Blogging for natural search engine performance

Chris Bland

Senior Account Manager, SEO

Greenlight

Introduction to Greenlight

The largest independent search marketing agency in Europe, headquartered in London, and with offices in New York.

Clients across Europe, the US, and Asia with a track record of delivering results in competitive and aggressive online markets. Clients include P&G, Starwood Hotels, Expedia, American Express, RBS, Asda Wal-Mart, and more.

An established specialist organisation with 7 years experience …providing total search engine marketing …. and nothing else.

The only SEO agency in Europe with its own publisher network, making us the fastest link builders in the industry

Our Paid Search team is the only phd-driven Paid Search division in the UK, powered by a unique Search Science team with cutting edge technologies and systems.

Who we areWho we are

Client Services

Client Servicesdedicated account management, bespoke reporting & proactivity

Profilerconsumer, competitor, community and conversion intelligence

Architextrecommendations, build, consulting, training, and mentoring

LinkCatalystrapid and unique link building provision

Campaign Managementexpertly managed Paid Search campaigns

• Quant & AdAPTPHD-developed Paid Search Management technologies

Greenlight – Six operational divisionsGreenlight – Six operational divisions

Demonstrable Success in SEODemonstrable Success in SEO

Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Why search is important?Why search is important?

Over 32 million people in the UK are now online* £42 billion spent online in UK in 2007* 90% of people use search engines as primary means of finding

websites* 1.4 billion search queries carried out in the UK in July 2007 alone It is perfectly measurable and accountable and highly scalable It is an excellent channel to attract both new customers who

search on generic terms like ‘car insurance’ and existing customers who are more likely to use a search engine than to remember your web address

* Figures provided by Internet Advertising Bureau (www.iabuk.net)

The Search Engine IndustryThe Search Engine Industry

79% 43.7% 89.9% 88.5%

8% 28.8% 3.17% 3.4%

4% 12.8% 2.3% 1.4%

5% 5.4% <1% <1%

Big Four (UK): 96% 90% 95% 93%

Hitwise (2007) ComScore (2006)

XiTi (2007) Axandra (2007)

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Natural Results

Paid results

So where do you need to be?So where do you need to be?

Rankings need to be HIGH!

A database containing an index of the content of the Internet, which returns to the user a list of web pages that match a search query performed on that database.

What is a Search Engine?What is a Search Engine?

2. Software programs called

Spiders are sent out by search engines to scour the web, looking for web pages to add to the INDEX.

1. The Internet contains billions of

websites and documents.

3. A user searches a Search Engine

for whatever they want.

4. The Search Engine queries its

spider-compiled index for matches to the query, and ranks them in order of relevancy.

?

5. The Search Engine returns a

results page of websites to the user

A database containing an index of the content of the Internet, which returns to the user a list of web pages that match a search query performed on that database.

The Key IssuesThe Key Issues

?

Accessibility e.g. Links to Product pages cannot be followed by spiders because navigational menu is unfriendly to Search Engine Spiders.

X X X XCheap

flight to SpainNo

mention of flights or

Spain!

XRelevancy Your site and its pages need to be relevant for every conceivable search term that is relevant to your products, services, brand, and reflective of your business objectives.

How popular are

these sites?

Credibility Search engines factor in the link popularity of sites before deciding on where to rank them.

Credibility – A Voting ModelCredibility – A Voting Model

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.50.5

0.50.5

0.5

0.5

0.50.5

0.5

2.5

1

0.5

3.5

0.51

6.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

5.52.5

8.5

Credibility – ContextCredibility – Context

Hilton hotel deals

Cheap hotels

Cheap hotels

hotel d

ealsho

tel r

oom

s

New y

ork

hote

ls

New york hotels

hotel deals

Discount hotels

New YorkHotel rooms

travel deals

Cheap hotels

Book hotels

hotels

hotel guide

hotel guide

The main advantages of using blogs for SEO

The SEO Support RoleThe SEO Support Role

Blog posts add very usefully to the breadth of thematically relevant content of your site. This additional content has a distinct role in SEO strategy:

Reinforce prominence of main site landing pages for major target terms

- Highly contextualised linking

- High degree of control over the anchor text of the link being placed

- Dynamic linking when major keywords are used

Use blog post content pages to rank for ‘long-tail’ keywords

Search engine results page

- Attracts better CTR on research queries to blog.domain

- Blog vertical search

- Attract a double listing

- Google blog links

More Flexible and Diverse RankingsMore Flexible and Diverse Rankings

The main pages of your site should be working hard for you! Blog posts offer an opportunity to add visibility in areas that they are not so focused on:

Content can be quickly added and amended allowing for tactical use of SE rankings

Search engines often treat fresh content favourably

Blog posts are more discrete enabling you to rank for topics that you would rather not feature as part of your main site content

The more informal and familiar tone of blogs posts allow you to use and therefore rank for less ‘on-brand’ vocabulary that users may use naturally

Blogging for SEO – Case Study - McDonaldsBlogging for SEO – Case Study - McDonalds

How to take advantage of the SEO potential of blogs

Step 1 - Keyword Analysis: Identify and prioritise relevant keywordsStep 1 - Keyword Analysis: Identify and prioritise relevant keywords

Identify the full breadth of keywords and phrases that users might be searching for where you would like your site to appear. This should include all brand and product names, the main generic terms relating to your products or services, any relevant combinations of these (eg. with location words)

Use keyword generation tools eg. Google AdWords Suggestion tool

Use server traffic referral KWs to understand which words you are currently being found under

Use PPC campaign keywords to further reveal the long tail of possible search queries

Prioritise the full list according to:

Natural Search Volume (use Google Volume Estimator tool)

Commercial relevance

Rank (look for weak keywords where you do not rank on Page 1)

Step 2 – Devise keyword targeting strategyStep 2 – Devise keyword targeting strategy

Organise KWs into thematic keyword groups with no duplication between them

Identify a handful of real volume driving keyword opportunities in each category

Identify target landing pages for each of these – main landing pages

Identify important long-tail keywords or phrases (high PPC CTR or product relevance) – possible blog pages

Step 3 – Devise blog tactics to match keyword targeting strategyStep 3 – Devise blog tactics to match keyword targeting strategy

Create dynamic linking rules to benefit major traffic terms

Organise blog content categories to match keyword categories

Draw up lists of ideas for blog posts from long-tail target KWs

Step 4 – Optimisation: AccessibilityStep 4 – Optimisation: Accessibility

Ensure blog structure allows SE spiders to crawl the length and breadth of the blog content

Key issues with known blog software

Host on your site (subdomain is convention)

Step 5 – Optimisation: RelevancyStep 5 – Optimisation: Relevancy

Ensure that the blog post page itself is relevant to the term by considering its placement within the following key SEO page elements:

- Titles

- Heading

- Body content

Use pictures (particularly of obscure products or terminology) as these are often searched for in their own right and are often hard to include on main site pages

Step 6 – Optimisation: CredibilityStep 6 – Optimisation: Credibility

Insite - link to blog posts from other sections of the site

Use ‘nofollow’ tags to conserve credibility particularly if you link to competitors. Exception if you are linking to highly credible and relevant authority site

Offsite - exploit opportunities on other sites/blogs to highlight (and link to!) your posts

Blog content syndication (RSS)

Thanks for listening!Thanks for listening!

Chris Bland

Senior Account Manager, SEO

Greenlight

Chris.Bland@greenlightsearch.com