SEO and the Startup:What is SEO and why should you care?

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and for what people search.

Source: Wikipedia

What is SEM?

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote Web sites by increasing their visibility in search-engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, paid links and paid inclusion.

Source: Wikipedia

Paid vs. Organic Search

Why care about SEO?

• US Internet users spend an average of 17 hours per week online.

• 65% of Internet users look for information about various products and services on the Internet and buy online

• 22% of users have a specific search engine dedicated as their home page. 

• 66% of Internet users make purchases online.

• 52% of Internet users do not click on online ads.

2009 study by the University of South Carolina’s Center for the Digital Future

“I will see results immediately.”

Truth: SEO is no guarantee, and it takes time.

• Establish relevancy• Participate• Remain fresh• Age is power

“I can buy my way to the top”

Truth: Pay Per Click (PPC) is not SEO

• Quick fix • Way to drive new traffic• Way to consistently feed new visitors to your site

The parameters for search rankings are always in flux, so you need to constantly be working on SEO.

“It’s all about keywords.” Truth:

SEO is a multi-tiered strategy that is always in flux.

• Page Rank• Page Speed• Hits• Relevancy• Frequency• Bookmarks• Programming elements• Links• Listings• Keywords• URL Structure• Domain redirects

Keyword Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

What is Page Rank & how do I improve it?PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using

its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".

• Google ranks on 0-10 scale• Number of inbound links + Page Rank of inbound linked pages• Relevance of search words on page and actual page visits

Search Ranking = Relevance * PageRank

0-3:  New sites or sites with very minimal links

4-5:  Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links

6:  Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links

7-10:  Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers.

Source: Hub Spot

Bookmarking Sites + ListingsBookmarking sites• Digg• Delicious• Technorati• Networked Blogs• Loaded Web• Industry Directories

Listings• Google Local Business Center• Yelp• Yahoo! Local Features• Bing Listings• Merchant Circle• Insider Pages• Yellow Pages• Super Pages

How to acquire hits?

Blog: Have a Web site news page and post to it regularly – no less than once per month.

Social Media: • Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. to link people to your site• Participate in industry-related blogs establishing your expertise and linking back to

articles you’ve already written• Bookmark articles and make “list” stories that people will also want to index

Email Marketing• Build your database and send regular email blasts with relevant information to your

clients• Use sophisticated email marketing software that allows segmenting• Track results and analyze data

PPCLinksListings

In the Land of Code

• Title Tags• Description Tags• Header Tags – not images• URL Structure• Domain Redirect• Navigation• Flash Elements – use sparingly• Name Images• Submit Site Maps• Add Google Analytics – it’s free! • Small File Sizes – increase speed

Title & Description Tags

•Unique title tags for each page – 70< characters•Unique, relevant content description for each page – 150< characters

URL Structure

Bad Structure

Good Structure

Google Analytics

Selecting an SEO Team• The Keyword Confusion Red Flag:

An SEO company provides you with keywords. 

• The Minimum Red Flag: SEO firm is more than optimizing a few pages of your site…every page should be treated as a homepage. 

• The No References Red Flag • The Guarantee Red Flag:

If your SEO firm guarantees that your web site will have high search engine rankings or a high number of leads, they’re lying.

• The Opaque Red Flag: Hidden practices are a tip-off.

• The “Get ‘er Done” Red Flag: Beware of firms claiming SEO is a “one-time thing.” 

Source: Finding The Company That Gets You Found On The Webby JoAnna Dettmann and Kaysha Kalkofen, tSunela

Helpful LinksGoogle Keywords Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Google Webmaster Toolhttp://www.google.com/webmasters/

Bing Webmasterhttp://www.bing.com/webmaster

Yahoo Site Explorer (Webmaster tool)http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Hub Spot’s Website Grader – a good starting point but not foolproofhttp://websitegrader.com/

Google Page Speed Toolhttp://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/

Yahoo! Page Speed Toolhttp://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

SEOMozhttp://www.seomoz.org/mozbar