SEO Basics

1. SEO Basics: Keys to Search Engine Success

2. pam@pamannmarketing.com Agenda  What SEO Means  How Search Engines Work  The Basics of a Successful SEO Strategy  What to Expect  ThingsYou Can Do Right Now to IncreaseYour Exposure in Search Engines  SEOTrends toWatch

3. pam@pamannmarketing.com Download Slides pamannmarketing.com/slides/

4. pam@pamannmarketing.com

5. pam@pamannmarketing.com What “SEO” Means SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of influencing search engines to rank your content high in search results..

6. pam@pamannmarketing.com What “SEO” Means …influencing search engines… 1. Apply a set of educated guesses 2. Test and measure results 3. Rinse, repeat.

8. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  Search engines just want to give users the information they need.  Therefore, they just want you to provide good/useful/helpful content. How Search Engines Work: The Basics

9. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  Google does data entry with your website  They extract a copy of your site’s text and code and put it into their own database  This is called “indexing”

10. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work

11. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  Their copy is what gets searched against when a user enters a search

12. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  To determine position in results, sites are ranked according to a set of algorithms (“if this, then that” conditions)

13. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  There are over 200 known ranking factors that Google looks at  They can all be lumped into 3 categories

14. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  Search engines need to understand your content.  Things that help them do that:  A good content management system (CMS) like WordPress  A fast–loading site  A mobile-friendly site Technical: The Basics

15. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work Content: The Basics  Using the same keywords people are searching with  Using those keywords naturally and logically  Well-organized content  Fresh (new) content added on a regular basis  User-friendly navigation, linking similar pages to each other

16. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work  Getting reputable & relevant websites to link to yours and talk about your brand.  Building up social media “signals” that indicate real people are liking and sharing your content.  (For local businesses) Creating accurate local listings in sites like SuperPages,YellowPages, WhitePages,Yelp, etc. Off Page: The Basics

17. pam@pamannmarketing.com How Search Engines Work Without getting into further detail, if you simply: ▪ Have a good CMS, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly site ▪ Use keywords logically and naturally ▪ Organize your content well and add to it often ▪ Get other brands and people to talk about your brand ▪ List accurate information in “online phone book” directories You will get more search engine traffic. Summary: The Basics

19. pam@pamannmarketing.com What to Expect SEO Takes Time. • You may see some immediate improvement, but overall SEO takes a lot of time and commitment to really work.

20. pam@pamannmarketing.com What to Expect SEO is an ONGOING Strategy. • There areTHOUSANDS of algorithm updates each year. Google will always want you to do at least a few new things to your site each year. • Adding new/fresh content can never stop. It’s like putting gas in your car.Without gas, it doesn’t go.Without new/fresh content, your SEO efforts won’t fully work. • It’s partially guesswork. You have to test and measure constantly, and keep doing more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

21. pam@pamannmarketing.com What to Expect You Will Need Resources. SEO works best when a company has the following resources in place: • An SEO expert or agency • A good web developer/designer • A great copywriter • A public relations agency and/or a great social media agency • Funds for all of the above That being said, you can make great strides on your own if you have the time to learn and do the work yourself, and at least some small funds for coaching/training.

23. pam@pamannmarketing.com Things to do NOW  Set up Search Console  Subscribe to email notifications  Start blogging (on your own site)  Share (and boost) your great content on social  Sign up for HARO  For local businesses…  Claim/optimize Google My Business listing  Build/correct other “online phone book” listings

25. pam@pamannmarketing.com Things to NEVER do  “Stuff” keywords into your content  Create lots of similar pages with boilerplate copy  Create orphaned/doorway pages  Use hidden text  Hyperlink tons of keywords  Buy links (NEVEREVEREVEREVER do this!)

27. pam@pamannmarketing.com Trends to Watch  Mobile, Mobile, Mobile!  Google is getting pickier and pickier about how well sites perform on mobile, and is moving sites to a “mobile-first index.”  Test your site frequently with Google’s mobile-friendly tools.  Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)  At first, this was important only for news sites & large blogs, butAMP pages are now found throughout all types of search results.  Speed  Google cares about this more than ever.We have seen direct correlations between site load time and rankings, and the “Speed Update” is coming in July 2018. 2018 SEO Trends to Watch

28. pam@pamannmarketing.com Trends to Watch  Better Ads Standards  NO pop-ups!There is now a specific SEO penalty for this on mobile. Keep an eye on https://www.betterads.org/standards/ for new developments.  Security (https)  As of July 2018, Google will show warnings on forms that appear on non-https sites. 2018 SEO Trends to Watch

30. pam@pamannmarketing.com Recap  What SEO Means  Art & science of *influencing* position in search engines  How Search Engines Work  Sites ranked based upon 200+ factors in 3 categories: Technical, Content, Off Page  Successful SEO Strategy  Good CMS, fast-loading, mobile- friendly site  Use keywords logically and naturally  Organize your content well and add to it often  Get other brands and people to talk about your brand  List accurate information in “online phone book” directories  Things to do NOW  Set up Search Console  Start blogging & promote on social!  Things to NEVER do  Buy links!  Try too hard (stuff keywords, etc.)  SEOTrends to Watch  Mobile, AMP, Speed, Ads Standards, HTTPS  Go Beyond the Basics  Work with an SEO expert or agency  Hire good web developer, copywriter, PR, and social experts  Get coaching if going at it on your own

31. Download this slide deck at pamannmarketing.com/slides/

SEO Basics

SEO Basics

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