Honest SEO

Deck from my presentation at Refresh Boston.

Transcript

1. Honest SEO m
2. @matthewcrist Matthew Crist
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. Clients Me
5. Clients Me “Our SEO guy...”
6. Clients Me “Our SEO guy...” “SEO said...” “That’s great, but our SEO guy...”
7. Upper Management
8. Upper Management Middle Management
9. Upper Management Middle Management Designers & Developers
10. Upper Management Middle Management Designers & Developers SEO Team
11. The Problem With SEO
12. SEOs Game the System
13. SEOs Game the System Search engine users complain
14. SEOs Game the System Search engine users complain Search engines update algorithms
15. SEOs Game the System Search engine users complain Search engines update algorithms Sites drop rankings
16. SEOs Game the System Search engine users complain Search engines update algorithms Sites drop rankings
17. This “dance” requires cash and resources.
18. 0 10 20 30 40 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Google Update Velocity
19. Too much above the fold Ad Content Links Ad Ad Links Some other useless thing
20. Too Much Crap Ad Links Ad Ad Links Some other useless thing Not enough content
21. Nefarious Inbound Links Unrelated Sites Related Sites Your Site
22. Bought links on various unrelated sites
23. Bought links on various unrelated sites Discovered by the New York Times
24. Bought links on various unrelated sites Discovered by the New York Times Delisted by Google
25. Content Farms
26. Demand Media
27. Demand Media Created thousands of content pieces
28. Demand Media Created thousands of content pieces Content quality was low.
29. Demand Media Created thousands of content pieces Content quality was low. Google lowered the boom and they lost $4.1 million.
30. Demand Media Created thousands of content pieces Content quality was low. Google lowered the boom and they lost $4.1 million. Also: Lance Armstrong's Legacy Is A Content Farm
31. Good SEO
32. Other 4% Bing 29% Google 67%
33. 1. Forget rankings Rankings don’t matter when measuring SEO success.
34. Traffic + Conversions SEO win
35. 2. Great Content
36. 2. Great Content it’s what people are looking for
37. 2. Great Content it’s what people are looking for it get’s shared socially
38. 2. Great Content it’s what people are looking for it get’s shared socially it goes viral
39. 2. Follow the guidelines Google and Bing both provide detailed guidelines to get great rankings. Google Webmaster Guidelines Bing Webmaster Guidelines http://cri.st/N42J http://cri.st/N3gY
40. “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.” - Google
41. Important Guidelines
42. Important Guidelines Accessibility is solid SEO
43. Important Guidelines Accessibility is solid SEO Don’t deceive your users
44. Important Guidelines Accessibility is solid SEO Don’t deceive your users Don’t participate in any linking schemes
45. Important Guidelines Accessibility is solid SEO Don’t deceive your users Don’t participate in any linking schemes Don’t stuff keywords
46. 3. Users over SEO Happy customers = Traffic
47. Happy Customers...
48. Happy Customers... Share your site via social networks
49. Happy Customers... Share your site via social networks Link to your site from their sites
50. Happy Customers... Share your site via social networks Link to your site from their sites Convert
51. 4. Keywords Don’t spend hours researching keywords.
52. 4. Keywords Don’t spend hours researching keywords. users don’t search rarely for exact match keywords
53. 4. Keywords Don’t spend hours researching keywords. users don’t search rarely for exact match keywords users search for answers to their problems
54. Implementing Good SEO
55. “...don’t spend money on aggressive search engine optimization.” - Paul Boag
56. Performance
57. Performance Use CSS3 instead of images
58. Performance Use CSS3 instead of images Cache and compress as much as possible
59. Performance Use CSS3 instead of images Cache and compress as much as possible Reduce HTTP requests
60. Performance Use CSS3 instead of images Cache and compress as much as possible Reduce HTTP requests Use CDNs for assets
61. Get people to link to your site, aka inbound links.
62. Get people to link to your site, aka inbound links. helps search engines determine your site’s importance
63. Get people to link to your site, aka inbound links. helps search engines determine your site’s importance must be natural
64. Get people to link to your site, aka inbound links. helps search engines determine your site’s importance must be natural must be from relevant sources
65. Link to your site from your site, aka internal links
66. Link to your site from your site aka internal links helps users find your content
67. Link to your site from your site aka internal links helps users find your content helps search engines find your content
68. Link to your site from your site aka internal links helps users find your content helps search engines find your content must be relevant and contextual
69. Link to your site from your site aka internal links helps users find your content helps search engines find your content must be relevant and contextual must not go overboard
70. HTML
71. HTML simple, semantic markup
72. HTML simple, semantic markup responsive design
73. HTML simple, semantic markup responsive design use rel attributes
74. HTML simple, semantic markup responsive design use rel attributes unobtrusive use of javascript
75. HTML simple, semantic markup responsive design use rel attributes unobtrusive use of javascript ARIA
76. HTML simple, semantic markup responsive design use rel attributes unobtrusive use of javascript ARIA Schema.org
77. Schema.org A collection of microformats that is recognized by all search engines.
78. ARIA HTML attributes that help define semantics.
79. Meta Tags
80. Meta Tags keywords
81. Meta Tags keywords
82. Meta Tags keywords description
83. Meta Tags keywords description author
84. Design your URLS
85. Design your URLS domain.com?post=1234
86. Design your URLS domain.com?post=1234
87. Design your URLS domain.com?post=1234 Design your URLS twitter.com/matthewcrist
89. <title>Beer - Wikipedia...</title>
90. <title>Beer - Wikipedia...</title> <meta name=”description” content=”{content}”>
91. <title>Beer - Wikipedia...</title> <meta name=”description” content=”{content}”> Google Authorship
92. <title>Beer - Wikipedia...</title> <meta name=”description” content=”{content}”> Google Authorship Sitelinks
93. http://bit.ly/refresh-boston-seo
94. Fin.