Toby EversMORPHEUS MEDIA A CREATETHE GROUP COMPANY

127 West 26th St., 7th FloorNew York, NY 10001 212.253.1588 212.353.8793

INTRODUCTION TO SEO

APRIL 2012

an editors approach

Understand SEO

Doing The Research

Content Promotion

Importance, Ranking Factors, Goals, Traffic, The SERP

Keywords, Analytics, Keyword Suggestions, Insights, Social Research

Goals, Page Structure, Title Tags, Meta Tags, Image Optimization, Interlinking

Off-site PromotionAuthor Rank, Link Building, Link Bait, Digital PR, Social Importance, Google +, PRWeb

Contents

understand SEO a simplified approach

Google Algorithm

Source: http://seomoz.org

Search Ranking Factors Survey 2011

✓make it easy for search engines to find our content

✓make it easy for search engines to understand our content

✓make it easy for users to find our content

Three Main Goals

The Importance of SEOWebsites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 percent; number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent; and number three had a CTR of 9.5 percent.

Source: http://bit.ly/k7fO3C

Title Tag of Page (Clickable Link)Meta description & URLBread Crumbs (Rich Snippets)

News Results

Image Results

Video Results

The SERP - Search Engine Results Page

• universal Search allows for multiple opportunities within the SERP to garner natural traffic

• by optimizing each of these areas, we can control more SERP real estate, increasing the likelihood of receiving a click

Social Media (Twitter)

do the researchfind your audience

What are keywords?

• keywords are common terms used in your content that identify what your content is about

• keywords represent the specific language and terminology that users use when they search

• more commonly searched keywords appear in Google “suggest” as you type

Keywords

What keywords are currently being used?

Analytics (Google, Omniture, etc)

• determine your current audience through keywords driving to your site

• find keywords that result in a more engaging audience (more page-views, more time on site)

• look for ‘non-branded’ keywords to find opportunity

• find areas you’re missing out on

Google Adwords Keyword Tool - adwords.google.com

Finding the traffic & opportunity

• find monthly search volume for keywords

• discover competition levels

• get recommendations for similar keywords to target

• best to research before writing a post

Google Insights allows you to identify comparative relative search volume for keywords

Use Google Insights to help you:• determine how people are searching

• what are people typing?• gain insight into seasonality

• when do people start searching? • connect to trending topics

• who else has written about this?• find rising searches

• what keywords are trending?• understand Geographical info

• where are people searching?

Finding the traffic & opportunityGoogle Insights - google.com/insights/search

Finding the buzz

• discover sentiment and demographics

• find trending topics on twitter

• discover articles and hash tags being shared

• find reputable targets & influencers

- rs.peoplebrowsr.com

put that research to work

content optimization

The Goal

The goal is to optimize content by aligning your language with the language that our readers use

Where are keywords the most effective?

Article / Post Optimization

• beginning of your headline• use of a sub-headline or deck

• beginning of title tag & meta description• if you have control

• within first 200 characters of article body

• image alt tag & caption

• utilized a few times more in body

• try to use synonyms and different keywords of similar semantics (don’t be repetitive!)

Page Titles / Title TagsBest Practices:• most important element for SEO• should describe the page like a table of

contents• should be very similar to your main

headline (H1)• place the most important keywords at the

beginning of the title• homepage: brand name first, then

value proposition or keywords• article pages: article title, category,

brand name• first 3 words in title are most relevant• search engines bold keywords included

in the user’s query• try to keep shorter than 75 characters

(keywords beyond that are ignored, and truncated on results)

Meta Descriptions

Best Practices:• doesn’t impact SEO relevancy, but impacts click-through rate on SERPs• don’t forget them - or Google will make something up• make each one unique• mix branded text with short description of page• this is your chance to ‘sell’ this page to users• try to keep shorter than 175 characters (long meta descriptions are

truncated, and are not optimal for the search engines)

Image Optimization

Best Practices:• all images should contain an alt tag• adds to keyword value of page• can bring additional traffic through

Google image search• should describe image in 3 - 5 words• helps to add an “image caption”

underneath the image• title=”” tag only provides text to users

as they hover over image, do not benefit SEO

alt=”Three Blind Mice”

caption

Three blind mice, photo by Toby Evers

Internal LinkingBest Practices:

• interlinking with other articles within your site can connect similar content together for users and search engines

• don’t overlink: no more than 1 link per 100 words of content is a best practice

• choosing the right anchor text (text within the link) is essential

• use relevant keywords about the next article

• avoid “click here”

Image Credit: http://bit.ly/gMZnIa

outbound link to referenced site

internal link to article about “Kate Upton”

PR done the ‘SEO’ way

off-site optimization

Author Rank / Trust Rank• trust rank is the search engine authority

value given to an author that can effect search engine ranking for certain topics

• creating a ‘bio’ page on a blog can give you an ability to connect authors to their external profiles with rel=”me” - and create a list of articles by that author

• a Google+ page should also be created by each author - and social profiles connected

• Author/Trust Rank is determined by a number of variables including:

• # of linked social profiles and their relevancy

• PageRank of authored content

• # of followers & friends - social graph

• generalization of content written by author

• postings to Google+ and +1’s

Independent PR to Support SEO

• PRWeb - cheap and simple solution ($200 for optimized release)

• SEO package provides distribution from AP wire to Google news

• allows linking to your site (SEO value)

• allows video and images to be added

• can use to distribute to partners in link-building process

Social Media’s Impact On Search

• SEOmoz social/search research data shows a high correlation between social media based factors, like Facebook Shares and Likes, and ranking well in Google

• search engines will rely more on these signals to provide higher quality search results as the web becomes more social in nature

Source: http://mz.cm/o5UM8N

Google+

• ‘Search Plus Your World’ is essentially an update to Google’s search algorithm which will increase the likelihood of Google+ pages appearing in search results

• with ‘Search Plus Your World’ personal results, the user will receive relevant tips, photos, and Google+ posts alongside results from the web

• users now have the ability to toggle back and forth between personal and regular search results

Personal Regular

The Importance of Link Building

• authority of the site linking to you• content on the page that is linking

to you• overall content of the site linking to

you• anchor text contained in link

(keywords)• whether the link is ‘followed’

Authority x Relevancy = Value

Important Search Engine Factors:

www.opensitexplorer.org

Link Bait• top 10 lists, infovideos &

infographics are currently the most popular forms of link bait• popularity and sharability allow

sites to acquire many links from a variety of domains

• also a great source of referral traffic through social platforms like Facebook and Twitter

• example: RSA Animate - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us• over 1,400 linking domains

and 8 million views

http://www.thersa.org/events/video/animate/rsa-animate-drive

Toby EversSVP, Media OperationsMorpheus MediaTwitter: @tobassist

Thank You!

Please don’t hesitate to DM me on twitter with any questions