wordcampkc seo fundamentals by seomike

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SEO FundamentalsHow site owners can maximize

ranking

Presented by Michael BlackOwner, SEOMike Consulting

@SEOMike

What is SEO??• SEO stands of Search Engine Optimization• The term SEO was coined by Bruce Clay in 1996• SEO is:

– Making a website easy to understand for search engine robots by resolving technical difficulties with the site.

– Making a website load as quickly as possible.– Making sure a website communicates expertise on relevant

subjects.– Making sure organic listings attract the highest click through

rates possible.

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What SEO is NOT• SEM (Search Engine Marketing) which is an umbrella term

for strategies which include SEO and paid search engine ads.

• Paid Advertising, AKA PPC (Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

• Link Building• Social Network Promotions• Conversion Optimization• A Silver Bullet• Dead• Easy

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Keyword Research• Where to get keyword ideas

– Client Input– Analytics– Google AdWords Keyword Tool– Ubersuggest.org– Site Search– Competitors

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Keyword ResearchGoogle Site Search

Your users are telling you want they want to find

on your site.

Listen to them!

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Keyword Research • Significant spelling changes

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Keyword Research School Supply

vs.School

Supplies

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Title and Meta Optimization

• Title Optimization– When properly formatted and optimized, the

title tag will likely display as the blue link in Google.

– About 62 characters including spaces, but comes down to a pixel width of 512 characters.

• Description Optimization– When properly formatted and optimized, the

description tag will likely display as the text blurb in Google.

– About 155 characters including spaces, but comes down to pixel width.

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Title and Meta Optimization• Home Depot’s homepage title tag

is too short. Google picked something else that was too long. The short tag means they lose control.

• Home Depot’s description tag is too long so Google is truncating it.

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In addition to competing with other websites in the search results, you are competing with Google’s own revenue-generating ads. In 2015 Google made $74.5 billion. They didn’t make a dime from clicks on organic listings.

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Yoast is a great Wordpress plugin that allows you to edit title and description tags and even has a preview so you know when your tag is too long.

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Image Optimization• Images need ALT tags

– ALT tag offers alternate text for screenreaders– Offers alternate text for search engines

• Use Google’s text cache or Firebug to see your alt tags.

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Image Optimization• The only place “Organic SEO by SEOMike”

exists on my site is as the ALT tag for the image on the right side of the screenshot below.

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Image Optimization• My site ranks for an exact-match of the

text contained in the image ALT tag.

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Image Optimization• Check Google’s Cache

– Allows you to see what the robot sees– Shows your image alt tags – In Google’s search box, or in Google Chrome

type cache:www.example.com

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Image Optimization• Google’s text cache shows image alt

tags.

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Image OptimizationControl image alt text from the Image Details in Wordpress

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Valid Code• Valid code is important for proper

indexing and ranking of your website.– Web browsers correct code on the fly.– Search engine robots have gotten significantly

better.– Valid code makes sure browsers display your

site how you intended.– Valid code reduces load times by reducing error

correction and repaints.

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Site Speed•Site speed is very important

to how your site ranks.•Use webpagetest.org to

identify slow resources and optimize.

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Site Speed

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SEO Tools• W3C Validator: validator.w3.org• W3C CSS Validator: jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator• IP Neighbors: www.dnsqueries.com • Screaming Frog: www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-

spider/• InSpyder InSite:

www.inspyder.com/products/InSite• ahrefs: ahrefs.com• Page Speed Tester: www.webpagetest.org/

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Michael BlackSEOMike Consulting

11709 Roe Ave. #D236Leawood, KS 66211

913-660-9532SEOMike.com

@SEOMike