SEO for Startups and Small Businesses

Why SEO?

• PROS– Cost effective– Sustainable and measureable results– High ROI– People trust organic search results

• Cons– Takes LOTS of time and patience– Algorithm changes– Huge learning curve

Introduction to SEO

• Keyword Research• On-Page SEO• Off-Page SEO• Measuring Your Progress• Google Penguin Update• Other ways to get traffic• Final Notes/Questions• Live Website Consultation

Keyword Research

• Importance of keyword research• Understanding your market– location– product type– niche.

• Think like your clients/customers• Build keyword list• Keyword tools

Google Keyword Tool

On-Page Optimization• Keyword relevancy

– Title tags and H1 Tags• Meta Tags

– Meta description = good– Meta keywords = bad

• Keyword density• Sitemap• Low Bounce Rate• Loading Speed• Content is KING• CMS

– Wordpress– Magento– Purely custom coded

• DON’T FORCE IT

WordPress Plugins

• Google XML Sitemap• Yoast SEO Plugin• WP Super Cache• Digg Digg

Off Page SEO (Link Building)

• Link Building– Page Rank (PR)– Types of links

– Contextual Links– Web 2.0 (Hubpages, Squidoo, Tumblr)– Guest blogging (build relationships)– Forums– Blog comments

– Do-follow, no-follow– Relevancy– Age– Avoid link farms/spam sites

Measuring Your Progress

• Google Analytics– Traffic– Time-on-page– Bounce rate– Conversions– Visitor Flow

Google Penguin Update

• Avoid getting irrelevant links• Diversify your anchor text• Diversify link sources• Avoid “over optimization”• Ultimate goal: Natural

What else besides SEO?

• The internet is a BIG place– Traffic sources• Social Media

– Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Reddit, Stumbledupon etc.• Paid traffic (PPC)

– Text ads (Adwords, Facebook Ads)– Banner ads

• Referral traffic– Guest blogging– Online press releases– Email marketing

Questions?

RESOURCES• Premium press release sites

– www.businesswire.com– www.prweb.com

• Free press release sites– www.prlog.com– There may be more, but we find PRLog to be the best free press release site

• Bookmarking Sites– StumbleUpon.com– Xmarks.com– Digg.com– Delicious.com– Fark.com– Reddit.com– There are many more

• Google Tools– https://www.google.com/analytics/web/ (Analyzing website)– https://www.google.com/webmasters/ (More website data)– https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool (Keyword research)

• SEO Competition Tools– http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/– http://www.majesticseo.com/– Tool Bars

• http://www.seoquake.com/• http://tools.seobook.com/

• Loading Speed– http://www.pingdom.com/