5 ms·

One startup's journey into SEO

65 points by danecjensen 16y ago

naithemilkman 16y ago
I've done my fair share of research on SEO as well during my startup and I can sum it up in one sentence. Assuming equal on-site optimisations, he with more backlinks wins.
- quizbiz 16y ago
  quality > quantity. Getting mentioned on NYT.com will yield powerful results. Posting yet another link in a related discussion forum topic won't do much.
  - ig1 16y ago
    Useful tip: NYT syndicates ReadWriteWeb, and it's much easier to get RWW to link to your startup.
- underdown 16y ago
  Quantity matters immensely too - especially in the context of number of domains linking to you. This is typically referred to as "link popularity".
- patio11 16y ago
  This is pretty much true on a per page basis, but advanced SEO becomes less of a page optimization campaign and more about strategziing such that the business has positive results regardless of the performance of individual words or pages. Exact match domains also crush backlinks.
  - mise 16y ago
    How do near-match domains do? I have [adjective][keyword].com and it certainly didn't jump into the SERPs.
    - patio11 16y ago
      Near match domains receive no special bonus. Look at it this way: having an exact match means you're committing yourself to the search term, either by being first to it or by spending a lot of money to buy the domain from whomever was first. Either is likely to be a signal of quality. Near match, however, just means you had $8 to spare. (For similar reasons, cheap-domain.com or cheapdomain.biz do not receive any bonuses.)
- lamnk 16y ago
  Yes, generally speaking, who has more backlinks wins. But take into your consideration the following: - PR of the page of the backlink. A backlink from a page with PR 5 is better than 20 backlinks from pages with PR 0 - However, PR is not the only matter. There is also domain authority. A page with PR0 on a site with high domain authority (like NYT) could still outrank a PR3 page. - Anchor text of the backlink. Links like "Click here" or just a plain URL don't say a lot, in compare to "Security Camera" for example. - Where the link is placed on the page also matters. A link at the top or in the article beats links in the comment areas or at the footer.
- justinchen 16y ago
  But it's also common for people to overlook what opportunities they still have for on-site optimization. Most people can continue to increase their rankings by focusing on the in-house stuff.
JeffL 16y ago
Thanks for the article. I think it will be helpful. Can I ask, either OP or anyone else, what sort of percent of your traffic comes from SEO? I've seen it stated on the web that 70%-80% of traffic comes from searches, but for me, it's more like 5%, with adwords and direct links being the rest.
- quizbiz 16y ago
  It really depends on the type of business. Notably, a lot of smaller direct sales web companies have almost all of their traffic come from SEO. Most sites I have been involved with see 50%-70% of traffic from search. More brand equity = less importance for search. More importantly though, search tends to convert way way better than really anything else (ppc included) when goals tracking (ie nav to contact page and thank you page). You can probably give your traffic a lot of growth by investing more time into efforts with SEO in mind. Let me know if you need help. :)
  - thenayr 16y ago
    This ^ I've managed sites with nearly 99% of traffic coming directly from search engines and some as low as 5%. It correlates directly with the type of site you are managing. If you are targeting a very specific niche community, you would likely receive much better results injecting yourself into that community and becoming an authoritative figure and focusing on direct marketing then an all-out SEO campaign. However, if your selling cases for the iPhone 4, your much better off with focusing all of your efforts on conquering the top spots on Google.
  - JeffL 16y ago
    Wow, sounds like I've been doing it all wrong for four years. Pretty much just thrown up some adwords and worked on my game and never really thought about SEO at all since it all seemed a little bit sleazy.
- patio11 16y ago
  Not at my computer, but BCC typically sees half of traffic and 75% of profit from organic SEO.
RP_Joe 16y ago
SEO is complex and difficult. This article has errors in it. Keyword density has been dead for a while. She is right about Patrick. He is very sharp (hello Patrick). But one of the reasons he is so good is he uses scientific methods to measure his results. SEO is a science. You can read lots of free information out there but unless you use a scientific system, you will never succeed. This is why we have many research sites. Its very complex and extremely diverse. Ecommerece is different than blog that are different than forums. So many things effect SEO, Countries, Industries, Code, Content, Linking is all very complex. It can only be unraveled with a methodical approach and measurement systems.
acangiano 16y ago
Here are a few positive factors that influence your ranking: - Exact match keywords are an absolute killer when it comes to ranking - Local beats global if your target is geographic (e.g., mysite.ca will perform better than mysite.com in Canada, particularly if the .ca is hosted in Canada) - Number of backlinks to the specific page - Number of backlinks to the whole domain - Popularity of backlinks - A variety of backlinks. Your backlinks need to look natural to Google. You want a backlink pyramid, so don't have 100 PR5 backlinks, and 10 PR0 ones. The web doesn't work that way, and Google knows it. - For the same reason, have no follow backlinks as well. Whether they carry PR juice or not, it's unnatural for your site not to have a mix of no follow and do follow backlinks. - Backlinks from .edu/.gov sites - An aged domain name - Include the keyword in the url, title tag, description, etc. - Metatags are still important, even if Google doesn't care about them. - Make your site as fast as you can - Have an XML sitemap - PubSubHubbub is excellent to get your site noticed/indexed by Google - The number of indexed pages on your site - How frequently is your site updated (often is better than rarely) - Make your content unique. Duplicate content is not as much of a big deal as they say it is, but you definitely don't want to look like an autoblog in the eyes of Google (particularly in the early days of your site). - A public whois record - A domain registered for more than one year - Get your site indexed in DMOZ and Yahoo Directory
- bobds 16y ago
  Why this list is no good: http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/07/why-you-cannot-reverse-engineer-googles-algorithm/ http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/07/why-you-cannot-reverse-...
  - ra 16y ago
    I think you (and the author) are wrong. It is a good list. Sure Google's algorithm is continually evolving and uses 10,000 ranking factors. But the web is made of links, and links will always be trust factors for a search engine. Google just wants to make sure they are 'genuine organic' links.
    - bobds 16y ago
graupel 16y ago
Interesting writeup; I also may buy one of your cameras since we're having twins in May!
mise 16y ago
My own strategy right now is to set up a members' forum as part of my paid service, but to make reading the forum free for all. Hope that it will help with content generation.

65 points by danecjensen 16y ago

I've done my fair share of research on SEO as well during my startup and I can sum it up in one sentence. Assuming equal on-site optimisations, he with more backlinks wins.

quizbiz 16y ago
quality > quantity. Getting mentioned on NYT.com will yield powerful results. Posting yet another link in a related discussion forum topic won't do much.
- ig1 16y ago
  Useful tip: NYT syndicates ReadWriteWeb, and it's much easier to get RWW to link to your startup.
underdown 16y ago
Quantity matters immensely too - especially in the context of number of domains linking to you. This is typically referred to as "link popularity".
patio11 16y ago
This is pretty much true on a per page basis, but advanced SEO becomes less of a page optimization campaign and more about strategziing such that the business has positive results regardless of the performance of individual words or pages. Exact match domains also crush backlinks.
- mise 16y ago
  How do near-match domains do? I have [adjective][keyword].com and it certainly didn't jump into the SERPs.
  - patio11 16y ago
    Near match domains receive no special bonus. Look at it this way: having an exact match means you're committing yourself to the search term, either by being first to it or by spending a lot of money to buy the domain from whomever was first. Either is likely to be a signal of quality. Near match, however, just means you had $8 to spare. (For similar reasons, cheap-domain.com or cheapdomain.biz do not receive any bonuses.)
lamnk 16y ago
Yes, generally speaking, who has more backlinks wins. But take into your consideration the following: - PR of the page of the backlink. A backlink from a page with PR 5 is better than 20 backlinks from pages with PR 0 - However, PR is not the only matter. There is also domain authority. A page with PR0 on a site with high domain authority (like NYT) could still outrank a PR3 page. - Anchor text of the backlink. Links like "Click here" or just a plain URL don't say a lot, in compare to "Security Camera" for example. - Where the link is placed on the page also matters. A link at the top or in the article beats links in the comment areas or at the footer.
justinchen 16y ago
But it's also common for people to overlook what opportunities they still have for on-site optimization. Most people can continue to increase their rankings by focusing on the in-house stuff.

JeffL 16y ago

Thanks for the article. I think it will be helpful. Can I ask, either OP or anyone else, what sort of percent of your traffic comes from SEO? I've seen it stated on the web that 70%-80% of traffic comes from searches, but for me, it's more like 5%, with adwords and direct links being the rest.

quizbiz 16y ago
It really depends on the type of business. Notably, a lot of smaller direct sales web companies have almost all of their traffic come from SEO. Most sites I have been involved with see 50%-70% of traffic from search. More brand equity = less importance for search. More importantly though, search tends to convert way way better than really anything else (ppc included) when goals tracking (ie nav to contact page and thank you page). You can probably give your traffic a lot of growth by investing more time into efforts with SEO in mind. Let me know if you need help. :)
- thenayr 16y ago
  This ^ I've managed sites with nearly 99% of traffic coming directly from search engines and some as low as 5%. It correlates directly with the type of site you are managing. If you are targeting a very specific niche community, you would likely receive much better results injecting yourself into that community and becoming an authoritative figure and focusing on direct marketing then an all-out SEO campaign. However, if your selling cases for the iPhone 4, your much better off with focusing all of your efforts on conquering the top spots on Google.
- JeffL 16y ago
  Wow, sounds like I've been doing it all wrong for four years. Pretty much just thrown up some adwords and worked on my game and never really thought about SEO at all since it all seemed a little bit sleazy.
patio11 16y ago
Not at my computer, but BCC typically sees half of traffic and 75% of profit from organic SEO.

RP_Joe 16y ago

SEO is complex and difficult. This article has errors in it. Keyword density has been dead for a while. She is right about Patrick. He is very sharp (hello Patrick). But one of the reasons he is so good is he uses scientific methods to measure his results. SEO is a science. You can read lots of free information out there but unless you use a scientific system, you will never succeed. This is why we have many research sites. Its very complex and extremely diverse. Ecommerece is different than blog that are different than forums. So many things effect SEO, Countries, Industries, Code, Content, Linking is all very complex. It can only be unraveled with a methodical approach and measurement systems.

acangiano 16y ago

Here are a few positive factors that influence your ranking: - Exact match keywords are an absolute killer when it comes to ranking - Local beats global if your target is geographic (e.g., mysite.ca will perform better than mysite.com in Canada, particularly if the .ca is hosted in Canada) - Number of backlinks to the specific page - Number of backlinks to the whole domain - Popularity of backlinks - A variety of backlinks. Your backlinks need to look natural to Google. You want a backlink pyramid, so don't have 100 PR5 backlinks, and 10 PR0 ones. The web doesn't work that way, and Google knows it. - For the same reason, have no follow backlinks as well. Whether they carry PR juice or not, it's unnatural for your site not to have a mix of no follow and do follow backlinks. - Backlinks from .edu/.gov sites - An aged domain name - Include the keyword in the url, title tag, description, etc. - Metatags are still important, even if Google doesn't care about them. - Make your site as fast as you can - Have an XML sitemap - PubSubHubbub is excellent to get your site noticed/indexed by Google - The number of indexed pages on your site - How frequently is your site updated (often is better than rarely) - Make your content unique. Duplicate content is not as much of a big deal as they say it is, but you definitely don't want to look like an autoblog in the eyes of Google (particularly in the early days of your site). - A public whois record - A domain registered for more than one year - Get your site indexed in DMOZ and Yahoo Directory

bobds 16y ago
Why this list is no good: http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/07/why-you-cannot-reverse-engineer-googles-algorithm/ http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/07/why-you-cannot-reverse-...
- ra 16y ago
  I think you (and the author) are wrong. It is a good list. Sure Google's algorithm is continually evolving and uses 10,000 ranking factors. But the web is made of links, and links will always be trust factors for a search engine. Google just wants to make sure they are 'genuine organic' links.
  - bobds 16y ago

graupel 16y ago

Interesting writeup; I also may buy one of your cameras since we're having twins in May!

mise 16y ago

My own strategy right now is to set up a members' forum as part of my paid service, but to make reading the forum free for all. Hope that it will help with content generation.