The Best SEO and Analytics Practices
Transcript of The Best SEO and Analytics Practices
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/vboutcomvboutwww.vbout.com The Best SEO and Analytics Practices
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/vboutcomvboutwww.vbout.com
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Table of Contents
31. IntroSlide 4 What is SEO? 2. BasicsSlides 8SEO Criteria The Three Pillars3. Getting StartedSlide 12 SEO StrategyThe Customer Journey4. OptimizingSlide 22 Analytics and MetricsGoogle Analytics5. Useful Tips and TricksSlide 339 Tips to Maximize SEO Dont of Google Analytics
What is SEO?
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SEO = Search Engine Optimization, but what does that mean?It is the art of influencing search engines to rank your content higher in organic (non-paid) results.
Source: Pams slides
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What is SEO?
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Or we can say it is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to a site through organic means.Quality traffic getting visitors to your site who are interested in your product or service.
Source: https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo
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What is SEO?
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Quantity of traffic more of the right people clicking through from search engine results pages (SERP).Organic results unpaid, non advertised pages.
Source: https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo
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What Year Was SEO Created?
7In 1990, Archie (or Archive) was created as the first search engine. The FTP site hosted an index of downloadable directory listings.Due to limited space, it was only listings, and did not list the contents for each site.
Source:https://www.wordstream.com/articles/internet-search-engines-history7
What is the Criteria for SEO?
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There are over 200 known ranking factors that Google uses to determine rankings.These factors can be combined into 3 categories or pillars:Technical ContentOff Page
Source: https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo
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The 3 Pillars of SEO
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The Technical part of SEO includes:Search engine friendly website codes and tagsError free codeMobile friendlinessThe speed of your siteInternal linking
These address both proper labeling and better user experience.
Source: Pams presentation9
The 3 Pillars of SEO
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The Content part of SEO includes:What keywords you useWhere and how you use themHow you organize the contentFrequency of new content added to your site
This addresses proper labeling and the quality of your site.
Source: Pams presentation10
The 3 Pillars of SEO
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The Off Page part of SEO includes:How many reputable and relevant websites link to your pageSocial media signalsFor local businesses, NAP Citations which are phone book listings
This helps determine the relevancy and quality of your site.
Source: Pams presentation11
SEO Strategy
12 A successful SEO strategy consists of 4 parts:TechnicalContentOff PageMeasurement & Analysis Each part plays an important role in optimizing traffic to your site.
Source:
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SEO and The Customer Journey
13Why does SEO matter so much?The majority of web traffic is driven by search engines. Search engines are a roadmap to your site. If they cant find your site or add your content to their databases, youll miss valuable opportunities to be found.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo13
SEO and the Customer Journey
14This is true for any type of website or product, whether B2B or B2C.The statistic below is for both, and as a result, SEO strategy should be seen as a necessary step in addressing your entire buyers journey.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/14
SEO and the Customer Journey
15 How important is it to get on the first page with organic search as opposed to paid ads? Extremely. People trust Googles organic top choices over all others, and this statistic reflects that.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/http://www.infront.com/blogs/the-infront-blog/2015/6/17/value-of-first-page-google-results15
SEO and the Customer Journey
16What if I dont get on the first page? How many people click to to the second or third?Only 8.5% of web traffic go past the first page.
Page 1 91.5%Page 2 4.8%Page 3 1.1%Page 4 0.4%
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/http://www.infront.com/blogs/the-infront-blog/2015/6/17/value-of-first-page-google-results16
SEO and the Customer Journey
17Capturing customers during research is more than just the keywords for products. In research theyre looking for information to help them make a decision.These should be prominent on your site and will also boost your SEO.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/17
SEO and the Customer Journey
18Determine these keywords in 3 ways: Know your buyer persona and all items they search for related to your products.Work with an SEO expert to research all the terms that will help your rankings.Check what your competitors are doing and using to improve SEO.
WhoWho are Your customers?What What drives their behavior?
Where Where are they?When When will they buy?
How How do they make decisions?Why Why are they buying?
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/18
SEO and the Customer Journey
19For B2C, say you have a t-shirt line. Customers may compare your pricing and designs to your competitors. Related keywords should be part of your SEO strategy as well.SEO is not a standalone, set-it-and-forget-it activity. It fits in the whole process of capturing leads online and needs to be tweaked often.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/19
SEO and the Customer Journey
20This chart visualizes where organic search stands in the buyer decision process for an ecommerce business:
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seohttp://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/20
SEO and the Customer Journey
21Once your SEO is set-up, youll need to monitor traffic closely.Data on your visitors is a necessary part of achieving your goals.As mentioned earlier, its the 4th part of SEO strategy and will tell you what to improve.
Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo21
Analytics and Metrics
22Start with Google Analytics. Think of this as the Who, What, Where and Why of your traffic.Who is your audience: characteristics of who visited your site (geo location, browser/device used, language spoken, etc.)
Source: Pams slides22
Analytics and Metrics
23What is behavior: what the user did on your site, how long they stayed, etc.Where is acquisition: where users came from and how they found you.Why refers to conversions: if they completed the goal, which could be a download, purchase, or signup.
Source: Pams slides23
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Analytics & Metrics Tracking results will determine what to improve to meet your goals. You can track things like: open rate, sequence progress, engagement, clicks and much more.
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4 Key Google Analytics Reports
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Critical reports to review:Traffic Sources by Channel: where visitors come from.Top Landing Pages: insight into content that draws in your visitors.
Source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015?hl=en25
4 Key Google Analytics Reports
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Top referring sources: the referral site that lead users to you.Conversions: goals completed by visitors.
Source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015?hl=en26
5 Steps to Setup Google Analytics
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Set up an account using your URL. Add tracking codes to your site.Define goals to identify critical actions users should take on site.Link analytics and adwords to the account. Add tracking codes to each page you are monitoring.
Source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015?hl=en27
Google AdWords
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AdWords are the words that companies bid on in Google for the paid ads we mentioned earlier.To the left youll see an example for converse trainers.This store bid on those terms against others in order to be first in the list.Its labeled with ad and bidding is much like an auction run by Google.
Source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015?hl=en28
5 Important Google Analytics Terms
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Pages/Session. Average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are counted.Average Session Duration. The average length of a session.Bounce Rate. Percentage of single page sessions, or sessions where the person left quickly without interacting with the page.
Source: Pams slides29
5 Important Google Analytics Terms
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Source. The place users are before your site, could be a search engines or another site.Medium. How users arrived at your content. Values for the Medium include organic, none for direct traffic and CPC for paid search.
Source: Pams slides30
Some Google Analytics Examples
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Some Google Analytics Examples
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9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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SEO is always evolving and all businesses need to adapt. Here are 9 tips to help you maximize SEO in 2016:1) Intention is everything. Clicks used to be the focus, but now its post-click activity. Not only do you have to get the clicks, but you have to satisfy user intent.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx33
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Keywords arent everything. Words in the headline are less important. Now you need to also focus on associated words with the content.For example: best restaurants search. Use words that are associated with that topic like great dining experiences, 5 star service, palatable meals.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx34
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Focus on user experience. Original content is more important than ever to justify someone wanting to read it or share it.Size Matters. Longer articles, 1,200 1,500 words perform better in searches on average.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx35
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Optimize for mobile. Make sure Google can understand the content that's found within a mobile app.This image is from a site developers at Google.Google has many rules for SEO, but they also provide free tools and information online to learn it.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx36
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Use unique images and label them properly.Give the image a proper name like Notre-Dame-Paris.jpg vs 23498_DG.jpg.Use Alt-text which is added so there is descriptive text if the image cant be displayed, and make sure it contains your SEO keyword.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx37
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Backlinks. When other sites and blogs link back to your site. Increases your credibility and ranking. Be careful! If you use spammy ways to get backlinks, Google will find out and ban you from search results. Heres a safe way, try reviews:
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspxhttps://blog.monitorbacklinks.com/seo/seo-backlinks/38
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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8. Subfolders vs Subdomain. Google ranks subfolders higher.Subdomain: the "third level" domain name; these are free to create under your root domain.Subfolder: Folders behind a domain address.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspxhttps://moz.com/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites39
9 Tips to Maximize SEO
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Meta Descriptions. Text that appears below your page in a search result that gives more info than the title. Write something compelling to stand out, include a CTA, use targeted keywords (appear in bold) and make sure no text is cut off.
Source: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/seo-rules-2016.aspx40
The Donts of Google
41Dont saturate or stuff your site with too many keywords. Google is on to this trick and you will be blacklisted and get a bad ranking.Dont buy links.Dont use links from low quality, unrelated, spammy links.
Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/8-mistakes-made-search-engine-optimization-one-needs-avoid-01526312#OrSGcIyBxkzP4IJS.97Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/dos-donts-modern-seo-0792330#GtiEwZOYqEULXAg0.9741
The Donts of Google
42Dont forget to index pages. Broken or missing pages will not be included in search results. It results in a 404 error messages.Indexing pages means adding pages to the Google search.A no-index tag means that thatpagewill not be added into theweb searchs index.
Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/8-mistakes-made-search-engine-optimization-one-needs-avoid-01526312#OrSGcIyBxkzP4IJS.97Source for indexing - http://www.shoutmeloud.com/google-crawling-and-indexing.html
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The Donts of Google
43For higher ranking, only vital partsof your blog/website should be indexed. Submit your sitemap.Dont index unnecessary archiveslike tags, categories, and all other useless pages. This tool here to the right is in Google Webmaster tools.
Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/8-mistakes-made-search-engine-optimization-one-needs-avoid-01526312#OrSGcIyBxkzP4IJS.97Source for indexing - http://www.shoutmeloud.com/google-crawling-and-indexing.html
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Indexing Continued
44Dont forget to update content frequently. Dont forget to use social media links as another way for crawlers to find your site. Add your links on all your pre-existing profiles.Your ranking drops if your content is stale. Social media can also help your search ranking, like GE.
Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/8-mistakes-made-search-engine-optimization-one-needs-avoid-01526312#OrSGcIyBxkzP4IJS.97Source for indexing - http://www.shoutmeloud.com/google-crawling-and-indexing.html
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Bonus Tips
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Google Search Console, formerly know as Webmaster Tools, is a great FREE tool.It is the only place where Google will communicate directly with you about your site.Some really important additions are assessments on mobile usability.
Source: Pams slides45
Bonus Tip
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Shows exactly how Googlebot is interpreting your site:Crawling / indexing errorsHacks / malwareUsability issuesAlso shows keywords driving traffic to your site.Find it here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Source: Pams slides46
Conclusion
47Start with a good plan that guides your tactics for what you want to achieve.Determine how you will measure your success.Familiarize yourself with new SEO practices constantly.Make sure you use more than just keywords in your content. Use related words for the subject matter.
Conclusion
48Make sure the content is mobile friendly.Update site content frequently (at least monthly).SEO is a process so dont have a set it and forget it mentality. It takes time and it needs to be updated and improved to work effectively.
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