Seo Basic Training 2013 Edition

SEO Basic Training2013 Edition@chriscountey

How Does Google Work?• Programs, called spiders, navigate the web by hopping from

link to link. This is called a crawl.

@chriscountey SEO Basic Training 2013

How Does Google Work?• Google sorts what it finds by content and other factors, and

stores this data in the index (over 100 GB of data)


How Does Google Work?• When you do a search, algorithms try to understand your

intent:• Do – Google thinks you want to do something, such as purchase a

product (example: pizza)• Know – Google believes you are doing research (example: Charles

Dickens)• Go – Google thinks you are looking for something specific on a

brand’s website and will do a site search (example: Sony)


How Does Google Work?• Based on your keyword and perceived intent, Google retrieves

relevant documents from the index (database).• Google then ranks the results based on over 200 signals.• Site & Page Quality• Freshness• SafeSearch• User Context• Translation• Universal Search


Positive Ranking Factors• Relevant Content – is the page about the keyword (which can

be multiple words) ?• Links• Power of the site they came from• Relevance of the site they came from• Anchor text of the link

• Freshness – How often a site is updated is believed to be a signal that influences rank. Consistently-updated sites can be seen as more relevant than sites that haven’t changed in months or years.


Negative Ranking Factors• Google is constantly updating its algorithms to combat

different forms of spam.• Parked domains• Unnatural links• Scraping• Cloaking• Hidden text and keyword stuffing• User-generated spam• Thin content• Hacked sites


Negative Ranking Factors• Sometimes Google (or the SEO community) names updates

that really shake thinks up• Penguin• Panda• Florida• Boston• Big Daddy• Caffeine

• The first documented update was in 2002


How to Improve Rank

• Indexation•Appear in Google’s database•Content•Be relevant for searches•Authority•Outrank competitors


Indexation & Representation

• You can’t rank for squat if your pages aren’t indexed• Ensure that only 1 version of each page is being

indexed• Ensure that your pages are displaying the

information that will help you get a click• Take advantage of all available SERP

enhancements to make your result stand out


Site Search• Start with a site: search on Google.com as a quick way to

identify major indexing issues


Robots.txt• Check the robots.txt file to see if anything important is being

disallowed (blocked)

http://www.koozai.com/blog/search-marketing/a-brief-guide-to-robots-txt-and-five-mistakes-to-avoid/





Screaming Frog• Use Screaming Frog to crawl your website and look for the

nonindex meta tag• Crawl the site• Sort by Meta Data 1


http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

There Can Should Be Only One• Ensure that only 1 version of each page is being indexed• Unless you instruct Google otherwise, it will index every version

of every page it finds• Don’t dilute your link flow by splitting PageRank between

multiple versions of the same page• Check for different versions of your home page (Google considers

these all unique!)• www.webimax.com• webimax.com• www.webimax.com/index.php• webimax.com/index.php


http://www.webimax.com/

http://www.webimax.com/index.php

Canonical URLs• Set up canonical URLs• Redirect www to non-www URLs or vice versa; just be consistent• Mobile site? Set the canonical URLs to the main site• Pages in another language? Use the hreflang element

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/


http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_a_hreflang.asp



Click-through Rate• Ensure that your pages are displaying the information that will

help you get a click• Optimize page titles and meta descriptions

• Title: Include those keywords!• Description: Include keywords and write as a call to action


Rich Snippets• Take advantage of all available SERP enhancements to make

your result stand out• Use rich snippets


https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en

Google Authorship• Set up Google Authorship


https://plus.google.com/authorship

Natural Links > Built Links• Creating content that includes keywords is important on a

technical level, but it needs to be link-worthy, too• Pages are not just places to stuff keywords; they have multiple

jobs:• Attract links and social shares• Convert readers into customers• Promote brand awareness• Start conversations

• Creating something great and promoting it is a better investment than creating something mediocre for search engines and then forcing links

@chriscountey


Links Are King• Links are still considered by many to be the most important

element in improving search visibility• Building links manually is an option, but has its drawbacks• It’s unnatural (and Google is on to it!)• It’s inefficient• It’s not very scalable• It has risks of actually hurting rank• It does not force you to address the underlying issue of why your

site isn’t getting links on its own

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en&ctx=NCUI




Websites, Y U No Link?• Common reasons why no one is

linking to your content• It’s not unique• It doesn’t answer any questions• It doesn’t invoke an emotional

response• The design sucks• It doesn’t meet a need• No one knows about it


Build a Site Persona• Create something beautiful, useful and unique!• There’s more to it than this, but here is one way to start

thinking about content:• Identify a site in your client’s niche you’d love to get a link from• What kinds of stories/posts/videos do they create?• What is the tone of their posts? Humorous? Serious?• What are their most popular pages?• Do they have external links in their posts? Where do they go?• Who’s the person in charge of the site?• How can we contact them? Twitter? Email? Phone?


Brainstorm All The Things• Build a site persona• Identify a need or gap in their content• Determine if you need to build something new or if you can

enhance an existing page• Brainstorm: the more ideas the better• Build it• Ship it• Promote it• Measure it• Learn from it


Content Ideas• Awards• Be First• Competitions• Design• Egobait• Freebies• Guest Linkbait• How-to, Instructions and Tutorials• Interviews• Jokes• Kindness• Lists• News• Opinion• Photos and Comics• Quizzes and Surveys• Research Findings• Stories• Tools• User-Generated Linkbait• Videos• Year Summaries

http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/


http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/

Feed The Robots• Google is smart, but it still needs our help. After you create

your awesome piece of linkbait, don’t forget to optimize it• Include keywords in the following places

• Page title• URL• In copy• In <strong> tags• In image names and alt tags• In anchors


Promote It• Creating a linkable asset isn’t enough: you need to get the

word out about it• Contact the website you originally profiled as well as sites that

link to it• Use Link Prospector to find new sites that may promote or link

to your content• Use Buzzstream to scrape the contact information from the

sites you find and to manage outreach; A/B test your emails and pick up the phone when a number is available

http://pointblankseo.com/buzzstream-outreach


http://linkprospector.citationlabs.com/

http://www.buzzstream.com/



Recap• Google discovers pages by crawling the web• Google stores pages and retrieves them based on intent and

relevancy• Google ranks pages based on over 200 factors• Google combats spam 24/7 and with manual action• Build something worth linking to• Optimize it, promote it and measure it


Seo Basic Training 2013 Edition

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