Pass-Through Pages for SEO
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | duplicate content | No Comments
A method for managing duplicate content while maintaining internal link value and making the most of your site’s navigable structure is to classify certain types of troublesome pages as pass-through.
Pass-through pages are those that have transitive value, but not independent value. Meaning that the page contains valuable internal links and may be integral to the navigable structure of the website, but does not serve well as a landing page or entry point from an organic search query. Sometimes these pages are substantially duplicate content, other times they are not.
The objective of implementing the pass-through classification on certain pages is to maximize on internal link value, eliminating dead ends in the management of internal link flow, and make the most of natural link based navigational schemes throughout the site while keeping poorly converting pages out of the index. Adversely, the common implementation is a simple disallow, which keeps the pages out of the index but also cripples link value, link flow, and natural navigation schemes.
Related Post includes technical treatment recommendations:
SEO Impact/Effort Grid Template
Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | templates | No Comments
When reporting to management and seeking the timely prioritization of SEO initiatives, consider presenting information in an impact/effort grid or chart. This presentation of information should be submitted in advance of senior strategic or resource planning meetings and any time a new SEO project proposal with development requirements is submitted.
Supplementing your SEO program proposals with an impact/effort grid shows your respect for development resources and your careful attention to optimizing efficiency. This representation provides executive management with a relative comparison of SEO projects to help with prioritization and provides a clear metrics for straightforward decision making.
I’ll be presenting this template among others at SMX East on October 8 in Manhattan during the Reporting & Scorecarding for Management session.
Download SEO Impact/Effort Grid Template
Creative Duplicate Content Solutions for Enterprise
Monday, September 8th, 2008 | duplicate content, search engine optimization | 2 Comments
Duplicate content issues plague websites small and large, from print versions and session IDs to content sharing such as distribution partnerships and locally targeted portals. This post focuses on the latter, outlining solutions for enterprise scale duplicate content issues.
Essentially, duplicate content is a significant block of content on multiple URLs that either completely or closely matches other content. The search engines strive to index and present to users only one version of each piece of content.
Google says, “Our users typically want to see a diverse cross-section of unique content when they do searches.”
Makes sense.
Today, I’m focusing on the challenges of duplicate content when the driving factor is a business need, not a technical problem. Imagine the following scenarios;
- A national media company owns a variety of local newspapers and the related websites. Certain features like Global Warming, Summer Olympics, and Politics are written by a single group and shared amongst the daily papers. Reasonably, each paper would also like to host the content on their website.
- Several niche job boards are owned and operated by a single company. One website is focused on Sales and Marketing jobs and another on California jobs. An employer posts a Marketing Manager position on the California jobs website. Shouldn’t the job board cross post to the Sales & Marketing job board?
- A general classified ad site powers white-label classified ad functionality and content for niche websites, a site based on NYC real estate for example. There is clear benefit to sharing targeted content and reaching the additional audience of the NYC real estate site.
As you can see, there are valid business reasons for posting the content in more than one location; customer retention, revenue, branding, usability, and more. As enterprise aware SEOs, we are tasked to find effective solutions for content sharing that position our sites with strength in the search engines without compromising an effective business model.
The way I see it, pages can be classified into five groups; unique, master, satellite, pass-through, and disallow. Below I will describe the attributes and technical treatments for each group.
Unique
A page classified with the unique treatment has independent SEO value. The majority of the text is not replicated elsewhere (on any page, anywhere on the web). A unique page is the single canonical source of valuable information.
Technical Treatment
None
Master
A page classified with the master treatment has independent SEO value. It is the strongest single selection among two or more duplicate pages. Master pages are the recipient of transitive value from pages with the satellite treatment classification.
Technical Treatment
None
Satellite
A page classified with the satellite treatment has transitive SEO value. It has been deemed weaker that the master version among two or more duplicate pages.
Technical Treatment
- Include a Meta Directive: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>
- Link to the related master page with the destination H1 or Title Tag as anchor text.
- Add a rel=nofollow directive to all links (except for the one to the master page) to maximize link flow.
Disallow
A page classified with the disallow treatment has no SEO value. These pages often exist behind log-in or do not serve well as entry points to the website (such as terms, privacy, and print pages).
Technical Treatment
- Disallow the page in the Robots.txt file if possible, otherwise add the meta directive, <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>.
- Add a rel=nofollow directive to site internal inbound links to the page.
Pass-Through
A page classified with the pass-through treatment has transitive SEO value. Though not necessarily a duplicate page (as with the satellite classification), pass-through pages are usually the output of a search query with infinite resulting possibilities (and URLs).
Technical Treatment
- Include a Meta Directive: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>
The next step is to classify pages into one, and only one, of the above classifications. I’ll cover the finer points of making the selection in a subsequent post.
Reporting & Scorecarding for Management
Friday, September 5th, 2008 | in house, industry events | No Comments
SMX East 2008 is just around the corner. Boasting three days of sessions, keynotes, and networking activities, SMX is an opportunity to mingle with some of the greatest minds in internet business.
I’ve been attending search conferences for years, including several SMX events, and look forward to the opportunity to return the favor by sharing my knowledge and expertise with the search marketing community. I’m thrilled that SMX East will be my conference speaking debut. What better place to first take the stage than the greatest city in the world with the premier search engine marketing conference? I am truly humbled.
I’ll be speaking at In House Day, a track focused on addressing the challenges of in house (as opposed to agency or consulting) SEO. The focus of my presentation is Reporting and Scorecarding for Management. I’ll share key learnings from my experience managing the organic search for nine distinct domains, many with their own Executive Leadership but all under a single Board of Directors.
There are three key components in my Executive Management reporting regime;
- Monthly Report (aggregate and by domain)
- Scorecard (updated as often as monthly)
- Impact/Effort Chart (for prioritizing initiatives)
The presentation will outline each of the above reports as well as key metrics and tips for the audience to leverage in complex multi-property reporting to an array of senior stakeholders.
See you there!
SEO Class Rocks
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 | industry events | 1 Comment
This week I attended SEO Class in NYC, the hands-on search engine optimization workshop hosted by a handful of the search industry’s greatest minds. Todd, Brad, Michael, Greg and Brett gave it up to an intimate group of students in an interactive setting.
Todd gave an excellent whirlwind presentation on SEO Tools that had me installing and bookmarking like a mad woman while he spoke. Although it may not have looked like it, I was paying attention! Sometimes a girl needs to strike while the iron is hot. I have already put to work the Search Status 1.20 Firefox plug-in (and have subsequently vowed to never go back to Explorer), and have installed The Tattler. Check out more SEO tools in Stuntdubl’s Tool Belt.
Brad made my job a lot busier by reminding me that PPC deserves my attention just as much as organic. I haven’t decided if I appreciate or resent him for it. So, what you’re saying Brad, is that it’s a really bad idea to let PPC campaigns run themselves?! In all seriousness, Brad knows his PPC inside and out. This is the guy to talk to if you are managing large spend.
Michael is always a pleasure and very knowledgeable regarding creative content creation. He seems to think in Linkbait, so I got a lot out of picking his brain over the two days in New York. In addition, content pieces that you don’t consider valuable, might just be so. Events archives are worth keeping around and email newsletters deserve a home on your domain.
The nice thing about SEO Class is the size. I was able to speak to most presenters one-on-one regarding a variety of my own site-specific issues. Brett took the time to go through some canonical and URL conventions with me. Thanks for helping me problem solve Brett. Often, there is more than one way to skin a cat. It was great to have so many smart folks in one room to bounce ideas off of.
Mr. NYC, as I will be calling Greg him from now on, knows as much about NYC as he does about SEO. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction for good eats and good shopping as well as good SEO practices!
All-in-all, I would recommend SEO Class for almost anyone interested in the topic. The setting allows you to make what you will of it, and get the info/advice that is most pressing for you and your business. The content is excellent and the opportunity for one-on-one attention is priceless. Thanks gentlemen!