How to Master SEO in 2017

How SEO has

changed!

COURTSEY E2M Solu/ons

Update

When Did It Happen?

What Happened?

Google priori/ses it’s mobile index over it’s desktop version. Mobile First Index

October

Conduc/ng more frequent index updates & rewarding quick loading, ‘mobile friendly’ sites with improved organic visibility. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) by Google & TwiQer, Accelerated Mobile Pages February

allows developers to create rapidly loading web pages for mobile search users, dras/cally impac/ng mobile search

space. Google improved it’s search algorithm by learning the intent Google RankBrain

June

behind a users search. Through machine-learning AI, a enhanced learning system called ‘RankBrain’ was born. The latest itera/on of the Penguin update becomes real /me

Google Penguin 4.0 September

and a core element of Google’s search algorithm. (NB

Targe/ng websites with poor quality links and penalising

accordingly) Google removed its SEM adds from the right hand side of Removal AdWords Right Ads

February

search results and expanding top/boQom placements. This pushed organic lis/ngs further down the search results page.

What’s new with Google?

Mobile

Title length •  Desktop = ~ 70 characters with spaces

•  Mobile = ~ 55 characters with spaces

Content

Panda update •  Addresses duplicate content

and thin content •  Very important to remove duplicate content from a site

•  Now “regularly” runs •  According to Gary Illyes at Google, every few weeks

Penguin updates

•  Penguin focused on linkspam

•  “Any links intended to

manipulate PageRank or a site's

ranking in Google search results

may be considered part of a link

scheme and a viola/on of

Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

This includes any behavior that

manipulates links to your site.”

•  LAST UPDATED 9/23/2016!

-  Previous update was 10/17/14

Google Possum update? •  Released in early September

•  Seems to focus on local results

What you need to do •  If you have mul/ple offices/loca/ons, be sure

to enter each address for that loca/on -  Don’t just default to using one main address or a

corporate address/phone

Technical issues

Social Factors

Social is not a ranking factor

What to audit? •  Technical issues

•  Links •  Content •  Analy/cs

Capitalize on your hard work in seo! •  Retarge/ng

-  Put code on your site today! -  You can’t build these audiences retroac/vely •  Plamorms

-  Google AdWords -  Google Analy/cs -  Bing Ads

›  Facebook

› Twitter

›  Pinterest

•  Many cookies last at least 180 days

THE GOALS OF SEARCH ENGINES STILL REMAINS THE

SAME.

BUT…

SEARCH ENGINES ARE

IT’S HARDER TO MANIPULATE

RESULTS

AND THE FOCUS NOW IS ON

BEING THE QUALITY RESULT.

SO, SEOS HAVE HAD TO

COME A LONG WAY

FROM…

TO….

A big majority of SEOs were BUYING

links

Some SEOs were still doing directories

A few were doing article marketing, but

badly..

So Creating Good Quality articles

WORKED

FCUK

SEO

by early

2014…..

Most SEOs were knee deep trying to resolve penalties

The black hats were now charging for removing the links that they sold you the year before ;)

By now everyone was desperately jumping on the content marketing bandwagon…..

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Yes you could:

1. Write an article

2. Spin it (several versions of same

article)

3. Buy placements on shitty blogs that no

one reads

Well done. That is very difficult.

….unless you

want

to be “eaten”

by a

penguin

TO 2017 SEO ESSENTIALS

SEO BASICS

There are 4 goals to all Search MarkeDng GeFng Found - Search Engine OpDmizaDon

Keeping People Interested - Content & Features

Lead Gen - ConverDng Visitors to Take AcDon

Intelligence - Monitoring AcDvity

•  MiscommunicaDon about SEO •  Goggle Panda & Penguin Changes •  Hidden issues with CMS Systems •  Trendy layouts that hurt SEO •  Boiler Plate & Duplicate Content •  You mean my web developer doesn’t know this? •  Responsive Design

SEO BASICS Everything about search engine opDmizaDon

is about Relevancy, Relevancy, Relevancy!

Content Codes

F

Link Popularity

Technical

BE MOBILE FRIENDLY

Think.Mobile.First.

• 

91% of adults own a mobile phone of some sort • 

56% of adults own a smartphone • 

83% of US smartphone owners use their phone in stores

•  hQps://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/?

hl=en

IF YOUR PHONE DOESN’T DISPLAY

FLASH, GOOGLE WILL NOT SHOW

FLASH SITES IN YOUR RESULTS.

MaQ CuQs of Google at Pubcon in October 2013

IF YOUR WEBSITE ROUTES ALL MOBILE TRAFFIC TO THE HOMEPAGE

RATHER THAN THE INTERNAL PAGE

THE USER WAS ATTEMPTING TO

VISIT, IT WILL BE RANKED LOWER.


IF YOUR SITE IS SLOW ON MOBILES, GOOGLE IS LESS LIKELY TO RANK IT.


HAVING A MOBILE SITE IS JUST THE

START.

hQp://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

MOBILE READY MEANS: •  Loading quickly on mobile

MOBILE READY MEANS: •  Loading quickly on mobile •  Enabling users to navigate around on a small screen

MOBILE READY MEANS: •  Loading quickly on mobile

•  Enabling users to navigate around on a small screen •  Taking mobile users to the content they expect to see

MOBILE READY MEANS: •  Loading quickly on mobile •  Enabling users to navigate around on a small screen •  Taking mobile users to the content they expect to see •  Enabling users to read without pinching and zooming!

SITE SPEED

•  Page speed maQers (now). So benchmark yourself against leaders. In a

way, that’s fun, you can create “Page speed contests” now.

•  To do so, install Google Page Speed and Yahoo’s Yslow. •  Run them on your home page and at least a few random internal pages •  Follow every recommenda/ons for: image op/miza/on, gzip

compression, javascript “minifica/on”, CSS “minifica/on”.

•  Once this is done, look at subtler speed improvements they recommend. •  Moving to a stable Cloud environment isn’t a bad idea either.

What’s Going On With Featured Snippets & Google’s

Rich Answers?

Ranks Number 3 Normally

The fruits of success

How Can I Get Me Some?

Start With a List of Common QuesDons

How To Implement a NoFollow?

How To Implement a NoIndex Tag?

How To Implement a Rel Alternate Tag?

How To Implement a Rel Canonical?

How To Implement a Vary:User Agent Header?

Included Transcripts With a

Clear Outline of Steps

The Content Should Provided a

Lot More Info Than Just the “How

To”

Share URLs on Google+

Submit the URLs in

Search Console

1 2

IdenDfy a Simple QuesDon

Provide a Direct Answer

3

Offer Valued Added Info

4

Make it Easy for Users (and Google) to Find

INTERNATIONAL

SEO

Hreflang

What Are These About?

(Almost) Same

Language For Different Countries

MulDple Languages

for the Same Country

Key Points About Hreflang

Specify Language Only or Language and Country

Specify language in ISO 639-1 format

Specify country in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format

Specify in Header, Sitemap, or HTTP Header

Specify in Only One of the Three Places

Must be Mutual

GET SOCIAL

NO DIRECT IMPACT ON SEARCH RANKINGS

(YET)

hQps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udqtSM-6QbQ

BUT…

hQp://socialmarke/ngwri/ng.com/how-to-perform-seo-on-your- website-with-social-media-infographic/

Build Rela/onships With Social Networks •  Claim brand on appropriate networks

•  Build conversa/ons on the ones you can manage •  Encourage people to create content for you; you curate it against keyword

research •  UGC content doesn’t have to be on-site •  Pinterest boards

•  LinkedIn Groups •  Instagram

YOUR SOCIAL AUDIENCE WILL

ENHANCE YOUR SEO

BRAND SIGNALS

BRAND SEARCH VOLUME MATTERS

MORE

CITATIONS MATTER

MORE

Build Your Brand Beyond Your Website •  Gain cita/ons and links for your business:

•  Guest post •  Get quoted •  Hold an event •  Use a variety of sources for cita/ons &

links: •  OTAs: Yelp, TripAdvisor

•  News Sources: N&R, WS Journal •  Local ‘Zines: Yes!, Rhino Times •  Tools:

•  Google Search Console •  Moz ($) •  Majes/c ($)

Build Your Brand Beyond Your Website •  Gain cita/ons and links for your business:

•  Guest post •  Get quoted •  Hold an event •  Use a variety of sources for cita/ons &

links: •  Yelp, TripAdvisor

•  N&R, WS Journal •  Yes!, Rhino Times •  Tools:

•  Google Search Console •  Moz ($) •  Majes/c ($)

SENTIMENTS MATTER

MORE

MaQ CuQs of Google

SXSW 2013

POSITIVE SENTIMENT •  Posi/ve reviews


•  Google’s own systems

POSITIVE SENTIMENT

•  Posi/ve reviews •  Google’s own systems

•  Trusted 3rd par/es

POSITIVE SENTIMENT

•  Posi/ve reviews •  Google’s own systems

•  Trusted 3rd par/es

•  Posi/ve cita/ons on Google Plus


•  Google’s own systems •  Trusted 3rd par/es

•  Posi/ve cita/ons and interac/ons on Google

Plus •  Posi/ve cita/ons across the web

It’s not bragging if it’s true

Attract rather than Sell

Create content that DESERVES

links and MARKET that content.

Learn Your Audience: Segmenta/on

•  Content should be created for your users

•  FAQs •  Help/Tutorial Videos •  Infographics •  Tools:

•  Google Keyword Planner •  Google Search Console •  Wolfram Alpha •  SEMRush ($) •  Moz ($)

Learn Your Audience: Conversion Funnel •  Educate to purchase

•  Detail the products or services •  Use internal linking •  Describe the non-brand •  Tools:

•  Google Keyword Planner •  Google Search Console •  Analy/cs •  Majes/c ($) •  Moz ($)

Website

navigation should include

links to pages

targeting the

highest search

volume phrases

Learn Your Audience: Conversion Funnel •  Educate to purchase

•  Detail products + services •  Provide business history •  Use internal linking •  Tools:

•  Google Keyword Planner •  Google Search Console •  Analy/cs •  Majes/c ($) •  Moz ($)

Reference Guide: Google Analy/cs

Use Advanced Segments for custom audience groups

Understand which

channels &

sites are most

valuable

Find which

social networks provide most

engagement

How many

pages viewed?

What URLs

bring people to my site?

Does my site

load fast enough?

After they arrive, what pages do they click on next?

What pages cause

people to leave?

What do they type

in the search box?

Use these menus to view

how users arrive and how they interact with site

content

Beef Up Site Content

•  Iden/fy and fill in gaps in content based upon keyword research •  Incorporate target search terms throughout Informa/on Architecture •  Use hubs of content to organize relevant pages together

Home Page

For

Advice

Co Positive

Teenager Product News + s Reviews Articles

Hub2

News +

Contact About

NAV 1 / All

NAV 2/

Parents

Parentin g

Tips

Parentin Books g

Technique

s

Articles

Photos Videos

Photo Video

Pages Pages

PR

Request

s

News

Detail3

Ask a

Q

Our

Writers

Filtering

Content Hubs

NAV 3

Single Content Pages

Suggested Page

U/lize Microformats within HTML

•  Schema.org

•  Invented in 2011 by Google, Bing, Yahoo, & Yandex

•  Open Graph •  Used by Facebook

to extract addi/onal meaning • 

developers.facebook.com/tools/ debug/

•  JSON •  JavaScript markup

•  RDFa •  Markup extension of HTML5

GSC to Find Current Opportuni/es •  Formerly, Google Webmaster Tools; s/ll trends the last 90 days of data

•  Major Changes: •  Search Analy/cs

•  Mobile Friendly Tool •  Interna/onal Targe/ng

The New SEO “Rule Book”

•  Google’s Search Patents •  Rule #1: Learn Your Audience •  Rule #2: Make Content •  Rule #3: Be Mobile Friendly •  Rule #4: Get In On the Conversation •  Rule #5: Earn Citations

129

The New SEO “Rule Book”

130

3 CORE PRINCIPLES OF SEO INDEXATION • Technical Solu/on that respects SEO Best Prac/ces • Site Architecture Mapped to Seman/c Ver/cals • Archiving that preserves content integra/on & interlinking forever RELEVANCE • Op/mizing Keywords into Silos • Internal linking strategy that distributes SEO & PageRank value POPULARITY • Quan/ty / Quality / Age / Frequency of links obtained • Seman/cs aspect of backlinks (anchor text) • Diversifica/on of backlink entry points (hub pages)

2017 SEO

2017 SEO

“Search demand for content will be at it’s highest with the adop/on of home & virtual

assistants”

“Website user engagement metrics (CTR)

will contribute to a website’s organic

visibility”

“Quick website page load speed on mobile and desktop will be a

fundamental issue”

“Fresh, frequently updated content amplified

via social channels is a key element of content

strategy”

“The adop/on of the HTTPs protocol will be fundamental for improved mobile organic visibility”

“Content will be more conversa/onal focused as Google learns more about a user’s search intent”

“Maximising the visibility of content assets in mobile apps will play a

large part in content awareness”

http://www.digitalvidya.com/webinars/

How to Master SEO in 2017

Education

Transcript of How to Master SEO in 2017