Top of the pile: Juggling SEO basics, social media and user review sites

#WYSTC2013 #SocialSEO

Top of the pile: juggling SEO basics, social media and user review sites

PRESENTED BY:

KAYLA PATTERSON

GOMEDIA COORDINATOR

[email protected]@kaylapatt | @_GoMedia_

TIFFANY HARRISON

OUTREACH MANAGER, GOABROAD.COM

[email protected]@ttmharrison | @GoAbroad

MAIN TOPICS

Understanding SEO

How Social Media Influences SEO

How to Optimize your Social Media

Key Takeaways

Understanding SEO


WHAT IS SEO?

QUESTION 1:

Do you consider your website to be one of the most important pieces of your business?

WHY?

9/10 times, a student is researching you online before calling you

HINT:You

Should!

WHAT IS SEO?

QUESTION 2:

Who understands what SEO is, and is your website optimized for SEO?

LET’S DEFINE:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

ALGORITHMS:

One [online] recipe to rule them all

WHAT INFLUENCES SEO?

WHAT USED TO WORK:

• Keywording• Massive Quantity of Backlinks• Exact Match Domains

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW:

• 200+ Ranking Factors of Google• User Experience• Quality vs. Quantity• Social Media

ANALYZING SEO

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

TERMS TO KNOW:

• Bounce Rate• Referral Traffic• Conversions• Organic Traffic• Social Media Referrals

WHAT IS DATA MINING?

ANALYZING SEO

GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS

• How is your site performing on a technical level?

• How does a search engine view your website?

MAJOR THINGS TO UTILIZE:

• Site Errors• Sitemaps• Generic Info• Manual Penalty Check, Disavow Tool,

Reconsideration Request

TIPS WHEN ANALYZING SEO

• Major Pieces to Watch:Traffic, Bounce Rate, Conversion Time, Time on Site, Pages Indexed

• Log Out When Checking

Rankings• Document Changes to Website

& Marketing Efforts• Google Rich Snippet Tool• Ranking Isn’t Everything• Heatmaps

ANALYZING SEO

HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY RECENT CHANGES?

• Manual vs. Algorithmic Penalties• Track & Make Annotations in Google Analytics

HOW TO TRACK CHANGES

• Panda• Penguin

FOCUSING ON TWO MAJOR UPDATESTIP:Know Google’s Quality Guidelines

FOCUSED ON CONTENT PROVIDED TO USERS ON-PAGE

• Algorithmic penalty?• Do you provide value to users?

WERE YOU IMPACTED?

PANDA UPDATE

• Higher value-added content = higher weight• Content audit: quality over quantity• Include a larger variety of content• Use data!

HOW TO CORRECT:

Adding content is great, but will also take

time to see improvements!

THE IMPACT:

PANDA UPDATE

• Rankings• Traffic from organic searches• Exit rate• Time on site

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

EXAMINED THE EXTERNAL REPUTATION FOR YOUR WEBSITE

• Concerned with website backlink profile• Penalizing sites for poor/spam-like backlinks• “Link Farms” = poor indicators to Google = devalued

search results• Rel = Follow vs. Rel = Nofollow

PENGUIN UPDATE

• Have you purchased backlinks?• Notified in Google Webmaster Tools• Examine your analytics: are any links pointing to

your site suspicious?

WERE YOU IMPACTED?

• Identify links with Google Webmaster Tools• Disavow them• Request for reconsideration

HOW TO CORRECT:

PENGUIN UPDATE

Only Build

Natural Links!

WHAT ’S NEXT FROM GOOGLE?

REFINING AUTHORSHIP

• PPC & other pay models

COMPETITION IN ORGANIC SERPs

RICHER MEDIA & DIVERSITY OF SERPs

ONE LAST IMPORTANT TIP

ALWAYS CONSIDER THE USER EXPERIENCE!

Ask yourself: How do my marketing decisions impact the user experience of my website?

How Social Media Influences SEO


HOW SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCES SEO

WHAT CHANNELS SHOULD YOU BE ON?

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

YOUTUBE

PINTEREST

GOOGLE+

BLOGS


DIRECT FACTORS:

# of Facebook

fans

# of Facebook shares

# of Facebook comments

# of Twitterfollowers

# of Twittermentions &

links

People that have you in circles on Google+

# of Pins linking to you on

Pinterest


INDIRECT FACTORS:

Increased inbound

links

Increased positive reviews

Decreased bounce rate and higher time on

site

More repeat visitors



GOOGLE SOCIAL SEARCH

study abroad


GOOGLE SOCIAL SEARCH

Bungee jump in new zealand

Did you know you have a PageRank?


Google has confirmed they try to calculate author quality on Twitter & Facebook

How to Optimize yourSocial Media


Understand the channels you are using and how Google recognizes them

01

Use great content that people will want to share

02

Create robust profiles03

Remain active and flexible04

KEY TAKEAWAYS10 Steps to Being More Successful with SEO and Social

#WYSTC2013 | #SocialSEO

Prioritize your website01

Understand how SEO can help you02

Become familiar with the main influencers of SEO

03

Analyze your SEO efforts04

Invest in the user experience05

Understand social signals06

Invest in your social strategy in order to promote more social signals

07

Optimize your social channels08

Create & share great content09

Watch the magic of SEO happen!10

QUESTIONS ?

KAYLA PATTERSON

GOMEDIA COORDINATOR

[email protected]@kaylapatt | @_GoMedia_

TIFFANY HARRISON

OUTREACH MANAGER, GOABROAD.COM

[email protected]@ttmharrison | @GoAbroad

Business

Top of the pile: Juggling SEO basics, social media and user review sites