S E O F O R A R T I S T SS O M E A C T I O N A B L E A D V I C E

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A N E W W E B S I T E

T H E S TA R T:

TA R G E T E D T R A F F I C A N D C U S T O M E R S

T H E G O A L :

S E O : W H AT I S I T ?

• SEO is “Search Engine Optimization”, being visible on the Internet so your Web site can be found in “organic” searches (“free” traffic). SEO involves on-page optimization and off-page optimization. SEO is a long-term strategy.

• SEM is “Search Engine Marketing”, paying to direct traffic to your Web site (also known as PPC, or “Pay Per Click”). This is paid traffic, buying ads like Google Adwords ads, Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, etc. SEM is a short-term strategy, since it costs money.

W H AT I S T H E P O I N T O F S E O ?

Q: Isn’t SEO dead because Google’s algorithms keep changing?

A: Google’s algorithms are always changing, but they still focus on two things:

• Relevance - Give the user relevant search results to their query.

• Popularity - Give the user the most popular results for their query, which should be the best ones.

R E L E VA N C E

“Relevant” means the most on-topic results to the search phrase. The search phrase we call the “keyword phrase”.

How does Google know what is relevant? It looks at the text on the page:

• HTML headings, page title tag

• keyword phrase repetition (used to include meta keywords tag)

• conceptual relationships

• meta descriptions

P O P U L A R I T Y

• Over time, other Web sites link back to pages on your Web site. These are called “backlinks”.

• The Web sites that have the most sites linking back to them have higher PageRank (PR). PR is on a scale of 1-10, with 10 the highest. There are only about 40 PR10 sites in the world, like Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, etc.

• The biggest source of backlinks for most small Web sites is social media: Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube.

S E O M Y T H S

• SEO is the “right tags” on pages.

• How my Web site ranks for keywords is very important.

• I can do link trades with other sites to get backlinks.

• I must submit my site to Google, and to directories.

• I don’t need lots of content, just to have well-optimized pages.

W H AT I S L O C A L S E O ?

• A local business is a shop/service with a nearby physical location.

• Local businesses need accurate and complete NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) info.

• Local businesses with complete NAP info and Google My Business accounts show up in Google Maps.

• Local business reviews show up from Google My Business pages and from Yelp.

S E O T O O L S

• For WordPress SEO: Yoast SEO plug-in

• For social media: Pinterest, Pinterest ads, Facebook, Facebook ads, Instagram, Twitter

• For managing social media: Hootsuite (free plan), Buffer

• For e-mail marketing: MailChimp, Weber, Constant Contact

• For on-page analysis: Screaming Frog, Integrity

• For local SEO: Google My Business, Yelp

• For keywords: Google Autocomplete, Keyword Planner in Google Adwords, search terms in Google Analytics

• For traffic analysis: Google Analytics

• For technical site issues: Google Search Console

T E C H N I C A L S E O T I P S

Your Web site must have:

• robots.txt file - often provided by CMS tools

• XML sitemap - often provided by plug-ins like Yoast SEO, or create with a sitemap tool

• optimized images for the best combination of quality and speed

• fast-loading pages - check with Google PageSpeed Insights tool

• mobile-friendly design - use the Google Mobile-Friendly Tester