The Art ofSearch Engine Optimization

WordPress Workshop MeetupJuly 11, 2016

Vancouver, BC

Daniel Moscovitch

Who Am I?Name: Daniel Moscovitch

Bio: Born and raised in Winnipeg. Spent some time in Vancouver before moving to Tel Aviv. Got into online marketing and SEO there. Now back in NA. Co-Founder of More Hot Leads.

Favorite Type of Beer: IPA

My SEO Wins

Meet Mr. Google...- He tries to learn what is on the web,

categorize it and rank based on what it

feels is best for users

- He wants to make users happy, cares

about user experience

- He has hundreds of different ranking

factors

- He looks for unnatural patterns

- Already has existing beliefs (existing

paradigm) about what is valuable and

what is not

** Google’s paradigm = algorithm

How Does Google Know What is Valuable? What Does Google Value?

- Things it can understand

- Things with integrity that are not confusing or unreliable

- Things that are rare or different (stand out, in a good way)

- Things that get a lot of attention (traffic, shares, links)

- Things that are natural (don’t seem to be fake)

- Things that are helpful/have utility

3 Ways Google Gets Data:

1) Google Bot2) Traffic Data3) User Activity on Web Pages

SEO to the Rescue!

Giving Google a helping hand in determining its rankings :)

What is SEO all about?

SEO is all about making your website as search engine (Google) friendly as possible in order to get your content in front of the people who are searching for it.

SEO helps Google make sense of what our websites/pages are about and shows them that they are valuable - by fitting it into their paradigm.

What Does Mr. Google Look For?

- Google’s search engine algorithm bases its results on these main things….

- Authority

- Trust

- Relevance

How do we achieve this?

On-page Optimization

Off-page Optimization

The SEO Game - NAME OF THE GAME? BE COOL.

- Google’s algorithm collects all of the data, then runs it through it’s paradigm of what is

good or bad (valuable or not)

- What comes out is a score or grade for a specific keyword or search phrase

(PAGE/URL with the highest score, ranks better)

- Not just 1 game. Different score/grade for each keyword that Google is tracking.

- The algorithm is run on every piece of content that includes a keyword somewhere on a

given URL (videos, images, etc.)

Play it SMART.

IF Score is LOW…… (passes a certain threshold)

- Penalty or ranking filter- Deindexing of content

*Both can be fixed.

-keyword stuffing

-tons of links with same anchor text

-lots of links, no traffic

NOT NATURAL or COOL

It All Comes Down to U.M.A.C

Google-Bot Looks for:

URLs - http://www.urlsareimportant.com/for-seo

Meta - Good SEO | Get Metas Right

Anchors - anchor text passes relevance

Content - Tells a story to user and Google

** each element by itself is easy to optimize.

URLs - Every U, can have MAC

EMD = Exact Match Domain (perfectly optimized URL)

Eg. VancouverWebDesigner.ca = perfectly optimized for “Vancouver web designer”

Have to be careful with rest of optimization (MAC)

Have to make Google believe it is a brand, not just a spammy site

Build 50-100 branded social profiles (surround it with trust)

PMD = Partial Match Domain (also good)

Eg. AwesomeWebDesigners.ca/vancouver

Still powerful b/c “web designers” is in domain level of URL

Can be a bit more aggressive with other (MAC) optimization

More U...RLs…..

Branded = best for user experience and longevity of brand

Eg. DanielMoscovitch.ca/vancouver-web-design

Can be more aggressive with rest of optimization

Can rank website for multiple keywords, not just 1

Subdomain

Eg. vancouverwebdesign.danielmoscovitch.ca

Good if root domain has existing power

Meta Data = Data about Data

- Titles:

- SEO Title = Important for Google to make sense of page

- Include keyword at the beginning if possible (doesn’t have to be exact, but some variation)

- Header Tags:

- H1/H2/H3 Tags

- Description:

- Written to attract clicks. Higher CTR will improve rankings.

- Image Alt Tags:

- Can optimize images (file info, geotag, alt tags)

- Keywords:

- Google no longer counts them in their algorithm, but Bing & Yahoo do :)

AnchorsAnchor text is one of the most important ways to help Google understand/learn what your webpages are about.

Internal Links:

- Make sure to link to most important pages from the home page (in content if possible)

- Use exact match anchors, but not every time

Inbound Links:

- Majority of anchor text should be branded/naked URL (social profiles, directories, etc.)

- A few variations of the main keyword

- The rest are generic (click here… this post… etc.)

ContentWhat the user/target audience will interact with. Write it for them! BUT try not to confuse Google! Make sure it is about a congruent topic/theme.

Keywords:

- Keyword Group Pages

- Placement

- Keyword Density

Quality:

- Good amount of content (depends on niche)

- Include outbound authority links (adds trust)

- Images and videos (YouTube is better)

- Their info/content also influence the page that they are embedded on

Content Cont’d:* can optimize content of videos and images too….

Optimization Rules for UMAC- MUST have variability in our UMAC

- Don’t always use the same keyword for each part

- Switch it up, be natural

- Less is always more

- Start off doing “understated” optimization. Then move to more aggressive if needed.

- Use main keyword only once or twice in content and once in URL or Title.

- Use alternative keywords

- Google is smart. Don’t need to scream, “hey look at me!” (Not Cool).

- SEO is not a mystery

- Can always tell what is working by looking at Google’s hand for various search terms

Why Anchor Text is Special

- Anchor text deserves special attention

- Anchor text exists on OTHER pages but points to ours (UMAC carries over

relevance)

- Not limited to just one entry. Can have thousands of links to one page.

- Easy to get in trouble with anchor text. Tool of low-quality SEO and Google has

improved algorithm (Penguin) to filter out unnatural anchor text patterns.

- Solution for Pollution = Dilution

Offpage

Once onpage is properly set up, it is time to power up your site and show Google that page is not only relevant, but best.

Social Profiles & Web 2.0s (brand power and relevance)

Citations (local relevance and power)

Backlinks (niche power & relevance)

Traffic & User Signals (Google likes what users like)** in order to become powerful, need to surround ourselves with powerful and trustworthy sites **

Social Profiles

Google likes brands.

Create as many social profiles as possible.

Build them out with good quality and relevant content.

Link them together.

Creates trust and authority.

Use branded/naked URL anchor text.

Use: knowem.com | lockmybrand.com | namechk.com

Citations & Web 2.0sCitations:

- Mainly for local businesses (Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.)

- Provide local relevance and legitimacy

- Make sure NAP (name, address, phone) is EXACTLY the same as it is on your site and GMB page

Web 2.0s:

- Any web property which anyone can control/edit, but doesn’t own

- Tumblr, Weebly, Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Livejournal, etc.

- Good to build brand and send more power & relevance to money site

- Make them legit - 3-5 posts, contact us page, about us page, good/unique content, etc.

(Use branded and naked URL anchor Text)

Contextual BacklinksBlogs:

- Get other blogs/sites to link to your awesome content

Guest Posts:

- Get another blog to allow you to submit a post on their site

PBNs:

- Buy powerful expired/expiring domains and build out your own network of blogs

- MUST BE CAREFUL! Separate hosts/IPs. Different contact info. Do not link together. Keep it natural and random. Don’t leave a footprint.

Press Releases:

- Good to use every so often, especially for link dilution. (use branded and naked URLs)

Traffic & User Signals

- Important to have a healthy amount of traffic coming to your site BEFORE getting many links (more natural)

- HOW?

- Social sharing

- Email lists

- Paid ads

- Important to have positive user signals to show Google that people actually like your pages

- Shares

- Clicks

- Low boune rate

- Good time on page

- Navigate to other pages

The SEO EcoSystem

LINKS

WordPress SEO - How to Implement What We KnowWordPress makes it really easy to implement UMAC properly!

- Plugins

- Page Optimization

- Silo Structure

- Schema Markup

- Other

Plugins

- SEO Plugins: All in One SEO, Yoast, Ultimate SEO

- Important to set categories, authors and tags to “noindex, follow” - avoid duplicate

content penalty (also remove them from sitemap)

- Get rid of “%%sep%%%%page title%%” since you don’t need it for most pages/posts

- Enable meta keywords/dynamic keywords (for other search engines)

- Simple 301 Redirects

- Very important to redirect any old, outdated or 404 pages to the most appropriate URL

- This is especially true for pages that have existing links to them (don’t want to lose the link juice)

Optimizing URLs

Permalinks/URLs:

- Either set them to post name or custom /%postname%

- Adjust the slug of the URL to shorten it

Proper Optimization:

- Include the main keyword (and secondary keywords if possible) in the slug (don’t make it too long)

- Do not repeat keywords twice in the URL

- Eg. dogsareawesome.com/dog-training-for-dogs (NOT GOOD)

- dogsareawesome.com/training (GOOD)

Optimizing MetasTitles:

- Optimize at bottom of page/post (if using SEO plugins)

- Include main keyword close to the front

- Check to see what is working on the first page

Keywords:

- Works well still for Bing & Yahoo (so make sure to enable them)

Headers:

- H1 can include keyword and link it to page it’s on ***

- H2/H3 use synonyms

Descriptions:

- Must be Unique for each page

- Optimize for clicks

Content Optimization- Include main keyword as close to the beginning of your content as possible

- Keep keyword density low for main keywords:

- Eg. 500 word article = use exact match kwd only once + variations

- 1500 word article = use main kwd 3 times throughout article + variations

- ** remember to see what is working.

- *** best to start with less, then add more.

- **** use of partial keyword phrases (one or 2 words from the whole main keyword) counts towards overoptimization

- Eg. “vancouver lawyer”

- Vancouver lawyer used 1-2 times = good

- Lawyer OR Vancouver used 50 times = bad

- Add relevant (optimized) images and videos to the content to provide more

page topical relevance

- Include links to other relevant pages or posts

- Include at least 1 outbound authority link

Silos- Silos keep the link juice and relevance where they belong and allow you to

rank more pages with fewer links

- Main page + sub pages + sub, sub-pages

- Must keep silos relevant (Do Not Mix Topics)

- Don’t confuse Google by having links from a page about tennis shoes to a page about hand bags (keep the tennis/shoes relevance in the silo)

Link Down:Link (contextually) to next page down from homepage (or page that you are sending links to) and then continue to innerlink (contextually to the corresponding pages)

Link Up: Link back up to the main page (page where most links are sent) from the bottom-most silo page in order to recycle link juice.

ILovemypup.com“Dog training”

LINKS

ILovemypup.com/tricks-for-dogs“Dog training”

Dog tricks

ILovemypup.com/tricks-for-dogs/teach-sit

“Teach dog to sit”

ILovemypup.com/tricks-for-dogs/teach-roll-over

“Teach a dog to rollover”

How to teach your dog to sit How to teach your dog to rollover

LINKS

Spread the love/link-juice example

OnlineShoppingWarehouse.com

/tennis-shoes /hand-bags

/tennis-shoes/for-women

/tennis-shoes/for-men

/tennis-shoes/for-children

/tennis-shoes/for-men/arthritis

/tennis-shoes/for-men/planter-fasciitis

/footwear /apparel

LINKS

Relevance keeping silo

Schema Markup

- Helps Google make sense of your information

- Can use schema markup plugins or copy and paste the code from sites like schema-creator.org

- Include relevant schema markup on your websites

- Local business

- Product pages (aggregate rating stars)

- Organization

- Business information

Other Important Things

- Embeds (GMB map, YT vid)

- Maps = local relevance

- Videos = topical relevance

- Rel = “publisher” tag

- Include this tag in your header and link it to your Google+ page

- Noindex, follow

- Tags, categories, author pages

- Terms of Service/Privacy Policy (especially if generated from plugins)

- Footer Links

- Be careful what anchor text you use!

- Page Speed

- Important ranking factor

SEO Tools to Use- Ahrefs: Backlink Analyzer

- SEMRush: Keyword & Traffic Analytics (find new KWDs)

- SimilarWeb: Traffic Analytics

- Moz: Backlinks & Metrics tools (I use free Chrome extension)

- Majestic SEO: Backlink Analyzer (I use free Chrome extension)

Help Me Help You- If you or anyone else you know could benefit from my expertise, I offer various

SEO and online marketing related services:

- On Page Analysis & Consultations

- Monthly SEO Projects

- Custom Link Building

- Link clean up and disavow

- PPC/FB Marketing

- Video/YouTube Marketing

- Online Reputation Management

- Referral Rewards Program

- Refer clients to me, get rewards :)

Get In Touch!

Daniel Moscovitch

Email: daniel@morehotleads.com

Skype: dmoscovitch

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danielmoscovitchseoexpert

Facebook: facebook.com/dmoscovitch1

Twitter: @dmoscovitch

Questions Anyone?