Alex Rascanu's presentation at WordCamp Toronto 2014 on November 15, 2014. More about Alex: http://www.alexrascanu.com

1. DEMYSTIFYING SEO
Alex Rascanu
Director of Marketing, Wealthsimple
Founder, Marketers Without Borders
www.alexrascanu.com l @alexrascanu
Date: November 15, 2014
Event: WordCamp Toronto 2014

2. SEO, WHEN DONE WELL, DRIVES
SITE TRAFFIC, LEADS & SALES

3. 1. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SEO

4. Search engines (Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Yandex, Bing, etc.)
are now a core resource for people looking for an
organization, product or service.
It’s important that WordPress web developers adopt SEO
best practices, thus ensuring that the brands we’re
building are found by their target audiences through
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
BACKGROUND ON SEO

5. ON-SITE SEO
1. Find the best keywords around which to focus each page
Image source: Google AdWords Keywords Planner

6. Image source: Rand Fishkin at Moz
2. Make it clear to
search engines that
the page you’re
trying to rank is
highly relevant to
people searching
for that word/phrase

7. OFF-SITE SEO
“Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic
nature of the web when other sites find your content
valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors.”
(Google)
Generate links for your website because:
1. Links increase the authority and trustworthiness of a page to
search engines => increased overall authority for the website
2. Links help search engines connect the relevancy of a page
with specific keywords (based on the keywords used in a link’s
anchor text)

8. HOW NOT TO BUILD LINKS:
- Directories
- Paid links
- Article marketing
HOW TO BUILD LINKS:
- Blog
- Visual content
- Product/campaign launches
- Build a community
- Social media
Image source: HubSpot

9. 2. SEO WINS FOR WEB DEVELOPERS

10. 1. SITE SPEED
Resources:
webpagetest.org
developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
Image source: Distilled

11. 2. 301 AND 302 REDIRECTS
Image source: Distilled

12. 3. HTTP HEADER CODES
How to find the HTTP header code of a page: Web-sniffer.net,
MozBar, Screaming Frog
Most common HTTP header codes:
• 200 Success (page working fine)
• 301 Permanently Moved (search engines will pass link juice)
• 302 Temporarily Moved (search engines won’t pass link juice)
• 404 Page Not Found (make sure it displays a 404 HTTP header)
• 500 Internal Server Error (not helpful, try to minimize these errors)
• 503 Service Unavailable (use when about to launch a new site)

13. 4. CRAWLER ACCESS
Images source: Distilled

14. 5. JAVASCRIPT
i. Do not place valuable content within javascript
(consider using Jquery)
ii. Do not place content or links within javascript to
intentionally hide it from Google

15. 6. WEB DEVELOPER’S CHEATSHEET
Image source: Moz

16. Image source: Moz

17. Image source: Moz

18. Image source: Moz

19. 3. SEO WINS FOR MARKETERS

20. RULES
1. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE: what they are looking for, what
problems they have or what opportunities they want to take advantage of,
their level of awareness about your brand, what online newspapers/blogs
they read, what style of writing connects with them
2. KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS: who is targeting the same keywords in
organic search, which sites is your target audience most likely to visit
when they leave yours
3. KNOW YOUR GOAL FOR THE SITE TRAFFIC YOU’RE ABOUT TO
GET. Traffic doesn’t matter, customers do. That’s why you should get them
to take action when they’re on your site.

21. 1
APPLY TECHNICAL SEO FIXES.
THEY CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN TRAFFIC.
Image source: John Doherty

22. 2
USE CUSTOM REPORTS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO
UNDERSTAND WHICH KEYWORDS ARE CONVERTING WELL.
Image source: Dirty Analytics

23. 3
SPOT OPPORTUNITIES TO GET BETTER RANKINGS, CLICK-
THROUGH-RATES AND CONVERSIONS.

24. 4
CREATE PAGES FOR EVERY KEY ASPECT OF YOUR
PRODUCT/SERVICE & YOUR MOST IMPORANT LOCATIONS
Remember to add a
Call to Action button!

25. 5 USE A/B TESTING AND CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
Page A – The Obama team tested several
combinations of visuals and CTAs to identify the
most effective pair
Page B – The winning combination engaged emotion
with the image of the Obama family in conjunction with
the Learn More button
Improvement: 40% increase in sign-up rate, resulting in $60 million additional donations
Source: Unbounce

26. 6 MAKE SURE ALL YOUR PAGES LOAD IN LESS THAN 1 SECOND
Loading time affects
your bottom line.
Image source: Pingdom

27. 7
EVALUATE YOUR BOUNCE RATE AND UPDATE THE PAGES
WITH THE HIGHEST BOUNCE RATE
Image source: KISSmetrics

28. 8
LET THE MEDIA KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO
(WHEN YOU HAVE REAL NEWS TO SHARE)
Compile a media list
yourself, but you may also
want to use a PR tool like
www.pitchpigeon.com
($49 per pitch)

29. 9
SEND TARGETED CONTENT TO USER.
WATCH YOUR ENGAGEMENT INCREASE.
Image source: John Doherty

30. 10
WRITE ONE OR MORE OF THESE TYPES OF CONTENT
TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE
1. Infographics
2. Memes
3. Videos
4. Guides
5. Book reviews
6. Opinion articles
7. Product reviews
8. How-to articles
9. Lists
10. Link pages
11. Ebooks
12. Case studies
13. Podcasts
14. Interviews
15. Research & original data
Source: QuickSprout

31. 11 TELL YOUR STORY INSTEAD OF JUST TALKING ABOUT YOUR
PRODUCT (PERSOANAL, HISTORICAL OR “MEET THE GURU” STORY)

32. 4. ADDITIONAL SEO RESOURCES

34. Alex Rascanu
Director of Marketing, Wealthsimple
Founder, Marketers Without Borders
www.alexrascanu.com
@alexrascanu
THANK YOU