When you do a Google search on SEO topics, the results usually include articles from more than a year ago. In the SEO world, a year can be like a lifetime because of the many changes Google constantly makes to their algorithms and accepted SEO practices. This presentation will help you understand what's important to know for successful on-page and off-page optimization in today's SEO world. It was created in November 2013. Here's what it covers: - Changes In SEO Best Practices - SEO Ranking Factors That Matter - New Truths and Taboos - Checklists for On-Page SEO When Evaluating an Existing Site's SEO or Redesigning a Site - Content-Driven Link Building - What Does An SEO Plan Look Like? For more information and help with topics on SEO, feel free to contact me or visit our website and blog. www.paveya.com Paveya is an Internet marketing services company and certified Hubspot partner specializing in marketing for small businesses, vacation rental companies, real estate companies and the hospitality industry.

1. The New SEO.
Best Practices for Search Engine Optimization in the Modern SEO Era
2013
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2. SEO Best Practices
SEO Has Changed
Ranking Factors
New Truths
Design and Audit Checklists
Content-Driven Link Building
What Does an SEO Plan Look Like?

3. SEO Has Changed

4. Animals & Algorithms
Social Signals – 2010
• Added social engagement as an algorithm
element
Google Panda – 2011
• Focused on website content quality.
• Penalized spammy sites filled with
ads, duplicated content, etc.
Google Penguin – 2012
• Focused on link quality
• Penalized sites with low quality links.
• Generally, the easier a link is to get, the
lower the quality.

5. Hummingbird - 2013
• Latest Google Algorithm update
• Not affecting like Panda and Penguin
• Purpose:
– To give mobile users quick answers to questions so that
they don’t have to click away from the search results
• Emphasis on mobile-friendly sites and content
• Emphasis on Google+
• Continued emphasis on quality links from quality
content

6. SEO Has Changed
• Old staples are now taboos
• Based heavily on shared content
• Thus, more creative
More Benefits:
• Rank high
• Make your website and content share-worthy
• Earn traffic from social networks
• Build brand perception, trust, & website conversions

7. Ranking Factors

8. What We’re Up Against
Google changes its search algorithm ~ 500–600 times / yr.

10. New Truths

11. New Truths
Not considered in algorithm:
New Taboos
• Meta keywords
• Too much keyword anchor
text; build links to brand name,
too.
• Meta descriptions (important
for CTR, though)
PageRank Outdated
• PR based on outdated
algorithm. Only considers one
main factor – links.
• Updated infrequently now
• Expected to be retired soon
• High PR does not equal high
rankings
• Keyword-only domain names.
Domain names should be
chosen based on brand and
user experience.

12. More On
Ranking Factors

13. Title Tags
• Keyword | Page Descriptor | Company Name
– Buy Local | About | Independent We Stand
• Not to exceed 70 characters
• In WordPress, leave “Tagline” field blank so it’s not
tacked onto each title tag.
– Ensure no coding is tacking on something by default, as well.
• No page should have same title tags
– Helps search engines understand that each page has unique
content

14. Meta Descriptions
• Important for CTR
• Contain calls to action when possible
• Contain keywords when they can be used naturally
• User-benefit is more important than including keywords in the
description
• Google only publishes the first 160 characters

15. Keyword-Rich Content
• Each page should include keywords that the client should be ranked for.
– This may require keyword research to be done beforehand.
• Don’t overstuff keywords. Copy should sound natural and be optimized
first for readers.
• When possible, link keywords in blog posts to internal website pages.
– Example: If a Lago Mar blog post mentions weddings, link to the
weddings page. If possible, customize that word in the blog post to be
“Fort Lauderdale Wedding.”
• When possible, bold, italicize or underline keywords
• When possible, place keywords in H1 and H2 tags
• Add alt image text to pictures using keywords when possible.

16. On-Site Links
•
Internal links indicate good organization to search engines.
•
Link keywords to other pages when it makes sense. (EOS)
•
Place anywhere a user could learn more info elsewhere on the site, including nav
and non-nav pages, blog posts, news articles, etc.
•
In blog posts, include links to other posts whenever appropriate.
•
No more than 100 links per page.
– This includes links in body content, sidebar content (including blog categories,
archives, etc.), footer content, etc. (SunGard)
•
Some external links to helpful resources are good for SEO

17. No Duplicate Content
• Causes major penalties.
• No page should contain exactly-worded content that exists
anywhere else on your website or any other.
• Do not publish a blog post or article you have written for your
site on any other site.
– The only exception would be if the post is placed on a very good site
that gives credit and links back to the post on your website.
– Only do this in moderation. Doing this too much could result in
penalties.

18. Domain Names
• Avoid Exact Match Domain Names
• Should be 15 characters or less
• Avoid hyphens. (Often indicates spam.)
• Avoid alternate domain types that aren’t .com, .net, .org.
(Often indicates spam.)

19. Page URLs
• Contain keywords whenever possible
• URLs should be static, not dynamic
• Always create a “www” homepage redirect.
– Example: Website.com should redirect to www.Website.com
• In WordPress:
– Choose “Custom Structure” with only /%postname%/
– In General Settings, add “www” to WordPress address and Site
Address to create the homepage 301 redirect

20. Other On-Site Factors
•
Length of Copy
– Google prefers web pages with a lot of (relevant, useful) text.
– Average content length for web page in top 10 results: at least 2,000 words.
•
Header Tag Codes
– Use h1, h2, h3 in web page content organization whenever possible.
•
Size of website
•
Frequently updated content
•
Load speed
•
Video Content
•
Responsive website

21. Other Off-Site Factors
•
Data on Users, Usage and Traffic
– Traffic/usage signals from browsers and toolbars
– Quantity of queries
– Diversity of queries
– CTR of queries
•
Non-Social Brand Mentions
– Mentions of brand and domain name in news/media/press
– Offline usage of brand/domain name
– Association of brand with other entities (i.e. BBB, industry associations,
sponsorships, etc.)

22. Social Signals
Quantity and quality of links and mentions in social networks
• Google+ is especially important
• Google Authorship and Publisher should be set up on the
blog for all websites that have a Google+ account. Whenever
possible, a website client should have an active Google+
account.
– Google Publisher code should be placed on homepages.
– Google Authorship code should be placed on blog pages.
– When appropriate, if a client has an active Google+ profile (a personal
profile), the “Contributor” field of their profile should link to the
company blog.

23. Optimization
Checklists

24. Designing Brand New Website
Brand New Website
Pre-Design Phase
Domain Name choice
Copywriter receives keywords from SEOer before writing copy
Plan URLs to include keywords. Ensure URLs are static, not dynamic.
Design Phase
Add SEO plugin if needed
Send SEOer login information to add meta data if he/she is inserting that data.
Include header tags wherever possible
Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide
Include Title Tags and Meta Descriptions if SEOer is sending to you
Include interal links
Include alt image text or have SEOer include
Ensure there is no duplicate content on site
Check load speed
Ensure title tags not created by SEOer are 70 characters or less
Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions
Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code. SEOer will send.
Ensure Site is browser and device responsive
Ensure that if page is ever temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server
Ensure Robots.txt allows crawling

25. Website Redesign
Website Redesign
Pre-Design Phase
Copywriter receives keywords from SEOer before writing copy
Keep old URL structure wherever possible.
When not possible to keep URL structure, use 301 redirects from old URLs that used to contain a new URL's information.
Plan any new URLs to include keywords.
Ensure URLs are static, not dynamic.
Design Phase
Add SEO plugin if needed
Send SEOer login information to add meta data if he/she is inserting that data.
Include header tags wherever possible
Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide
Include Title Tags and Meta Descriptions if SEOer is sending to you
Include interal links
Include alt image text or have SEOer include
Ensure there is no duplicate content on site
Check load speed
Ensure title tags not created by SEOer are 70 characters or less
Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions
Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code. SEOer will send.
Ensure Site is browser and device responsive
Ensure that if page is ever temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server
Ensure Robots.txt allows crawling
Ensure 301 redirects have been implemented where needed.

26. Evaluating SEO
SEO Evaluation - New Site
Task
Evaluate Domain Name choice
Perform Keyword Research
Send keywords to copywriter
Ensure URLs include keywords
Create and add or send Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Analyze content organization
Add keywords to content if needed
Add interal links if needed
Add external links if appropriate
Add alt image text
Ensure there are less than 100 links on any page
Check that every page has at least one solid paragraph of keyword rich content
Check for opportunities to add header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc)
Ensure there is no duplicate content on site
Check load speed
Look for opportunities for video content
Ensure title tags are less than 70 characters
Ensure there are no duplicate title tags or meta descriptions
Add Google+ Authorship and Publisher Code
Site is browser and device responsive
If page is temporarily unavailble, status code 503 is returned by the server
Robots.txt allows crawling
Ongoing Optimization: Add Schema.org and Rich Snippets
SEO Evaluation - Not a New Site
Task
Perform Keyword Research
Send keywords to copywriter
Ensure URLs include keywords
Add title tags/meta descriptions. Get login info for this.
Claim and validate Google+ listing
Send designer Google+ Authorship/Publisher Code
Analyze content organization
Add keywords to content if needed
Add interal links if needed
Add external links if appropriate
Add alt image text if needed
Ensure there are less than 100 links on any page
Look for opportunities to include video content if client has any to provide
Check that every page has at least one solid paragraph of keyword rich content
Check for opportunities to add header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc)
Ensure there is no duplicate content on site

27. The New
Link Building

28. Content-Driven Link Building
• Can no longer create 50 link directory backlinks each month and
be successful
• Google wants to see a diversified link profile:
– Social media shares
– Google+ Engagement
– Blogs and news sites
– Some social bookmarks
– Guest blogging
– Business directories
– Resource lists

29. Link Building Strategy
1) Existing Link Analysis
– Identify where the clients existing links come from.
2) Linkable Asset Analysis
– Identify the content the client currently has that can be used for link
building.
3) Link Opportunity Analysis
– Brainstorm and identify potential link sources.

30. Link Building Strategy (cont.)
4) Set Up Link Prospecting
– Use tools like Google Alerts to identify sources that have mentioned
your brand so that you can ask them to link from that mention.
5) Promote the Content of Industry Influencers
6) Create New Content
7) Conduct Link Acquisition
– Conduct outreach, such as broken link mining, to request links from
reliable sources.

31. Full SEO
Plan

32. What Does an SEO Plan Look Like?
1) Perform keyword analysis and selection
2) Implement onsite checklists for designers and SEOs
3) Develop link building strategy
4) Reporting
5) Tweaking as necessary
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