This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. It introduces the presenter, Tim Huegdon, and his qualifications. It then covers how search engines work, the importance of keywords, link building, URI design, page construction, and other technical aspects of SEO. The document emphasizes that SEO requires ongoing effort, as search engine algorithms and best practices regularly evolve.

1. Understanding SEO or How to Help Users Find Your Stuffs on the Intertronz

2. My Name is Tim Huegdon First, an introduction…

3. Qualification Web developer for 15 years

4. Qualification Web developer for 15 years Client-side specialist for 6 years

5. Qualification Web developer for 15 years Client-side specialist for 6 years Information architect

6. Qualification Web developer for 15 years Client-side specialist for 6 years Information architect Massive Nerd Quite literally SEO as a hobby

7. Results Google “Web Development Lead” Top result

8. Results Google “Web Development Lead” Top result Google “Web Development Manager” First page

9. Results Google “Web Development Lead” Top result Google “Web Development Manager” First page Google “Object oriented JavaScript” Top result

11. Results Google “Web Development Lead” Top result Google “Web Development Manager” First page Google “Object oriented JavaScript” Top result Google “Tim” Third result (above the inventor of the web)

12. FAIL

13. </smug>(I cheated; I was logged in)

14. Know Thine Enemy Sun Tzu (paraphrased)

15. Search Engines Google Microsoft Bing Now own Yahoo! Search Many, many more…

16. How search engines work Army of robots

18. How search engines work Army of robots Automated spiders

20. Tree

21. Graph England Team Football Internationals World Cup Euro 2012

22. How search engines work Army of robots Automated spiders Work page by page

23. How search engines work Army of robots Automated spiders Work page by page Cache and analyse content

24. How search engines work Army of robots Automated spiders Work page by page Cache and analyse content Index keywords

25. How search engines work Army of robots Automated spiders Work page by page Cache and analyse content Index keywords Assign an arbitrary rank

26. Keywords Behold! The OARSUM POWAH of…

27. What is a keyword? A word orphrase Contains high relevance to subject

28. Keyword == Search Term

29. Examples Sports Sport Betting Gambling Bet Gamble Sports Betting Sport Betting Sport Bet Sports Exchange Betting

30. But wait… World Cup 2014 Wimbledon British Grand Prix Cheltenham Spring racing

32. Why so important? Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices

33. Why so important? Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices Vast array of smaller databases

34. Why so important? Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices Vast array of smaller databases Data denormalisation

35. Why so important? Search engines store references to URIs in keyword specific indices Vast array of smaller databases Data denormalisation Makes searching a whole bunch faster

36. Choose wisely Keyword competition Low competition can mean low relevancy “Long tail”

37. Choose wisely Keyword competition Low competition can mean low relevancy “Long tail” Level of use More commonly used search terms have higher competition

38. Choose wisely Keyword competition Low competition can mean low relevancy “Long tail” Level of use More commonly used search terms have higher competition Keyword tools

39. Where you’ll want to use them URIs

40. Where you’ll want to use them URIs Link text

41. Where you’ll want to use them URIs Link text Page titles

42. Where you’ll want to use them URIs Link text Page titles Headings

43. Where you’ll want to use them URIs Link text Page titles Headings Emphasised text

44. Where you’ll want to use them URIs Link text Page titles Headings Emphasised text Within your content

45. Keyword Targeting Never mind keyword density…

46. Keyword Targeting Never mind keyword density… Think about keyword relevancy

47. Keyword Targeting Never mind keyword density… Think about keyword relevancy Density no relation to Quality Semantics Content relevancy

48. The web CHANGES?! I know; it’s terrifying, right?

49. Links The internet is “a series of tubes…” (c. Ted Stevens, Alaskan Senator 1968-2009)

50. Links win Links trump everything

51. Links win Links trump everything Link quantity

52. Links win Links trump everything Link quantity Link quality

53. Links win Links trump everything Link quantity Link quality Largest single effect on rankings

54. Link Juice PageRank Based on links into and out of the page Used to determine page quality Really is a series of tubes (and sluice gates)

55. PageRank

56. The juice will flow! England Team Football Internationals World Cup Euro 2012

57. rel=“nofollow” Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice

58. rel=“nofollow” Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice Useful for user-generated content

59. rel=“nofollow” Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice Useful for user-generated content Designed to prevent link spam

60. rel=“nofollow” Tell robots to alter the flow of link juice Useful for user-generated content Designed to prevent link spam Use for “sculpting” is futile

61. Improving “crawlability” Flat site architecture

64. Improving “crawlability” Flat site architecture Short link depth to pages

65. Improving “crawlability” Flat site architecture Short link depth to pages Recommend max 100 links per page Misleading value

66. Improving “crawlability” Flat site architecture Short link depth to pages Recommend max 100 links per page Misleading value Easily maintain 250-300 links per page Next level approx. 200 links and so on

67. Link building The art of obtaining links back to content High quality from high relevance

68. Link building The art of obtaining links back to content High quality from high relevance Fine line between link building and link spam

69. Link building The art of obtaining links back to content High quality from high relevance Fine line between link building and link spam Full time job

70. Link building The art of obtaining links back to content High quality from high relevance Fine line between link building and link spam Full time job Link sharing

71. Link building The art of obtaining links back to content High quality from high relevance Fine line between link building and link spam Full time job Link sharing Social networks

72. Third-party links No direct value

73. Third-party links No direct value Promotes link sharing

74. Third-party links No direct value Promotes link sharing New wave of Social Media Experts

75. Third-party links No direct value Promotes link sharing New wave of Social Media Experts Exercise in marketing

76. Link bait High likelihood of reposts

77. Link bait High likelihood of reposts Viral

78. Link bait High likelihood of reposts Viral Usually created with intent

79. Link bait High likelihood of reposts Viral Usually created with intent One man’s link bait is another man’s quality content

80. U.R.I. Addressing the

81. Anatomy of a URI Protocol Fragment Path http://www.betfair.com/football/barclays-premier-league/arsenal.html?page=4#line-up Query Domain

82. URI Design Highly important

83. URI Design Highly important Embed keywords in domain

84. URI Design Highly important Embed keywords in domain Embed keywords in path

85. URI Design Highly important Embed keywords in domain Embed keywords in path TLDs are important

86. URI Design Highly important Embed keywords in domain Embed keywords in path TLDs are important Order is important

87. URI Design Think about archiving

88. URI Design Think about archiving Try and avoid “magic numbers”

89. URI Design Think about archiving Try and avoid “magic numbers” Use hyphen as space separator Google doesn’t recogniseunderscores

90. URI Depth Try to keep URIs shallow

91. URI Depth Try to keep URIs shallow Subdomains similar to first level http://soccer.betfair.com/ http://betfair.com/soccer/

92. Branches and leaves Branch URIs end with a slash http://betfair.com/football/

93. Branches and leaves Branch URIs end with a slash http://betfair.com/football/ Leaf URIs don’t http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html http://betfair.com/football/the-yid

94. Branches and leaves Branch URIs end with a slash http://betfair.com/football/ Leaf URIs don’t http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html http://betfair.com/football/the-yid Users read URIs in search listings

95. Branches and leaves Branch URIs end with a slash http://betfair.com/football/ Leaf URIs don’t http://betfair.com/football/spurs.html http://betfair.com/football/the-yid Users read URIs in search listings Sets up an expectation

96. Page construction Empowering your content through

97. Page vs. Site Bots have a vague understanding of site

98. Page vs. Site Bots have a vague understanding of site Based on URIs and link map

99. Page vs. Site Bots have a vague understanding of site Based on URIs and link map Domain-level ranking factors

100. Page vs. Site Bots have a vague understanding of site Based on URIs and link map Domain-level ranking factors Page-level ranking factors

101. Page vs. Site Bots have a vague understanding of site Based on URIs and link map Domain-level ranking factors Page-level ranking factors Construct as pages, link as site

102. Duplication Duplicating content on two URIs is bad

103. Duplication Duplicating content on two URIs is bad Serving the same page on different URIs is duplication

104. Duplication Duplicating content on two URIs is bad Serving the same page on different URIs is duplication Try and avoid syndicated content

105. Dynamic and static content Dynamic content Blog posts News stories Markets Static content About us Help Betting rules Good to have a balanced mix

106. Titles Page title <title>Football – Betfair</title> H1 <h1>Football</h1> Titles should repeat in: URI Page title H1 Throughout content Links to the page This one is important!

107. Meta elements Keywords Not used by Google Occasionally used by older search engines Description Not used for rankings Important for users noindex, nofollow

108. Pertinent mark-up Links! <a href=“…”>Football</a> <link rel=“index” href=“…”> Emphasis <strong>, <em> <b> Headings

109. Link element Canonical: http://sportsnews.com/football/ http://sportsnews.com/football/?ads=false More subtle: …/teams/tottenham-hotspur/peter-crouch …/teams/england/peter-crouch Others next, prev, first, last, index…

110. Google is Skynet Knowledge-based system

111. Google is Skynet Knowledge-based system Algorithms update regularly

112. Google is Skynet Knowledge-based system Algorithms update regularly Features added

113. Google is Skynet Knowledge-based system Algorithms update regularly Features added Try to understand trends in content

114. Breadcrumbs Google looks for them Tries to understand navigation system Improves crawlability Helps the user

115. Rich snippets Microformats, microdata, RDFa Reviews People Products Businesses and organisations Recipes Events

116. UI Paradigms Still learning Common patterns Tab widgets Accordion widgets Carousel widgets Widgets Common jQueryUI YUI

117. JavaScript Headless browser

118. JavaScript Headless browser Support for JavaScript is limited

119. JavaScript Headless browser Support for JavaScript is limited Evaluates some JavaScript Results vary

120. JavaScript Headless browser Support for JavaScript is limited Evaluates some JavaScript Results vary Trawls embedded JavaScript for links

121. Robots Unleash your army of

122. Using HTTP Correct status codes 200 OK 301 Moved Permanently 302 Moved Temporarily 404 Not Found 410 Gone 500 Errors

123. robots.txt http://www.robotstxt.org/ Automatically looked for Stored at the root No robots.txt is a free pass Use to guide bots, not control

124. Sitemap Protocol http://www.sitemaps.org/ Aids discovery of content Increases regularity of spidering Doesn’t have to include every page Useful for dynamic content

125. Sitemap Page Improves crawlability Helps users Can help flatten site architecture

126. Tools A brief overview of

127. AdWords Keyword Tool Analyse potential keywords Shows competition Shows search traffic Useful as a research tool

128. Webmaster Tools Track search queries Discover crawl errors Manage sitemaps Shows Google’s keyword assessment

129. Analytics Track search terms Adapt user paths Some tools allow tracking of bot traffic

130. Log files Track bot traffic Spot errors Use gnuplot to visualise

131. Building SEO Test Sites Search bot interrogation

132. TO THE BROWSER!

133. Neverending Story SEO is a

134. Rinse and repeat Ongoing analysis

135. Rinse and repeat Ongoing analysis Keyword evaluation

136. Rinse and repeat Ongoing analysis Keyword evaluation Link farming

137. Rinse and repeat Ongoing analysis Keyword evaluation Link farming Keep up with algorithm updates

138. Questions?