This was a presentation for Refresh Denver for Developers, Copywriters, UI/UX folks, and others who work on websites so they can understand how the work they do impacts organic search without previous SEO knowledge.

1. How your work affects Organic Search (SEO)
Matt Lacuesta
Director of Earned and Owned

2. @mattlacuesta

3. Experience

4. Photo Credit: Matt Lacuesta

5. Image Credit: Sharon Mccutcheon

6. What is SEO
It’s not just keywords

7. What is SEO
It’s not something you sprinkle
on

8. Organic search landscape
@mattlacuesta

9. mobile:
Google click
distribution in Sept
2018
38.5%Organic
@mattlacuesta
3.4%Paid
61.5%No ClickSource: Click Stream data from jumpshot. https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-ctr-in-2018-
paid-organic-no-click-searches/

10. desktop:
Google click
distribution in Sept
2018
65.6%Organic
@mattlacuesta
3.7%Paid
34.3%No ClickSource: Click Stream data from jumpshot. https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-ctr-in-2018-
paid-organic-no-click-searches/

11. SEO + CONTENT
ORGANIC SEARCH LANDSCAPE
Content
Planning
&
Developm
ent
Content
Distribution &
Amplification
Website
Optimizat
ion
Keyword Development
Site Structure
META data
URLs
Schema / microdata
Images
Text
Headers
Internal linking
Data-driven content strategy
Keyword & Content Gap Analysis
Blog Content
Category & product pages
Infographics, video, posts
Local landing pages
Brand Website
Blogger/Influencer Outreach
Link & Citation Acquisition
Social Syndication

12. Basics
@mattlacuesta#LSA19

13. 1 thing to
remember

14. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

15. Developers

16. Photo Credit: Ryan Franco

17. Key Concept
You work your asses off to build
cool shit for users

18. Key Concept
The job of SEOs is to help more
people find that cool shit

19. Image Credit: Hal Gatewood

20. Key Concept
We care about site performance
(speed)

21. Key Concept
We care about information
architecture

22. Key Concept
We care about crawlability

23. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

24. Over the years, we’ve worked with many clients and vendors on new website builds and we’ve compiled a list
of things that we’d like to see taken into consideration from the beginning of development.
This will ensure that technical and on-site items will be optimized before launching the new site rather than
launching and having to revisit which will require additional development resources.
New Site Considerations
SEO Wishlist

25. • Need to be able to add custom content/ customize on-
page content on every page
• URL can be custom and separate from page title and h1
tags
• Custom meta data capabilities on every page
• Responsive Design
• Tags in a tag manager for site speed and management
• On page copy crawlable and not in images
• Utilize HTML5
• Ability to make adjustments to site layout on desktop
vs mobile displays
New Site Considerations
SEO Wishlist
• URL and navigation structure is not rule based- so we
can customize different folder pages and add
content/change URLS without breaking site function
• All important pages are linked to from global
navigation
• Location pages are linked to from global navigation
• Schema placement via JSON-LD in GTM
• Google search console and Bing webmaster tools
placed
• Compress all image files
• URLs resolve to lower case version despite how typed
in

26. • Home page only has one version (ie. Non-www
redirects to www, trailing / redirects, /index redirects
back to home)
• Https version (full site security- not just credit card
processing, log in etc)
• Http version redirects to https version
• International versions of site should be TLD rather than
subdomain
• Hreflang in place for all international versions of the
site
• Use of subdirectories versus subdomain for location
pages and subsite sections
• URLs need to follow navigational hierarchy (ie specific
location page should live under the city and state file
folders)
New Site Considerations
SEO Wishlist
• Use of breadcrumbs implemented on the site
• XML sitemap included (preferably automatically
updated and generated with site changes) does not
include dynamically generated pages but just true
crawlable pages
• Dynamically generated pages include no index no
follow
• URLs utilize hyphens not underscores
• Content in pdfs should live in html format as well
• Ensure phone numbers are click to call and can have
dynamic replacement functionality for future call
tracking replacement
• Site search enabled and pull in desired results
• FOR CMS that apply ensure SEO plug in is in place (ie
Yoast for Wordpress)

27. • Domain hosting payment is up to date
• Make sure the client owns the site
• URLS utilize static URLs not dynamically generated
coding in URLs (avoid long and overly dynamic URLs)
• Any instance of duplicate content have proper
canonicals or de-indexed
• Each location has it's own page- with unique content-
not just a listing on a map page
New Site Considerations
SEO Wishlist
• Location pages include embedded map
• New content and pages live on a new URL not in
hashbang or stylistic rendering all on one URL
• Optimize for site speed 3 seconds or less (first priority
is mobile site speed)
• Canonicalization in place

28. UX

29. Image Credit: Jamie Templeton

30. Key Concept
If it’s good for users, it’s good for
the engines

31. Key Concept
Please use previous website data
in your decision making process

32. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

33. Content

34. Image Credit: Glen Carstens Peters

35. Key Concept
Content is King
(This is bullshit…kinda)
CONTEXT is more applicable

36. Key Concept
Write for users

37. We utilize our data-driven keyword strategy to identify what users are looking for and make use of content that was previously created. This cost effective
and efficient tactic allows us to repurpose what you already have and make it more relevant to users and search engines alike.
In this example, we identified content whose theme meets the needs of our target audience, but it wasn’t fully dialed in. We refreshed the content and
saw significant increases in visibility and traffic. After a few months with no additional changes, we saw further growth from earning a rich snippet in
search results which continues to drive more traffic each day.
SEO + CONTENT
INFORMATIONAL CONTENT IMPACTS SEO

38. Key Concept
Sematic relevance is cool.
Buzzword: RankBrain

39. Quick Answers are a type of organic result developed by Google
to answer a searchers questions quickly without having to
navigate through lots of site content.
It is one of the most coveted organic positions, and in our
experience is usually a resource based or research intent
page that populates into a quick answer box.
As we have developed out resource centers for other clients,
our appearance as quick answers has also increased.
SEO + CONTENT
TOPIC CLUSTERING

40. Key Concept
Don’t sprinkle in SEO afterwards

41. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

42. Mobile

43. mobile:
Google click distribution
in Sept 2018
38.5%Organic
@mattlacuesta
3.4%Paid
61.5%No ClickSource: Click Stream data from jumpshot. https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-ctr-in-2018-paid-
organic-no-click-searches/

44. 3.3B
Views of Listings in Search
2017
3.6B
2018
+9%
@mattlacuesta

45. 4.4B
Views of Listings on Maps
2017
8.5B
2018
+93%
@mattlacuesta

46. Retail
Sample of retail Actions in 2018
@mattlacuesta

47. Service Area
Sample of Actions in 2018 for Service Area Business
@mattlacuesta

48. Food
Sample of restaurant Actions in 2018
@mattlacuesta

49. 166MRequested
Directions from
Listing
In 2018 166M+ clicked for
directions from a GMB listing.
The majority of these were from
a mobile device.
@mattlacuesta

50. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

51. Voice

52. Many of the ways to optimize for voice search today
are foundational SEO elements that you should
already be taking into consideration. Voice search
should be looked at as Answer Engine Optimization.
• Answer questions with your content (earn snippets in
search)
• Mark up your content properly (FAQ and Speakable
schema)
• Location pages on your site should match local user
intent like “near me” queries
• Ensure your Business Profiles are managed and
Many voice queries come from mobile devices from users on the go with high
local intent
• Review management should be part of your plan to
“best” related terms. Yelp & Google power most voice device reviews
• Create Actions/Skills if you can create a valuable
experience for users
VOICE SEARCH
Be the answer

53. VOICE SEARCH
Search providers by device
Facebook

54. VOICE SEARCH
Where do reviews come from?
Facebook

55. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

56. This 1 question will
make clients appreciate
you more

57. Key Concept
How can we include SEO from
the beginning?

58. Image Credit: Camylla Battani