SEO Fact, Fiction, Myth & Legend.

1. SEO Fact, Fiction, Myth & Legend. Presented by Kristine SchachingerKristine@TheVetters.com SitesWithoutWalls.com& The Vetters @schachin

2. What is SEO?SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION(or SEM - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING)

3. We rank stuff?Right?Well ummm.. Yes, but no.

4. But first.. What is Ranking? INDEXING VS RANKING

5. Indexing is… “The term "indexing" is used to describe the process that search engine's carry out to firstly find your site, then secondly "digest" the content of your site. This is the way that search engines gather information about your site in order to "score" each page using their ranking algorithm.” ~ http://www.eflaunt.com/seo-glossary/indexing.htm

6. Ranking is… “Different to a search engine listing because a listing means the site appears anywhere on the list. Ranking relates to exactly where on the list it appears. Closer to the top means it has a higher ranking. A critical consideration in having your website found on the internet. ...” ~ http://www.buddydesigns.com/web-terms-internet-terminology.html

7. And where do we do this?

10. Right now it means optimizing your site primarily for…

11. Powered by searchesIn February, 69.0 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 27.0 percent of searches were powered by Bing. http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2014/3/comScore_Releases_February_2014_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

12. So..What is SEO?SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION(or SEM - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING)

14. You might hear what we do called..SEO (or SEM)OR- Inbound Marketing (and/or)- Online Marketing (and/or)- Digital Marketing (and/or)- Website Marketing (and/or)

15. Or less relevant, but still used- Marketing (and/or)- Multi-Media Marketing (and/or)- Web Marketing (and/or)

16. Also called..- Voodoo (and/or)- Magic (and/or)- Bovine Feces (and/or)

17. and/or check back next week..(it will probably change again ;))

18. Is this because we are

19. More because SEO Is All THIS and more... http://searchengineland.com/seotable

20. AND!Not just these factors, butgeolocalizationpersonalizationdevice typeetc.all affect positioning…positioning affects trafficcoming into your site

21. AND!Traffic = Moneyor at least the right traffic.

22. So SEO how do we define it?

23. Until we settle on something - the way this guy does. Meet Matt Cutts. Head of WebSpam at Google. SEO = Search Experience Optimizationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZStQhWx8YPc

24. So what is Search Experience Optimization?

25. SEO is which part of these things? • Where does SEO come into the decision making process… • Hosting? • Site Set-Up? • Platform Choice? • CMS Tool Selection? (Content Management System) • Site Design? • Site Code? • Site Architecture? • Content Choices? • Content Writing? • Content Implementation? • Authorship? • Blogging? • Social Media Choices? • Social Media Activity? • Advertising? • Changes to the Website Post Launch?

26. So what is Search Experience Optimization?ALL OF IT!

27. SEO is which part of these things? Where does SEO come into the decision making process…

28. What else?

29. SEO is which part of these things? Where does SEO come into the decision making process… • Press Releases • White Papers • Newspaper Mentions • Articles • Interviews • Industry Publications • Partnership Mentions • Anywhere your Strategic Players, Domain or Company Name appears. •  Including Google Places, Yelp, anywhere you list your company. • These are called “citations” • Important NOTE – make sure all these are exactly the same • These are all link building opportunities.

30. So while your website is still a thought…

31. So while your website is still a thought… Your SEO Plan should not be…

32. Myths. Facts and Tips.

33. Myth 1. Links Are Dead. Link Building vs Link Buying

35. What are Links? Links are a vote for your site’s relevance and popularity online. When a site links to you Google sees it as a “vote” for your site. • There are links Google thinks are “good” and ones they think are “bad” •  Good Links • Natural links – links you received because someone liked your site and decided to place a link on their site (or web property) to you. •  Bad Links • Everything else – anything that is not “natural” • Realistically – natural links only get you so far, • so what is a site to do?

36. What are Links? The REAL WORLD. • There are links Google thinks are “good” and ones they think are “bad”Realistic “good” and “bad” links. •  Bad Links • Link Buying • Guest Blogging on Irrelevant Sites • Article Directories • Unmoderated Directories • Forums • Etc •  Good Links • Moderated Directories • Journal Publications • Articles in Reputable Ezines • etc

37. What are Links? The REAL WORLD. • There are links Google thinks are “good” and ones they think are “bad”What else goes into making a link profile “good” • Link Types • Link Strength • Link Acquisition Rate • Number of Links from A Site • Anchor Text of the Link • IP Diversity • Class Diversity

39. What Happens to Sites That Use Bad Links or Have Bad Link Profiles?

40. Penaltieshmmm…What are they?

41. PenaltiesWhat a Cliff Reaction Typically Looks Like… Easier to detect. Can be other things, but more likely than not a penalty. To be sure it is a penalty, must be tied to an update release date.

42. PenaltiesWhat a Slope Reaction Typically Looks Like… Harder to detect. Can be other things, but more likely than not a penalty. To be sure it is a penalty, must be tied to an update release date and Have other indicators present. Best to have an expert audit your site.

43. Google has two types of penalties.Manual and Algorithmic. Under these types there are more subtypes.https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604824?hl=en

44. Google Penalties. Manual Penalties. These penalties are when a Google reviewer has seen your site and manually devalues your site. The devaluation can be at the Keyword Page URL Or Domain Level

45. Google Manual Penalties. Manual Penalties. The penalty can be site wide or partial.

46. Google Manual Penalties. Manual Penalties. The penalty can be site wide or partial. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604824?hl=en

47. Google Manual Penalties. Manual Penalties. Recovery. What makes these difficult to recover from is a Google reviewer decides if the work you have done and the reconsideration request you have submitted is enough work to remove your penalty. If not the reviewer may leave the penalty on the site.

48. Google Penalties. Algorithmic Penalties. These penalties are when a Google Algorithm has visited your site and algorithmically devalues your site. The devaluation can be at the Keyword Page URL Or Domain Level

49. Google Algorithmic Penalties. Algorithmic Penalties. Recovery. These are mathematical. Google prefers these, since they are neutral and penalize any site. The benefit is the algorithm decides if you met the requirements of the algorithm the algorithm will reinstate your site when it returns. The detriment is you can wait a long timefor the algorithm to return. Until it does there is NO RECOVERY.

50. PenaltiesAlgorithmic Updates. What are they? Algorithmic release updates you can use to help detect site penalty issues. These releases are updates aimed at a certain webspam issue. SEOMoz or now Moz has the best update calendar. http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change