1. The document discusses the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for businesses, including keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, local SEO, structured data, mobile SEO, and blogging. 2. It emphasizes that domain authority, keyword usage, on-page factors, web design, and social media impact SEO rankings to varying degrees, with domain authority and keyword usage being most important. 3. The document provides tips for each SEO strategy and explains how implementing all of the strategies can maximize a business's search visibility.

1. Scott Pierson

2. 2 million Google searches per second

3. 93% of online experiences begin
with a search engine
85% of users never scroll past the
first page of search results
70% of “search clicks” are organic

4. Anatomy of Search
Page Title →
Keyword →
Snippet →
URL →
Notice Bolding →

5. #1 position -- 18% of organic clicks
#2 position -- 10% of organic clicks
#3 position -- 7% of organic clicks
Eye Tracking Study

6. SEO leads -- 14.6% close rate
Vs.
Direct mail or print ads -- 1.7% close rate

7. What does SEO do?
Brand Visibility
Traffic
Rankings
Domain Authority

8. SEO Case Study

9. SEO Ranking Determinants by Importance
1. Domain Authority (Content & Content
Marketing, Link Building)
2. Keyword Usage (Research, Relevance,
Competition, Intent)
3. On-Page Optimization
4. Web Design / UX / Time on Site /
Conversion metrics
5. Social Media

10. Without a Compelling
SEO Strategy

11. With the right
SEO Strategy!

12. • Who is your most important searcher?
• What does your best prospect search for?
• What does he/she need to excel at her
job?
• What is the expertise you hold that, if
found, would be very much appreciated?
• What’s your differentiator?
• How do your answers become
incorporated into your Value Proposition?
1. What does your company create that
solves searcher’s questions or problems?

13. 2. What is the unique value you
provide that no one else does?
• How are you 10-times better than the closest
competitor?
= uniqueness & value in content
Earns amplification
Earns Links (Domain Authority)
Earns shares
Earns higher rankings

14. • Customers? Fans? Followers?
• Who influences your target market?
• Where do they hangout?
• Press, top bloggers, social media sharers,
top blog followers, event reviewers
• Find! Engage! Make them a fan!
3. Who’s going to amplify your message
and why will they do it?

15. 4. What is your process for turning
visitors from search (or elsewhere) into
customers?

16. Conversion Tactics
• Event Registrations
• Email sign-ups
• White Paper Downloads
• Unique 3-Question Surveys
• Contests
• Hundreds of others!

17. 5. How do you expose what you do that
provides value in a way that engines can easily
crawl, index, understand and show it off?
Enter Classic SEO Best Practices
• Compelling, On-topic Content
• Keyword Research
• On-page Optimization
• Local SEO
• Rich Snippets, Structured Markup
• Link Building
• Blogging

18. What does SSMFC have to do to make
themselves visible (in search) as a tourist
destination throughout the U.S.A.?

19. The museum is a leading destination for schools, groups and families
all over the U.S.A.
What are the top SEO Challenges for Stepping Stones?
Which of the following SEO components should be implemented in
order to maximize their search visibility?
• Organic SEO
• Local SEO
• Link Building
• Structured markup
• Keyword Research
• On-page Optimization
• Mobile SEO
• Blogging

20. Answer: All of the above
• Keyword Research
• On-page Optimization
• Link Building
• Local SEO
• Structured markup aka rich snippets (schema.org)
• Mobile SEO
• Blogging
Why?

21. Let’s say a family in Seattle is planning a trip to Norwalk. They search the
web for the top destinations for their kids. Stepping Stones has to know
what the top search terms are involving children oriented venues that
would be used by this family.
#1 Keyword Research
fun things to do in ct 1900 Low (Adwords Keyword Planner)
things to do in ct 8100 Low
museums in ct 1000 Low
places to visit in ct 550 Low
things to do with kids in ct 480 Low
attractions in ct 480 Low
kid activities in ct 140 Medium
12,650!!

22. Rule of Some vs. None
lawn care 1,900 High
vs.
grounds maintenance 30 Low

23. This keyword research dictates the pages and their
content that can drive the more visitors.
A new page for: things to do in ct
#2 On-page optimization
What we can do to maximize the chance that Google
ranks it highly when the term is searched?

24. On-page Best Practices
How to create a page for “things to do in ct”
#1 Content on the page
– Write excellent, compelling and unique content!
– Sites (domains) don’t rank. Pages rank. Domains develop
authority.
– Google recommends 300 to 800 words/page. Minimum 250
– Keyword should appear naturally 2-3 times.
– Use Headlines <h1> tags, Bolding and Italics (gives Google
hints)
– Each page should also be dotted naturally with synonyms of
the keyword.

25. On-page Best Practices
#2 Title Tag
things to do in ct | Stepping Stones Museum for Children
things to do in ct | Stepping Stones | museums in ct
– 50-60 characters, or 512 pixels wide - the limit Google
displays Appears in Top of Browser, Top line of Search
Results
– No duplicate title tags!

26. On-page Best Practices
• Not important to search engine rankings
• Definition: accurate description of a page – uses KEYWORD
• Extremely important in gaining user click-through from search engine result
pages – Winning the Click
• Optimally be between 150 -156 characters
• No quotes, No duplicates, Phone numbers okay
• Sometimes wiser not to write Meta Descriptions when page is targeting
longtail (3+) keywords, let SE display most relevant text
• Looking for some great things to do in CT this weekend? Come see the
top-rated interactive science museum for children in Norwalk, CT! Give us a
call today!
#3 Meta Description Tag

27. On-page Best Practices
#4 = Alt Tag
– Alt Text tells Google what each image is all about
– Alt Text is for images what Keywords are for pages
– Without Alt Tags, Google does not know what it is
– Helps SEO to label Alt Tag with the page’s keyword
#5 = URL

28. Stepping Stones also knows that they are not the only
destination for children in the region. The Norwalk
Aquarium is nearby, Mystic Seaport Aquarium is drive-
able along with a host of other museums, zoos and kid-
friendly activities. So they must build their external
links which act as positive citations and raise their
Domain Authority to rank well on highly competitive
keywords.
#3 Link Building
• Publishing Great Content that gets linked to
• From many Authoritative Websites
• Raises Domain Authority
• Increases rankings on very competitive keywords

29. Link Building
External Links

30. When on-page optimization is equal among
top competitors, the count of external links
coming from high-authority and relevant sites,
bloggers, media, social media, etc. is the most
important ranking determinant in the
algorithms to move organic rankings higher.
DA of 15 to 25 common.

32. Each link to a page is like a vote and the page
with the most votes usually wins.
The goal is to amass positive citations across
the web from high value, industry-related
authorities.
Yours only has to be higher than your top
competitors!

33. A Link is NOT a Link
How links are valued by search engines
Low value links:
Anchor text “Click here” found on an unrelated
site of low authority and trust, low on the page
with unrelated surrounding content.
High Value Links:
Anchor Text “
Kayak Personal Floatation Device”
pointing directly to your product page
optimized for that same keyword from a high
authority kayaking industry web site, high on
the page and surrounded by related content
and few other links.

35. Uniquely Valuable Content
• Epic writing!
• Original (never before seen)
• Relevant (on topic to search intent)
• Great User Experience (UX) (On any device)
• Uniquely Valuable – meets one of two criteria
= Content Marketing

36. Content that has Unique Value
• 1. “Wow! I’ve seen this before but never
like this! (A unique presentation/design of the data, ex: niice.co)
• 2. “Wow! Without this site, I would have
never have found this answer! What an
incredible resource! (available nowhere else, ex:
walkscore.com
= Linkable, Sharable, Buzzable, Rankable

37. Linkable Assets Library

38. Linkable Assets
• Linkable Assets: Content characterized by a high
degree of practical utility or emotional engagement.
Attract links over time due the innovative ideas they
offer.
• Bad Linkbait: Content that attracts links without adding
additional value. Often rehashes the work of others,
without creating anything new.

39. Categories of Linkable Assets
• Top Ten lists
• Infographics
• Guides or How to’s
• Apps & Online Tools
• Thought Leadership
• Sponsorships
• Awards
• Surveys
• Partnerships
• Video Tutorials
• Humorous Videos
• White papers
• Glossary of terms
• Checklists
• Info-animations
• Games
• Top 10 resources in your
industry
• Cartoons
• Event Coverage
• Interviews
• Expose’s
• Quizzes/Tests
• Incentive Contests

40. Competitive Research
Tools to perform a competitor analysis by reverse
engineering the tactics that they used to produce valuable
links.
Expensive: Covario, BrightEdge and Conductor in the
$10,000 per month range.
Inexpensive: Moz’s Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO
and Ahrefs - $80/month range.

41. Competitive Research
Answers questions like…
• What pages on their site are attracting the most links?
• What link partnerships do they have with media, bloggers, etc?
• Who they are getting their links from?
• What content is on their site?
• What types of content do they use? Video, articles, blogs, news, etc.
• How do they use their content to attract links?
• Are their links the result of PR campaigns or are they aggressively
reaching out to potential linkers by contacting them directly?

42. Samuel Scott on Link Building…
“I now advocate that no one do anything with the primary
purpose of “getting links." Rather, do the great content,
promote it on social media, and the links will
come naturally, indirectly, and organically. You are
earning them and not building them. One of these links
are worth ten of the others.”

43. Stepping Stones also knows that there are plenty of local
parents who will want to find Stepping Stones in the local
“map pack,” so Local SEO is also key.
#4 Local SEO
= Being listed in Local Results “Map Packs”

44. Local SEO – “Map Pack”

45. Local SEO #2

47. 2findlocal
8coupons
ABLocal
About.me
Acxion
Allconnect
AmericanTowns.com
ameripriseadvisors.com
AngiesList
Avantar
Avvo.com
BBB
Behance
BestofWeb
Bing
ChamberofCommerce.com
Citybot
Citymaps
CitySearch
CitySquares
Comcast
CoPilot
Crunchbase
Delicious
DexKnows
eLocal
EZlocal
Factual
Facebook
findthebest.com
Foursquare
GetFave
Github.
Goggle+
GoLocal247
Google+ Page Verified
Google Local Business
Google Profile
Hg.org
Hotfrog
Indeed
InfoGroup
Kred Story
LinkedIn
Local Yahoo
Local.com
Localeze
LocalDatabase
LocalPages
Manta
MapQuest
Merchant Circle
MetroPCS
MojoPages
Navmii
Opendi
Nolo.com
PennySaver
Pocketly
Pointcom
Quora
recmnd.me
Scribd
HomeAdvisor
ShowMeLocal
Simplyhired
SlideShare
Smarterer
Stack Exchange
SuperPages
Surfglobal.net
Topix
Tripadvisor
Trunk.ly
TrustCloud
Tupalo
Urbanspoon
USCity.net
VoteForTheBest
WhitePages
YaSabe
Yellow Pages
YellowBook
YellowBot
Yellowise
YellowMoxie
YellowPageCity.com
YellowPagesGoesGreen
Yelp
YouTube
Yahoo Local

48. 10 Steps to Local SEO Listings
1. Create an $84 Moz.com Local account
2. Go to https://moz.com/local/help/documentation
3. Download the template CSV file to describe your business
4. Take your time to fill in all the appropriate information
5. Research the most correct “category” for your business (Moz)
6. Create a personal Google+ account
7. Go to Google My Business (GMB) and enter the exact info that
you used in the template.
8. Google will validate your listing by sending you a snail mail letter
with a “code” to enter at GMB.
9. Upload the template into Moz Local
10. Moz will send your biz info to all the top “aggregators” which in
turn send it on to

49. Stepping Stones has many unique events that the search
engines and others can pick up and publicize if their website is
“marked up” using structured data.
#5 Structured Data
= more detailed information in SERPs about 8 content categories
Schema.org

50. Rich Snippets
• Events People Products Recipes
• Articles Videos Software Apps Reviews
Higher Click-through rates!

51. Stepping Stones has hundreds, even thousands of additional
keywords and long-tail keywords that can increase their search
result visibility.
#6 Blogging
Each blog post is a page!
Can rank just like a page!
Optimize just like a page!
Many keyword volumes can drastically increase your site’s traffic!

52. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages.
Companies with more indexed pages get far more leads.

53. Blogging
Benefits
1. Your writing should follow your passion
2. Blog posts are pages that rank independently. Over time,
ALL of your most relevant KEYWORDS can increase
overall traffic and leads.
3. Blog posts can be automatically posted to Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS feeds.
4. 80 / 20 Rule: Blogs can send curated content you deem
important. (give credit or link to the source)
5. Tools to find the best content for your niche are:
Paper.li roojoom.com feedli
Redux BagTheWeb Klout

54. Stepping Stones knows that ALL of their content must be
displayed differently on different devices, especially smart
phones.
#7 Mobile SEO
Responsive Design
Mobilegeddon is here!
Mobile Friendly = Higher Rankings

55. • 125 million smartphone owners in the US
• 30 billion mobile searches annually in the US
• 60 percent of Internet access is made on a mobile device
Analyst: Mobile to overtake PC on Local Search By 2015
61 percent of mobile searches culminate in a phone call…
47 percent of mobile searchers will explore other options if a brand
does not have a attached to its search results…

56. Typical Real-world Example
Pest Control Company, DA 20, 19 EL, 101 pages
• Competitor #1 DA 26, 225 EL
• Competitor #2 DA 26, 58 EL
• Competitor #3 DA 25, 47 EL
• Competitor #4 DA 23, 27 EL
Biggest On-page Offenders
• No Keyword Research
• Not ranking on critical keywords for industry niche because
absence of pages/keywords.
• 86% of traffic is coming from brand name.
• On-page optimization missing on all 101 indexed pages.
• No address on website. No Local SEO. No ratings.

57. Typical Real-world Example
Missing the opportunity to be
found in search rankings
over 178,000 times/mo
because of missing
keywords:
New Keyword Avg. Monthly US
pest control 60500
exterminator 33100
tick removal 12100
bed bugs treatment 9900
termite treatment 8100
termite inspection 8100
how to get rid of bees 6600
mosquito control 6600
bee removal 4400
flea control 4400
fruit fly infestation 3600
rodent control 3600

59. Social Media for Business
• Why is SM last on the ranking determinant list?
• Should you be using it? Absolutely!
• Branding, exposure, new followers, FB shares, Likes,
+1s, retweets, etc. All good!...
These things do correlate with good SEO rankings.
But, do these things CAUSE higher rankings? No.

60. Social Media for Business
So, can Social Media Indirectly help SEO?
YES!
• Social Media can become your #1 most effective link
building tactic.
• If used as a networking tool to build relationships with
high-authority creators of content that can lead to
external links that drive SEO.

61. Additional SEO factors in Web Design
• Internal Link Structure -- interlink all your posts to have better on-
page SEO and finally an improved domain authority.
• Don’t use images as navigation buttons or to hold text
• Simple URL naming (keyword) (not xyx.com/12984)
• Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools - Engagement
triggers (email opt-in, downloads, call-to-actions) Track conversions!
• Load speed – compress images, 30 to 120kb, resolution of 72dpi
• Footer links, NAP and XML sitemap
• Not using Frames or Flash
• RSS Feeds – subscribers automatically updated with new posts
• Favicons – the little image that appears on the browser tab when
your site is open

62. SEO Tools and Resources

63. Mobile SEO Best Practices
• Moz - http://moz.com/learn/seo/mobile-optimization
• Google Developers
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-
seo/?hl=en
• Search Engine Land
http://searchengineland.com/10-simple-tips-for-effective-mobile-seo-
129100
• ClickZ
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2367531/a-beginner-s-guide-to-
mobile-seo

64. Slerpee

65. Influencer Marketing Tools
• http://traackr.com/
• Influencer Management Platform. Everything you need
to discover your influencers, manage key relationships,
and measure their impact on your business.

66. Why they are outranking you?
• Using Moz’s Open Site Explorer tool you can look at
factors like domain age, the number of unique backlinks
to a page, and the “Domain Authority” of the website or
page you want to outrank.
• This is also where you can discover link opportunities
that the competition has found. If you find local news
articles mentioning a competitor every time they release
a new product, then that’s a good source for the next
time your organization has a newsworthy update.

67. Social Media Analytics
• http://www.socialbakers.com/agencies
• Deep Social Analytics: The Key to Agency Success
– Monitors the audiences, reach, and engagement of clients’
social profiles
– Creates data-backed benchmarks to guide client social strategy
– Prepares yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily reports
– Quantifies the results of budgeted expenditures on social
– Presents simple, clear information for clients

68. SEO Analytics
• http://raventools.com/
• Raven's reporting engine was designed to supercharge
your online marketing reports without breaking a sweat.

69. Social Media Management &
Listening
• https://hootsuite.com/
• Manage social networks, schedule
messages, engage your audiences, and
measure ROI right from the dashboard.

70. Sources for Content Creation
• https://scripted.com/
• Subcontract writing projects to an online
writing team through this online platform

71. Content Curation Tools
• http://www.curata.com/
• Content Curation Software (CCS)
– Discover the best content with our self-learning engine
– Easily organize and contextualize with just a few clicks
– Publish and promote your content anytime and anywhere

72. Graphic Creation Tools
• https://www.canva.com/
Create graphics for your blog, social channels, website
and much more with this online image creation tool
that also comes with a stock photo library.

73. Scott Pierson
theexecutiveseo@gmail.com
203-952-6442
https://theexecutiveseo.com
www.linkedin.com/in/scottpierson