1. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Best-Kept Secrets for Search Marketing Success Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts

2. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Advanced SEO: Part Art, Part Science  Stay tuned for the tools and tactics that most search agencies won’t reveal…  These tools and tactics will be broken into three major categories –Technical Optimization –Content Optimization –Link Building

3. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Technical Optimization

4. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Grouped Google Results  Science: –Finding the true position of an indented result by appending &num=9 to the URL of the Google SERP, then &num=8 etc. –http://searchengineland.com/070705-123736.php  Art: –Knocking out your competitor’s indented second listing

5. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com This isn’t really #3

6. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Nope, not yet

7. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Gone! It’s true position was #9

8. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com SEO the title of #12 to bump it up to page 1 – it will be grouped to #2. Then link to #11 and bump it up to page 1 to knock #4 to page 2

9. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Indexation  Science: –Essential tools: Yahoo Site Explorer, Netconcepts URL Checker, Netconcepts Product Page Checker (www.netconcepts.com/productcheck) –Set Google preferences to “English Only” to get a more realistic number, minus pages not crawled –XML Sitemaps generators  Art: –Figuring out the main indexation threshold for your level of PageRank/authority

10. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com

12. Results estimate decreased by 2/3rds

13. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Flowing PageRank  Science: –Using rel=nofollow on low-value internal links –SEOChat PageRank Search tool –SEOChat PageRank Lookup tool –SEO for Firefox tool  Art: –Knowing which of your pages to nofollow –Iterative testing

14. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com 301 Redirects  Science: –When moving sites –For canonicalization –“Conditional” redirects?  Art: –When to use 301 and when to use 404 or 302

15. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Cloaking  Science: –Viewed cloaked content with Google Translate and translate it from English to English http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&u=URLGOESHERE&sa=X &oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result  Art: –Good cloaking vs bad cloaking For bots only, drop tracking tags and other superfluous parameters from the URLs of your links Use “user agent” detection and don’t “noarchive” the pages to obscure what you’re doing http://searchengineland.com/070301-065358.php

16. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Supplemental Index  Science: –Figuring out which pages are and are not in “Supplemental hell” http://www.mapelli.info/tools/supplemental-index-ratio-calculator/ site:www.xyz.com -allinurl:www.xyz.com –Popping pages out of supplemental with robots.txt disallow, rel=nofollow, internal linking, link building

17. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Duplicate Content  Science: –Scanning for duplicate content –Blocking duplicate content without blackholing the PageRank (i.e. disallowing with rel=nofollow) –If using tracking parameters in URLs, use 301 redirects or JavaScript –http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/444/SEO-The-Duplicate- Content-Penalty/  Art: –Augment and/or revise duplicate content with APIs, unique titles/metadata,

18. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com CSS  Science: –Reordering content above navigation –Image replacement technique –Progressive enhancement for Flash & AJAX –http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/251/SEO- Harness-the-Power-of-CSS/  Art: –Design worthy of CSS Zen Garden

19. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Content Optimization

20. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Keyword Research  Science: –Mastering tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Google Suggest, Spyfu,WordTracker, Google Trends, Googspy, SEOSleuth, Yahoosearchranking.com  Art: –Working in misspellings without looking stupid –Thinking like a thesaurus - finding related words that machines can’t

21. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Keyword Density/Prominence  Science: –Ranks.nl  Art: –Increasing keyword density and prominence in a way that looks natural to the engines and reads well

22. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com “Thin Slicing”  Science: –Mass edit admin –Mechanical Turk  Art: –Separating the wheat from the chaff

23. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Link Building

24. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Reverse Engineer Competitors  Science: –Yahoo Site Explorer –link: on Google & on Google Blog Search –Backlink Analyzer or Neat-o tool  Art: –Negotiating links from the same sites –Outing competitors’ dodgy link schemes

25. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com High-Value Link Targets  Science: –Build spiders to find sites with super high PageRank, 1 click away from Google,.edu or.gov, high Alexa ranked –Avoiding situations that erode the value (e.g. reciprocal, in footer, site-wide, adjacent to paid links, too many links on page) –Use tools like SEOMoz Page Strength tool, SEO for Firefox, SEO-Links Firefox extension  Art: –Identifying sites with a propensity to give link love (e.g. acknowledging patrons/sponsors) –Crafting approaches & incentives –Buy them

26. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com

30. Mining Your Own Links  Science: –Locating inbound links with poor anchor text with BLA or Neat-o  Art: –Negotiating with these linkers to change the anchor text. Pull some favors with friends who link to you. It helps to be a blogger when reaching out to other bloggers.

31. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com

32. Wikipedia  Science: –Wikiscanner –Article monitoring (e.g. trackengine, changenotes, urlywarning, changedetect, watch function) –Building up a long & virtuous contribution history –Flowing pagerank internally with Disambiguation pages, Redirects, Categories  Art: –Negotiating with an article’s “owner” –Making friends who will back you up in AfDs –Earning Barnstar awards & adminship status

33. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Digg  Science: –Stripping away all commercial links during the initial Digg swarm –Friending popular Diggerspopular Diggers –Timing your presence on the Digg front page for daylight hours  Art: –Crafting a killer title –Getting a powerful Digger to submit your story

34. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com YouTube  Science: –Proper formatting –Tagging –Title and description –Channels  Art: –Entertainment value –Finding that viral hook

35. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com MySpace  Science: –Configuration of your profile and page (e.g. profile type) –Establishing critical mass with #s of Friends by targeting bands  Art: –Getting your brand in the URL –Creating a viral MySpace avatar, comment graphic, layout etc. –Having a profile layout that differentiates you without killing usability

36. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Flickr  Science: –Tagging –Title and description –Albums / photosets –Creative Commons licensing –Commenting (note: links in comments no longer pass juice)  Art: –Photo quality –Viral hook

37. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Blogs  Science: –Knowing which blogs pass PageRank to commenters (e.g. Mark Cuban’s) –Decoupling your blog’s title tags from the post titles (e.g. “SEO Title Tag” WordPress plugin) –Using “Sticky” posts to improve keyword prominence on your blog  Art: –Courting bloggers –Commenting in ways that add to the conversation so they get approved and stay

38. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com More SEO Tools  For link analysis and PageRank –TouchGraph –Live PageRank –WebmasterEyes –Google Webmaster Central –Thumbshots Ranking tool –SEOpen

39. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com More SEO Tools  Technical optimization –User Agent Switcher –SwitchProxy –Scrutinizer –Copyscape –Poodle Predictor –Xenu Link Sleuth –Robot Replay –CrazyEgg –What’s That Site Running –Wayback Machine

40. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com More SEO Tools  Other reporting –Alexa –DigitalPoint Keyword Rankings –Urltrends –Hitwise ($$)  List and links at –www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/368/SEO-Toolkit/ –www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/176/SEO:-Tools-for-Link-Building/

41. © 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com Q&A!  For an ebook on Google power searching, SEO checklists & worksheets, and audio recording, executive summary & transcript of an SEO thought leaders teleconference, email seo@netconcepts.com or give me your business card  Any questions come to you later, contact me: stephan@netconcepts.com