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SEO 101

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Today’s Agenda:

• Introduction• What to expect today• How search engines work• What is SEO?• Foundational SEO• On and off page basics• Questions

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Nate Plaunt

Sr. SEO Strategist@NatePlaunt

bit.ly/1LoDdWN

Today’s Presenters

Taylor Pettis

Sr. Marketing Manager@tpettis

linkd.in/1dsZJAa

DOES SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION REALLY MATTER?

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Search Engine Optimization

FACT: 79% of search engine users say they always/frequently click on the natural

search results.

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Anatomy of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

Ads / Shopping Results

Local / Map Results

Organic Result

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• Organic traffic accounts for up to 64% of all website traffic*

• Roughly 52,000 search queries happen on Google - every SECOND!

• This translates into about 4.5 billion searches every day**

Organic Search Stats

* Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study ** Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band

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Organic Search is the #1 Driver of Website Traffic

From a usage perspective, new studies have found that organic search drives up to 64% of all web traffic.

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Click Through Rate Study for Organic Results• On average, the click-through rate (CTR) on page one is 71.33%

• On the first page alone, the first 5 results receive a CTR of 67.60%

• Page two and three total CTR is only 5.59%

http://marketingland.com/new-click-rate-study-google-organic-results-102149

Page 1 = 71.33%

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Does SEO Really Matter?

YES!If you are not optimizing for search you are already behind your competition.

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What to Expect:

• A solid understanding of how search engines operate

• Learn how to beat out your competition in the search engine results

• Actionable tactics you can implement today

• Tools to implement SEO

WHAT DID YOU SEARCH TODAY?

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What Did You Search Today?

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What Did You Search Today?

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How Search Engines Work

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Search Engines Have Different Algorithms

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U.S. Search Engine Market Share

https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Rankings/comScore-Releases-January-2016-US-Desktop-Search-Engine-Rankings

63.8 %21.3 %12.4 %

Everyone else 2.5 %

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Not all results are organic

Organic

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What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of

affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a

search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.

Source: Wikipedia

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What is SEO? (Simplified)SEO is two things:

1. The practice of making your website as accessible as possible to search engines.

2. Ensuring your website is as useful and relevant as possible to your current and prospective customers.

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Think of Your Website as a House

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Ensure your site is accessible to humans and search engines.

Think of Your Website as a House

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Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.

Think of Your Website as a House

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 101

THE BASICS

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SEO 101: Ensure your site is accessible to search engines.

SEO 201: Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.

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Technical and structural factors

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Technical and Structural Factors• Goal: Ensure accessibility for Search

Engines & Users• Foundation of your entire online

presence, so it’s important to get it right• Search engines have very clear

guidelines for webmasters to follow when building sites

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What To Look For• Can your entire website be crawled?• Is your website indexed by the search

engines?• Does your website have any errors?• Is your page load time too slow?

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How You Can Do This• XML sitemap• Accurate robots.txt file• Google Search Console• Page speed optimization

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What to Avoid

Any unnecessary hurdle for the search engines• Flash• iFrames• Blocking search engines in robots.txt

file

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Example: Blocking Search Engines

Good:

User-agent: *Disallow:

Not Good:

User-agent: *Disallow: /

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Robots.txt fileThe robots.txt file is a directive for all “bots” visiting your site. • It tells them what URLs to crawl or

not crawl• Simple text file – can be created with

notepad

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Robots.txt file – *Pro TipUse the Robots.txt testing tool in Google Search Console to troubleshoot errors in you file and to test individual URLs

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XML SitemapThe XML sitemap is a map of your website that enables search engines to efficiently crawl and index your site.

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XML SitemapVarious tools can help you generate an accurate and up-to-date sitemap:• Screaming Frog Spider• CMS plugins like Yoast• Other web-based sitemap

generators- www.xml-sitemaps.com

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Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free resource with tons of valuable information available to all website owners.• https://

www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

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Why Does Speed Matter?Last year, mobile search overtook desktop search.• The gap between mobile and desktop will

widen• Fast page load speed is critical to

optimizing for mobile• “Mobile-geddon”

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Google PageSpeed Insights PageSpeed Insights is another free tool from Google that gives you a prioritized roadmap on how to fix speed issues on your site.• https://

developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

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On and Off Page Factors

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On and Off Page Factors• Goal: Demonstrate Relevance and

Authority• Search engines want to provide users with

search results that are relevant to their query and authoritative in nature.

• Building upon a sound technical structure, we make sure that search engines and users are able to fully understand what various pages on your website are about.

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On-page SEO refers to factors that you can control directly on your website

Examples of on-page factors are:

• Metadata• Internal links• Content• Technical / Structural

Off-page SEO refers to factors “out of your control” on other websites

Examples of off-page factors are:

• Inbound links• Social Media• Mentions• Local Directories

On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO

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What To Look For• Are your on page elements optimized?• What keywords are you ranking for?• Who is linking to you?• Who is linking to your competitors?

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On Page SEO Elements• URL• Page Title• H1 heading• H2 headings• Meta Description• Page Copy• Alternative image text

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On Page SEO ElementsPage Title: Unique and descriptiveURL: Descriptive and readable by both humans and search enginesH1 Heading: Unique and descriptive

Sub-Headings: Targeted sub-topics of the page theme

Page Copy: Descriptive, unique, and keyword rich

Alt Image Text: Descriptive and keyword rich

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Page Title

Good:

Organic Result #1

Bad:

Organic Result #32

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URL structure

Good: Organic Result #9

Bad:Organic Result #94

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On Page SEO Elements

Meta Descriptions

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A Tale of Two Devices

Position #1 Organic – Desktop…

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A Tale of Two Devices

Position #2 Organic - Mobile

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What Keywords Do You Rank For?Ground Rules:1. Don’t “Google yourself”2. Use a keyword tracking tool

- SEM Rush (freemium)- Bright Local (paid)

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What Keywords Do You Rank For?

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Off Page SEO Elements• Backlinks• Link anchor text• Citations or Mentions

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Internal vs. External Links (Backlinks)

• Internal links refer to links within your site, such as navigation links.

• External links refer to links outside of your site, such as a link from Wikipedia.

• Both are very useful, but for different reasons.

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How do Backlinks Help?

• Backlinks act as “votes” for pages on your site.

• Generally speaking, the more links you have from authoritative sources, the more your site is trusted, and the better your pages will rank.

YourWebsite.com

NewsSite.com RetailSite.com

IndustryBlog.com

ShadySite.com

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Link Anchor TextThe words used in the anchor text of a link to your site helps search engines understand what that page is about.So, if your site is about “strollers” the anchor text strollers would be preferable over click here.

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Who is linking to you?Conduct a backlink audit:• Open your Google

Search Console• Navigate to the “Links

to Your Site” section• Check out who links

the most and to what content

• *Pro Tip: this will help inform future content!

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Who is linking to your competitors?Conduct a competitive link analysis:

1. Use Open Site Explorer- https://moz.com/researchtools/ose

2. Enter your competitor’s site into the search bar3. Dig through their backlink profile4. *Pro Tip: Identify where you can acquire some

of the same links!

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Citations Citations are essentially a mention of your brand on another site like a listing directory.• Yelp• Hot Frog• City Search

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Citations It is important that these listings maintain consistency and accuracy. • Name• Address • Phone Number

*Check up on your listings using Moz Local- moz.com/local

REVIEW

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1. If done right, SEO is a distinct competitive advantage

2. Get the foundation right3. Optimize your pages4. Optimize your off page presence5. Move up the pyramid…

Review

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SEO 101: Ensure your site is accessible to search engines.

SEO 201: Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.

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Measurement and Improvement

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Questions?

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1. Google Search Console2. Google PageSpeed Insights3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider4. Yoast plugin for WordPress5. XML Sitemap Generator6. SEM Rush7. Bright Local8. Open Site Explorer9. Moz Local

Appendix – Tools Mentioned