This presentation addresses common SEO, content, and UX website mistakes people make and how to fix them. Denver Startup Week, 2018

1. TITLE OF PRESENTATION
Person Namehere
7/28/16

2. TITLE SPONSORS
TRACK SPONSORS

3. HEADLINE SPONSORS
PARTNER SPONSORS MEMBER SPONSORS
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Slifer Smith & Frampton
Swiftpage

4. ABOUT ME
•7+ years working in search engine
optimization (SEO) and content
marketing
•Experience both in-house and at agencies
•Former freelance writer/blogger, SEO
consultant
•Started career as an English teacher
abroad, special education background
Increasing conversions on your website.
@alliberry3 | aberry@fool.com
Awards
• Top 100 Content Marketers of 2018
(Express Writers & BuzzSumo)
• Moz Blog Top 50 of 2017
• 2017 Finalist for Best Conversion
Response from a Content Marketing
Program (CMI)

5. WHAT PROBLEMS ARE WE
SOLVING IN THIS SESSION?
1. SEO – issues preventing
people from finding your
website in search
2. Content – mistakes that
make prospects more
skeptical of your business
3. UX – issues that prevent
more users from
converting

6. NOT HAVING
CONTENT
FOR EACH
STAGE OF
THE
CUSTOMER
JOURNEY
MISTAK
E 1

7. The Customer
Journey
Image Source: moz.com

8. Discovery
I have a problem.
What’s the solution?
• Informational
articles
• Best X for X
• 1st Person Stories

9. Consideration
Is it right for me?
• Comparison
Content
• Product Specific
Content/Reviews
• 3rd Party Reviews

10. Conversion
Where should I buy it?
• What makes your
business special
• Location page (if
storefront)
• Customer testimonials
• What to expect from
our team/visiting our
store Image Credit: Conversioner

11. Conversion
Can I afford it? Am I getting a
deal?
• Special offers
• Financing
explainers/calculators
Image Credit: Conversioner

12. Retention
Am I satisfied with the
product/service?
• How to use product/service
more effectively
• Opportunities to share your
story/get reviews and
testimonials
• New relevant initiatives from
the brand
Image Credit: http://davidsusman.com

13. UNCLEAR
CALLS TO
ACTION
MISTAK
E 2

14. WHAT IS A CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA)?
A call-to-action is an
image or line of text that
prompts your visitors to do
something.
Often in a button form.
Could also be within an
article, in a side bar, etc.
AKA: a pitch.
Image credit: thecreativeagency.co.uk

15. Why are CTAs
Important?
You’ve done the hard part of
getting visitors to your
page…now you get to tell them
what to do next!
If you don’t, they are more likely
to leave your website.

16. TYPES OF CTAS Discovery Phase
Read More: Get People to Keep Reading
Subscribe: Get People to Subscribe to Your Content
Download eBook: Lead People to
Deeper Content + Email Capture

17. TYPES OF CTAS Consideration Phase
Demo:
Tool: Provide some info for
free.
Free Trial/Demo:
Intro to product.
Case Study:
Deeper dive on
how you can help.

18. TYPES OF CTAS Purchase Phase
Apply: Visit affiliate website for final
conversion. Contact Us: If you don’t have a
product to buy online
Buy: Self-
explanatory.

19. Best Practice 1: Plan Your
CTAs with Your Content
• What’s the next logical step for a visitor to
this content?
• Know the buying cycle for your
product/service.
• Don’t sell too soon.

20. Best Practice 2: Test CTAs
Frequently
• Button language
• Side callout vs in-
text
• Imagery
• Size
• Placement
• Icons
• Form fields
Free Tool: Google Optimize

21. TESTIMONIAL
S NOT USED
TO THEIR
FULL
POTENTIAL
MISTAK
E 3

22. •Does your website have
a testimonials or reviews
page?

23. The trouble with
testimonials pages…
People often ignore them.

24. Why?
Source: Chiropractic Reputation Management Software

25. Add them to appropriate pages on your
website.
The best way to
use
testimonials

26. Good Places for
Testimonials
•Relevant product or service
pages
•Near CTAs
•Home, About, and Bio Pages
•Callout on blog pages
(especially if a lot of traffic
comes from search)

27. Example

28. Example

29. Example

30. Best Practices for Testimonials
Ask recent customers
Follow up
Ask your best customers individually
Ask good questions How much time/money does our product/service save?
What’s the best benefit/feature of this product/service?
Put thought into the design of testimonials

31. NOT TALKING
ABOUT
PRICING
MISTAK
E 4

32. Main reason
pricing not listed
Pricing depends on something.

33. The problem with this…
• It makes prospects doing
research really mad
• They may drop off if they
aren’t ready to talk to
someone at your company
yet
• Or you’ll get unqualified
leads

34. The
solution
Even if “it
depends,” talk
about what
goes into
pricing
Provide ranges
based on
variables
Consider a
pricing
calculator

35. Example 1: Better than nothing

36. Example 2:
Nailed it

37. Example 3:
Overachievers

38. NOT MAKING
LOCALLY
RELEVANT
CONTENT
(WHEN IT
MATTERS)
MISTAK
E 5

39. When does local content
matter?
•When you have a storefront
•(ex. Boutique store)
•When you have a service area
•(ex. Handyperson)
•When your product or service
has a local component to it
•(ex. Online distributor of Wisconsin
cheese)

40. Why does
local content
matter?
•Establishes
relevance in local
searches
•Provides useful
information that
matters to your
target customer
base
•Shows your
business’s
involvement in the
local community

41. What is local
content?
Examples:
Location page
with hours,
details, and
contact
information
Article about a
local event the
company
sponsored
Incorporatin
g location
into
reviews/testi
monials
Case
study/use
case that
incorporates
location
Unique
study about
trends in a
certain area
Addresses the needs of an
audience in a particular area

42. Examples

43. Examples

44. Examples

45. SPEAKING IN
JARGON
INSTEAD OF
TO YOUR
CUSTOMERS
MISTAK
E 6

46. How this happens
• Just trying to get words
on the pages to launch
• Copywriter is too close to
the product
• No one does any keyword
research
• No one externally reviews
the content
Image Credit: Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education

47. Signs this is a problem
• Not ranking well in search
• Getting unqualified leads
• High bounce rate
• Low conversion rate
• Customer feedback

48. Copywriting
best
practices
What is the product and why should a
prospect care about it?
How will this product make the
prospect’s life easier/better?
What’s the next step? (CTA)

49. Use Customer Stories
They’ll give you the
language you need to
talk about your
products!

50. ACCIDENTAL
DUPLICATE
CONTENT
MISTAK
E 7

51. What is duplicate content?
When the same content appears on more than one URL.

52. Why is this an issue?
1. Search engines aren’t sure
which version of the page to index
and rank.
2. It can dilute the authority of your
page if you have links pointing to all
versions.
3. Search rankings can suffer as a
result.

53. “25-30% of the web is duplicate
content.”
– Matt Cutts, Former head of web
spam team at Google

54. How this
happens
1. URL Variations
• http vs https
• www vs non-www

55. Moving to
https
Google says….
• Protects the integrity of your website
• Protects the privacy and security of your users
• It’s the future of the web
• Non-https sites marked as not secure in certain
browsers
• Google favoring https sites in rankings

56. How this
happens
2. Print Versions

57. How this happens
3. Duplicate URL Paths (ie. Multiple Categories)

58. Best Solution: 301 Redirects
• Permanent redirect the
duplicate URLs to the
correct (canonical URL)
• Search engines only crawl
and index the correct URLs
• Users only reach the correct
URL

59. Next Best Solution: Canonical Tags
• Tag in code that
tells search
engines which
version of the
page to pay
attention to
• Users can still fall
on any version of
the page

60. NOT
THINKING
ABOUT
ACCESSIBILIT
Y
MISTAK
E 8

61. Why Accessibility?
• Improves the lives of people with
disabilities. It’s the right thing to do.
• Provides a larger potential customer
base.
• Helps you avoid bad PR and potential
lawsuits.
• Better for SEO.
“About 56.7 million
Americans (19% of the
population) have a disability.”
– US Census Bureau

62. Types of Disabilities
• Physical
• Visual
• Auditory
• Cognitive
• Seizure Disorders

63. Great Resource
Web AIM
https://webaim.org/

64. Best
Practices
Using alt tags on images

65. Best
Practices
Providing transcriptions and
captions for videos

66. Best Practices
Avoid mouse dependent interaction

67. Best
Practices
Using proper header tags

68. Best Practices
Having content accessible in a number of ways – navigation, site search,
sitemap

69. Best Practices
Use color schemes with high contrast
Minimum contrast: 4.5:1
Check your colors here:
https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

70. NOT MOBILE
FRIENDLY
MISTAK
E 9

71. In March 2018, Google starting rolling out
MOBILE-FIRST INDEXING
Image credit: Quora

72. WHAT DOES THIS
MEAN?
•Historically, Google has used the desktop
version of content for indexing and ranking.
•They recently switched to using (mostly) the
mobile version of content for indexing and
ranking.
•This is a reflection of how searchers have
moved predominantly to mobile devices.
Image credit: extradigital.co.uk

73. TYPES OF MOBILE WEBSITES
1. Responsive Design
2. Adaptive Design
3. Separate Mobile Site
Image credit: Iconfinder.com

74. RESPONSIVE
DESIGN
Definition:
Layout changes based on size and capabilities of
the device.
Mobile-first indexing doesn’t impact responsive
websites.
Pros:
• Cheap to build and maintain
• Future-proof for new device sizes
Cons:
• Not a fully optimized mobile experience for
users
• Tend to be slower to load on mobile
Image credit: Surgeonsadvisor.com

75. ADAPTIVE DESIGN
Definition:
Set designs for multiple sizes of devices; system
detects device size and serves appropriate
version.
Mobile-first indexing could impact adaptive
websites.
Pros:
• More optimized mobile experience
Cons:
• Complex and often expensive solution
• Not future-proof for new devices
• More maintenance required than responsive
Image credit: uxplanet.org

76. SEPARATE MOBILE
WEBSITE
Definition:
Completely separate mobile-version of a website
(often m.domain.com).
Mobile-first indexing DOES impact separate
mobile websites.
Pros:
• Potential for fully optimized mobile experience
Cons:
• Potential for duplicate content issues
• Requires more maintenance
• Bad link sharing experience between mobile
and desktop
Image credit: clickseed.com
Don’t do it.

77. Starting a
website
now?
Responsive Design – Best solution if you are
resource strapped. Easier to build and maintain
than adaptive. Lots of templates to utilize.
Adaptive Design – Will give a better mobile
experience, and faster site speed. Will require
more developer time and maintenance than
responsive.
Separate Mobile Website – Generally, don’t do
this. If you have complex tasks and lots of 3rd party
integrations, this might be a good solution. But
please hire SEO help.

78. NOT USING
SCHEMA
MARKUP
MISTAK
E 10

79. What is Schema?
• Schema markup is code
(semantic vocabulary) that
you put on the backend of
your website to help the
search engines return more
richer results for users.

80. Why does it
matter?
Provides more context and clarity
to search engines about the
contents of your pages.
Allows you to occupy more space
in search engine results pages,
which can help click-through-rate.
Does it help search rankings?
Likely not. No study has proven it.

81. Examples

82. Examples

83. Examples

84. Examples

85. Other
Popular
Types of
Schema
Local
Business
Restaurants Articles
Event Organization Person
Place Product Job Postings
Go to schema.org to see what
Schema is available for your vertical.

86. Implementatio
n
https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

87. Implementation

88. Implementation

89. Implementatio
n

90. WRAPPING UP….
Content Fixes:
1. Have content for all stages of the
customer journey
2. Have clear CTAs (UX)
3. Incorporate relevant testimonials in
your content
4. Talk about pricing
5. Create locally relevant content
6. Speak the language of your
customers

91. WRAPPING UP….
Technical SEO and UX Fixes:
1. Clean up duplicate content
2. Design for accessibility
3. Make your website mobile-
friendly
4. Use Schema markup

92. Thank You!
Contact:
aberry@fool.com
@alliberry3
PS: We’re hiring!