SEO Site Clinic
Putting It All Together
Michael Motherwell & Guy Wayland
SEO Bloke - WMS Consulting
http://www.wmsconsulting.com.au/cebit/
Conference @ CeBIT Australia
Darling Harbour, Sydney
3 May 2007
Sites Reviewed• www.diabetesnsw.com.au
– Anti-Sugar Brigade
• www.greenpeace.org/australia/ – As Dad Says, “Those Loopy Lefty Loonies”
• www.terrywhitedirect.com.au – Online Perfume Site
• One Pagers– www.perisherblue.com.au/winter/index.php
> Travel Website
– www.aussieweb.com.au> Australian Web Directory (Yellow Pages Without The Fluff)
www.diabetesnsw.com.au• As An Agenda Website, Rules Are Different
– Goals > To Raise Awareness
> Provide Solid Information
> Raise Funds?
– Generating Traffic Secondary
• Mission can Be Achieved Without Direct Traffic– Helping Promote Message Via Other Sites– Utilising Existing Resources To Further Goals
Utilise Existing Sites
Wikipedia
• Add Link As Relevant (And Appropriate)• Find Secondary Listings: eg Diabetes Management• DO NOT Spam (If You Need To Ask, It Is Spam)
Metadata• Page Titles
– Random – Most Common:– <title>Diabetes Australia - NSW. The only charity dealing
with all people with diabetes.</title>– Should Be Page Specific– Include Keywords, Describe Page (What Can I Expect?)
• Meta Descriptions– Only Yahoo Uses As Intended (Google/MSN Sporadically)– Currently None – Should Add– Should Read Well (Full Sentences)– Expand Upon Title
• Meta Keywords– Next Slide
Content• Use Standard HTML
– H1, H2 etc– <p class="redheadings"> -> h1 + CSS
• Links– Consistency - Home Link to www.diabetesnsw.com.au
NOT www.diabetesnsw.com.au/homepage.asp– Link Text Specific
Click Here BAD, Not Just For SEO, Usability Link Out Of Context Should Make Sense SEO Consultant Australia
• Keywords– Use Variations: See Diabetes Overture Results
Link Partners• Ask And Ye Shall Receive
– Feel Good Stories Get Lots Of Free Press – Use It– Send Link Requests As Part Of (Old Skool) PR
• Other Charities• Syndicate Content
– Cooking Sites– Health Sites
• Donors / Sponsors– Send Every Donor Standard Linking Code– Explain That Sponsoring Charities Can Add Credibility– Reciprocate – Share The Link Love
Errata• What Do You Want Users To Do?
– Phone?– Email?– Donate?– Make That Clear
• Dot t-s And Cross i-s– www.diabetesnsw.com.au/robots.txt– 404 Error Page
www.greenpeace.org/australia/ • Domain Issue
– URL Supplied To Me Above– So What Is sites.greenpeace.org.au?
Link Generation• Ditto Diabetes Australia• Friends
– Encourage Members To Link– Develop Link Codes And PROMOTE IT– Out Link Call Out On Every Page– Explain To Members Why It Matters– Make It Sound Subversive
• “The Enemy”– One Word: BLOG!!!!– Flamebait Works – Antagonise Opponents– Goad Them Into Responding– Link To Adverse Stuff
Million Dollar Idea (For Free*)
• Googlebombing• What Is It?
– Convince (Cajole?) Many People To Link To A Page> MUST ALL LINK TO EXACT SAME URL
> MUST ALL USE SAME WORDS IN LINK
– Page (Eventually) Ranks Number One For Words In The Link
• Does It Work?– Heck YEH!!!!!!!!!– Greatest Living American– Maybe Not Forever - Miserable Failure
* Cheque May Or May Not Be In The Mail
Script Step One: The Phrase• Pick A Phrase
– One That Is Important, But No Ranked For At Present– NOT Environmental Or Green Whatever– A “Competitor’s” Term
• Make It Controversial, Overtly Political And Oddball• Want the Left Linking In Glee• Want The Right Linking In Disgust• Some ideas:
– Coal Power, Nuclear Power (Currently 9th)
• My Personal Favourites:• The Election Is Coming!
– John Howard And/Or Liberal Party
Script Step 2: The Page• Choose A URL
– Use Keywords And .org.au (To Qualify As Aussie)– Not Rocket Surgery:
www.greenpeace.org.au/john-howard/
• Write A Page Of Content– <title>John Howard And Kyoto – Even More To Be Sorry
For – Greenpeace Australia</title>– <h1>Why Won’t John Howard Sign The Kyoto Treaty On
Carbon Emission Reduction? </h1>– Use Term Liberally (Triple Entendre {Jokes For Nerds!!!}) In Content
• Make Sure Page Includes:– Some Action e.g Kyoto Treaty Petition, Signup To
Newsletter, Donate Money etc– “Seed” Information e.g. “Want To Help? Link Here…”
Script Step 3: The Setup• Write Detailed Instructions
– Brief Explanation Of What Is Required– Have Standard Linking Code THIS IS THE KEY
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.com/john-howard/">John Howard</a>
– Include This Explanation On The Page To Spread Virus
• Seed Campaign To Get People Linking– Subscriber Base (Newsletters, Members)– Web 2.0 sites, Digg, Reddit etc– Put Out A Press Release – Get Some Media Buzz
• Site Back And Wait For Ranking (and Publicity) To Roll In
Script Step 4: Follow Up• Follow It Up
– Use Ranking To Generate Old Skool PR (Public Relations)
– Write Up A New Post With The Results– Link To All the Mentions In The Press About Story
• Need To Promise Me Something:
• If Piers Akerman Picks Up The Story…
• EMAIL ME!!! [email protected]
www.terrywhitedirect.com.au• eCommerce Site Selling Perfume• Trying To Do To Much
– No Page Can Be All Things To All Searches– Many Opportunities To Rank, So Don’t Panic!
• Product Page Busy
– Want Them To BUY – Make that Prominent
• Need To Slice And Dice– Many Categories Best Approach To Best Result– Manufacturer (Perfume House)– By Price
Metadata
• Page Titles LOOOONNNGG• The Great Revisit After Myth
– <META NAME="revisit-after" CONTENT="15 days">
• Close Second Robots– <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="all=index,follow">– Mistake (all= New To Me!)– Besides, Indexing And Following Is The Default!
• Description Good– But Why <p>?– Remove (Not Escape) HTML
Uniqueify• Duplicate FILTER
– NOT Penalty– Matches On Snippets– Looks Similar, Will be Filtered
• Value Add– Testimonials– Reviews– Comments
• This Is Vital– Not Much Chance If Same As Everyone Else
Page Elements• Make Logo Link
– People Expect It
• Footer / Tagline– Choose A (SHORT) Phrase– Most Important Terms (Perfume, Fragrance)– Stick It In Footer Or As Tagline
• Why Isn’t Chemist Logo A Link To Parent Site?
Errata• robots.txt
– http://www.terrywhitedirect.com.au/robots.txt– Never Hurts To Have One
• 404– 404 Should Tell Me What Happened– See www.apple.com/are-you-there-mr-jobs
www.perisherblue.com.au• Why Redirect?• What Is The Goal?
– Sales? News? What??
• Page Titles Backwards– Specifics First, Then More General– Append “Australia” To The End
• No JavaScript, No Menu – Indexing Issues– Sitemap work around– CSS Better
• 404 - http://www.perisherblue.com.au/me
www.aussieweb.com.au• Example To All
– Good URLs, Titles– Clean URL Structure– Slicing And Dicing
• 2 Small Errors In Meta Description– <meta name="description" content="AussieWeb Local
search helping your find Dance Training & Studios businesss in FLOREY />
– Missing Closing ", businesss– Description Can be Longer (None For Home Page BTW)– Looking for a Dance Training & Studios in Florey?
AussieWeb Local search can help you find one, as well as a number of other businesses either in Florey, or surrounding suburbs.
I Lied (Two Pages)
• Some Extra Ideas• More Slicing And Dicing
– Just Place (All Newtown Businesses)– Grouping Areas: Sydney, Brisvegas, Inner West
• Footer:– Searching Over 1.2 Million… In Footer (As Text)
• Perfect For Sitemaps– www.sitemaps.org– Add Into robots.txt: sitemaps.org/protocol.php#informing
• 404 – A Good Idea To Explain What Happened
If You Are Still Awake
Thanx!
Michael Motherwell
& Guy Wayland
WMS AustraliaPh: (02) 9365 4571
Em: [email protected], [email protected]
Presentation: www.wmsconsulting.com.au/cebit/
Blog: www.insearchofstuff.com