what is seo general assembly training
Post on 19-Oct-2014
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JOHN DOHERTY DISTILLED NYC
SEO What it is and
what you need to know. John Doherty
Distilled NYC
http://www.distilled.net
John Doherty
SEO Consultant at Distilled NYC.
Company Blog: http://www.distilled.net/blog/
Personal Blog: http://www.johnfdoherty.com/
SEO Consultant – Distilled [email protected]
http://twitter.com/#!/dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
Before we talk about SEO, we need to talk
about the online marketing landscape.
@dohertyjf
Inbound Marketing
SEO is not a full marketing
strategy. Rather, it is an integral
part of the online, and more
precisely, inbound marketing
landscape, which encompasses
social, email, SEO, webinars,
content, and so much more.
This infographic illustrates it well: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-
online-marketing-with-giant-infographic-11928
@dohertyjf
What is SEO (search engine optimization)?
@dohertyjf
SEO is:
The process of improving the visibility of a website
or a webpage in the search engines via “natural” or
unpaid means. SEO involves using relevant
keywords on a page and working to rank for those
terms that are typed into the search engine.
@dohertyjf
In short, SEO is the way content gets found
on the Internet
@dohertyjf
Better yet, SEO is the way that GREAT
content gets found on the Internet.
Search Engine
Statistics
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@dohertyjf
Current spread of search engine market share according to netmarketshare.com.
Google owns 84% of the US search market.
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Over 100 billion searches per month in 2009, according to Comscore
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Many of the queries on Google are not “head terms”, but are rather longtail searches.
So, we need strong domains and a lot of quality content to really win.
@dohertyjf
There are two kinds of listings in the search
engines.
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Paid and organic
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But there are multiple verticals of search as
well, and each requires different (yet related)
tactics to rank well.
@dohertyjf
Regular organic (which is slowly getting less visibility)
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
@dohertyjf
Local listings (restaurants, doctors, etc)
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
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Ecommerce search
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Ecommerce in the search results
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Images
http://searchengineland.com/library/seo/seo-image-search
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Video SEO
Presentation
Articles
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Blogs
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And sometimes they all collide
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And some more on the next page.
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There are author photos showing.
http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement-rel-author
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And review stars and related searches.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99170
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And now, search is both universal and
personal.
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Familiar with Google+?
https://plus.google.com
@dohertyjf
It is creeping into the search results.
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You receive “normal” organic when you toggle the switch, or are not logged in.
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But even then, they track you by IP address and other factors, like web browsing
history.
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In short, SEO has become complicated.
@dohertyjf
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
The best place to get started
So why bother with SEO/online marketing at all?
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
Ranking high is quite important
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If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. Image source
@dohertyjf
First position (usually) gets the traffic
The first position gets on average,
according to this study by Slingshot SEO,
18.2% of the clicks for that search. Then
the number decreases:
Position 2: 10.05%
Position 3: 7.22%
Position 4: 4.81%
Position 5: 3.09%
Position 6: 2.76%
Position 7: 1.88%
@dohertyjf
The SEO industry is growing.
@dohertyjf
The SEO Industry
According to Forrester Research,
interactive (online) marketing
spend will grow from $34.5 billion
in 2011 to $76.6 billion in 2016.
Currently, about $3.2b per year is
spent on SEO/inbound marketing,
and will grow to $5.1b by 2014..
Said simply, it’s growing fast because people are seeing an increased ROI.
According to this: http://bit.ly/IuM8pc
@dohertyjf
Online Marketing Spend
According to this survey of 939 marketing professionals, over 90% of businesses plan to
maintain or increase their online marketing spend. This includes paid search as well.
Said simply, it’s growing fast because people are seeing an increased ROI.
According to this: http://bit.ly/IuM8pc
@dohertyjf
Online Marketing Spend
Over half plan to increase SEO/PPC spend. Almost 60% plan to increase email marketing spend, and almost the same amount plan to increase spend on social media.
http://www.strongmail.com/pdf/SM_Trends2012.pdf
How does SEO
work?
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
Many different areas on and around a website
affect SEO/traffic from organic means.
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In short, the more and better links you have
from other websites to your site, the
stronger your site will be and the better your
content will rank.
@dohertyjf
Google operates off Pagerank
Pagerank is the link analysis algorithm off of which
Google bases its rankings. Other search engines have
similar algorithms. The higher your Pagerank, the
stronger your site is considered and the better
chance your content has of ranking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
@dohertyjf
But we do not know Pagerank
Domain Authority is SEOmoz's calculated metric for
how well a given domain is likely to rank in
Google.com's search results. It is based off of the
Linkscape web index and includes link counts,
mozRank, mozTrust, and dozens more. The stronger
the site, the better content will rank.
So we use Domain and Page authority
Domain Authority Definition
@dohertyjf
Page Authority
Page Authority is SEOmoz's calculated metric for
how well a given webpage is likely to rank in
Google.com's search results. It is based off of the
Linkscape web index and includes link counts,
mozRank, mozTrust, and dozens more. The stronger
the page, based off the different metrics, the better it
could rank.
Page Authority definition
@dohertyjf
But all this means nothing if you do not have
quality content on your site that can rank for
these terms AND that keeps your customers
happy when they find your site.
Onsite factors
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
Content
Better content, often times
content that is not timely (we call
it evergreen), tends to get more
visits. If you want to rank better
for more, create better content.
The better your content is, the
better the search engines will rank
it, and the more links you will be
able to get to it.
@dohertyjf
Mixed forms of media get the most links as well.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-makes-a-link-worthy-post-part-1
@dohertyjf
The site structure determines how well search crawlers can access your content.
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Page titles
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Design has a correlated effect (not causative, but influences user happiness)
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No one wants to look at this.
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All of this influences the share-ability of your site on social networks.
@dohertyjf
Social Signals are well correlated to
rankings
While social might not influence rankings directly, it can drive traffic and is present in a
lot of sites that rank well.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
@dohertyjf
Winning online today takes
creating real value for your customers.
To do this in a way that also benefits
your SEO by earning you high-quality
links, high quality linkable assets must
be created.
The content that does well
online
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@dohertyjf
Unique (http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/)
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Comprehensive (http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialsuccess/social-media/)
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Funny (http://fuckyeahcowboyboots.tumblr.com/)
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Instructional (http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/)
Types of content
that do well online
today
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@dohertyjf
http://adage.com/power150/
This page has 1,112 linking root domains. That’s a powerful page!
Awards
@dohertyjf
http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/infographic/interactive-music-
map/index.html
This visualization got 14.3k tweets, 26k likes, and 316 linking root domains.
Data Visualizations
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Infographics
http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/angry-birds-addiction/
This infographic has received at least 210 linking root domains.
@dohertyjf
The Hubspot whitepapers page has received 95 linking root domains, and each
whitepaper has gotten more of its own.
http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/
Whitepapers
@dohertyjf
This online safety guide (http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/), which is not even that
attractive, has received 246 linking root domains.
Resource Guides
@dohertyjf
Our Distilled people page flips the person’s photo when you mouse over it.
http://www.distilled.net/about/people/
Everything can be an asset today
@dohertyjf
Our Distilled 404 page went hot on Reddit in September and drove almost 100k visits
to our site.
Everything can be an asset today
@dohertyjf
Guess which day it was popular.
@dohertyjf
The point is, everything can be linked to. Creating content that is unique and buzzworthy is the way forward, in every industry, online.
Offsite factors (link
acquisition)
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
You have to do outreach
Outreach can take many different forms. Sometimes
it is through emailing bloggers, sometimes it is PR,
sometimes it is through interviews, sometimes it is
through guest content.
And usually, outreach is a combination of all of the above.
@dohertyjf
The kinds of links you want
The general rule of the links you want is:
From reputable domains;
In article is better than sitewide;
Relevant text in the link back to your site;
The harder the link is to acquire, the more valuable it
is (harder to replicate, and from stronger domains)
And usually, outreach is a combination of all of the above.
@dohertyjf
Think of linkbuilding as branding too
If you care about your company and your brand, you
should think about where you want links placed. The
best links are the ones that not only pass strength to
your site, but also get you referral traffic and get you
in front of your target audience.
Think to yourself: where is your ideal link from?
A good post on it: http://brandintellect.com.au/branding-vs-link-building/
@dohertyjf
Linkbranding takes work
I would rather have one link from Time.com than
100 links put into the comments of websites by an
automated process.
The Time link will get you:
• A very strong link
• Brand visibility
• Referral traffic
@dohertyjf
Spamming is risky
Not only is spamming comments and buying links
from sites becoming a less effective strategy, and it is
more expensive long-term than building high-quality
linkable assets, it also puts you at risk for penalties
from Google which can literally kill your search
engine visibility.
Read about what happened to JCPenney in 2011.
@dohertyjf
You want to be proud of your brand, right?
What does SEO get
you?
@dohertyjf
@dohertyjf
Inbound marketing has a lower cost per lead than outbound marketing
http://www.hubspot.com/Portals/53/docs/resellers/reports/state_of_inbound_marketin
g.pdf
@dohertyjf
This is why companies are decreasing spend on outbound marketing, and spending
more online.
@dohertyjf
The more you invest in SEO, the better your leads and conversion rates are.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/2012SearchMBRSEOExcerpt.pdf
@dohertyjf
Not to mention more traffic
@dohertyjf
And ultimately more business
JOHN DOHERTY
Thank You
Questions?
John Doherty
Distilled NYC
http://www.distilled.net