Yes, I’m back on my Big Brand soapbox… again. We have great clients, most really eager to get effective SEO going, but facing big issues. A lot of the issues faced by the big brands can be applied to smaller sites in a more scalable manner, so I thought I would post about some of the major issues the big brands face: 

• On page factors really only account for 20%-30% of total ranking score. Off page elements account for the remainder.
• On page in big brands poses a few major challenges due to dynamic URLs (personalization, tracking etc) and many, due to server side issue and CMS/database solutions, have single cell database includes with limited character counts (for example). Trying to rework the backend, is very costly, even for the big brands..   

Best work around includes: robots.txt the internal search variables and other dynamic variables that you identify, and /or make use of the dynamic URL management tool now available through Yahoo SiteExplorer. My understanding is that the other major engines will either be supporting this tool, or coming out with their own versions very soon. The initial request for this facility was posed at SMX Seattle, but Priyank has been working on it for sometime – hence the incredibly fast response turnaround. (If you can’t manage modrewrites – which in some cases server side issues prohibits without a major revamp of URL structure  protocol). Also, apply nofollows to the pages you don’t really need indexed, and focus on page keyword application and content creation to a few highly relevant high PR top and secondary level URLs. And forget about the "long-tail" – it’s a cop-out for SEOs who can’t hack it. It will take care of itself usually due to latent semantics and relevancy factors –it’s not like you’re going to get a huge lot of converting traffic for the long tail – that’s why it’s called the long tail – and statistically it usually only accounts for between 1-5% of traffic (on a REALLY good day)

• On page work is often limited by branding and legal restrictions and poorly managed expectations. Work with branding and legal, and educate these client departments, while setting expectations and providing realistic ROI data based on relevant experience is highly beneficial.
• Breadcrumbs are nice, but are usually managed by the database, so you really need to get the client on board with the whole internal pagerank share issue. Nofollows, 301 redirects play an important role. And that isn’t limited to breadcrumbs
• Internal anchor text – this usually just requires legal and branding education.
• Backlinks… big issue. Explain the importance of personal page rank, high PR, related site content and trust rank (domain age and registration length etc).
• Even once you have done that, you are going to struggle to get them to relinquish the rights to blog freely on a non-secure server. Education on authority hub transparency and data mash-ups helps. Explain the need to work with authority bloggers/blog evangelists, and if necessary recommend an non-official "official" blog "written" by a public persona (see Matt Cutts as an example).
• Pretty vs. user-friendly – throw all the research you can find on usability and user trends as well as educating them on JavaScript and flash etc limitations.
• PCM is important to SEO - If you can't convert them, then why bother... seriously. Work with your designer and content and everyone one from IA to QA. Don't silo yourself, or your skills.
• Multiple sites – if they are in different countries, different country TLDs will not register a DC filter. If they are geo-targeted in-country, you need to rework your URLs and the content as much as possible – content is very dynamic due to speech habit and patterns, and it can be an easier task than you might think
• Start with a full site audit, when presenting the site audit, include basic education and make it an easy 4-5 hour presentation spread over a day with frequent breaks and Q&A – then take them out.

Pretty basic summary stuff I know, but you’d be surprised how just dealing with these few issues can impact both on your relations with your clients and on their rankings for non-branded terms. Ranking for branded terms in the big brands is a no-brainer, and when you can get them to understand the need for backlinks via authority bloggers, niche directories, trusted second tier directories, high PR long established related sites etc, the battle is mostly won. You just have to get them there ... and the way to do it is very often via small steps in both on page and off page strategic implementation.