Dave Collins – SEO Demystified – MicroConf 2013

The MicroConf Hub Page with links to all the notes for all the talks can be found here.

Speaker: Dave Collins (@thedavecollins)

Watch the video (sorry, but I’m not allowed to embed it here)

Notes

• 70% of SEO is simple
  • Almost every one can do it
  • It always works (usually)
• A lot of Bullshit going on in SEO land
• For every person who knows what they’re talking about in SEO, there are ______ who are talking out of their _____
• Legitimate SEO aligns the agendas of your website and Google
• What do users want from Google? HELP!
  • 30 Trillion pages in Google index
• What does Google want? Money! Or help people find answers (Depending on your level of cynicism)
• Google needs help with finding high quality content
  • Freshness of sites
  • incoming links to sites
  • Keywod density
  • and so on
• Your role as SEO: Guiding Google – NOT manipulating
• The SEO cycle aligns itself only when SEOs give Google what USERs are looking for
• Black Hat vs. White Hat –> We did this (!), because it WORKED
  • Black Hat is becoming a thing of the past
  • Even BBC got slapped for bad links by Google
• Getting slapped by Google –> doesn’t tickle, feels more like getting hit by Rocky
  • Revenue drops by 85% possible
• The Death of Algorithm Manipulation – Ask your SEO what he will be doing when he works for you

What SEO should look like

• Keyword Density is not an absolute percentage. Best percentage: Whatever comes out of a GOOD writer
• How do you know if you’re breaking the rules?
  Ask yourself how you would feel sitting in a room with Sergey and Larry. Would you feel bad? Not a good sign
• Chasing the algorithm is futile
• Give Google what they want and you can ignore the algorithms & filters
• Search Results are going to be flooded with Advertisements in the future
  But: Organic listings may have become a platform for ad delivery; this does not devalue the results!

Realism

• “But I have a really clever idea! Google will never figure this out” – Nope. Google has 1000s of really clever engineers
• “(not provided)” will kill keyword data ==> http://www.notprovidedcount.com/
• “(do not track)” will kill keyword data
• You can get slapped without being aware of having done anything wrong
• Punishing the innocent happens

It’s all (mostly) about keywords

• One keyword per page
• Long tail is your friend (3 or more words – HitTail anyone?)

The Keyword Research Process

1. Brainstorm (pen & paper)
2. Analytics
3. Competition
4. Keyword research tool
5. Identify primary keyword
6. Identify support keywords
7. Analytics (existing keywords)
   1. Determine time spend on site for existing keywords —> short = bad
8. Analysis
9. Decision: Optimise page (risk breaking it) or create new page

Tips for Keyword Research

• Activate Keyword suggestions in Google Keyword Tool
• What you want: Low Competition, Many monthly searches
• KPI:  [Number of searches] ^ 2 / [Competition]
• Sort by KPI (highest to lowest)
• Write content with the keywords; make content read naturally
• Use “Related Keywords” from the SERP for your main keyword

It is also about content

• “This is the part where you pretend to add value”
• NOT just any content – high-quality, enjoyable content
• Also: Reputation & Authority
• Links are still important

The Biggest Secret

• Write REALLY GOOD content that is WORTH READING and SHARING
• Google only knows, what you tell it!

Random tips

• log into Google Webmaster Tools once a week & download the data
• use Screaming Frog & Open Site Explorer

-Christoph