@LavaCon

Why SEO is Good for Techdocs

PG Bartlett

Today’s Discussion

Business impact of findability Overview of improving findability Mysteries and myths Details of improving findability

SEO Goal: Visibility

Organic search results

Google AdWords (Paid advertisements)

SERPs = Search Engine Result Pages

But Isn’t SEO Dead?

Yes – for “black hat” SEO– You can’t fool search engines any more

No – for high-quality content– Search engines want to meet customers’ needs too

February 2013: page 86 of SERPs for “wireless router”

Duplicate content

Nonsense

October 2013: last SERP is page 32

Why Improve Findability?

Pre-Sales Post-Sales

Increase Revenue Improve Support

What’s the Value of a Higher Ranking?

Impact of optimizing your support articles?

Impact on customer satisfaction & retention?

100%

Hits

30%

Support Calls

Let’s Optimize!

On-Page Optimization – Under Your Control

1 keyword (maybe 2) Place keyword in:

– Title– Headings (H1, H2)– Description (meta tag)– Links

Keyword density?– Don’t overdo it

Title– Unique

But My Authoring Tool Has No Title Tag!

Then you’re not authoring in HTML So you must learn how your content transforms to HTML Specifically, how do you generate:

– Title– H1 & H2 headings– Meta description

Off-Page Optimization – Under Others’ Control

Links from other high-quality sites to yours

Social links

Server location & performance

When to Optimize?

After publishing– May lose readability– Costlier point to make changes

• Even worse if you localize

When writing– Better-quality writing– More efficient

• Better results if you localize

Search Engines

Google Isn’t Everything

Google; 66.9%

Bing, 17.9%

Yahoo, 11.4%Ask, 2.6% AOL, 1.3%

US Search Market Share

Google Isn’t Everything

Baidu; 73.0%

Qihoo; 9.6%

Sogou; 7.8%

Google*; 4.7%Soso; 3.7% Bing; 0.5%

China Search Market Share * Google left China in 2010

But still…

Alfresco says 75% of queries on their support knowledgebase come via Google

Keeping Up With

Keeping Up With

Search engines want to deliver relevant results 2011: Panda – focused on “quality” content

– Original (unique)– Substantial– Linguistically correct– Few ads

2012: Penguin – focused on spam– Keyword stuffing– Link stuffing

Keeping Up With

Hummingbird: new search algorithm– Biggest rewrite since 2001– Not an update – whole new algorithm!

Announced September 26, 2013– But had been running “for a few months” – without incident

New capabilities– Conversational search– Search based on meaning (“semantic search”), not strings

What Should You Do?

Conversational search– Google understands search queries; e.g., “how old is” = “what is

the age of”– Our advice: think about conversational queries – not just

keywords Semantic search

– Google doesn’t just look at strings any more; it also considers synonyms to assess what your page is about

– Our advice: search for your own keywords to find what Google considers relevant; use synonyms where appropriate

Synonyms

Does Semantic Search = Keywords are Dead?

No: keywords still matter You have to speak your customers’ language

What About Google Knowledge Graph?

Derived from CIA World Factbook, Freebase, Wikipedia, etc.

570 million objects, 18 billion facts about & relationships among objects

Supports semantic search

Knowledge Graph example

Does Knowledge Graph know your products?

Sure, if you sell pizza.

But for other products, maybe not…

How Long is Your Tail?

“Short Tail” keywords: 1-2 words– “wireless router”– “digital camera”– “pizza”

“Long Tail” keywords: 3-6 words– “how to install Linksys router”– “best pizza in Golden, Colorado”– “troubleshoot Linux installation problems”

Which Kind of SEO are You?

Short Tail Long Tail

Content type Marketing Technical

Competition Other companies Yourself

Objective Beat competition Get found

Success Measure Revenue Support

Tactics Hyper-optimize & share Optimize

Bonus points for Exploiting search engine weaknesses

Optimizing most of your content

Depends on SEO experts You

Your SEO ProcessImprove Rank & CTR

Improve Rank

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• What do your customers search for?

• What are profitable keywords to optimize for?

• What are my competitors doing?

You think of keywords

Google suggests other keywords…

Google AdWords account/Tools & Analysis/Keyword Planner

Select “Keyword ideas” tab

From: Metrics-based Publishing at Symantec, Bob Lee, Shared Engineering Services

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• Determine target keyword list

• Group keywords (for example: product-related keywords)

• Group for language and region

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• Select 1 keyword for each page (maybe 2)

• Do NOT optimize multiple pages for the same keywords

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• Keyword placement (title, headings, links, description)

• No keyword stuffing!

• Unique title

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• Get social

SEO Process

Keyword Research

KeywordManagement

KeywordMapping

On-pageOptimization

Off-pageOptimization

SEOMetrics

Pre- &

• KPIs (time on page, visitors, etc.)

• Analyze keyword performance

• Monitor site performance

Improve CTR

• Compelling & SEO friendly title

• Trustworthy and “readable” URL• Relevant description

• Readable, no grammar and spelling errors

How to Improve CTR

CTR Not Always Relative to Rank

“Rich snippets” change the math:

30% to 150% increase in CTR!

(Or not…)

What about this?

Rich Snippets (“Structured Data”)

Types– People– Products– Businesses– Reviews– Events– Videos– Others (recipes & music)

Encoding options– Microdata (recommended)– Microformats– RDFa

Our Best Advice for Good Results

Place keywords appropriately– Prominent locations– Body text as needed

Our Best Advice for Better Results

Place keywords appropriately– Prominent locations– Body text as needed

Choose keywords carefully– Relevant– Unique

Our Best Advice for Great Results

Every key measurement depends on creating & sharing deep, original, engaging content

Rank Click-throughs Engagement Conversions

Thank You!PG.Bartlett@acrolinx.com