SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATIONFREDDY J. NAGER22 MARCH 2017
GOOGLE IS COMPLICATED…
• Depends on user's habits, location, device• Favors big brands, social networks, aggregators• Changes constantly — as does the competition
3
GOOGLE IS DOMINANT: 64% OF SEARCH MARKET(#2 Bing: 21%)
SEO focuses on ORGANIC listings; SEM is both
WHY SEO MATTERS:CLICKS BY POSITION ON PAGE
0%
13%
25%
38%
50%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Rank
Percent Clicks by Rank
% TRAFFIC BY SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE (SERP)
0%
23%
45%
68%
90%
113%
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5+
Make sure your site is crawlable!
HOW GOOGLE CRAWLER WORKS
THE ALGORITHM(from Google's PageRank patent)
IF YOU DON'T LIKE FORMULAS…
yes, it's a popularity contest
OFFSITE SEO (link bait + link building)• Never pay for back links! • “Create high quality content and other
sites will naturally link back to you” • Anchor text matters (words other sites
use to describe you in a link) • Social media links are "do not follow"
(they don't count — not even Google+)• Promote to press and bloggers (send
news/releases with embedded links) • Create shareable content, ask for links
(not efficient)• Controversy > Quality?
“The Art of Thinking Sideways:Content Marketing for Boring Businesses”
Robin Swire, Moz, 8 April 2014, http://moz.com/blog/the-art-of-thinking-sideways-content-marketing-for-boring-businesses
TownCentreCarParks.com
TownCentreCarParks.com
http://youtu.be/l69Vi5IDc0g
"WILL IT BLEND" RESULTS
• 300 million video views• 26K links to blendtec.com• 10M links to willitblend.com • 700% sales increase in 2 years• microsites ideal for testing, sharing• crosslinking shares rank, branding
WHAT GOOGLE BOTS LOVE TO EAT:FRESH WORDS• HTML (not image!) keywords: think readers you want + their search queries
‣ Google Keyword Planner (requires AdWords account)https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
‣ Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends‣ Google auto-complete‣ proper nouns that aren't too popular (long tail)‣ don't worry about synonyms (Google Hummingbird)
• Work keywords into text NATURALLY (2-3x/page) near top/beginning‣ site name, URL, title tags (50-60 characters), headlines, subheads‣ photos: captions, photo file names (keep short), ALT text
• Not buried in rich media (videos, animations, audio, etc.)‣ include transcriptions + descriptions
• Not password-protected or orphan pages• Not meta-keyword tags or invisible words
("meta descriptions" describe your site in search results, but don't affect ranking)• Keep it fresh: UNIQUE blogs, news, features
BLACK HAT SEO VS. GOOGLE PENGUIN
• Cloaking: what you search isn't what you get• Linking to spam• Keyword stuffing (makes sites unreadable, too)• Duplicate content throughout site• Hidden text• Content theft ("scraped" content)• Penguin focuses on "unnatural" links‣ Link buying‣ Link farming (fake networks)
Don't eventhink about it!
WHO'S THE BOSS? ASK THE PANDA...
• E.A.T.: Expert, Authority, Trustworthy‣ Expert: named on many articles, focuses on area of
expertise, appears on many platforms/sites‣ Authority: back links with strong anchor text, overall
reputation/brand, clear "about" and "contact" sections‣ Trustworthy: truthful, timely, spam-free
• "High quality" content (will block the low stuff)‣ not thin, duplicate, or poorly written (go for "thick")‣ clear layout with no invasive ads‣ fast page loading, no errors
• Emphasizes user activity (site design/usability critical!)‣ bad: bounces and especially pogo-sticking‣ good: lots of interested, high quality traffic‣ note: install Google Analytics if you want to be tracked
GOOGLE MOBILE CRITERIA• Site should be phone friendly (dynamic or responsive)• Site should be fast (page speed matters!)• No interstitials (pop-ups) that cover most of the screen• Local gets priority
SUMMARY: WHAT MATTERS TO GOOGLE
• Authoritative websites (strong brands)• High quality content with keywords• Backlinks• Relevance to user• User activity on site
IN CASE YOU WANT MORE…
• Sites: Moz.com + SearchEngineLand.com• Article: Moz.com, "The Beginner's Guide To SEO"
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo• Class: CMGT-528 Web Designs for Organizations
June 28-August 7, M & W 6-10 pm, ANN 406• LinkedIn: freddynager.com