It's Not Magic - It's SEO

IT’S NOT MAGIC —  
IT’S SEO.
MinneWebCon 2017
Amy Dalrymple • @pork_chop

Amy Dalrymple • @pork_chop MinneWebCon 2017 • #NotMagicSEO
WHAT IS SEO?

SEO IS ABOUT MORE
THAN JUST WORDS.

CONSIDER ALL USERS.

BLIND USERS
youtu.be/ZZxr0snTp0k

www.checkmycolours.com
LOW-VISION USERS
1. Macular Degeneration: 
Central area of sight is “blocked.”
2. Glaucoma: 
Loss of peripheral vision, sometimes
overall blurriness.
3. Diabetic Retinopathy: 
Dark “patches” in ﬁeld of vision.
4. Cataract: 
Blurred or hazy vision
webaim.org/articles/visual/lowvision

www.hemingwayapp.com
LOW-LEVEL READERS
Ernest Hemingway's work scores as
low 5th grade, despite his adult
audience.What our measurement
actually gauges is the lowest
education needed to understand
your prose. Studies have shown the
average American reads at a tenth-
grade level — so that's a good
target.”
www.hemingwayapp.com/help.html
“

➤ The 5 Second Test
➤ Humans have a shorter attention span than
goldﬁsh, often not even waiting for a webpage
to completely load before deciding whether it’s
a reliable resource or not. 
➤ Scannable Content
➤ Website users rarely read a whole content
block, but look for visual clues to make
decisions and are likely to select the ﬁrst best-
looking option.
IMPATIENT MUGGLES
www.fivesecondtest.com

USE INTUITIVE LINK TEXT.

click here.
YOU ARE MORE CREATIVE THAN

LINK TO INTERNAL CONTENT.
www.pottermore.com/features/pottermore-luna-lovegood-infographic
www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/garrick-ollivander
www.pottermore.com/image/inside-moodys-classroom
www.pottermore.com/features/13-moments-that-prove-luna-is-as-sane-as-you-or-i
www.pottermore.com/news/newt-scamanders-brother-theseus-to-appear...
www.pottermore.com/features/the-forbidden-forest-quiz

…[Google is]
including a new
signal in our search
ranking algorithms:  
site speed.”
LOAD IT QUICKLY.
developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
“
webmasters.googleblog.com/2010/04/...
As of 2010…

SECRETS FOR SPEED
➤ Minify CSS, JS, and HTML ﬁles
➤ Optimize image ﬁles
➤ Reduce page redirects
➤ Enable browser caching
➤ Use a content delivery network (CDN)

HOW DOES IT  
LOOK ON MOBILE?

search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly

CONSIDER ALL ROBOTS.
(…or bots, spiders, crawlers, etc.)

“
Google will…use the meta description of a page in
search results snippets, if…it gives users a more
accurate description than would be possible purely
from the on-page content. … Wherever possible,
create descriptions that accurately describe the
speciﬁc page.”
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624

WHAT’S IN THE META DATA?
<head>
<title>6 reasons to get excited if you’re sorted into Ravenclaw -
Pottermore</title>
<meta name="description" content="6 reasons to get excited if you’re sorted
into Ravenclaw" />
</head>
<body>
<p>Ravenclaw is the house that champions those with a ‘ready mind’, yet it
has lived a little in Gryffindor's shadow. But there’s a lot more to
Ravenclaw than its reputation for intelligence. Here’s why… </p>
</body>

WHAT’S IN THE META DATA?
<head>
<title>6 reasons to get excited
if you’re sorted into Ravenclaw -
Pottermore</title>
<meta name="description"
content="There’s a lot more to
Ravenclaw than its reputation for
intelligence. Find out why it’s
good news to be sorted into
Ravenclaw House.” />
</head>
MAXIMIZE SEARCH RESULTS.
www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html

USE CUSTOM META TAGS FOR SOCIAL CHANNELS.
Not Customized Customized

BE HYPER-RELEVANT.
within URL
within primary title  
on page
within ﬁrst paragraph 
of main content
continued throughout 
page content

WHAT ARE YOUR FILES NAMED?
Crookshanks_FH.png
hermione-crookshanks-cat.jpg
WB_F3_Crookshanks_HermioneWithCrookshanks_C240_51_UP_HPE3.jpg

“
Consider using punctuation in your URLs. The
URL http://www.example.com/green-
dress.html is much more useful to us than
http://www.example.com/greendress.html.
We recommend that you use hyphens (-)
instead of underscores (_) in your URLs.
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329

ALWAYS ASSIGN “ALT TEXT.”
<img src=“spectrespecs.jpg”
alt=“Luna Lovegood’s Spectrespecs”
title=“Spectrespecs help you see wrackspurts.”>

“
When you take away the colors, the fonts,  
the kerning, the graphics, the images, and  
the white space, good site design is really
about a great structure.”
blog.kissmetrics.com/site-structure-enhance-seo/

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
GOOGLE’S TOOLS.

GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER
➤ Come up with ideas for keywords related to
your subject area.
➤ Get insight into how those keywords might
perform compared to others that are related.
➤ Insert keywords you’re already using to ﬁnd
new, related keywords that are being used in
searches
INVESTIGATE THE COMPETITION.
adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
➤ Google Keyword Planner

➤ Best Options:
➤ low/medium competition
➤ higher average monthly searches
➤ Insert the main keyword(s) into your
URL (or permalink).
➤ Use the main keyword(s) in image’s ﬁle
name.
➤ Repeat keyword(s) within your
webpage’s titles, primary content, and
links.
OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT.

SEE HOW YOU’RE BEING FOUND.
www.google.com/webmasters

ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder
TRACK INCOMING CLICKS.
➤ Campaign URL Builder
➤ Clearly track metrics for online campaigns in
Google Analytics
➤ Convert long URL strings into short easy-to-
share URLs with a service such as bit.ly

DRIVE TRAFFIC FROM
SOCIAL CHANNELS.

QUESTIONS?

MISCHIEF MANAGED.
(Thank you for joining me today!)
Amy Dalrymple • @pork_chop

It's Not Magic - It's SEO

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