SEO For Everyone #AltSEO

Alt Summit Winter | January 2015

A bit about me

• I’m Sara! But a lot of people call me Sport

• I run the in-house marketing for Inflow. Also, I’m experienced in PR and Digital Marketing

• I play roller derby

• I’m #awesome

• SEO 101• Quick and Dirty Guide To Getting Found • Advanced SEO • Bitches Be Bloggin’ Pro Tips• Q & A (if there’s time)

• Don’t worry, this deck will be available!

What’s in store today

• What do you want to get out of this?

• What do you need for your site?

• Write your questions down

• Ask them!

Let’s set some goals for this next hour and a half

SEO 101

High Five! Let’s do this!

This is a search engine results page

Who likes animals?

1. Google releases Analytics in 2005

2. There are a number of major and minor Google Algorithm updates

3. Let’s go to the Zoo! 1. Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird

Dapper Panda

1. Panda – this update targeted thin and low-quality content

Here are some examples of thin and low-quality content

• Thin content is content that doesn’t answer the searcher’s question

• Low-quality, well that’s just throw away content

Keyword stuffing, duplicate content, ads vs. text

• Keyword stuffing is just silly. Don’t even do it. Use your keywords naturally.

• DO NOT STEAL CONTENT ever

• Clean up your pages to make sure you have more content than ads on every post and page.

When in doubt, do yourself a favor

• Noindex your posts

• Personal stories, filler content, Music Mondays, Font Fridays, etc.

• Can save you time later

Thug Penguin

1. Penguin – update targeting sites with crappy links.

Please note: Thug life chose the penguin.

*face palm* Reckless Linking

• Here’s the bottom line:

• Never buy links

• Don’t do a ton of reciprocal links (ex. Linkups)

• NOFOLLOW your affiliate links and blog comments

• Don’t have a bunch of spammy links going in or out of your blog

What is a spammy link?

• Did you pay for it?

• Is it from a shady site or link farm?

• Is it from a site that has received a Manual Penalty?

• Giveaways & Guidelines

• This is the Ultimate Google Shit List

• You may have some weird stuff going on and perhaps it was missed by one of the other updates

• Google will get you. You cannot hide.

Manual Penalties

Google be all

What a Penalty feels like

What a Penalty Recovery feels like

Punk Rock Hummingbird

• A true algorithm update focused on the Understanding the Semantic Context of Your Query

• Social signals officially counted toward SEO

The winning combo!

How are we doing so far?

Quick and Dirty Guide to Getting Found

Anyone here search for some fashion inspo lately?

Know your niche; know your personas Know your niche; know your personas

How to optimize on-site

• Meta Title / Title Tag / SEO Title • URL • Byline • Meta Description muy importante• Images• H1 & H2 tags• Copy

Checkin’ In. Still with me?

Let’s take a closer look

Keywords An SEO expert walks in a bar, bars, pub, tavern, Irish pub, tavern, local bar, dive, beer, drinks, cocktails, happy hour . . . You get the point

Keywords

Google’s Keyword Planner Tool

Google SuggestGoogle AutofillGoogle Trends

All the on-site spotsNaturally in your

copyImage Alt TagsSocial Media Personas

How to Use ThemWhere to Find Them

Google Keyword Planner

At the bottom of search page

Search Bar (Autofill)

SERP listing page 1 – Social

Advanced SEO

Digging Deeper

• Conduct a content audit to see which low-performing posts can be noindexed

• Hire a reputable SEO company to do a

technical audit

Create Really Valuable Content

• Long, authoritative posts• 500+ words but really 1000+

• Do keyword research and use your two/three keywords naturally, yet strategically in your post

• Beautiful Images to enhance user experience • Taken together you will attract natural links

• Try to always include a call to action (CTA) in your posts

• Include value adds

• End your posts with a strong summary and CTA

Call to Action / Value

Amplify Your Content

• Take to social media to promote your content

• Contact influencers and involve them

• Consider paid as part of your strategy

@downey_robinson

Now with all that said How do you make your blog a big hit? Here are some

Bitches Be Bloggin’ Pro Tips

Inbound Marketing for blogs

Inbound for larger sites

• Be sure that the experience is consistent for your user

• Image size

• Fonts

• Brand Voice

Adhere to your brand standards

• Get organized

• Decide where you ARE going to focus efforts

• Take time every week to continue your SEO education

• Use your resources

How do you manage all of this?

Have an Editorial Calendar

• To plan the content

• To research keywords

• To do competitive analysis of a keyword

• To have a social strategy in place

Use Free Plugins

• Wordpress -Yoast All In One SEO

• Blogger - Fill out the description and URL

Google Analytics

• You can look at what content performs

• SEO is a lot of experiments

• Analytics help make logical connections and correlations with our hypothesis

Where to go to learn

• Hubspot!

• Marketing Library

• GoInflow.com • blog!

• Moz

• Blog

• White Board Fridays

We made it!

• SEO is #awesome• Link responsibly • Get help when you need it • Otherwise, focus on what YOU can do• Infuse inbound marketing in your plan• Learn more for free! • Questions?

Quick Recap – TL; DR version

Now go own your SEO!