Textbook Overview
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SEARCH ENGINE BASICS. Defining terms, assessing options and setting priorities.
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MARKET RESEARCH AND FEASIBILITY. Know your customers, your competitors
and yourself.
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SITE ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN. How site elements affect search ranking.
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UNDERSTANDING KEYWORDS. Choosing the right keywords, and putting them in the
right places.
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CONTENT THAT COUNTS. Guidelines for creating high-quality content.
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EARNING LINKS. An introduction to getting and giving links.
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BRANDING AND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT. Maintaining image and integrity
across online and offline channels.
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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. How participating in social media can help your
customers and your business.
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DRIVING TRAFFIC. Enhancing SEO with promotional activities.
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MEASURING RESULTS. Setting baselines and analyzing traffic.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT. Tips on staying organized, and creating the NxLeveL® SEO
Action Plan.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
What Search Engines Are Looking For
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Structure. Well-designed, fast-loading sites with easily accessible content and
correctly functioning links will get higher ratings.
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Quality. Search engines look for well-organized and original content.
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Relevance. The more relevant page content is, the higher it will usually rank.
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Authority. Typical indications of authority include .gov and .edu domains, and
major news outlets.
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Popularity. Search engines consider the quality and quantity of incoming
links. The more authority these links have, the more they count.
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Age. Search engines prefer regularly updated information. They also tend to
prefer sites that have been online for five years or more.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Search Engine Ranking Factors
According to a study by SEOmoz, these are the top 5 positive and negative factors
affecting search ranking.
Top 5 Positive Factors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Keyword-focused anchor text
from external links
External link popularity (quantity
and quality of external links)
Diversity of link sources (links
from many unique root domains)
Keyword use anywhere in the
title tag
Trustworthiness, based on link
distance from trusted domains
Top 5 Negative Factors
1.
Cloaking with malicious or
manipulative intent
2.
Link acquisition from known link
brokers/sellers
3.
Links to Web spam sites or pages
4.
Cloaking by user agent
5.
Frequent server downtime and
site inaccessibility
Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Common SEO Goals
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Increasing visibility and traffic
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Increasing brand recognition
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Increasing authority within an industry or market
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Increasing incoming links
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Reputation management
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Increasing sales or other conversions
(e.g., subscriptions)
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Choosing an SEO Firm
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Demand specifics. An SEO firm’s proposal should always specify
realistic, measurable benefits along with corresponding cost
breakdowns.
Ask questions. Don’t be afraid of sounding ignorant. Request
definitions of unfamiliar terms, and ask how they relate to your
business.
Consider content needs. Can you produce adequate content inhouse, or will you need to outsource this work?
Set a timeframe. What’s the contractor’s timeline for delivering
measurable results?
Think ahead. Will the contractor handle ongoing SEO tasks? If so,
what does this entail? How often will they make adjustments, and how
much will it cost?
Identify your responsibilities. What is your role? What will the
contractor need from you and your staff?
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Feasibility Study Outline
SCOPE
FEASIBILITY OF PERSONNEL
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SWOT ANALYSIS
LOGISTICAL FEASIBILITY
What is the business opportunity?
What are your goals?
 What are the features and benefits?
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Your business
Your industry
Your target market
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Your competition
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FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY
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What are your capital requirements?
Do you need outside funding?
MARKETING FEASIBILITY
What price, promotion and placement
strategies will you use?
 Why, when, how, where and how much
will customers buy?
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Do you have the right mix of
personnel, with the right training?
 What functions will be outsourced?
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What are your performance
specifications?
How will you ensure that they are met?
Can you get enough of the supplies and
materials you need?
What’s the turnaround time?
Is your supply chain adequate?
Do you have all the equipment and
expertise you need?
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Spiderable Content
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URLs. Spiders read and index domain names, paths and file names.
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Title tags. Spiders assume that the title tag explains what a page is about.
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Description tags provide basic information about a page’s content.
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Robots meta tag tells spiders whether they should index a page, or follow its links.
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Headline tags (<h1> and <h2>) help spiders understand which concepts on the page are
important.
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Body text includes most of the text on your website, usually in paragraph form. It can also
include lists and other formatted content.
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Anchor text appears in hyperlinks to other pages.
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Link title text shows users a short description of the link when they position the cursor
over it.
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Image tags. Spiders can read the name of the image (“red-balloon.jpg”), and the alt text
attribute that describes the image (“child holding a red balloon”).
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Site maps show visitors the structure of your site.
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Sitemaps tell spiders which pages to crawl.
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Robots.txt tells spiders which pages to avoid.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Flat Sites vs. Deep Sites
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Site Architecture
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Link Structure
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Keyword Research
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Brainstorm a list of keywords. Use synonyms, keyword suggestion tools,
stemming, etc. Consider modifiers (best, cheap, quote, buy, rent, used), product
features (color, style, materials) and geocentric information.
Research search volume. A good keyword should have healthy demand
without being too competitive.
Filtering. Identify and remove keywords that are obviously not relevant to
your business.
Sorting. Tag keywords by theme and landing page in Excel, so that you can
work with them more easily.
Analyzing relevance. Out of 10 visitors, how many will see the keyword as
relevant to your site?
Competition research. Identify top competitors for your preferred
keywords.
Document your assumptions and tools. Compare them to your actual
results, and improve your targeting.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Competitor Analysis
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Age. Older sites generally have more authority.
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Size and quality. A site with many indexed pages and lots of good-quality content
indicates a strong competitor.
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URLs. Sites with keywords in their URLs may be harder to beat.
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Title and description tags. Are they properly optimized? If not, this may indicate a
weak competitor.
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Anchor text. Are they making good use of anchor text, or are they using generic
phrases like "click here"? Unoptimized anchor text may indicate a weak competitor.
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Site architecture. Is it deep or flat? How easy is it to use? How well organized is it?
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Incoming links. A site with many high-quality incoming links may be harder to
outrank.
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Presence on social media. An active, engaged following on one or more social
media channels may indicate a strong competitor.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Adding Keywords
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URLs. File paths should include keywords, where possible.
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Page title. Each page title should include primary keywords.
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Description. Your description text should feature the most important
content right away, so that it will appear clearly in the search results.
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Headline tags. Each page on your site should include an <h1> headline tag
that defines its subject matter.
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Anchor text should contain your keywords where possible, or identify the
link destination.
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Link title tags. Putting informative text in these tags can improve the user’s
experience, and help spiders to understand what the linked page is about.
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Body text. Your primary keywords should appear in the first paragraph of
body text on each page.
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Image alt tags. Where possible, these tags should incorporate your
keywords.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Copywriting Tips
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Write about what you know. The Internet is full of ill-informed speculation
and opinion. Sticking to practical, helpful facts will make your content stand out.
Stay focused. Your content should flow logically from one paragraph to the next.
Don’t try to cover too much ground at once. If content doesn’t seem to fit, use it
for another article.
Quality is more important than quantity. It’s better to have less content
than to fill space with material that lacks utility, credibility or interest.
Format text carefully. Short paragraphs, correct punctuation and informative
headlines are best for online text.
Don’t use quotes unless you’re quoting someone. Many inexperienced
writers put quotes around everything from “figures of speech” to “product
names.” This is “unnecessary” and “distracting.”
Don’t overuse exclamation points!!!!! Use them only when absolutely
necessary, and never use more than one at a time. Multiple exclamation points
communicate inexperience and desperation.
Avoid clichés and buzzwords. Don’t try to highlight innovation or originality
with worn-out phrases like out of the box or pushing the envelope. And don’t use
business or industry jargon that your readers may not understand.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Good Link Sources
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Suppliers, clients, partners and business customers
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Noncompeting businesses that sell a complementary product
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Local chamber of commerce
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Professional organizations or business groups to which you belong
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Better Business Bureau
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Blogs
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Mentions on social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, SlideShare)
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Charities and sponsorships
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Writing articles and reviews on high-profile sites
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Reviews of your products on other sites
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Identity Standards
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Fonts. What fonts will you use for body text? Headlines? Emails? PowerPoint
presentations?
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Colors. What colors will your business use for print and online
communications? Identify spot colors, CMYK and RGB.
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Logo. When and where should your logo be used? How much white space
should it have on each side? What’s the smallest size at which it’s still legible?
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Company name and address. This information should always be the same,
no matter where it appears.
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Branded names and terms. If you use special terms in your business, your
identity standards guide should list them.
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Titles and positions. Marketing Director, or Director of Marketing?
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Social Media Platforms
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Blogs are online journals containing text, graphics, photos, audio and video
content. This category also includes microblogging formats like Twitter and
Tumblr.
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Social networking sites like Facebook create connections and build trustbased communities. Geosocial networks like Foursquare allow interaction
between individuals and businesses in a specific location.
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Social bookmarking sites allow users to gather, rate and recommend
websites, news stories and other content. Examples include StumbleUpon and
Reddit.
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Multimedia sites like YouTube and SlideShare allow users to share
multimedia content like videos and slideshows.
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Consumer review sites like Yelp and Epinions allow users to find, rate and
review businesses and products.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Rules for Social Media
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TAKE YOUR TIME. Get to know the platform, the site and the community before
participating.
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BE HONEST. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not.
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BE CONSISTENT. Maintain a clear conceptual and visual identity across all social
media channels.
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BE HELPFUL. Answer questions, provide advice, seek out and link to worthwhile
content.
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BE RESPECTFUL. Don’t spam users or sites with marketing messages, or use social
media as a vehicle for shameless self-promotion. Help yourself by helping others.
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STAY ENGAGED. Keep your content fresh and current. Post regularly, even if it’s just
a link to someone else’s article. Respond promptly and courteously to comments and
requests.
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HAVE FUN! You should enjoy interacting with people on social media.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Site Statistics
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Search engines. Which ones
send the most traffic?
Visitors. How many are new?
How many are unique? Is your
traffic going up or down?
Visit duration. What’s the
average visit length?
Page views. How many did the
average visitor view?
Bounce rate. What percentage of
visitors left a landing page without
converting or visiting other pages?
Location. Where do your visitors
come from?
Popularity. Which pages are most
popular?
Referring sites. Which sites
drove traffic? How much did they
send? What did visitors do on your
site?
 Incoming links. How many
incoming links do you have? What
is the quality of the linking sites?
 Keywords. Which keywords
attract the most traffic? How
relevant are they? How many are
branded?
 Conversions. In addition to sales,
track mailing list signups, quote
requests, downloads, comment
submissions, subscriptions, social
media followers, etc.
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Project Management Basics
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Prioritize feasible projects.
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Identify every task necessary to accomplish your goals.
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Determine the scope, timeframe, benchmarks and budget for each task.
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Assign tasks, and specify due dates.
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Establish a review process to ensure that milestones are met.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
The NxLeveL® SEO Action Plan
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Project. Describe the task.
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Team. Assign responsibility.
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Resources. What does the project require?
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Estimated Costs. What will it cost?*
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Variance (+/-). Is the actual cost higher or lower than the estimate?**
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Success Indicators. Define benchmarks.
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Next Steps. How do you move forward? (Note: This includes taking
corrective actions.)
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Timeline (in weeks). Estimate the time needed for completion.*
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Variance (+/-). Is the actual time higher or lower than the estimate?**
*These numbers will not change over the course of the project.
**These numbers should change weekly as the project progresses.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION