Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO

Kara Stolpinski & Sam Minnis, Nexus Direct Gary Westermark, TIAA-CREF

Seven Things You

MUST Know About

SEO

Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO

1. Content 2. Technical 3. Social

4. SEO & Pay Per Click 5. 2015 Planning 6. Analytics/Tools 7. Mobile SEO

SEO Definitions

• SEO

• Search Engine – Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. • Keywords

• Search Engine Results Page (SERP) • Page Rank

• Algorithm / Ranking Signal • Conversion

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #1

Content:

How does your content speak to

everything you do and how is it found?

Content: A Little Search Engine Context

• True as it ever was, “Content is king.” Mission of a search engine: match users to their ideal content — a GREAT user experience • The SEARCHER is at the focal point, not the

advertiser

Content: Inbound Links

• Inbound links are links pointing to one of your pages from another website.

• Earning a link from a high-quality, relevant website will not only help with your SEO but also with referral traffic, which can lead to more sales and brand exposure.

• Inbound SEO links are still the biggest influence for search engines — even as algorithms have changed

Content: Earning Inbound Links

• Creating desirable, UNIQUE content that people will want to share remains the best way to earn links.

Content: One-upping the Competition

• The Google Panda algorithm negatively targets "thin and duplicate content with little or no added value” — so rather than creating multiple versions of the same content, it’s important to focus on creating a single version of content that is BETTER and more

Content: Stale Content

• Problem: content freshness: stale or unchanged content is not likely to rank high, so be sure your content is updated and new content is always being added • Solution: Tie in social channels for an

automated baseline solution

Content: Qualities of Good Content

• Good Content is:

• More than articles and blog posts — be sure to include videos and images • Supplies a demand

• Is linkable

• Easy to use, navigate, and understand

Content: On-page Factors

• Include important keyword(s) in the HTML Page title as well as in the first 150 words in the body

• Consider outbound links to high authority sites

• MULTIMEDIA! Keywords in HTML “alt” tags • Aim for longer content posts (especially for

competitive keywords) — 1000 or more words

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #2

Technical:

You have great content, but is it indexed

correctly as not to confuse search

engines?

Technical: Search Engine Needs

• Remember, great content delivers value to the user.

• When planning around inbound marketing, putting the user’s interests and needs first is paramount.

• What about search engines’ needs? What happens when search engines have trouble finding or understanding your great content?

Technical: Duplicate Content

• Watering down great content – the effects of duplication

• A confused Google “Crawler” bot • Of all the duplicate versions of this

content, which one gets the “SEO” credit (aka the “Link Juice”)?

Technical: Duplicate Content Solution

• HTML Canonical tag is your friend, tells search engines exactly which page is the original source, which page gets the “Link Juice”

• Place it on in the all versions’ HTML header sections

• Ex: <link

href=

http://www.example.com/original-source/rel=“canonical” />

Technical: Duplicate Content Solution Cont.

• Already too late? No worries, 301 redirect to the rescue.

• Redirect the copies back to the original (which now have a canonical tag, right?), Google likes this.

• Remove duplicate links via noindex tags where linked (slow) versus removal via webmaster tools (faster).

Technical: Other Indexing Issues

• Check for crawler errors in Webmaster tools > Crawl > Crawl Errors

• Google solution, fix, repeat • Ex: 404 pages, 400s, 500s, etc.

Side Note for Google: Mark all errors as “fixed”, check back in a week. Cuts out old / irrelevant errors

Technical: Other Indexing Issues – Example

• 404 errors (page not found) are very common

• Must determine if the page has been intentionally removed

• Actual recommended method if removal was intentional

Technical: Other Indexing Issues – Example

• Reasonable rule of thumb: If the 404’ed page is linked to elsewhere on the web, either fix the page or set up a 301 redirect. Don’t lose the juice!

• Remember, Google & Bing Webmaster tools are your friend, they will tell you where you have issues and how to fix them.

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #3

Social:

How does your SEO plan fit in with social

in 2015?

Social: How is SEO impacted by Social?

• Muddy waters on social’s ranking signals.

• Not as powerful as inbound links to your website, but may be important still. • As SEO shifts more to content / inbound,

think of social as a primary tool for getting eyes on your content.

Social: How is SEO impacted by Social?

“Content is fire, social media is gasoline” - Jay Baer, author of Youtility

https://mikegingerich.com/content-content-content-content-marketing-world-top-takeaways/

Social: Sharing

• SEO is primarily about getting links pointed back to your site … social is a way to “cast the net,” get noticed & shared.

• Helps to have followers — build that list! • For now, social is an indirect tool of SEO

Social: Maintain a Social Presence

• As of 2010, Twitter handled 19 billion search queries a month.

• In 2012, Facebook said it got around one billion search queries per day.

• As of March 2010, YouTube got roughly 3.7 billion search queries a month.

Social: Takeaways for Your Social Presence

• Google is not the only source for searching, some start on their social network of choice. Don’t miss out! • Maintain a social presence where your

audience may look for you. How do you find this out? Google Analytics data on referrals & demographic information is insightful.

Social: Measurement Reports

• Hard time measuring social? Try the Google Analytics Assisted Conversions Report

• “Assisted Conversions” — one Google report that can give you more detailed metrics on social performance.

Social: Measurement Reports continued

• Is the [social] channel a better converter or conversion assistant?

• Check out Assisted vs. Last Click Conversion Value.

Social: Assisted Conversion Report

Social: Google Analytics Model Comparison Report

• The “model comparison” report is slightly more advanced.

• Allows for comparison of a last click attribution model to other ready-made models (such as first click) or “house” models.

Social: Google Analytics Model Comparison Report

Social: Measurement Reports Takeaways

• Social may have conversion value that is not inherently obvious via last click model.

• Use these reports to measure changes to social strategy over time.

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #4

SEO & Pay Per Click:

Combining SEO and PPC. Can they play

together to help increase leads and

SEO & PPC: Overview

• SEO and Pay Per Click: different beasts (same fauna)

• SEO: Long-term, difficult to measure, free

• PPC: Short-term, easy to measure, but … not free

SEO & PPC: Pros / Cons of PPC

• Pros: Immediacy, accuracy (targeting various stages of the conversion funnel), foothold for remarketing, ability to measure, & affordable

• Cons: Traffic does not equal conversions, complicated, & you pay-to-play

SEO & PPC: Pros / Cons of SEO

• Pros: FREE (ish), catch those ad ignorers, increased authority, better conversion rate at 14.6% versus 1.7% for print / email

• Cons: Long, on-going process, takes commitment

• ROI will take some time, which increases with competition

SEO & PPC: Cons of SEO, cont.

• Cons Continued: “get on the first page or else” – 75% of searchers do not progress to past page 1 of the results page

• No full control: Google does not reveal its algorithm, SEOs operate on educated guesses and word-of-mouth

• Potential of costly penalization with future updates

SEO & PPC – Like PB&J

• When a brand name appeared in both organic and paid search results, the brand attracted 92% of total clicks. When the brand was mentioned only in organic, the brand [received] only 60% of clicks.

Source: http://www.didit.com/ppc-and-seo-better-together/

SEO & PPC – Like PB&J cont.

• Overcome the limitations of each by utilizing the other (Fast vs. Slow, cost vs. free, etc.)

• Diversify your channels, your analyst will thank you

• Overlap in keywords • Brand Keyword Coverage

SEO & PPC: Organic vs. Ad Clicks

• Keep in mind that organic clicks and ad clicks were not made equal.

• Even still, there will be an overlap in performance.

• Detecting patterns is extremely helpful.

SEO & PPC: Keyword Crossover

• Example: PPC’s conversion rate is roughly (but consistently) 10% below organic

• Helpful in making predictions and testing

SEO & PPC: Keyword Crossover - Performance

• Performance questions to ask:

• Which keywords perform better organically? • Which for PPC?

SEO & PPC: Keyword Crossover continued

• If a keyword performs well both organically AND for PPC, you can then choose — double down (for competitive keywords) or reallocate PPC budget. • If PPC outperforms organic or vice versa,

are there key learnings that can be applied to the less performant of the two?

SEO & PPC: Better Together

• If the difference in performance between the two is well known and consistent, it opens all kinds of “paid testing” avenues. • Test landing page layout, copy, meta

description, and more without waiting for SEO results to trickle in.

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #5

2015 Planning:

What are Google and Bing planning for

the rest of the year?

What are Google and Bing planning for the rest of 2015?

• Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

• November 2014: Tipping point in mobile search. Mobile searches surpasses desktop search (Google).

• More varied mobile usage results for Bing, but mobile trend still exists. Ignoring this trend can be dangerous!

Search Engine Planning: Mobilegeddon

• 4/21/15: Google rolls out update that boosts results of mobile friendly pages … for searches conducted on mobile

• Check Google’s mobile-friendly test tool to see if your page(s) are up to standard for this boost in mobile traffic.

• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ mobile-friendly/

Search Engine Planning: Mobile Friendly Considerations

• More to come in the Mobile SEO section…

Search Engine Planning: On the Horizon

• Bet on search engines to continue the mission of indexing great content while ignoring/penalizing “black hat” tricks. • Content marketing and SEO will become

even more intricately tied.

• Spoken voice queries, Linguistic User Interface (LUI) will present new search patterns, keyword usage.

Search Engine Planning: On the Horizon Cont.

• Personalization – how to deliver a tailored experience without ticking off the search engines

• Bye-bye keyword data, hello landing-page based metrics

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #6

Analytics/Tools:

Are you tracking your conversions and do

you know your ROI from your SEO

efforts?

Analytics/Tools: Defining & Planning for Success

• What does your ideal user do upon arrival on your website?

• What metrics measure the success of your website?

• How can you plan and strategize without these items specifically defined?

Analytics: Tracking Conversions

• Well-defined goals produce measurable outcomes and it is no different in the Web Analytics world.

• Think of Google Analytics goals / Bing Conversion Tracking as an explicit definition of what success looks like on your site.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Google Analytics Goals

• Google Analytics allows for up to 20 assigned goals.

• Goals canbe assigned to one of five

predetermined groups or categories. Use this feature if your goals fall neatly into categories (engagement, social, purchase, etc.) — which is helpful for a zoomed out perspective.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Google Analytics Goal Types

• Goals can be one of four types: duration, pages per session, event, and destination. • Duration goals – sessions that exceeded a

certain amount of time.

• Pages per session – a user visits at least X number of pages.

• Events – triggers when a predetermined page-level event fires.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Google Analytics Destination Goals

• Destination goals represent a URL (page address). When a user successfully navigates to it, Google logs a successful conversion. • This allows for computation of conversion rate,

an essential metric for analysis and strategic decision making.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Google Analytics Destination Goals

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Destination Goals cont.

• Chances are, the desired actions of your website have corresponding “completion” pages. These usually make great goals. • Ex: Any “Thank you” page. Thanks for

signing up for the newsletter, thanks for purchasing / donating, thanks for sharing on your social network, etc.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Goal Value cont.

• Don’t be afraid to get creative with your Google Analytics goal values. In addition to the average value of a lead, feel free to include the average referral value and average lifetime value.

Analytics: Google Analytics Goal Funnel

Analytics: Tracking Conversions

• With all conversion goals set up, your analysis of your analytics data will be that much more detailed.

• Analysis of channel / campaign / segment has richer, more direct data to pull from.

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – E-commerce edition

• If you have products or branded merchandise to sell, consider e-commerce.

• Goals are limited in that they have a single static value — no way to plug in a fluctuating value (such as a donation). • This is not the case for Bing!

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – E-commerce edition

• E-commerce settings to the rescue! • The E-commerce setting in GA will allow

you to establish a value PER transaction with some account specific Javascript on the goal URL page (translation: Find a Javascript nerd like me).

Analytics: Tracking Conversions – Ecommerce + Goals = Awesome

• In Google Analytics, get the most report bang for your buck by hooking up both e-commerce and goals to a donation or checkout page.

• Some reports are only available for either or — you want all available information for your donation/purchase data.

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Seven Things You MUST Know About SEO #7

Mobile SEO:

Optimizing your mobile device is different

from your desktop, and with the increase

in mobile devices, this has to be at the

forefront of your strategic plan.

Mobile SEO: The Mobile Search Experience

• Search engines are paying more attention to the mobile experience. • They have methods for assessing a

page’s mobile readiness.

• These methods are (or will be with Bing) available to you for diagnostic purposes.

Mobile SEO: Design Best Practices – Page Speed

• Important for both mobile and desktop. • Industry standard for page load times

suggest a maximum of 2 seconds. • General rule of thumb is the more you

Mobile SEO: Design Best Practices – Page Speed

• On mobile, this page optimization becomes paramount as users have LESS bandwidth to download page resources.

• Some responsive design practices leave mobile users downloading MORE data, not less – be careful.

Mobile SEO: Design Best Practices – Page Speed

• Take advantage of a few optimization techniques to get your page downloading in under 2 seconds:

• Page caching • Image optimization • Gzip compression • Minification

• Non-essential Javascript delaying

Mobile SEO: Design Best Practices

• Links are spaced out, avoiding accidental clicks for those of us who are “fat

fingered”

• Font / text is legible, density of text • Screen layout – no horizontal scrolling,

avoid vertical scroll if possible • No one likes to pinch and zoom

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Questions?

Thank You!!

Sam Minnis’s Contact e-mail:

[email protected]

Kara Stolpinski’s Contact e-mail:

[email protected]

Gary Westermark’s e-mail: