SEO Basics & Beyond

SEO Basics & Beyond:
Keys to Search Engine Success

Download this slide deck at: http://bit.ly/seobasicsbeyond15
Agenda
 What SEO Means
 How Search Engines Work
 Steps to Setting Up a Successful
SEO Strategy
 ThingsYou Can Do Right Now to
IncreaseYour Exposure in Search
Engines
 SEOTrends toWatch

Q&A
 We will have Q&A at the end of each section

Download Slides
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About Me
 Coding since 6 years old
 Creating websites since 1997
 Working in e-commerce since
2005
 Marketing MBA
 Agency since 2011

What “SEO” Means
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is
the art and science of influencing
search engines to rank your content
high in search results..

What “SEO” Means
…influencing search engines…
1. Apply a set of educated guesses
2. Test and measure results
3. Rinse, repeat.

How Search Engines Work
 Google does data entry with your website
 They extract a copy of your site’s text and
code and put it into their own database
 This is called “indexing”

 Their copy is what gets
searched against when a
user enters a search

 To determine position in results, sites are ranked according to a
set of algorithms (“if this, then that” conditions)

 There are over 200 known ranking factors that Google looks at
 They can all be lumped into 3 categories

 Technical ranking factors include
things like:
 Search-engine-friendly website code
 Error-free code
 Website server speed
 Mobile-friendliness
1) Technical

 Content ranking factors include things like:
 What keywords you use
 Where and how you use them
 How you organize the content
 Frequency of new content added
2) Content

 Off Page ranking factors include things like:
 How many reputable & relevant websites that link to yours
 Social media “signals”
 Domain name age
 NAP citations (for local businesses)
3) Off Page

A Successful SEO Strategy
 A successful SEO strategy has 4 parts:
1. Technical
2. Content
3. Off Page
4. Measurement & Analysis
4 Parts

 New site in the works? Start with a “blueprint”
 Build it right in the first place!
 At most basic level, make sure new site will be fully
responsive (mobile friendly), and that it loads fast per
Google PageSpeed Insights test
Technical
 WordPress is highly recommended as
an SEO-friendly platform
 An SEO Agency can provide full
specifications for the web designer to
work off of

 Existing site? Start with an audit
 WooRank is free, but only for one page and only some
aspects. Good place to start though.
 An SEO agency can do a full audit
▪ Be sure it includes mobile friendliness & site speed, as well as other
common factors such as header tag hierarchy, Schema.org,
robots.txt, XML sitemaps, etc.
Technical
www.WooRank.com

Technical
www.WooRank.com
Hand audit report to
webmaster.
Tell them to fix it all.
(Cry at cost if
necessary)

 OngoingTechnical Strategy
 Full audit updates quarterly
 Subscribe to Google WebmasterCentral Blog for real time
alerts of new technical considerations
▪ http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Technical

 Determine what keywords to use (a.k.a. “Keyword
Research”)
Content
http://adwords.google.com
“Keyword Planner” Tool
(No ad purchase required to use the “Keyword Planner” tool)

 “Not too hot, not too cold…”
Content

 Other great keyword tools
 SEMRush
 Soovle
 KWfinder
Content

 Where & how to use keywords
Content
1. In the Title: Use the phrase in the article or page title, towards the front if possible,
e.g. “Using Facebook for Marketing: 10 Essential Tips”
2. In a Subtitle: Subtitles are great for breaking up longer content into more digestible
chunks. Use your phrase once in a subtitle.
3. Image Filename & Alt Tag: All content should have at least one image. Name the
image filename with the phrase, using dashes (NOT underscores) as spaces, e.g.
using-facebook-for-marketing.jpg. There is also a tag called an “image alt tag” that
exists to tell search engines more about the image. Use your phrase in this description
as well.

Content
4. Title tag & URL: Most modern content management systems will do this
automatically for you based on the title of your article, but make sure your phrase
lands in both the title tag and the URL for the content.
5. Meta description: This is a one-page summary of the content that search engines
often use as the “snippet” in the search results. Although not a direct ranking factor,
using the phrase here can assist with clickthrough rates.
6. In the copy: (see next slide)

Content
• It’s important that the copy reads very naturally, e.g. “Business owners often wonder
what’s involved in using Facebook for marketing effectively.”
• In total, when you are finished writing, the phrase should appear approximately 1 to
2 times per 100 words. This DOES include the titles and subtitles.
• For example, a 500 word article should have the phrase appear anywhere from
a minimum of 5 times (1 time per 100 words) to an absolute maximum of 10
times (2 times per 100 words).
• Again, it is SO important not to exceed that maximum in order to avoid looking like
you’re “stuffing” in keywords.

 How to organize information
 A lot of different topics on one page is confusing to the search
engines
Content

Content
 How to organize information
 Separate pages for each topic, product, or service
 Link similar pages to each other to create topical “hubs”

Content
 Ongoing content strategy
 “Fresh” content is important, but that doesn’t
mean CHANGING existing content, that means
ADDING new content
 Important to keep site size growing by adding
new pages or articles all the time
 Blog RELIGIOUSLY!
(Blog must be on your own website, not on WordPress.com or Blogger.com)

Content
Source: Hubspot

Content
 4 Categories = 4 Posts Per Month
 Use Keyword Research to get ideas
 Plan far ahead
• HINT: An Editorial Calendar is a lifesaver!

Off Page
 Links
 Other websites linking to your website
 QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
 Reputable and Relevant
 CANNOT be manipulated – DO NOT buy links!
 Best way to get links =Write great content & pay to promote it
▪ Paying for eyeballs is okay, paying for links is not!

Off Page
 Link Research
 Research tools: Search Console (for your own links), Ahrefs,
Majestic, OpenSiteExplorer (Moz)
 Look through your own existing links to get ideas for other
good ones you can get
 Search through competitor link profiles to see what’s working
for them
 Search through the profiles of the sites that are ranking for the
terms you want to rank for

Off Page
 Other Link Building Ideas
 Guest blogging
 Press releases – NO optimized
anchors though!
 HARO
 Content syndication
 Interview others
 “Ego bait”
 Corporate/Student/Gov’t
discount programs
 Scholarships/Sponsorships
 Resource pages & broken
link building
 Contests

Off Page
 Social Signals
 Content that lives on your website getting
“liked”, shared, commented on, etc.
 Boost to get more signals
 Again, write great content & pay to promote it

Off Page
 Citations (a.k.a. “Online Phone Book Listings”)
 For local businesses
 NAP = Name, Address, Phone
 Consistency is key
Lunch ‘n’ Learn! 10/29!
“Getting Found inYourTown”
http://bit.ly/gettingfound1029

Measurement & Analysis
 Remember…
 This is educated guesswork
 You HAVE to measure what
worked and what didn’t!
 Why? So you can do more of
what works and less of what
doesn’t

 What to measure
 Organic traffic
▪ Make sure it’s always increasing
 Top landing pages
▪ See what content works best
 Top referring sources & inbound links
▪ See what sites are linking to you
 Top organic keywords
▪ What keywords is Google associating your site with (in Search Console)

 MeasurementTools
 FREE & ESSENTIAL Reporting
▪ Google Analytics
▪ Search Console (akaWebmasterTools)
 Paid/Advanced Reporting
▪ Moz
▪ Raven
▪ Gshift
▪ AnalyticsSEO
 Link MeasurementTools
▪ OpenSiteExplorer (Moz)
▪ Majestic
▪ Ahrefs
 AlertingTools
▪ SEOAlerts (for traffic/link
changes)
▪ SEORadar (for site changes)

A Case Study
This is What Will Happen.

Things to do NOW
 Start blogging (on your own site)
 Switch toWordPress if not already in it, or add it to your site
 Share (and boost) your content on social
 For local businesses…
 Claim/optimize Google My Business listing
 Build/correct other “online phone book” listings

Things to NEVER do
 “Stuff” keywords into your content
 Create lots of similar pages with boilerplate copy
 Create orphaned/doorway pages
 Use hidden text
 Hyperlink tons of keywords
 Buy links (NEVEREVEREVEREVER do this!)

Myth Busting
 MYTH:The meta keywords tag
matters
 Google hasn’t used it since 2008
 MYTH:There’s a duplicate content
“penalty”
 It is NOT a “penalty” - Duplicate copies
will simply be ignored
 MYTH: “We can just ‘SEO it’ later”
 SEO needs to start BEFORE a site build
 MYTH: SEO is a one-time project
 There areTHOUSANDS of algorithm
updates each year. SEO is never-ending
 MYTH: Link-building is dead
 Inbound link factors continue to
outweigh all other factors
 MYTH: “Our Agency is Google-
Certified for SEO”
 No such thing. Only certification
available is for AdWords.

Trends to Watch
 Mobile, Mobile, Mobile!
 Google Mobile-FriendlyTest
 Mobile Usability in Search Console

Trends to Watch
 SPEED
 Google PageSpeed Insights
 GTMetrix
“You really have to speed up your site”
– Gary Illyes, Google
Closing keynote, Pubcon 2015

Trends to Watch
 Schema
 Schema.org
 Gives context to text & code
 Google’s way of developing
artificial intelligence &
machine knowledge

Recap
 What SEO Means
 Art & Science of *influencing* position in
search engines
 How Search Engines Work
 Extract text & code, take a copy
 That’s what gets searched against
 Sites ranked based upon 200+ factors in 3
categories:Technical, Content, Off Page
 Successful SEO Strategy
 1)Technical: Spec or Audit
 2) Content: Keyword Research, Page
Organization, Ongoing Blogging
(Editorial Calendar!)
 3) Off Page: Write great content & pay to
promote it – DON’T BUY LINKS. Build &
fix NAP citations
 4) Measure & Analyze: Do more of what
works!
 Things to do NOW
 Start blogging & promote on social!
 Things to NEVER do
 Buy links!
 Stuff keywords
 Over-hyperlink
 Hide pages or content
 SEOTrends to Watch
 Mobile, Speed, Schema

Download this slide deck at
http://bit.ly/seobasicsbeyond
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SEO Basics & Beyond

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