Outsmarting Google

Evan Bailyn is an Internet entrepreneur, speaker, and child advocate. He is best known for being an expert at search engine optimization, having used his ability to rank at the top of Google to build and sell five businesses, including one of the largest children’s websites online. His Facebook page, which provides daily inspirational thoughts, has more than 100,000 “likes,”making it one of the most popular noncelebrity pages on Facebook.   He has been interviewed on ABC and Fox News and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The International Business Times, and Crain’s New York Business Daily. He is a frequent speaker and television guest.   In 2010, Evan established The Evan Bailyn Foundation, which awards grants to groups that promote emotional awareness in children.   Bradley Bailyn is an Internet marketing expert and co-founder of First Page Sage. He tracks Google’s algorithm on a daily basis, ensuring that clients’ websites remain optimized for maximum exposure on Google. He also helps clients tune their websites to convert as many visitors as possible into buyers—a science known as conversion optimization.   Bradley graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he studied accounting, and then went on to Brooklyn Law School, where he did legal work for various government and international agencies, including the United Nations and United States Agency for International Development. He briefly ran his own law practice, and then left to join forces with Evan and pursue a shared dream of building a business that made a real difference in people’s lives.He has been profiled in The New York Times, Crain’s New York Business Daily, and The Daily News.

Introduction

Chapter 1 Trust: The Currency of Google

PageRank

TrustRank

Google’s Circus

How to Mine TrustRank

A Final Word on TrustRank

Chapter 2 The Five Ingredients of Google Optimization

Ingredient One: Keyword Selection .

    Take an Informal Survey .

    Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool .

    Capitalize on Competitors’ Work .

    Spend a Few Bucks on a Pay-Per-Click Campaign .

Ingredient Two: The Meta Page Title .

    Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Meta Page Titles .

    Case Study One: The Baby Store .

    Case Study Two: Games .

Ingredient Three: Links .

    Dummy Links .

Ingredient Four: URL Structure .

Ingredient Five: Time .

Chapter 3 How to Reel In Links

Good and Bad Neighborhoods .

Link Building 101 .

The Bible of Link Acquisition .

    Systematic Emailing .

    Press Releases .

    Create Funny or Ridiculous Content .

    Create Interesting Content .

    Top 10 Lists .

    Compendiums .

    Contests .

    Press .

    Widgets .

    Social Media .

    Awards .

     “Advertising” .

    Guest Posts .

    Research Results .

    Link Reverse Engineering .

     “Link-Only” Photos .

    Wikipedia .

Chapter 4 Using Time to Gain Trust

The Sandbox .

The Power of Aged Websites .

How to Measure the Value of a Link Based on Aging Factors .

Link Aging and Link Churning .

Levels of Distrust .

How to Find an Old Website Worth Buying .

    How the Buying Process Works .

    Common Pitfalls .

Chapter 5 The Nuclear Football

The Nuclear Football Defined .

How to Execute the Nuclear Football .

Chapter 6 Google AdWords as a Complement to SEO

AdWords Defined .

Who Is AdWords For? .

    Case 1: My First Site .

    Case 2: Diminutive Me .

    Case 3: The Long Tail .

Getting Started and Understanding Match Types .

    Keywords and Match Types .

Cost Per Click .

Quality Score .

    Click-Through Rate .

    Account History .

    Landing Pages .

    The Other Components of the Quality Score .

Smart Strategizing .

Ad Groups .

Click Fraud .

Common AdWords Mistakes .

Recap On AdWords .

    The Page-One Party .

    Wag the Site .

    Keywords, Keywords, Keywords .

    Eye on the Competition .

    Strike a Tone .

    Put Quality First .

Chapter 7 Tracking Your Progress with Search Operators

Search Operators 101 .

    The Site: Operator .

    The Link: Operator .

    The Allinanchor: Operator .

Yahoo’s Linkdomain: Operator .

Other Operators: A Roundup .

    The Allintitle: Operator .

    The Allintext: Operator .

Chapter 8 Google Optimization Myths

Myth 1: Your Google Ranking Is Based on Your Website .

Myth 2: Your Google Ranking Depends on Esoteric Web Coding .

Myth 3: Click-Through Rates Affect Google Rankings .

Myth 4: Pay-Per-Click Campaigns Affect Organic Rankings .

Myth 5: Google Places Affects Organic Rankings .

Myth 6: PageRank Matters .

Myth 7: Commenting on Blogs and Forums Is an Effective Link-Building Strategy .

Myth 8: Submitting a New Site to Google Is an Essential Way to Get It Recognized .

Separating Truth from Myth .

Chapter 9 White Hat Versus Black Hat SEO

The Black Hat Way .

    Link Farms .

    Doorway Pages .

    Cloaking .

    Hidden Content .

    Spam .

    Page Hijacks .

The True Difference Between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO .

Chapter 10 Optimizing for Yahoo! and Bing

Yahoo! Introduction .

The Advent of Bing .

How Optimizing for Bing Differs from Optimizing for Google .

    Keywords in Your Content .

    Meta Page Titles .

    Meta Description Tags .

    Headings .

    Alt Tags .

    Outbound Links .

    Site Structure .

    Links .

    Domain Age .

A Word About Demographics .

Pay per Click:Where Bing Shines .

Yahoo! Distinctions .

    Yahoo! Site Explorer .

    The Yahoo! Directory .

Bing’s Distinctions .

    Search Operators .

    Bing Webmaster Tools .

Chapter 11 Converting Your SEO Results into Paying Customers

Design .

    Aesthetic .

    Layout .

    Structure .

Differentiation .

    Us Versus Them .

    Awards and Press .

    Clients and Testimonials .

    Social Media .

Data .

    Price .

    Products .

    Process .

    Resources .

    People .

Deals .

    Sales and Promotions .

    Point of Purchase .

Chapter 12 The Intersection of Social Media and SEO

Social Media Sites and the Flow of Information .

Creating Great Content .

Promoting Your Content Through Social Media .

Chapter 13 The Future of SEO

Social Search .

    A Google Social Network .

    A Portable Social Identity .

    Building Niche Websites that Collect Social Data .

How Does Google Get There from Here? .

Social (Contextual) Discovery .

The Rise of Google Places .

Optimizing for Google Places Now and in the Future .

Real-Time Search .

Other Innovations .

The Common Denominator .

 

 

9780789741035   TOC   2/22/2011