This deck was created as a supplement to a presentation on SEO given to students at MSU.

1. Search Engine Optimization
Let’s get nerdy
Matt Green
SEO Strategist, Ethical SEO Consulting
@MChuckGreen

2. DOWNLOAD THIS DECK:
http://www.slideshare.net/ethicalseo/
@MChuckGreen

3. What is a Search Engine?
Think of a search engine as a librarian that is responsible for
organizing EVERY BOOK ON EARTH
As the librarians of the web, search engines have a process by
which they organize every page on the web.
That process is their indexation algorithm. Search engine robots
use the stipulations of the algorithm to crawl through websites and
index them in a useful way.
@MChuckGreen

4. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
The process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or
“natural” listings on search engines.
@MChuckGreen

5. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing have such
results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings
are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most
relevant to users.
Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.
@MChuckGreen

6. Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
@MChuckGreen

7. But, what does SEO look like in practice?
@MChuckGreen

8. The job of a SEO is to
optimize a website so that it
can be found in search
results when users input
queries for which that site
provides answers.
@MChuckGreen

9. The 2 areas where SEOs work:
1. On The Website (on-site optimization)
2. Off The Website (off-site optimization)
@MChuckGreen

10. On-site Optimization
When we optimize a website for search engines, we are trying to
make it as easy as possible for the search engines to access and
index the various pages of the website according to relevance.
@MChuckGreen

11. On-site Optimization Elements
Page Title
Page title as a human sees it:
@MChuckGreen

12. On-site Optimization Elements
Page Title
Page title as a search engine sees it:
More on page titles: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
@MChuckGreen

13. On-site Optimization Elements
Meta Description
Meta Description as a human sees it:
@MChuckGreen

14. On-site Optimization Elements
Meta Description
Meta Description as a search engine sees it:
More on meta descriptions: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description
@MChuckGreen

15. On-site Optimization Elements
Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc)
Heading Tags as a human sees them:
@MChuckGreen

16. On-site Optimization Elements
Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc)
Heading Tags as a search engine sees them:
More on heading tags: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/on-page-factors
@MChuckGreen

17. On-site Optimization Elements
Page Content
Page content as a human sees them:
@MChuckGreen

18. On-site Optimization Elements
Page Content
Page content as a search engine sees it:
@MChuckGreen

19. So the page is about spaghetti…now what?
These elements are only a small piece of the optimization puzzle.
If there are 1 million pages on the web that are all about “How to
make spaghetti”, the search engines need other signals to tell them
how those 1 million pages should be ordered in the SERPs.
This is where off-site optimization signals comes in!
@MChuckGreen

20. Off-site Optimization
PageRank
Each search engine has it’s own way of measuring the importance of
pages.
Google uses system called PageRank. Each page on the web has a
PageRank, from 0-10. In general, the greater the PageRank of the page
we want to rank highly for a given search phrase, the better.
“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page
and used by the Google Internet search engine, that assigns a
numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of
documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of
"measuring" its relative importance within the set.”
Fun Fact:
The PageRank system was invented by Google co-founder Larry Page. While at Stanford, he wrote a paper
on his PageRank idea, which has since shaped how we access the world’s information. You can read that
paper here: http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/1/1999-66.pdf
@MChuckGreen

21. Off-site Optimization
How is PageRank determined?
PageRank is a reflection of the number and quality of the inbound
links pointing at a particular web page.
In general, the more inbound links and the higher the quality of those
links, the higher the PageRank will be.
@MChuckGreen

22. Off-site Optimization
In other words…
Off-site optimization =
ACQUIRING INBOUND
LINKS (aka “Link Building”)
@MChuckGreen

23. Off-site Optimization
What is a Link?
A link (or hyperlink) is a reference to a page that a user can follow. Links
help search engines evaluate the content of different pages on the web.
To a human, a link looks like this:
@MChuckGreen

24. Off-site Optimization
What is an inbound link?
A link that points at an external domain:
@MChuckGreen

25. Off-site Optimization
What do inbound links communicate to search
engines?
1.Authority
Think of an inbound link to Site A from Site B as a Vote cast by Site B for
Site A. This vote passes some of Site B’s authority to Site A.
2. Relevance
The 2 primary ways that search engines use links to determine the
relevance of a site are the link’s anchor text, and the context surrounding
the link.
@MChuckGreen

26. Off-site Optimization
The Anatomy of a Link:
@MChuckGreen

27. Off-site Optimization
How do we build links?
The best SEO’s are the best link builders. We can’t go to in-depth here,
but here are the 2 basics ways to build links at the highest level:
Naturally
Publish content, and hope other websites link to it.
Manually
Find places on the web where you can put a link to your site, and put
your link there.
@MChuckGreen

28. When on-site and off-site
optimization are done
properly, you get:
Higher organic rankings
for relevant search
phrases
@MChuckGreen

29. For commercial enterprises this
means more $$$$$
@MChuckGreen

30. And…more happy dances
@MChuckGreen

31. Interested?
• Learn SEO series from SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo
• SEO Overview from SEJ: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
• Inbound Marketing Community, Inbound.org: http://inbound.org/
• My company’s blog: http://www.ethicalseoconsulting.com/seo-blog/
• My personal blog: http://milehightwaddle.com/
@MChuckGreen

32. Really Interested?
• Internet marketing jobs: http://www.inbound.org/jobs
• Career opportunities with my company:
http://www.ethicalseoconsulting.com/about/careers/
• Have questions for me?
Email: mgreen@ethicalseoconsulting.com
Twitter: @MChuckGreen
Google+: +MattGreen
@MChuckGreen