Demystify SEO

Demystify SEO
SortingValuefromHocusPocus
Drew Landis*
Marketer, Strategizer, Developer, CV3 Breakerer, Geek
International Greenhouse Company
www.greenhousemegastore.com
drew.landis@igcusa.com

What is SEO?
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a set or the set of techniques by which
web pages are built, created, or formatted to
rank as well as possible on Search Engine
Results Pages (SERPs), and to entice users
to engage those results
SEO has probably changed as much in the last

Why Listen to Me?
Since “taking over”, greenhousemegastore.com
has gone from about 2 million in online sales in
2008, to just under 10 million in 2013.
50% increase in total revenue from 2012-2013
60% increase in organic traffic since 2010
up 25% just over last year
Professional CV3 breaker
Because I’m the one Nathan asked to be up here,

A Word to Non-Geeks
If you are an owner or other such decision maker in
your company, it is useful for you to know this stuff,
but...
In most cases, you should not be the one carrying it
out. There are professionals for that. They are
worth it. Find one, pay one (well).
I then promise you can feel free to put a down
payment on the luxury car of your choice.*
*I don’t actually promise.

90% of consumers begin purchase research
with Search
almost half of these are now mobile
half of that is Local
SEO has the biggest ROI potential of any
channel
Google is as Google does
Your customers expect it.
Why is SEO important?

How Does Search Work?
Matt Cutts
@mattcutts
Head of Webspam
at Google

The first rule...
...of Fight
Club:
“Write and build
content for
people, not
search engines.”
...of Fight Club
SEO

Examples of Bad Ideas
Keyword Stuffing
if it doesn’t sound ridiculous when you read it then it’s prolly
OK
“We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are
handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor,
please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at
custom.cigar.humidors@example.com.”
Hidden keywords
Link or Content Farms
Paid Links (that aren’t Google or other legit PPC

If you are not providing value to your visitor with the content on your page, then you are spamming the web
and we will punish you for it.
Google Sez…
“If you are not providing value to your
site visitors, then you are spamming
the web.”
#truthhurts

How Do We Provide Value?
Well-Structured Pages
Relevant Keywords
Original Content
Legit Linking Schemes
Local & Mobile
Reputation
Site Speed

Page Structure
Starting at the Top
URL structure
Target keywords in URL if possible, but drop the conjunctions
301 Redirect
CV3 Settings > URI Redirects
Use the HTML5 doctype
<html> or <!doctype html>
<head>
Use clear, helpful, and relevant Page Titles by using your target keywords

<head> Structure, pt.2
Home Page Examples
Bad: <title>home</title> or <title>default</title>
Good: <title>Your Store | Keyword, Keyphrase, Super
Awesome</title>
Category Pages
Be Specific - Men’s Leather Dress Shoes, not just Shoes
<title>Category Name - Keywords | Your Store</title>
Product Pages
<title>Product Name - Value Proposition | Your Store</title>
<meta> Tags
<meta name=”description” content=”This is a

Authorship (rel=”author”)
you get a nice little mugshot right on page #1 of Google
to show your friends
Google is beginning to rank author’s of high reputation
higher
increases click-through from SERPs
<link rel="canonical"
href="http://www.yourdomain.com/actual-url"/>
specifies which version of a page is the one to be
indexed

Semantic Markup (Opengraph, Schema.org)
used to create “rich snippets” which greatly increase click-
through on the SERPs

Page Structure, <body>
HTML5 tags
<header>, <nav>, <article>, <aside>, <footer>
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/
Headings
keywords in heading - <h1>, <h2>, etc.
section content appropriately
Content
target keyword in first paragraph of copy - <p>

<body> Structure, pt.2
Aim for 1-4% keyword density
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/
write your own product descriptions
woot.com
if you have a blog, it should be located at
yourdomain.com/blog
Anchor Text
<a href=”link”>Your Keyword</a> instead of <a href=”link”>Click
Here</a>
Videos
just having video on the page, regardless of whether a visitor

Choosing the Right Keywords
Page content is what search engines look at,
so pick the most relevant 1-3
keywords/phrases and hammer them.
MAKE SURE YOU PICK THE RIGHT WORDS
what would new customers use
what about repeat customers?
Use keyword research tools to find new or
better keywords

Keywords, pt.2
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Spy
SpyFu
Uber Suggest

Content is King (and Queen)
Just call it Content Marketing
By far the most value added for your visitors.
Original content is the single biggest tactic you
can pursue for long term SEO returns.
Content Sources
Customer Service
Competitor’s
Trade publications
Blogs
set up a feed reader!

Content is King (and Queen)
Social Media
facebook
twitter
g+
follow industry folks
Age of content is a factor Google’s algo.
Find your stale content.
Curation
Just fake actual content. Filtering is a service.

I got Links and Links and
Links and Links
The web runs on links.
Check your incoming links.
A successful link-building strategy is really a content
strategy.
http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies
blog
feeds
interlinking
resource pages
forums & member sites
asking (begging)

Links, pt.2
Be aware that link building is where people
have gotten in trouble in the past couple
years.
Penguin and Panda updates
What should I avoid?
anyone guaranteeing #1 ranking
link farms
content farms
mass link submission

What the Hell is SoLoMo?
Social Local Mobile http://visual.ly/solomo-stats-no-business-can-
afford-ignore-infographic
http://socialmediatoday.com/somolo-revolution-webinar-replay
20% of Google searches involve location
modifiers
best coffee orlando
38% or shoppers use mobile for price
comparison
70% of mobile searches result in action <1

SoLoMo, pt.2
If you don’t have a mobile site, get one. This year.
Especially true if you have a brick and mortar.
Mobile is really the wrong way to look at it. Design
should be “agnostic”
Google has begun to factor mobile presence in their
algo.
If you are not on Google+, get there.
not much going on, however there are many SEO
benefits

SoLoMo, pt.3
If you don’t have a mobile site, get one. This
year.
Just like the Internet was here to stay in 1997, mobile
is here to stay now.
Google has begun to factor mobile presence in their
algo.
I guarantee your competitors aren’t waiting.
Social sharing buttons.
use the latest code, optimize it

SoLoMo, pt.4
You may not need all the social networks, but
you need the right ones
Pinterest - projects & visual
Facebook & twitter - curation, engagement, customer
service
Instagram - showcase, gallery, add humanity
Google+ - when you figure what you’re supposed to
do here, let me know

Reputation & Speed
Speed is something Google factors in their
algo
a slow site is costing you
find out site speed best practices
minimize http:// requests, javascript to the footer, css sprites, image
compression
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/best-practices/rules_intro
It will work out better for you if you are an
authority in your industry. Content is the way

Final Thoughts
SEO is not magic. It is not
voodoo. It is simply creating
great content and sharing
relevant information in a way
that is easily decipherable by
both man and machine.

Questions?
You either have none or a lot, which means I
was either awesome or terrible. It’s hard to tell
which.

Suggested Sites
http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/u
s/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-
guide.pdf
www.seomoz.com
www.searchengineland.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
www.mattcutts.com/blog
www.seobook.com
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

Demystify SEO

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