Top to Bottom: SEO for Small Businesses

Top to Bottom: SEO for Small Businesses George Freitag | @number1george | #SSNmeetup

This deck is originally from a

Seattle SEO Network Meetup

Visit SeattleSEONetwork.org to learn about more.

Here’s the links: portent.co/seo-biz

(That’s right, no ‘m’)

4 Who am I?

(picture by @flashmurphy)

ALSO:

Small Business Investor

SMALL BUSINESSES

• Limited Budget

• Have other stuff to do

• Have basic control of your site

WHAT WE’LL COVER

• Technical Stuff

• Local Stuff

• Competitive Stuff

INTERMISSION • Interesting Stuff

LET’S START

SEOs

Small Business Owners

CHALLENGES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

10 YOUR NEW BUSINESS

11

YOU THE INTERNET

12

CHALLENGES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Things BIG Businesses have:

•  Giant budgets

•  Big teams working on their sites

•  Devoted teams and/or consultants

•  Lots of locations

•  Head start

•  Large followings

CHALLENGES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Things BIG Businesses don’t have:

YOU!

Disclaimer: This is the cheesiest moment of the presentation.

ADVANTAGES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

ADVANTAGES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Things SMALL businesses can do:

•  Do what they want

•  Keep track of their locations

•  See what others are doing

•  Be interesting

THAT’S GREAT BUT WHAT ABOUT THE

SEO?

WHERE’S THE SEO

It relates to what the search engine is trying to do.

WHERE’S THE SEO I need…

WHERE’S THE SEO I need…

to know when how tall Alec Baldwin

is.

WHERE’S THE SEO I need…

a secure cloud

hosting solution for my app.

WHERE’S THE SEO I need…

a new dress.

WHERE’S THE SEO I need…

to eat a gyro in the next 10 minutes.

SEARCH ENGINES

Search Engines Answer Questions. Technical SEO:

•  Showing off your answers

Strategic SEO

•  Finding questions

25

SEARCH ENGINES

Do some searches

SEARCH ENGINES

Figure out the types of answers you get. See what seems useful to do.

Get a sense of what’s going on in your market.

SEARCH ENGINES

You need to have something worth clicking on. If you don’t, then there’s little SEO can do for you.

Seriously.

The SEO.

FINE.

On-Site SEO FACTORS

ON-SITE SEO

Have x number of keywords in title tags Have x number of internal links Use these scripts

Mention all keywords x number of times

ON-SITE SEO IS THINGS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL

SIMPLEST OVERVIEW ON TECHNICAL SEO EVER:

TECHINICAL SEO

MAKE YOUR NAVIGATION WORK LIKE THIS:

TECHNICAL SEO

… A PAGE THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS

TECHNICAL SEO

Homepage:

All other pages:

… AND A SERP THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS:

BREAKING DOWN ON PAGE SEO

ON-PAGE SEO

Title tags •  Direct SEO impact

•  Under 70ish characters

•  Unique for every page

•  Put the most relevant terms first, then your brand name

•  EXCEPT the homepage

Meta Description •  No SEO impact

•  Under 155ish characters

•  Sales copy to convince people to click

•  Relevant keywords show up in bold.

ON-PAGE SEO

Content •  Use One H1 tag

•  Don’t worry about the other H tags

•  Use blank sheet of paper test

•  People read in chunks (so do search engines, really) so write for that.

ON-PAGE SEO

Don’t do this; use text

Hey look at this totally relevant content!!!

SIMPLEST OVERVIEW ON TECHNICAL SEO EVER PART 2:

ON-SITE SEO

OR… HOW TO AVOID DOING THIS:

Useful Content

ON-SITE SEO

You need to be able to get to every page by doing this

Product Page

Category Page (click!)

Homepage (click!)

ON-SITE SEO

But in a way that demonstrate relationships.

46 Google tries to use actual human factors to determine importance.

Important

Less Important

Not Important

The LEAST Important

AVOID BIG TECHNICAL PROBLEMS BY REMEMBERING TWO THINGS:

TEST 1) DIFFERENT CONTENT = DIFFERENT URL

ON-SITE SEO

Hidden Content

Header

Nav

igat

ion

Content Content  

www.bestsiteever.biz/page2.html  

New Content!

ON-SITE SEO

Google won’t ever see new content if it doesn’t results in a new URL.

ON-SITE SEO

How do I know if I’m doing this? •  Look at your URLs when you add content

•  If you’re delivering content through filters

•  If you’re delivering content with Flash

•  If you’re worried, copy a chunk of text and do a search for in “quotations” in Google.

TEST 2: SAME CONTENT = SAME URL

ON-SITE SEO

A PAGE

A PAGE IS SHARED:

ON-SITE SEO

A PAGE A PAGE A PAGE

BUT EVERYTHING POINTS TO DIFFERENT PAGES

A PAGE

ON-SITE SEO

INSTEAD OF ONE

http://www.yoursite.com  http://yoursite.com  http://www.yoursite.com/Default.aspx  http://www.yoursite.com/default.aspx  http://www.yoursite.com/default.aspx?mobile=yes  https://www.yoursite.com/  https://www.yoursite.com/Default.aspx?campain1  https://yoursite.com/default.aspx?mobile=yes&campaign&1  http://yoursite.com/default.aspx?top_nav  http://yoursite.com/Home?top_nav  https://yoursite.com/Default.aspx?mobile=yes&top_nav      http://yoursite.com/Home?top_nav    

ON-SITE SEO

MOST COMMON CAUSE:

ON-SITE SEO

How do I know if I’m doing this? •  Copy a chunk of text and do a search for in “quotations” in Google. See if more than one result comes up

•  Make sure it’s the same page, not just a quote or “category” page.

ON-SITE SEO

How do I avoid these? •  Talk to your designer/dev

•  Don’t use parameters to track behavior on a site

•  Don’t use microsites. Seriously. Don’t. Ever.

ON-SITE SEO

How do I avoid these?

•  Small sites are usually ok

•  Wordpress is pretty good at this –  If you use WordPress download Yoast SEO Plugin

•  If you got these problems, you’ll need a developer

•  If you have a new site, bring these concerns up at the beginning

LOCAL SEO FACTORS

LOCAL

Local is complicated

•  Different places show different results

•  Different factors for different markets

•  Constantly changing

•  Influenced by location

62

TRADITIONAL LOCAL RESULT

TRADITIONAL LOCAL RESULT

TRADITIONAL LOCAL RESULT

CAROUSEL LOCAL RESULT

CAROUSEL LOCAL RESULT

CAROUSEL LOCAL RESULT

WHERE IS GOOGLE GETTING ALL THIS FROM?

LOCAL

(Yes, it still exists)

LOCAL

Not + Local

?

LOCAL

HERE’S GOOGLE+ LOCAL PAGE

LOCAL

YOU CAN STILL GET TO GOOGLE PLACES

LOCAL

HAVE YOU TRIED TO GET TO GOOGLE+ LOCAL LATELY?

You’re Optimizing

for this

LOCAL

LOCAL

Make sure everything is filled out •  You can’t be in the carousel without a picture

•  If you’re competitor has something in their Knowledge Graph box that you don’t, you need to add it to yours.

•  Don’t use microsites. Seriously. Don’t. Ever.

ANYWHERE ELSE?

LOCAL

(Used with permission from @davidmihm; getlisted.com.)

LOCAL

Local Data Providers •  Neustar / Localeze

•  Infogroup

•  Yext

•  Factual

LOCAL

USE THIS TO FIND ALL THE MAJOR DIRECTORIES:

LOCAL

getlisted.org/static/resources/local-citations-by-city.html

THEN MANUALLY UPDATE SECONDARY DIRECTORIES:

LOCAL

Now what do I do with all these directories? N.A.P. (Name Address Phone)

Example – This is Portent’s NAP:

Portent, Inc. 502 2nd Ave. Suite 1700 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 575-3740 http://www.portent.com

SECRET WEAPON

Map Maker

MAP MAKER

How to get approved in Map Maker •  It’s like Wikipedia – you have to use it a lot

•  Approve lots of changes

•  Be polite (“please and thank you”)

•  Use preferred categories

•  Follow directions

•  If you have to, you can try asking for help in the forum.

LEARNING FROM YOUR COMPETITORS

86

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Identify what types of results show up:

Informational

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Google uses user data to determine what results it displays

Tips

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

If it shows results of a certain kind, that’s what people are looking for

Sales

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Find opportunities to write something useful

Other?

LEARNING FROM COMPETITORS

Search tricks •  site: Search within a site. (You can do this in chrome by just entering a site then hitting “space”)

•  inurl: Search for a word in a URL.

•  intitle: Search word within a page title.

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Use site:search to see how many pages they have about you

site:yourcompetitor.com “wireless routers”

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

See how many pages have a phrase in the title

site:yourcompetitor.com intitle:“wireless routers”

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

See how many blog entries they have

site:yourcompetitor.com inurl:blog “wireless routers”

FREE COMPETITIVE TOOLS

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

There are a few tools, though

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Google Keyword Planner •  You need to sign up for AdWords (it’s free)

•  Use it to find related terms you might not have thought of

•  Find the most popular term people are searching

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

Ubersuggest •  No sign up

•  Pulls terms from Google’s autosuggest

•  Good for exploring topics with lower search volume

•  You’ll still want to cross reference this with Keyword Planner

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

LEARNING FROM COMPETITION

SEM Rush •  Cadillac of competitive research tools

•  Limited to 10 queries a day (on free version)

•  Use it to see what terms competitor ranks for

•  Use it for most popular variations of a keyword

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH THIS DATA

LEARNING FROM COMPETITORS

What not to do: •  Create a hundred pages with the most popular term

•  Copy your competitor’s pages word for word

•  Try to exact match every term that shows up

LEARNING FROM COMPETITORS

What you SHOULD do: •  Try to use the most popular variation of the term when writing

•  Get some ideas on new pieces of content

LEARNING FROM COMPETITORS

Idea comes first – Google understands related words

INTERMISSION

LEVERAGING YOUR UNIQUENESS

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

I got a site I got local I know what competitors are doing

NOW WHAT?

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

NOW YOU JUST BE INTERESTING

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

Why did you start your business?

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

Chances are, it’s because some part of it is interesting to you.

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

Talk about that.

LEVERAGING CHARISMA OTHER PEOPLE WILL FIND IT INTERESTING TOO

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

Find your community

SOCIAL NETWORKS

You don’t have to do them all…

… except one.

SOCIAL NETWORKS

+

BUT NO ONE’S ON IT!!!

2 REASONS

WHY GOOGLE+

You need this to happen when you post.

WHY GOOGLE+

And you need to do everything you can to make this happen.

Popular search

My Google+ Post

(logged in as my boss)

WHY GOOGLE+

1.  Set up Google+ page for all contributors of your blog.

2.  Set up a business page for your business 3.  Setup a local listing if you have an address 4.  Yes, you have to do all three.

“HAVING SAID I DON’T WANT TO OVERSIMPLY LET ME OVERSIMPLY BY SAYING THE FOLLOWING.” - Me, just now.

OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

Broad, awful generalizations: •  Facebook: Friends and relatives

•  Instagram: Young people

•  Foursquare: Brick and mortar businesses

•  Pinterest: Artsy people

•  Linkedin: Business people

•  Tumblr: Internet people

•  Reddit: Really, really Internet people. (also mean people)

•  The more niche, the better.

OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

What about Twitter?? Use Twitter if…

… you want to use Twitter.

Lots of people will tell you that

you need to use it.

But as a small business you need to prioritize.

WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

You’re showing off you.

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

You have interests – write about your interests

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

See what works.

LEVERAGING CHARISMA

Analytics

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

We used to be able to look at the words people used to get to your site.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

We used to be able to look at the words people used to get to your site.

(not provided)

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Use landing pages

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Look at referrals

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

But this only works if you have the technical stuff taken care of. And you are making content that people are finding.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

(that’s why I mentioned all that stuff first.)

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Webmaster Tools

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I FIND WHAT WORKS?

YOU DO MORE!

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

Talk about whatever interests you

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING I need…

a new dress.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

Go beyond the terms you were originally going for.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING I need…

to look nice for my friend’s wedding.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

You can be as fun as you like.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING I need…

to look better than

Carol at my friend’s wedding

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

Or as niche as you want.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING I need…

to match my date’s Star Wars

costume for my friend’s wedding

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

There are companies paying big money

just to pretend to be as in to what you do as you are.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

1)  Build on a good foundation 2)  Establish yourself locally 3)  Know what your competitors are doing

4)  BE INTERESTING

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

Just remember to start here.

ONCE YOU FIND SOMETHING

… even though that’s actually here.

Here’s the links: portent.co/seo-biz

Thank You!

Links: portent.co/seo-biz Me: @number1george Meetup: @SeattleSEOnet Hashtag: #SSNmeetup