Search Optimization

@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina
SEO Masterclass
#event

@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
network: OMSWiFi5Guest
password: oms-guest!
screenshare: join.me/orbiteers
Welcome!

@crestodina
64% of website visits start with search
source: Conductor

@crestodina
Google Market Share
(desktop)
source: Search Engine Land
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Google Market Share
(mobile)
source: Search Engine Land
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Click through rate by search position
source: https://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/

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Search fills the funnel

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Social
Email
Search

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Source: Website Traffic Sources, Orbit Media

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Traffic flowing
through a search
optimized site

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The spike and the long tail
Initial spike from
email and social
(one week)
Daily visits from
organic search
(months or years)

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Social Media vs. Search Traffic

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Technical SEO
1. URLs ...vs. tabs, popups, separate domains
2. Discoverable, crawl-able
3. sitemap.xml, robots.txt
4. Duplicates
5. Site speed
6. Errors

@crestodina
robots.txt
• Tells search engines what they
should and shouldn’t crawl
• Set it up carefully, to give search
engines good instructions
Disallow: / = no crawl!!

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Pages, tabs, topics and URLs

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Snippets vs. rich snippets

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Snippets vs. rich snippets
The difference is “schema”

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Schema.org and structured markup
1. Product
2. Location
3. Organization
4. Recipe
5. Reviews

Schema
standards
for recipes
source: schema.org
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@crestodina
Does your website have it? Schema Tools
• Google’s Structured Data Tester
• Schema Creator
• Schema.org

Universal search results
source: MOZ

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Domain Strategy: Where to blog?

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...good

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...better!

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...bad

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URL Structure Best Practices
1. Short
2. Few slashes
3. Includes target phrase

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Links are authority

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Source: MOZ Search Ranking Factors 2015
The correlation between links and rankings

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more links = more authority

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links from authoritative websites =
much more authority

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Many outgoing links =
less authority per link

@crestodina
Source: Open Site Explorer
Domain
Authority
(link
popularity)

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Checking keyword difficulty
Source: MOZ Keyword Explorer

IF YOUR AUTHORITY
IS GREATER THAN THE
KEYWORD DIFFICULTY...
YOU’VE GOT A CHANCE

@crestodina
1. Know your Domain Authority
2. Don’t expect to rank for a phrase if it’s way
outside of your league!
ACTION: Understand authority and competition
More here: How to increase your Domain Authority

ANCHOR TEXT
The words and phrases used
In the text of the links to a page

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The text in
the links to
your website

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It’s good when a link includes
the target keyphrase

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Source: Ahrefs
(% of all referring domains)
Partial / exact match of anchor text and keyphrase

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Source: Ahrefs
Referring domains with partial/exact match of anchor
text and keyphrase

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It’s bad if all the links include
the target keyphrase

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Buttons vs.
text links
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TOPICS
Which topics have a natural
advantage in search?

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source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational

@crestodina
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational
?
$
brand
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al

Two types of visitors.
Two types of phrases.
Two types of pages.
Two types of conversions.

Keyphrases = Competitions
Pages = Competitors

@crestodina
Topics and website structure
CENTRAL HUB
Main topic, business category
RELATED SUB-TOPICS
Answers to the main questions,
“how to” articles
SUPPORTIVE BASE
Broad range of helpful, related
topics

@crestodina
Keyphrases and website structure
PRIMARY KEYPHRASE
Home page targets the most competitive phrase
SECONDARY KEYPHRASES
product categories, services pages
TERTIARY KEYPHRASES
Phrases related to the problem, not the solution
$
$
?

@crestodina
“wedding dresses”

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“lace wedding dresses”

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“modern wedding dresses”

CHOOSING KEYPHRASES
Do people search for it?
Do I have a chance of ranking for
it?

@crestodina
1. Popularity
People are searching for it
2. Competition
We have a chance of ranking for it (competition)
3. Relevance
If someone searches for it and finds us,
they’ll be happy!
Three criteria for choosing keyphrases

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source: Google Keyword Planner
Google
Keyword
Planner

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Google
Keyword
Planner
source: Google Keyword Planner

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Google
Suggest
keywordtool.io

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1. Confirm that there is some demand for the phrase
2. Target phrases only if your authority is in the same
range as the other high ranking pages
ACTION: Keyword Research

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KEYWORD ACTIVITY
Q: What keywords do my target audience use when
searching for my business?

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ONE PAGE OR TWO?
Keyword targeting
within related topics

USING KEYPHRASES
Indicate the relevance

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1. <title>
2. <h1> header
3. Body text
4. Meta Description
Visible = important

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1. URLs
2. Alt text
3. File names
4. Meta keywords
5. Etc.
Less visible = less important

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1. <title>
Use the phrase once in the beginning of the title tag
Where to use the phrase

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Where is the title?
1. It’s above the address bar in your browser…

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Where is the title?
2. It’s often the link in Google search results!
1. It’s above the address bar in your browser…

@crestodina <title>Home</title>

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1. <title>
2. <h1> header
Use the phrase once in the header

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Once in the <h1> header

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Template for search-friendly headlines
Web Content Checklist: 21 ways to publish better content

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Template for search-friendly headlines
Web Content Checklist: 21 ways to publish better content
(keyword + colon + number + headline with benefit)

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1. <title>
2. <h1> header
3. Body text
Use the phrase 2-4 times every 500 words

@crestodina
1. <title>
2. <h1> header
3. Body text
Use the phrase 2-4 times every 500 words
4. Meta Description
Use the phrase once in the meta description

Managing
your snippet
with a plugin

The CONTROL + F Test
Are we relevant for the phrase?

Anchor Text does not indicate
the relevance of this page

You’re not done publishing a new post
until you have linked to it from an older post.

We’ve been working on an intelligent model... that understands
real-world entities and their relationships to one another:
things, not strings.
Amit Singhal
Google

@crestodina
Semantic connections to “footer design”
website copyright
copyright text
website footer examples
header and footer
website footer definition
at the bottom of the page
designing a website footer
fat footer
guidelines
standards
best practices
usability
content
ideas
inspiration
links SEO
sitemap
social media
navigation
purpose of
responsive
template

@crestodina
Rankings climb for “website footer design”

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And finally, the traffic...

@crestodina
ACTION: Indicate the relevance
1. Use the target phrase in the title, header and body text
2. Find and use the words and phrases that are
semantically connected to the phrase you’re targeting

@crestodina
Long content gets shared more
source: BuzzSumo dataset: OrbitMedia.com

@crestodina
Long content attracts more links
source: Hubspot
> 2500
2250 – 2500
2000 – 2249
1750 – 1999
1500 – 1749
1250 – 1499
1000 – 1249
750 – 999
500 – 749
250 – 499
0 - 249

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Length, links and shares
source: MOZ, Buzzsumo
Article Length Avg Shares Avg Referring Links
< 1,000 2,823 3.47
1 - 2,000 3.456 6.92
2 – 3,000 4,254 8.81
3 – 10,000+ 5,883 11.07
n = 489,128 articles (over 85% had less than 1,000 words)

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Long content correlates with high rankings
source: CoSchedule

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Long content generates more leads
source: Curata

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ACTION: Write long?
1. Cover the subject in a detailed, thorough way
2. Answer all of the related questions
3. Make it the best page on the internet for the topic

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Answer all the
related questions
source: answerthepublic.com

@crestodina
• 11 answers
• 4 images
• 3 quotes
• 2100+ words
Complete!

@crestodina
• 11 answers
• 4 images
• 3 quotes
• 2100+ words
Complete!
@crestodina • #CMWorld

LET’S REVIEW
Which keywords are helpful?
Which links are helpful?

@crestodina
blog post
guest post
research
post on another site
keyphrase
keyphrase

@crestodina
blog post
guest post
research
post on another site
keyphrase
keyphrase
Which of these links and keywords affect your rankings?

2239 Business Categories
... Gazebo Builders, Ghost Towns,
Helium Gas Suppliers, Hot Tub Repair,
Pinball Machine Suppliers, Pumpkin
Patches, Taxidermists, Truck Stops
source: http://blumenthals.com/Google-Categories.html

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1. Confirm the category (and add others)
2. Check citations (MOZ Local)
3. Indicate location on the website
4. Get a few nice reviews!
Local SEO Action Items

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WHERE to publish
YOUR SITE
OTHER SITES

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WHO does the writing
CREATED BY YOU
CO-CREATED WITH
INFLUENCERS

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Blogging vs. Guest Blogging
Content = 2
Links = 0
Friends = 0
Content = 3
Links = 1
Friends = 2

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Content = 4
Links = 0
Friends = 0
Content = 6
Links = 2
Friends = 4
(better links + real connections)

@crestodina
Nice blog, but… This is what great
content marketing looks like.

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User Interaction Signals ...and “RankBrain”
1. Click through rate from search results pages
2. Bounce Rate
3. Time on page

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Evidence that these are ranking factors
source: How Google Works: A Ranking Engineer’s Perspective, Paul Haar (slide 30)

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Time on page correlation

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The Short Click vs. The Long Click
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@crestodina
ACTION: Keep your visitors on your page
1. Format for Scanners
2. Add Multiple Images
3. Add Video
4. Internal Linking
5. Go Deep!

@crestodina
Avoid long, blocky
paragraphs

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Your “readers” are scanners
source: How Little to Users Read? NN Group
Users have time to read at most 28%
of the words during an average visit.
20% is more likely.

Add multiple images
source: 2016 Blogger Survey
@crestodina

1. Write content that answers questions
2. Use sentences that include complete questions and
complete answers
3. Write detailed posts that rank high in the first place!
How to Rank #0
@crestodina

@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
THANK YOU!

Search Optimization

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