3.  Introduction  How Search Engines Work  SEO Building Blocks ◦ Keywords ◦ Crawler ◦ Links  SEO Tools  Black Hat Methods  Summary and Conclusion 2

4. 3 Introduction

5. "Natural," or "organic," search engine optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the chance its pages will appear at the top of spider-based search engine results for selected keywords and phrases Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings) 4

6.  Iterative process  Dynamic environment  Art  Science 5

7.  Internet advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9 Billion 2  Search ranking  more site visitors  Internet users tend not to click through  Depends on webs role in your economic model 6

8. White Hat  Abide by terms and conditions set forth by search engines Black Hat  Breaches search engine terms and conditions  May provide short-term gains  You run the risk of being penalized by search engines 7

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10. Search-Friendly (SEO) ◦ High ranking ◦ Terms and conditions set by search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search) User-Friendly ◦ Site must satisfy the needs of visitors Persuasive ◦ Profitable for site owner 9

11. 10 How Search Engines Works

12. 1. Gather Content ◦ Crawler or spider moves recursively downloading content 2. Builds sophisticate index 3. Individual web searches run against index ◦ Results are retrieved and ordered  PageRank & Relevance 11

13. Placement: importance and relevance  PageRank (importance) ◦ Counts links ◦ Weights links  Query matching (relevance) ◦ sophisticated text-matching techniques ◦ examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) 12

14. 13 SEO Optimization

15.  Keywords ◦ Keyword selection and keyword-rich text  Crawler ◦ A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme  Links ◦ Link popularity 14

16.  Page title: visible HTML text,“Above the fold”  Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely held. The optimum page size is 500-3000 words (or 2000 to 20,000 characters)  Be specific  Example: “Apple iPod” verses “iPod” ◦ exact phrase should appear generously throughout your site copy on every page 15

17. Meta tags: use but don’t stuff  Alt tags: use for graphics  Content is king  Write good content with relevant and important keywords in mind. Geo Targeting  Add geocentric terms to target local areas Domain Names  Use keywords as part of domain name 16

18.  Engine spiders are primitive beings ◦ choose simplicity over complexity  Goal ◦ All your web pages seen by crawlers ◦ Google: enter in searchbox “allinurl:utexas.edu” 17

19.  Traditional tag  Keywords in subfolder names  Minimize quantity of subfolders  Cross link relevant terms and phrases within the site  Multiple paths to pages to eliminate orphans 18

20.  Flash (slow to load and difficult to navigate)  Frames  Java navigation  Session ID to track visitors  exact same Title tags on every page  set to require a cookie when a visitor gets to the page 19

21. PageRank (Popularity, importance)  Number and quality of links pointing to a website  Measure of usefulness of site 20

22.  Advantage ◦ it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to imitate  Disadvantage ◦ takes time (vs. advertising) 21

23.  Quality content to start with  Cultivate quality link (not quantity)  Begin with web directories  Harness online publicity  Use Blogs and forums wisely  Investigate competitors ◦ Understand their strategy ◦ Online publicity, blogs and forums ◦ See inbound links ("link:domain.com" in Google, "linkdomain:domain.com" in Yahoo) 22

24. 23 SEO Tools

25.  Google  Yahoo  MSN Search 24

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30.  Ranking monitor: site positioning in for keywords  Link popularity checker: checks inbound links  Site indexation tool: check site indexation  Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer  PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites  Keywords tool: suggestions, associations, competitor analysis  HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density) 29

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33.  Matt Cutts  Worked on his Ph.D Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Undergrad Comp Sci and Math (Graduated with M.S.).  Moved into information retrieval after classes from the university's Information and Library Science department 32

34. 33 http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-blog/images/matt.gif http://www.searchenginegenie.com

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37.  Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links  Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny  Cloaking: stealth, deliver different page to a search engine for indexing  Doorway Pages: bridge, jump page, designed to appeal to search engine spiders  Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is supposed to see  Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.  Bait and Switch: loads the page with a popular search words such as sex, travel or antivirus when is irrelevant to site 36

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39. Google http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&ctx=related Yahoo http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-17.html http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/index.html MSN http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOp timizingSite.htm Web Robots http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.html http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8843 38

40. Overture tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion Wordtracker tool [recommended] http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12246 Google Sandbox Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandb ox Espotting Tool http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp Related Pages http://www.related-pages.com/adwordskeywords.aspx 39

41. Website Success  Search-friendly  User-friendly  Persuasive Search-friendly Optimization components  Keywords  Crawler  Links 40

42. 1 Thulow, Shari. “What Search Engine Marketing Does Your Site Need?” Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006. http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3105241 2 “2006 Second Quarter Results (October 4, 2006).” Interactive Advertising Bureau. 15 Nov. 2006. http://www.iab.net/resources/ad_revenue.asp 3 “Event Homepage.” Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Exposition. 15 Nov. 2006.http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/winter06/index.html 4 “Our Search: Google Technology.” Google Website. 15 Nov. 2006.http://www.google.com/technology/index.html 41

43. 5 Laratro, Joe. “Dos and Don’ts of Search Engine Optimization.” MoreVisibility. 15 Nov. 2006 http://www.morevisibility.com/whitepaper/2006/SEO_Do_a nd_Donts_WP.pdf 6 Thulow, Shari. “Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO ” Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006.http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3431741 7 link farming. webopedia. 15 Nov. 2006.http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/link_farming.html 8 SSEO Tools. SEO Administrator. http://www.seoadministrator.com/seo-tools.html http://seo-tutorial.seoadministrator.com/ 42

44. Ranking monitor: monitor web site positioning in the major search engines for keywords Link popularity checker: checks inbound links across a number of search engines Site indexation tool: check site indexation in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer automates (Number of unique IP addresses, Number of visitors… ) PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites Keywords suggestion tool: Keyword suggestion services, Keyword Associations, search query suggestions, Competitor analysis HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density) 43

45.  Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization  Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny  Cloaking: stealth, deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while serving a different page to everyone else.  Doorway Pages: A Web page that is designed to appeal to search engine spiders.  Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is supposed to see  Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.  Bait and Switch: Another technique combines word stuffing with "bait-and-switch," which loads the page with a popular search word such as sex, travel or antivirus, even though the word has nothing to do with the site content. 44