Advanced SEO Workshop presented to Webgrrls by Josepf Haslam & Etela Ivkovic DragonSearch

Advanced SEO Foundation & Deep Dive Techniques Etela Ivkovic, GM, DragonSearch - @Etela, +Etela Josepf Haslam, Biz Dev, DragonSearch - @Josepf2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 1

Background on SEO What/Why• Context of SEO: looking at it’s influence and history and tying it all together with “How to grow your business online” infographResource• The Complete Walk-Through to Grow Your Business Online #Infographic• The DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 2

Context Slide from infographics2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 3

97% of online consumers research products & services online before buying Source: BIA/Kelsey Group, User View Wave VII, May 20102/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 4

Promise of Google2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 5

Context slide SEO/Social2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 6

Evolution2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 7

0. Self Published Indexes/Directories1. Human Published SERPs (Yahoo)2. Counting Words on a Page (AltaVista/Lycos)3. Counting Words & External Links (Google)4. PageRank and “Voting” with Links (Google/Bing)5. Social Voting, Site Authority, Awesome Content, Citations, Connectedness, Author Citations/Rank2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 8

Step back2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 9

Why Social Recommendations2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 10

What is SEO• We take a deeper dive into the technical side of SEO• Explaining how it has morphed from a three legged stool to four legs and then turn to our learning objectives2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 11

What is SEO?• Search Engine Optimization is the Art & Science of helping your site be crawled, indexed and be found in Organic/Natural (nonpaid) Search Results.• SEO is a process & a mindset• Expands into site architecture, coding performance, usability, content quality, user interaction, sharing and conversion2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 12

Optimization The 3 legged stool of SEO just got another leg1. Site Content2. Site Code, Structure & Performance3. External Backlinks4. Social Signals2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 13

Learning Objectives• We will clear the major elements of SEO in this order:2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 14

Learning Objectives• The importance of and how to conduct advanced keyword research• Advanced on-page optimization with cross linking strategy• Advanced off-site factors including link building and maintenance• How to evaluate the health of your back-link portfolio• How to assess the strength of your competitor back-links and where their visitors come from• Discover how to identify the demographics of your top competitor sites• What is Google Panda & Penguin updates and how to use them to your advantage• How to overcome common problems associated with CMS driven sites such as duplicate content, spider traps• SEO & Social Media• Understand Google’s vision for the future of search to gain a competitive advantage2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 15

But first, the Goal• “Start with the end in mind” Dr. Stephen Covey2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 16

What’s The End Objective THE MONEY!2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 17

Be Found Online, Drive Results!2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 18

How Do I Get More (and Better) Organic Traffic?• Understand keywords (search phrases) that are important to you• Understand how Google determines relevance• Build and optimize your site based on keyword research for all 4 elements of SEO (later)• Get citations / shares / back-links to improve positions over time• Measure, tweak and test based on Analytics2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 19

Take a Deep Breath• A website is posted, linked to, or updates its content• Search engine “spider” or “bot” crawls the page• Skims URL, page titles, meta data, text, images, etc.• Follow links, counts in/out• Indexes keywords, SEMANTICS, notes frequency• “Weighs” the page relative to others as well as based on user behavior for topical relevance & quality2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 20

Advanced Keyword Research• It all starts here, you have to understand what people are searching for and how that is related to your business.2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 21

Advanced Keyword Research• It starts with your own Analytics• Track your internal site search• Google Suggest• AdWords Keyword Tool• Google Trends• YouTube Keyword Tool• Keyword Spy2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 22

2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 23

What is Google Analytics? • Free, easy-to-use web analytics tool • Provides reports showing how visitors found your website, and what they did when they got there • Measures the effectiveness of your online and offline marketing campaigns • You STILL may need to build a Marketing ROI Dashboard to integrate offline channels!!! www.google.com/analytics2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 24

What Answers Can Google Analytics Provide? Where are visitors coming from?What keywords did they use? Am I creatingeffective content?Where are visitors abandoning my shopping cart? How can I improve site interaction?2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 25 26

Set goals and track performance

Multi Channel Funnels – Tracking the Marketing Mix2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 27

Using AdWords for Keywords • How does Google make 98% of its revenue? – PPC • Google’s AdWords will show you how Google evaluates your site for Paid Advertising2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 28

Image copyright: public domain2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 29

Research – Body Text here – Body Text here – This is a test – 123 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 30

Focus Rumplestiltskin Big Bad Wolf Cinderella Sleeping Beauty Mother Goose2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 32

Google Trends for Search View what the world is searching for and gain insights for your business2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 33

Applying Trends to Predict Product Sales• Compare interest between states or regions: o What type of jeans should a Wyoming retailer stock? o What about Oklahoma?2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 34

Google Suggest What people are searching for on Google• Drops down a list of suggestions as you type• People are asking Google..2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 35

How to Use Google Suggest• Type s-l-o-w-l-y, pay attention, be creative• Keep typing letter by letter and the suggestions will change• Try it signed out o Google pulls from your history (if signed in) and other users, indexed sites and ads.• Great way to get ideas to expand your topical relevance, attract new relevant traffic and consider paid ads• Write down the ideas and run them through the Google AdWords keyword research tool o Experiment by checking “Don’t show ideas for new keywords”o Compare the results, take them to Google Trendso Watch Suggest for reputation management purposesResources• How Google’s “Search Suggest” Works Video2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 36

Short Head – Long TailBeastMythical Beast Mythical New York Beast Mythical New York Subway Beast 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 37

Think in Neighborhoods2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 38

Checkout Competition2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 39

Recap of Keyword Research• Start with your site’s analytics• Study your internal site search• Play with Google Suggest• Get search volume and competition data from AdWords• Check and compare key phrase performance over time in Google Trends• Map out your site and document your keyword strategy• Use the long tail• Pay close attention to related terms and synonyms2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 40

Advanced On-page Optimization (1)• Search engines rank pages also factoring o usability, o social signals, o site authority, o user interaction with the site, o speed, etc.• Google factors in UX (User Experience) o Running a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) program will help focus on UX2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 41

Advanced On-page Optimization (2)• Research, benchmark, compare to competitors, plan goals, prioritize• Continue on-page optimization best practices!• Use semantically related words and synonyms• Get UGC (user generated content) like reviews, comments, etc.• Enable and encourage social sharing2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 42

Advanced on-page optimization (3)• Use Schema (more on this later)• Pay attention to your entire site’s theme• Create and publish awesome content on a regular basis• Make sure your site is structured well around your audience’s needs and your important pages• Use CRO to improve site performance and UX• Ensure your site was built with clean code, is fast, accessible, content is indexable2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 43

Doing Things the Right Way2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 44

Spiders read the HTML <HTML> </HTML>2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 45

Organized HTML is Important! <HTML> <head> </head> <body> </body> </HTML>2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 46

Dual view of code/SERP <HTML> <head> <Title> My Title </Title> <Meta Name=“Description” Content=“This is my page”> <Meta Name=“Keywords” Content=“this, that, other”> </head>2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 47

<h1>My Top Header</h1> <p>A bunch of paragraph text</p> <h2>A Secondary Header</h2> <p>And a lot more paragraph text</p> <h3>A Tertiary Header</h3> <p>And perhaps some more text</p> <p>A List:</p> <ul> <li>A list item</li> <li>Another list item</li> <li>Yet another list item</li> </ul> <p>And this is a <a href="http://mylink.com">LINK </a></p>2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 48

Schema.org• Structured data o Helps search engines understand data & provide better search results• Major search engines need and support it• Enhanced search display – stand out• Sites are already benefiting from it• Events, products, recipes, reviews, videos, etc.• Go through the list and use what applies to your site• Tag your data• Test your code, preview your snippetResources• Schema.org - Full Hierarchy• Schema.orgs FAQ and blog• Structured Data Testing Tool 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 49

Recap of On-page Optimization• Research, benchmark, plan• Make sure your site is accessible to spiders, loads fast, is well structured and coded• Keep your site’s theme focused• Follow traditional on-page optimization best practices: title, description, headers, copy, images, link out to high authority relevant sites, cross linking, URLs, call to action, etc.• Do not over-optimize pages, links• Use natural language: synonyms, related, relevant terms, stemming variations, singular/plural, etc.• Use Schema• Get UGC• Get social2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 50

Resources & ToolsTools• Webmaster Tools• Google Analytics• Google AdWords Keyword Tool• YouTube Keyword ToolBlogs• DragonSearch Marketology Blog• SEOmoz – Blog and community• Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s Webspam team• Search Engine Land – News, insights2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 51

Advanced Off-site Factors• If you build it they will not come• Unless you are the only one in the world with your unique content• We turn to off-site factors in SEO in this next section2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 52

Advanced Off-site Factors• Off-site begins with “real”, great content• Get your great content in front of the target audience• Where are they?• Do real life stuff o Get involved with on and offline communities, sponsor, donate, help, etc.• Be a guest author2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 53

The Back Link Portfolio Link building changed but is still very important High Special Sites Easy Difficult Low Directories2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 54

Not All Links are Equal2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 55

Why Links Are Important• Links to your pages confer authority and relevancy to that page• The more important the page linking to you, the more beneficial for you• The more relevant the page linking to you is, the better• The more relevant the wording that people use to link to your site, the better2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 56

Why Links Are Important To Google• Links tell Google what a website is about• What keywords are relevant to your site• How important your site is• Where your site is• What content niche the site occupies – what the context of your site is2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 57

Old School vs. New School SEO OLD SCHOOL NEW SCHOOL SHORT HAND OPTIMIZATION BROADER LONG TAIL Fueled BACKLINKS Reciprocal Linking RELATIONSHIPS by Social RELEVANT CONNECTIONS Media RELEVANT CONNECTIONS2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 58

Google Webmaster Tools2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 59

How to Evaluate the Health of Your Backlink Portfolio• Walk-through SEOMOZ’s OpenSitExplorer.org• A tool to evaluate your own site and your competition 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 60

How to Assess the Strength of Your Competitor Backlinks• We continue our walk-through SEOMOZ’s Open Sit Explorer to take a closer look at competitive back- links2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 65

Review Linking Domains & Anchor Text2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 66

Local• On-page o Local signals - Address, local phone, geographical relevance, etc. o Traditional SEO best practices – geo-modified• Off-site o Local links, listings, maps, proper categories, etc. o NAP – name, address, phone number consistency o Google+ - verification, accurate category, local address and phone number o Who is ranking for your terms? o What are they doing? o How can you be on their site?• Reviews• Ratings• Citations• Social mentionsResources• 2012 Local Search Ranking Factors• Glossary of Local Search Terms and Definitions2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 67

Google Panda & Penguin• We focus on the big two named changes, but, Google has fundamentally changed how they index the web. Wake up and pay attention! 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 68

Google Panda Updates• First released February 23, 2011• Panda #24 released January 22, 2013• Target: thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratios, quality, authority, trust, integrates user signals2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 69

Panda – What Do I Do?• Vision for your company and content. Differentiate yourself.• Create awesome, unique content. Good content is not good enough.• Remove duplicate content• Remove low quality pages• Improve or merge shallow content into high-quality content• Low quality content will affect the high quality pages and the entire site’s rankings• Strategic cross linking strategy• Stop chasing the algorithm & focus on the user and long term business development – do #RCS: real company stuffResources:• Google’s guidance on building high-quality sites• Panda Update News• Google Panda Update, One Year Later, Infographic2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 70

Google Penguin Updates • First released April 24, 2012 • Penguin #3 released October 5, 2012 • Target: webspam, link schemes, over optimized anchor text, keyword stuffing, cloaking, low quality content2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 71

Penguin – What Do I Do? • Did your traffic drop right after 4/24/12? Hit. • Did your traffic increase? Benefited. • Clean up on-page spam • Remove spammy links – also check for WordPress plug-ins that may insert hidden links • Don’t stuff keywords in your anchor text for both internal and external links • Only use the Disavow Tool if you have to • Diversify and build high-quality, relevant links • Get social media love Resources • Report errors if you think you were penalized by mistake • Google’s Disavow Links Tool – To Use or Not to Use? • Link Building Strategies of Yosemite Sam Meet Google’s Disavow Tool • Penguin Recovery During Panda Update Case Study • Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 72

Do Not Do This! Please! Resources • Google’s Link Schemes Guidelines2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 73

Panda <3 PenguinWhy I think they got married• Target spam, link scheme• Low quality content, keyword stuffing• Low quality links• Authority, trust• Social signals• Moving towards quality, unique content & authorship2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 74

Other Updates• June 2010 - Caffeine rollout o Index freshness: nearly real time crawling and indexing o Set the stage for Panda and Penguin• May 2010 – Mayday; returning quality results for long-tail queries• February 2011 – Panda• April 2012 – Penguin• May 2012 - Knowledge Graph• August 2012— 7-Result SERPs• September 2012 – Exact Match Domain UpdateResources• Keyword Rich Domain Names – Should You Invest?• 7 Is The New 10? Google Showing Fewer Results & More From Same Domain• Search quality highlights: 65 changes for August and September2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 75

How Do I Deal with Constant Updates?• They are here to stay and more is coming• Panda/Penguin changed the way many businesses approach online marketing• Understand your niche and audience; set yourself apart• Focus on doing real business development = be update proof• Google will crush algorithm manipulation efforts• Have a multi pronged approach2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 76

Overcoming CMS Problems• Wordpress example using an SEO Plug-in as a best practice2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 77

Not All CMS’s are Created Equal• Open Source platforms like WordPress typically have a wider variety of options• SEO is critical to your website being found and therefore your business results• You may want to consider a platform move before investing a lot of time into site optimization…2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 83

SEO & Social Media• “The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.” Bob Dylan• SEO & Social are merging in ways no-one can accurately predict, however…2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 84

Evidence of Social Influence• 71% to 83% of people Social Influence on Purchasing use “Reviews” to influence purchase 17% decisions Does not use Uses Online Reviews 83%• 80% will change a decision based on negative reviews 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 85

Why Does Social Add so Much Value? Revenue per Order % Difference Social/Others $ 280.00 107% Social Primary $ 249.08 84% Paid/Org $ 230.07 70% Display $ 206.00 52% Organic $ 135.37• A study of 56 billion impressions, 2.7 billion clicks and $13 billion in revenue concludes that inclusion of Social Media increases revenue 84% over natural search alone.2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 86

What it looks like

McGinnis Example

McGinnis logged out

Virtuous Circle of Social Media for SEO

Enterprise Level Social Monitoring2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 91

Sysomos2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 92

Illustration from Ric Dragon’s Social Marketology book

How Do I Measure Success? • Install Google Analytics • Set up goals • Set up Google and Bing Webmaster Tools • Your goal is not to RANK! • Increase in visitors to the site • Bounce rate • Visit length • Number of pages visited • Engagement and sharing • Comments, reviews, social sharing and mentions • Conversions • Sales, form submissions, leads, phone calls, etc. • Measure, tweak, test Resources • Website Search Engine Rankings Got You Down? Stop the Insanity!2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 94

The Future is?2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 95

The Future• Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful• What Google believes: o #1: Focus on the user and all else will follow. o Knowledge Graph - "the semantic web", the system that has understanding as well as data o Moving from an information engine to a knowledge engine• The only constant is change• Information will come to you• Personalization, studying user behavior• Adapt early• Diversify your marketing efforts; don’t rely on Google only• … It may not be Google2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 96

Q & A!Any and all questions entertained!Josepf Haslam, Etela Ivkovic | DragonSearch.net/blogJosepf@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @JosepfEtela@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Etela 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 97

Appendix - Useful Links and Resources• DragonSearch’s blog• Josepf’s Scoop.it and Josepf’s Pinterest• Keyword Rich Domain Names – Should You Invest?• 7 Is The New 10? Google Showing Fewer Results & More From Same Domain• Search quality highlights: 65 changes for August and September• Report errors if you think you were penalized by mistake• Google’s Disavow Links Tool – To Use or Not to Use?• Link Building Strategies of Yosemite Sam Meet Google’s Disavow Tool• Penguin Recovery During Panda Update Case Study• Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study• Google’s Link Schemes Guidelines• Website Search Engine Rankings Got You Down? Stop the Insanity!• Google’s guidance on building high-quality sites• Panda Update News• Google Panda Update, One Year Later, Infographic• Schema.org - Full Hierarchy• Schema.orgs FAQ and blog• Structured Data Testing Tool2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 98

More Resources & ToolsTools• Webmaster Tools• Google Analytics• Google AdWords Keyword Tool• YouTube Keyword ToolBlogs• DragonSearch Marketology Blog• SEOmoz – Blog and community• Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s Webspam team• Search Engine Land – News, insights2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 99

Thank You! Social Marketology book Available on Amazon!Josepf Haslam, Etela Ivkovic | DragonSearch.net/blogJosepf@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Josepf, Google+: +JosepfEtela@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Etela, Google+: +Etela 2/19/2013 DRAGONSEARCH MARKETING I February 2013 102

http://www.conseilsmarketing.com	75
https://twitter.com	34
http://eventifier.co	13
http://pinterest.com	6
http://www.linkedin.com	3
http://tweets.seocmo.com	1
http://www.twylah.com	1

Advanced SEO Workshop presented to Webgrrls by Josepf Haslam & Etela Ivkovic DragonSearch

by Josepf Haslam on Feb 19, 2013

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

7 Embeds 133

Statistics

Advanced SEO Workshop presented to Webgrrls by Josepf Haslam & Etela Ivkovic DragonSearch Presentation Transcript