SEO-101: How to drive productive organic website traffic
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Introduction to SEO presented by Nate Plaunt on Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Learn about the foundational and technical elements of SEO that set your website up for success!
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SEO-101: How to drive productive organic website traffic
- 1. | SEO 101 1 SEO 101
- 2. | SEO 101 2 Today’s Agenda: • Introduction • What to expect today • How search engines work • What is SEO? • Foundational SEO • On and off page basics • Questions
- 3. | SEO 101 3 Nate Plaunt Sr. SEO Strategist @NatePlaunt bit.ly/1LoDdWN Today’s Presenters Taylor Pettis Sr. Marketing Manager @tpettis linkd.in/1dsZJAa
- 4. DOES SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION REALLY MATTER?
- 5. | SEO 101 5 Search Engine Optimization FACT: 79% of search engine users say they always/frequently click on the natural search results.
- 6. | SEO 101 6 Anatomy of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Ads / Shopping Results Local / Map Results Organic Result
- 7. | SEO 101 7 • Organic traffic accounts for up to 64% of all website traffic* • Roughly 52,000 search queries happen on Google - every SECOND! • This translates into about 4.5 billion searches every day** Organic Search Stats * Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study ** Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band
- 8. | SEO 101 8 Organic Search is the #1 Driver of Website Traffic From a usage perspective, new studies have found that organic search drives up to 64% of all web traffic.
- 9. | SEO 101 9 Click Through Rate Study for Organic Results • On average, the click-through rate (CTR) on page one is 71.33% • On the first page alone, the first 5 results receive a CTR of 67.60% • Page two and three total CTR is only 5.59% http://marketingland.com/new-click-rate-study-google-organic-results-102149 Page 1 = 71.33%
- 10. | SEO 101 10 Does SEO Really Matter? YES! If you are not optimizing for search you are already behind your competition.
- 11. | SEO 101 11 What to Expect: • A solid understanding of how search engines operate • Learn how to beat out your competition in the search engine results • Actionable tactics you can implement today • Tools to implement SEO
- 12. WHAT DID YOU SEARCH TODAY?
- 13. | SEO 101 13 What Did You Search Today?
- 14. | SEO 101 14 What Did You Search Today?
- 15. | SEO 101 15
- 16. | SEO 101 16
- 17. | SEO 101 17 How Search Engines Work
- 18. | SEO 101 18 Search Engines Have Different Algorithms
- 19. | SEO 101 19 U.S. Search Engine Market Share https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Rankings/comScore-Releases-January-2016-US-Desktop-Search-Engine-Rankings 63.8 % 21.3 % 12.4 % Everyone else 2.5 %
- 20. | SEO 101 20 Not all results are organic Organic
- 21. | SEO 101 21 What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. Source: Wikipedia
- 22. | SEO 101 22 What is SEO? (Simplified) SEO is two things: 1. The practice of making your website as accessible as possible to search engines. 2. Ensuring your website is as useful and relevant as possible to your current and prospective customers.
- 23. | SEO 101 23 Think of Your Website as a House
- 24. | SEO 101 24 Ensure your site is accessible to humans and search engines. Think of Your Website as a House
- 25. | SEO 101 25 Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors. Think of Your Website as a House
- 26. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 101 THE BASICS
- 27. | SEO 101 27 SEO 101: Ensure your site is accessible to search engines. SEO 201: Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.
- 28. | SEO 101 28 Technical and structural factors
- 29. | Red Wing Shoes | SEO 101 29 Technical and Structural Factors • Goal: Ensure accessibility for Search Engines & Users • Foundation of your entire online presence, so it’s important to get it right • Search engines have very clear guidelines for webmasters to follow when building sites
- 30. | SEO 101 30 What To Look For • Can your entire website be crawled? • Is your website indexed by the search engines? • Does your website have any errors? • Is your page load time too slow?
- 31. | SEO 101 31 How You Can Do This • XML sitemap • Accurate robots.txt file • Google Search Console • Page speed optimization
- 32. | SEO 101 32 What to Avoid Any unnecessary hurdle for the search engines • Flash • iFrames • Blocking search engines in robots.txt file
- 33. | SEO 101 33 Example: Blocking Search Engines Good: User-agent: * Disallow: Not Good: User-agent: * Disallow: /
- 34. | SEO 101 34 Robots.txt file The robots.txt file is a directive for all “bots” visiting your site. • It tells them what URLs to crawl or not crawl • Simple text file – can be created with notepad
- 35. | SEO 101 35 Robots.txt file – *Pro Tip Use the Robots.txt testing tool in Google Search Console to troubleshoot errors in you file and to test individual URLs
- 36. | SEO 101 36 XML Sitemap The XML sitemap is a map of your website that enables search engines to efficiently crawl and index your site.
- 37. | SEO 101 37 XML Sitemap Various tools can help you generate an accurate and up-to-date sitemap: • Screaming Frog Spider • CMS plugins like Yoast • Other web-based sitemap generators - www.xml-sitemaps.com
- 38. | SEO 101 38 Google Search Console Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free resource with tons of valuable information available to all website owners. • https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home
- 39. | SEO 101 39 Why Does Speed Matter? Last year, mobile search overtook desktop search. • The gap between mobile and desktop will widen • Fast page load speed is critical to optimizing for mobile • “Mobile-geddon”
- 40. | SEO 101 40 Google PageSpeed Insights PageSpeed Insights is another free tool from Google that gives you a prioritized roadmap on how to fix speed issues on your site. • https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
- 41. | SEO 101 41 On and Off Page Factors
- 42. | Red Wing Shoes | SEO 101 42 On and Off Page Factors • Goal: Demonstrate Relevance and Authority • Search engines want to provide users with search results that are relevant to their query and authoritative in nature. • Building upon a sound technical structure, we make sure that search engines and users are able to fully understand what various pages on your website are about.
- 43. | SEO 101 43 On-page SEO refers to factors that you can control directly on your website Examples of on-page factors are: • Metadata • Internal links • Content • Technical / Structural Off-page SEO refers to factors “out of your control” on other websites Examples of off-page factors are: • Inbound links • Social Media • Mentions • Local Directories On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO
- 44. | SEO 101 44 What To Look For • Are your on page elements optimized? • What keywords are you ranking for? • Who is linking to you? • Who is linking to your competitors?
- 45. | SEO 101 45 On Page SEO Elements • URL • Page Title • H1 heading • H2 headings • Meta Description • Page Copy • Alternative image text
- 46. | SEO 101 46 On Page SEO Elements Page Title: Unique and descriptive URL: Descriptive and readable by both humans and search engines H1 Heading: Unique and descriptive Sub-Headings: Targeted sub- topics of the page theme Page Copy: Descriptive, unique, and keyword rich Alt Image Text: Descriptive and keyword rich
- 47. | SEO 101 47 Page Title Good: Organic Result #1 Bad: Organic Result #32
- 48. | SEO 101 48 URL structure Good: Organic Result #9 Bad: Organic Result #94
- 49. | SEO 101 49 On Page SEO Elements Meta Descriptions
- 50. | SEO 101 50 A Tale of Two Devices Position #1 Organic – Desktop…
- 51. | SEO 101 51 A Tale of Two Devices Position #2 Organic - Mobile
- 52. | SEO 101 52 What Keywords Do You Rank For? Ground Rules: 1. Don’t “Google yourself” 2. Use a keyword tracking tool - SEM Rush (freemium) - Bright Local (paid)
- 53. | SEO 101 53 What Keywords Do You Rank For?
- 54. | SEO 101 54 Off Page SEO Elements • Backlinks • Link anchor text • Citations or Mentions
- 55. | SEO 101 55 Internal vs. External Links (Backlinks) • Internal links refer to links within your site, such as navigation links. • External links refer to links outside of your site, such as a link from Wikipedia. • Both are very useful, but for different reasons.
- 56. | SEO 101 56 How do Backlinks Help? • Backlinks act as “votes” for pages on your site. • Generally speaking, the more links you have from authoritative sources, the more your site is trusted, and the better your pages will rank. YourWebsite.com NewsSite.com RetailSite.com IndustryBlog.com ShadySite.com
- 57. | SEO 101 57 Link Anchor Text The words used in the anchor text of a link to your site helps search engines understand what that page is about. So, if your site is about “strollers” the anchor text strollers would be preferable over click here.
- 58. | SEO 101 58 Who is linking to you? Conduct a backlink audit: • Open your Google Search Console • Navigate to the “Links to Your Site” section • Check out who links the most and to what content • *Pro Tip: this will help
- 59. | SEO 101 59 Who is linking to your competitors? Conduct a competitive link analysis: 1. Use Open Site Explorer - https://moz.com/researchtools/ose 2. Enter your competitor’s site into the search bar 3. Dig through their backlink profile 4. *Pro Tip: Identify where you can acquire some of the same links!
- 60. | SEO 101 60 Citations Citations are essentially a mention of your brand on another site like a listing directory. • Yelp • Hot Frog • City Search
- 61. | SEO 101 61 Citations It is important that these listings maintain consistency and accuracy. • Name • Address • Phone Number *Check up on your listings using Moz Local - moz.com/local
- 62. REVIEW
- 63. | SEO 101 63 1. If done right, SEO is a distinct competitive advantage 2. Get the foundation right 3. Optimize your pages 4. Optimize your off page presence 5. Move up the pyramid… Review
- 64. | SEO 101 64 SEO 101: Ensure your site is accessible to search engines. SEO 201: Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.
- 65. | SEO 101 65 Measurement and Improvement
- 66. | SEO 101 66 Questions?
- 67. | SEO 101 67 1. Google Search Console 2. Google PageSpeed Insights 3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider 4. Yoast plugin for WordPress 5. XML Sitemap Generator 6. SEM Rush 7. Bright Local 8. Open Site Explorer 9. Moz Local Appendix – Tools Mentioned
Editor's Notes
- Study conducted by Conductor in 2014
- This is a familiar image that most of us see everyday. When you type a search query into Google, how do those results come so fast? More importantly, what came up when you searched today?
- Search engines do not crawl the web in real time, they categorize web pages in their index for easy retrieval
- Like a library of all known information on the web
- And instead of walking in, all you have to do is type
- How do they do this…a mathematical algorithm (next slide)
- Google Over 200 “ranking factors” help to decide where your site ranks Roughly 10,000 sub-factors Bing Fewer ranking factors in algorithm Heavy reliance on social factors Search engines use a mathematical algorithm to serve up search results for any given query. They have to, because any given day, 15% of all searches have never been searched before That means that of the 3.5 billion queries that happen on Google, 525 million of them are brand new. There are over x factors that influence the algorithm, but let’s focus on the top ones…. Keep in mind that it is always changing….
- Data as of April 2015 Everyone else: AOL, Ask Jeeves
- Organic results compete with paid and image results Organic results are typically more trusted than ads That’s why the top organic results are so valuable
- In this step we’re really looking at making your site accessible Here are some things to avoid What happens when you have unnecessary road blocks for search engines?
- The XML sitemap is like the directory for your website. Search Engines use this like we use the directory in an office building – to more efficiently find what they are looking for.
- Search engines want to stay in business – to do so they need people coming back. To be people coming back they need to provide the best answers to questions.
- A shady link may be one that looks completely unnatural or comes from a totally unrelated site Search engines have filters that take the quality of links into account and tend to serve up pages with a trusted backlink profile Too many shady links can result in a penalty from Google so it’s best to just build links organically from providing the best content