Search Engine Optimization Essentials

Why Search Engine Optimization?

Intention Based Marketing.

Bring customers to your business through your website.

Generate qualified, inbound leads.

Increase “top of mind” brand awareness in your market.

Top ranked site

The Power of the First Page

There are 10 positions on the first page of Google.

71.33% of people don’t go past the first page.

67.6% of the traffic goes to the first five results.

Google has officially indexed over 60 trillion pages

Source: Moz 2014

All this is to say:

The Internet is VERY competitive.

Search Engine Optimization

Over 200+ different factors.

Communication (On-Page Factors)

Google Panda

Google Hummingbird

Keywords

Html tags and onpage

Webmaster Tools

Page load time

Google Panda

Write quality content for your site!

Image Source: WebPro News

Google Panda

Does the article provide original content, information, or analysis?

Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

Excessive number of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

Spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?

Source: Google Webmaster Central, 2011

Google Hummingbird

Understanding what searchers want.

Personalization.

Answering people’s questions.

Latent semantic terms.

Relevance and commercial intent

What search terms best represent your business?

Is the person searching the term looking to buy, sign-up, contact, etc.?

Are these terms on your website?

Search volume

How many people in your area are searching this term? AdWords Keyword Planner

Competition

Tools: SEO Moz, SEMrush, Raven Tools

Who is ranking for this term? Are you likely to beat them?

Keywords

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-Tail Keywords

Now What?

SEO by Yoast

Meta Title and Description

XML Sitemap

Social integration

.htaccess and robots file

Webmaster Tools

Html tags and onpage

H1H2

H2

Content

Image Tags

Company logo image optimization

Google and Bing Webmaster ToolsCrawl errors, submitting sitemaps, structured data, search queries

Page Load Time

How long does your webpage take to load?

Why does it matter? User Experience & Mobile Search

40% of searches are now mobile

Tool: Page Speed Insights

Loading . . .

Source: Marketing Land 2013

Section Summary

Google Panda

Google Hummingbird

Keywords (long-tail keywords)

Html tags and onpage optimization

Webmaster Tools

Page load time

Bibliography

http://moz.com/blog/google-algorithm-cheat-sheet-panda-penguin-hummingbird

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

http://moz.com/blog/google-organic-click-through-rates-in-2014

http://www.webpronews.com/should-the-google-penguin-update-hit-sites-like-wpmu-org-2012-05

http://marketingland.com/report-nearly-40-percent-of-internet-time-now-on-mobile-devices-34639

http://moz.com/blog/how-website-speed-actually-impacts-search-ranking

http://www.business2community.com/seo/10-page-seo-tips-use-2015-01111075