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Honest SEO

Matthew Crist
February 22, 2013

Honest SEO

Deck from my presentation at Refresh Boston.

Matthew Crist

February 22, 2013
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Transcript

  1. Honest SEO
    m

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  2. @matthewcrist
    Matthew Crist

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  3. Search Engine Optimization

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  4. Clients
    Me

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  5. Clients
    Me

    “Our SEO guy...”

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  6. Clients
    Me

    “Our SEO guy...”

    “SEO said...”

    “That’s great,
    but our SEO guy...”

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  7. Upper Management

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  8. Upper Management

    Middle Management

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  9. Upper Management

    Middle Management


    Designers & Developers

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  10. Upper Management

    Middle Management


    Designers & Developers

    SEO Team

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  11. The Problem With SEO

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  12. SEOs Game
    the System

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  13. SEOs Game
    the System
    Search engine
    users complain

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  14. SEOs Game
    the System
    Search engine
    users complain
    Search engines
    update algorithms

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  15. SEOs Game
    the System
    Search engine
    users complain
    Search engines
    update algorithms
    Sites drop
    rankings

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  16. SEOs Game
    the System
    Search engine
    users complain
    Search engines
    update algorithms
    Sites drop
    rankings

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  17. This “dance” requires cash and resources.

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  18. 0
    10
    20
    30
    40
    2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
    Google Update Velocity

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  19. Too much above the fold
    Ad
    Content
    Links
    Ad
    Ad
    Links
    Some other useless thing

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  20. Too Much Crap
    Ad
    Links
    Ad
    Ad
    Links
    Some other useless thing
    Not enough content

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  21. Nefarious Inbound Links
    Unrelated Sites Related Sites
    Your Site

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  22. Bought links on various unrelated sites

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  23. Bought links on various unrelated sites
    Discovered by the New York Times

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  24. Bought links on various unrelated sites
    Discovered by the New York Times
    Delisted by Google

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  25. Content Farms

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  26. Demand Media

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  27. Demand Media
    Created thousands of content pieces

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  28. Demand Media
    Created thousands of content pieces
    Content quality was low.

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  29. Demand Media
    Created thousands of content pieces
    Content quality was low.
    Google lowered the boom and they
    lost $4.1 million.

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  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

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  31. Good SEO

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  32. Other
    4%
    Bing
    29%
    Google
    67%

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  33. 1. Forget rankings
    Rankings don’t matter when
    measuring SEO success.

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  34. Traffic
    + Conversions
    SEO win

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  35. 2. Great Content

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  36. 2. Great Content
    it’s what people are looking for

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  37. 2. Great Content
    it’s what people are looking for
    it get’s shared socially

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  38. 2. Great Content
    it’s what people are looking for
    it get’s shared socially
    it goes viral

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  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

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  40. “Make pages primarily for
    users, not for search engines.”
    - Google

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  41. Important Guidelines

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  42. Important Guidelines
    Accessibility is solid SEO

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  43. Important Guidelines
    Accessibility is solid SEO
    Don’t deceive your users

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  44. Important Guidelines
    Accessibility is solid SEO
    Don’t deceive your users
    Don’t participate in any linking schemes

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  45. Important Guidelines
    Accessibility is solid SEO
    Don’t deceive your users
    Don’t participate in any linking schemes
    Don’t stuff keywords

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  46. 3. Users over SEO
    Happy customers = Traffic

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  47. Happy Customers...

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  48. Happy Customers...
    Share your site via social networks

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  49. Happy Customers...
    Share your site via social networks
    Link to your site from their sites

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  50. Happy Customers...
    Share your site via social networks
    Link to your site from their sites
    Convert

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  51. 4. Keywords
    Don’t spend hours
    researching keywords.

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  52. 4. Keywords
    Don’t spend hours
    researching keywords.
    users don’t search rarely for exact match keywords

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  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

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  54. Implementing
    Good SEO

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  55. “...don’t spend money on
    aggressive search engine
    optimization.”
    - Paul Boag

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  56. Performance

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  57. Performance
    Use CSS3 instead of images

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  58. Performance
    Use CSS3 instead of images
    Cache and compress as much as possible

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  59. Performance
    Use CSS3 instead of images
    Cache and compress as much as possible
    Reduce HTTP requests

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  60. Performance
    Use CSS3 instead of images
    Cache and compress as much as possible
    Reduce HTTP requests
    Use CDNs for assets

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  61. Get people to link to your
    site, aka inbound links.

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  62. Get people to link to your
    site, aka inbound links.
    helps search engines determine your site’s importance

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  63. Get people to link to your
    site, aka inbound links.
    helps search engines determine your site’s importance
    must be natural

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  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

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  65. Link to your site from your
    site, aka internal links

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  66. Link to your site from your
    site aka internal links
    helps users find your content

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  67. Link to your site from your
    site aka internal links
    helps users find your content
    helps search engines find your content

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  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

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  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

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  70. HTML

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  71. HTML
    simple, semantic markup

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  72. HTML
    simple, semantic markup
    responsive design

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  73. HTML
    simple, semantic markup
    responsive design
    use rel attributes

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  74. HTML
    simple, semantic markup
    responsive design
    use rel attributes
    unobtrusive use of javascript

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  75. HTML
    simple, semantic markup
    responsive design
    use rel attributes
    unobtrusive use of javascript
    ARIA

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  76. HTML
    simple, semantic markup
    responsive design
    use rel attributes
    unobtrusive use of javascript
    ARIA
    Schema.org

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  77. Schema.org
    A collection of microformats
    that is recognized by all
    search engines.

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  78. ARIA
    HTML attributes that help
    define semantics.

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  79. Meta Tags

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  80. Meta Tags
    keywords

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  81. Meta Tags
    keywords

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  82. Meta Tags
    keywords
    description

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  83. Meta Tags
    keywords
    description
    author

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  84. Design your URLS

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  85. Design your URLS
    domain.com?post=1234

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  86. Design your URLS
    domain.com?post=1234

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  87. Design your URLS
    domain.com?post=1234
    Design your URLS
    twitter.com/matthewcrist

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  89. Beer - Wikipedia...

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  90. Beer - Wikipedia...

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  91. Beer - Wikipedia...

    Google Authorship

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  92. Beer - Wikipedia...

    Google Authorship
    Sitelinks

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  93. http://bit.ly/refresh-boston-seo

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  94. Fin.

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