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The New SEO.Best Practices for Search Engine Optimization in the Modern SEO Era

2013

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SEO Best Practices

SEO Has Changed

Ranking Factors

New Truths

Content-Driven Link Building

Design and Audit Checklists

What Does an SEO Plan Look Like?

SEO Has Changed

Animals & AlgorithmsSocial Signals – 2010

• Added social engagement as an algorithm element

Google Panda – 2011

• Focused on website content quality.

• Penalized spammy sites filled with ads, duplicated content, etc.

Google Penguin – 2012

• Focused on link quality

• Penalized sites with low quality links.

• Generally, the easier a link is to get, the lower the quality.

Hummingbird - 2013• Latest Google Algorithm update

• Not affecting like Panda and Penguin

• Purpose:

– To give mobile users quick answers to questions so that they don’t have to click away from the search results

• Emphasis on mobile-friendly sites and content

• Emphasis on Google+

• Continued emphasis on quality links from quality content

SEO Has Changed• Old staples are now taboos

• Based heavily on shared content

• Thus, more creative

More Benefits:• Rank high• Make your website and content share-worthy • Earn traffic from social networks• Build brand perception, trust, & website conversions

Ranking Factors

Google changes its search algorithm ~ 500–600 times / yr.

What We’re Up Against

New Truths

New TruthsNot considered in algorithm:

• Meta keywords

• Meta descriptions (important for CTR, though)

PageRank Outdated

• PR based on outdated algorithm. Only considers one main factor – links.

• Updated infrequently now

• Expected to be retired soon

• High PR does not equal high rankings

New Taboos

• Too much keyword anchor text; build links to brand name, too.

• Keyword-only domain names. Domain names should be chosen based on brand and user experience.

More OnRanking Factors

Title Tags• Keyword | Page Descriptor | Company Name

– Buy Local | About | Independent We Stand

• Not to exceed 70 characters

• In WordPress, leave “Tagline” field blank so it’s not tacked onto each title tag.

– Ensure no coding is tacking on something by default, as well.

• No page should have same title tags

– Helps search engines understand that each page has unique content

Meta Descriptions• Important for CTR

• Contain calls to action when possible

• Contain keywords when they can be used naturally

• User-benefit is more important than including keywords in the description

• Google only publishes the first 160 characters

Keyword-Rich Content• Each page should include keywords that the client should be ranked for.

– This may require keyword research to be done beforehand.

• Don’t overstuff keywords. Copy should sound natural and be optimized first for readers.

• When possible, link keywords in blog posts to internal website pages.

– Example: If a Lago Mar blog post mentions weddings, link to the weddings page. If possible, customize that word in the blog post to be “Fort Lauderdale Wedding.”

• When possible, bold, italicize or underline keywords

• When possible, place keywords in H1 and H2 tags

• Add alt image text to pictures using keywords when possible.

On-Site Links• Internal links indicate good organization to search engines.

• Link keywords to other pages when it makes sense. (EOS)

• Place anywhere a user could learn more info elsewhere on the site, including nav and non-nav pages, blog posts, news articles, etc.

• In blog posts, include links to other posts whenever appropriate.

• No more than 100 links per page.

– This includes links in body content, sidebar content (including blog categories, archives, etc.), footer content, etc. (SunGard)

• Some external links to helpful resources are good for SEO

No Duplicate Content• Causes major penalties.

• No page should contain exactly-worded content that exists anywhere else on your website or any other.

• Do not publish a blog post or article you have written for your site on any other site.

– The only exception would be if the post is placed on a very good site that gives credit and links back to the post on your website.

– Only do this in moderation. Doing this too much could result in penalties.

Domain Names• Avoid Exact Match Domain Names

• Should be 15 characters or less

• Avoid hyphens. (Often indicates spam.)

• Avoid alternate domain types that aren’t .com, .net, .org. (Often indicates spam.)

Page URLs• Contain keywords whenever possible

• URLs should be static, not dynamic

• Always create a “www” homepage redirect.

– Example: Website.com should redirect to www.Website.com

• In WordPress:

– Choose “Custom Structure” with only /%postname%/

– In General Settings, add “www” to WordPress address and Site Address to create the homepage 301 redirect

Other On-Site Factors• Length of Copy

– Google prefers web pages with a lot of (relevant, useful) text.

– Average content length for web page in top 10 results: at least 2,000 words.

• Header Tag Codes

– Use h1, h2, h3 in web page content organization whenever possible.

• Size of website

• Frequently updated content

• Load speed

• Video Content

• Responsive website

Other Off-Site Factors• Data on Users, Usage and Traffic

– Traffic/usage signals from browsers and toolbars

– Quantity of queries

– Diversity of queries

– CTR of queries

• Non-Social Brand Mentions

– Mentions of brand and domain name in news/media/press

– Offline usage of brand/domain name

– Association of brand with other entities (i.e. BBB, industry associations, sponsorships, etc.)

Social SignalsQuantity and quality of links and mentions in social networks

• Google+ is especially important

• Google Authorship and Publisher should be set up on the blog for all websites that have a Google+ account. Whenever possible, a website client should have an active Google+ account.

– Google Publisher code should be placed on homepages.

– Google Authorship code should be placed on blog pages.

– When appropriate, if a client has an active Google+ profile (a personal profile), the “Contributor” field of their profile should link to the company blog.

Optimization Checklists

Designing Brand New WebsiteBrand New Website Pre-Design Phase Domain Name choice Copywriter receives keywords from SEOer before writing copy Plan URLs to include keywords. Ensure URLs are static, not dynamic.

Design Phase Add SEO plugin if needed Send SEOer login information to add meta data if he/she is inserting that data. Include header tags wherever possible Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide Include Title Tags and Meta Descriptions if SEOer is sending to you Include interal links Include alt image text or have SEOer include Ensure there is no duplicate content on site Check load speed Ensure title tags not created by SEOer are 70 characters or less Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code. SEOer will send. Ensure Site is browser and device responsive Ensure that if page is ever temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server Ensure Robots.txt allows crawling

Website RedesignWebsite Redesign Pre-Design Phase Copywriter receives keywords from SEOer before writing copy Keep old URL structure wherever possible. When not possible to keep URL structure, use 301 redirects from old URLs that used to contain a new URL's information. Plan any new URLs to include keywords. Ensure URLs are static, not dynamic.

Design Phase Add SEO plugin if needed Send SEOer login information to add meta data if he/she is inserting that data. Include header tags wherever possible Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide Include Title Tags and Meta Descriptions if SEOer is sending to you Include interal links Include alt image text or have SEOer include Ensure there is no duplicate content on site Check load speed Ensure title tags not created by SEOer are 70 characters or less Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code. SEOer will send. Ensure Site is browser and device responsive Ensure that if page is ever temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server Ensure Robots.txt allows crawling Ensure 301 redirects have been implemented where needed.

Evaluating SEOSEO Evaluation - New Site Task Evaluate Domain Name choice Perform Keyword Research Send keywords to copywriter Ensure URLs include keywords Create and add or send Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Analyze content organization Add keywords to content if needed Add interal links if needed Add external links if appropriate Add alt image text Ensure there are less than 100 links on any page Check that every page has at least one solid paragraph of keyword rich content Check for opportunities to add header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) Ensure there is no duplicate content on site Check load speed Look for opportunities for video content Ensure title tags are less than 70 characters Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code Site is browser and device responsive If page is temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server Robots.txt allows crawling Ongoing Optimization: Add Schema.org and Rich Snippets SEO Evaluation - Not a New Site Task Perform Keyword Research Send keywords to copywriter Ensure URLs include keywords Add title tags/meta descriptions. Get login info for this. Claim and validate Google+ listing Send designer Google+ Authorship/Publisher Code Analyze content organization Add keywords to content if needed Add interal links if needed Add external links if appropriate Add alt image text if needed Ensure there are less than 100 links on any page Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide Check that every page has at least one solid paragraph of keyword rich content Check for opportunities to add header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) Ensure there is no duplicate content on site

The NewLink Building

Content-Driven Link Building• Can no longer create 50 link directory backlinks each month and

be successful

• Google wants to see a diversified link profile:

– Social media shares

– Google+ Engagement

– Blogs and news sites

– Some social bookmarks

– Guest blogging

– Business directories

– Resource lists

Link Building Strategy1) Existing Link Analysis

– Identify where the clients existing links come from.

2) Linkable Asset Analysis

– Identify the content the client currently has that can be used for link building.

3) Link Opportunity Analysis

– Brainstorm and identify potential link sources.

Link Building Strategy (cont.)4) Set Up Link Prospecting

– Use tools like Google Alerts to identify sources that have mentioned your brand so that you can ask them to link from that mention.

5) Promote the Content of Industry Influencers

6) Create New Content

7) Conduct Link Acquisition

– Conduct outreach, such as broken link mining, to request links from reliable sources.

Full SEOPlan

What Does an SEO Plan Look Like?

1) Perform keyword analysis and selection

2) Implement onsite checklists for designers and SEOs

3) Develop link building strategy

4) Reporting

5) Tweaking as necessary

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