SEO Workshop#RaganSocialHannah Kurtz

SEO @ Verizon

Who’s the woman behind the camera?I’m Hannah Kurtz, nice to meet you all ☺● Philadelphia area native - go Phillies! (and go Birds)● 7+ Years Experience in SEO, Digital Marketing,

Analytics● Currently Consumer SEO at Verizon● Past experience at agencies big & small across pretty

much every industry: Publicis Groupe, Seer Interactive, Maven Communications & Freelance

Contact Info:

● Hannahkurtz34@gmail.com● Linkedin: /in/hannahkurtz34

SEO, What Exactly Is That?

Let’s ask Google!

Thanks Google!

SEO is really about...

.... Being found

Sounds easy, right?

Well, there are a LOT of factors that go into how content ranks.

On top of those ranking factors, Google’s algorithm can be updated up to 600 times per year.

Recently, Google is focused on two major pillars

1. Page Experience a. Technical pagespeed, accessibility, UXb. Goal is to have the web be more

accessible for all

No, not that kind of eat, Cookie Monster

2. EAT

a. Strong, authoritative contentb. Goal is to have the web be more

trustworthy

What is EAT?- Expertise

- Do you have comprehensive knowledge on a topic? Is that made clear through your content?

A good way to remember this is to think of someone in your life that fits all three of these pillars. For me, that’s Bob Ross

- Authority - Is the information you’re providing relevant,

up-to-date, & factual?

- Trustworthiness- Are you providing helpful and useful

information to your users? Do your users have confidence in your site?

Strive to make great, trusting content so Google continues to rank our site well

Cool got it (and I love Bob Ross so easy to remember!)

What is Page Experience Update?Rolled out Summer 2021

Emphases pagespeed (how fast a page loads), usability of a website (think of a clunky website you despise!), and overall user experience

Google prioritizing this to ensure websites are accessible to all

- Google hears our frustrations around slow websites with hard to navigate experiences

Wait, if my site is slow will I be penalized?

- Google won’t “ding” websites that don’t comply, however they will reward websites that do this well

- Per Google, they’re measuring this in three core metrics:

- These three all called “Core Web Vitals (CWV).”

- Can be found & measured in your site’s Google Search Console or other free tools like Lighthouse or Pagespeed Insights

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)- Measures loading

performance.

- To provide a good user experience, LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading.

Image Source: https://medium.com/speedrank-app/new-performance-metric-what-is-largest-contentful-paint-dc784a497dd5

2. First Input Delay (FID):

- Measures interactivity.

- To provide a good user experience, pages should have a FID of 100 milliseconds or less.

Image source: https://wishdesk.com/blog/first-input-delay

3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):

- Measures visual stability.

- To provide a good user experience, pages should maintain a CLS of 0.1. or less.

Why Does This Matter?- In addition to the SEO ranking implications,

having a poor site experience impacts all users regardless of channel

Let’s take an example:

- Picture this. You launched a killer Facebook & Instagram campaign and are driving record traffic to your site.

- You check in with analytics only to realize all of that targeted traffic is bouncing because the site takes forever to load. Nightmare!

Ok, don’t scare me like that. I’m sold on prioritizing site speed. How can I help out my website folks to do this?

Glad you asked (and your dev & SEO teams will be too)

Working Together to Optimize for Sitespeed

- Notify teams as you kickoff new campaigns- Content, social strategies, ad landing pages,

anything!- I guarantee your SEO and dev teams will be

glad to join these planning meetings to ensure your initiative has a best in class experience.

- Ensure images are optimized for your website- These may need to be different dimensions

or sizes than what’s on social

And That’s Not All! Your Friendly SEO Team Can Help in Loads of Ways

- Bring analytics, keyword research, competitive insights, and audience insights to any website initiative

- SEO’s have a TON of amazing tools to help analyze not only your site, but your top business and search competitors to

- Assist in structuring content that’s not only sound for users but also for Google

- Ensure technical elements including things like redirects, site errors, and yes, sitespeed, are well optimized before launch

Ok, don’t scare me like that. I’m sold on prioritizing site speed. How can I help out my website folks to do this?

Glad you asked (and your dev & SEO teams will be too)

Image Optimization - How Do We Do That?- Working with technical teams,

ensure images are uploading so they hold their integrity but do not slow page load

- Squoosh.app, a free image compression app, is a great way to do this!

- Hint: The product images you post on Instagram may not be the same exact files you use for your website

Anything else I should keep in mind with images?- Ensure all images on your website have

optimized and relevant alt text and file names

- Alt text helps users utilizing screen readers as well as those with slow connections understand visuals

- This is also how Google crawls and ranks images (pretty much every image you see in your next image search has optimized alt text)

- Likewise for videos, these should have transcripts for the same reason.

- YouTube & Vimeo make this a breeze.

Your SEO & dev teams will be thrilled to be a part of these conversations

SEOWorkshop

Generate targeted traffic

through online advertising.

SEO Analyst & Marketing Strategist

Pearson & Eclipse Digital Media

7+ Years of SEO Experience

•Give new life to your old content•Increase the Lifespan of Your Content•Promote to Encourage New Conversation

Content Revitialivation

Renew Your Content

Update Refresh Consolidate

0203

04

How is this topic

Trending?

Update

What to do?

Minor Updates to the copy

Title Tag and meta updates

Refine target keywords

Update statistics/facts

0203

04

Update SEO Elements

The title should be between 60-65 characters

The Meta descriptions should be between 140 -155 characters

Both should include updated target keywords

Refresh Headings

Re-Optimize Title Tags & Metadescriptions

Refresh

What to do?

Take new apporach

Update stance and opinion on topic

Update questions that are answered

Find additional ways to satisfy the users query

0203

04

Discover New Questions

0203

04

Study The SERPSReview Top 10 Results & People Also Ask

Consolidate

What to do?

Find Similar Topics and

Combine them to create a

stronger piece.

This also helps limit keyword

cannibalization.

Dont ForgetThe 301's

Redirect traffic and let Google

know that you are making

changes.

Now toPromote!

Use Social Media Channels and

Content promotion strategies

to re-engage your audience.

Start a new conversation about

an older topic.