MARKETING HOW-TO GUIDE

THE ABC’S OF SEO

Contents at a GlancePRELUDE TO A CLICK 1

N IS FOR NATURAL SEARCH RANK 2

G IS FOR GOOGLE 4

P IS FOR PANDA AND PENGUIN 5

T IS FOR THE TAIL 6

C IS FOR CONTENT 8

E IS FOR EDUCATE 9

K IS FOR KNOWLEDGE GRAPH 10

Q IS FOR QUALITY 11

B IS FOR BLOGGING 13

Z IS FOR ZANY 14

O IS FOR ONSITE OPTIMIZATION 15

H IS FOR HYPERLINKS 17

U IS FOR USER EXPERIENCE 18

I IS FOR IMAGES 20

V IS FOR VIDEO 21

F IS FOR F#@!% FLASH AND FANCY FEATURES 23

L IS FOR LINKS 24

A IS FOR AUTHORITY 26

R IS FOR RATINGS AND REVIEWS 29

S IS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA 30

Y IS FOR 'SEARCH PLUS YOUR WORLD' 31

X IS FOR G+ 32

M IS FOR MOBILE 33

D IS FOR DILIGENCE 34

J IS FOR JUST SAY NO TO OVER-OPTIMIZATION 35

W IS FOR WEBMASTER TOOLS AND BLOGS 36

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 37

ABOUT MARKETINGPROFS 37

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Prelude to a Click

It’s the SEO alphabet song! N, G, P, T, C, E, K…

Not quite as you learned it? That’s because this track is composed specially for marketers to spell out the what’s, why’s, and how’s of search engine optimization.

Why SEO? Because the majority of online experiences—including those of your customers and prospects—begin with search. And when those customers and prospects launch a query related to your products and services, you want to be there, at the top of the list and ready to assist, because these are some of your most qualified leads.

Search engines are the best source of new customers for online merchants, according to the latest MarketLive Performance Index report, and SEO is a cheaper acquisition channel than traditional vehicles such as direct mail, telemarketing, and tradeshows, according to HubSpot’s 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report.

It certainly pays to play, but much has changed in recent years with regard to SEO and the process of earning top rank. In fact, the tricks and tactics of yesteryear can now do you more harm than good, particularly if they incur penal-ties from the likes of Google.

Don’t worry, this guide will set you straight. Inside its pages you’ll learn...

• The key to winning top rank on a Google search results page

• How to avoid getting dinged by updates like Panda and Penguin

• What’s “the new black” for SEO

• Which keywords you should target most

• What’s the best link bait

• Which links Google doesn’t want to see in your backlink profile

• Which optimization tactics can incur penalties

• What you should do right this second in response to Google’s SPYW

And much more.

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N Is for Natural Search Rank

SEO is essentially a process of appealing to the search engine algorithms to boost your site’s rankings in natural (also called organic) search results. And though SEO requires certain resources to accomplish, it’s not some-thing that you can throw money at like paid search. Your natural search rank must be earned, and that’s no easy task. But it is worthwhile.

High marks for SEO

80% of global company marketers surveyed by Econsultancy and Adestra rated SEO higher than email marketing, paid search, affiliate marketing, and social media in terms of ROI.

Source: Econsultancy

Search is a nearly universal activity among adult internet users (92%), according to Pew Research, and few users give much attention to featured paid listings (pay-per-click ads) on the search engine results pages (SERPs), preferring instead to focus on the search engines’ own recommendations—i.e., the natural search results.

Are you on the list?

See how many of your pages rank in natural search for a given keyword by searching for that keyword and including “site:[yourdomain]” in the query.

As noted in the introduction, searchers are prime leads for you, if you can get them to click through on your SERP listing. Of course, that can only happen if your listing appears in the SERPs and searchers actually see it.

A high 75% of search engine users never scroll past the fold on the first page of search results, and the majority of clicks go to the top-ranked sites. Slingshot SEO found that 18% of clicks on Google natural search results go to the link in the No. 1 position, compared with 10% of clicks for the second listing on the page and 7% of clicks for the third. Similarly, on Bing, 9.7% of organic clicks go to the top listing versus 5.5% of clicks for listing No. 2 and 2.7% for listing No. 3.

An appearance above the fold generates more than clicks

Brands that rank above the fold enjoy a 10% lift in perceived brand quality and a 10% lift in purchase intent.

Source: Conductor

Don’t kid yourself. Competition for those top spots is fierce. BtoB Magazine found that most marketers (95%) have optimized their websites and landing pages for SEO. Fortunately for you, not everyone is doing it right.

In this guide, we’ll cover the “ins and outs” of making it to the top, but first we need to get something straight:

SEO isn’t just about search rank.

A top rank doesn’t do you much good if searchers don’t click through and convert—into active leads, customers, connections, repeat visitors... you name it. So your SEO strategy has to be about more than ranking on top, it also has to support your larger business goals. That means you must appeal to the clickers—your target visitors—as much as the search engine algorithms.

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N Is for Natural Search Rank

Increase your page presence

Close to half (48%) of respondents surveyed by Performics said they are more likely to click on a brand’s search result when that brand appears multiple times on the results page.

Here’s what to do to help your brand make a strong appearance:

1. Restructure some of your URLs using a *.yourdomain.com format (e.g., blog.yourdo-main.com) so that your domain can receive multiple listings.

2. Optimize images and videos to rank inde-pendently in Google Universal search (see “I Is for Image Search” and “V Is for Video” to learn how).

3. Optimize your local profile to put your com-pany on the map (see “Locals Only” under “A Is for Authority” to learn how).

4. Get socially active so that your company profiles on major networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook also show up as individual search results (see “S Is for Social Media” to learn how).

5. Invest in paid search advertising. A Google research team found that a top-ranked brand listing receives 50% more clicks on average when it’s accompanied by a paid search ad for the same brand.

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V Is for Video

There’s no denying the advantages that online video affords marketers, but SEO poses some issues. Google really likes video, and it would prefer to give your site some rank-love for posting quality video content that cor-responds with searchers’ needs. As with images, though, it just needs a little assistance. Here’s what to do.

1. Give it a good title

Entice potential viewers with a catchy video title and integrate keywords to help with search (remember, only 65 characters will display in the SERPs).

2. Optimize file names and tags

Optimize each video’s file name and metadata in the same way as images. Users often search for videos specifically, so also include the word “video” as appropri-ate in the page title, description, and heading of the page where the video is posted. See how Mashable optimizes its video content this way:

3. Use rich snippets

Video thumbnails are great for rich snippets because the colorful, graphic elements stand out on the typically text-heavy SERPs, even when they’re listed further down the page. See for yourself:

Be sure to select eye-catching thumbnail images that pique users’ interest. Also consider customizing rich snip-pets to include video information, such as length.

Video magnetism

Videos indexed in Google Universal Search receive 41% more clicks than plain text results.

Source: aimClear

4. Create a video sitemap

In addition to standard XML sitemaps, Google welcomes video sitemaps (learn how to create one here) and media RSS (mRSS) feeds for locating video content that should be indexed.

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L Is for Links

Inbound links—links on someone else’s site that direct traffic to your site—have long been a signal for the search engines for gauging the relevancy and importance of your site content. The thinking goes like this:If someone is linking to it, that content must be good.

Turns out, not all links have the same intentions. Some sites quickly learned how to rack up their inbound links via link networks, swaps, and schemes that ushered in huge volumes of links aimed solely at boosting rank. Because such links relayed little value to site visitors, the search engines soon designated them as spam.

In 2011, Google released the Penguin update to rein in such behavior. Unfortunately, some well-meaning sites got caught in Penguine’s wake and were penalized, as a consequence losing significant website traffic.

Here are the types of links that Google doesn’t want to see in your backlink profile:

• Irrelevant links and links from sites that bear no connection to yours

• Links from sites that Google has penalized

• Links listed in bulk on the referrer’s page

• Reciprocal links and purchased links

• Links associated with link farms, commercial link networks, and blog networks

• Hidden links

• Links connected to irrelevant blog comments

Don’t engage in comment spam

Only post comments with links to your site when the content you’re promoting is directly relevant to the topic at hand and adds value to the conversation.

We’ve already discussed the importance of quality con-tent—you know, the stuff people want to link to—which is the cornerstone of long-term link-building success.

Here’s a look at what else you can do to improve your backlink profile.

1. Be selective

What matters is the quality and caliber of inbound links, not their quantity. Shoot for links that are related to your niche and from sources that the search engines trust.

Visit the sites of potential link sources and use tools such as Alexa, DoubleClick Ad Planner, WhoIs, MajesticSEO, SEOMoz’s Open Site Explorer to answer the following questions that can help you gauge link-source quality:

• How long has the domain been registered and active?

• Does the site have a good reputation? Alternatively, does it belong to a respected brand or authority?

• Has the site been penalized by Google?

• Does the site serve an audience that would be inter-ested in your content and offerings? Is that audience large and engaged?

• Does the site offer quality content?

• Does the site insert outbound links throughout its content naturally and in context, or are such links listed in bulk?

• Are the site’s outbound links working and able to be followed by search engines (i.e., they haven’t been tagged as “nofollow” links)?

• Is this the kind of site that will link to practically anyone?

• Does the site have many incoming links from low-quality sources?

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A Is for Authority

All that content creation and link building you’re doing is proof of your authority on the searched-for topic. But Google also takes other signals into consideration. Though some of these can’t be influenced, such as how long your domain has been registered and in active use, others can be influenced, such as how many people conduct searches on your brand name, or type in and visit your domain directly.

Here are five steps for increasing those types of signals.

1. Get known

Build brand awareness by doing the following:

• Make news: Do something newsworthy or tie your content to current events. Search-optimize your press releases and subscribe to resources like HARO to discover news sources. Reach out to journalists and bloggers directly with customized story pitches that are highly relevant to their audiences’ interests. Alternatively, employ a reputable public relations firm to do all that for you.

• Get social: Actively participate on social media sites where you can forge relationships with like-minded people and influencers in your niche. Join groups and conversations that allow you to reveal your expertise in relevant, helpful ways. Associate your brand with your most important keywords by integrating them into your company profiles and descriptions, social media updates, blog posts, blog comments, etc.

• Link out: Linking out to other high-quality websites in your site content is a good way to associate yourself with their authority, get on those publishers’ radar, and, potentially, garner reciprocal links from them. Take care how you display those links. For example, avoid swamping your footer or sidebar with oodles of outbound links or listing them all on a dedicated page. Such tactics don’t do much for your link partners, particularly because they insinuate spam.

Periodically review your outbound links to identify and add “nofollow” coding to those that are either broken (i.e., they link to pages that are no longer available) or unacceptable (e.g., the site you link to has since become spammy or has been penalized).

2. Look legit

Implement consistent branding across your entire online presence: your website, blog, social media profiles and channels, press releases, etc.

Claim your local listings on sites such as Yelp, YellowPages.com, Superpages, Citysearch, Angie’s List, and Google+, and add compelling, keyword-rich descrip-tions that complement your other branding efforts.Make sure your website gives off a good first impres-sion by keeping it clean, organized, and up to date. Add

It worked for Roberts & Durkee, P.A.

In spring 2009, when the connection between Chinese drywall and public health issues was becoming apparent, the firm of Roberts & Durkee was ready to take action. It quickly registered the URL ChineseDrywallProblem.com for a new blog and got to work posting useful information for all affected parties, in both English and Spanish. Content included overviews of the issue, historical information, current and breaking news, opinions and assessments of the situation facing homeown-ers, and details of victims’ legal rights.

As a result, the blog ranked highly for related keywords and positioned the firm as a credible, go-to source for information on the issue, leading to interview requests and press coverage from the likes of TIME magazine, ABC World News, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and CNN’s Lou Dobbs, among others. A heavy stream of new leads and client cases soon followed.

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About the AuthorKimberly Smith is a professional content creator and the author of several MarketingProfs guides, includ-ing Content Machine: The Street Guide to Building a Successful Content Marketing Program in 7 Weeks, The Marketer’s Guide to Strategic Landing Pages, and Tame the Giant: The Complete Field Guide to Facebook Marketing. Reach her on Twitter via @ks_wordsmith.

About MarketingProfsMarketingProfs is a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how—from social media and content marketing to lead generation and online conver-sions—designed to make you a smarter marketer. More than 400,000 MarketingProfs members rely on our free daily publications, virtual conferences, and more to stay up to date on the most important trends in market-ing—and how to apply them to their businesses. Plus, MarketingProfs delivers enhanced professional develop-ment training via online seminars and short webcasts, in-depth how-to reports, research, interactive planning tools, online courses, and in-person events.

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