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Etela Ivkovic, GM, DragonSearch - @Etela, +Etela

Josepf Haslam, Biz Dev, DragonSearch - @Josepf

Advanced SEO Foundation & Deep Dive Techniques

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Background on SEOWhat/Why

• Context of SEO: looking at it’s influence and history and tying it all together with “How to grow your business online” infograph

Resource• The Complete Walk-Through to Grow Your Bu

siness Online #Infographic

• The DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual

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Context Slide from infographics

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Source: BIA/Kelsey Group, User View Wave VII, May 2010

97%of online consumers research products & services

online before buying

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Promise of Google

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Context slide SEO/Social

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Evolution

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0. Self Published Indexes/Directories1. Human Published SERPs (Yahoo)2. Counting Words on a Page (AltaVista/Lycos)3. Counting Words & External Links (Google)4. PageRank and “Voting” with Links (Google/Bing)5. Social Voting, Site Authority, Awesome Content,

Citations, Connectedness, Author Citations/Rank

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Step back

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Why Social Recommendations

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What is SEO

• We take a deeper dive into the technical side of SEO• Explaining how it has morphed from a three legged

stool to four legs and then turn to our learning objectives

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What is SEO?

• Search Engine Optimization is the Art & Science of helping your site be crawled, indexed and be found in Organic/Natural (nonpaid) Search Results.

• SEO is a process & a mindset• Expands into site architecture, coding

performance, usability, content quality, user interaction, sharing and conversion

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Optimization

1. Site Content2. Site Code, Structure &

Performance3. External Backlinks4. Social Signals

The 3 legged stool of SEO just got another leg

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Learning Objectives

• We will clear the major elements of SEO in this order:

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Learning Objectives

• The importance of and how to conduct advanced keyword research• Advanced on-page optimization with cross linking strategy• Advanced off-site factors including link building and maintenance• How to evaluate the health of your back-link portfolio• How to assess the strength of your competitor back-links and where their visitors

come from • Discover how to identify the demographics of your top competitor sites• What is Google Panda & Penguin updates and how to use them to your advantage• How to overcome common problems associated with CMS driven sites such as

duplicate content, spider traps• SEO & Social Media• Understand Google’s vision for the future of search to gain a competitive

advantage

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But first, the Goal

• “Start with the end in mind” Dr. Stephen Covey

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What’s The End Objective

THE MONEY!

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Be Found Online, Drive Results!

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How Do I Get More (and Better) Organic Traffic?

• Understand keywords (search phrases) that are important to you

• Understand how Google determines relevance• Build and optimize your site based on keyword

research for all 4 elements of SEO (later)• Get citations / shares / back-links to improve

positions over time• Measure, tweak and test based on Analytics

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Take a Deep Breath

• A website is posted, linked to, or updates its content• Search engine “spider” or “bot” crawls the page• Skims URL, page titles, meta data, text, images, etc.• Follow links, counts in/out• Indexes keywords, SEMANTICS, notes frequency• “Weighs” the page relative to others as well as based

on user behavior for topical relevance & quality

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Advanced Keyword Research

• It all starts here, you have to understand what people are searching for and how that is related to your business.

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Advanced Keyword Research

• It starts with your own Analytics• Track your internal site search• Google Suggest• AdWords Keyword Tool• Google Trends• YouTube Keyword Tool• Keyword Spy

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What is Google Analytics?

• Free, easy-to-use web analytics tool• Provides reports showing how visitors found your website, and

what they did when they got there• Measures the effectiveness of your online and offline marketing

campaigns• You STILL may need to build a Marketing ROI Dashboard to

integrate offline channels!!!

www.google.com/analytics

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Am I creating effective content?

How can I improve site interaction?

What keywords did they use?

Where are visitors coming from?

Where are visitors abandoning my shopping cart?

What Answers Can Google Analytics Provide?

Set goals and track performance

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Multi Channel Funnels – Tracking the Marketing Mix

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Using AdWords for Keywords

• How does Google make 98% of its revenue? – PPC

• Google’s AdWords will show you how Google evaluates your site for Paid Advertising

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Image copyright: public domain

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Research

– Body Text here– Body Text here– This is a test– 123

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Focus

Rumplestiltskin

Big Bad Wolf

Cinderella Sleeping Beauty

Mother Goose

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Google Trends for SearchView what the world is searching for and gain insights for your business

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Applying Trends to Predict Product Sales

• Compare interest between states or regions:

o What type of jeans should a Wyoming retailer stock?o What about Oklahoma?

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Google SuggestWhat people are searching for on Google

• Drops down a list of suggestions as you type• People are asking Google..

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How to Use Google Suggest• Type s-l-o-w-l-y, pay attention, be creative• Keep typing letter by letter and the suggestions will change• Try it signed out

o Google pulls from your history (if signed in) and other users, indexed sites and ads.• Great way to get ideas to expand your topical relevance, attract new relevant

traffic and consider paid ads• Write down the ideas and run them through the Google AdWords keyword

research toolo Experiment by checking “Don’t show ideas for new keywords”

o Compare the results, take them to Google Trendso Watch Suggest for reputation management purposes

Resources• How Google’s “Search Suggest” Works Video

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Short Head – Long Tail

Beast

Mythical Beast

Mythical New York Beast

Mythical New York Subway Beast

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Think in Neighborhoods

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Checkout Competition

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Recap of Keyword Research

• Start with your site’s analytics• Study your internal site search• Play with Google Suggest• Get search volume and competition data from AdWords• Check and compare key phrase performance over time

in Google Trends• Map out your site and document your keyword strategy• Use the long tail• Pay close attention to related terms and synonyms

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Advanced On-page Optimization (1)

• Search engines rank pages also factoringo usability, o social signals, o site authority, o user interaction with the site,o speed, etc.

• Google factors in UX (User Experience) o Running a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) program will help focus on UX

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• Research, benchmark, compare to competitors, plan goals, prioritize

• Continue on-page optimization best practices!• Use semantically related words and synonyms• Get UGC (user generated content) like reviews,

comments, etc.• Enable and encourage social sharing

Advanced On-page Optimization (2)

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Advanced on-page optimization (3)

• Use Schema (more on this later)• Pay attention to your entire site’s theme• Create and publish awesome content on a regular

basis• Make sure your site is structured well around your

audience’s needs and your important pages• Use CRO to improve site performance and UX• Ensure your site was built with clean code, is fast,

accessible, content is indexable

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Doing Things the Right Way

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<HTML>

</HTML>

Spiders read the HTML

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<HTML>

</HTML>

<head>

</head>

<body>

</body>

Organized HTML is Important!

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<HTML><head>

</head>

<Title> My Title </Title><Meta Name=“Description” Content=“This is my page”>

<Meta Name=“Keywords” Content=“this, that, other”>

Dual view of code/SERP

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<h1>My Top Header</h1>

<p>A bunch of paragraph text</p>

<h2>A Secondary Header</h2>

<p>And a lot more paragraph text</p>

<h3>A Tertiary Header</h3>

<p>And perhaps some more text</p>

<p>A List:</p>

<ul> <li>A list item</li> <li>Another list item</li> <li>Yet another list item</li></ul>

<p>And this is a <a href="http://mylink.com">LINK </a></p>

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Schema.org• Structured data

o Helps search engines understand data & provide better search results• Major search engines need and support it• Enhanced search display – stand out• Sites are already benefiting from it• Events, products, recipes, reviews, videos, etc.• Go through the list and use what applies to your site• Tag your data• Test your code, preview your snippet

Resources• Schema.org - Full Hierarchy• Schema.org's FAQ and blog• Structured Data Testing Tool

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Recap of On-page Optimization

• Research, benchmark, plan• Make sure your site is accessible to spiders, loads fast, is well structured

and coded• Keep your site’s theme focused• Follow traditional on-page optimization best practices: title, description,

headers, copy, images, link out to high authority relevant sites, cross linking, URLs, call to action, etc.

• Do not over-optimize pages, links• Use natural language: synonyms, related, relevant terms, stemming

variations, singular/plural, etc.• Use Schema• Get UGC• Get social

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Resources & ToolsTools• Webmaster Tools• Google Analytics• Google AdWords Keyword Tool• YouTube Keyword Tool

Blogs• DragonSearch Marketology Blog• SEOmoz – Blog and community• Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s Webspam team• Search Engine Land – News, insights

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Advanced Off-site Factors

• If you build it they will not come• Unless you are the only one in the world with

your unique content• We turn to off-site factors in SEO in this next

section

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Advanced Off-site Factors

• Off-site begins with “real”, great content• Get your great content in front of the target

audience• Where are they?• Do real life stuff

o Get involved with on and offline communities, sponsor, donate, help, etc.

• Be a guest author

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The Back Link Portfolio

Easy

Hig

h

Difficult

LowDirectories

Special Sites

Link building changed but is still very important

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Not All Links are Equal

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Why Links Are Important

• Links to your pages confer authority and relevancy to that page

• The more important the page linking to you, the more beneficial for you

• The more relevant the page linkingto you is, the better

• The more relevant the wording that people use to link to your site, the better

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Why Links Are Important To Google

• Links tell Google what a website is about• What keywords are relevant to your site• How important your site is• Where your site is• What content niche the site occupies – what the

context of your site is

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NEW SCHOOL

OLD SCHOOL

BROADER LONG TAIL

RELATIONSHIPS

RELEVANT CONNECTIONS

SHORT HAND OPTIMIZATION

BACKLINKSReciprocal Linking

RELEVANT CONNECTIONS

Fueled by

Social Media

Old School vs. New School SEO

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Google Webmaster Tools

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How to Evaluate the Health of Your Backlink Portfolio

• Walk-through SEOMOZ’s OpenSitExplorer.org • A tool to evaluate your own site and your competition

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How to Assess the Strength of Your Competitor Backlinks

• We continue our walk-through SEOMOZ’s Open Sit Explorer to take a closer look at competitive back-links

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Review Linking Domains & Anchor Text

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Local• On-page

o Local signals - Address, local phone, geographical relevance, etc.o Traditional SEO best practices – geo-modified

• Off-siteo Local links, listings, maps, proper categories, etc.o NAP – name, address, phone number consistencyo Google+ - verification, accurate category, local address and phone numbero Who is ranking for your terms?

o What are they doing?o How can you be on their site?

• Reviews• Ratings• Citations• Social mentions

Resources• 2012 Local Search Ranking Factors• Glossary of Local Search Terms and Definitions

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Google Panda & Penguin• We focus on the big two named changes, but, Google has

fundamentally changed how they index the web. Wake up and pay attention!

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Google Panda Updates• First released February 23, 2011• Panda #24 released January 22, 2013• Target:

thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratios, quality, authority, trust, integrates usersignals

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Panda – What Do I Do?• Vision for your company and content. Differentiate yourself.• Create awesome, unique content. Good content is not good enough. • Remove duplicate content• Remove low quality pages• Improve or merge shallow content into high-quality content• Low quality content will affect the high quality pages and the entire site’s

rankings• Strategic cross linking strategy• Stop chasing the algorithm & focus on the user and

long term business development – do #RCS: real company stuff

Resources:• Google’s guidance on building high-quality sites• Panda Update News• Google Panda Update, One Year Later, Infographic

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Google Penguin Updates

• First released April 24, 2012• Penguin #3 released October 5, 2012• Target:

webspam, link schemes, over optimized anchor text, keyword stuffing, cloaking, low quality content

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Penguin – What Do I Do?

• Did your traffic drop right after 4/24/12? Hit.• Did your traffic increase? Benefited.• Clean up on-page spam• Remove spammy links – also check for WordPress plug-

ins that may insert hidden links• Don’t stuff keywords in your anchor text for both

internal and external links• Only use the Disavow Tool if you have to• Diversify and build high-quality, relevant links• Get social media love

Resources• Report errors if you think you were penalized by mistake• Google’s Disavow Links Tool – To Use or Not to Use?• Link Building Strategies of Yosemite Sam Meet Google’s Disavow Tool• Penguin Recovery During Panda Update Case Study• Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study

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Do Not Do This! Please!

Resources• Google’s Link Schemes Guidelines

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Panda <3 Penguin

Why I think they got married

• Target spam, link scheme• Low quality content,

keyword stuffing• Low quality links• Authority, trust• Social signals• Moving towards quality,

unique content & authorship

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Other Updates• June 2010 - Caffeine rollout

o Index freshness: nearly real time crawling and indexing

o Set the stage for Panda and Penguin

• May 2010 – Mayday; returning quality results for long-tail queries• February 2011 – Panda• April 2012 – Penguin• May 2012 - Knowledge Graph• August 2012— 7-Result SERPs• September 2012 – Exact Match Domain Update

Resources• Keyword Rich Domain Names – Should You Invest?• 7 Is The New 10? Google Showing Fewer Results & More From Same Domain• Search quality highlights: 65 changes for August and September

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How Do I Deal with Constant Updates?

• They are here to stay and more is coming• Panda/Penguin changed the way many businesses approach

online marketing• Understand your niche and audience; set yourself apart• Focus on doing real business development = be update proof• Google will crush algorithm manipulation efforts• Have a multi pronged approach

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Overcoming CMS Problems

• Wordpress example using an SEO Plug-in as a best practice

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Not All CMS’s are Created Equal

• Open Source platforms like WordPress typically have a wider variety of options

• SEO is critical to your website being found and therefore your business results

• You may want to consider a platform move before investing a lot of time into site optimization…

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SEO & Social Media

• “The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.” Bob Dylan

• SEO & Social are merging in ways no-one can accurately predict, however…

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• 71% to 83% of people use “Reviews” to influence purchase decisions

• 80% will change a decision based on negative reviews

Evidence of Social Influence

17%

83%

Social Influence on Purchasing

Does not use

Uses Online Reviews

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Why Does Social Add so Much Value?

• A study of 56 billion impressions, 2.7 billion clicks and $13 billion in revenue concludes that inclusion of Social Media increases revenue 84% over natural search alone.

Revenue per Order % DifferenceSocial/Others $ 280.00 107%Social Primary $ 249.08 84%Paid/Org $ 230.07 70%Display $ 206.00 52%Organic $ 135.37

What it looks like

McGinnis Example

McGinnis logged out

Virtuous Circle of Social Media for SEO

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Enterprise Level Social Monitoring

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Sysomos

Illustration from Ric Dragon’s Social Marketology book

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How Do I Measure Success?• Install Google Analytics• Set up goals• Set up Google and Bing Webmaster Tools• Your goal is not to RANK!• Increase in visitors to the site

• Bounce rate• Visit length• Number of pages visited

• Engagement and sharing• Comments, reviews, social sharing and mentions

• Conversions• Sales, form submissions, leads, phone calls, etc.

• Measure, tweak, test

Resources• Website Search Engine Rankings Got You Down? Stop the Insanity!

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The Future is?

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The Future• Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it

universally accessible and useful• What Google believes:

o #1: Focus on the user and all else will follow.o Knowledge Graph - "the semantic web", the system that has understanding

as well as datao Moving from an information engine to a knowledge engine

• The only constant is change• Information will come to you• Personalization, studying user behavior• Adapt early• Diversify your marketing efforts; don’t rely on Google only• … It may not be Google

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Any and all questions entertained!

Q & A!

Josepf Haslam, Etela Ivkovic | DragonSearch.net/blog

Josepf@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Josepf

Etela@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Etela

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Appendix - Useful Links and Resources

• DragonSearch’s blog• Josepf’s Scoop.it and Josepf’s Pinterest

• Keyword Rich Domain Names – Should You Invest?• 7 Is The New 10? Google Showing Fewer Results & More From Same Domain• Search quality highlights: 65 changes for August and September• Report errors if you think you were penalized by mistake• Google’s Disavow Links Tool – To Use or Not to Use?• Link Building Strategies of Yosemite Sam Meet Google’s Disavow Tool• Penguin Recovery During Panda Update Case Study• Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study• Google’s Link Schemes Guidelines• Website Search Engine Rankings Got You Down? Stop the Insanity!• Google’s guidance on building high-quality sites• Panda Update News• Google Panda Update, One Year Later, Infographic• Schema.org - Full Hierarchy• Schema.org's FAQ and blog• Structured Data Testing Tool

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More Resources & ToolsTools• Webmaster Tools• Google Analytics• Google AdWords Keyword Tool• YouTube Keyword Tool

Blogs• DragonSearch Marketology Blog• SEOmoz – Blog and community• Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s Webspam team• Search Engine Land – News, insights

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Josepf Haslam, Etela Ivkovic | DragonSearch.net/blog

Josepf@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Josepf, Google+: +JosepfEtela@dragonsearch.net | Twitter: @Etela, Google+: +Etela

Get these presentations here: http://drsr.ch/webgrrls

Thank You!

Social Marketology bookAvailable on Amazon!