seo best practices 2013

How to Impact Your Organic Search: SEO Best Practices 2013

Pierre M. Fiorini, Ph.D.

Managing Partner

CF Search Marketing

Contents

• SEO Review

• What changed in 2013?

• Best Practices

– On-Page SEO – Off-Page SEO – Social Signals – Mobile Strategy – SEO/SEM Synergy

Review - What is SEO?

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -A way to improve rankings in organic search

SEO

SEM

Review – SEO Why Bother?

• FREE TRAFFIC!!!

SEO/FREE

SEM/PAID

Review - How To Do SEO…

• Essentially, 3 things to do…

– ON-PAGE SEO

– OFF-PAGE SEO

– Social Signals

Review - How To Do SEO…

• On-Page SEO

– Things you actually PHYSICALLY do to your site…

• Content for your site (Make/Model Pages, etc.)

• Title Tags

• Meta Tags

• Description Text

• Putting up Specials

• Etc.

Review - How To Do SEO…

• Off-Page SEO

– Things you do OFF your site…

• Link Building (i.e., links from bloggers, bookmarks, etc.)

• Citations (i.e., local directory listings)

• Social Sharing (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.com, etc.)

• Etc.

Review - How To Do SEO…

• Off-Page SEO – Examples of Links & Anchors

Link & Anchor Text Example

Review - How To Do SEO…

• Social Signals

– What is a “social signal”?

• Likes, Links from SM sites, +1’s, mentions, tweets, re-tweets, etc., you get from Google+, FB, Twitter, Reddit.com, Social Bookmark sites, etc.

– Google has definitively said that “social signals” count in their organic ranking algorithm

Review - How To Do SEO…

• The pieces of the puzzle…

GOOGLE ORGANIC

RANK 2013

On-Page Factors

Off-Page Factors = + + Social

What’s Changed???

• Google’s Panda (2011) & Penguin (2012) Updates

• Has Changed SEO forever…

On-Page Factors

Off-Page Factors

Panda Update – (2011-Present)

• The Panda algorithm uses site metrics to “score” and rank your site

• The site “Quality Score” is based on things like:

• Bounce Rates

• Time on Site

• Pages/Visit

• Page Load Time

• Make Your Site Interesting to help these factors

• I.e., Create a GREAT user experience

On-Page Factors

Penguin Update – (2012-Present)

• Penguin Targets “Web Spam” & Manipulative “Anchor text”

Manipulative Anchor Text Examples

Google WANTS Natural Linking

• Bad links can actually hurt you now

• Google used to ignore bad links for the most part…

SEO Best Practices 2013

• Improve On-Page SEO Strategy

• Elevate Off-Page SEO Strategy

• Utilize “Social Sharing”

• Implement Mobile SEO Strategy

• Leverage SEO/SEM Synergy

Best Practices – On-Page SEO

• Make sure content is UNIQUE and WELL-WRITTEN

With Panda, all sites are given a QUALITY SCORE – the better content you have, the higher you’ll rank (Panda Farmer Update)

Best Practices – On-Page SEO

• Avoid “SPAMMY” keyword ladened text…

With Panda, all sites are given a QUALITY SCORE – the better content you have, the higher you’ll rank

“Welcome to ABC Dodge. Your Dodge dealer in Boston, MA serving Boston Massachusetts and the surrounding areas of Boston where Boston is a great city and we love the Red Sox in Boston where you can win FREE tickets if you live in the Boston area…”

• Make sure your links are as “natural” as possible…

Best Practices – Off-Page SEO

With Penguin, bad links can actually hurt you (Google used to ignore most of these)

• Do this by:

– Content Marketing

• Hosting your content on real blogs (link back to your site)

– Guest Posting

• Posting as an expert in area on a real blog (link back to your site)

– Real “Natural Linking”

• Infographics, etc.

• Natural Links are the “Holy Grail” for SEO folks…

Best Practices – Off-Page SEO

• One approach is to use “Infographics”

– There are other ways to get natural links…

• Generates tons of traffic and NATURAL links to your site

• Natural links generated by infographic…

Best Practices – Off-Page SEO

Blogger’s talking about this site and linking!

NATURAL LINKS!!!

• “Share” your content on the social networks such as FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, etc.

• Here, an “inventory page” is being posted to FB & Twitter – This helps the page get indexed and ranked higher in

Google

Best Practices – Social Sharing

• Traffic from Social Sharing…

Best Practices – Social Sharing

• 1000+ visits from Social Media sites

• Sending a strong “Social Signal” to Google

• Mobile traffic is on the rise...

• Mobile traffic will surpass desktop sometime in 2013

Best Practices – Mobile Strategy

• The best mobile strategy is to make sure that you show up in Google Map Searches

Best Practices – Mobile Strategy

• You can improve your positions in the maps by making sure you have updated “business listings”

• Also, make sure you have a mobile site and make sure metrics like page load time, bounce rates, time on site are good

• Google ranks sites better if they have a “good user mobile experience”

• How Business listings affect rankings…

• Make sure you are listed in these and have correct information! (address + phone no)

Best Practices – Mobile Strategy

• Make sure you do SEM (PPC + Display) along with SEO

Best Practices – SEO/SEM Synergy

• Make sure you do SEM (PPC + Display) along with SEO

– PPC & Display helps generate organic traffic

– When both an organic and PPC listing show up, people are 50% more likely to click on one of your links

– PPC can generate social signals

– Performance of website is always best when both SEO & PPC are utilized

Best Practices – SEO/SEM Synergy

SEO Best Practices 2013

• Improve On-Page SEO Strategy

• Elevate Off-Page SEO Strategy

• Utilize “Social Sharing”

• Implement Mobile SEO Strategy

• Leverage SEO/SEM Synergy