Matt Cutt’s is one of the lead engineers and the go to guy at Google for information on SEO and how Google ranks pages for organic search. He won’t tell you what the algorithm is or the secret sauce for ranking websites but he will give you tips on how to make your site more search engine friendly.
This is the Site Review presentation from the Google IO conference a few weeks ago, Matt was also with two other people from his team at Google, Greg Grothaus, Tiffany Lane and Vannessa Fox, as she remarks is not on his team at Google. The video is an hour long and if you are interested in SEO I think worth your time. I went to Google IO, a developers conference, and debated if I wanted to sit in on this session. But Matt Cutt’s and gang kept me entertained and I learned some new things because search is always changing. If your website has any of these issues I can help you plus more.
Next week I will be in Seattle for SMX Advanced (that stands for Search Marketing Expo).
SMX West, the search marketing conference and expo was held in Santa Clara, California the beginning of March 2010. I usually attend this enlightening conference but this year was an exception and could not make it. Luckily today with live blogging and social media sites like twitter, it is easy to stay informed on issues that are important to an industry. Twitter is one of my favorite platforms, I like it better than facebook, for many reasons. If you search a specific hashtag on twitter, you will see all the streams about a particular subject. Hashtags on each twitter post creates groupings of twitters and the best hashtag for SMX west is #smx. I can also follow all the upcoming conferences. I use TweetDeck to receive my tweets and group the searches or hashtags, I am interested in following. For example another search that I follow relilgiously is #joomla, I learn about all the new and interesting developments that are going on with joomla, stay connected with developers and I am able to join in on the conversations.
Reading through all the #smx twitters, I found this valuable recap and special newsletter by Bruce Clay , one of the training guru’s for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and has time tested tools, if you have not heard about him check out his website. I thought his recap did a good job of summarizing the areas with the most valuable information.
Since I liked it so much I recapped his recap for you; highlighting some important points and sprinkled a few of my own comments throughout:
create a site that is well-structured and easy for users to navigate;
use meaningful page Titles (make sure your page titles are not duplicated throughout the site);
pay attention to anchor text throughout your site;
avoid boilerplate and repeated text;
consider headers and other content on each page.The less links on a page means those links are more valuable.
The Need For Speed! Google Says It Matters so pay attention to KPI’s (key performance indicators in your analytics) that shed light on page speed bottlenecks, such as visits, page views, bounce rate and time on site. Bounce rate and time on site are some of the big ones that I keep track of.
Get to know and understand sites like Urbanspoon and http://www.urbanspoon.com/blog and Google Goggles, search by taking a picture. Visual Search technology. It’s visual, watch this:
Added thought, everthing is coming up mobile! Learn more about mobile search
When reviewing your analytics reports for organic search, worry about 3 things:
opportunity;
competition;
attribution
Opportunity and competition are about improving rankings on terms you want.
Attribution shows evidence that what you’re doing works.
I think this next point is often overlooked today and misunderstood by many. It is a big issue and I cannot stress the importance of this enough:
Proactive reputation management is engaging with an audience in positive ways before a crisis so that the business will be in a secure position if and when a rep management situation arises.
I am planning to be at SMX Advanced in June, I will have more good stuff for you then.
Yesterday I attended SMX West 2009, SMX stands for Search Marketing Expo. I try to attend a few of these conferences every year for the networking benefits and to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to search marketing. I always return to my office with a few new tricks and insights.
Here is a list from one of the sessions that discussed the 12 most common strategic mistakes that companies or businesses make in their SEO and paid search initiatives. I am going to list them not go into detail.
Set measurable goals for a campaign
Failing to assign a dollar value to every “conversion action” available on your site.
Assessing the success of Search Marketing using solely a Direct Marketing model.
Treating SEO as a project NOT as an ongoing process.
Making a #1 ranking as your most important objective when it maybe costing you business.
Focusing on the big keywords and forgetting about the long-tail keywords.
Engaging in Paid or Natural (Organic) Search Engine Marketing but not both.
Using YOUR language for search terms and not that of your customers.
Optimizing only your web pages and not your other digital assets.
Treating your search marketing and other channels of marketing separately.
Failing to bid on the search terms that your site ranks highly with in the organic search results
Bidding solely on the “branded terms” and ignoring “non-branded terms”.
Let me know if you have questions or experience with any of these. If you are new to search and interested in search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, you may want to attend one of these conferences. The expo is usually free if you pre-register. Session passes are much more expensive.
Most people, especially small businesses today have a website. Most very proud of their web presence and should be and naturally their websites bring them business. Many times in ways they never thought possible. But what do they REALLY know about their website and what could be done differently? Until you emmerse (much like baptism) your site into search analytics you will never know.
Analytics is one method to get “personal” with your website. Common questions you should ask yourself:
Who is visiting your website?
Where did they come from (referer)?
How long are they staying on your site?
What pages do they enter and exit your site?
Are they submitting a contact form or buying a product (converting)?
How do you do this, without spending a lot of money on products that may not work?
I have tried different software packages (which I don’t want to get into here) and some do work, but right now my favorite is Google Analytics. Why? Because it is truly free and has great easy to read information. Google Analytics does take some time to learn and they say you get what you pay for, but I do believe it is worth the effort. I am now a “Google Analytics Junkie”.
Let’s get started with your website:
First you need a chunk of code to put on “every” page of your website that you wish to track. This is your tracking code. You can get this code by signing up for an AdWords account or if you have a gmail account use that as your user name/password (you don’t have to participate in AdWords). Here is the link to Google Analytics help center http://www.google.com/analytics/indexu.html
Now you are in your adWords account, this is really confusing. Across the top are tabs click on Analytics and that should get you started. “Create my free Google Analytics account”. Click on the continue>> button
Follow the directions on this page, submit >> accept the terms >>
Wallah - cut and past this code into your website right before the </body> tag on EVERY page you wish to track.
I know your lost, try the help center link above, it is worth your time and I know you can do it.
Now the fun begins watch the information roll in, give it some time. You will want to create what is known as the dashboard, personalize your dashboard.
Sample dashboard:
This can be done by clicking through the information on the left hand navigation. For each category there is a button on the top of the page to either export / email / add to dashboard . Get familiar with these buttons. I have a report sent to me weekly with my dashboard information so that I do not have to login to find out what is going on and it gives me past week comparisons.
Some of my favorite information is:
site useage
the map overlay (where in the world are these visitors)
traffic sources overview (where is all you traffic coming from)
content overview (what pages are most popular)
all traffic sources (who is referring to you)
Visitors overview (clicks per day, who is unique, how many page views…)
Now my favorite, setting goals and the funnel report
In each category you can get more and more granular, the best part – our friends at Google do it all for FREE!
Before I became a Google Analytics Junkie, I was THE original Google Addict. My SEO addictions don’t appear to be going away. Does anyone know of a good 12 step program? Have fun and beware of the addictions.
I just created my personal swicki on eurekster.com, this is fun click on one of the keyword above and see where it takes you (you will need your back button to come back) or type in your favorite search term. If you have a website create your own search portal around any topic. According to the website
“Rather than returning millions of results like a generic search engine, swickis learn from the search behavior of a community of enthusiasts and experts, making it easy for you to quickly find what you’re looking for within a particular topic. Another way of becoming a part of a community and it is FREE!
Of course they come in different flavors, add video, “Video swickis let you browse and watch the most popular videos within a particular topic.” Build your own or grab one that has already been made.
