Table of Contents

0. Preface

   • Who should read this guide?
   • What's in this guide?
   • The Guide's Website
     • Updates and Errata
     • Special Offers
   • The SitePoint Forums
   • The SitePoint Newsletters
   • The SitePoint Podcast
   • Your Feedback
   • Acknowledgments
     • Kristen Holden
     • Mike Hudson
   • Conventions Used in This Guide
     • Markup Samples
     • Tips, Notes, and Warnings
   • Getting Started

1. 1. Search 101

3. • A Brief Overview of the Early Web
     • The Birth of Search Engines as We Know Them
     • Google Is Launched by Sergey Brin and Larry Page
     • The Missing Link: Making Money from Search
     • Search in 2003 and Beyond
     • Microsoft Starts Taking Search Seriously
   • The Anatomy of a Search Results Page
   • How Search Works
   • SEO Techniques: the Good, the Bad, and the Iffy
     • The Good: White Hat SEO
     • The Bad, and The Iffy
   • How to Learn SEO
     • Your Site Concept
     • Finding and Registering a Domain Name
     • Setting Up Your Website
   • The Best Way to Learn Is to Do

4. 2. Best-practice SEO

5. • Keyword Research
   • Content Development
     • Navigational Flow and Menu Structure
     • Site Copy and Articles
     • Headings and Sections
   • Web Development
     • Text-based Site Development
     • Clean and Logical Site Structure
     • Valid HTML
     • Proper Markup of Key Page Elements
   • Link Building
     • Submit Your Site to the Yahoo Directory
     • Develop a Newsworthy Press Release and Syndicate
     • Develop Content People Want to Link to
     • Write Articles and Submit Them to Popular Article Directories
     • Email People and Ask for Links
   • Webmaster Tools
     • Getting Started
     • Overview
     • The Big Picture
   • Let the Campaign Begin

6. 3. Advanced Tactics

7. • Understanding User Behavior and Intent to Drive SEO
     • Behavior
     • Intent
   • The Long Tail of Search
   • Keyword Mapping
     • Established Site
     • New Site
     • Building a Map
     • Using the Keyword Map
   • Other Keyword Considerations
     • Natural Language Processing
     • Advanced Information and Site Architecture
   • Links and Linking
     • Link Value
     • Nofollow
     • Link Type
     • Repeated Links
     • Advanced Link Building with Link Insight
   • Competitive Research
     • SeoQuake
     • Market Samurai
   • Moving with the Times
     • Navigation Breadcrumbs in Results
     • Local SEO
     • Rich Snippets and Microformats
     • Page Speed
   • Promotion Techniques
     • Embracing the Crowd
     • Running Contests
     • Creating Controversy
   • A Synopsis of Savvy SEO

8. 4. Enterprise SEO

9. • Enterprise SEO Tactics
     • Leveraging Brand in Universal Search
     • Being #2
   • The Trust Factor
   • Adopting a Holistic Strategy
   • The robots.txt File
   • Avoiding Content Duplication
   • Internationalization and Geotargeting
     • Google and Language Recognition
     • Crawling and Indexing Your Multilingual Website
     • Best Practices for Multilingual Sites
   • Aiming Big

10. 5. Paid Search

11. • Why is paid search important?
    • PPC Ads and How They Work
      • Quality Score
      • Why does the quality score matter so much?
    • The Structure of Search Campaigns
      • Campaigns
      • Ad Groups
      • Ads
    • Campaign Targeting
    • Measuring Success
    • A Systematic Approach to Success
      • Research: Business Goals
      • Research: Target Audience
      • Research: Keyword Research
      • Implementation: Campaign Structure
      • Implementation: Ad Copy
      • Implementation: Landing Page Development
      • Implementation: Campaign Settings
      • Optimization: Statistical Analysis
      • Optimization: Refinement
      • Optimization: Bid Management
    • AdWords Editor
    • It's All About Quality

12. 6. Local Search

13. • Getting Listed in Google Places
      • Once You Have Listed Your Business
    • Top Ten Local Search Factors
      • Claiming Your Local Listing
      • Having a Business Address in the Searched Location
      • Associating Your Listing with the Most Relevant Category
      • Keyword in Listing Title
      • Proximity of Address to City Center
      • Optimizing the Places Description
      • Adding Photos to the Listing
      • Having a Local Phone Number
      • Allotting Additional Categories
      • Adding Videos with Places Listings
    • Other Local Search Engines
      • Citysearch
      • Local.com
      • Yelp
    • Local Hero

14. 7. Starting an SEO Business

15. • Seizing a Huge Opportunity
    • Dealing with Competitive and Market Questions
    • Getting Started: Existing Business Models
      • Tiered or Flat-rate Pricing of Services
      • The Higher End of the Market: Per-item Billing
      • Hourly Billing
      • Developing Your Own Flavor
    • Becoming a Niche Expert: Do One Thing Well
      • Picking a Market
      • Market Competition
    • Developing a Compelling Offer
    • Developing Packages
      • Market Research
      • Technical Site Audit
      • SEO Strategy
    • Finding Clients
      • Starting Your SEO Campaign
      • Online Advertising
      • Email Marketing
      • Offline Marketing
      • Running a Seminar
      • Telemarketing
    • Taking Care of Business

16. 8. Leveraging Technology and Staff

17. • Identifying the Common Elements of Any SEO Campaign
    • Pre-sales
      • Sales Pitch
      • Guarantees and Refund Policy
      • Packages and Rates
      • Your Techniques
    • Research
      • Customer Brief
      • Keyword Research, Competitive Research, and SEO Strategy
    • Implementation
      • Creating a Project
      • Project Templates
      • Milestones
    • Analytics
      • Ranking Analysis
      • Traffic and ROI Analysis
    • Optimization
      • Conversion Optimization
    • Expanding Your Business: Taking on Additional Staff
      • Can I afford to take on new staff?
      • Hiring Interns
    • Working Smarter

18. 9. Value-added Services

19. • Web Design and Development
      • The Changing Landscape of Web Design
      • Outsourcing
      • The Economics of Outsourcing Web Design
    • PPC Management
      • Tools for Scaling PPC Campaigns
    • Conversion Optimization
      • Premium Solution: Unbounce
      • The Free Option: Google Website Optimizer
    • Phase 3: Profit

20. Index

21. A. Online Resources
    • Background
    • SEO Basics
    • Page Title
    • PageRank
    • Links
    • Meta Tags
    • Crawling/Indexing
    • Ranking Factors
    • Flash and SEO
    • Analytics
    • Keywords
    • Research
    • Density (Why It's a Myth)
    • robots.txt
    • Nofollow
    • Sitemaps
    • Managing Change
    • Information Architecture
    • URLs
    • Rewriting and Redirections
    • Geo-optimization
    • Local/Places Optimization
    • Duplicate Content
    • Canonical Content
    • White Hat Techniques
    • Link Building
    • Site Auditing/Checklists
    • Social Media
    • Video
    • Conversion Rate Optimization
    • Searcher Behavior
    • Advanced
    • Page Segmentation Anlaysis
    • The Future
    • Mobile
    • Tools/Miscellaneous
    • Enterprise SEO and the Business of SEO

22. B. Documents