seo (the art of) booknotes

intro

The Mission of Search Engines
Search Engine Market Share
Human Goals of Searching
Who Searches and What Do They Search For
Search Intent
Marketers and Search Engines
Navigational Queries
Informational Queries
Transactional Queries
Adaptive Search
Searcher Intent
How People Search
Ecommerce
Mobile
Eye Tracking
How Users Click on Results (Organic Versus Paid)
Distribution of Search Results and Traffic
Conclusion

search engine basics

Search Engine Basics
Results
Results page layout
Vertical Results & SERPs
Google’s Knowledge Graph
Crawling, Indexing, Ranking
Crawling & Indexing
Retrieval & Ranking
Evaluating Content
What Search Engines can “See”
Searcher Intent
Document Analysis & Semantic Connectivity
Content Quality & User Engagement
Link Analysis
Social Media Signals
Problem Words, Disambiguation, and Diversity
Why Algorithms Sometimes Fail
The Knowledge Graph
Ranking Factors
Negative Ranking Factors
Other Ranking Factors
Advanced Search Techniques
Google Search Operators
Bing Advanced Search Operators
More Advanced Search Operator Techniques
Vertical Search Engines
Vertical Search from the Major Search Engines
Universal Search/Blended Search
Country-Specific Search Engines
Optimizing for Specific Countries
Conclusion

SEO planning

Goals
Visibility (Branding)
Traffic
ROI
Customization
Understanding Traffic & Visitor Intent
Developing an SEO Plan Prior to Site Development
Business Factors That Impact Your SEO Strategy135
Understanding Your Audience and Finding Your Niche
Mapping Your Products and Services
Understanding That Content Is King
Segmenting Your Site’s Audience
Market Competitiveness
SEO for Raw Traffic
SEO for Ecommerce Sales
SEO for Mindshare and Branding
SEO for Lead Generation and Direct Marketing
SEO for Reputation Management
SEO for Ideological Influence
Advanced Methods for Planning and Evaluation
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Guidelines
SMART Objectives
Conclusion

SEO implementation

The Importance of Planning
Identifying the Site Development Process and Players
Development Platform and Information Architecture
Technology Decisions
Structural Decisions
Mobile Sites and Mobile Apps
Single-Page Applications
Auditing an Existing Site to Identify SEO Problems
Elements of an Audit
The Importance of Keyword Reviews
Keyword Cannibalization
Example - Fixing an Internal Linking Problem
Server and Hosting Issues
Identifying Current Server Statistics Software and
Web Analytics
Log file Tracking
Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
Determining Top Competitors
Identifying Spam
Seeking the Best
Uncovering Their Secrets
Assessing Historical Progress
Timeline of Site Changes
Types of Site Changes That Can Affect SEO
Previous SEO Work
Benchmarking Current Indexing Status
Benchmarking Organic Rankings
Benchmarking Current Traffic Sources and Volume
Leveraging Business Assets for SEO
Other Domains You Own/Control
Relationships On and Off the Web
Content or Data You’ve Never Put Online
Customers Who Have Had a Positive Experience
Followers, Friends, and Fans
Conclusion

keyword research

Keyword Research
The Theory Behind Keyword Research
Thinking Strategically
Understanding the Long Tail
Understanding the Impact of Google Hummingbird
Understanding Keyword “Not Provided” and Co- Occurrence Analysis
Traditional Approaches
Content Analysis
Including Competitive Analysis
Integrating Keyword Research, Co-Occurrence
Analysis, and Knowledge of User Intent
Keyword Research Options
Keyword Research Data from Search Engines
Keyword Research Data from Tools
Keyword Research Data Analysis
Ad Campaign Runs and Third-Party Search Data
Landing Page Optimization
Leveraging the Long Tail of Keyword Demand
Extracting Terms from Relevant Web Pages
Mining Keyword Research Tools
Identifying Long-Tail Patterns
Applying Editorial Content Strategies
Applying User-Generated Content Strategies
Trending, Seasonality, and Seasonal Fluctuations
Conclusion

website development

Developing an SEO-Friendly Website
Making Your Site Accessible to Search Engines
Indexable Content
Spiderable Link Structures
XML Sitemaps
Creating an Optimal Information Architecture
The Importance of a Logical, Category-Based Flow
Site Architecture Design Principles
Flat Versus Deep Architecture
Search-Friendly Site Navigation
Root Domains, Subdomains, and Microsites
Subfolders
Subdomains
Separate Root Domains
Microsites
When to Use a TLD Other Than .com
Optimization of Domain Names/URLs
Optimizing Domains
Picking the Right URLs
Mobile Friendliness
Keyword Targeting
HTML Tags<br> Meta Description Tags<br> Heading Tags<br> Document Text<br> Image Filenames and alt Attributes<br> Boldface Text<br> Keyword Cannibalization<br> Keyword Targeting in Content Management Systems and Automatically Generated Content<br> Effective Keyword Targeting by Content Creators<br> Long-Tail Keyword Targeting<br> Content Optimization<br> Content Structure<br> CSS and Semantic Markup<br> Content Uniqueness and Depth<br> Content Themes<br> Duplicate Content Issues<br> Consequences of Duplicate Content<br> How Search Engines Identify Duplicate Content<br> Copyright Infringement<br> How to Avoid Duplicate Content on Your Own Site Controlling Content with Cookies and Session IDs What’s a Cookie? What Are Session IDs? How Do Search Engines Interpret Cookies and Session IDs? Why Would You Want to Use Cookies or Session IDs to Control Search Engine Access? Content Delivery and Search Spider Control Cloaking and Segmenting Content Delivery Showing Different Content to Engines and Visitors Displaying Different Content to Search Engines Versus Visitors Redirects Why and When to Redirect Good and Bad Redirects Methods for URL Redirecting and Rewriting How to Redirect a Home Page Index File Without Looping Content Management System Issues CMS Selection Third-Party CMS Add-Ons Flash Coding Best Practices Best Practices for Multilanguage/Country Targeting How to Target a Specific Country Problems with Using Your Existing Domain The Two Major Approaches Multiple-Language Issues Semantic Search Google’s Hummingbird Semantic Search and SEO Entities and Semantic Search Structured Data Schema.org Overview How to Use Schema.org Summary Google Authorship and Author Authority A Brief History of Google Authorship Why Did Google End Support for rel=“author”? Is Author Authority Dead for Google? Google+ Authors in Personalized Search The Future of Author Authority at Google Author Authority Google’s Publisher Tag Google’s Knowledge Graph and the Knowledge Vault Overview of Changes in Search Complexity Fair Use? How the Knowledge Vault Works The Future of the Knowledge Vault Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch07-content-mktg.pdf">content marketing</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">How Links Historically Influenced Search Engine Rankings The Original PageRank Algorithm Additional Factors That Influence Link Value How Search Engines Use Links Further Refining How Search Engines Judge Links Additional Link Evaluation Criteria How Search Engines Determine a Link’s Value Creating Content That Attracts Links How Are Links Earned? How Can Sites Approach Getting Links? Introduction to Content Marketing Using Content to Attract Links Understanding Content Marketing Basics Customizing Your Content Types to Your Audience Implementing Content Marketing Strategies Developing Content That Works Brainstorming Content Ideas and Being Creative Speedstorming Getting Creative Help Repurposing Content Understanding What Makes Content High Quality Integrating Emotional Triggers, Titles, and Images Leveraging the Power of Memes Measuring Engagement in Content Marketing Choosing the Right Content Marketing Strategy Identifying Types of Sites That Might Link to a Site Like Yours Placing a Value on the Sites Segmenting Your Audience, Identifying Personas, and Targeting Content Putting It All Together Types of Content Marketing Campaigns Guest Posting Content Syndication Link-Worthy or Viral Content User-Generated Content Building an Audience Get to Know Other People’s Audiences Leverage Influencers and Influencer Marketing Get Active in Social Media Build Offline Relationships Relationships and Outreach Building Relationships with Influencers Creating a Value Proposition for a Relationship Using Direct Email Pitches Effectively Other Ways to Earn Links Web Directories Manual Social Media Link Creation Gray Hat/Black Hat Awards and Badges Customer Discount/Incentives How Search Engines Fight Link Spam Google’s Penguin Algorithm Other Algorithmic Approaches to Fighting Link Spam Negative Link Building Unnatural Links Messages Other Search Engine Courses of Action Social Networking for Links Blogging for Links Leveraging Major Social Media Platforms Using Social Media Networking Effectively Using YouTube Successfully for Content Marketing Implementing Guest Posting Successfully Putting It All Together Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch08-social-user-ranks.pdf">social users and rankings</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">Correlation Between Social Signals and Google Rankings 540 What Is the Value of Social Signals? Bing’s Experiments with Social Signals Does Google Use Facebook as a Ranking Signal? Does Google Use Twitter as a Ranking Signal? Does Google Use Google+ as a Ranking Signal? Google+ Personalization Google+ Posts in the Search Results Google+ Brand Pages in the Search Results Google+ Impact on Nonpersonalized Rankings of Content Study on Google+ as a Ranking Factor How Might Google Use Google+ as a Ranking Factor? The Indirect Influence of Social Media Marketing Monitoring, Measuring, and Improving Social Media Marketing- Best Practices Claiming Key Profiles Deciding on a New Social Network Tracking Social Media User Engagement as a Measure of Search Quality How Google and Bing Collect Engagement Metrics Potential User Engagement Signals Voting Mechanisms Document Analysis Poor Editorial Quality Reading Level Keyword Stuffing/Lack of Synonyms Ad Density and Offensive Ads Sameness Page Speed Optimizing User Experience to Improve SEO Step 1- Build a Survey Step 2- Send It to Your Customers/Potential Customers Step 3- Record Responses and Leverage Them to Build What the People Want Additional Social Media Resources Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch09-panda-penguin.pdf">panda, penguin and search algo changes</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">Diagnosing the Cause of a Traffic Loss Summary of Major Google Algorithms Panda Target Areas of Panda Importance of Diversity in Rankings Role of Authority in Rankings Impact of Any Weak Content on Rankings Path to Recovery Penguin Target Areas of Penguin Path to Recovery Penalties Types of Manual Penalties Links Google Does Not Like Link Cleanup Process Sources of Data Using Tools The Link Removal Process Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch10-mobile-local-vert.pdf">mobile, local & vertical site SEO</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">The Mobile Landscape SEO for Mobile App SEO App Deep Linking App Indexing Optimizing for Vertical Search Universal Search = Blended Search The Opportunity Unleashed Optimizing for Local Search Local Listing Submissions Google My Business Google Knowledge Graph Carousel Bing Places for Business Yahoo! Local Business Website Optimization for Local Search Optimizing for Image Search Image Optimization Tips Optimizing for Google Shopping Search Submitting a Product Feed Optimizing a Product Feed Promoting Products in AdWords Reporting Results of Shopping Ads Optimizing for Blog Search Structural Blog Optimizations Optimizing Your Anchor Text Sticky Posts Author Profile Pages Links Optimizing for News Search- Google News Acceptance Criteria Application Process Paywalls and Subscription Sites Google News Publisher Center Technical Requirements Thumbnail Images in Google News Recrawling Google News Sitemaps Videos in Google News Editor’s Picks Optimizing for Video/Multimedia Search Video SEO for YouTube Video SEO for Google Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch11-tracking.pdf">tracking & analytics</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">Why Measuring Success Is Essential to the SEO Process The Tracking Cycle Establishing a Proper Baseline Using Analytics as a Business Case for SEO Measuring Search Traffic Basic Overview Selecting the Right Analytics Package Extracting Valuable SEO Data in Web Analytics Number of pages getting search traffic Segmenting Search Traffic Referring Sites Using Custom Analytics Dashboards Taking a Deeper Look at Action Tracking Separating the Analytics Wheat from the Chaff Tying SEO to Conversion and ROI Managing Attribution Setting Up Analytics Software to Track Conversions Segmenting Campaigns and SEO Efforts by Conversion Rate Increasing Conversion Determining Project ROI Competitive and Diagnostic Search Metrics Search Engine and Competitive Metrics Site Indexing Data Link-Based Tracking of Content Marketing Ranking Shelf space SEO Platforms Crawl Errors Tracking the Blogosphere Tracking Your Blog(s) Search Engine Robot Traffic Analysis Web Traffic Comparison Temporal Link Growth Measurements Key Performance Indicators for Long-Tail SEO Duplicate Content Other Third-Party Tools MozBar SEO Quake SEO for Firefox SpyFu SEMrush Rio SEO Search Analytics Rio SEO Website Optimizer Searchmetrics Essentials Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch12-changes.pdf">changes</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">The Basics of Moving Content Large-Scale Content Moves Mapping Content Moves Expectations for Content Moves Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After a Site Redesign Maintaining Search Engine Visibility During and After Domain Name Changes Unique Challenges of Domain Name Changes Pre-Move Preparations Changing Servers Monitoring After Your Server Move Hidden Content Identifying Content That Search Engines Don’t See Identifying the Cause of Non-Spidering Identifying Hidden Content That May Be Viewed as Spam Spam Filtering and Penalties Low-Quality Domains and Spam Sites Spam Reports Duplicate Content Basic Rules for Spam-Free SEO Search Engine Penalties and Reconsideration Requests Content Theft Changing SEO Vendors or Staff Members Potential Problems with SEO Staff Changes SEO Documentation for Actions and Progress SEO Documentation for Rapid Training Cleanup and Auditing Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch13-education.pdf">education</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">SEO Research and Search Performance Analysis SEO Resources SEO Testing Analysis of Top-Ranking Sites and Pages Analysis of Algorithmic Differentiation Across Engines and Search Types The Importance of Experience Competitive Analysis Content Analysis Internal Link Structure and Site Architecture External Link Attraction Analysis What Is Their SEO Strategy? Competitive Analysis Summary Using Competitive Link Analysis Tools Competitive Analysis for Those with a Big Budget Using Search Engine–Supplied SEO Tools Search Engine Tools for Webmasters The SEO Industry on the Web Blogs SEO News Outlets, Communities, and Forums Communities in Social Networks Participation in Conferences and Organizations Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch14-support.pdf">support</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">The Business of SEO Understand Your Market Opportunity Get Buy-In Across the Organization Lay the Groundwork Motivate Resources That Don’t Share Your Goals to Help You Progress Through the Stages of SEO Maturity Building an SEO team In-House vs Outsourced Support Dynamics and Challenges The Value of In-House SEO The Value of Outsourced SEO Support The Case for Working with an Outside Expert How to Best Leverage Outside Help How to Implement Your Expert’s Recommendations How to Integrate SEO Knowledge in the Organization The Impact of Site Complexity on SEO Workload Solutions for Small Organizations Developing the In-House SEO Specialist Making the Most of Limited Resources or Budgets Solutions for Large Organizations Contracting for Specialist Knowledge and Experience Applying SEO Recommendations Intelligently Hiring SEO Talent Selecting the Right SEO Person Pitching the Person Making the Offer Selecting an SEO Firm/Consultant Getting the Process Started Preparing a Request for Proposal Communicating with Candidate SEO Firms Making the Decision Mixing In-House SEO with Outside SEO Help Building a Culture of SEO into Your Organization Conclusion</p> </div> </div> <div class="card" style="border:1px solid lightslategray; border-radius:10px;"> <div class="card-divider" style="border-bottom:1px solid lightslategray;"> <h4><a href="/pdfs/seo/the-art-of-seo/TAOS-ch15-future.pdf">future</a></h4> </div> <div class="card-section">   </div> <div class="card-section"> <p style="color:darkslategray;">The Ongoing Evolution of Search The Growth of Search Complexity Google’s Dominance More Searchable Content and Content Types901 Engines Will Make Crawling Improvements Engines Are Getting New Content Sources Multimedia Is Becoming Indexable More Personalized, Localized, and User-Influenced Search User Intent User Interactions New Search Patterns Growing Reliance on the Cloud Increasing Importance of Local, Mobile, and Voice Search 918 Local Search Mobile Search Voice Recognition Search Increased Market Saturation and Competition SEO as an Enduring Art Form The Future of Semantic Search and the Knowledge Graph 924 Conclusion</p> </div> </div> </div> </span> </div> <hr><footer> <a href="/feed.xml"> <svg> <use href="/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#rss"></use> </svg></a> </footer> </div> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/foundation-sites@6.6.3/dist/js/foundation.min.js" integrity="sha256-pRF3zifJRA9jXGv++b06qwtSqX1byFQOLjqa2PTEb2o=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script> </body> </html>

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