5 Search Engine Optimization Myth Busters

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5 Search Engine Optimization Myth Busters

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ch Engine Optimization Myth Busters

MYTH

TRUTH

ANALYSIS

01

Multifamily marketers aiming to drive online leads know that strong search rankings are a key ingredient for success in local markets. High ranking organic listings create brand equity, drive quality traffic and simplify the search experience for prospective residents.

Regularly changing search engine algorithms result in some best practices quickly becoming obsolete. Multifamily marketers are expected to keep up with these changes but often outdated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices stay in marketing plans for years past their expiration date. In some cases, these practices may be stagnating or even harming marketers’ SEO efforts.

This white paper uncovers five common SEO myths and the best practices used to reach their intended objectives. These best practices will help improve your search rankings and enable growth in quality traffic to your communities’ websites.

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You have probably received an email from an external SEO firm warmly asking you to trade links; if you place their link on your site, they will also place yours on their site. You may have also received a similar inquiry from another company in your industry, maybe a supplier or a vendor. These inquiries often seem genuine and the quid-pro-quo offer appears to be helpful. After all, inbound links are very important to a site’s organic search rankings, right?

It depends. Search engines figured out that inbound link campaigns, or link farms, had profited from simply planting clients’ links on

pages that were irrelevant. Link trading, as described above, wasn’t that much different. Sites could climb in the rankings simply by buying inbound links (also called backlinks) from outside providers or by swapping links with other businesses.

There was a time when this worked, but because link farms and link swapping did not lend any credence to the quality of either site,

search engines have changed their algorithms to stop rewarding the practice with high rankings. Search engines were so concerned, in fact, that Google’s Penguin algorithm update was aimed squarely at eliminating the rewards of using low-quality backlinks. After the update rolled out, many marketers saw their search engine results plummet, seemingly without explanation. This was actually caused by the updated algorithm’s identification of low-quality backlinks to their sites that were spread across the Internet.

Best Practice

It is recommended that you work to eliminate low-quality backlinks and replace them with high quality ones. This requires the development of unique and meaningful content that other sites with greater authority want to link to because it is helpful to their readers.1_{Those sites don’t just link to your homepage, but}

also to infographics, articles and blog posts that offer informative and shareable content.

Myth #1

Quantity of inbound links is more important than quality

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Meta tags are pieces of code that are generally not displayed to users, but that provide browsers or services, like search engines, with information about a page.2_{This information includes brief}

descriptions, a list of keywords and concise titles that are specific to the page.

In the early days of search engines, search algorithms relied almost solely on meta tags to identify which sites were relevant to the searcher’s query. Currently, search engines use some tags whereas others are completely ignored.

Like backlinks, the keyword meta tag has been misused and abused by spammers. It was used to pack keywords into a site when the site may not actually have any relevance to those terms, generating search results that were irrelevant to the actual query. These types of behaviors have lead most search engine algorithms to place zero value on keyword meta tags.

The meta tags that still matter are those that are visible to searchers. These are the title tag and the description tag. Search engines look for keywords and phrases in title tags, but give little weight to meta descriptions. A well-written and informative meta description, however, should not be ignored. It is the first thing a searcher sees after submitting a search query that is relevant to the page.

Best Practice

By providing a concise and accurate description of a page, your website can confirm to a searcher that they are on the page they intended to be on and that it will probably contain information related to their query. Simply put, meta descriptions improve user experience.

Myth #2

Meta tags will boost organic search engine rankings

Most search engine algorithms

place

zero value on keyword

meta tags

.

2. Search Engine Watch, How to Use HTML Meta Tags:

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Some of the very first search engine algorithms relied on meta tags to return results relevant to the searcher’s query. The same was true of keyword density. Keyword density was once a measurable metric that had a “sweet spot.” Many online marketing professionals aimed to meet this optimal keyword density, much like they did a conversion rate. For example, when a new page of copy was written for a website, a marketer picked a single phrase such as “Apartments Lancaster” and determined that that those words must make up a pre-defined percentage of total number of words on the page.

Keyword density may seem like a great way to ensure that newly built pages include content that is relevant to readers, but it just isn’t. In fact, Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide doesn’t even mention keyword density as a basic component of SEO.3

A search engine algorithm’s objective is to create a desirable user experience for the searcher. A page that uses a high keyword density for a phrase like “Apartments Lancaster” may end up reading unnaturally and appearing as though it was written for a computer, not a human. High keyword density can even end up decreasing conversions on a page because the user’s experience is poor.

Best Practice

Keyword density has been replaced by a need for content in which the presence of a keyword is logical and natural. The way search engines read for keywords within natural language is called semantic search.4_{It’s still important to include the topic of your}

page content as a keyword in a website’s title tags and description in a manner that is limited, focused and semantically relevant. This improves how search engines and humans alike can read and interpret the content on your page.

Myth #3

Increasing keyword density will improve rankings

3. Google Search Engine Starter Guide:

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf 4. Search Engine Land, 5 Ways to Unlock the Benefits for Semantic Search:

http://searchengineland.com/5-ways-to-unlock-the-benefits-of-semantic-search-hummingbird-175634

High keyword density can even

end up

decreasing conversions

on a page because the user’s

experience is poor.

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A website’s SEO is an ongoing process for two primary reasons: 1. Consumer interactions with websites are always changing by

device and by expectations

2. Search engine algorithms are always changing and those changes need to be responded to

Consumer interactions with a website can be monitored with a number of tools. With enough traffic going to a site, services like Webmaster Tools can help measure the pages search engines ranked highly. Google Analytics can tell you which pages were more likely to result in a visitor submitting an inquiry or reserving a unit.

At a minimum, Multifamily marketers should review these activities on a quarterly basis. This may seem more like a user experience analysis than an SEO analysis, but the fact is that organic search traffic is valuable and must be optimized similar to paid search traffic. Monitoring the organic search queries that drive traffic to a site and the pages on which that traffic lands, can make apparent that a specific term is no longer as effective as it once was and the page should be updated accordingly.

Google modifies its search algorithm over 500 times per year. This roughly equates to once every 17.5 hours.5_{The details of these}

changes may be broadcast as rumors, but search engines don’t

make the details public ahead of time. SEO experts and online marketers often assess how the algorithm updates have affected the organic traffic being driven to their site after the fact.

Sometimes the updates may not affect sites too deeply. Other times, in the case of Google’s 2011 Panda update, some websites like BizRate.com saw a 52% decrease in traffic. On the other hand, sites such as Amazon.com attempted to prepare for such an update and actually saw an increase in traffic after the event took place. 6

Best Practice

SEO is not a one time event, or even an annual event. It is a marketing activity that requires attention, analysis and action. An ongoing SEO strategy should include website architecture updates, benchmarking, measurement of metrics, and the development of engaging and shareable content.

Myth #4

An SEO audit and update only needs to be done once

5. Techi.com, Google Makes Changes to their Search Algorithm Once Every 17.5 Hours:

http://www.techi.com/2011/08/google-makes-changes-to-their-search-algorithm-an-average-of-once-every-17-5-hours/ 6. Search Engine Watch, Mahalo, Business.com Article Aggregators Hardest Hit by Google Update:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049954/Mahalo-Business.com-Article-Aggregators-Hardest-Hit-By-Google-Update

Google’s algorithm changes

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Great content is a start, but allowing it to sit on a URL that does not receive traffi c, interaction or quality backlinks will not help improve search engine rankings to that domain. Engaging content will affect search engine rankings most when it’s easy to reach from your website’s standard domain and linked to from social media or other external relevant and authoritative sources. This will help encourage readers to share and comment on your content, exposing others to it and therefore, amplifying its presence on the Web.

Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update made waves when it rolled out in the Fall of 2013. The update gave greater weight to sites whose content was shared over social media. Google and Bing now read and interpret social signals such as likes, tweets and shares, using them to distinguish between website content that is relevant to the searcher and the searcher’s query. This new practice is called Social SEO.7

Best Practice

It is recommended that you logically organize your content on your root domain. If your content is scattered about the Internet on pages not linked to by your primary URL, it will not help your search engine rankings or the experience of your users. It must be linked to from your standard domain and available in a naturally ﬂ owing hierarchy.8_{It is also important to incorporate}

social media in your SEO plan. This will help promote your content, offering opportunities to connect with your audience and generate social signals.

Myth #5

Great content leads to highly indexed pages

7. Search Engine Land, What Everybody Missed About Hummingbird:

http://searchengineland.com/what-everybody-missed-about-hummingbird1-176031 8. Google, Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide:

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

SOCIAL

SEO

YOUR

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Nearly half of all website traffic comes from organic search. Another 29% comes from direct to URL traffic.9_{It’s clear that quality traffic can’t simply be}

bought from listing services or directories.

SEO is a high-priority initiative that deserves the regular attention of experts in the field. Because most search engine algorithm changes have been made with the goal of improving the quality of search results, it’s easy to see why many techniques that were once considered best practices are no longer beneficial.

Making SEO a focus of your marketing efforts offers the opportunity to improve the digital experience of prospective residents by making your website easy to find and easy to use once they get there. This can improve conversions to online inquiries, inbound phone calls and on-site visits. In addition, gaining an understanding of how each social interaction affects rankings.

We have recent search engine algorithm changes to thank for ensuring that only quality websites with content that meets the demands of the searcher appear at the top of search engines. Digital experience isn’t just important to consumers; it is equally important to the search engines that help promote your business. When it comes to improving the experience of your prospects and customers, don’t just stop at improving your organic search rankings.

G5 is the leading provider of Digital Experience Management®_(DXM®_{) software and services in the multifamily industry. The G5 DXM Platform enables owners}

and operators to deliver exceptional experiences at every digital touchpoint — turning residents into brand advocates. As brand advocacy grows, so does demand — allowing properties to raise rents and revenue without adversely affecting occupancy.

Founded in 2005, G5 was recently named one of the fastest growing private US companies by Inc. Magazine (3rd consecutive year), one of North America’s fastest growing technology companies by Deloitte (4th consecutive year), and one of Oregon’s fastest growing private companies by Portland Business Journal (3rd consecutive year). The Bend, Oregon-based company is backed by private equity investor Volition Capital. For more information, please visit GetG5.com or follow our blog at GetG5.com/blog.

Update your SEO Tactics

Meet the expectations of searchers and of search engines

Deliver a great digital experience for searchers and increase

your organic traffic. Request more information about

G5 Social SEO

TM

_{. Visit GetG5.com.}

9. Conductor.com, 310 Million Visits: Nearly Half of All Website Traffic Comes from Natural Search:

http://www.conductor.com/blog/2013/06/data-310-million-visits-nearly-half-of-all-web-site-traffic-comes-from-natural-search/

5 Search Engine Optimization Myth Busters