DIY SEO - Links

[mattsaw]

When I saw the DIY SEO thread a few days ago I thought "What a great idea" Lots of links to SEO resources so people can do their own SEO, or at least be more aware of the process to avoid it's pitfalls.

However the thread wasn't quite about that, so I decided to put one togther. Someone didn't turn -up for an interview this afternoon, so I have 30 minutes to put this together

I can't claim the credit for these resources, I'm just linking to the good ones so others can use them. Most of these I ahve read at some time and bookmarked them as they're so useful.

Sometimes even as an SEO it's hard to know which resources to trust, the ones I have linked to I believe to offer good unbiased information. Not everyone may agree

What IS SEO?

The whole SEO process can be broken down into the following disiplines

Keyword Research
Site Architecture
On-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO/Link Building
Analytics

I recommend reading the SEOMoz beginners guide to SEO before reading anything else.

http://www.seomoz.org/article/bg1

And

The Beginner's Checklist for Small Business SEO - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-beginners-checklist-for-small-business-seo

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Firms that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a more broad and general approach. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many practitioners of SEO (SEOs) consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization (since so many of those elements intertwine).

Keyword Research

Arguably the most important stage of the SEO process. If you don't know what keywords your potential visitors are searching for then you can spend a lot of time and money targeting the wrong ones.

Some tools
Free - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Paid - £28 per month - http://www.wordtracker.com/

Wordtrackers free keyword research guide - http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-research-guide

10 Steps to Advanced Keyword Research - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-steps-to-advanced-keyword-research

Site Architecture

Again, an important step but often overlooked. Too many people think in terms of sites rather than a collection of pages. Google don't rank websites, they rank pages.

The chances are that your website (Hopefully) looks a bit like this.

Ideally each individual product and service should have it's own page. Generally speaking the more pages you have the more phrases you can optimise for, the more search terms you'll rank for and the more traffic you will receive. Cramming all of your products onto one page which is optimised for 200 phrases is just going to confuse a search engine.

Website Architecture Questions Answered - http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/website-architecture-questions-answered.php
SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture - http://www.searchengineguide.com/daria-goetsch/seos-relationship-with-website-architecture.php
Diagnose Critical Website Architecture Issues for SEO - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-website-architecture-issues/9760/

On-Page SEO

Many people obsess about things like keyword percentage and useage. It's really just a case of having a page targeted towards a specific keyword or set of keywords and then making sure that they keyword is used in specific places on the page rather than a 'magic' keyword density.

Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization
Scalable On-Page SEO Strategies - http://searchengineland.com/scalable-on-page-seo-strategies-11792
Search Engine Optimization for Ecommerce Sites - http://www.searchengineguide.com/bill-hartzer/search-engine-o-1.php

Link Building

If content is what tells a search engine what a page is about, then it's links that tell them how important a page is. And therefor where it ranks.

To check the number of links pointing to your site, or a competors it's best to use Yahoo Site Explorer - https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Small Business Link Building: Part A - Analysing Opportunities - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/small-business-link-building-part-a-analysing-opportunities
Small Business Link Building: Part B - Grabbing the Bull by the Horns - http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/small-business-link-building-part-b-grabbing-the-bull-by-the-horns

Link Building Has Changed - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-has-changed

Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics For 2009 - http://wiep.net/talk/link-building/link-building-strategies/

Analytics

Everyone should have their site correctly setup on with an analytics package. You should be able to work out exactly where your visitors are coming from, where you're spending your money and the exact amount of revenue you have made from it.

Google analytics is free - www.google.com/analytics

Google analytics setup guide - http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66983

Setting up goals in analytics - http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-setup-goals-in-google-analytics.html

A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools/

20 Resources For Google Analytics - http://www.searchengineguide.com/manoj-jasra/20-resources-for-google-analytics.php

If I have time in the next couple of weeks I might add a content strategy/blogging and social media guides to this thread

 

[Ali-v-8]

hats off to you matt. very well put together
Now lets see how many people take your advice.
I definitely would

 

[mattsaw]

hats off to you matt. very well put together
Now lets see how many people take your advice.
I definitely would

Thanks Ali

I think part of the problem with the SEO industry is that it's perceived as being a very complicated process, when in fact it's relatively simple. Anyone can learn, it's just a case of knowing which sources to trust.

 

[TheSlackers]

it's perceived as being a very complicated process, when in fact it's relatively simple.

Amen to that! The theory behind SEO is easy, so easy in fact most people don't believe it and go on the hunt for some magic trick.

 

[Tin]

Cracking post Matt accompanied with straight talking and bags of common sense. Seo is a damn site simpler than people think and I think it's the industry itself who try to take it beyond the obvious.

Really good post and the best all round seo post I've seen in a very long time.

Cheers

Ray

 

[Carboy]

Cracking post Matt accompanied with straight talking and bags of common sense. Seo is a damn site simpler than people think and I think it's the industry itself who try to take it beyond the obvious.

Really good post and the best all round seo post I've seen in a very long time.

Cheers

Ray

I totally agree and its nice to have it explained in such a easy to understand format .

Thanks again Matt

 

[wayney]

Thanks Matt for the information and detailed explanation, hats off!

 

[Annoying Donkey]

Great Post. Here's another one to add to keyword research

http://www.google.co.uk/sktool/#

 

[Spock]

Great post - how about making it a sticky? This may reduce the amount of 'how do I seo my site?' threads.

 

[justinmarch]

Great post Matt have noted it down for future reference surely this should be sticky

 

[TargetNumberOne]

Hi Matt,
10 out of 10!
My friend, that's some of the best SEO advice I've ever read.
Thanks for sharing.
Tony

 

[stato77]

Well done that man!

 

[ryan4444]

Site Architecture

Again, an important step but often overlooked. Too many people think in terms of sites rather than a collection of pages. Google don't rank websites, they rank pages.

The chances are that your website (Hopefully) looks a bit like this.

Ideally each individual product and service should have it's own page. Generally speaking the more pages you have the more phrases you can optimise for, the more search terms you'll rank for and the more traffic you will receive. Cramming all of your products onto one page which is optimised for 200 phrases is just going to confuse a search engine.

what are hierachial and non-hierachial links?

 

[omnivore]

fantastic stuff

just wish i read this a year ago

 

[SFD]

what are hierachial and non-hierachial links?

A hierarchical link is usually the standard navigation, for example on this forum, you would have

Forums > SEO, PPC and Online Marketing > Thread

A non-hierarchical link would be a link from another thread to this thread, like the one you followed to get to this thread.

 

[mattsaw]

A hierarchical link is usually the standard navigation, for example on this forum, you would have

Forums > SEO, PPC and Online Marketing > Thread

A non-hierarchical link would be a link from another thread to this thread, like the one you followed to get to this thread.

Yep exactly. If you think of most hierarchical links as being part of a site navigation, menus and breadcrumb links being prime examples of these.

Non-hierarchical links tend to be links such as those embedded in articles and content. Both types are important and can be used to improve the SEO of a site.

 

[ryan4444]

Is there an example website i can see that closely matches the site architecture diagram above at all that i can take a look at?

 

[mattsaw]

Is there an example website i can see that closely matches the site architecture diagram above at all that i can take a look at?

Most well SEO'd websites will follow this kind of site architecture.

The Amazon hierarchy for example,

Books >> Genre >> Author >> Book Title

If you study how most big sites are categorised you'll see almost every one is site out along a logical structure. Getting this right to start with is one of the keys to good SEO.

 

[ryan4444]

thanks it can take a while sometimes for things to sink in but i think i understand!

hierarchial- links that you chunk down into for more specific info about the link before

non hierarchial- links that are just random links to anywhere on the website

Sorry i know i must be exhausting (i have a feeling my non hierarchy description is wrong!!)

 

[man and van london]

Thats another great post Matt. Thanks for that

 

[onesixtyfourth]

Extremely useful thanks.

 

Seo is a damn site simpler than people think and I think it's the industry itself who try to take it beyond the obvious.



Ray

100% agree I am forever looking up words related to SEO that seem to appear out of thin air.

Allied to the almost hysterical attitude to Google et al ,and there apparently magic algo's.

Fact is SEO is quite simple but as Ray says I suspect the waters are being muddied by vested interests.

Earl