SEO: Search Engine Optimization · a professional website without the pain and costs associated...

SEO: Search Engine OptimizationWade Striebel

Schedule

Who am I?

What is SEO?

How can I be successful with SEO?

Tools

Questions

Who am I?

u With the support of the Ontario Summer Company Program, I began Insta-Computers in 2015. During this time, Insta-Computers was looking to develop a professional website without the pain and costs associated with custom built sites. It was then that the dream of Insta-Websites began.

u Insta-Websites became a separate business in January of 2016, and since then we have grown in size but have also continued our dedication to our same founding principal, pain-free web solutions.

u Now, I am a founding committee member of ClassicPress, a non-profit organization based out of the UK with a focus on serving businesses with a powerful Content Management System. Also the founder of Socializd, a social media platform for businesses and agencies alike.

How do search engines actually rank pages and sites?

u Search engines crawl sites on a continual basis, looking for the words and phrases most relevant to the site. u It is possible to use data analytics to source the most

popular search terms and words used within any industry.

u It is important to use any SEO naturally and cohesively within site content.u Search engines are really good at detecting business users

trying to spam their systems.

What is SEO?

Definition

Search engine optimization is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results — often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. ~ Wikipedia

What is SEO?

In simple terms:

u SEO helps search engines (like Google) figure out what your website is all about.

u SEO is the act of providing clues to the search engine that helps explain the content on your site.

What is SEO?

u Without some basic SEO, your site will be invisible online as search engines will have no clue who should be interested in your site.

u Search engines utilize a number of methods to rank businesses in order of importance in results and these include their relevance and authority within a sector.

How do I show Authority?

To show ”Authority”, search engines look at the number of quality links to your site.

This mean the number of quality links to your site from reputable websites can be vital in improving your ranking.

These are called backlinks.

How do I show Authority?

Your website

News Government Other Sites

Reputable Sites

These sites are trusted by search engines.• Dufferin Board of Trade• BBB• Government Sites

Having these links shows search enginesyour site has authority.

Tracking BackLinks

u Google Search Console

Activity 1 – Google Search Console

Let’s take a look at the Google Search Console.

What can we do?

u Track Performance

u Track Backlinks

u Track Page issues

u Why is this helpful?

u Link

u Thank you Emily Jean Photography for permission to showcase

Why copywriting in SEO is so important

u As mentioned previously: “It is important to use any SEO naturally and cohesively within site content.”

u High quality content and keywords can lead to an increase in external links and organic traffic.

Keyword Example

https://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-seo-concepts

Activity 2 - Keywords

u Let’s pretend we are a new home company cleaning company in Orangeville.

u Which do you think gets more traffic?

u Cleaning Service

u Home Cleaning

u House Cleaning

u https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=CA&q=cleaning%20service,home%20cleaning,house%20cleaning

u Any other keywords we should be focusing on?

Does mobile affect my SEO?

u In short, yes it does.

u Google Mobile-first indexing rolled out in March 2018

u Checks for a mobile site first. If none is found, then checks the desktop site.

u Some mobile stats from Google:

u 89% of people are likely to recommend a brand after a positive brand experience on Mobile (Google, 2017)

u 46% of people say they would not purchase from a brand again if they had an interruptive mobile experience (Google, 2017)

u 80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies with mobile sites or apps that help them easily answer their questions. (Google, 2018)

u Over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product while conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2018)

How does SSL (https) affect my SEO?

Success with SEO

How can I be successful with SEO?

u Publish high quality content on your websiteu Will help build up good links to your site which will create higher

levels of authority for your site.

u Ultimately, the best sites don’t link to content that’s poor quality and doesn’t educate or inform.

u Great SEO for business sites means researching customers in depth to discover the kind of content they require. When your site answers consumer needs, you’ll soon see increased traffic, and higher number of external links.

How can I be successful with SEO?u Two forms of SEO

u Onsite SEO

u Offsite SEO

Offsite OnsiteSEO

Content

Crawlability

Structure

Backlinks

Sitemap Submission

Social

Onsite SEO

ü Original & Relevant Contentü Crawlability

ü Meta Tags

ü Meta Description

ü Keywords in content

ü Sitemaps

ü URL Structure

ü Website Structureü Website Speed (& Accessibility)ü Image SEO

ü Internal Linking

Offsite SEO

ü Backlinks

ü Forum Posts

ü Social Media Shares

ü Search Engine Submission

ü Photo Sharing

ü Tracking

Tools

Good Tools

u Google Trends - Free

Good Tools

u Google Search Console - Free

Good Tools

u Google Analytics - Free

Good Tools

u WordPress user? Yoast SEO – Freemium

Good Tools

u Don’t have time to Blog?• Copify - $35/500 words

• Articlestaff - $50/500 words

• Copycardinal - $499/mo (USD)

• Freelancers

Some interesting stats

u The first result page gets 89% of all clicks.

u The first result gets 44.64% of the clicks.

u 60% of the clicks go to the top three.

u Interestingly, position 10 gets more clicks than position 6.

Study by Ignite Visibility.

Myths – short keywords…

u Shorter keywords perform better!

u Do they perform better? Let’s consider these keywords.

u Lose weight

u How to lose weight fast

u How to lose weight

Myths – following big brands…

u Because Big Brands Do It, It Must Be Good!

u Following big brands may lead you down a poor SEO and user-experience path

u Many large companies still don’t have secure sites

u Many still don’t allow password managers on login forms (more of a personal rant)

u Don’t just copy what a big brand is doing, learn what works for your target audience

Myths – buying ads…

u Buying ads will make my site be first in the results!

u Buying ads has no impact on your organic SEO.

u Once you stop paying for that ad, your site will no longer be the first result

u It is better to use organic SEO to increase your rankings and compliment that with ads to protect your traffic from any competitors.

Questions

PowerPoint Slide

The slides are available @ https://blog.insta-websites.ca