SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATIONFREDDY J. NAGER22 MARCH 2017

GOOGLE IS COMPLICATED…

• Depends on user's habits, location, device• Favors big brands, social networks, aggregators• Changes constantly — as does the competition

3

GOOGLE IS DOMINANT: 64% OF SEARCH MARKET(#2 Bing: 21%)

SEO focuses on ORGANIC listings; SEM is both

WHY SEO MATTERS:CLICKS BY POSITION ON PAGE

0%

13%

25%

38%

50%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Rank

Percent Clicks by Rank

% TRAFFIC BY SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE (SERP)

0%

23%

45%

68%

90%

113%

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5+

Make sure your site is crawlable!

HOW GOOGLE CRAWLER WORKS

THE ALGORITHM(from Google's PageRank patent)

IF YOU DON'T LIKE FORMULAS…

yes, it's a popularity contest

OFFSITE SEO (link bait + link building)• Never pay for back links! • “Create high quality content and other

sites will naturally link back to you” • Anchor text matters (words other sites

use to describe you in a link) • Social media links are "do not follow"

(they don't count — not even Google+)• Promote to press and bloggers (send

news/releases with embedded links) • Create shareable content, ask for links

(not efficient)• Controversy > Quality?

“The Art of Thinking Sideways:Content Marketing for Boring Businesses”

Robin Swire, Moz, 8 April 2014, http://moz.com/blog/the-art-of-thinking-sideways-content-marketing-for-boring-businesses

TownCentreCarParks.com

TownCentreCarParks.com

http://youtu.be/l69Vi5IDc0g

"WILL IT BLEND" RESULTS

• 300 million video views• 26K links to blendtec.com• 10M links to willitblend.com • 700% sales increase in 2 years• microsites ideal for testing, sharing• crosslinking shares rank, branding

WHAT GOOGLE BOTS LOVE TO EAT:FRESH WORDS• HTML (not image!) keywords: think readers you want + their search queries

‣ Google Keyword Planner (requires AdWords account)https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

‣ Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends‣ Google auto-complete‣ proper nouns that aren't too popular (long tail)‣ don't worry about synonyms (Google Hummingbird)

• Work keywords into text NATURALLY (2-3x/page) near top/beginning‣ site name, URL, title tags (50-60 characters), headlines, subheads‣ photos: captions, photo file names (keep short), ALT text

• Not buried in rich media (videos, animations, audio, etc.)‣ include transcriptions + descriptions

• Not password-protected or orphan pages• Not meta-keyword tags or invisible words

("meta descriptions" describe your site in search results, but don't affect ranking)• Keep it fresh: UNIQUE blogs, news, features

BLACK HAT SEO VS. GOOGLE PENGUIN

• Cloaking: what you search isn't what you get• Linking to spam• Keyword stuffing (makes sites unreadable, too)• Duplicate content throughout site• Hidden text• Content theft ("scraped" content)• Penguin focuses on "unnatural" links‣ Link buying‣ Link farming (fake networks)

Don't eventhink about it!

WHO'S THE BOSS? ASK THE PANDA...

• E.A.T.: Expert, Authority, Trustworthy‣ Expert: named on many articles, focuses on area of

expertise, appears on many platforms/sites‣ Authority: back links with strong anchor text, overall

reputation/brand, clear "about" and "contact" sections‣ Trustworthy: truthful, timely, spam-free

• "High quality" content (will block the low stuff)‣ not thin, duplicate, or poorly written (go for "thick")‣ clear layout with no invasive ads‣ fast page loading, no errors

• Emphasizes user activity (site design/usability critical!)‣ bad: bounces and especially pogo-sticking‣ good: lots of interested, high quality traffic‣ note: install Google Analytics if you want to be tracked

GOOGLE MOBILE CRITERIA• Site should be phone friendly (dynamic or responsive)• Site should be fast (page speed matters!)• No interstitials (pop-ups) that cover most of the screen• Local gets priority

SUMMARY: WHAT MATTERS TO GOOGLE

• Authoritative websites (strong brands)• High quality content with keywords• Backlinks• Relevance to user• User activity on site

IN CASE YOU WANT MORE…

• Sites: Moz.com + SearchEngineLand.com• Article: Moz.com, "The Beginner's Guide To SEO"

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo• Class: CMGT-528 Web Designs for Organizations

June 28-August 7, M & W 6-10 pm, ANN 406• LinkedIn: freddynager.com