practical seo tips

PRACTICAL SEO TIPS
By Dan Petrovic
http://dejanseo.com.au
Twitter: @dejanseo
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Traffic Increase
How Google Works
Keyword Research
Competitor Research
Content Optimisation
Page Optimisation
Link Building
Performance Tracking
Website Analysis
• Traffic Increase
– Marketing
• eMarketing
– Internet Marketing
» Affiliate
» Display Ads
» Reviews
» SEM (PPC)
» SEO (Organic Traffic)
• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
– Drive traffic through search engine results
– Higher position = more traffic?
• Research: volume, competitors
– Higher traffic = more sales?
• Research: relevance, conversions, CTA (call to action)
Organic & Paid Results
What does it mean to ‘be on the first page’?
Deciding What to Target?
Phrase Research
Google Keyword Tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Key Terms:
• Initial search
• Refinement
• Site based search
• Disambiguation
• Industry-only jargon removal
Competitor Research
Competitor’s Links:
Competitor Research
Competitor’s Tags & Content:
How Google Works
1. Importance of Content
2. Importance of Links
3. Practical Examples
Result Sorting
Sorting Criteria:
1. Relevance
2. Importance
Other:
a. Timing
b. Site Type
c. Geographic
d. Lingual
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Car Insurance, Home Insurance, Life Insurance, Income Protection ...
Get FREE online quotes for car insurance, life insurance, home & contents
insurance, income protection insurance and bicycle insurance.
www.realinsurance.com.au/ - Cached - Similar
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Life Insurance Australia - Life Insurance Quotes - Allianz Australia
Life insurance quotes online from Allianz for cover up to $1.5 Million. Help
protect your family with a premium Life Insurance policy from Allianz, ...
www.allianz.com.au/allianz/life+insurance.html - Cached - Similar
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Life Insurance | Life Insurance Quotes | Aussie
Apply over the phone in minutes. There are no blood tests and no medicals.
Get life insurance cover today.
www.aussie.com.au/insurance/life-insurance.htm - Cached - Similar
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Life Insurance - Real Insurance
Life Insurance from Real Insurance offers FREE online quotes.
www.life.realinsurance.com.au/ - Cached
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Life Insurance, Term & Personal Insurance - Medibank Private
Medibank Life Insurance can provide you with comprehensive, affordable life
insurance and the peace of mind to help secure the financial future for
your ...
www.medibank.com.au/Life-Insurance.aspx - Cached - Similar
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Life Insurance, Funeral & Accident Insurance - Guardian Insurance
With Guardian, life insurance cover is uncomplicated and easy to get. Our
products are transparent, flexible and easy to understand; offering financial ...
www.guardianinsurance.com.au/ - Cached - Similar
Search Engine Signals
• Links represent one of many signals:
– Page Titles
– Headings
– Content
– Domain
– Images
– Links
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<title>Page Title</title>
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
Keyword Usage, Context, Semantics
keyword.com
alt=“Image Description”
<a href=http://site.com>anchor</a>
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Link Graph
Friend
Blog
Supplier
YOU
Partner
Related?
Competitor
Forum
Search engines judge you by your links.
CLICK HERE?
Who ranks #1 for click here?
Link Anatomy
Click Here
<a href=“http://mysite.com”>Click Here</a>
Note: Text in link is called “Anchor Text”
Voting System
Linker
VOTE
Linked
Every link is a vote from one site to another:
a) When you link to others you vote for them.
b) When others link to you they vote for you.
Bottom Line: Get others to link to you.
Link Quality
Not all links are equal:
SITE A
SITE C
YOU
Link Quality & Quantity
SITE A
SITE B
SITE C
SITE D
YOU
Number of outgoing links on site that links to
you affects the link value. Less is better.
No Follow?
<a rel=“nofollow” href=“http://site.com”>anchor text</a>
SITE A
SITE B
Nofollow = No trust = No vote
META, robots.txt, link
Example: Blog comments, Forums, Social Media
Link Acquisition Methods
• Learn more about your existing links
– Google Webmaster Tools:
• Your website on the web
• Links to your site
• Analyse anchor text
LINK: google.com/webmasters/tools/
How to get links?
Your Current Links
Oh, nice!
Why did these people link to me?
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Analyse and understand your links
Discover most linked content
Find new link ideas
Form new partnerships and alliances
Fix wrong links (more about that later…)
Who links to my competitors?
• Yahoo & Google
– link:http://www.mycompetitor.com.au
• Discover new link opportunities
• Understand your competitor’s strengths
Link Building Ideas
– Local Directories / Niche Directories
– Guest Blogging
– Industry Associations / Memberships
– Social Media Participation
– Non-competing businesses
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Lawyer in Sydney & Lawyer in Melbourne
Hotel booking & Tour guides
Hosted content or functionality
Avoid links_9.html and resources_020.php pages (spam!)
Link Building Ideas
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Business partners & alliances
Product or service suppliers
Web design company (portfolio page)
Your office space / building complex
– Customers
• Incentivise: Offer discount and extras to linking customers
• Share: Customers like to brag about recently purchased
product
• Celebrate: Happy customer testimonials
Link Building Ideas
– Positive Reviews, Feedback and Testimonials
– Incorrect links or no links on brand and content
• “click here”, “read more” (should be “main phrase”)
• www.yourwebsite.com.au and yourwebsite.com.au
• www.yourwebsite.com.au/deleted_page.html
– Google Alerts!
Search Tips
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link:dejanseo.com.au
cache:dejanseo.com.au
site:dejanseo.com.au
site:dejanseo.com.au Dan
Sample of backlinks
Cached page
Lists all indexed pages
Finds “Dan” on our site
• allinurl: “gardening” (e.g. website.com/gardening)
• allintitle: “cars” (e.g. Car Dealer Sydney)
• cheap “java books” -island -programming
Link Placement Example
Self-Generating Links
• “Link to us” page:
– Encourage linking to your site.
– Take control of how people link to you.
– Make it easy for people to do so.
• Social media sharing within content
• Useful Tools / Templates / Resources
• Link Bait Material
– Example: Steps on how to do up your tie
Finally: Theory in Practice
– Number of Links: 2000. No improvement.
– Competitor links: 20-100 in average.
– New links: 7
– Time: 3 months
– Position: #1
Conclusion: Link Quality, Trust & Relevance
Fun Examples
The ‘WOW’ Factor
Cheeky Linkbaits
Cheeky Linkbaits
Key Elements:
1. Fun
2. Different
3. Interesting
4. Distributable
5. Linkable
Expected Result:
1. Natural Links
2. Social Media
3. Emails
Useful & Serious
Key Elements:
1. Responsible
2. Endorsed
3. Serious
4. Helpful
5. Linkable
Expected Result:
1. edu/gov Links
2. org partnership
3. quotations
Performance Tracking
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Analytics
Website Analysis
SEO Tools
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Dejan SEO’s SERP Preview Tool
Google Webmaster Tools
Majestic SEO
SEOMoz
Browser Plugins:
– Nofollow
– PageRank
– Alexa
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