This document provides an overview of SEO best practices. It covers: 1. Setting up important SEO accounts like Google Search Console and Google My Business. 2. Conducting keyword research to identify target keywords and search volumes. 3. On-site optimization factors like optimizing content for relevance and user engagement, as well as technical elements like titles, descriptions and linking. 4. Off-site optimization techniques to build backlinks, like getting listed on directories, guest blogging and creative projects. The goal is to help readers understand key elements of SEO and provide strategies to improve search engine rankings.

1. SEO 101
BERNARD HUANG

2. Get your copy and follow along!
MHW schedule or
bit.ly/500-seo

3. Bernard Huang
Distro hacker in residence at 500 Startups.
Co-founder at Clearscope.
@bernardjhuang

4. “SEOs are like
doctors.
We don’t actually
know what’s going
on… ”

5. 1. SEO in 2017
2. Should you SEO?
3. How to set up your SEO accounts
4. Keyword research
5. On-site content considerations
6. On-site technical considerations
7. Off-site hacks
WHAT WE’RE COVERING

6. 1.
SEO in 2017
The evolution of “SEO”

7. 2017
● “quality”
content
● machine
learning
● links?
The Evolution of SEO
2010
● link
authority
● link trust
● keywords
2000
● # of links
● anchor text
● keyword
tags

8. “Quality” content
● Keyword co-occurrence, content authority
Machine learning
● User engagement metrics - dwell time,
clickstream data
Links
● less dependency, harder to game
STATE OF SEO 2017

9. 2.
Should you SEO?
Things to take into
consideration before investing
in SEO.

10. SHOULD YOU SEO?
● Is there any search volume for your
product, app, or service?
● SEO takes a LONG time (in startup time).
○ if you’re pre-product market fit, beware
● SEO is not guaranteed.

11. SHOULD YOU SEO?
SEO captures monthly searches. If no
one is searching, you’re outta luck
https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/

12. SEO takes a LONG time. If you change
directions, you gotta re-invest in SEO.
SHOULD YOU SEO?

13. SEO is not guaranteed to pay
dividends.
SHOULD YOU SEO?

14. SHOULD YOU SEO?
IMO, invest in SEO when:
● post product market fit*
● know what keywords you’d like to rank
for
● have competitors who’re ranking for
things on Google that you’d like to rank
for

15. 3.
How to set up your
SEO accounts
Set up relevant SEO accounts
and other things.

16. ● Google Search Console
○ proper setup
○ sitemaps
○ robots.txt
○ fetch as Google
● Google My Business
○ reviews
● Bing Webmaster Tools
○ more advanced crawl data
SETTING UP YOUR SEO

17. WHY
SEARCH
CONSOLE?

18. Add your website or android app.
SETUP: SEARCH CONSOLE

19. Add all the variations: http, https,
www., non-www., blog, etc.
SETUP: SEARCH CONSOLE

20. Set all the preferred domains for
your variations.
SETUP: SEARCH CONSOLE

21. Valid sitemaps help search engines
understand & crawl your site.
SETUP: SEARCH CONSOLE

22. Include URLs in the sitemap:
● are unique
● return status code 200
● aren’t <link rel=’canonical’> to a different
URL
● aren’t `no indexed` in robots.txt or on
the page
SITEMAP: SEARCH CONSOLE

23. Robots.txt where search bots go to
see what they can crawl.
ROBOTS.TXT: SEARCH CONSOLE

24. Allow pages you want crawled and
disallow things you don’t.
ROBOTS.TXT: SEARCH CONSOLE
https://www.grubhub.com/robots.txt

25. If you’re heavily using js make sure
Googlebot sees it correctly.
FETCH AS GOOGLE: SEARCH
CONSOLE

26. Updated content on your page?
Make Googlebot crawl / index it!
FETCH AS GOOGLE: SEARCH
CONSOLE

27. Sign up, register. Pretty easy.
HOW: GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
https://www.google.com/business/

28. Show reviews, business hours, phone
#s and credibility in SERPs.
WHY: GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

29. Reviews > no reviews. Review it
yourself, get friends, batchmates.
REVIEWS: GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

30. Better tooling for errors and
reporting than Google’s console.
WHY: BING WEBMASTER TOOLS

31. 4.
Keyword research
How are people searching for
your keywords? How many?

32. Understanding keywords is the
foundation of SEO:
● Brainstorm
● Current search traffic analysis
● Competitive analysis
● Google autosuggest
● Adwords keyword planner
KEYWORD RESEARCH

33. Create a list of keywords you’d like
to target.
BRAINSTORM: KEYWORD RESEARCH

34. Get a list of keywords you’re
currently ranking for.
CURRENT SEARCH TRAFFIC
ANALYSIS: SEARCH CONSOLE

35. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: SEMRUSH
Get a list of keywords your
competitors currently rank for.

36. Google helps searchers by filling out
popular queries.
GOOGLE AUTOSUGGEST:
CLEARSCOPE

37. Explore what Google is
auto-suggesting for search queries.
GOOGLE AUTOSUGGEST:
CLEARSCOPE

38. Take the list of keywords from
current / competitor / brainstorm.
ADWORDS KEYWORD PLANNER

39. Get avg. monthly search volume for
each keyword.
ADWORDS KEYWORD PLANNER

40. Categorize keywords by intent… now
you have content topics.
SEO CONTENT TOPICS BY INTENT

41. 5.
On-site content
considerations
Content SEO factors that you
can control on your website.

42. ON-SITE CONTENT
CONSIDERATIONS
Searcher intent
● content relevance
● content comprehensiveness
User engagement metrics
● dwell time (bounce rate, avg. time on site)

43. How do you craft content people
(aka “Google”) want?
By copying what already
works in the SERPs!
and make it better.

44. SEARCHER INTENT: RELEVANCE

45. For a query like [san francisco food
delivery], let’s see the results...
SEARCHER INTENT: RELEVANCE

46. CONTENT RELEVANCE

47. CONTENT RELEVANCE

48. CONTENT RELEVANCE

49. CONTENT RELEVANCE

50. Google the keywords you want to
rank and classify content type.
HOW: CONTENT RELEVANCE

51. Google is using keyword
co-occurrence to “grade” content.
SEARCHER INTENT: COMPREHENSIVE

52. Comprehensive content generally
ranks better than other content.*
SEARCHER INTENT: COMPREHENSIVE

53. Look at the ranking content and
generate a list of keywords / topics.
HOW: CONTENT COMPREHENSIVE

54. Staying on your site longer before
backing to SERPs is good.
USER ENGAGEMENT METRICS

55. USER ENGAGEMENT METRICS
Ways to increase user engagement
metrics:
● relevant content DEPENDS ON QUERY
For example:
● user generated content and photos
● well formatted / readable text
● hero images
● videos

56. E-COMMERCE: HERO IMAGES

57. E-COMMERCE: HERO IMAGES

58. E-COMMERCE: HERO IMAGES

59. E-COMMERCE: HERO IMAGES

60. COPY
the types of content that are already
working in Google and
MAKE YOUR CONTENT 10x BETTER.

61. 6.
Top on-site
technical
considerations
Technical SEO is becoming less
relevant, but here’s what to
watch out for

62. ● crawlability
● <title> tags
● <meta descriptions>
● internal linking
● mobile friendliness / page load speed
TOP ON-SITE TECHNICAL
CONSIDERATIONS

63. Crawl your website
● Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Google Search Console
● HTML improvements, internal links,
server errors
Mobile-friendly test, Site load speed test
IDENTIFY ON-SITE TECHNICAL
ISSUES

64. CRAWL: ON-SITE TECHNICAL
FACTORS

65. SEARCH CONSOLE: ON-SITE
TECHNICAL FACTORS

66. If Googlebot can’t see it, fix it. Then
fetch as Google again + submit.
WHY / HOW: CRAWLABILITY

67. <title> tags are used as the title of
your content in the SERPs.
WHY: <title> TAGS

68. Make sure your <title> tags are:
● not missing
● unique & interesting
● greater than 30 characters
● less than 65 characters OR 512 pixels*
● relevant to the content
HOW: <title> TAGS

69. Use Adwords to a/b test content and
see how to increase CTRs.
PRO TIP: <title> TAGS

70. <meta descriptions> are suggestions
for the snippet in the SERPs.
WHY: <meta description> TAGS

71. Make sure your <meta descriptions> are:
● unique & interesting
● less than 160 characters
● relevant to the content
* not a ranking factor
HOW: <meta description> TAGS*

72. If you have great unique content, try
having no meta descriptions.
PRO TIP: <meta description> TAGS

73. PRO TIP: <meta description> TAGS

74. Internal links are like internal votes to
important content on your site.
WHY: INTERNAL LINKING

75. HOW: INTERNAL LINK RANK DEPTH

76. HOW: INTERNAL LINK COUNT

77. Make sure all of your pages:
● are internally linked to within your
website
Make sure the pages you want ranked:
● get more internal links than other pages
● get contextual links (eg. homepage links,
within blog posts, nav bar, etc.)
HOW: INTERNAL LINKING

78. PRO TIP: INTERNAL LINKS
Nav bars are above the fold links you
can use to target important pages.

79. PRO TIP: INTERNAL LINKS

80. User sitemaps are easy ways to get
full internal linking coverage.
PRO TIP: INTERNAL LINKS

81. Google has a
separate index for
mobile and desktop
queries.
Not mobile friendly?
You won’t rank well
for mobile search.
WHY: MOBILE
FRIENDLINESS

82. Check your website with the mobile friendly
testing tool:
HOW: MOBILE FRIENDLINESS

83. Better the user experience and
Google crawl budget.
WHY: PAGE LOAD SPEED

84. HOW: PAGE LOAD SPEED
Google Search Console > Crawl >
Crawl Stats > Time spent dl’ing page

85. 7.
Off-site SEO hacks
Links, citations, and more links.

86. SEO PRESENTATION WITHOUT
LINK ADVICE?!?!

87. Backlinks
● external votes to your website / page
Citations
● establishes credibility - more important
for local businesses
OFF-SITE SEO HACKS

88. HOW: BACKLINKS
● Citations
● PR
● Bloggers
● Guest blogging
● Sponsored content
● Creative endeavors
● Ask your batchmates

89. CITATIONS: BACKLINKS
Get your business on local
directories or use moz.com/local

90. Hustle journalists and/or do new and
noteworthy things.
PR: BACKLINKS

91. Hustle bloggers in your industry for
link placement.
BLOGGERS: BACKLINKS

92. Hustle bloggers in your industry for to
trade link placement.
GUEST BLOGGING: BACKLINKS

93. Sometimes the hustle results in
sponsoring bloggers.
SPONSORED CONTENT: BACKLINKS

94. Think about how you can do or
leverage something others can’t.
CREATIVE ENDEAVORS: BACKLINKS

95. bit.ly/500-seo
@bernardjhuang
bernard@500.co
Want more?
bit.ly/programmatic-seo
QUESTIONS?

96. RECOMMENDED TOOLS
Keyword research & discovery
● SEMrush
● Keyword Tool
Technical analysis
● Search Console
● Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Content strategy & improvements
● Clearscope