Search Engine Optimization ALL-IN-ONE Third Edition by Bruce Clay Search Engine Optimization All‐in‐One For Dummies®, Third Edition Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Media and software compilation copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015947060 ISBN: 978-1-118-92175-3 ISBN 978‐1‐118‐92176‐0 (ebk); ISBN ePDF 978‐1‐118‐92177‐7 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Book I: How Search Engines Work ................................. 5 Chapter 1: Putting Search Engines in Context ...............................................................7 Chapter 2: Meeting the Search Engines ........................................................................23 Chapter 3: Recognizing and Reading Search Results ..................................................37 Chapter 4: Getting Your Site to Appear in the Right Results .....................................51 Chapter 5: Knowing What Drives Search Results ........................................................73 Chapter 6: Spam Issues: When Search Engines Get Fooled ........................................83 Book II: Keyword Strategy ......................................... 97 Chapter 1: Employing Keyword Research Techniques and Tools ............................99 Chapter 2: Selecting Keywords ....................................................................................109 Chapter 3: Exploiting Pay Per Click Lessons Learned...............................................121 Chapter 4: Assigning Keywords to Pages ...................................................................129 Chapter 5: Adding and Maintaining Keywords ..........................................................139 Book III: Competitive Positioning .............................. 149 Chapter 1: Identifying Your Competitors ...................................................................151 Chapter 2: Competitive Research Techniques and Tools ........................................161 Chapter 3: Applying Collected Data ............................................................................181 Book IV: SEO Web Design ......................................... 195 Chapter 1: The Basics of SEO Web Design .................................................................197 Chapter 2: Building an SEO‐Friendly Site ....................................................................217 Chapter 3: Building a Mobile‐Friendly Site .................................................................241 Chapter 4: Making Your Page Search Engine Compatible ........................................275 Chapter 5: Perfecting Navigation and Linking Techniques ......................................305 Book V: Creating Content ......................................... 319 Chapter 1: Selecting a Style for Your Audience .........................................................321 Chapter 2: Establishing Content Depth and Page Length .........................................337 Chapter 3: Adding Keyword‐Specific Content ............................................................361 Chapter 4: Adapting Your Content for Local Search .................................................377 iv Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Chapter 5: Dealing with Duplicate Content ................................................................387 Chapter 6: Crediting Your Content ..............................................................................405 Chapter 7: Using SEO to Build Your Brand .................................................................417 Book VI: Linking ...................................................... 435 Chapter 1: Employing Linking Strategies ....................................................................437 Chapter 2: Structuring Internal Links ..........................................................................453 Chapter 3: Obtaining Links ...........................................................................................469 Chapter 4: Vetting Inbound Links ................................................................................491 Chapter 5: Connecting with Social Networks .............................................................507 Book VII: Optimizing the Foundations ....................... 523 Chapter 1: Server Issues: Why Your Server Matters .................................................525 Chapter 2: Domain Names: What Your URL Says about You ...................................549 Chapter 3: Using Redirects for SEO .............................................................................567 Chapter 4: Implementing 301 Redirects ......................................................................575 Chapter 5: Watching Your Backend: Content Management System Troubles .......591 Chapter 6: Solving SEO Roadblocks ............................................................................609 Book VIII: Analyzing Results .................................... 619 Chapter 1: Employing Site Analytics ...........................................................................621 Chapter 2: Tracking Behavior with Web Analytics ....................................................641 Chapter 3: Mastering SEO Tools and Reports ............................................................655 Book IX: International SEO ....................................... 675 Chapter 1: Discovering International Search Engines ...............................................677 Chapter 2: Tailoring Your Marketing Message for Asia ............................................691 Chapter 3: Staking a Claim in Europe ..........................................................................703 Chapter 4: Getting Started in Latin America ..............................................................715 Appendix: The Value of Training ................................ 721 Index ...................................................................... 739 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................3 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................4 Book I: How Search Engines Work ................................. 5 Chapter 1: Putting Search Engines in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Identifying Search Engine Users ....................................................................8 Figuring out how much people spend .................................................8 Knowing your demographics ...............................................................9 Figuring Out Why People Use Search Engines ...........................................11 Research ...............................................................................................11 Shopping ...............................................................................................12 Entertainment .......................................................................................13 Discovering the Necessary Elements for Getting High Keyword Rankings .....................................................................................14 The advantage of an SEO‐compliant site ..........................................14 Defining a clear subject theme ...........................................................16 Focusing on consistency .....................................................................16 Building for the long term ...................................................................17 Understanding the Search Engines: They’re a Community ......................17 Looking at search results: Apples and oranges ...............................20 How do they get all that data?............................................................20 Chapter 2: Meeting the Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Finding the Common Threads among the Engines ...................................23 Getting to Know the Major Engines .............................................................25 Organic versus paid results ................................................................25 Yahoo ....................................................................................................27 Google....................................................................................................27 Bing ........................................................................................................29 Checking Out the Rest of the Field: AOL and Ask.com .............................30 AOL ........................................................................................................30 Ask.com .................................................................................................30 Finding Your Niche: Vertical Engines .........................................................31 Industry‐specific...................................................................................31 vi Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Local ......................................................................................................31 File type‐specific ..................................................................................32 Discovering Internal Site Search ..................................................................33 Understanding Metasearch Engines ...........................................................33 Chapter 3: Recognizing and Reading Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Reading the Search Engine Results Page ....................................................37 Understanding How People Look at Search Results .................................40 Identifying Mobile Users’ Search Patterns .................................................43 Mobile SERP features ..........................................................................43 Mobile’s impact on ranking ................................................................44 Discovering the Features of a Search Results Page ..................................45 Blended results ....................................................................................45 Knowledge Graph.................................................................................46 Hummingbird and the semantic search revolution.........................48 Chapter 4: Getting Your Site to Appear in the Right Results . . . . . . . . 51 Seeking Traffic, Not Ranking ........................................................................51 Avoiding Spam ...............................................................................................52 Understanding Personalized Search’s Impact on Ranking .......................53 Personalizing results by location.......................................................54 Personalizing results by web history ................................................54 Personalizing results by demographics ............................................54 Personalizing results based on Google products ............................55 Opting out of personalized results ....................................................55 Using News, Images, Books, and Other Search Verticals to Rank ...........56 Video......................................................................................................56 Images ...................................................................................................58 News ......................................................................................................58 Shopping ...............................................................................................59 Books .....................................................................................................60 Apps .......................................................................................................61 Maps ......................................................................................................62 Showing Up in Local Search Results ...........................................................62 Getting into Google My Business .......................................................63 Getting into Yahoo Local ....................................................................64 Getting into Bing Places ......................................................................66 Using other resources to aid local ranking ......................................66 Making the Most of Paid Search Results ....................................................68 Google AdWords ..................................................................................68 Yahoo ....................................................................................................70 Bing ........................................................................................................70 Chapter 5: Knowing What Drives Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Using Advanced Search Operators .............................................................74 Combining operators for turbo‐powered searching .......................76 Searching for images ...........................................................................77 vii Table of Contents Searching for videos ............................................................................78 Searching for news ..............................................................................78 Searching with maps ...........................................................................78 Understanding Long‐Tail Queries ................................................................79 Using Predictive Search as a Research Assistant ......................................80 Chapter 6: Spam Issues: When Search Engines Get Fooled . . . . . . . . 83 Understanding What Spam Is .......................................................................83 Discovering the Types of Spam ...................................................................84 Hidden text/links ..................................................................................85 Doorway pages .....................................................................................86 Deceptive redirection ..........................................................................86 Cloaking .................................................................................................87 Unrelated keywords ............................................................................88 Keyword stuffing ..................................................................................88 Link farms .............................................................................................88 Reporting Spam .............................................................................................89 Google....................................................................................................89 Bing ........................................................................................................89 Avoiding Being Evil: Ethical Search Marketing ..........................................91 Search engine penalties ......................................................................92 Realizing That There Are No Promises or Guarantees .............................93 Following the SEO Code of Ethics ................................................................94 Book II: Keyword Strategy .......................................... 97 Chapter 1: Employing Keyword Research Techniques and Tools . . . . 99 Discovering Your Site Theme ....................................................................100 Brainstorming for keywords .............................................................101 Building a subject outline .................................................................101 Choosing theme‐related keywords ..................................................103 Doing Your Industry and Competitor Research ......................................103 Researching Client Niche Keywords .........................................................104 Checking Out Seasonal Keyword Trends .................................................105 Evaluating Keyword Research ...................................................................106 Chapter 2: Selecting Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Selecting the Proper Keyword Phrases ....................................................109 Reinforcing versus Diluting Your Theme .................................................111 Picking Keywords Based on Subject Categories .....................................116 High‐traffic keywords ........................................................................116 High‐conversion keywords ...............................................................118 Understanding Keyword‐Based Search versus Semantic Search ..........119 How to optimize with keywords in light of semantic search .......120 viii Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Chapter 3: Exploiting Pay Per Click Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Analyzing Your Pay Per Click Campaigns for Clues about Your Site ....122 Brand building ....................................................................................123 Identifying keywords with low click‐through rates .......................124 Reducing Costs by Overlapping Pay Per Click with Natural Keyword Rankings .....................................................................126 Chapter 4: Assigning Keywords to Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Understanding What a Search Engine Sees as Keywords ......................129 Planning Subject Theme Categories ..........................................................130 Choosing Landing Pages for Subject Categories .....................................132 Organizing Your Primary and Secondary Subjects .................................133 Understanding Siloing “Under the Hood” .................................................134 Consolidating Themes to Help Search Engines See Your Relevance ....135 Chapter 5: Adding and Maintaining Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Understanding Keyword Frequency and Distribution ............................140 Adjusting Keywords ....................................................................................143 Updating Keywords .....................................................................................143 Using Tools to Aid Keyword Placement ...................................................144 Book III: Competitive Positioning ............................... 149 Chapter 1: Identifying Your Competitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Getting to Know the Competition ..............................................................151 Figuring Out the Real Competition ............................................................153 Knowing Thyself: Recognizing Your Business Advantages ....................155 Looking at Conversion as a Competitive Measure ..................................156 Recognizing the Difference between Traffic and Conversion ................157 Determining True Competitors by Their Measures ................................159 Sweating the Small Stuff ..............................................................................160 Chapter 2: Competitive Research Techniques and Tools . . . . . . . . . . 161 Realizing That High Rankings Are Achievable .........................................161 Getting All the Facts on Your Competitors ..............................................162 Calculating the Requirements for Rankings .............................................163 Grasping the tools for competitive research: The Single Page Analyzer ..............................................................164 Discovering more tools for competitive research .........................168 Mining the source code .....................................................................168 Seeing why server setup makes a difference .................................170 Tracking down competitor links ......................................................174 Sizing up your opponent ...................................................................175 Comparing your content ...................................................................177