For the past few years, I've given numerous presentations introducing SEO to new audiences of marketers, engineers and executives. With the end of SEOmoz's consulting business this past January and the completion of our final contract obligations this Spring, I thought it would be wise to share the 190+ page deck to hopefully help those of you who are tasked with introducing SEO to your companies, agencies and colleagues.
The deck is updated as of August 2010, but I hope to update it again in the future. Along with the Beginner's Guide to SEO, this resource should help those seeking to learn SEO or catch up on key points from the past few years.
You can find the download link via Slidesare here (I normally use Scribd, but couldn't get it to display properly in all browsers, so switched).
Feel free to use it or any elements inside. We always appreciate attribution, but even if you can't (which I understand happens), go ahead and make use of it or the images/contents. We love to introduce new people to the magical world of SEO, and if this resource can be of help, it's done its job!
p.s. We've been murmuring about a BIG launch for SEOmoz coming up in the next couple weeks. Launch day is still a bit up in the air, but should be nailed down in the next few days, at which point we'll share a bit more. The new web app has proven pretty popular, and folks here are working many, many overtime hours to keep those reports running smoothly and fixing bugs (a big thanks to everyone who's sent us feedback so far!).
Ok... I think that this is going to be translated.
I'll use it massively (with the obvious reference to the author)
Thank you Rand (also from my mom, who will understand SEO finally)
P.S. A 1st practical question: how long does it take to you to explain all the 150 slides? Asking as it could be a great base (adapted with Country localized datas) also for occasions like explaining SEO to various dpts. of a client).
What a good son you are. :-) My mom refers to her computer's home screen as her website.
Well, mine is the prove of the existence that not so web educated people look for domain names directly in Google (of Güghel, as she pronounces it).
I usually do it in an interactive format, with lots of questions and whiteboarding throughout (what's a "nofollow"? why do search engines like links? etc). My slowest time is probably 3.5 hours, and fastest is around 2 hours, but as just a straight presentation without the interactive elements, you could do 1 hour.
Thanks... now I can program the meeting room schedules (shame none is called the Batcave),
Allow at least 4 hours for your Mum ;)
For her it will be on episodes series along various weeks.
This is awesome Rand. So awesome, that I have been on the fence about going pro for a while, and despite all of the tools and services pro offers, on the value of this presentation I felt I have received serious value from just reading the blog daily. So now I am pro.
On that note, perhaps this powerpoint should be also featured on your Pro landing page as a free (because it already is free) bonus when you sign up :-) You might even take it a step further and for Pro users provide a non-branded version that SEOs can personalize?
Regardless, my own training deck is good, but nowhere near this good and I am certainly going to incorporate a lot of your ideas from this deck in mine. (although mine are usually to teach companies and creative teams, so I go and personalize the deck for each client I am training).
You might even take it a step further and for Pro users provide a non-branded version that SEOs can personalize?
Great suggestion kennfusion. That would be an awesome PRO advantage.
A superb suggestion, kennfusion. This is an excellent presentation and a very generous giveaway. A white label version that could be quickly adapted and branded would be another strong benefit of Pro membership.
Hi Rand, One of the best posts, I have come across in seomoz blog. Very clear and vivid descriptions here, that any beginner will easily understand. This is definitely a good guide for veterans too.
Nice sharing Rand!
This is definitely an audience driven presentation, otherwise it would not be effective. In my world, I have 10-20 mins to describe any particular aspect of SEO.
For my needs I'll be breaking this up into 5-6 presentations.
Bravo! Great work.
My eye was drawn to slide 35 as something to very much ponder and something to cover all the bases on if possible - when real authority speaks, you should listen. Great post Rand.
Oh, and a great slide presentation - a really ethical way of improving domain authority, trust, readership and of course pro-membership conversion rates, by making freely available the best quality resources on the web. An example and case-study in what the next top sites on the evolving internet will turn out to be - having a 'pay wall' integrated with literally the best free resources on a particular subject on the web. Something I aim to follow. Thanks.
Wow Rand, talk about the democratization of SEO. This is simply stunning and ridiculously generous. SEOMoz never ceases to amaze me. Whenever someone asks me what's the best way to learn SEO, I tell them to go to the SEOMOz blog and start reading from the newest post to oldest and somewhere along the way they'll get exposed to all of the resources the site has to offer, but that they should get excited enough to get started doing SEO after just a few posts. This is a fantastic presentation that ties so much of it all together. Thank you!
I wish everyone with a website see that slideshow.
I wonder if my bosses would get the SEO finally :)
STRONG!! Love the presentation. I am going to share it with a client who wants to skip over on page and site structure and get right into linkbuilding... patience, must have patience!
Wow this is intense I would need to study the deck for about 4 weeks before I felt comfortable presenting anything like that, otherwise I'd forgot what I'm presenting on half way through.
Cool beans, Rand. SEO is not an illusion! :-) Cheers, Jon
This presentation is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing Rand. We will post it on our blog and forward to our clients. And it will be very soon translated in Italian too :)
Great information presented in an easy and quick to understand format. Thanks Rand!
Nice presentation but there is the content of those slides are anywhere else?
Thanks for sharing !
I heart this post so much :) There are several pages in the presentation that I've marked as 'must-haves' for training new SEOs, as well as helping clients understand the process. Thanks Rand!
Wow Rand, tallk about the democratization of SEO. This is simply stunning and ridiculously generous. SEOMoz never ceases to amaze me. Thank you!
What can I say, thanks for this thorough presentation. Much of the WBF information condensed in this presentation. I will be viewing it an using it to explain SEO principles to prospects.
Thank you for this great resource! Is there an update coming anytime soon?
Thank you for this great resource! Is there an update coming anytime soon?
Nice intro! Are there a updated version of this? Or any other souces that you could recommend?
Now is there an easy way to download this slidedeck and replace all the Moz logos with my own??
Kiddingggg.....
These are really great, thanks for sharing
Rand, top man!! This PP has saved me hours of research and putting together facts and illustrations for my training programme plans at the .org where I work... I have a similar PP, not as professional but as dense (about 160 slides) which I have used in the past to run SEO training, and it typically takes me 1 1/2 days to run though it... allowing interactive elements, being interrupted at any time by the audience and probably the fact that i am nowhere near as articulate as you are, anyway, thanks a million for sharing as usual ; )
Thanks for sharing Rand. Ehm you know if your book the Art of Seo is also in italian?
Hi Rand,
When estimating conversion rates, which method do you prefer more? Using PPC data or taking the % of people that convert arriving via keyword X? Esp. since there is often a huge disparity between SEO & PCC conversions.
Thanks so much for sharing this. It's very useful!
Rand,
Thanks for posting. This is one of the best presentations I've seen on SEO. Very well organized and graphics clear.
Best,
Sally
Love the slidedeck, going to be showing this to everyone!
Rand, this is truly excellent. However, slide 109, which appears to be #4 in the 8 basic kinds of link building is missing and says that it wasn't converted properly. Is there another place on SEOMoz where I can see it? Thank you for the most amazing, comprehensive slide show on basic SEO that I have ever seen. I am officially blown away. Seriously. Well done.
Looks like it's working now - maybe just a temporary issue. You can also download the deck via the link to Slideshare above. Thrilled you like it!
Awesome!!! Whoo-hoo! Yup it's working. Thanks again!
Thanks Rand. This is going to help me more than you know! (Actually you know EXACTLY how much it will benefit me/people) =)
Wow, great collection of slides. Just one question, what algorithm did you use to calculate the "keyword heat" on slide 92?
You can just do straight multiplication (but inverse for KW Diff) and then assign heats based on relative quantities at the end.
Ah, simple enough. Thanks!
Very very useful Rand!
Thank you a lot! I just need to translate it to spanish to use in my presentations ;) (of course with the autorship of SEOmoz)
This is exactly what I was looking for! (as seen in my last post).
This must be my week. How to pitch SEO by Danny and and now this.
thanks Rand
-SEOmozer in training
Thanks for sharing Rand! Slide 22 is a great representation of the power of linking.
Wow! Very interesting, it will be very useful for my next sales pitch, thanks Rand.
And of course, SEOmoz will have a new link from my company website! :-)
It's like everything I've ever seen on SEOMoz put into one deck. Hahaha.
Pretty cool, thanks Rand! I like the "Booze Death Calculator" idea on slide 144 although when I try to play it anywhere it just redirects to barstools.net and doesn't give me my answer. I guess we'll never know how many Yuengling Lights would kill me. I'm surprised barstools.net isn't rocking the SERPS as it made linkbait most would be jealous of...other problems going on I guess.
This is the most comprehensive presentation on SEO we have seen. We will be passing on this slideshow to our clients. Very good work!
Pssst Rand...
There's a typo in this sentence: ...download link via Slidesare here...
Dunno why my eye caught that -- probably too much time spent looking at my clients' internal linking structure.
Thanks for the ppt share
Thanks for sharing this Rand. Any way to get the exact numbers in slide 4?
I've posted many of the graphics at our Free Charts page (which could use some updating and additions too), though sadly, I didn't link over to the original sources for each one. That particular chart comes via ComScore data from 2009, but I mashed it together to build the graph.
Thanks Rand. I hadn't known about ComScore. It looks like it needs a membership though, and all my membership dollars are being reserved for my PRO membership. It's become way too valuable now to ever let lapse.
When I made this comment earlier, I only went a handful of pages into this slide deck. Tonight I went through it exhaustively. And I totally know in advance that I'm sounding like a drooling fanboy but this is AWESOME!
I had no idea that it was a complete presentation on SEO earlier when I first commented. I just assumed it was a slide deck from your latest seminar presentation that you were sharing with us.
This is in the same league as when Lindsay shared her SEO site audit tips and Laura shared her 8-step SEO Strategy.
Y'all never cease to amaze me with how much information you just give away for free.
edit - And thanks for the link to your Free Charts page. I never knew it existed!
Great. Thank you very much for sharing all your knowledge with us! I really can´t express how much I appreciate that! Thanks!!!
love the secret message on page 159
randfish y love the secret message lol
Thanks for the great slide!
Question: Is that an actual browser add on of some sort you are using in slide 70 to show metrics to the right of search results like that, or is that just a graphic you made for the slide?
They call this link baiting to its best;) (not that you need any links specially from small guys like me but I linked to you from my blog.
Keep up the good job
Al Sefati
Thanks Rand, great presentation. I will be using it with my students (with the appropriate credit of course). Now I have material for quite a few classes... You´ll be famous within my students...
This one is akeeper. Thanks Rand for sharing.
Gonna use this one to educate many folks.