Essential SEO tips and common errors to look out for while your website grows.

1. WeWork
Lunch & Learn

2. SEO/Tech Extraordinaire
Eli Feldblum
#RankAboveLL
 CTO & Founder of
RankAbove
 eli@rankabove.com
 @FeldBum
 201-815-9467

3. RankAbove
Smart, Automated SEO
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

4. RankAbove
Smart, Automated SEO
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

5. About This Lunch & Learn
 Learning (or re-learning) SEO
Basics & dispelling SEO Myths
 The Human Side of Google.
 Big Site Issues
 Know the Knowledge Graph
 ‘Insider’ SEO Tips & Tricks
 Mini Site Audits
 Questions, Answers & Food
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

6. Back to Basics
Remember everything we
started doing, before we got
distracted by fun tactics?
That stuff still works really well.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

7. The Basics: Keywords
Tools:
 Google Instant
 Keyword Planner
 Trends
 RankAbove
 SEMRush
Use the one you like best—and use them
all for important stories or pages.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

8. The Basics: Keywords
Tools:
 Google Instant
 Keyword Planner
 Trends
 RankAbove
 SEMRush
Use the one you like best—and use them
all for important stories or pages.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

9. The Basics: Keywords
@GreycroftVC
RankAbove Keyword Planner Instant Trends
Tiny Houses
Tiny House
Tiny House Plans
Tiny Houses for Sale
Tumbleweed Tiny House
Small House Plans
Tumbleweed
Tiny Homes
Tiny House Plans
Tiny House Movement
Tiny House Nation
Small House Movement
Tiny House
Tiny House Plans
Tiny House Blog
Tumbleweed Tiny
House
Tiny Houses
Small House Plans
Tiny Homes
Tiny House for
Sale
Tiny House Nation
Small Houses
Tiny House
Tiny House Nation
Tiny House For Sale
Tiny House Plans
Tiny House
Movement
Tiny Houses Prefab
Tiny Houses on
Wheels
Tiny Houses Floor
Plans
Tiny Houses Cost
Small House
Movement
Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed Tiny
House Company
Tumbleweed Tiny
House
Tiny House
Tiny House Plans
Tiny Houses
Small Houses
#RankAboveLL

10. The Basics: Titles
Make sure your titles
match what your customers
search for.
 Is that dress “pistachio?” Nobody
searches for a “pistachio” dress. It’s
green.
 Called your TV movie “The TLC
Story?” Great. Everyone is going to
search for “TLC movie.”
Don’t let Google rewrite them.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

11. The Basics: Content
Content is still king.
Especially now.
Good content = Good SEO.
Use your H1 tags, and always
endeavor to lead with the most
unique and most relevant
content.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

12. The Basics: Content
Retailers:
If you use manufacturer
descriptions, no one will find
your products.
Fill in the gaps left by manufacturers, and
you may get some internal link
opportunities too.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

13. The Basics: Internal Links
In fact, many of you don’t even
need more links, just better and
more consistent internal linking.
 Create a plan or use technology to
standardize internal links across
your site
 Look out for duplicate content
(more on that later).
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

14. The Basics: URLs
Your URLs are virtual and
generally controlled by your
CMS.
It pays to make them friendly and easy-to-
read.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

15. The Basics: Schema Markup
Help Google understand
the context of your content.
 Product schema
 Breadcrumb schema
 Whatever else applies to your site.
Find out more at schema.org.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

16. The Basics: Rich Media
Google likewise doesn’t
understand your rich media
content—or even know its there.
 Use XML Sitemaps (regular for
images and video for, um, video).
Check out the RankAbove/comScore joint
study on how well rich media performs.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

17. The Basics: Soup to Nuts
Search Engines read top to bottom:
From titles, to URLs, to H1, to
Content, to Links. Tell a story.
 Match the keywords you researched to
your internal links and to the content
on your site.
 Be consistent.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

18. Advanced: Internal Competition
Big sites grow dynamically,
and—unchecked—you can
easily become your own biggest
competitor.
 Use the following checklist to prevent
thin, duplicate or competing content
from appearing on your site.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

19. Advanced: Internal Competition
 Do you have any empty category
pages?
 Do you use tags? Has any tag has
ever appeared only once on your
site?
 Do you allow users to create
content? Are there safeguards to
ensure they don’t duplicate
content?
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

20. Advanced: Internal Competition
 Do two pagetypes on your site
serve similar purposes, like author
and bio pages?
 How do you handle product
variations, like size, color and
quantity?
 Find more issues with tools like
RankAbove or the site: command
in Google.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

21. The Humans of Google
Site Quality Matters
A mix of algorithms and real
humans are looking at your site,
and they are looking for:
 Speed to Load
 Ad Coverage
 Content Quality
 Boilerplate Content
 Reading Level
 Links & Social Metrics
 Design Aesthetic
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

22. But Didn’t SEO Change?
Panda and Penguin
You’ve probably heard that you
should be scared of them.
That’s true.
But they aren’t really game
changers—they are game
enforcers.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

23. Knowledge Graph
Use Wikipedia, Freebase and
Google+ to get more visitors
and incredible exposure.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

24. What is the Knowledge Graph?
It’s actually kinda what it
sounds like:
 A graph of all the knowledge
Google has.
 It’s a collection of data that
Google has gathered, and of
the connections between
those bits of data.
 The collation of that data is
what is displayed.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

25. What is the Knowledge Graph?
It shows up in many forms.
The one we see most often is this side
box or panel.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

26. What is the Knowledge Graph?
It also powers the “collections” we see on searches that return
specific lists of results, like casts of shows or movies.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

27. What is the Knowledge Graph?
And it answers questions.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

28. What is the Knowledge Graph?
It even compares things.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

29. How Does it Affect Sites?
Usually, it hurts them.
Especially informational sites or
sites that show up for
informational queries, like:
 Publishers
 Wikis
 Q&A Sites
 Single-Purpose Data Sites
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

30. How Does it Affect Sites?
STUDY:
 8 sites
 20MM impressions
 2MM clicks
@GreycroftVC
When the Knowledge Graph displayed, average CTR for sites in
the Top 5 Positions of Google dropped from 13% to 8%.
#RankAboveLL

31. How Does it Affect Sites?
In first position, average
CTR dropped from 22% to
12%.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

32. How Does it Affect Sites?
Even sites
referenced in the
Knowledge Graph
lost traffic.
Once it was
introduced,
Wikipedia lost
more than 20%
of its US traffic.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

33. But!
When used correctly
the Knowledge Graph showed
an overall increase in traffic for
sites, even when those sites lost
traffic on individual searches.
@GreycroftVC
 Answers and panels (collations) hurt sites
 The carousel and related links (collections and
connections) can help sites.
#RankAboveLL

34. Fighting Back
How do you use
the Knowledge Graph to
your advantage?
 Wikipedia
 Freebase
 Collating and Organizing your
own information
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

35. Wikipedia
The Knowledge Graph’s
primary source of textual,
descriptive data
 Luckily, you can—and
should—edit Wikipedia (I have
~5000 edits).
 No need to promote your site
 Don’t violate Wikipedia
guidelines
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

36. Wikipedia
Make sure that:
 Wikipedia’s information,
especially the top intro
paragraph, are correct.
 Related information in
Wikipedia is correct:
– Cast lists
– Car models
– Categories
– Etc…
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

37. Freebase
An incredible database of
nearly all the world’s info:
@GreycroftVC
It does exactly what the Knowledge Graph needs: it shows
the connections between different pieces of data.
 Unsurprisingly purchased by
Google
 That you can also edit
#RankAboveLL

38. Freebase
 Make sure those
connections are correct
and that they include what you
want.
 Connect data to a site!
A great way to subtly convince
Google to use your site as a
source for the Knowledge
Graph, or get the info you
want in the Knowledge Graph.
 Only until April 2015!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

39. Make Your Own Freebase/Wikipedia
If you do connect your site
you’ll do best in the Knowledge
Graph if Google likes the site.
 Keep it organized
 Show connections and
collections
 Make it highly structured
 Bonus: If you can maintain it,
make it editable.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

40. The Results
VH1 used the Knowledge
Graph
to their advantage, updating
Wikipedia and Freebase to
ensure all show and product info
was correct.
@GreycroftVC
Avg. CTR when the Knowledge Graph showed up (in all positions)
jumped to 15%!
#RankAboveLL

41. The Results
In fact, by tracking
IPs and visitor sessions
We saw that users actually
browsed more pages when the Knowledge Graph showed up!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

42. The Results
For searches that returned
collection results,
especially with visual collections,
CTR jumped to 20% in all
positions!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

43. One Last Thing!
The Knowledge Graph
also grabs data from one more
very important source: your
favorite social network,
Google+!
Connect you Google+ page, and Google
will feature your latest G+ post for free!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

44. SEO Tips & Tricks
 Free Traffic for eCommerce sites
 The secret Macy’s doesn’t want
you to know about
 How HappyPlace tricked you
 One weird trick your agency
doesn’t want to know
 But wait! There’s more!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

45. The Coupon Page
For almost every retailer
the most popular branded searches
(and often the most popular
searches) are for coupons and
discounts.
Why give that away to RetailMeNot?
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

46. The Coupon Page
YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO OFFER COUPONS!
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

47. Macys.com Secret Navigation
The Macys.com you never see—unless you come from search.
@GreycroftVC
THE PERFECT COMBO OF SEO AND USABILITY
#RankAboveLL

48. Macys.com Secret Navigation
The Macys.com you never see—unless you come from search.
@GreycroftVC
THE PERFECT COMBO OF SEO AND USABILITY
#RankAboveLL

49. Macys.com Secret Navigation
But it doesn’t sell quite as well as
Macys.com’s regular category pages.
Vs.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

50. Macys.com Secret Navigation
 They link to it contextually, but not overtly
 They use it primarily where they don’t have
categories or subcategories (like cocktail
dresses)
 Once the bot gets to /SLP/, it stays there. And
it likes it.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

51. The Never-Ending Page
We all wants links, shares and other social
metrics for our articles.
How can your smaller site get as many likes, tweets
and links as the big guys?
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

52. The Never-Ending Page
Just run the same article forever. Or at least, on the same URL.
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

53. But Wait, There’s More!
@GreycroftVC
Food, Questions & Mini Site Audits
#RankAboveLL

54. More Information
eli@rankabove.com
201-815-9467
@FeldBum
@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL