1. 10 Super-Common SEO/SEM Mistakes Stephan Spencer, Co-Author of The Art of SEO Mona Elesseily, Page Zero Media

2. 22 Who Is Stephan? Co-author of The Art of SEO Founded Netconcepts in 1995 and sold it to Covario in 2010. Invented GravityStream, a pay-for-performance SEO technology Twitter: @sspencer

3. 33 Who Is Mona? An owner of search marketing firm Page Zero Media Author of two books on search marketing A sought-after speaker who has presented at 100+ conferences globally Served on several key industry advisory boards Twitter: @webmona

4. 44 These mistakes are costing you serious cash...

5. 5 10 Common SEM Mistakes Mistake #1: Making assumptions about customer vocabulary Mistake #2: Poor keyword brainstorming Mistake #3: Not using the tools properly Mistake #4: Avoid cannibalization Mistake #5: Ignoring your competitors

6. 6 10 Common SEO Mistakes Mistake #6: Executing a social media strategy that isn’t driven by SEO needs Mistake #7: Duplicate content Mistake #8: Wasting time on no-value activities (like meta keywords) Mistake #9: Buying into SEO myths Mistake #10: Unintentionally spamming

7. 7 Organic vs. Paid Listings Paid Organic

8. 8 Mistake #1: Making assumptions about customer vocabulary Your customer doesn’t use industry-speak. –Who here has ever used the phrase “kitchen electrics” in a sentence before? Use the customer’s vocabulary instead –acronyms? word choice? The apparel industry targets “apparel” but should be targeting “clothing” & “clothes”

9. 9 Soovle.com

10. 10 Soovle.com

11. 11 Soovle.com

12. 12 Mistake #2: Poor keyword brainstorming Keyword brainstorming should be integral to your content planning. Think laterally! Here are a few examples...

13. 13 Soovle.com

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15. 15 Soovle.com

16. 16 Soovle.com

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18. 18 Mistake #3: Not Using the Tools Properly Broad matching by default in AdWords Keyword Tool –massively inflated numbers! Not logging out (when searching) –turn off personalization

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22. 22 Personalized Results

23. 23 Soovle.com Still Personalized

24. 24 Soovle.com Turn off Personalized Results Turn off Personalized Results

25. 25 Mistake #4: Avoid Cannibalization You want a situation where 1+1=3, not 1+1 = 1 Cannibalization stems from poor or no measurement

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27. 27 http://searchengineland.com/organic-search-paid-search-are-they-synergistic-or-cannibalistic-36444

28. 28 Mistake #5: Ignoring Your Competitors Ignore your competitors at your peril Your competitors can teach you a lot –Keywords they are buying –Ad copy –Major competitors –Where they get their links

33. 33 http://searchengineland.com/spying-on-your-paid-search-competitors-13235

37. 37 Mistake #6: Social Media Minus the SEO It’s not a social media “strategy” if it isn’t driven by SEO needs Write “link bait” and seed it into social media like Digg.com “Power users” on social media get a lot more mileage out of their submissions

38. 38 http://searchengineland.com/the-social-media-underground-22030

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44. 44 Mistake #7: Duplicate Content Multiple URLs leading to the same piece of content Duplicate content triggers Google’s “duplicate content filter” – all but one gets filtered out It also results in PageRank dilution Technical reasons: session IDs, tracking codes, superfluous parameters, www or no Using the same title tags, meta descriptions, or page copy indicate duplicate content

45. 45 Mistake #7: Duplicate Content Duplicate title tags Check for duplication –Use special queries with Google to find duplication. –Over 9,000 duplicates of this title alone … what does it say to Google? Purely duplicate titles Canonicalization Parameters & URL bloat site:www.officedepot.com intitle:"Office Supplies: Office Products and Office Furniture: Office Depot"

46. 46 1 product 5 different URLs –Diluting PageRank –Duplicated content –Self-competing, cannibalizing –Diluted crawl equity Even Google Struggles

47. 47 Mistake #8: Low Value Activities Meta keywords, anyone? –Google never supported this worthless tag –http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/g oogle-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.htmlhttp://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/g oogle-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html –Free info for your competitors Guaranteed there are items on your SEO to-do list that aren’t worth doing Be outcome-focused, not activity-focused

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49. 49 Mistake #9: Buying into SEO Myths Myths are created inadvertently, unintentionally –Easy to confuse correlation with causation Some myths are perpetuated by snake oil salesmen –e.g. If some SEO consultant starts talking about how they’ll help you rank by optimizing your meta tags, turn and run! Bottom line: SEO is an experimental science

50. 50 Mistake #9: SEO Myths Personalization means nobody’s #1 anymore Meta tags will boost your rankings Country sites are “duplicate content” JavaScripted links will keep the spiders away Googlebot doesn’t read CSS You must update your home page daily Linking out (such as to Google.com) helps rankings SEO is a one-time activity Using Flash will tank your SEO SEO is free Google penalizes for duplicate content.edu links get extra weight etc.

51. 51 http://searchengineland.com/36-seo-myths-that-wont-die-but-need-to-40076

52. 52 http://searchengineland.com/36-more-seo-myths-that-wont-die-but-need-to-41999

53. 53 http://searchengineland.com/seo-myths-reloaded-clarifcations-consensus-and-controversy-41816

54. 54 Mistake #10: Unintentionally Spamming Too many keyword-stuffed text links “SEO copy” = clearly not meant for human consumption Reordering text with CSS for SEO Inappropriate use of CSS “Image Replacement” Hidden text or hidden links Targeting irrelevant keywords

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58. Hidden link – in the “All” of “All Rights Reserved” – leads to a hallway page

59. 59 10 Common SEM Mistakes Mistake #1: Making assumptions about customer vocabulary Mistake #2: Poor keyword brainstorming Mistake #3: Not using the tools properly Mistake #4: Avoid cannibalization Mistake #5: Ignoring your competitors

60. 60 10 Common SEO Mistakes Mistake #6: Executing a social media strategy that isn’t driven by SEO needs Mistake #7: Duplicate content Mistake #8: Wasting time on no-value activities (like meta keywords) Mistake #9: Buying into SEO myths Mistake #10: Unintentionally spamming

61. 61 Now What? Email admin@stephanspencer.com if you wantadmin@stephanspencer.com –a free mini SEO site review? We have 15 slots open –a free 17-page SEO Best & Worst Practices whitepaper & checklist

62. 62 Now What? What can you do tomorrow that will improve your PPC & SEO? Write down 3 things. Get ‘em done! Remember: you eat an elephant one bite at a time To contact Stephan: stephan@stephanspencer.com stephan@stephanspencer.com To contact Mona: mona@monaelesseily.commona@monaelesseily.com To follow us on Twitter: @sspencer & @webmona

63. 63 Ready for some live reviews of audience members’ SEO and PPC?