SEO Is Easy. Seriously.

Don’t make it harder than it is.

The secret to successful SEO is …

Provide quality content, and make it easy to find

GOOGLE’S SEO PHILOSOPHY “Focus on the user, and all else will follow”

Or, in Google’s words: …

What Google Cares About

Three keys to Google’s process that your SEO efforts must address:

1.  Indexing: Can they crawl and index your site? 2.  Content: Does the site have good, useful content

relevant to the searched term? 3.  Credibility: Do others recommend or reference your

site?

It’s Really Just Standard Marcom

The Marcom World o  Audience o  Message o  Medium

The SEO World o  Keywords o  Content o  Linking

Marcom techniques should be applied on all outbound messaging; SEO techniques should be applied to all online communications

Keywords Are Not Yours

o  Keywords are the connection between what your searcher is thinking and what you want to tell them

o  Here’s how you find the right ones: •  You must put yourself in the mind of the searcher

o How do they describe their problem, not necessarily your solution?

•  PPC data o Will the keyword lead to a sale? o All SEO efforts would benefit from PPC data

•  Competitor websites o Can you compete on core keywords, or focus on secondary

ones?

o  Look at traffic volume for the keywords on your list

Google’s Public Keyword Tool

o  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Publish or Perish

o  Content is King o  You’re the expert; Google wants to help you tell your

story o  They only care if it’s relevant and fresh o  If you can’t generate it, outsource it o  Remember, content can also be videos, webinars,

images, or podcasts

Put yourself out there!

Keywords In Your Content

o  Make sure your content has the targeted keywords •  No need to overdo it •  Max 6% keyword density •  Readability is more important than density

o  If it’s offsite content, like a press release, make sure it links to the appropriate web page

Maximize Link Value

o  Make sure links have descriptive anchor text

Do This

Not That

Links: The Map to Your Treasure

o  Links from relevant sites to yours tell Google that your content is valuable

o  Similar to the treasure map, linking is the most valuable aspect of SEO

o  Off-site link-building is time-consuming, but doubly valuable •  Off-site links drive traffic to you •  Off-site links are votes for your relevance

If Content is King, then Linking is the Queen, and may be more valuable than the King.

Where to Get Links

o  Suggestions for link sources: •  Partner firms •  Contributed articles

o Target the most authoritative sites

•  Relevant blogs o Target the highest-traffic blogs

o  Links from social media are the dynamic new element •  Relevant conversations point to relevant content

On-Site Links Are Also Valuable

o  As you add new content on new pages, link to your other pages of similar content

o  To do this right, start with a content strategy and map •  Create silos of content categories

o  This map has two valuable aspects: •  It makes it easy to add content in an organized

way .. •  .. which lets Google easily digest it, as well

Some Valuable Detail

Top 5 Things to Do 1.  Keyword research,

including your competition 2.  Choose longer-tail

keywords that you can own

3.  Focus on one primary and two secondary keywords

4.  Align all on-page elements to keyword

5.  Build links

Top 5 Things to Avoid 1.  Keyword stuffing 2.  Impediments to Google’s

crawler 3.  Keywords nobody searches

for 4.  Duplicating your content 5.  Invalid HTML and heavy

code

GOOGLE’S SEO PHILOSOPHY

Once you get the traffic to your site, make sure you give them a reason to take an action

One final thought …