This document provides an introduction to improving online visibility through search engine optimization. It discusses the goals of SEO, how Google searches work by crawling websites and indexing pages, top algorithmic variables that impact search rankings, keyword research tools, qualifying backlinks, off-page promotion strategies, measuring success, and search innovation techniques like schema markup and authorship.

1. Introduction to Improving Online Visibility
Through Search Engine Optimization
The Goals
1. Achieve visibility when a potential customer searches for our product
2. Establish credibility and expertise on the website
3. Facilitate conversion (e.g. phone call, email, walk-in, etc.)
How Google Works 101
When you do a search, you aren’t actually searching the web. You are searching Google’s index of
the web.
1. Crawling - The process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be
added to the Google index
2. Indexing - Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a
massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page
3. Returning Results - When a user enters a query, Google's machines search the index for
matching pages and return the most relevant results.
Top Algorithmic Variables
Content
Site Structure
Inbound Links
Age of URL
Speed
Traffic
Bounce Rate
Social Signals
Keyword Research Tools
www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
www.google.com/trends
www.spyfu.com
www.wordtracker.com
Qualifying Backlinks
Questions to determine if a link is effective:
Is the page getting indexed?
Is the link coming from a link farm?
Is the link on a page that sells ads?
Is the text on the page relevant to my site?
Is the link ‘nofollow’?
Is the link passing through an adserver?
Is the link in Javascript?
Kimberly Ercius ‫ ا‬kimberly@sercius.com ‫ ا 2707-978 )015( ا‬www.sercius.com

2. Off Page Promotion Strategies
Local companies that you work with on a daily basis
Local associations that you belong to
Conferences that you attend
Press releases with useful local information
Top Sites:
• PRWeb – www.prweb.com
• Free Press Release – www.free-press-release.com
• PRLog – www.prlog.org
• openPR – www.openpr.com
Network on blogs and forums online
Add useful and timely content to your site, and natural citations / link building will
naturally occur
Tool Recommendation: Use http://www.opensiteexplorer.org to identify backlinks to your site and
your competitors.
Measuring Success
Unique visitors
Page views
Top referral sources
Top entrance pages
Top exit pages
Feeder markets
Conversion (goals and funnel tracking)
Search Innovation
Utilize schema.org markup to create rich snippets for products, events, etc.
• Tool Recommendation: www.schema-creator.org will make it easy to generate
the code
Set up authorship to link content you publish on your domain to your Google+ profile.
• Tool Recommendation: View the instructions at
http://www.plus.google.com/authorship to get it set up.
Kimberly Ercius ‫ ا‬kimberly@sercius.com ‫ ا 2707-978 )015( ا‬www.sercius.com