3. Determining Your SEO Objectives and Defining Your Site’s Audience
by Jessie Stricchiola, Rand Fishkin, Stephan Spencer, Eric Enge
The Art of SEO
- The Art of SEO
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1. The Search Engines: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce
- The Mission of Search Engines
- The Market Share of Search Engines
- The Human Goals of Searching
- Determining Searcher Intent: A Challenge for Both Marketers and Search Engines
- How People Search
- How Search Engines Drive Commerce on the Web
- Eye Tracking: How Users Scan Results Pages
- Click Tracking: How Users Click on Results, Natural Versus Paid
- Conclusion
- 2. Search Engine Basics
- Understanding Search Engine Results
- Algorithm-Based Ranking Systems: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking
- Determining Searcher Intent and Delivering Relevant, Fresh Content
- Analyzing Ranking Factors
- Using Advanced Search Techniques
- Vertical Search Engines
- Country-Specific Search Engines
- Conclusion
- 3. Determining Your SEO Objectives and Defining Your Site’s Audience
- Setting SEO Goals and Objectives
- Developing an SEO Plan Prior to Site Development
- Understanding Your Audience and Finding Your Niche
- SEO for Raw Traffic
- SEO for E-Commerce Sales
- SEO for Mindshare/Branding
- SEO for Lead Generation and Direct Marketing
- SEO for Reputation Management
- SEO for Ideological Influence
- Conclusion
- 4. First Stages of SEO
- The Major Elements of Planning
- Identifying the Site Development Process and Players
- Defining Your Site’s Information Architecture
- Auditing an Existing Site to Identify SEO Problems
- Elements of an Audit
- Usability
- Accessibility/spiderability
- Search engine health check
- Keyword health checks
- Duplicate content checks
- URL check
- Title tag review
- Content review
- Meta tag review
- Sitemaps file and robots.txt file verification
- Redirect checks
- Internal linking checks
- Avoidance of unnecessary subdomains
- Geolocation
- External linking
- Page load time
- Image alt tags
- Code quality
- The Importance of Keyword Reviews
- Keyword Cannibalization
- Example: Fixing an Internal Linking Problem
- Server and Hosting Issues
- Elements of an Audit
- Identifying Current Server Statistics Software and Gaining Access
- Determining Top Competitors
- Assessing Historical Progress
- Benchmarking Current Indexing Status
- Benchmarking Current Rankings
- Benchmarking Current Traffic Sources and Volume
- Leveraging Business Assets for SEO
- Combining Business Assets and Historical Data to Conduct SEO/Website SWOT Analysis
- Conclusion
- 5. Keyword Research
- The Theory Behind Keyword Research
- Traditional Approaches: Domain Expertise, Site Content Analysis
- Keyword Research Tools
- Determining Keyword Value/Potential ROI
- Leveraging the Long Tail of Keyword Demand
- Trending, Seasonality, and Seasonal Fluctuations in Keyword Demand
- Conclusion
- 6. Developing an SEO-Friendly Website
- Making Your Site Accessible to Search Engines
- Creating an Optimal Information Architecture
- Root Domains, Subdomains, and Microsites
- Optimization of Domain Names/URLs
- Keyword Targeting
- Title Tags
- Meta Description Tags
- Heading (H1, H2, H3) Tags
- Document Text
- Image Filenames and Alt Attributes
- Boldface Text
- Avoiding Keyword Cannibalization
- Keyword Targeting in CMSs and Automatically Generated Content
- SEO Copywriting: Encouraging Effective Keyword Targeting by Content Creators
- Long Tail Keyword Targeting
- Content Optimization
- Duplicate Content Issues
- Controlling Content with Cookies and Session IDs
- Content Delivery and Search Spider Control
- Cloaking and Segmenting Content Delivery
- When to Show Different Content to Engines and Visitors
- How to Display Different Content to Search Engines Versus Visitors
- The robots.txt file
- The Rel="NoFollow” attribute
- The meta robots tag
- The canonical tag
- Blocking and cloaking by IP address range
- Blocking and cloaking by user agent
- Using iframes
- Hiding text in images
- Hiding text in Java applets
- Forcing form submission
- Using login/password protection
- Removing URLs from a search engine’s index
- Redirects
- Content Management System (CMS) Issues
- Optimizing Flash
- Best Practices for Multilanguage/Country Targeting
- Conclusion
- 7. Creating Link-Worthy Content and Link Marketing
- How Links Influence Search Engine Rankings
- Further Refining How Search Engines Judge Links
- The Psychology of Linking
- Types of Link Building
- Choosing the Right Link-Building Strategy
- More Approaches to Content-Based Link Acquisition
- Incentive-Based Link Marketing
- How Search Engines Fight Link Spam
- Social Networking for Links
- Conclusion
- 8. Optimizing for Vertical Search
- The Opportunities in Vertical Search
- Optimizing for Local Search
- Optimizing for Image Search
- Optimizing for Product Search
- Optimizing for News, Blog, and Feed Search
- Others: Mobile, Video/Multimedia Search
- Conclusion
- 9. Tracking Results and Measuring Success
- Why Measuring Success Is Essential to the SEO Process
- Measuring Search Traffic
- Tying SEO to Conversion and ROI
- Competitive and Diagnostic Search Metrics
- Search Engine and Competitive Metrics
- Site Indexing Data
- Link Building, Link Tracking, and Link-Based Metrics (Including Anchor Text Analysis)
- Rankings
- Crawl Errors
- Tracking the Blogosphere
- Tracking Your Blog(s)
- Search Engine Robot Traffic Analysis
- Web Traffic Comparison
- Temporal Link Growth Measurements
- Key Performance Indicators for Long Tail SEO
- Conclusion
- 10. Domain Changes, Post-SEO Redesigns, and Troubleshooting
- The Basics of Moving Content
- Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After a Site Redesign
- Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After Domain Name Changes
- Changing Servers
- Hidden Content
- Spam Filtering and Penalties
- Content Theft
- Changing SEO Vendors or Staff Members
- Conclusion
- 11. Honing the Craft: SEO Research and Study
- SEO Research and Analysis
- Competitive Analysis
- Using Search-Engine-Supplied SEO Tools
- The SEO Industry on the Web
- Participation in Conferences and Organizations
- Conclusion
- 12. Build an In-House SEO Team, Outsource It, or Both?
- The Dynamics and Challenges of Using In-House Talent Versus Outsourcing
- Solutions for Small Organizations
- Working with Limited Resources/Budget
- Solutions for Large Organizations
- Hiring SEO Talent
- The Case for Working with an Outside Expert
- Selecting an SEO Firm/Consultant
- Getting the Process Started
- Preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP)
- Step 1: Nominate a “point person” for the engagement
- Step 2: Define “needs” and “wants” using a decision matrix
- Step 3: Define your success metrics
- Step 4: Prepare to disclose all known influencing factors
- Step 5: Provide an estimated timeline and budget for project completion
- A sample RFP document outline
- Communicating with Candidate SEO Firms
- Making the Decision
- Mixing Outsourced SEO with In-House SEO Teams
- Building a Culture of SEO into Your Organization
- Conclusion
- 13. An Evolving Art Form: The Future of SEO
- Index
- About the Authors
- Colophon
- Copyright
-
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