Tips & Techniques for Search Engine Optimization

Webinar presented to Philadelphia Area Careers Group

Presented by Cary Baskin The Marketing Department, Malvern PA

www.TMDMalvern.com 484-318-8160

CBaskin@TMDMalvern.com

Goal of This Presentation

Explore SEO

Tips, Tricks & Insights to Optimize your Website

SEO is very Technical – Only some is DIY

Search Engine Indexing

Local Search

Organic Search

Benefit of SEO: Higher Lead Conversion

SEO leads are

10x more

effective than

leads from

direct mail &

print advertising

Source: SEJ

Higher Conversion Means More Sales.

SEO Helps target “your” Ideal Customer

What Do Search Engines Do?

Enter a question into a search engine… an algorithm searches its INDEX to find all the website pages that match the question.

Convert questions into a list of website pages that answer the question.

How Do You Get into the Index?

Bots crawl the Internet to:

• Find the trillions of Pages

• Index (capture & store) Pages

• Interpret Pages

Getting to Page 1 Depends on How Google Interprets the Page

(site architecture)

(meta data)

(relevancy of content)

What Do We Mean by Interpret?

Algorithm Interpret the Relevance of the Pages

• Semantic (the meaning of) Analysis

• Artificial intelligence Software

• Meta Data Analysis

• Google E-A-T

• Expertise (many variants of the subject)

• Authority (Inbound Links, Shares/Follows, Citations)

• Trust (Content helps user, https)

SEO Challenge:

• Google’s algorithms use >200 unique signals.

• Google changes its algorithm > 500 times a year.

90% never look beyond page 1 of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Why does

page 1

matter?

So how do you get to Page 1?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

% Google Traffic 91.5%

4.8%

Source: Chitika Insights Report 2013

Search Engine Optimization

Tips, Tricks & Insights Search Engine Indexing

Local Search

Organic Search

To Be Found in Google - Google has to Index & Understand It

SEO Challenge: Indexing depends on Site Architecture.

• Title Tag (Keywords) • H1 Header (Keywords) • Linking Anchor Text to

Content Pages • XML Sitemap • Schema • Keywords Unique to each

Page with Original Content • Photo Alt Tags

Site Architecture

• Efficient Page Structure (SEO Equity) • Optional No Follow Tags / No Index Tags / No 404 Errors • 301 Permanent Redirects (from old to new site)

Optimize Meta Tags - Title Tag

• Use Keywords, not your company name

• Unique for each page • Use same Keyword

in H1 Header • Avoid ALL CAPS (pixels)

Tip #1

• Limit 66 characters

• For “local” SEO use the

city, state & ZIP

www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html

Title Tag tells Google what “this” page is about.

Optimize Meta Tags - H1, H2 & H3 Header

• H1 Keywords Match Title Tag

• Unique on each page • Think like newspaper

headline • H1 ~ 70 characters

Tip #1

• For “local SEO” can use

geo-attributes • Header Construct H1 Headline (main title) H2 Sub-Title (topic descriptor) H3 Section Titles (sub-sections of copy)

H1 tells Visitor what “this” content is about.

Optimize Meta Tags – Meta Description

Think of the Meta Description as an Ad

Tip #1

Tell ideal customer what “this” page is about.

Motivate customer to click on your ad

Link Anchor Text to Internal Pages Tip #2

Anchor Text Links Improves Page Rank

Add Sitemap

Sitemap is a roadmap to help search engines & users to understand your website content.

Tip #3

HTML Sitemap for Humans XML Sitemap for Search Bots

There are two types of Sitemaps

Helps Google Index the website pages.

• In 2011, four search engines agreed on a new universal language called Schema Markup

• Code to help their crawlers better understand: – What a web page is about

– So it could better match searches with the content of that page

What is Schema Markup?

Add Schema Markup Tip #4

• Helps search engine better understand your contents – Appearing as a snippet

in search results

– Higher search rank

– More website traffic

– Up to 30% more click thru

Google said: “By adding schema markup to your website, you'll also be prepared for voice search & for visibility across all platforms.”

Schema Markup – Why Use It Tip #4

Schema can positively impact your websites performance, from traffic to conversions

Search Engine Optimization

Tips, Tricks & Insights Search Engine Indexing

Local Search

Organic Search

Local Search Ranking Factors

Proximity & Category Match + Citations

1. Proximity to Search 2. Physical Address in City of Search 3. Product/Service Keyword & Location in GMB Title 4. Quantity, Quality (Authority) of Inbound Links to Domain

& GMB Landing Page Title

5. GMB Primary Category Matches a Broad Category (e.g., Primary = Restaurant, Search = Pizza)

6. Consistency of Citations in the Primary Data Sources

7. Domain Authority of Website 8. Completeness of GMB Listing

Tell Google Who, What & Where You Are Tip #5

www.GYBO.com/business

https://www.google.com/business/

Google My Business Listing Accurate NAP data Closest Business Category Match Posts • Updates • Messages • Respond to reviews • Events • Live for 7 days

Can hide address for home based business (Use service area instead)

72% of consumers search locally, 3 to 5 mile radius.

Manage Your Directory Listings

Lots of places to list your Name, Address & Phone Number

Tip #6

•Google My Business

•Directories •Local •Regional •National •Industry

•Social Media Channels •Website

•Header •Footer •Contact Page •Home Page

The Challenge: There are so many directories.

• Plan your NAP & Category before you start to claim your listings

• Be consistent across the Internet

• Use the company name you market

• Choose closest category match

• Use subscription service to manage your listings (popular providers)

• Yext • SEO Moz • Bright Local • White Spark

• Get Online Reviews – Industry Specific: Angie’s List, Thomas Register, etc.

– Local Directories: Yelp, Citysearch, etc.

– Google My Business Listing

Reviews show Google Engagement & Trust

Get Online Reviews Tip #7

Ask Customers to give you a review.

Google eliminating in Search Results

Search Engine Optimization

Tips, Tricks & Insights Search Engine Indexing

Local Search

Organic Search

To Rank an Indexed Page - Google has to Like it

SEO Challenge: Ranking depends on

Page Ranking & Domain Authority.

• Fast Load Times • Original Content • Authoritative Content • Mobile Responsive

(Mobile First Index) • Quality Inbound Links • Accurate NAP &

Category Management • http vs. https

Site Performance

• Meta Description: Not a ranking factor, but influences Click-thru-Rate which is a ranking factor

How PageRank Works

Google assigns a score to “every”

web page based on Links to the content & its Content Score.

Think of a link as a vote.

Ranking Score = Content Score x Link Score

It’s how Google assigns

relevance to every page.

Domain Authority

A search engine ranking score developed by Moz: • Predictor of how well a website will rank on SERPs • Calculated by evaluating multiple factors into a single score:

• Linking domains • Number of total links

• Measured on a logarithmic scale, which means: • Much easier to improve your score if your DA is 20 or 30 • Than if it was at 70 or 80

• < 10 is invisible • 10 to 40 is below average • 40 to 50 is average • 50 to 60 is good • > 60 is excellent

Organic Search Ranking Factors

Content & Quality Links are the Driver

1.Quality / Authority & Diversity of Inbound Links 2.Domain Authority (SEO Moz, predictor) 3.Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of

Domain Content 5.Mobile Friendly / Responsive Site 6.Geographic (City) Keyword Relevance of Content 7.Product/Service Keyword in Anchor Text of Links 8.Click Thru Rate (CTR) from Search Results 9.Volume of Quality Content on Entire Site 10.Location & GMB Attributes

Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

• Design online version of the sales process

– Keyword strategy

– Map the buyers keyword search at each step

• Early in the sales cycle

– Simple keywords Used Car

• Later in the sales cycle

– Long-tail searches Used Volvo XC90 Malvern PA

Sales Funnel

Know & Understand

your Ideal customer’s FAQs

Optimize Content for Search Intent Tip #8

Website Pages B2C

B2B

<50 51 to 100 101 to 200 201 to 300 301 to 500 501 to 1,000 >1,000

500

1,500

3,500

Tra

ffic

Data Courtesy of HubSpot

Articles & eBooks

White Papers - Case Studies

Blogs - Vlogs

Videos - Podcasts

Optimize Content for Search Intent Tip #8

Quality (ORIGINAL) Content = More Traffic = More Leads

More Pages = More Traffic = Higher Domain Authority

Optimize Content for Search Intent

Keywords are the glue that connect the

search term with the content on a

web page in a search result!

keywords

Tip #8

15% of daily Google searches – are 1st time searches!

Search engines find (indexed pages) to deliver

information relevant to search query’s intent.

Example of Keyword & Long Tail Search

The more specific the search the more relevant the search result!

Long tail searches (more than 2 word) create more leads.

What’s your ideal customer’s long tail search?

BERT = Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers

Transformers refer to

models that process words

in relation to all other words

in a sentence.

Google’s BERT Update (Oct 2019)

The goals is to display more relevant search results

It's the biggest & most significant change to Google's algorithm in five years

• Deep learning algorithm related to natural language processing (a.k.a. Artificial Intelligence software)

– Improve interpretation of complex long-tail searches

– Helps Google understand natural language text from web

– Understand what words in a sentence mean, but with all the nuances of context

Google’s BERT Update (Oct 2019)

Searches are now analyzed with natural language

• Relevance in language driven by context

• Search: “how to catch a cow fishing”

Pre-BERT:

– Search results related to cows and livestock

– But…Cow is fisherman slang for Striped Bass

Post-BERT

– Search results now relate to striped bass & fishing

Google’s BERT Update – Case Study

Context of the word “fishing” made the difference

• BERT update not designed to affect your – Google Ranking

– Domain Authority

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

• Update your content to be: – Conversational (natural language)

– Rich and relevant answer to your customers queries

Update Content for Natural Language Tip #9

Get Links from 3rd Party Sites Tip #10

• From directory citations

• From association websites

• From your Press Releases

www.PRWeb.com

• From a 3rd Party Blog or Article

• Get quoted in a News Story

Google Treats the Link as a vote.

www.HelpAReporter.com

SEO Takes Time – You Need a Game Plan 1. Register with Google My Business & build Directory citations 2. Get Your site architecture right

(Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, H1 Header, Sitemaps, Speed, Schema)

3. Develop a Keyword Plan based on ideal customers search 4. Study the competition to set a baseline 5. Develop content based on what the information needs of your

Ideal Customer is searching for are at each stage of the buying process

6. Develop a Keyword Linking strategy to improve Page Rank & DA 7. Develop a strategy & plan to build inbound Links 8. Get Mobile Responsive so your website works on mobile devices 9. Be Active on Social Media with content to promote & share 10.Get online Reviews

All this all takes time & commitment in money & resources.

Tips & Techniques for Search Engine Optimization

Webinar