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SEO for Business Owners
By Steve Mortiboy
Search Engine Optimization• What is SEO?• Why should I care?• Is it a big secret?• Is it something I can do myself?• Can I guarantee results?
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is a set of processes that you should continuously follow to influence how search engines list your content in search results
Break It Down For Me• SEO is a set of processes that change as search
engines adapt, improve and respond to their users• Continuous work is needed to improve and
maintain rankings• You can only influence search engines• There’s no foolproof method for ranking #1• Results may vary, nothing can be guaranteed
Understanding Search
We use Google every day to search for content relevant to a search term and we expect Google to understand thatsearch term and return the best, most relevant results basedon the content on sites in their index
The Search Engine
The Secret Google Algorithm
Welcome to the wonderful world of Pandas, Penguins and Hummingbirds
Panda (2011 onwards)• Show high-quality sites higher in search results • Demote sites that may be of lower quality
• Would you trust the information presented in this article?• Is this article written by an expert who knows the topic well, or is it more
shallow in nature?• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the
same or similar topics?• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers, or does the site
generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well on Google?• Does the article provide original content or information?• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages
in search results?
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html
Penguin (2012 onwards)• Penalize sites that use unnatural backlinks• Penalize sites that use of webspam or ‘black hat’
SEO techniques• Penalize sites for violation of Google’s quality guidelines
• Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number• Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines• Don’t deceive your users• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html
Hummingbird (2013 onwards)
• Complex search queries• Conversational search• Semantic search• Mobile search
• Understanding the intent of the searcher and the contextual meaning of the search term
• Pay more attention to each word in the search term, ensuring that the whole sentence or conversation or meaning is taken into account
• Understanding long tail search terms
What Does This Mean For Me?
• Focus on high quality original content• Don’t duplicate content• Don’t manipulate search engines through techniques
considered as webspam (black hat SEO)• Pay more attention to what your audience searches for,
especially complex, conversational search terms• Build quality backlinks from sources of authority• Write frequently making sure your first thought is to
your readers, not search engines
SEO: Misunderstanding #1
It’s all about keywords
The Meta Keywords Tag<meta name="keywords" content="WordPress,WordCamp,SEO"> Google hasn’t used the Meta Keywords tag since 2009 because they were being misused
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU
Keywords in my Content• Keywords in content does not make good content• The density of keywords does not matter
Focus on high quality content written for your audience, not search engines. Content should be written and read naturally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4qgQdp2UA
Keywords in Search• People do not search using keywords• Conversational search terms –
“Hey Google, find me a barber shop near me”
• Long tail search terms –
“What are the best cordless drills for less than $100?”
SEO: Misunderstanding #2
Google will show what I want them to show
SEO Meta Tags - Title• Title tag
<title>WordPress Developer</title>
SEO Meta Tags - Description• Meta Description
<meta name="description" content="Raleigh Web Design WordPress Web Development" />
SEO Meta Tags – Schema Markup
• Specially formatted code that search engines use todisplay more informative, rich results
SEO: Misunderstanding #3
The duplicate content penalty
What is Duplicate Content?• Content copied (duplicated) from someone else’s site• Content duplicated within your site with the intent to
rank on search engines without providing value to visitors
Example: Location pages with the same content where just the city name is changed
What is Not Duplicate Content?
• Different routes to access the same original content
Example: WordPress category, tag, author and date archives
SEO: Misunderstanding #4
If I publish it, Google will come
Crawling and Indexing Content
• The XML SitemapAn essential file for search enginesHow often content changesWhen content last changed
Crawling and Indexing Content
• The Google Index and site search
SEO: Misunderstanding #5
Backlinks are how I rank on Google
Bad Backlinks
• Backlinks from sites known for webspam• Backlinks from sites with no authority• Backlinks from sites not relevant to my content• Backlinks generated specifically to improve my ranking
Good Backlinks
• Backlinks from sites with authority• Backlinks from site owners who read and like my content• Backlinks from sites relevant to my content• Backlinks from reputable industry-relevant sources• Backlinks generated from visitors via social media
Over time, backlinks will become less important to Googlehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5FDzUh0P4
SEO: Misunderstanding #6
SEO is too complex for me to do myself
SEO – Blogs and Videos• Google Webmaster Central Blog
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/
• Google Webmasters YouTube channelhttps://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp/videos
• Matt Cutts YouTube channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UClxMPk1KF57UCRUHFFAzJxw
• Respected SEO siteshttps://moz.com/blog/category/basic-seohttp://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-seo
SEO - Free Tools • Google Webmaster Tools
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
• Google Analyticshttp://www.google.com/analytics/
• Google Search
• Google Site Search site:mydomain.com
• WordPress SEO pluginsAll in One SEO Pack - https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
Steps to Improving Your SEO• Focus on high quality, well written, informative content• Demonstrate you are the subject matter expert for
what you’re marketing or selling• Publish frequently, making sure quality doesn’t suffer
and your content remains engaging to your visitors• Understand what your audience is searching for• Engage your audience through social media• Adapt your processes• Use the free tools available to monitor your progress
Steps to Improving Your SEO• Use WordPress – It’s search engine friendly and it makes
it easy for you to publish content• Set pretty permalinks• Use an SEO plugin – This provides a user interface to
manage your SEO• Learn how to optimize your content• Use the blog to post fresh content regularly• Organize your content through page hierarchy, post
categories and tags• Set up good internal linking and navigation• Implement social media integration
Questions?
Semper Fi Web Design• Support• Security• Performance
• Development• Design• SEO
http://semperfiwebdesign.com
