SEO Live! Higher Ed Web SE

#hewebSE #wkse2

SEO LIVE!

SEO LIVE! #wkse2 #hewebSE@JPogact

@stephpflaum

Jonathan Pogact@JPogactDirector of Enterprise Solutions

Stephanie Pflaum@stephpflaumSenior Digital Marketing Strategist

www.fathomdelivers.com/industries/education

@stephpflaum

Jonathan Pogact@JPogactDirector of Enterprise Solutions

Stephanie Pflaum@stephpflaumSenior Digital Marketing Strategist

www.fathomdelivers.com/industries/education

WHY SEO?

DESIGN & DEV

ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION

KEYWORD SELECTION

CONTENT

POPULARITY & LINKS

ANALYTICS

Let’s Get Dangerous

@stephpflaum

HIGHER ED SEARCH TRENDS

@stephpflaum

Queries grew by 6% in Q1 2014 in the Colleges, Universities & Post-Secondary Education Category

Source: Google internal search data, based on pre-categorized queries for the Colleges, Universities & Post-Secondary Education. Note: In-quarter metrics for Query Volume and Ad Depth are only available.

Desktop queries grew by 1%, while Mobile queries grew by 23% and Tablet searches grew by 10% YoY in the same period

@stephpflaum

@JPogact

@stephpflaumSEO LIVE! #wkse2 #hewebSE

http://www.google.com/trends/ comparing (Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and UCLA)

@JPogact

http://www.google.com/trends/

@JPogact

Try it for Yourself!

http://www.google.com/trends/

SEARCH ENGINES: HOW DO THEY WORK???

@stephpflaum

web spider

websites

Maps where words appear and other relevant data

about each web page

Builds an index based on a system of weighting (algorithm)

search results!

search query…

HOW PEOPLE SEARCH

@stephpflaum

Source: http://www.eduventures.com/2014/04/drives-students-enrollment-decisions/

“international culinary center”

“international culinary center

tuition”“culinary schools”

HOW PEOPLE SEARCH

@stephpflaum

4 Key Factors That Have the Strongest Influence on the Enrollment Decision

Perceived Value of Your Institution

“What is my expected outcome?”

HOW PEOPLE SEARCH

@stephpflaum

Student Conversations with Key

Influencers

“Notable alumni”

HOW PEOPLE SEARCH

@stephpflaum

Student Research and Information

Gathering

HOW PEOPLE SEARCH

@stephpflaum

Communication Throughout the Application Process

“how often are we reaching out?”

@stephpflaum

DESIGN & DEV

“Vision is the art of seeing the

invisible.”

CRAWLABLE CONTENT

@stephpflaum

Your most important content should

be in HTML text format

Things search engines can’t read:1. Images2. Flash or Java plug-in contained

content3. Video or Audio

How to View Your Site Like a Search Engine:

• Go to google.com

• Type in cache:url

• Select Text-only version

LINKED PAGES

@stephpflaum

Pages must be linked for the spider

to reach them. Gated Content

Javascript links or links

in Flash

Page is blocked by robots.txt

Frames or I-Frames

Spiders can’t use

site search

Page has 100s of links

Why pages may be unreachable

Anchor text: The visible portion of the link

TECHNICAL ROADBLOCKS

@stephpflaum

Technical SEO problems can prevent your site from ranking

@stephpflaum

404 errors

@stephpflaum

RedirectIssues

@stephpflaum

Missing or outdated sitemap

@stephpflaum

Robots.txt

@stephpflaum

Slow Load Time

@stephpflaum

Not mobile responsive

@stephpflaum

ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION

“Relevance is a search engine’s Holy

Grail. People want results that are

closely connected to their queries.”

SEO LIVE! #wkse2@JPogact

@stephpflaum

• Unique title for every page (50-60 chars.)

• Unique meta description for every page (156 chars.) – include a call-to-action

• Only 1 H1 tag per page• Optimize H2s – less important content

can go in H3s, H4s etc…• Don’t over-stuff keywords

Useful Tool:

ON-PAGE SEO BEST PRACTICES

@stephpflaum

• Put important keywords in your

site’s navigation

• Link from other relevant pages

on your site with anchor text

• Anchor text should align with

the keyword focus on the page

you are linking to

INTERNAL LINKING

@stephpflaum

• URL should allow the visitor to

predict the content on the page

• Include keywords if possible

• Keep URLs as short as possible

• Separate words with hyphens

• Static URLs are preferred –

avoid dynamic URLs

• Try not to bury important SEO

pages several directories deep

URL STRUCTURE

www.college.edu/academics/college/bachelors/humanities/degree-program-page

BURRIED

www.college.edu/humanities/bachelors-degree-program

PREFERRED

@stephpflaum

Case Study

@stephpflaum

Micro data, also called rich snippets or schema, allows you to call out certain types of content to the search engines.

• Address or location• Phone number• Events, dates & times • Reviews• Books, movies & recipes

(creative works)

MICRO DATA

http://www.schema.org

@stephpflaum

KEYWORD SELECTION

“It’s not just about getting visitors to your

site – it’s about getting the right

visitors to your site.”

@stephpflaum

• Pick keywords that are relevant to

your site’s content

• Make sure keyword phrases also align

with your marketing goals

• Check for search volume

• Search for the phrase

• Look at competition

• Look at Google Trends

• Use PPC data if available – which

keywords convert best?

• What are you already ranking for?

KEYWORD SELECTION BASICS Useful Tools:

• Google Adwords Keyword Planner

• Ubersuggest

• Google Analytics

• SEMRush

SEO LIVE! #wkse2@JPogact

@stephpflaum

LONG TAIL VS. SHORT TAIL

@stephpflaum

SEARCHER INTENT

@stephpflaum

CONTENT

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t

understand it well enough.”

@stephpflaum

ACQUISITION FUNNEL

@stephpflaum

SEARCHER INTENT

@stephpflaum

CONTENT PENALTIES

@stephpflaum

POPULATIRY & LINKS

“It’s hard to forget someone who gave

you so much to remember.”

@stephpflaum

LINK SIGNALS

• Global popularity

• Local or niche popularity

• Anchor text

• Trust/relevance/quality

• Link neighborhood

• Freshness

@stephpflaum

LINK EARNING STRATEGIES

• Have partner sites link to

• Blogging – valuable,

informative & entertaining

content

• Create content that inspires

sharing and natural linking

• Be newsworthy

@stephpflaum

Have partner sites link to you

@stephpflaum

Blogging – valuable, informative & entertaining content

@stephpflaum

Create content that inspires sharing and natural linking

@stephpflaum

Be newsworthy

@stephpflaum

LINK PENALTIES

@stephpflaum

ANALYTICS

“What gets measured, gets managed.”

@stephpflaum

SEO KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Rankings

Traffic

Quality metrics – session duration, bounce rate

Conversions

@stephpflaum

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: SEO DASHBOARD

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/template?uid=acTRIHcrTB2RoUHl4Yu-FQ

@stephpflaum

What’s Your Digital Marketing GPA?

bit.ly/1q1fMJU

SEO Live! Higher Ed Web SE

Business

Transcript of SEO Live! Higher Ed Web SE

Best SEO Live training in Noida

Ecommerce Live : suivre efficacement ses performances SEO

Get your Search Marketing Analyzed Live by an SEO Expert

Best Seo Training With Live Project In Vadodara

11 SEO checklist points for higher rankings

Higher ED SEO Tips: Power Up Online Visibility!

ClickZ Live New York Rio SEO Presentation

SEO Live - Episode 2

On-page SEO basics for higher ed marketers

Seo điều viết is dead – long live

Live Local SEO Campaign- Part 1

Introduction to SEO for Higher Ed

SEO 101 in 2015: Ranking Higher on Google

SEO IS DEAD. LONG LIVE SEO. A Presentation by Chris Gaskill.

Understanding SEO - BritMums Live 16 Presentation

SEO is dead (long live SEO)

Seo ppc smo live project in delhi ncr 9911461116

SEO vs PPC in higher education marketing where’s your spend

Brand Storytelling for SEO - AMA Higher Ed Symposium

Seo India Higher Up