SEO Isn’t Just SEO Anymore

Agenda• Introductions and Overview

• Define Traditional SEO

• What Still Works And What Doesn’t

• New Disciplines Affecting SEO

• Trends

• Questions

IntroductionsJustin KerleySEO Department Manager

www.linkedin.com/in/kerleyj@KerleyJ

A Brief Introduction to Top Floor

Top Floor• Website Design &

Development• Search Engine

Marketing• Web Analytics &

Conversion Improvement

• Marketing & Branding Strategy

Maximizing Online Marketing Results for Hundreds of Businesses Since 1999

Getting the Most From Today’s

WorkshopWrite down 2-3 learning points that you will begin putting into

action within the next two weeks. Then – follow through.

Traditional SEO

All About Traffic

Target Audience = Search Engines

Traditional SEO - Shortcomings• Little thought to the users

• Keyword Rankings are king

• Quantity of backlinks takes precedence over quality of backlinks

Manipulating Search Engines• Ranking factors, once known, would be

exploited.

• Site quality deteriorated

• Monetized sites would marginalize the user’s experience to improve revenues

Keyword Stuffing

Thin/Duplicated Content• Automatically generated content

• Thin affiliated pages

• Content from other sources

Link Manipulation

Search Engines Get Smarter• Search Engines want to see what users see

• Need to protect their users to maintain loyalty

• Want to provide their customers (searchers) with the best results and crackdown on “black-hat” tactics

• Algorithm updates and manual penalties

Panda Update

Penguin Update

Hummingbird Algorithm

Manual Penalties• Google Spam team manually reviews a site

• Implements a penalty independent of their algorithm

• Webmaster must take steps to address the issue at hand

• Site must be submitted for review

• Lather, rinse, repeat

What Works and What Doesn’t?

On-Site Optimization• Search Engines still need you to tell them

what your website is all about

• Certain on-site elements hold more weight than others

• Need to find the balance between writing for a user and for search engines

Keyword Research (Still Works)

Keyword Research (Still Works)• Understand what your potential users are

looking for and how they would search for it

• Search volume isn’t everything

• The key is relevance

Keyword Relevance

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)• Title Tag, Meta Description and URL Alias

• Work keywords into these three elements

• Have the largest impact on rankings and CTR

• Write for users and search engines

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)

Optimizing the Search Engine Result (Still

Works)

Provide Context (Still Works)• Search Engines are trying to better understand user intent

• Providing context gives Search Engines and users more information about the purpose of the site• E-commerce: “Buy Now”, “Add To Cart”, related products,

shipping• Review Site: “User Reviews”, Consumer Reports, links to

company site

• The primary elements for page context have long been ranking factors

• Should be used for more than just keywords now

Heading Tags• H-tag structure organizes

your content for users and SE

• H1 – most important, should only have one*

• Lose importance as the number gets higher (H2 > H3 > H4 etc…)

• Use these tags to highlight information your users need

• NOTE: Often used for styling*HTML5 allows for multiple H1s, though best practice is 1

Alt Image Text

• Alt image text describes images to screen readers and Search Engine bots

• Should describe the image and not just the target keyword

Internal Links

• Internal linking structure ensures that all pages are found and easy to navigate to

• Provides context to users and search engines by linking to relevant content and resources

Internal Links

• Text used within the link is an indicator to users and Search Engines as to the content of the destination

• Avoid generic anchor text (“click here”, “learn more” etc…)

• Try to avoid using the exact same anchor text for links to a specific page – could be seen as manipulation

Keyword Density/Stuffing (Doesn’t Work)

• Forcing a particular keyword into the content

• Often described as “writing for SEO”

Keyword Density/Stuffing (Doesn’t Work)

• Search engines do look for occurrences of words/phrases• Diminishing returns• Potential penalties

• Write for your users first and foremost, THEN consider how a search engine may interpret it

Thin/Duplicated/Spun Content (Doesn’t

Work)• Gives the illusion of a great quantity of content

• Often used to capture exact match or long tail keyword traffic

• “used trucks” vs. “used pickups” vs. “used pickup trucks” vs. “pre-owned trucks” etc…

• Add no value for the user

• Targeted by the Panda algorithm update

Off-Site Optimization• Google pioneered this

ranking methodology with PageRank

• Judges sites by how others perceive them

• Traditionally based on external domains/pages linking back to a given site.

Directory Submissions (Somewhat Works) • Like keywords,

relevance is key.

• Mass submitting does not work, could get you penalized

• Niche/industry specific directories can be beneficial

Directory Submissions (Somewhat Works)

• Local directories provide name, address and phone numbers for users and Search Engines

• Think if your target audience would use this directory, if so, pursue a link/listing

Mass Article Submissions (Doesn’t Work) • Places one article (or many

versions of the same content) across a network of repositories for no other purpose than to gain links back

• Provides users with little to no value

• Not to be confused with submitting an article to a trusted publication

• Does the article serve a specific user audience? Will it only exist in one location?

Buying Links (Really Doesn’t Work)• Used to be commonplace to receive offers of thousands of links

for a nominal fee

• Some even offered “keyword rich” anchor text

• This violates webmaster guidelines and could result in a manual action

• Gray area: buying advertising space on a site relevant to your audience• Link should be “nofollow”• Clearly marked as an ad.

Guest Blogging (Does/Doesn’t Work)• Two things to differentiate good from bad

• Relevance• Does it scale?

• Traditionally this would involve one blog post being spammed to any webmaster that has a “submit blog post” link on their site• Article would be filled with keyword-laden anchor text• Solely for links

• What works: providing a blog post (that a webmaster has requested or consented to beforehand) that will be valuable to their audience and increase exposure to the author and their brand.• SEO post for Smashing Magazine

New Disciplines Affecting SEO

Social Media

• Social Signals are having a greater impact on SEO performance, however they do not do so in a direct, quantifiable manner.

• Factoring Likes, Retweets, and +1s into an algorithm would be too difficult to quantify and organize • Too easy to manipulate• Google has attempted, but always scraps it

Social Media – How does it impact SEO?

Social Media – How does it impact SEO?

Social Media – How does it impact SEO?• Brand Awareness

• Link potential

• Interacting with Influencers

Social Media – Best Practices• Claim social properties and brand them consistently

across all platforms

• Post consistently• There is no “magic” number• Provide quality content/links• Share posts from others in your/related industry• Interact with Influencers/followers

Social Media – Best Practices

Social Media – Best Practices

Social Media – Best Practices

User Experience• As Search Engines continue to evolve around

providing users with the best experience, your website’s user experience becomes increasingly important

• Think about what your user is trying to accomplish • Find more information• Purchase a product• Request a quote

• Make it easy for them to do so

User Experience – Dwell Time• Search Engines state that they do not monitor your

site’s specific engagement metrics, but they do track the performance of SERPs

• Dwell time is defined as the amount of time a user spends on a site after they client through to result before returning to the SERP

• Can be an indicator of the quality of the result

User Experience – “Ping-Ponging”

• Described as a user that bounces back and forth between the SERP and different results, like a Ping-Pong ball.

• Shows the user did not get what they were looking for yet stayed with their initial search query

User Experience – Mobile Friendly

• Users are using tablets and mobile devices at a rapidly increasing rate

• Mobile search queries will exceed desktop queries very soon – perhaps already doing so in 2014

User Experience – Mobile Friendly

User Experience – Best Practices• Make sure your site is easy to use, navigate and understand

• Don’t make users think

• Provide direct, actionable information relevant to your user’s needs• Understand what your users want• Make it obvious and easy for them to get it

• Professionally designed and mobile-friendly• Site should inspire confidence• Content adapts to the resolution of the device (responsive

design) or has a mobile specific counterpart (mobile site)

Conversion Rate Optimization• SEO used to just be responsible for getting traffic to

the site. Then it was up to the site to make users convert.

• With an increased focus on the user and their intent, driving the right traffic is now the goal.

• At the end of the day, your site’s goal is to generate more business. An increase in traffic is nice, but an increase in traffic paired with an improved conversion rate drives notable results.

Conversion Rate Optimization – Impact On

SEO• Changes the approach to keyword research

• Increased focus on engagement metrics

• Converted visitors could lead to referrals/endorsements

Conversion Rate Optimization – Best

Practices• Limit friction points on the user’s path from visitor to customer

Conversion Rate Optimization – Best

Practices• Limit friction points on the user’s path from visitor to customer

Conversion Rate Optimization – Best

Practices • Descriptive, appropriate text

• Should be a button, not a text link

• Color that stands out

Trends

Secured Internet Protocol• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure adds a layer of

encryption protecting a user’s interactions with a site – prominent in online transactions

• The increased emphasis on personal privacy and secured Internet interactions has brought HTTPS to the fore front

• Google has officially announced that use of HTTPS is part of their ranking algorithm, albeit a small factor.

Secured Internet Protocol – SEO

Considerations• Should be a consideration to move to HTTPS in 2015

• Update links on site

• Prepare/update 301 redirects

• Monitor old and new “sites” in Webmaster Tools

Mobile First

• Mobile First is a design concept that puts building websites for mobile devices at the forefront and then expand on design elements with increased screen size

Mobile First• Google has been a vocal

proponent of this movement – adding mobile oriented reporting and tools.

• Recently sent out webmaster notifications warning of mobile usability issues – sign of mobile specific algorithm

Mobile First – SEO Considerations• Responsive design is the preferred method of building a site

that’s mobile friendly.• One location for content• Changes layout based on user’s device

• Mobile sites can be effective but pose challenges• Duplicated content• Two separate sites to maintain• Communicate the alternative links with meta data

• Mobile devices have fewer pixels – make messaging concise without sacrificing all of your content

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP• Google’s customers are AdWords users and searchers

• They do not owe websites traffic

• Their goal is to improve the user’s experience in search results and keep them active within Google’s properties

• Recent changes to the SERPs demonstrate that

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP• Personalization can alter results based on browsing history• Google+ posts can appear in the results from your circles

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s Ever-Changing SERP

Google’s SERP – SEO Considerations• Ensure local listing data is accurate and consistent – NAP

consistency

• Provide location based data where applicable

• Actively post and build your audience on Google+

• Add social follow buttons to your site

• Monitor search results for target keywords, if knowledge graph is available, identify additional opportunities for content creation.

• Leverage other channels to secure a steady stream of traffic

Advanced Markup and HTML5• The goal of both is to improve on context and information

provided to both users and search engines

• Schema markup allows webmasters to add data to the HTML that clearly identifies a piece of content’s purpose (address, price, review, phone number etc…)

• HTML5 allows you to communicate how your content is parsed for users• Navigation• Aside• Footer• Advanced h-tagging structure

Advanced Markup and HTML5

Advanced Markup and HTML5

Advanced Markup and HTML5 – SEO Considerations• Visit schema.org to identify markup that applies to your business

• Address• Hours• Company information

• When developing a new site, look into the use of HTML5 – this is not essential to implement immediately

Questions?

Upcoming Seminars

Taking Your Website Global

March 10 – Crowne Plaza

Promo Code: EXPORTWI

Mobile Advertising - How to Succeed in a Multi-

Screen WorldMarch 18 – Top Floor

Promo Code: MobilePPC100

Thank You.