The document discusses best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) after recent algorithm updates from Google. It emphasizes creating high-quality, engaging content as the top priority. Technical SEO elements and link building are still important but content should be optimized for users rather than search engines. The presentation recommends developing a content strategy and calendar, testing different pages and campaigns, and using analytics to measure success. Local search optimization and claiming business profiles are also highlighted.
2. AGENDA
Introduction
The SEO Investment
SEO Best Practices After Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
Optimization has Evolved
The Secret Sauce of Content Marketing
Search Engine Real Estate
Test, Measure, and Adjust
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3. ABOUT ME
CEO, Be Found Online
Industry Veteran (2003)
Recent Speaking engagements
Internet Summit - 2013
Bright Edge Share - 2013
CFE Media - 2013
Tireless advocate for Autism
related causes
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7. SHIFTS IN SEO
6
Implications in 2014
Google Rewards Websites With
Optimized Content
The need to create quality, engaging, shareable,
linkable content is now a major criteria for
website success.
Changes in SEO
Google Panda (2011) - filter
“low quality content”
Google Penguin (2012) -
discourage / punish spam
Google Humingbird (2013) –
focusing on user intent
Secure Search (2013) - shift in
the keyword model market to a
content-centric mode
500+ small changes!
8. THE EVOLUTION OF SEO
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All About
Keywords
Pages &
Topics
SEO focus has changed and will continue to evolve.
Companies need to constantly adapt their strategies to
align with new algorithms.
Source: Forbes
10. OPTIMIZATION HAS EVOLVED
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Technical
Indexation
URLs /
Navigation
Content
Pages
Connections
Citations
Authority
Mentions /
Shares
These strategies across page, content, search, and social set you up for
success in 2014.
11. TECHNICAL SEO IN A NUTSHELL
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HTML Elements
HTTP Status Codes
Hyperlinks
HTTP Status Codes
Webmaster Tools
Canonicalization
Robot Control Syntax
Important User-agents
Google+
Google+ Authorship
Google+ Publisher
Pagination
Mobile Web Development
Microdata
Sitemap syntax
Facebook Open Graph
Technical SEO elements make a site crawlable and search engine friendly
HTML Elements
Webmaster Tools
Canonicalization
Microdata
Robot Control Syntax
Mobile Web Development
12. POST HUMMINGBIRD CONSIDERATIONS
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Onsite
No index
Indexation
Canonical tag
Bot hearding
Microdata
Offsite
Backlink Mining
Content Marketing
Google+ Authorship
Product info and
reviews
17. WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING IN 2014?
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Visibility, exposure, authority and citations (the new link) are gained
when marketing content through an SEO lens.
• Write articles
• Create industry resources
• Encourage reviews
• Interviews
• Promote brand messages
• Create contests
• Engage reporters and authors
• Reclaim lost links
• Claim unlinked brand citations
Build relationships - Engage communities
Build Value - Not Links
19. CONTENT STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
No Science or Rockets Required
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Calendar Development Distribution
Build a Content Calendar to
plan ideas and track progress.
Research, Write, and Optimize
targeted content pieces for
audience personas
Share, promote, and engage
through company Blog and
Social Media channels and
Outreach.
20. DISCOVER LOST GOLD WITH BACKLINK MINING
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• Respected sites
drive send
qualified
customers.
• Fresh
content, mentions
and backlinks
impact visibility
and traffic
• Replace links to
capture the
value of the link
and the page
• Refresh content
that is
incomplete, or
dated
Content Links
RevenueTraffic
Refreshed pages lead to strong signals of value and credibility to search engines.
Eureka!
21. REAP WHAT YOU SOW
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Leverage Analytics to ensure your content marketing efforts are a
success
23. SEARCH REAL ESTATE
Coverage increases the
odds of getting a Cost
Effective click!
• Organic
• Paid Search
• Locations (G+ Local)
• PLAs
Source: Moz
24. LOCAL SEARCH BEST PRACTICES
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Maximize local presence and in-store sales!
Site
Claim and update local
profiles with
Name, Address, Phon
e on search
engines, top
directories, and IYPs
Enhance profiles with
content such as
descriptions, categorie
s, logos, etc.
Encourage reviews by
promoting through
marketing channels.
Take control of
reviews by monitoring
and responding.
Build unique pages
for each retail
location. Create
microdata for the
location information
on each page.
Use paid search
tactics to drive
consumers in your
store.
Get consumers
one-step closer to
purchase
Profiles Reviews Paid Search
32. SIDE BAR - MULTI-DEVICE CHALLENGES
Only 10% of media interactions are non-
screen based
(magazine, newspaper, radio)
On average, we spend 4.4 hours of our
leisure time in front of screens each
day
Out time online is spread between four
primary devices
• Base: All Device Interactions – PC/Laptop (3817); Smartphone (6057); Tablet (542); TV (3592).
Q. Which of the following did you use? Q. What else did you use at the same time? Note:
Respondents were asked to consider printed hard copies of Newspaper and Magazine.
Device Preferences
33. CHALLENGES FOR MARKETERS
This creates new attribution challenges for you as purchase
paths become more complex. Many consumers start their
research on one device or browser but end up buying on
another.
Moment Search Conversion Report
34. THE FUTURE OF ANALYTICS NOW (?)
Past Measurement
Future Measurement
35. TAKEAWAYS
Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird didn’t change the game – they made it fair
The world of SEO has changed, move beyond block & tackle optimization and into technical
and into content
Location, Location, Location - Gain a competitive advantage by owning Real Estate at the top of
the search results
Paid Search is still the best platform to test and evaluate proposed changes
Test SEO with PLAs
Use a testing tool as an easy and (in)expensive way to test and optimize landing pages
Stay current or work with someone who is!
Bullets – Steve founded The Krull Group in 2006 after several years of managing web sites and search marketing campaigns for ConsumerGuide.com and HowStuffWorks.com. Today at Be Found Online, Steve and the team manage search marketing, SEO and reputation management programs for a variety of business to business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) clients.
If organic clicks were paid, they would be worth $21M for Target.com. The paid search traffic cost $1M. Organic traffic is clearly more valuable in this case. http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/09/03/retail-search-traffic-paid-vs-organic.aspx
If organic clicks were paid, they would be worth $21M for Target.com. The paid search traffic cost $1M. Organic traffic is clearly more valuable in this case. http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/09/03/retail-search-traffic-paid-vs-organic.aspx
PagesNot to mention the 500 small changes to the algo, there have been 3 big ones that have shaped SEO in the last few years…
Add evolution graphic
Animation of HTML element, cacn, webmaster, and micodata, mobile web development – pull out
Link building has become “Content Marketing”, but the overall goal is largely the same.
This graph shows the linking relationships between clients, brands, and publishers, specifically the degrees to which one is connected to anotherWhat does the yellow circles mean??You can create any number of custom networks based on the influencers that matter to you. The yellow dots indicate that that user is in multiple networks. So, say you are a software company and you have 3 networks setup called "Developers", "Users", and "Strategic". It's feasible that you would have bloggers that would end up in 2 or more of these networks.
This graph shows the linking relationships between clients, brands, and publishers, specifically the degrees to which one is connected to anotherWhat does the yellow circles mean??You can create any number of custom networks based on the influencers that matter to you. The yellow dots indicate that that user is in multiple networks. So, say you are a software company and you have 3 networks setup called "Developers", "Users", and "Strategic". It's feasible that you would have bloggers that would end up in 2 or more of these networks.
Add fun image of somene panning for gold – eureka Over time content becomes stale and links get old or worse yet – broken. The worst thing to happen to a quality link is for it to become broken. These broken links are good news for Kay/Jared. In addition to our own broken links, competitors have many broken links pointing to them as well. Add to this that there are plenty of good sites with outdated content which could drive traffic if it were simply refreshed.Using experience and available tools, broken links and dated content will be identified and prioritized for refresh. Blogs and sites will be contacted in an attempt to update broken links and offer fresh content. When these aged pages get refreshed and links updated they are viewed favorably by the search engines and send strong signals of value and credibility.
Enabling the site search functionality within Google Analytics can be an excellent way for understanding what type of content users are looking for on your website. To enable this functionality, simply navigate to the View Settings within the Admin panel and ensure the Site Search Tracking slider is switched to on. You then need to enter your Query parameter.To identify this, perform a simple search using the search functionality on your site. The query parameter is the single letter or string of letters prior to the equals sign detailing your search term.
Research on ad-filled SERPS like this found that about two-thirds of clicks on commercial searches go to the ads, leaving less than half of the clicks for organic results.Source: Wordstream
Make this first sentence pop!!!Get people in your store – paid search
Bing PLAs are in beta and Pinterest is starting a campaignAdvertising and paid resultsAdvertising includes both the traditional AdWords blocks and the newer, paid inclusion results. Keep in mind that the presence of advertising is highly variable and depends on factors like competition, time of day, seasonality, etc. The numbers below should only be taken as rough estimates.(C) AdWords Ads (Top) – 72.2% (72.8%)The top-left AdWords block (above organic results) is easily the most common, and it ranges from one to three results. Ad formats are becoming much richer, as you can see from the Mega-SERP example, which includes both photos and site-links.(D) Shopping Results (Left) – 18.2%* (19.0%)Paid shopping results usually appear as a horizontal block of product images and links, but Google is testing variations. Shopping results can appear in either the left or right column, and are typically at the top. Our system currently only tracks total shopping results, and doesn't separate the data for left vs. right.(R) AdWords Ads (Bottom) – 16.5% (14.9%)The bottom AdWords block is very similar to the top block, and can contain up to three results.(T) Shopping Results (Right)Most shopping results on the right look the same as results on the left, but there are some noticeable exceptions, such as paid product placement for a single product. Those variations are still the minority of cases, but expect Google to experiment a lot in the near future.(W) AdWords Ads (Right) – 42.4% (41.6%)The right-hand column block of ads has the highest count, and can contain up to eight AdWords ads. These ads typically have very few enhancements or added features. AdWords ads always seem to start at the top and then either flow into the right column or bottom section (never both, at least in our data).
You can see the problem: each visit on each device initiaties a Client ID (cid) which tells Google Analytics who that visitor is. With three visits from three devices, we've got three Client IDs which, as far as Google Analytics is concerned, is the same as three Unique Visitors. Clearly, this isn't optimal!
Optimizely is easy and cheap
Enabling the site search functionality within Google Analytics can be an excellent way for understanding what type of content users are looking for on your website. To enable this functionality, simply navigate to the View Settings within the Admin panel and ensure the Site Search Tracking slider is switched to on. You then need to enter your Query parameter.To identify this, perform a simple search using the search functionality on your site. The query parameter is the single letter or string of letters prior to the equals sign detailing your search term.