Search Engine Optimization and Your Online Brand

Ruth Burr ReedyBigWing Interactivewww.bigwing.com

@ruthburr

11,944,000,000 Google searches per month

Source: Digital Marketing Ramblings

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine

64% of web traffic comes from organic search

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Do You:

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Have a website?

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…that you want people to come to?

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..and complete an action?(Like: buy/sell something, sign up for

something, read/learn something, share something, or go somewhere?)

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“If You Build It, They Will Come” Won’t Work Here.

Baseball Field, Sprague, Washington by Curtis Cronn on Flickr

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You Need Digital Marketing.

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But Isn’t That…

SPAM by AJ Cann on Flickr@ruthburr

It’s Called Marketing.Look it Up.

“Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling that product or service.”

That’s from Wikipedia, y’all.

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It’s Called Marketing.SEO is about figuring out how people are searching for what you have, so you can show them – and Google – that you have what they want and you’re the best place to get it.

That’s from me.

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Let’s Get Started.

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If You Do Nothing Else…

@ruthburrIf you’re going to do one thing for your website, install tracking

software like Google Analytics – what gets measured, gets improved!

Metrics to Track• Form completions• Signups• Phone calls• Time on page/site• Visits to specific pages• Bounce rate

…What is important to you?

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Extra Credit: Google Tag Manager

Go the extra mile with tracking using Google Tag Manager, which will allow you to put tracking code on your site without

needing a web developer’s help. @ruthburr

How People Search

$@ruthburr

The online decision-making process involves multiple searches, content pieces and social media channels – every step of that process is an opportunity to reach your audience

Go the extra mile with tracking using Google Tag Manager, which will allow you to put tracking code on your site without

needing a web developer’s help.

Local SEO

@ruthburrLocal SEO impacts map results, including the 3-pack or “snack

pack” of local results at the top of many local search results pages.

How Local SEO Works

NameAddressPhone number

@ruthburrBe as consistent as possible with your name, address and

phone number, and make sure they are present and consistent in as many places as possible on the web.

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Local SEO Tools

There are a number of tools you can use to update your local information easily. These are some of my favorites. @ruthburr

Google’s Pigeon Update

@ruthburrThe “Pigeon” update in summer of 2014 started counting

organic SEO ranking factors, such as the ones we’ll discuss in the rest of the presentation, as more important than they

previously were for local reuslts.

Organic SEO

@ruthburrOrganic search results are all the results that are not paid ads.

The highlighted non-local results on this page are organic results.

Let’s Have a Party!

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Condemned Houses by LHOON on Flickr

…Not Here.

@ruthburrNobody wants to come to a party in a condemned house – but by trying to market a broken-down website, that’s what you’re

doing.

Clean Up Your House!

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A Website Should Be:

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Fast

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Ideal page load time: 2 seconds

Realistic page load time: 5 seconds

You can view page load times and recommendations for improving them under “Site Speed” in Google Analytics.

Public

@ruthburrAny content behind a login or paywall is content Google can’t see. Think about what you want to be visible in search engines.

Mobile-Friendly

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Tap points are ~7 mm

square

Tap points are ~5 mm

apart

Font is readable (~12 CSS pixels)

and wraps properly

Use the meta viewport tag

Use relative widths (100%) instead of fixed widths (360 px)

Mobile-Friendly

To check if your site is mobile-friendly, search for your site on your phone and look for the “Mobile-friendly” tag. @ruthburr

Easy to Navigate

@ruthburrDon’t confuse people – make it clear where they’re supposed to go to complete the task they want to complete.

Time to Decorate!

@ruthburrNow that you’ve got your site working properly, let’s put some content on there.

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@ruthburrThis is what the Cattlemen’s website looks like to Google. Make sure you’re using text, not pictures of text – Google can’t

read words in an image.

Keywords Are Important.It doesn’t matter how you talk about what you do. It matters how your users look for what you have, so you can show them that you have it.

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“Marketing specialist”1600 monthly searches

“Marketing guru”260 monthly searches

@ruthburrKeyword research shows you how your audience is talking about what you have, so you can better connect with them.

Can I Rank for That?

@ruthburrBefore you target a keyword, do some research to see if you could realistically rank for it.

It’s very difficult to compete for jobs keywords because you’re competing with aggregators like Monster and Indeed. @ruthburr

@ruthburrInstead, look for terms that people might be searching on earlier in their job search process, to build a relationship with

them before they get to the decision-making stage.

What Problems Can I Solve?

“I don’t know what I should do after college”

“I’m ready for the next step toward my dream job”

“I hate the place I work now”

“I want a higher salary to support my family”

@ruthburrThink about the reasons someone might want a new job. What problems might they be trying to solve?

What Do People with These Problems Search For?

“Best jobs marketing grads”

“Marketing career planning”

“Top workplaces OKC”

“Highest paying marketing jobs”

@ruthburrNow, do some keyword research keeping in mind the kinds of things someone with these problems might be searching for.

Creating in-depth resources not only builds a brand relationship with your consumer, it also positions you as an expert and protects you

from “thin content” penalties like Google’s Panda update.Panda by George Yu on Flickr

Build Rich ContentAvoid Penalties and Connect with Users at Top of Funnel

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Google Keyword Planner

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

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Don’t Hit Enter

Get content ideas by typing your core keyword into Google and seeing what Google suggests before you hit “Enter”. @ruthburr

Keywordtool.io

@ruthburrKeywordTool.io will automate this process for you.

Title tag: ~60 characters including

spaces

Description tag: ~150 characters including spaces

@ruthburrUse your target keywords in the <title> and <description> tags of the page. These should be editable in most content

management systems.

Description tag!

@ruthburrYour description tag won’t help you rank any better on Google, but it does provide a description in search results and on social

media that you can control.

“Marketing specialist jobs: Your marketing specialist jobs source for marketing specialist

jobs, marketing specialist job description, marketing specialist careers.”NO.

Use Your Keywords

@ruthburrYou don’t have to stuff your keywords in everywhere, to the point that it sounds unnatural.

Use Your KeywordsJust say what you were going to say, using your keywords.

AND:

Let keyword research drive your content strategy.

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Robot Spaceman Party Invitation by Nancy Dorsmer on Flickr

Invite People Over

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Search Traffic

Search Traffic

Your Website

Competitor Website

CTR Social

Blog

Guest Posting

Links

ReferralsPR

EventsDwell Time

Online Presence

@ruthburrYour online presence is bigger than just your website – it

includes everything you do on social media and elsewhere on the web.

Why Links Are Important

@ruthburr @ruthburrA link pointing to your website is like a “vote” from that website, in Google’s eyes, so building links is important. However, not

all links are created equal.

Quantity20 People Saying I’m Good > Me Saying it

@ruthburrThe first factor in link building is volume. Having a lot of links is better than having very few.

DiversityUnrelated People Saying I’m Good > My Friends and Family

@ruthburrThe second factor is diversity. It’s better to have links from a lot of different websites, rather than a lot of links from just a

handful of websites.

AuthorityBarack Obama Saying I’m Good > Crazy Man Yelling Into a Bag

@ruthburrThe third factor is authority – links from websites that are credible, established authorities in your niche are better than

low-quality or unrelated links.

DON’T BE SHADY.

@ruthburrDo NOT buy links. You could get penalized by Google. Also, don’t engage in link spam – driving your total number of links up by accruing a lot of low-quality, irrelevant links won’t work.

Who Are Your Friends?

@ruthburrWhat other businesses is your business already associated with? Try asking your partners and associations to link back to you.

Track Backlinks

http://majestic.com@ruthburr

Followerwonk -> TagCrowd

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Followerwonk -> TagCrowd

Use FollowerWonk to find people who list your target term in their Twitter bio – then paste your Followerwonk search results into TagCrowd to find overlapping interests for new content ideas.

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Facebook Graph Search

@ruthburrYou can also find overlapping interests using Facebook search.

Additional Resources• Nielsen PRIZM• Focus groups• Surveys• Interviews• Example personas:

http://academy.hubspot.com/examples/customer-examples/?Tag=Buyer+Persona

Here are some additional resources to help you build user personas that you can target with content. @ruthburr

The 15-Minute Social Strategy

Replying Sharing

Talking

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Track Everything

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Some More Useful Tools• http://www.google.com/analytics• http://moz.com/products/pro• http://raventools.com• http://majesticseo.com• http://semrush.com• http://simplymeasured.com

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Questions?

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