Affiliate Summit Orlando 2005 : Straight Talk on SEO

Presented by Wil Reynolds – Seer Interactive

Here’s a different approach – this speak started with : There are a lot of people in the industry who THINK and SAY they know what they are talking about, but they actually just mislead people.

SEO Myth : Every site ranks well for SOMETHING!

Online Success Recipe

Topics of Discussion for Today’s session:

• 5 Time Wasters
• Developing a search architecture
• Keyword Selection
• Linking (why you should use firefox)
• FIY vs. Outsource

Rules change, I will send to you all my SEO bookmarks which I have aggregated and reviewed for the last 5 years if you are looking for tools, directory lists, forums, automated tools, etc.

Technique’s not used by speaker in 4 years:

• Image Alt
• Keyword Meta Tag
• Keyword Density Analysis
• Optimize 1 word terms
• Submissions / Re-Submissions

Techniques he does use:

• Circular Architecture (not hierarchy)
• Intense Keyword Research
• PR Optimization
• Heavy Link Valuation
• Forums / Blogs (research)
• Resurgence of meta description tag

Developing a Search Architecture:

Wheel and Spoke site development vs. hierarchical site development:

• Dropdowns
• Sitemaps
• “Useful links”
• All the optimization in the world may not help your site if you have major architectural issues.
• Sitemaps are critical!

Architectural Issues:

• JavaScript-Based Menus
• Important links in flash/images
• Orphan pages / entry pages
• Redirected homepages (use 301′s)
• URL’s with ?’s, =’s, &’s (dynamic pages, shopping carts, CMS’s – Ektron / Interwoven)
• Search friendly vs. Search Optimization – Ex: Automatically generated title tags
• Linking Techniques, strategies, tools

Develop something worth linking to & people will link to it. Calculators, free trials, articles, etc.

• Spread yourself thin on links
• How many links are on the page?
• Robots.txt or nofollow tags?
• Search for people linking to you and see if you can get more heavily optimized text.
• Use a pagerank search – competitors

Keyword Development

We all stink at developing our own keyword lists (it’s not our fault):

• We are biased by our own search behavior
• Too close to the product / service (acronyms, jargon, product features, etc)

All is not lost:

• Use Tools (not just overture keyword tool)
• Start wide (Prilosec – heartburn)
• People search for solutions to problems not products and services

If you build for humans, you don’t have to worry (as much) about getting penalized.

Ways to spot a bad SEO company:

Good chat overall – nothing I disagreed with.