Computer Science Books/Sem6/Seo
intermediate
Computer Science Books/Sem6/Seo
/ t h e o r y / i n / p rac t ic e Mastering Search Engine Optimization Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie C. Stricchiola The Art of SEO “Written by some of the top minds in SEO!” — Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, SearchEngineLand.com and producer, SMX: Search Marketing Expo 3rd Edition
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/ t h e o r y / i n / p rac t ic e The Art of SEO Three experts in search engine optimization share a comprehensive roadmap for you to plan and execute your SEO strategy. This edition includes updates on SEO tools, tactics, and ranking meth- ods that have reshaped the SEO landscape. Novices will receive a thorough SEO education, while experienced practitioners get an extensive reference to support ongoing engagements. Eric Enge is the CEO of SEO consulting firm Stone Temple Consulting (www.stonetemple.com). Stephan Spencer (stephanspencer.com) founded the SEO firm Netconcepts and the Traffic Control seminar, authored Google Power Search, and coauthored Social eCommerce. Jessie C. Stricchiola, a digital marketer since 1997, is the CEO of San Francisco-based digital con- sulting firm Alchemist Media, Inc. (alchemistmedia.com). She serves as a qualified expert witness on internet-related litigation matters, and is an original cofounder of SEMPO.org. Visit the book website (http://www.artofseobook.com) for FAQs and to post your own burning questions. You’ll have access to special offers and discounts on various SEO tools and services. You can also get exclusive access to instructional videos related to the concepts in the book by sending an email to bonuses@artofseobook.com. ■ Explore SEO’s underlying theory and practicalities ■ Demystify the role of social media, user data, and algorithms such as Google’s Panda and Penguin ■ Discover tools to track results, measure success, and reverse engineer competitors ■ Look at opportunities in mobile, local, and vertical SEO ■ Build a high-performing SEO team with well-defined roles Web Analytics/Search Engine Optimization “SEO expertise is a core need for today’s online businesses. Written by some of the top SEO practitioners out there, this book can teach you what you need to know for your online business.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Inc., author of New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness “Hype-free, data-rich, and loaded with insight that’s essential reading for anyone who needs a deep understanding of SEO.” — Seth Godin, author, We Are All Weird ISBN: 978-1-491-94896-5 US $49.99 CAN $57.99 Twitter: @oreillymedia facebook.com/oreilly oreilly.com Twitter: @artofseo Facebook: facebook.com/artofseo Web: artofseobook.com Reader bonuses: bonuses@artofseobook.com
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Praise for The Art of SEO How serious are you about maximizing and multiplying, monetizing your ability to harness the dynamic force and power of SEO? I say dynamic, because it is not something static. Like game theory, your strategy needs to be preeminent, preemptive, and ever-evolving. The Art of SEO is deep, serious (yet eminently, elegantly, and stunningly clear and profoundly actionable)! The authors examine, explain, explore, and expose the real truths, the real inner workings, the real ethical means of optimizing SEO in a fast-changing, ultra-competitive online environment. You will finally and meaningfully grasp how to gain the most prized outcome imaginable: the sustainable “gift” of your target market’s fullest attention, presence, and trust! Every chapter is sincerely a complete short-course primer, masterfully distilled down to its most actionable, relevant, critical elements. If you’ve struggled trying to figure out who you can really trust to understand and meaningfully manage your SEO opportunties, read this book—then use it as a reality check against anyone you are now entrusting your most precious online relationship to. —Jay Abraham, best-selling author and Forbes Magazine “Top 5” Best Executive Coaches in the US An essential guide to best practices and cutting-edge tactics that belongs on the desk of all search marketing professionals, especially in these days of nearly constant change, updates, and new approaches by the search engines. —Chris Sherman, Founding Editor, Search Engine Land, and VP Programming, Search Marketing Expo
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The Art of War isn’t about Chinese pottery, and The Art of SEO isn’t a paint-by- numbers kit. This 900-page book is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization strategies and tactics written by three SEO experts: Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie Stricchiola. The chapters in the third edition on Content Marketing as well as Panda, Penguin, and Penalties are must-reads for anyone interested in mastering search engine optimization. —Greg Jarboe, President of SEO-PR, and author of YouTube and Video Marketing In a world where consumers spend more time on the Web than all other media channels combined, getting found is the a critical path to business success. The Art of SEO unlocks the core of what it means to get found and how to accelerate your growth through creating value for your consumers. This is a must have for any progressive marketing team. —Seth Besmertnik, CEO and cofounder, Conductor Staying on top of your SEO is crucial to your marketing game—and for this, The Art of SEO is the best resource out there, by experts who know about the art and science of SEO. —Taki Moore, Coach Marketing Expert The Art of SEO continues to be one of the best educational resources for having an SEO strategy that dominates. With SEO being a fast-paced, ever-evolving field, the third edition is a must to stay on top of the latest updates and changes. —Lewis Howes, two sport all-American, Olympic hopeful, entrepreneur, and host of The School of Greatness podcast If I’m going to devote time to learn something, I want to learn from the best. The authors of The Art of SEO are simply the best at what they do… and they share their expertise in such a way that it’s easy to read and understand. Whether you’re a CEO or just climbing up the ladder, you should have a solid foundation of SEO and this book is where to start. —Steve Spangler, founder of Steve Spangler Science
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The Art of SEO doesn’t just arm you with facts and knowledge, it provides you with the strategies to dominate in the search engines. It continues to be the most comprehensive book out there for everyone, from absolute beginners to advanced SEOs looking to hone their skills. —Neil Patel, cofounder of Crazy Egg This is the book to read on SEO, packed full of knowledge from beginner to expert to master. —Ramez Naam, former Relevance Group Program Manager, Bing, and author of Nexus The Art of SEO represents a comprehensive and instructive guide to mastering search engine optimization for webmasters new and experienced. While the SEO industry continues to evolve, the primary teachings of this seminal book hold constant—SEO continues to be an art that can be learned and finessed when armed with the tools and tips recorded in these writings. —Kristopher B. Jones, founder of LSEO.com and best-selling author of Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint to Effective Internet Marketing Once again, The Art of SEO earns its place as the only SEO book on my bookshelf. It is the first resource I recommend to both new and experienced bloggers with good reason; it helped me to lay the foundation that resulted in more than 100 million organic hits to my site and has repeatedly achieved stellar results for those I’ve mentored. In its third edition, The Art of SEO expands to cover the latest on search engine logic, social implementation, and staying ahead of the ever-changing algorithms. A brilliant, concise, essential guide to search engine optimization that every online marketer should read and put into practice. —Jeni Larson Hott, 7 Figure blogger If you ever want to sell anything, you can’t overestimate the importance of understanding search behaviour. And there’s no stronger team of A-players to write about search engine optimization. Everyone should read this book! —Chris Goward, founder and CEO of WiderFunnel, and author of You Should Test That! www.itbooksh
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After diving into the third edition of The Art of SEO, I felt like a gladiator armed with all the right knowledge and tools to take on the ever-changing world of SEO. —Ken Rutkowski, host of Business Rockstars radio show, founder of METal The Art of SEO combines the expertise of the three leading search experts in the world, making it an invaluable resource. —Gokul Rajaram, Product Engineering Lead at Square, former Product Director, Ads at Facebook, former Product Director, AdSense at Google The Art of SEO is an innovative book that can change your fortune and the future of your company forever, starting with the very first page. The book is full of valuable information that will save you countless hours—and perhaps make you millions of dollars—when promoting your business online. The concepts and ideas presented are easy to understand and follow, which is key for brands or companies that are busy focusing on their product or service, but need to keep well informed. The three authors behind this book, Stephan Spencer, Eric Enge and Jessie Stricchiola, bring together collectively decades of experience, and share some of their most innovative methods, research, and strategies to save you valuable time and money in accomplishing measurable results in your SEO. Being in its third edition, the authors of The Art of SEO are constantly following the latest changes, and providing the most up-to-date, comprehensive, tried- and-tested techniques to keep you ahead of the curve. As I’ve said in many of my talks, if you’re not upgrading your skills, you’re falling backwards. The Art of SEO gives you the latest information to stay competitive in the field, with all the knowledge readily available at your fingertips. —Brian Tracy, President of Brian Tracy International When people ask me what SEO book they should read, The Art of SEO is the first and only one I mention. Plus, it’s the only SEO book that’s both technically sound and constantly updated. Highly recommended. —Cyrus Shepard, Director of Audience Development, Moz Hands down the most valuable book on understanding SEO! —Jordan Koene, VP Professional Services, Searchmetrics www.itbooksh
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It doesn’t matter if you have decades in the industry or just want to find out more about this thing people call SEO; The Art of SEO is an exceptional guide. Coming from some of the world’s leading marketers, the updated theory, insights, and strategies are first class and a must have in your library of knowledge. —Sean Kainec, Head of SEO at The Home Depot No industry has gone through as much change in the last five years as SEO, and no resource captures how we adapt to that change better than The Art of SEO. From planning your strategy and understanding all the technical considerations to demystifying mobile and local, The Art of SEO covers it and makes it very clear that SEO is not only very much alive, but quickly becoming the strongest traffic- driving channel. Anyone working in digital or anyone who owns a website needs to read this book. —Erin Everhart, Lead Manager, Digital Marketing, SEO, at The Home Depot The moment you think you know everything about SEO, this book will put you back in your place. —Zac Johnson, Superaffiliate and Blogger at ZacJohnson.com Hype-free, data-rich, and loaded with insight that’s essential reading for anyone who needs a deep understanding of SEO. —Seth Godin, author of We Are All Weird The Art of SEO is the perfect complement to the science of conversion optimization. This book is a must-read volume by three highly regarded industry veterans. —Bryan Eisenberg, New York Times best-selling author of Call to Action and Always Be Testing Anyone who wants to know how SEO really works must read The Art of SEO. This is a true reference work. —John Chow, Superblogger, JohnChow.com www.itbooksh
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The third edition of The Art of SEO expands and enhances a book that was already the industry standard for SEO education and strategy. Anyone looking to optimize their website and get better rankings on the search engines should keep this book on their desk and refer to it daily. All of the advanced technical SEO strategies are covered in a straightforward method that is easy to understand and action-oriented. When you are finished reading this book, you will have a better grasp on how search engines work and how you can optimize your website with expert proficiency. If you want to drive more traffic to your website, engage your audience on a deeper level, generate more sales, and grow your business—this books lays the plan out for you. —Joseph Kerschbaum, author of Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour A Day DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Please. I beg of you. If you compete with us or any of our clients, do not buy this book. It’s become our go-to source for anything— and everything—we need to know about successful search engine optimization. —Amy Africa, CEO, Eight By Eight I’ve known and followed the authors for years, each a bona fide expert in their own right. Their collective wisdom in one book is truly a gift to the industry. This has to be the #1 “must-read” SEO book ever written. —Eric Ward, a.k.a. Link Moses In The Art of SEO, Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie Stricchiola have taken on the daunting task of compiling a comprehensive, step-by-step walk-through of what it takes to rank well on search. They go well beyond the usual tactical aspects, addressing fundamental challenges like understanding user intent, integrating an SEO culture within your organization, properly measuring success, and managing an SEO project. This is a deep, deep dive into the world of organic optimization, and you couldn’t ask for better guides than Enge, Spencer, and Stricchiola. Clear a place on your desk, because this is going to be your SEO bible. —Gord Hotchkiss, President, Enquiro Search Solutions www.itbooksh
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An amazingly well-researched, comprehensive, and authoritative guide to SEO from some of the most well-respected experts in the industry; highly recommended for anyone involved in online marketing. —Ben Jesson, cofounder and CEO of Conversion Rate Experts There is an art (and science) to search engine optimization. It’s not always easy, it’s not always obvious, and the results depend a lot on what the major search engines are tinkering with under their own hoods. Thankfully, there is a book like The Art of SEO to shine a light, give you some clues, and help you get ahead of your competitors. —Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image, and author of Six Pixels of Separation The world of SEO has had to adapt to many changes in the past few years, so the third edition of The Art of SEO is a must read. If you want to know the latest tried-and-true SEO techniques, then look no further. —Ross Dunn, CEO/founder, StepForth Web Marketing, Inc. With over 80% of Internet sessions starting with a search, you should be looking for ways to develop traffic from search engines. The Art of SEO is a book I continually recommend to beginners and more experienced marketers. This book can shave years off the learning curve for anyone thinking of delving into the world of search marketing. The Art of SEO walks you through the most important steps in planning and executing a top-flight program. The authors of this book are trusted individuals whose repeated, proven success working with SEO and social media marks them as leaders in the field. Easy to understand and well written, this book walks you through everything you need to understand to be successful with your own SEO campaigns. Read now, prosper now and later. —Duane Forrester, author of New York Times best-seller How to Make Money with Your Blog and Turn Clicks Into Customers, and Senior Product Manager, Bing, former SEMPO board member www.itbooksh
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The Art of SEO is really about the science of SEO. This detailed and practical guide to SEO mastery, from a panel of all-star practitioners, will give you the edge. Get it before your competitors do! —Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners.com, and author of the best- selling Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions SEO expertise is a core need for today’s online businesses. Written by some of the top SEO practitioners out there, this book can teach you what you need to know for your online business. —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Inc., author of New York Times best-seller Delivering Happiness Rarely does a work so thoroughly deconstruct the art and science of SEO: what it is, how it works, who makes it happen, and why it is important to the modern firm. —Sara Holoubek, CEO, Luminary Labs The Art of SEO, Third Edition, reads like an Ian Fleming novel; intriguing the reader with surprising insights and exciting new ideas…all while making SEO seem oh-so-sexy. —Sean Singleton, Digital Marketing Manager, American Apparel As a coauthor of a book people refer to as the “Bible of Search Marketing,” you might think that I wouldn’t recommend other search books. Not so. But I recommend only excellent search books written by outstanding search experts. The Art of SEO easily clears that high standard and is a must-read for anyone serious about organic search success. —Mike Moran, coauthor of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., and author of Do It Wrong Quickly www.itbooksh
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Search is becoming increasingly important for marketers to understand. Busi- nesses that don’t include organic search as a core component to their market- ing efforts risk being left behind as their competitors and their customers move forward. This book covers a lot of ground—it’s full of stats, advice, and tools to equip marketers in their organic search efforts. —Vanessa Fox, author of Marketing in the Age of Google Roll up your sleeves, buckle your seat belt, and take your foot off the brake. You are about to go on a journey from the very basics to the very high-end, enterprise level, and then into the future of the art of SEO. These three authors have been involved in Internet marketing from the very start and have hands- on experience. These are not pundits in search of an audience but practitioners who have actually done the work, know how it’s done, and have the scars to prove it. This is a dynamite primer for the beginner and a valued resource for the expert. Clear, concise, and to the point, it may not make you laugh or make you cry, but it will make you smart and make you successful. —Jim Sterne, Producer of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and Chairmen of the Web Analytics Association Regardless of whether you’re a beginner or an expert search marketer, The Art of SEO delivers! From keyword research and search analytics to SEO tools and more! —Ken Jurina, President and CEO, Epiar There are no better guides through the world of SEO—the combined experi- ence of these authors is unparalleled. I can’t recommend highly enough that you buy this book. —Will Critchlow, cofounder, Distilled Simply put…The Art of SEO is a smart book on search engine optimization. Neatly laid out, comprehensive and clear…this edition explains the nuances of cutting-edge tactics for improving your SEO efforts. I refer to it constantly. —Allen Weiss, founder and CEO, MarketingProfs.com
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There is only a small number of books I recommend to people who want to truly grok search, and this is one of them. The Art of SEO is practical, tactical, deep and wide. There is no other book more comprehensive in scope that also goes so deeply on the technical requirements of competing in today’s search marketing war. Both beginners and experienced web developers can find wisdom and guidance in its pages, and will find themselves referring to it daily for examples and decision-making help. —Dana Todd, President of Interimpathic and cofounder of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) In your hands is a definitive collection of SEO knowledge from three leading practitioners of the art. This book is required reading for my company, and we’re also recommending it to our clients. —Adam Audette, SVP, Organic Search, Merkle, and lead SEO for Zappos.com There are no better names in the search marketing industry to write a book on the art of SEO than these three authors. Each author has gems of knowledge to share individually, and all of them teaming up to create a single book is like discovering a treasure. —Barry Schwartz, News Editor, Search Engine Land, and Editor, Search Engine Roundtable I have personally known and respected each author for many years, and this book is a superb collection of their collective wisdom for implementing SEO for your website. I trust the information presented in this book will help readers accomplish their traffic goals. You can never know too much about SEO in this ever-changing and competitive space. Read this book. —Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc. Presenting the inner mechanics of search engine optimization is a daunting task, and this book has accomplished it with flair. The book reveals the closely guarded secrets of optimizing websites in a straightforward, easy-to-understand format. If you ever wanted to unravel the mysteries of the most enigmatic discipline on the Internet, this is the book you want as your guide. This book is so comprehensive and well written, it just might put me out of a job. —Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance
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Written by some of the top minds in SEO! —Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, SearchEngineLand.com, and Producer, SMX: Search Marketing Expo The Art of SEO is a masterpiece in search engine optimization techniques. Whether you’re technical or creative, whether a coder, a designer, a copy- writer, or a PR professional, you need this book. —Andy Beal, coauthor of Radically Transparent, founder of Trackur and Marketing Pilgrim As an online marketing guy, I’m aware of how much your search engine visibility can either skyrocket or impede your traffic and earning potential. I rely on traffic from Google to drive my business forward. The Art of SEO is hands down the most complete and user-friendly resource for real-world application of SEO, the kind that gets you paid. —Jeremy Schoemaker, founder of ShoeMoney Media and author of Nothing’s Changed But My Change: The ShoeMoney Story This must-have book by industry heavyweights is a milestone. The material is convincing and compelling. Most important of all, the ideas make powerful strategies for successfully marketing sites online. —Disa Johnson, CEO, SearchReturn Stephan Spencer, Eric Enge and Jessie Stricchiola represent three of the most respected minds in SEO. This book is packed with both comprehensive “explainer” content, and also actionable strategies backed by data. It’s an ideal foundational study for beginners, and a critical update for veteran marketers who want to get current. If you’re looking for just one book on SEO, this is it. —Jenise Henrikson, CEO of Search Engine Journal In an ever-changing digital landscape, implementing a successful SEO program remains a crucial foundational priority for leading brands. It drives paid, owned, and earned visibility that is critical to capturing intent wherever it is expressed. The Art of SEO is a must-read for any brand or agency that wants to drive discoverability and results through SEO. This book takes deep, technical topics and breaks them down into something applicable, accessible and usable. —Michael Kahn, Global CEO, Performics
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Integration of SEO into any strategic PR plan represents the evolution of our industry. Ultimately it’s this combination of SEO and PR that realizes the greatest message pull-through. With its practical tips, The Art of SEO has been invaluable to our PR firm and to me as a PR professional, helping us form our content and social media strategy as well as acquire more valuable backlinks from top media outlets. —Heidi Krupp, CEO of Krupp Kommunications After diving into the third edition of The Art of SEO, I felt like a gladiator armed with all the right knowledge and tools to take on the ever-changing world of SEO. —Ken Rutkowski, host of Business Rockstars Written by in-the-trenches practitioners, The Art of SEO is a well-written step-by- step guide providing sensible and practical advice on how to implement a successful SEO program. The authors have created a readable and straightforward guide filled with concise and easily adopted strategies and tactics any online business can use. I now have a great resource to recommend when people ask, “Know any good books on SEO?” —Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link and Marketing Tools 24/7 Fundamentals, data, science and hard work will get you only so far. It is the artistry of SEO that can make you truly great. The backgrounds and experience of the SEO artists—Stephan, Eric and Jessie—is all but guaranteed to help you reach that next level. Read this book and take special note of what is the real art of SEO. —Todd Friesen, Director of SEO, Salesforce SEO can be a minefield if you’re not armed with the knowledge and resources to safely navigate this ever-changing landscape. Think of The Art of SEO as your field survival manual. Simply put, don’t leave home without it. —Jamie Salvatori, founder and CEO, Vat19.com
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The definitive book on SEO just keeps getting better, as the new third edition of The Art of SEO is packed full of helpful new information. —Brett Tabke, founder and CEO of Pubcon, the premier optimization and new media conferences The Art of SEO is the go-to book when it comes to SEO. It is what I recommend to everyone wanting to improve their understanding of SEO, novice or seasoned expert. —Brent Csutoras, social media strategist and founder of Kairay Media Whether you are a neophyte or an advanced search engine marketer, this book will take your business to the next level and help you drive real revenue opportunities. —Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute and author of Content Inc. Since the science of search engine optimization changes daily, understanding those changes and executing from that understanding is critical to today’s business. This map in book form can help you navigate the seas of change and take control of your ship. The essential SEO guide will move you into the captain’s seat of online marketing. —Toni Sikes, CEO of CODAworx and founder of The Guild
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Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie C. Stricchiola The Art of SEO Mastering Search Engine Optimization THIRD EDITION
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978-1-491-94896-5 [LSI] The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie C. Stricchiola Copyright © 2015 Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Jessie C. Stricchiola and Rand Fishkin. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Acquisitions Editor: Mary Treseler Editor: Angela Rufino Technical Editor: Rob Woods Production Editor: Matthew Hacker Copyeditor: Rachel Monaghan Proofreader: Jasmine Kwityn Indexer: Judith McConville Interior Designer: David Futato Cover Designer: Mark Paglietti Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest October 2009: First Edition March 2012: Second Edition August 2015: Third Edition Revision History for the Third Edition 2015-08-11: First Release See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781491948965 for release details. The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The Art of SEO, the cover image, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. While the publisher and the authors have used good faith efforts to ensure that the informa- tion and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the authors dis- claim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instruc- tions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv 1 Search: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Mission of Search Engines 42 The Market Share of Search Engines 43 The Human Goals of Searching 43 Who Searches and What Do They Search For? 44 Determining Searcher Intent: A Challenge for Search Marketers and Search Engines 45 Navigational Queries 46 Informational Queries 46 Transactional Queries 47 Adaptive Search 48 Searcher Intent 49 How People Search 51 How Search Engines Drive Ecommerce 55 The Mobile Shift 56 The History of Eye Tracking: How Users Scan Results Pages 56 Click Tracking: How Users Click on Results (Organic Versus Paid) 62 Distribution of Search Results and Traffic 63 Conclusion 66 2 Search Engine Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Understanding Search Engine Results 68 Understanding the Layout of Search Results Pages 68 Understanding How Vertical Results Fit into the SERPs 72 Google’s Knowledge Graph 77 xvii
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Algorithm-Based Ranking Systems: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking 78 Crawling and Indexing 78 Retrieval and Ranking 80 Evaluating Content on a Web Page 82 Understanding What Content Search Engines Can “See” on a Web Page 83 Determining Searcher Intent and Delivering Relevant, Fresh Content 92 Document Analysis and Semantic Connectivity 92 Content Quality and User Engagement 96 Link Analysis 98 Evaluating Social Media Signals 100 Problem Words, Disambiguation, and Diversity 100 Why These Algorithms Sometimes Fail 103 The Knowledge Graph 103 Analyzing Ranking Factors 108 Negative Ranking Factors 109 Other Ranking Factors 110 Using Advanced Search Techniques 111 Advanced Google Search Operators 111 Bing Advanced Search Operators 119 More Advanced Search Operator Techniques 120 Vertical Search Engines 122 Vertical Search from the Major Search Engines 123 Universal Search/Blended Search 130 Country-Specific Search Engines 132 Optimizing for Specific Countries 133 Conclusion 134 3 SEO Planning: Customizing Your Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Strategic Goals SEO Practitioners Can Fulfill 136 Visibility (Branding) 136 Website Traffic 137 High Return on Investment 137 Every SEO Strategy Should Be Customized 138 Understanding Search Engine Traffic and Visitor Intent 139 Developing an SEO Plan Prior to Site Development 140 Business Factors That Impact Your SEO Strategy 140 CONTENTS xviii www.itbooksh
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Understanding Your Audience and Finding Your Niche 141 Mapping Your Products and Services 141 Understanding That Content Is King 142 Segmenting Your Site’s Audience 143 Understanding Context: Market Competitiveness 145 SEO for Raw Traffic 146 SEO for Ecommerce Sales 147 SEO for Mindshare and Branding 147 SEO for Lead Generation and Direct Marketing 148 SEO for Reputation Management 149 SEO for Ideological Influence 150 Advanced Methods for Planning and Evaluation 151 SWOT Analysis 151 SWOT Guidelines 152 SMART Objectives 154 Conclusion 155 4 SEO Implementation: First Stages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 The Importance of Planning 157 Identifying the Site Development Process and Players 158 Development Platform and Information Architecture 158 Technology Decisions 159 Structural Decisions 161 Mobile Sites and Mobile Apps 164 Single-Page Applications 164 Auditing an Existing Site to Identify SEO Problems 166 Elements of an Audit 166 The Importance of Keyword Reviews 171 Keyword Cannibalization 172 Example: Fixing an Internal Linking Problem 174 Server and Hosting Issues 176 Identifying Current Server Statistics Software and Gaining Access 177 Web Analytics 177 Log file Tracking 178 Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools 178 Determining Top Competitors 179 Identifying Spam 179 xix CONTENTS
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Seeking the Best 180 Uncovering Their Secrets 181 Assessing Historical Progress 183 Timeline of Site Changes 183 Types of Site Changes That Can Affect SEO 185 Previous SEO Work 186 Benchmarking Current Indexing Status 186 Benchmarking Organic Rankings 188 Benchmarking Current Traffic Sources and Volume 189 Leveraging Business Assets for SEO 190 Other Domains You Own/Control 190 Relationships On and Off the Web 190 Content or Data You’ve Never Put Online 190 Customers Who Have Had a Positive Experience 191 Followers, Friends, and Fans 191 Conclusion 191 5 Keyword Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 The Theory Behind Keyword Research 193 Thinking Strategically 194 Understanding the Long Tail of the Keyword Demand Curve 194 Understanding the Impact of Google Hummingbird 195 Understanding Keyword “Not Provided” and Co- Occurrence Analysis 198 Traditional Approaches: Domain Expertise and Site Content Analysis 199 Including Competitive Analysis 201 Integrating Keyword Research, Co-Occurrence Analysis, and Knowledge of User Intent 201 Keyword Research Options 202 Keyword Research Data from Search Engines 203 Keyword Research Data from Tools 207 Keyword Research Data Analysis 244 Ad Campaign Runs and Third-Party Search Data 247 Landing Page Optimization 248 Leveraging the Long Tail of Keyword Demand 249 Extracting Terms from Relevant Web Pages 250 Mining Keyword Research Tools 250 CONTENTS xx
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Identifying Long-Tail Patterns 251 Applying Editorial Content Strategies for Long-Tail Targeting 253 Applying User-Generated Content Strategies for Long- Tail Targeting 254 Trending, Seasonality, and Seasonal Fluctuations in Keyword Demand 255 Conclusion 258 6 Developing an SEO-Friendly Website. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Making Your Site Accessible to Search Engines 259 Indexable Content 260 Spiderable Link Structures 260 XML Sitemaps 262 Creating an Optimal Information Architecture 267 The Importance of a Logical, Category-Based Flow 267 Site Architecture Design Principles 271 Flat Versus Deep Architecture 274 Search-Friendly Site Navigation 277 Root Domains, Subdomains, and Microsites 285 When to Use a Subfolder 287 When to Use a Subdomain 288 When to Use a Separate Root Domain 288 Microsites 289 When to Use a TLD Other Than .com 291 Optimization of Domain Names/URLs 292 Optimizing Domains 293 Picking the Right URLs 295 Mobile Friendliness 297 Keyword Targeting 297 HTML <title> Tags 299 Meta Description Tags 302 Heading Tags 303 Document Text 305 Image Filenames and alt Attributes 308 Boldface Text 309 Keyword Cannibalization 309 Keyword Targeting in Content Management Systems and Automatically Generated Content 310 xxi CONTENTS
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Effective Keyword Targeting by Content Creators 310 Long-Tail Keyword Targeting 311 Content Optimization 313 Content Structure 313 CSS and Semantic Markup 315 Content Uniqueness and Depth 318 Content Themes 320 Duplicate Content Issues 320 Consequences of Duplicate Content 322 How Search Engines Identify Duplicate Content 323 Copyright Infringement 326 How to Avoid Duplicate Content on Your Own Site 328 Controlling Content with Cookies and Session IDs 330 What’s a Cookie? 330 What Are Session IDs? 331 How Do Search Engines Interpret Cookies and Session IDs? 333 Why Would You Want to Use Cookies or Session IDs to Control Search Engine Access? 333 Content Delivery and Search Spider Control 334 Cloaking and Segmenting Content Delivery 334 Showing Different Content to Engines and Visitors 336 Displaying Different Content to Search Engines Versus Visitors 338 Redirects 353 Why and When to Redirect 353 Good and Bad Redirects 353 Methods for URL Redirecting and Rewriting 354 How to Redirect a Home Page Index File Without Looping 360 Content Management System Issues 362 CMS Selection 367 Third-Party CMS Add-Ons 368 Flash Coding Best Practices 370 Best Practices for Multilanguage/Country Targeting 375 How to Target a Specific Country 376 Problems with Using Your Existing Domain 376 The Two Major Approaches 377 Multiple-Language Issues 377 CONTENTS xxii
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Semantic Search 381 Google’s Hummingbird 382 Semantic Search and SEO 382 Entities and Semantic Search 383 Structured Data 384 Schema.org 386 Overview 388 How to Use Schema.org 390 Summary 400 Google Authorship and Author Authority 400 A Brief History of Google Authorship 401 Why Did Google End Support for rel=“author”? 402 Is Author Authority Dead for Google? 403 Google+ Authors in Personalized Search 404 The Future of Author Authority at Google 404 Author Authority 405 Google’s Publisher Tag 407 Google’s Knowledge Graph and the Knowledge Vault 410 Overview of Changes in Search Complexity 410 Fair Use? 414 How the Knowledge Vault Works 415 The Future of the Knowledge Vault 417 Conclusion 418 7 Content Marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 How Links Historically Influenced Search Engine Rankings 421 The Original PageRank Algorithm 421 Additional Factors That Influence Link Value 426 How Search Engines Use Links 430 Further Refining How Search Engines Judge Links 431 Additional Link Evaluation Criteria 431 How Search Engines Determine a Link’s Value 438 Creating Content That Attracts Links 440 How Are Links Earned? 440 How Can Sites Approach Getting Links? 440 Introduction to Content Marketing 441 Using Content to Attract Links 442 xxiii CONTENTS
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Understanding Content Marketing Basics 443 Customizing Your Content Types to Your Audience 444 Implementing Content Marketing Strategies 445 Developing Content That Works 446 Brainstorming Content Ideas and Being Creative 446 Speedstorming 449 Getting Creative Help 449 Repurposing Content 450 Understanding What Makes Content High Quality 451 Integrating Emotional Triggers, Titles, and Images 451 Leveraging the Power of Memes 455 Measuring Engagement in Content Marketing 459 Choosing the Right Content Marketing Strategy 462 Identifying Types of Sites That Might Link to a Site Like Yours 462 Placing a Value on the Sites 462 Segmenting Your Audience, Identifying Personas, and Targeting Content 466 Putting It All Together 468 Types of Content Marketing Campaigns 470 Guest Posting 470 Content Syndication 475 Link-Worthy or Viral Content 477 User-Generated Content 479 Building an Audience 480 Get to Know Other People’s Audiences 480 Leverage Influencers and Influencer Marketing 486 Get Active in Social Media 493 Build Offline Relationships 496 Relationships and Outreach 497 Building Relationships with Influencers 497 Creating a Value Proposition for a Relationship 512 Using Direct Email Pitches Effectively 512 Other Ways to Earn Links 513 Web Directories 513 Manual Social Media Link Creation 514 Gray Hat/Black Hat 515 Awards and Badges 520 Customer Discount/Incentives 520 CONTENTS xxiv
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How Search Engines Fight Link Spam 521 Google’s Penguin Algorithm 521 Other Algorithmic Approaches to Fighting Link Spam 521 Negative Link Building 523 Unnatural Links Messages 524 Other Search Engine Courses of Action 524 Social Networking for Links 525 Blogging for Links 525 Leveraging Major Social Media Platforms 526 Using Social Media Networking Effectively: Dos and Don’ts 527 Using YouTube Successfully for Content Marketing 534 Implementing Guest Posting Successfully 536 Putting It All Together 537 Conclusion 537 8 How Social Media and User Data Play a Role in Search Results and Rankings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 Correlation Between Social Signals and Google Rankings 540 What Is the Value of Social Signals? 541 Bing’s Experiments with Social Signals 543 Does Google Use Facebook as a Ranking Signal? 546 Does Google Use Twitter as a Ranking Signal? 550 Does Google Use Google+ as a Ranking Signal? 553 Google+ Personalization 553 Google+ Posts in the Search Results 555 Google+ Brand Pages in the Search Results 556 Google+ Impact on Nonpersonalized Rankings of Content 557 Study on Google+ as a Ranking Factor 558 How Might Google Use Google+ as a Ranking Factor? 560 The Indirect Influence of Social Media Marketing 561 Monitoring, Measuring, and Improving Social Media Marketing: Best Practices 564 Claiming Key Profiles 565 Deciding on a New Social Network 566 Tracking Social Media 568 User Engagement as a Measure of Search Quality 584 How Google and Bing Collect Engagement Metrics 585 xxv CONTENTS
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Potential User Engagement Signals 586 Voting Mechanisms 588 Document Analysis 588 Poor Editorial Quality 589 Reading Level 589 Keyword Stuffing/Lack of Synonyms 591 Ad Density and Offensive Ads 591 Sameness 591 Page Speed 592 Optimizing User Experience to Improve SEO 592 Step 1: Build a Survey 592 Step 2: Send It to Your Customers/Potential Customers 593 Step 3: Record Responses and Leverage Them to Build What the People Want 593 Additional Social Media Resources 593 Conclusion 594 9 Panda, Penguin, and Penalties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595 Diagnosing the Cause of a Traffic Loss 596 Summary of Major Google Algorithms 597 Panda 598 Target Areas of Panda 601 Importance of Diversity in Rankings 604 Role of Authority in Rankings 606 Impact of Any Weak Content on Rankings 606 Path to Recovery 607 Penguin 610 Target Areas of Penguin 611 Path to Recovery 612 Penalties 612 Types of Manual Penalties 614 Links Google Does Not Like 620 Link Cleanup Process 627 Sources of Data 628 Using Tools 628 The Link Removal Process 631 Conclusion 634 CONTENTS xxvi
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10 Mobile, Local, and Vertical SEO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 The Mobile Landscape 635 SEO for Mobile 636 App SEO: Deep Linking and Indexing for Mobile Search 641 App Deep Linking 641 App Indexing 643 Optimizing for Vertical Search 643 Universal Search = Blended Search 644 The Opportunity Unleashed 647 Optimizing for Local Search 648 Local Listing Submissions 650 Google My Business 653 Google Knowledge Graph Carousel 655 Bing Places for Business 659 Yahoo! Local 659 Business Website Optimization for Local Search 660 Optimizing for Image Search 663 Image Optimization Tips 664 Optimizing for Google Shopping Search 668 Submitting a Product Feed 669 Optimizing a Product Feed 670 Promoting Products in AdWords 672 Reporting Results of Shopping Ads 673 Optimizing for Blog Search 673 Structural Blog Optimizations 674 Optimizing Your Anchor Text 675 Sticky Posts 675 Author Profile Pages 675 Links 676 Optimizing for News Search: Google News 677 Acceptance Criteria 679 Application Process 679 Paywalls and Subscription Sites 679 Google News Publisher Center 680 Technical Requirements 682 Thumbnail Images in Google News 685 Recrawling 686 Google News Sitemaps 686 xxvii CONTENTS
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Videos in Google News 692 Editor’s Picks 693 Optimizing for Video/Multimedia Search 694 Video SEO for YouTube 695 Video SEO for Google 706 Conclusion 708 11 Tracking Results and Measuring Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 Why Measuring Success Is Essential to the SEO Process 710 The Tracking Cycle: Produce, Launch, Measure, Refine 711 Establishing a Proper Baseline 713 Using Analytics as a Business Case for SEO 714 Measuring Search Traffic 714 Basic Overview 715 Selecting the Right Analytics Package 715 Extracting Valuable SEO Data in Web Analytics 717 Number of pages getting search traffic 721 Segmenting Search Traffic 722 Referring Sites 722 Using Custom Analytics Dashboards 724 Taking a Deeper Look at Action Tracking 725 Separating the Analytics Wheat from the Chaff 728 Tying SEO to Conversion and ROI 729 Managing Attribution 732 Setting Up Analytics Software to Track Conversions 733 Segmenting Campaigns and SEO Efforts by Conversion Rate 736 Increasing Conversion 737 Determining Project ROI 740 Competitive and Diagnostic Search Metrics 742 Search Engine and Competitive Metrics 742 Site Indexing Data 742 Link-Based Tracking of Content Marketing 747 Ranking 763 Shelf space 764 SEO Platforms 765 Crawl Errors 766 Tracking the Blogosphere 772 CONTENTS xxviii www.itbooksh
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Tracking Your Blog(s) 773 Search Engine Robot Traffic Analysis 775 Web Traffic Comparison 777 Temporal Link Growth Measurements 783 Key Performance Indicators for Long-Tail SEO 787 Duplicate Content 788 Other Third-Party Tools 789 MozBar 789 SEO Quake 790 SEO for Firefox 790 SpyFu 790 SEMrush 792 Rio SEO Search Analytics 792 Rio SEO Website Optimizer 793 Searchmetrics Essentials 793 Conclusion 794 12 Domain Changes, Redesigns, and Troubleshooting. . . . . 795 The Basics of Moving Content 795 Large-Scale Content Moves 796 Mapping Content Moves 797 Expectations for Content Moves 799 Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After a Site Redesign 801 Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After Domain Name Changes 802 Unique Challenges of Domain Name Changes 802 Pre-Move Preparations 803 Changing Servers 804 Monitoring After Your Server Move 805 Hidden Content 806 Identifying Content That Search Engines Don’t See 806 Identifying the Cause of Non-Spidering 807 Identifying Hidden Content That May Be Viewed as Spam 810 Spam Filtering and Penalties 812 Low-Quality Domains and Spam Sites 815 Spam Reports 818 Duplicate Content 818 xxix CONTENTS
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Basic Rules for Spam-Free SEO 820 Search Engine Penalties and Reconsideration Requests 821 Content Theft 821 Changing SEO Vendors or Staff Members 824 Potential Problems with SEO Staff Changes 824 SEO Documentation for Actions and Progress 825 SEO Documentation for Rapid Training 825 Cleanup and Auditing 826 Conclusion 826 13 SEO Education and Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827 SEO Research and Search Performance Analysis 827 SEO Resources 827 SEO Testing 829 Analysis of Top-Ranking Sites and Pages 833 Analysis of Algorithmic Differentiation Across Engines and Search Types 834 The Importance of Experience 836 Competitive Analysis 836 Content Analysis 836 Internal Link Structure and Site Architecture 837 External Link Attraction Analysis 837 What Is Their SEO Strategy? 838 Competitive Analysis Summary 839 Using Competitive Link Analysis Tools 839 Competitive Analysis for Those with a Big Budget 841 Using Search Engine–Supplied SEO Tools 841 Search Engine Tools for Webmasters 841 The SEO Industry on the Web 857 Blogs 857 SEO News Outlets, Communities, and Forums 859 Communities in Social Networks 860 Participation in Conferences and Organizations 861 Conclusion 863 14 SEO Support: In-House, External, or Both?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 865 The Business of SEO 865 Understand Your Market Opportunity 866 CONTENTS xxx
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Get Buy-In Across the Organization 867 Lay the Groundwork 867 Motivate Resources That Don’t Share Your Goals to Help You 868 Progress Through the Stages of SEO Maturity 869 Building an SEO team 870 Using In-House SEO Talent Versus Outsourced Support: Dynamics and Challenges 871 The Value of In-House SEO 871 The Value of Outsourced SEO Support 871 The Case for Working with an Outside Expert 872 How to Best Leverage Outside Help 873 How to Implement Your Expert’s Recommendations 874 How to Integrate SEO Knowledge in the Organization 875 The Impact of Site Complexity on SEO Workload 876 Solutions for Small Organizations 878 Developing the In-House SEO Specialist 878 Making the Most of Limited Resources or Budgets 879 Solutions for Large Organizations 882 Contracting for Specialist Knowledge and Experience 884 Applying SEO Recommendations Intelligently 884 Hiring SEO Talent 885 Selecting the Right SEO Person 886 Pitching the Person 886 Making the Offer 888 Selecting an SEO Firm/Consultant 888 Getting the Process Started 889 Preparing a Request for Proposal 890 Communicating with Candidate SEO Firms 895 Making the Decision 896 Mixing In-House SEO with Outside SEO Help 898 Building a Culture of SEO into Your Organization 899 Conclusion 900 15 An Evolving Art Form: The Future of SEO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901 The Ongoing Evolution of Search 903 The Growth of Search Complexity 903 Google’s Dominance 908 More Searchable Content and Content Types 911 xxxi CONTENTS
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Engines Will Make Crawling Improvements 911 Engines Are Getting New Content Sources 912 Multimedia Is Becoming Indexable 913 More Personalized, Localized, and User-Influenced Search 915 User Intent 915 User Interactions 916 New Search Patterns 916 Growing Reliance on the Cloud 917 Increasing Importance of Local, Mobile, and Voice Search 918 Local Search 918 Mobile Search 919 Voice Recognition Search 920 Increased Market Saturation and Competition 921 SEO as an Enduring Art Form 923 The Future of Semantic Search and the Knowledge Graph 924 Conclusion 928 Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949 CONTENTS xxxii
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Foreword IN 2004, WHEN I DID MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL WORK IN THE FIELD OF SEARCH engine optimization, Google was estimated to receive ~200 million searches each day. In 2014, that number jumped to more than 6 billion, a 30x increase over 10 years. Since its inception, web search has been a powerful tool for people to find what they need, and as a result, it’s also been a powerful channel for those seeking to attract attention, traffic, actions, and customers. But in 2004, discovering how search engines worked and how to drive that traffic was a daunting challenge. Web forums, blogs, and a handful of industry news sites were the first to take on the problem. They built communities and published resources to help both industry insid- ers and those aspiring to learn SEO. That’s where I first cut my teeth. But learning from those sources was hard work—and there were no alternatives. Schools didn’t teach SEO (the great majority of them still don’t!), online courses were extremely rare (and many were low quality or straight-up misleading), and there were almost no books on the subject. When I founded the SEOmoz blog (which became the company known today as “Moz”), my mission was to educate and to learn by doing so. Nothing has made me a better student of SEO and of marketing than being forced to write about and teach it to others. That’s why it was a great honor to have been one of the contributing writers for the original two editions of this book. When we finished that first full draft, I remember xxxiii
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skimming through it and thinking, “Man…I wish they’d had this when I was learning SEO.” That was a good feeling. Search engines are complex. The Web is massively complex. And the human beings doing the searching, sifting, clicking, and converting—they’re the most complex of all. But all that complexity shouldn’t create an impenetrable wall for those seeking knowl- edge. In the past, when it has, the reputation of SEO itself has suffered. CMOs, mar- keting managers, and small-business owners have hired or contracted professionals to perform SEO and been frustrated by the process, the requirements, and the results, often because they themselves didn’t know enough about the practice to make a good choice or to create the right expectations. By pulling back the veil on SEO, those of us tasked with teaching are enabling the right expectations to be set, the right people to be hired, and the right results from SEO investments. Arguably, no one is more qualified or has done more than the team of writers, editors, and practitioners behind this new edition of The Art of SEO. In this book, you’ll find not only the wisdom of its authors, but the work of thousands around the world who’ve contributed their insight directly (and are properly cited, of course) and indirectly (we thank you, too, unacknowledged teachers of us all) to transparency in a sometimes too-opaque field. While I could not personally contribute to this edition as I would have liked, it was my honor and privilege to once again grace these pages (even if only in this paltry fore- word) alongside such an excellent team. Welcome to The Art of SEO. —Rand Fishkin July 2015 xxxiv
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Preface The book before you is designed to be a complete and thorough education on search engine optimization for digital marketers at all levels. This third edition has been com- pletely revamped and updated from the second edition, taking into account the vast number of changes in the search engine industry, and the digital marketing field as a whole - from the rise of social media to the explosion of mobile. Nonetheless, as with the first and second editions, you can think of it as SEO 101, SEO 102, and SEO 500. Our goal has been to help simplify a very complex, layered topic and to make it easier for people to grasp, as well as to make it easier to focus on the most important aspects of SEO for individual businesses—while at the same time providing depth of knowl- edge and expertise that the most advanced search veteran can utilize. As a group, we have over 40 years’ experience working on SEO, a discipline involving deep profi- ciency in all aspects of digital marketing—from website development, information architecture, and user experience (UX) to market research, content strategy, analytics, conversion optimization, and data-driven decision making. These technical skills, along with the ability to merge the analytical with the creative, compose the SEO pro- fessional’s toolkit. We have seen how SEO works over a relatively long period of time, across thousands of different websites. Any one of us could have written this book individually (in fact, one of us tried to), but we discovered that by working together we were able to create something of much greater value for you, the savvy marketer who recognizes the value of the most highly converting digital channel. xxxv
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Who Should Read This Book A little-known fact in digital marketing is that many of the most successful growth hackers name SEO as their initial core expertise upon which they developed their growth strategies. Andy Johns (@ibringtraffic), a well-respected growth strategist, started in the SEO field. He was previously the SEO lead for Facebook, Twitter, and Quora, among other roles, and is now the Director of Growth and Revenue at Wealth- front.com. People who are involved in digital marketing at any level—especially those tasked with developing online growth strategies—should consider this book invalua- ble. Web developers, development managers, product marketers, brand marketers, and key business personnel should all be exposed to the information in this book if online traction and growth are part of your business objectives. If you are currently focused on SEO as a growth channel for your company or your clients, or you are looking to dive deeply into this broad yet specialized area of digital marketing expertise, you would be well served to read this book from cover to cover. After reading the entire text, you will have been exposed to all aspects of the art of SEO, and will have laid the necessary groundwork for beginning to develop your SEO skills to become a more effective digital marketer and a more educated search marketing professional. An experienced SEO veteran will find this volume invaluable as an extensive refer- ence to support ongoing SEO engagements: both internally, within an in-house SEO group or SEO consultancy, and externally, with SEO clients. Finally, the book will serve as a refresher course for working SEO practitioners, from the novice to the pass: [professional]. Finally, this book is perfectly suited for the academic environment as a powerful resource for digital marketing, IT, and engineering disciplines. Georgetown University, UCLA, USC, UCSD, UC Davis, University of Wisconsin, the University of Mumbai, the City University of Hong Kong, and many other academic institutions have used The Art of SEO as either required or recommended reading in course syllabi. Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, file extensions, and search terms. Constant width Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program ele- ments such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords. PREFACE xxxvi
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Constant width bold Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user. Constant width italic Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values deter- mined by context. TIP This element signifies a tip or suggestion. NOTE This element signifies a general note. WARNING This element indicates a warning or caution. Safari® Books Online Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that delivers expert content in both book and video form from the world’s leading authors in technology and business. Technology professionals, software developers, web designers, and business and crea- tive professionals use Safari Books Online as their primary resource for research, prob- lem solving, learning, and certification training. Safari Books Online offers a range of plans and pricing for enterprise, government, education, and individuals. Members have access to thousands of books, training videos, and prepublication manuscripts in one fully searchable database from publishers like O’Reilly Media, Prentice Hall Professional, Addison-Wesley Professional, Microsoft Press, Sams, Que, Peachpit Press, Focal Press, Cisco Press, John Wiley & Sons, Syngress, Morgan Kauf- mann, IBM Redbooks, Packt, Adobe Press, FT Press, Apress, Manning, New Riders, McGraw-Hill, Jones & Bartlett, Course Technology, and hundreds more. For more information about Safari Books Online, please visit us online. xxxvii PREFACE
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How to Contact Us Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 (in the United States or Canada) 707-829-0515 (international or local) 707-829-0104 (fax) We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at http://bit.ly/art_of_seo_3e. You can also head over to The Art of SEO book website for FAQs and to post your own burning questions! You’ll have access to exclusive offers, discounts, and coupon codes on various SEO tools and services. To get exclusive access to instructional videos related to the concepts in the chapter, simply send an email to bonuses@artofseobook.com and we’ll send you some awesome links! To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to bookques- tions@oreilly.com. For more information about our books, courses, conferences, and news, see our web- site at http://www.oreilly.com. Find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/oreilly Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oreillymedia Watch us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/oreillymedia Acknowledgments Alex Bennert—Google News SEO Seth Besmertnik—business of SEO John Biundo—local search and schema Matthias Blume—metrics Jessica Bowman—in-house Christoph Cemper—tools access Rand Fishkin—contributions to previous editions Michael Geneles—metrics, tools access, and review Chase Granberry—tools access Jon Henshaw—tools access Greg Jarboe—video/YouTube SEO Dixon Jones—tools access Adam Lella—metrics PREFACE xxxviii www.itbooksh
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Dan Liebson—local search Michael Martin—SEO for mobile David Mihm—local search Mark Nunney—tools access Cyrus Shepard—tools access Yulia Shevardenkova—tools access Andrew Shotland—local search Danny Sullivan—for his role in launching this industry Marcus Tober—tools access Dana Todd—awesome work as a reviewer Mark Traphagen—authorship and social media David Warmuz—tools access Jeff Whelpley—Angular.js SEO xxxix PREFACE
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1 comScore, “comScore Releases April 2014 U.S. Search Engine Rankings,” May 16, 2014, http:// www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Releases-April-2014-US-Search-Engine- Rankings. 2 Danny Sullivan, “Twitter: Renewed Focus On SEO Generated 10 Times More Visitors,” November 12, 2014, http://searchengineland.com/twitter-seo-more-visitors-208160. C H A P T E R O N E Search: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce Search has become integrated into the fabric of our society. With more than 197.9 bil- lion searches performed worldwide each month as of April 2014, approximately 6.6 billion web searches are performed every day. This means that on average about 7,500 searches are performed every single second of every day.1 In addition, users have grown to expect that the responses to their search queries will be returned in less than one second. If you have ever come across the various “SEO is dead” claims that make the rounds periodically in the digital marketing world, rest assured: SEO is both alive and well— and has not, as many feared, been “killed” by social media marketing as a driver of web traffic. In fact, in November 2014, Twitter announced that by renewing its focus on SEO, it increased the number of logged-out visitors coming to the site tenfold— from 7.5 million to 75 million visitors per month.2. The high demand for search continues because people can now obtain in mere seconds information that 20 years ago would have required a trip to the library, the use of a card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System, and a physical search through halls of printed volumes—a process that could easily have consumed two hours or more. Through the new channel of search, people can conduct many of their shopping, 41
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banking, and social transactions online—something that has changed the way our global population lives and interacts. This dramatic shift in behavior represents what investors like to label a disruptive event—an event that has changed something in a fundamental way. Search engines have been at the center of this disruptive event, and having a business’s website con- tent appear prominently in the search engines when people are looking for the ser- vice, product, or resource that business provides is critical to its survival. As is the case with most paths to success, obtaining such prime search result real estate is not a sim- ple matter, but it is one that this book aims to deconstruct and demystify as we exam- ine, explain, and explore the ever-changing art of search engine optimization (SEO). The Mission of Search Engines Web searchers are free to use any of the many available search engines to find what they are seeking, so the burden is on the search engines to develop a relevant, fast, and fresh search experience. For the most part, search engines accomplish this by being perceived as having the most relevant results and delivering them the fastest, as users will go to the search engine they think will get them the answers they want in the least amount of time. As a result, search engines invest a tremendous amount of time, energy, and capital in improving their relevance. This includes performing extensive studies of user respon- ses to their search results, comparing their results against those of other search engines, conducting eye-tracking and click-through rate studies (discussed later in this chapter), and constructing PR and marketing campaigns. Search engines generate revenue primarily through paid advertising. The great major- ity of this revenue comes from a pay-per-click (or cost-per-click) model, in which the advertisers pay only for users who click on their ads. Because the search engines’ suc- cess depends so greatly on the relevance of their search results, manipulations of search engine rankings that result in nonrelevant results (generally referred to as spam) are dealt with very seriously. Each major search engine employs a team of peo- ple who focus solely on finding and eliminating spam from their search results (gener- ally referred to as “web spam” teams). This matters to SEO professionals because they need to be careful that the tactics they employ will not be considered spam by the search engines, as this would carry the risk of incurring penalties for the websites they work on. CHAPTER ONE: SEARCH: REFLECTING CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONNECTING COMMERCE 42
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The Market Share of Search Engines Figure 1-1 shows the U.S. market share for search engines in June 2015, according to comScore. As you can see, Google is the dominant search engine on the Web in the United States. Figure 1-1. Search engine market share (June 2015) In many European countries, the disparity is even greater. However, in some markets, Google is not dominant. In China, for instance, Baidu is the leading search engine. The fact remains, however, that in most world markets, a heavy focus on Google is a smart strategy for SEO. The Human Goals of Searching The basic goal of a human searcher is to obtain information relevant to a specific set of keywords and/or phrases entered into a search field, also known as a query. A searcher may formulate the query as a question, but the vast majority of searches are performed by users simply entering word combinations—leaving the search engines to do the work of determining “intent.” One of the most important elements to building an SEO strategy for a website is developing a thorough understanding of the psychol- ogy of your target audience, and how they use words and concepts to obtain informa- tion about the services and/or products you provide. Once you understand how the average searcher—and, more specifically, your target market—utilizes query-based search engines, you can more effectively reach and keep those users. Search engine usage has evolved over the years, but the primary principles of conduct- ing a search remain largely unchanged. Most search engine use consists of the follow- ing steps: THE MARKET SHARE OF SEARCH ENGINES 43
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- Users experience the need for information. They may be looking for information on a specific website, and they will search for that website (a navigational query); they might want to buy something (a transactional query); or they might want to learn something (an informational query). We will discuss this in more detail in the following section.
- Users formulate that need using a string of words and phrases (comprising the query). Most people formulate their queries in one to three words, though as users are becoming more web savvy, they may use longer queries to generate more specific results more quickly. Table 1-1 gives a more detailed look at the per- centages of searches per query length as of April 2014, the most recent comScore study on this aspect of search.
- Users execute the query, check the results, and if they seek additional informa- tion, will try a refined query. Table 1-1. Searches by query length (comScore, April 2014 data) Words Percent of searches 1 25.8% 2 22.8% 3 18.7% 4 13.2% 5+ 19.5% When this process results in the satisfactory completion of a task, a positive experience is created for the user, the search engine, and the site providing the information or result. Who Searches and What Do They Search For? comScore reported that the number of search queries performed worldwide on the Web was approximately 197.9 billion across all search engines in April 2014. comScore data also shows over 1.7 billion people were using a search engine on a given day in that month. Search engine users in the United States were slightly more likely to be women than men (50.3% versus 49.7%). According to comScore, about two-thirds of U.S. Internet users had an income of $40,000 or more (Table 1-2). Table 1-2. Internet users by household income (May 2015) U.S. household income Internet users Less than $25,000 33,730 (13.2%) $25,000–$39,999 32,941 (12.9%) CHAPTER ONE: SEARCH: REFLECTING CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONNECTING COMMERCE 44
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U.S. household income Internet users $40,000–$59,999 42,376 (16.5%) $60,000–$74,999 27,861 (10.9%) $75,000–$99,999 38,166 (14.9%) $100,000 or more 81,015 (31.6%) You can find additional data from studies, surveys, and white papers on Search Engine Land’s Search Behavior page. All of this research data leads us to some important conclusions about web search and marketing through search engines. For example: • Search is a major source of valuable, targeted traffic. • Google is the dominant search player in most world markets. • Users tend to use shorter search phrases, but these are gradually getting longer, especially for non-navigational queries. • Search covers all types of markets. Search is undoubtedly still one of the best and most important ways to reach consum- ers and build a business, regardless of that business’s size, reach, or focus. Determining Searcher Intent: A Challenge for Search Marketers and Search Engines Good marketers are empathetic, and smart SEO practitioners—as well as the search engines—share the goal of providing searchers with results that are relevant to their queries. Therefore, a crucial element to building an online marketing strategy around SEO and organic (sometimes referred to as “natural”) search visibility is understanding your audience and how they think about, discuss, and search for your service, prod- uct, and brand. Search engine marketers need to be aware that search engines are tools—resources driven by intent toward a content destination. Using the search box is fundamentally different from entering a URL into the browser’s address bar, clicking on a bookmark, or clicking on a link to go to a website. Searches are performed with intent—the user wants to find specific information, rather than just land on it by happenstance; search is also different from browsing, or clicking around links on a web page. Because of this specificity, search traffic is generally of higher value to marketers than these other types of web traffic. What follows is an examination of the different types of search queries and their cate- gories, characteristics, and processes. DETERMINING SEARCHER INTENT: A CHALLENGE FOR SEARCH MARKETERS AND SEARCH ENGINES 45
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Navigational Queries Users perform navigational searches with the intent of going directly to a specific web- site. In some cases, the user may not know the exact URL, and the search engine serves as the “White Pages.” Figure 1-2 shows an example of a navigational query. Figure 1-2. Navigational query Opportunities: Pull searcher away from destination; get ancillary or investigatory traffic. Average traffic value: Very high when searches are for the publisher’s own brand. These types of searches tend to lead to very high conversion rates. However, these searchers are already aware of the company brand, and some percentage of these queries may not represent new customers. For brands other than the one being searched on, the click-through rates will tend to be low, but this may represent an opportunity to take a customer away from a competitor. Informational Queries Informational searches involve an incredibly broad range of queries. Consider the many types of information people might look for: local weather, driving directions, a celebrity’s recent interview, disease symptoms, self-help information, how to train for a specific type of career…the possibilities are as endless as the human capacity for thought. Informational searches are primarily non-transaction-oriented (although they can include researching information about a product or service); the information itself is the goal, and no interaction beyond clicking and reading is required for the searcher’s query to be satisfied. Figure 1-3 shows an example of an informational query. CHAPTER ONE: SEARCH: REFLECTING CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONNECTING COMMERCE 46
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Figure 1-3. Informational query Opportunities: Brand searchers with positive impressions of your site, information, com- pany, and so on; attract inbound links; receive attention from journalists/researchers; potentially convert to sign up or purchase. Average traffic value: The searcher may not be ready to buy anything just yet, or may not even have a long-term intent to buy anything, so the value tends to be “medium” at best. However, many of these searchers will later enter in a more targeted search, and this represents an opportunity to capture mindshare with those potential custom- ers. For example, informational queries that are focused on researching commercial products or services can have high value. Transactional Queries Transactional searches don’t necessarily have to involve a credit card or immediate financial transaction. Creating a Pinterest account, signing up for a free trial account at DomainTools, or finding the best local Japanese restaurant for dinner tonight are all transactional queries. Figure 1-4 shows an example of a transactional query. DETERMINING SEARCHER INTENT: A CHALLENGE FOR SEARCH MARKETERS AND SEARCH ENGINES 47
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3 Bernard J. Jansen, Danielle L. Booth, and Amanda Spink, “Determining the Informational, Navi- gational, and Transactional Intent of Web Queries,” Information Processing and Management 44 (2008) 1251–1266, http://bit.ly/jansen_user_intent. Figure 1-4. Transactional query Opportunities: Achieve transaction (financial or other). Average traffic value: Very high. Research from Pennsylvania State University and the Queensland University of Tech- nology shows that more than 80% of searches are informational in nature, and only about 10% of searches are navigational or transactional.3 The researchers went further and developed an algorithm to automatically classify searches by query type. When they tested the algorithm, they found that it was able to correctly classify queries 74% of the time. The difficulty in classifying the remaining queries was vague user intent—that is, the queries could have multiple meanings. Adaptive Search The search engines also look at sequences of search queries to determine intent. This was confirmed in coauthor Eric Enge’s interview with Jack Menzel, Product Manage- ment Director for Google Search. You can verify this by trying search sequences such as a search on Rome followed by a search on hotels. Normally, a search on hotels would not include results for hotels in Rome, but when the preceding query was for Rome, some results for hotels in Rome will be included. Keeping track of users’ previous search queries and taking them into account when determining which results to return for a new query—known as adaptive search—is intended to help the search engines get a better sense of a user’s intent. The search engines need to do this with care: excessive changes to the results they return based CHAPTER ONE: SEARCH: REFLECTING CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONNECTING COMMERCE 48 www.itbooksh
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on recent query history are likely to lead to problems, so usually these types of changes are fairly limited in scope. Nonetheless, it is useful to be aware of the types of sequences of searches that users go through in their quest for information. Searcher Intent When you are building keyword research charts for clients or on your own sites, it can be incredibly valuable to determine the intent of each of your primary keywords. Table 1-3 shows some examples. Table 1-3. Sample search queries and intent Term Queries Intent Monetary value Beijing Airport 980 Nav Low Hotels in Xi’an 2,644 Info Mid 7-Day China tour package 127 Trans High Sichuan jellyfish recipe 53 Info Low This type of analysis can help you determine where to place ads and where to concen- trate content and links. Hopefully, this data can help you to think carefully about how to serve different kinds of searchers based on their individual intents, and how to concentrate your efforts in the best possible areas. Although informational queries are less likely to immediately convert into sales, this does not mean you should forgo pursuing rankings on these queries; getting your informative content in front of users seeking information can be incredibly valuable, and can turn users into potential customers. If you are able to build a relationship with users who find your site after an informational query, they may be more likely to come to you to make a related purchase at a later date, and they may also decide to share your information with others via their own website, or through social media engagement—an indirect but potentially more valuable result than converting the sin- gle user into a paying customer. One problem in search is that when most searchers formulate their search queries, their input is limited to just a handful of words (generally one to four). Because most people don’t have a keen understanding of how search engines work, they often pro- vide queries that are too general or that are presented in a way that does not provide the search engine (or the marketer) with what it needs to determine, with 100% accu- racy 100% of the time, their specific intent. Additionally, search engine users may not have a specific intent for an individual search query beyond “curiosity” about a general trending topic, or subject matter. While this poses potential difficulty in deliv- ering relevant results, it also poses great opportunity to capture the mind of someone DETERMINING SEARCHER INTENT: A CHALLENGE FOR SEARCH MARKETERS AND SEARCH ENGINES 49
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who may not know what he is looking for, specifically, but who takes an interest in the subsequent variety of results the search engine (and search marketers) deliver in response. These types of general queries are important to most businesses because they often get the brand and site on the searcher’s radar, and this initiates the process of building trust with the user. Over time, the user will move on to more specific searches that are more transactional or navigational in nature. If, for instance, companies buying pay-per-click (PPC) search ads bought only the high-converting navigational and transactional terms and left the informational ones to competitors, they would lose market share to those competitors. Over the course of several days, a searcher may start with digital cameras, hone in on Olympus OMD, and then ultimately buy from the store that showed up in her search for digital cameras and pointed her in the direction of the Olympus OMD model. Given the general nature of how query sessions start, though, determining intent is quite difficult, and it can result in searches being performed where the user does not find what he wants—even after multiple tries. A July 2013 study conducted by Fore- See for the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) found that 77% of Google users and 76% of Bing users were satisfied with their experiences. While 77% satisfaction is an amazing accomplishment given the complexity of build- ing a search engine, this study still showed that more than 22% of users wer
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