Showing Revision 9 created 01/16/2013 by fabio.

1. Title:
   5 common mistakes in SEO (and 6 good ideas!)
2. Description:

   Maile Ohye from Google covers the five most common errors
   she finds in SEO, and then concludes with six quick tips to make sure you're on the right track.

3. 4710 0:05 - 0:07
   I'm Maile Ohye.
4. 6590 0:07 - 0:10
   I work at Google as a Developer
   Programs Tech Lead,
5. 9730 0:10 - 0:13
   normally from our headquarters
   in Mountain View, California.
6. 13300 0:13 - 0:17
   But today, I'm at home in San
   Francisco to talk about the
7. 17490 0:17 - 0:21
   five most common mistakes
   I find in SEO.
8. 21290 0:21 - 0:26
   Mistake number one is working on
   SEO before your site has a
9. 25860 0:26 - 0:28
   value proposition.
10. 28020 0:28 - 0:32
    Ask yourself, why would
    a user choose my
11. 31670 0:32 - 0:34
    site and search results?
12. 33940 0:34 - 0:36
    Let's say you have a site that
    promotes your offline
13. 36490 0:36 - 0:40
    business, like a local
    bike repair shop.
14. 39620 0:40 - 0:42
    What differentiates your
    business from your
15. 42210 0:42 - 0:44
    competitors?
16. 43710 0:44 - 0:46
    Are you a nonprofit
    organization?
17. 46050 0:46 - 0:50
    Or perhaps you offer free
    estimates, a free demo, or
18. 49910 0:50 - 0:53
    you're the oldest independent
    dealer in the city.
19. 53200 0:53 - 0:57
    Or if you're an e-commerce site,
    what separates your site
20. 57350 0:57 - 0:59
    from the others?
21. 58870 0:59 - 1:03
    Do you have lower prices, free
    shipping, great customer
22. 62630 1:03 - 1:06
    service, or better product
    descriptions?
23. 66270 1:06 - 1:11
    Starting with a value
    proposition, simplifies SEO.
24. 70570 1:11 - 1:14
    No matter where your site ranks
    in search results, if
25. 73510 1:14 - 1:17
    you want to stay on top,
    searchers need a value prop to
26. 77110 1:17 - 1:20
    click on your site, to come back
    and revisit your site,
27. 80440 1:20 - 1:23
    and to recommend your site
    to their friends.
28. 83420 1:23 - 1:27
    Start with a value prop, and
    then focus on a quality user
29. 87020 1:27 - 1:28
    experience.
30. 88380 1:28 - 1:31
    Let's move to mistake
    number two, a
31. 91450 1:31 - 1:34
    segmented approach to SEO.
32. 94280 1:34 - 1:36
    I call this the bento box
33. 96070 1:36 - 1:39
    approach, because I'm Japanese.
34. 98640 1:39 - 1:42
    And it's like your dinner
    plate, with every item
35. 101750 1:42 - 1:45
    segmented and none of
    it working together.
36. 104550 1:45 - 1:47
    It's great for your sushi
    and your salad.
37. 107120 1:47 - 1:50
    It's not as great when there
    is no communication between
38. 109990 1:50 - 1:53
    your marketing, bizdev,
    and SEO teams.
39. 113310 1:53 - 1:58
    So mistake number two is about
    working on SEO in a silo.
40. 117730 1:58 - 2:02
    A better, more holistic approach
    to SEO is to consider
41. 121880 2:02 - 2:06
    the entire user experience, from
    marketing campaign all
42. 125960 2:06 - 2:09
    the way to the actual conversion
    and potentially
43. 129020 2:09 - 2:11
    repeat business.
44. 130820 2:11 - 2:14
    Vanessa Fox, a consultant and
    author on search engine
45. 133780 2:14 - 2:18
    strategy, wrote about this type
    of bento box approach
46. 137540 2:18 - 2:21
    with respect to the Superbowl,
    when it's difficult for
47. 140690 2:21 - 2:23
    companies to completely
    integrate their offline
48. 143440 2:23 - 2:27
    television ads with their
    online SEO efforts.
49. 147350 2:27 - 2:31
    She noted that a car company
    spent millions on TV ads to
50. 151380 2:31 - 2:36
    lead users to a website,
    edityourown.com, where they
51. 155520 2:36 - 2:38
    could then edit their
    own car video.
52. 158490 2:38 - 2:42
    On Superbowl Sunday, this
    commercial probably not only
53. 161900 2:42 - 2:46
    brought users to the website,
    but actually helped the query,
54. 166050 2:46 - 2:51
    edityourown, to rank number
    36 on Google Hot Trends.
55. 171310 2:51 - 2:54
    Now, imagine if this
    were your company.
56. 174140 2:54 - 2:58
    As the SEO, you can't just focus
    on your regular keywords
57. 177830 2:58 - 2:59
    that you do every day.
58. 179390 2:59 - 3:03
    But you also need to integrate
    marketing campaigns and
59. 182640 3:03 - 3:06
    optimize for the words
    "edityourown."
60. 186180 3:06 - 3:09
    Mistake number three is
    putting effort into
61. 189350 3:09 - 3:13
    time-consuming workarounds,
    rather than researching new
62. 193030 3:13 - 3:17
    features or best practices that
    can simplify your tasks.
63. 197460 3:17 - 3:22
    For example, for sites with
    paginated content, in the past
64. 201870 3:22 - 3:25
    some webmasters tried the
    workaround of using
65. 204690 3:25 - 3:29
    rel="canonical" on subsequent
    pages to their page one.
66. 209350 3:29 - 3:32
    This unfortunately can
    cause a loss of
67. 211570 3:32 - 3:34
    content in Google's index.
68. 214140 3:34 - 3:38
    The good news is that there
    are new best practices.
69. 217510 3:38 - 3:41
    We now support rel="next"
    and rel="prev" markup.
70. 221320 3:41 - 3:45
    So your paginated article or
    product category is treated as
71. 225100 3:45 - 3:49
    a single series, rather than
    having page rank diluted into
72. 229090 3:49 - 3:52
    the various components.
73. 231520 3:52 - 3:55
    Also in the past, to have
    several new or updated pages
74. 235140 3:55 - 3:59
    crawled as quickly as possible,
    web masters might
75. 238710 3:59 - 4:02
    have performed the lengthy task
    of updating their site
76. 241650 4:02 - 4:05
    map with the new URLs, then
    uploading the new site map
77. 245010 4:05 - 4:08
    file, and then submitting
    it to Google.
78. 247820 4:08 - 4:12
    But in 2011, we expanded
    Webmaster Tools "Fetch as
79. 252240 4:12 - 4:17
    Googlebot" so that, per week,
    you can submit up to 500 new
80. 256839 4:17 - 4:22
    or updated URLs that you'd like
    to be crawled or up to 10
81. 261680 4:22 - 4:26
    URLs that you'd like crawled,
    along with their linked pages.
82. 266300 4:26 - 4:30
    When submitting through "Fetch
    as Gogglebot," most URLs are
83. 269720 4:30 - 4:33
    crawled within 24 hours.
84. 272720 4:33 - 4:36
    An easy way to stay in touch
    of new features and best
85. 275980 4:36 - 4:41
    practices is to subscribe to
    the Webmaster Central Blog.
86. 281070 4:41 - 4:44
    Now, while mistake number three
    is about time-consuming
87. 284370 4:44 - 4:49
    workarounds, often because an
    SEO isn't as up to date,
88. 288530 4:49 - 4:52
    mistake number four is along
    a similar spectrum.
89. 292100 4:52 - 4:56
    But now it's getting caught
    in SEO trends.
90. 296370 4:56 - 5:00
    In the early days of search
    engines, both webmasters and
91. 299900 5:00 - 5:03
    search engines chased
    the user.
92. 302560 5:03 - 5:06
    We were running the same
    race, get more users
93. 305610 5:06 - 5:08
    to visit and convert.
94. 308040 5:08 - 5:12
    Then, as the market matured,
    things went a little crazy.
95. 312470 5:12 - 5:18
    It was as if this race split
    into two simultaneous races.
96. 317720 5:18 - 5:22
    And rather than chasing users,
    some websites started chasing
97. 321980 5:22 - 5:25
    search engine algorithms.
98. 325220 5:25 - 5:30
    In over six years at Google,
    I've seen SEO trends take many
99. 329510 5:30 - 5:35
    forms. Around 2005, SEOs lost
    focus and spent countless
100. 335350 5:35 - 5:39
     hours editing their content
     for the optimal keyword
101. 338760 5:39 - 5:42
     density, meaning key
     words per page.
102. 342130 5:42 - 5:44
     Not a great use their time.
103. 344070 5:44 - 5:47
     Instead, they could have better
     spent their time making
104. 346850 5:47 - 5:51
     their content readable,
     compelling, and informative.
105. 351070 5:51 - 5:55
     I'm sure you have a long list
     of tasks for your site.
106. 354680 5:55 - 5:59
     Try to avoid the SEO trends,
     and instead prioritize the
107. 358930 5:59 - 6:03
     tasks that will bring
     lasting value.
108. 362640 6:03 - 6:05
     Finally, this brings
     us to mistake
109. 364746 6:05 - 6:08
     number five, slow iteration.
110. 368296 6:08 - 6:12
     At Google, we've been know to
     say that the main constant in
111. 372260 6:12 - 6:16
     SEO is that it's constantly
     evolving.
112. 375970 6:16 - 6:20
     The faster your team is able
     to iterate, the better.
113. 379600 6:20 - 6:24
     A good recipe is to, one, define
     metrics for success.
114. 384480 6:24 - 6:28
     Then two, implement
     improvements.
115. 387700 6:28 - 6:32
     Next, measure the impact, and
     then create new improvements.
116. 392390 6:32 - 6:36
     And then last, prioritize those
     improvements based on
117. 395900 6:36 - 6:39
     the market and your
     team's personnel.
118. 398820 6:39 - 6:41
     And then, of course, repeat.
119. 401030 6:41 - 6:43
     The advantage to having
     an agile SEO
120. 403350 6:43 - 6:45
     cycle is quite clear.
121. 405420 6:45 - 6:49
     In 2009, we launched
     Rich Snippets.
122. 408860 6:49 - 6:52
     Recipe or event sites that
     could iterate quickly and
123. 412000 6:52 - 6:55
     implement the proper markup
     could now show much more
124. 415410 6:55 - 6:57
     appealing search results.
125. 417300 6:57 - 7:00
     The same was true of video
     sites that were able to
126. 419710 7:00 - 7:03
     quickly create and submit
     video site maps.
127. 423160 7:03 - 7:07
     Again, those who are agile
     could get the benefits.
128. 426690 7:07 - 7:11
     Those are the five most common
     SEO mistakes that I find.
129. 431080 7:11 - 7:15
     But now, let's cover good
     practices in SEO.
130. 434750 7:15 - 7:17
     First, do something cool.
131. 437160 7:17 - 7:20
     Have a value proposition that
     separates you from your
132. 439910 7:20 - 7:21
     competitors.
133. 441420 7:21 - 7:25
     Second, include relevant
     keywords in your copy.
134. 445210 7:25 - 7:28
     There's no need to think
     about keyword density.
135. 448070 7:28 - 7:31
     But make sure your content
     includes the keywords people
136. 451000 7:31 - 7:33
     actually search for.
137. 453320 7:33 - 7:37
     Three, be smart about your
     tags, title tags and
138. 457020 7:37 - 7:41
     meta-description tags, and
     your site architecture.
139. 460890 7:41 - 7:45
     Four, sign up for email
     forwarding in Webmaster Tools.
140. 465320 7:45 - 7:49
     This allows important messages
     from Google, such as
141. 468600 7:49 - 7:52
     notifications for crawl issues,
     to be forwarded
142. 471560 7:52 - 7:55
     directly to the inbox you
     check regularly, whether
143. 474780 7:55 - 7:59
     that's your work account
     inbox, Yahoo, or Gmail.
144. 478880 7:59 - 8:02
     Five, attract buzz.
145. 481560 8:02 - 8:06
     This helps bring natural links,
     great reviews, votes,
146. 485870 8:06 - 8:09
     +1s, and follows.
147. 489020 8:09 - 8:12
     And last, stay fresh
     and relevant.
148. 492100 8:12 - 8:16
     Perhaps expand your reach to
     social media sites, if that's
149. 495590 8:16 - 8:18
     a great place to reach
     your audience.
150. 497720 8:18 - 8:22
     Or make sure your site is
     accessible on smartphones, if
151. 501530 8:22 - 8:24
     your product is great
     on the go.
152. 504040 8:24 - 8:28
     I hope this video helps you
     avoid the common SEO mistakes
153. 508490 8:28 - 8:32
     and instead, focus on the good
     practices that can bring
154. 511890 8:32 - 8:34
     lasting, positive benefits.
155. 514280 8:34 - 8:36
     Thanks for watching.
156. 515760 8:36 - 8:40
     [ending titles]