Tim Grice discusses advanced SEO strategies for 2012, including developing natural link signals through in-content links, anchor text variation, and news strategies. He emphasizes the importance of fresh content and competitor analysis to develop natural authority signals. Grice also covers international SEO best practices and using metrics to identify high opportunity keywords to target.

1. Advanced SEO Strategies for
2012
Tim Grice - Branded3 Search Ltd
Sponsored by:

2. Advanced SEO Strategies 2012
Tim Grice
Head of Search, Branded3

3. High Value, Natural Link Signals
• Why in Content?
• Anchor Text Variation
• „News‟ Strategy
• Freshness
• Developing Natural Signals

4. In Content Links Work Better
• More defendable
• Less likely to be devalued
• Compliment Outreach
• More relevant

5. Anchor Text Variation
• Old advice but still under used
• Use „related searches‟ + Google Suggest
• Avoids filters and adds value

6. News Strategy
Regular Content Agree on Re-write Content
Updates Commentary
Push Story to Publish through Incorporate
Sourced Blogs news sites Brand
Spread Story Monitor Alerts for
Syndication Through Social Link
Media Opportunities

7. Why it works…
• Mimic‟s the natural spread of content around
the web
• Creates a natural link spike
• Brand signals work
• A natural spread of authority

8. „Fresh Rank‟
• Google wants up to date content
• A page can be deemed „fresh‟ through inbound links
• Links placed in „crawled‟ content have low value

9. Freshness Test

10. Developing Natural Signals
• Google improving link analysis
• Anchor text variation and brand
• Location of links
• Authority spread of incoming links
• Justify your links
• Targeting „high‟ metrics only, is a mistake

11. Protecting Your Site
Variation = Filter Protection

12. Anchor Text
• Decide on 10 – 15 keywords per page
• Use „Brand‟ and „Noise‟ signals
• Use the Google Keyword tool/Suggest/Related
Searches
• Helps understand the true SEO value of a page

13. Variation in Action!

14. Link Types
“It‟s not all about metrics”

15. Paid Link Profile

16. Google Panda
• Biggest Offences
> Internal duplicated content
> Cross domain duplication
> Pagination issues
> Thin pages
• SEO teams need be involved in every site update
• Panda is not a link based algorithm

17. International SEO + hreflang
• Google has issues with duplicated content across
international sites
• Consolidate page signals using the language tag
• Canonical link same language sites back to the
master domain (.com, .ie, .co.uk, .ca etc…)
• All sites benefit from the authority of the canonical
domain

18. Competitor Strategies
6 Questions to ask:
• What type of links are they?
• What is the spread of authority?
• Which countries do they come from?
• Which sites do they publish content on?
• At what rate are they building links?
• What is their overall PR/Social Strategy?

19. The Links
• Editorial links
• Text links/Paid Links
• Banner image links
• Link Spam
• Infographics / Social Links
• Bookmarking & Forums
Always pick the better links to copy, these are the
ones with the most longevity.

20. Open Site Explorer

21. Authority Spread

22. Link Location
http://blekko.com/

23. Majestic SEO
• How aggressive are competitors?
• Can you overtake them?

24. Infographics
• Use Image Search to find linking sites

25. Social Link Strategy
• What news are they syndicating?
• What link bait ideas worked & who linked
to them?
• Where do they guest blog?

26. Search Metrics
• What content works best?

27. ROI + SEO
• Much more difficult than Paid Search
• Rarely develop ROI on a keyword basis
• You need to understand where your biggest
opportunities are
• Best to measure ROI on a page basis

28. Cumulative SEO Benefit
• Decide on target keywords per page
• Estimate cumulative traffic
• Use average conversion data to estimate value
• Expect to wait 12 months to break even

29. Opportunity Analysis
Conversion
Rate
Opportunity
Potential
Ranking
Traffic

30. Opportunity Analysis
• Look for relevant keywords ranking
between 12 – 20
• Estimate potential traffic
• Factor in average conversion rate
• Quickest avenue to ROI
• Can use multiple API‟s to automatically process

31. Attack + Defend Strategy
• High value keywords need maintaining
• Attack terms can be moved into defence once
rankings achieved
• Less effort needed to defend keywords
• Allows you to target more terms without
increasing budgets

32. Learning more…
• Read SEOwizz.net & Blogstorm.co.uk
• Email tim.grice@branded3.com for free SEO advice
or connect on Twitter @tim_grice
• Visit our website www.branded3.com