xRank: Celebrity
Keyword Research
Trends Data
• Updates multiple times per
day
• Graph of trend history
Categories
Hmm.
Gates, got
xRank
right at
least.
• Celebrities
• Musicians
• Politicians
Related Articles
• News
• Images
• Videos
http://www.bing.com/xrank
Put The Keywords People Are
Searching for In the Content
Homepage/Content
HTML Title Tag
• The most important SEO field
• Communicate loudly but don’t spam
• Must be unique!
Meta Description
• Important mainly due to click through
• The goal is to entice the human click to your link
• Write a unique description for each page on your site
H1 Tag/Headline
• Beat up your designers that use if tor ‘style’ instead of SEO
emphasis
• Should be used for the main heading of the page (i.e. headline)
First Paragraph
G’ News Categories,
Bold/Italics, URL
• Keep the first paragraph close to the H1 tag in the HTML code
• Do not break up the code within the paragraph with other HTML
• All pages MUST have at least a paragraph of text
• Use Google News categories for increased visibility
• Bold/italics puts heavier SEO emphasis on keywords
• URL is important for relevance with inbound links
Relevance
AUTHORITY
Popularity
Linking Structure: Unorganized
Article
2
Article
1
Section
C
None of this
content is that
popular. I’m not
going to rank it
well.
Article
3
Links for
‘Topic X’
Section
B
Blog 1
Blog 2
Section
A
Blog 3
. . . and why it’s bad for SEO.
The competitor is
really popular for
‘Topic X’. I’m going to
rank the competitor
really well.
Competitor
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Blog 1
Blog 2
Blog 3
Linking Structure: Organized
Blog 1
Blog 2
Blog 3
Section
A
Story 3
Section
B
Story 2
Story 1
Predetermined
landing page
for ‘Topic X’
Now this is popular
content. I’m going to
rank it well.
Section
C
. . . And why it’s good for SEO.
Your site has some
really popular and
relevant content. I’m
going to rank it
better than CNN,
MSNBC, etc.
Your site!
CNN
MSNBC
FOX News
Reuters
NY Times
NPR
Popularity
Popularity
LOCAL BLOGS
CNN
SMALL
WEBSITES
NYTIMES
PERSONAL
PROFILES
LATIMES
Using Social Media to Improve the
Popularity Aspect of the Google Algo
Popularity
Social Media & Search: Social Media
Vastly Increases Inbound Links
Popularity
Formula: The Social Media Title
The Viral Content Formula:
• [Number] [Adjective/Superlative] [Key Phrase] [Media
Type]
Examples:
• 10 Movies that teach you how to commit crimes.
• 10 iPhone finance apps that count.
• 16 Drinks named for authors and their books.
• 25 Reasons it’s great to be an IT guy (or girl).
• Morgan Freeman’s 5 most memorable movie moments.
Popularity
Other Ways to Affect Popularity
Content
• Quality,
Timely
Content!
• It Creates
Inbound Links
Automatically
Link Building
• Make It Easy
for Sites to
Link to You
• Utilize Social
Media
Research
• Know What
People are
Searching for
• Google
Trends
• Google
Insights
Popularity
The Many Ways to Rank In Google
Universal Search
I am actually
quite a
complicated
robot.
I serve content
from many
different verticals
on a single page.
I am launching
more and more
One-Box items, like
the Music One-Box
and Real-Time
One-Box.
Closing Comments
Summary
• Search Engines Use Links to Determine Where a Page
Should Rank In Search Results
• Google is the Dominant Search Engine Today
• Popularity = Number of Inbound Links
• Authority = Quality of Inbound Links
• Relevance = How Your Content Relates to the User’s
Query
• There Are Many Ways to Rank Well in Google Via Their
Many ‘One-Box’ Inclusions
Contact Info
Brent D. Payne
• Director, Search Engine Optimization
• Tribune Company, 435 N. Michigan, Chicago, IL 60611
• Office: 312.527.8387
• Cell: 312.324.3344
• Email: bpayne@tribune.com
• Instant Messenger/Personal Email:
bpayne@gmail.com
• Twitter: @BrentDPayne (follow w/ caution)
• Driver’s License Number: BDP24456U8
• Passport Number: 443876284