Modern Strategies for SEO SuccessJesse Laffen | Director, SEO Performance@jlaffen

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THIS PRESENTATION INCLUDES:

How Slingshot SEO thinks about search A new way of talking about holistic SEO 1 word Jesse had to look up in the dictionary to

use today Lots of interaction

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THIS PRESENTATION DOES NOT INCLUDE

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HOW SLINGSHOT SEO SEES SEARCH

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Page-Level (micro) vs. Domain-Level (macro) SEO

• Agreeing on “about us” page content with marketing• Formatting a standard product page to include a space for

content within a CMS• Measuring the relevance of the copy on a page to a keyword

phrase• Producing ROI analysis on month-over-last web commerce• Writing a week’s worth of social media content for publishing• Establishing organizational responsibilities & KPIs for internet

marketing• Changing a title tag• Submitting a request to change the color of a call-to-action

button

micro

micro

micro

micro

macro

macro

macro

macro

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Tactical vs. Strategic SEO

• Agreeing on “about us” page content with marketing• Formatting a standard product page to include a space for

content within a CMS• Measuring the relevance of the copy on a page to a keyword

phrase• Producing ROI analysis on month-over-last web commerce• Writing a week’s worth of social media content for publishing• Establishing organizational responsibilities & KPIs for internet

marketing• Changing a title tag• Submitting a request to change the color of a call-to-action

button

strategic

tactical

tactical

strategic

tactical

strategic

tactical

strategic

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Using these continua, we create a 2D SEO model:

Domain-level(Macro)

Page-level(Micro)

Tactical Strategic

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TACTICAL | PAGE-LEVEL

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Google in 2011:

February: Unleashed the “Panda” update, which evaluates the quality of a page’s worth to a visitor by measuring the value of the content on the page and the domain’s intent of producing value to its end user.

March through November: Rolls out two major overhauls and several smaller “tweaks” to the Panda algorithm filter.

October: Announces that a new “freshness” score, measuring the recentness of a page’s content, will affect as many as 35% of all searches.

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Google in 2011:

“[Google does] try to compensate if there is good quality content and people still make mistakes… Even if you do kind of brain-dead stupid things and shoot yourself in the foot, but have good content, we do want to return it.”

-Matt Cutts, Head of Google Webspam Team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0JD55e5h5JM

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“Since 1987, [Company A] has been the industry leader in turnkey solutions that work.

Our facilities are unparalleled in quality and we strive to offer the best service available.

We’re trusted by companies like Microsoft, Nike, and Amazon to provide rapid services with real ROI.”

“[Company B] provides drop-shipping services for e-commerce companies. Our clients are free to mix and match services like websites and hosting, payment processing, order fulfillment and shipping, call center support, real-time tracking and more.

We’ve helped hundreds of businesses build the right sites for their products and get those products onto the doorsteps of the people who buy them.”

What Does Your Website Talk About?

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Action Items:

• Find a quality copy writer, let them write.• Talk about what you do in plain

terms somewhere on your website. Answer the question “What is [keyword]”• Fill up your site with good

content.

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The Google PageRank Algorithm, in Pieces:

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The Google PageRank Algorithm - Simplified

“Why bother with a number that’s at best three steps removed from your actual goal, when you could instead directly measure what you want to achieve?”

-Susan Moskwa, Google Engineer

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/06/beyond-pagerank-graduating-to.html

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Link Metrics That Matter:

• Links are like references on a resume.• The best links are ones that a lot of

people want to click.

• Links are an endorsement of content.Corollary: Links cannot “make up for” other ranking inhibitors, like content.

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Link Removal

On-Page Off-Page? ? ?

no

yes yes

yesno

no

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TACTICAL | DOMAIN-LEVEL

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Landing Pages vs. Domains, 2002:

HomePage

LandingPage

GoodContent

GoodContent

links

HomePage

LandingPage

WeakContent

WeakContent

LINKS!!

Winner

links links

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Landing Pages vs. Domains, 2012:

HomePage

LandingPage

GoodContent

GoodContent

links

HomePage

LandingPage

WeakContent

WeakContent

LINKS!!

Winner

links links

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STRATEGIC | PAGE-LEVEL

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In-House Internet Marketer

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In-House Internet Marketer

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IT

Product Marketing

Web Production

User Interface

Bus. Units & Content Owners

PR & Social

Legal & Compliance

Branding

SEO

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STRATEGIC | DOMAIN LEVEL

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Enterprise Keyword Selection & Tracking

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Definitions & Decisions

• SEO goals• Reporting• Key Performance Indicators• Timelines & Benchmarks• Conversions• Owners & Decision-Makers• Software

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SEO ROI

= Revenue from SEO – Cost of SEO

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Traditional Valuation

Slide by Conductor

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Advanced Valuation

Slide by Conductor

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True Value

Slide by Conductor

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Q & A

Jesse Laffenjesse@slingshotseo.com@jlaffen