The Genetic Code of Google’sSEO Ranking Factors: 2016 and Beyond

Presented by:

Stephen Sandecki, Technology and Digital Manager

LifeStorage

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Session Overview

What is search engine optimization?

Google on-page SEO ranking factors

Google off-page SEO ranking factors

Google SEO: 2016 and beyond

Helpful SEO resources

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What Is Search Engine Optimization?

“SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization.’It is the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial’ or ‘natural’ search resultson search engines.

~Search Engine Land

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On-Page SEO Ranking FactorsTitle tag

The title tag describes what your Web page is about. This is just as critical for the user experience as it is SEO.

Your title tag should be a accurate and concise description of a web page’s content.

A title tag should be no longer than 50 to 60 characters.

Meta description

While the meta-description tag is no longer a ranking factor, it’s still very important for user experience.

The meta description appears in search results and should give a good summary of the contents of a Web page.

A meta description should be no longer than 150to 160 characters.

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On-Page SEO Ranking FactorsURL structure

The structure of your URLs can have a positive impact onyour website’s search-engine ranking.

URLs should be human readable and, when possible,contain keywords.

Bad URL: www.onlinepetstore.com/index.php?8372904373Good URL: www.onlinepetstore.com/puppies/german-sheppard-puppies

Content Content is the single most important ranking factor for Google.

Google loves quality content! By providing high-quality content with useful information, you’ll

attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. Never use duplicate content!

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On-Page SEO Ranking Factors

Heading tags Even in the age of HTML5, heading tags still play an important

role in ranking in Google search results. Heading tags are a great way to give your content structure

and let Google know what it’s about. The H1 tag should be a general description of the entire Web

page. The H2 tag should be used to describe each section of a Web page, and so on and so forth.

Never stuff keywords in heading tags!

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On-Page SEO Ranking FactorsImage optimization

Google Image search has become a powerful source of traffic, and with optimized images, you can harness it and also improve your organic search results.

Give images file names that accurately describe them. Use the alt tag to describe your image. Provide GoogleBot with an image sitemap.

Bad image SEO: <img src=“/image123.png” alt=“Image 1”>Good image SEO: <img src=“/red-flowers.png” alt=“Red flowers in a pot”>

Site navigation Every site needs to have proper navigation, both for user experience

and SEO. Provide an easy-to-use navigation bar or menu that can access all

parts of your website. Internally link to different pages on your website when it makes sense. Consider creating a breadcrumb menu to assist users and Googlebot.

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On-Page SEO Ranking FactorsResponsive Web design

Your website should be friendly and viewable on all devices: computers, tablets and mobile phones.

In a few short years, mobile visitors will completely dominate your traffic analytics.

Google now considers mobile accessibility as a ranking factor. Is your site mobile-friendly? You can check it at

google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly.

Page-loading time This is how fast your “each one” of your web pages load.

The faster your pages load, the better. Research methods to reduce your page’s loading time.

You can test your page-loading time at developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights.

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Off-Page SEO Ranking FactorsBacklinks

External links to your website are a big ranking factor. However, quality over quantity should be the back of your mind when building backlinks.

Avoid stuffing anchor text with keywords. Anchor text should be natural. All backlinks should be from relevant topic websites.

Social media engagement Social signals from social media websites is emerging as a important

ranking factor. Google appears to still be evolving this ranking factor and figuring out

the best way to leverage our social interactions and behavior.

Local listings Google My Business helps improve how your site looks in Google’s

search results. It also allows you to provide additional information about your business

and website that can help improve your local search ranking.

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Off-Page SEO Ranking FactorsOnline reviews

These have a big ranking factor in Google’s local search results. Currently, Google displays the "top three" most relevant businesses

for any given query. Customer ratings are one of the major determining factors of which

three are displayed.

Q&A websites While not a direct ranking factor, this is a great way to building

traffic and encourage link building. Find questions relevant to your business or website on sites such as

Yahoo! Answers, Quora or Askville, and answer them while using one of your Web pages as a reference.

Social-bookmarking websites While also not a direct ranking factor, it can help generate

additional traffic and promotion the creation of backlinks.

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Off-Page SEO Ranking FactorsVideo submissions

Create useful videos and submit them to video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

Include a link to your website in the video description.

Photo sharing Create unique images for use in your existing content and

then share those images on sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, etc.

Guest posting Consider offering to create content for websites that are

relevant to yours. In exchange, you get to place a link back to your site in the guest post/content.

Be careful not to overdo it with this. It should be a small part of your strategy.

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Google SEO: 2016 and BeyondHow do you stay relevant on Google this year and beyond?

Continue to create high-quality content—written for humans, not search engines!

Embrace the mobile revolution. Create content andimages that cater to mobile-device users.

Move toward using Schema.org structure data toimprove how your web pages look in search results and give search engines more details about your web pages.

Diversify your traffic sources. Consider GoogleAdWords and other online adverting ventures.

Avoid SEO service providers who offer “guaranteed results.”

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Helpful SEO Resources

The Moz Blog: https://moz.com/blog

Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/library/channel/seo

SEOBook Blog: http://www.seobook.com/blog

SEMrush: http://www.semrush.com

Matt Cutts: https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/type/googleseo/

Google Webmaster Central: https://www.google.com/webmasters/

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Contact the Presenter

Technology and Digital ManagerLifeStorage331.225.2000ssandecki@lifestorage.comwww.lifestorage.com

Stephen Sandecki