Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. Tony AliTony.Ali@BKV.com Search Engine Optimization (SEO) IMS SummitDecember 10, 2009

2. SEO vs. SEM Paid Listings Organic Listings

3. Organic Ranking Factors • On-page Factors • Title tag • Body text • URL/filename • Meta tags • Additional Tips • Off-page Factors • Link popularity • Link diversity • Internal Link Structure • Anchor text (External AND Internal)

4. On-page Factors

5. Primary Organic Ranking Factors

6. Title Tag • Most heavily weighted page element • Reinforce page content with unique titles • 66 characters in Google • 120 on Yahoo • 70 on MSN • Perfect title tag is unique in relation to other pages • Ensure keywords feature as early as possible in a title tag • Company name goes at the end of the tag • Try to use basic symbols (dash, underscore, comma or the pipe symbol “|”) to break up your title, instead of words like “the, and, of, by,” etc. Title tags are arguably the most important on-page SEO factor for any Web page.

7. Body Text • Keyword density • 200-300 words of unique content • 2-3 occurrences of primary key phrases • Include secondary key phrases or do keyword stemming • H1, H2 and H3 heading tags • ALT text to optimize images • Internal links between related content • Static and shorter URLs on main pages

8. URL/filename www.titleboxing.com/?product_id=98 vs www.titleboxing.com/heavy-bags.html • Main targeted keyword as domain name (if possible) • Keyword in URL path or filename • Small affect in scoring • Encourages link text • Effects click-through rate

9. Meta Tags <META NAME="description" content="Optimizing On-Page Factors for Search Engine"> • Meta Description • Approx. 120 characters • Very little effect on page ranking • Not much SEO value • Optimized description attracts visitors & increases CTR • Meta Keywords • Most search engines ignore them • Still helpful for some engines • Can be used to target misspellings

10. Additional Tips • Sitemap • HTML sitemap • XML sitemap • Validate HTML • W3C HTML validator • More HTML & less JavaScript • Copy content toward the top of the page • Robot.txt • Restricts access to your site User-agent: Googlebot-Image Disallow: /images/dogs.jpg <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

11. Off-page Factors

12. Link Popularity What is link Popularity? Link popularity is a general representation of the total number of Web pages which link to your individual web page. Most of the major search engines support the "link:" operator. • Pages have link popularity - not domains • Time-intensive, Frustrating, Sometimes confusing. Yet Unavoidable • Trump card for higher rankings • Quality vs. Quantity

13. Link Building • Write world-class content – remember, content is king • Link to sites that are more established than your own • Deep link from pages with high traffic to sub folders or pages deep in your site • Build links to your pages with a range of keywords • If you have a blog, syndicate your content using services such as Feed Burner, or other RSS feeds • Get links from directories like Best of the Web, Business.com or Yahoo Directory • Write articles and publish press releases • Join the Better Business Bureau • Get a link from your local chamber of commerce • Start a blog - Not just for the sake of having one • Signup for social networking Web sites

14. Link Diversity • More links from a range of Web sites signals more trust & authority • Links from a variety of sites create new, different traffic and opportunities for your site • More links across a range of sites exposes your brand to a wider audience • Nothing looks as artificial and manipulative as a bunch of deep links from the same Web site

15. Link Diversity – How? • High authority sites within your niche • Low authority sites within your niche • High authority sites outside of your niche but related • Related low authority sites outside of your niche • Social bookmarking sites • Web directories • Blog directories • Blog comments and trackbacks • Forum participation

16. Internal Link Structure • Inbound links benefit PageRank (PR) or Link Juice • Internal linking structure determines where link juice goes internally Example: Home page has a PR3 ranking, but one page has a zero rank. A link from home page to zero rank page would give some of home page link juice to the PR0 page, possibly raising its rank to a PR1.

17. Anchor Text • Visible text of a hyperlink Best Search Engine <a href=“http://www.google.com/”>Best Search Engine</a> • Important factor for ranking • Target keywords and phrases • Use keyword variations

18. Thank You! Tony Ali Chief Technology Officer Tony.Ali@BKV.com