SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Understanding how businesses make their way to the first page of search results and how you can get there too!
Founder of TheThriftyMarketer.com
Marketing Online (since 2004)
SEO Expert (Local Search Market)
Online Marketing Consultant (since 2007)
Video Branding Specialist
My Focus:
Create targeted products and services that help small business
owners and entrepreneurs leverage technology to build their authority,
generate leads, and increase profitability.
Shawn Audlin
Profiles
Did you complete your profiles?
Do you have any questions?
Are you ready to move forward?
What Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) is and the impact it could have for your business.
The difference between head keywords and long tail keywords.
How prospective customers find you online.
How to determine what keywords people are searching for to find your products/services.
Laying down your digital footprint, so your keywords lead people back to your website.
Present local search examples to help bring it all together.
Provide some FREE resources to help you.
Action plan to research keywords and start building backlinks to your website
The process of improving the
volume and quality of traffic to a
webpage.
When a webpage climbs their
way to the 1
stpage of search
results, research has proven
that the business will receive
more visitors, more leads, and
more sales.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Some Numbers
According to numerous studies, here’s
where people click…
#1 ranked Site gets 42% of the clicks,
#2 ranked site gets 12% of the clicks,
#3 ranked site gets 8.5% of the clicks
#4 to #10 position get less and less.
If you are not in the top 10 sites (1
stpage),
Only about 3% of web searchers will
even click beyond the 1st page
There are Two Parts of SEO
Onsite Optimization: This is everything on your actual website including,
keywords, Meta information including Title, description, Alt tags, H tags,
keyword density, and anchor text. You also want to have a sitemap which is
a search engine friendly way to index the pages on your site.
Offsite Optimization: Everything that is done off your site to direct people to
your website. This includes link building, press releases, article marketing,
video marketing, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, and MUCH more.
In previous sessions you learned about Creating Content and
Onsite Optimization…we’ll continue talking about onsite, but will be focusing more on keywords and Off-Site Strategies.
How do you know what
people searching for?
Let’s Look at an example:
If in moving business = “Mover”
Too generic…competing with every moving company in country!
“Dallas Mover” – location specific
So how do you find this out…Google Tells You!
FREE TOOL #1
Google Adword Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
This free tool lets you research keywords people
search for on a monthly basis.
Keyword: “Dallas Mover”
Adding “s” = Over 180% more searches!
Adding “ing” = Over 220% more searches!
The secret = Finding out how people search online to find your
product, service, or type of business
Let’s Look at Head Keywords…
Plumbing Fort Worth – 4400 per month
Dentist Fort Worth – 8100 per month
Insurance Fort Worth – 5400 per month
Fort Worth Electrician – 1300 per month
Massage Fort Worth – 6600 per month
…for just One keyword phrase prospects are searching for
Google’s Adword Keyword Tool
Phase 1:
Head Keywords
1)
Go to Google Adword Keyword Tool
2)
Next Type in Broad (Head) keywords related to your
business; (plumbers, toilet repair, plumbing companies, etc.)
3)
Next click “Search” button ---Copy down words that fit well
to your business and services.
FREE TOOL #2
SpyFu.com
http://spyfu.com
Learn all kinds of useful information by typing in Keywords or competitors websites & watch it kick out information saving you time and work.
Discover a lot of great information
You can see what keywords
competitors are using
How much people are
spending on Pay-per-click
Trends in search volume
And more…
Long Tail Keywords
These are longer, more specific keyword phrases (or questions) that
are less common, but now make up a large portion of online search
queries.
EX.
Head Term –
Plumbing
(very broad, lots of competition)
Long Tail -
Emergency Plumbing Repair Companies Grapevine
(Very specific, highly targeted market)
What Are Good Long Tail Keywords To Target?
Go back to the pains your target market is experiencing and research
keywords accordingly. Someone who is searching the long tail in the
example above needs help NOW!
You are looking for the Golden Keywords
Head (broad)
Head with Geo-Qualifier
Narrow With Geo-Qualifier
Your Final Keyword Phrase
Plumbing
Plumbing Keller
Plumbing Repair Keller TX
Plumbing Repair
Long Tail Keywords
Now when conducting long tail keyword research you’ll often find
that the long tail keyword phrase will have little or no search
volume. So most people will simply ignore these, but that is a
HUGE mistake!
Long Tail Keywords
None of these companies are targeting this specific long tail keyword phrase, but are coming up because Google and other search engines tries to best match the search queries with the most relevant Title and Description.
Google’s Adword Keyword Tool
Phase 2:
Long Tail Keywords
1)
Go to back to the Google Adword Keyword Tool
2)
Next Type in keywords you want to look at more closely for
your business but add some additional terms to use as
qualifiers; (These could be geographic, zip code, service
specific, pains, solution, etc.)
3)
Next click “Search” button --- Copy these down and look for
variations of words, make words plural, abbreviate, use
misspellings, etc.
Now you’ll need to take your keywords and integrate them
into our site. We want to include these in your
content/copy on your site, your headings, your navigation
tabs, and your META tags.
Let me show you what I mean…
META Info: This is a combination of what visitors see and what search
engines see
(which isn’t always the same thing).
Title Tag
–
This is what you see
at the very top of a
Browser, and at the top
Of the search result for
Your company.
Description Tag
–
This is what visitors and
Search engines see
that describes your
Using your keywords within your website, helps prospects find you. But don’t stop there. Use keywords, in blog posts, articles, social media, videos… Wherever you can. Laying down a digital footprint makes it easier for your target market to find
you…think Hansel and Gretel with the breadcrumbs!
So now you know the importance of keywords, finding the right ones and why and where to use them on your website.
Now we want to start building a path that leads back to your website.
These are called Backlinks. And no
matter what changes Google or the other search engines make, these are a critical part to having prospects find you.
Now Let’s Talk About OFF-Site Optimization
Example of Link Building
Make sure you
balance the content with the number of hyperlinks.
Sometimes you’ll see junk sites that just have a bunch of links all over but provide no real value to someone visiting the page
FREE TOOL #3
SOME GREAT SEARCH STRINGS TO USE:
“Your Keyword Phrase”+inurl:blog site:.com “Your Keyword Phrase”+inurl:forum site:.com
“Your Keyword Phrase”+inurl:youtube.com
Google.com
Using Google you can type in search
strings to find blogs, forums, video
sites, and more that you can leave
comments or make posts at.
Search through the results to find sites that allow comments on their blogs. This shows that other people are successfully using this strategy and to go ahead and add your comment and link to your website.
Build your list of websites that you could comment on (or outsource this) to create a speadsheet of sites you can revisit frequently.
Comment on these blogs. Be informed, and stay on topic. Don’t do spam
comments. Post an insightful comment and add some value to the post.
Complement the author if it’s sincere. Whatever you do, don’t leave comments like; “Really nice post, I will bookmark to visit again” This screams spam
comment and you will probably get banned.
When you make a comment, put in your information, then put in your HTML link. It may even make sense to use your keywords as your username. An example of how to insert a hyperlink is below.
EX: <a href=“http://www.yoursite.com”>Your Keywords</a>
It’s like High School all over again
Link Building is somewhat a popularity contest. If you think back to high school, who was typically the class president…was it the
Smartest student in your class or the most popular?
The more links you build back to your site, the more the search engines believe that you are an authority in your market and the higher you show up in the search rankings. Only 10 websites get to show up on the first page. But now you have a better
Let’s review what we learned…
► How to research keywords to determine what search terms will be easier to rank for, instead of going after just highly competitive keywords.
► What META Tags are and how they help you in search results.
► Discovered how to build links to your site so you can start leaving a digital footprint online leading back to your website.
► And we talked about some free resources to help you get started today! ► What Search Engine Optimization is and looked
at the difference between on-site optimization and off-site optimization.
► What Head and Long Tail Keywords are, and the importance of determining what people are
Get with your Study Buddy at least once this week.
Complete Your
Keyword Research Worksheet
, and start off by
talking with friends, family, and others about the kind of words they
would type to find your product or services.
