3 Simple Tests Businesses Must Use to Maximize SEO Returns

With: Chris Boggs

3 Simple Tests

#businessSEO

Businesses Must Use toMaximize SEO Results

#businessSEO

Your Hosts:

Chris Boggs Owner; Web Traffic Advisors Guest Speaker

Peter Starr Northrop Webinar producer; SEMrush

Host

#businessSEO

Poll:

#businessSEO

Takeaways:

Today you will learn: • How to use high level diagnostic commands directly within the search

engine interface to identify problems with your SEO

• Tools including SEMrush that provide keyword and competitive intelligence in real-time, allowing you to understand the true SEO environments

• Specific tests to perform in the three main areas most important for SEO:

• Technical SEO • Content Marketing • Inbound Links and Social Signals

© Testing SEO Success – High Level ‹#›

3 Simple Ways To Test SEO Success in 2015

Chris Boggs

For

Information is current as of 3/2015


Chris Boggs – About Me• SEM/SEO Practitioner Since 2000 • Member of SEMPO.org Global Board of

Directors since 2006 • Speaker and author since 2004 • Past: G3Group, Razorfish, Rosetta, Ninjas • Started coaching and Consulting business in

2014: webtrafficadvisors.com • Grew up in EU ++ and currently reside in

eastern upstate New York • @boggles • Happy paid subscriber to SEMrush and other

tools

I play and coach soccer and golf – and am much better at coaching each


Agenda• Search Engine Optimization

• What is “success?”

• When can it be measured?

• What areas can be checked?

• Using Search Engine Operators

• Using Free and Fee-based Tools

• Conclusion and Q/A


SEO FundamentalsSearch Engine Optimization is the process of making your Web content accessible to search engines, making it more relevant, and increasing its authority so it can rank well and drive more qualified traffic to your Web site

How close the content is to matching the likely intent

of the searcher How much value the content has been granted through the form of inbound links and social media buzz

Onsite Text Content

Onsite Digital Asset Content

Relevance

Authority


What is Success?I define SEO success in a nutshell as follows:

Increasing qualified traffic through Organic search to the right pages and content within your Web properties


Interim MilestonesDriving across country, it makes sense to consider the fun and diverse things you may get to do along the way.

• In a business sense this is also important for your own sanity. “Did my investment result in success?”


Measuring While Waiting

Experienced SEOs treat Search Engine Optimization as a program of successive projects

• Mapping expectations and understanding purpose of each investment is crucial to being able to see the trees through the forest.

Source: quickmeme.com


What Can Someone That Isn’t Trained in SEO Measure? Three Simple Testing Areas – Ask Yourself:

• Technical SEO - Does your site show it's "best face" in the search engine results? Are the right pages and content from your site actually available to searchers?

• Content Marketing - Is your content really worthy of being included for your keywords?

• Inbound Links and Social Signals - Does your content have enough credibility to be mentioned often within your desired audience?

Keep in mind, these are the three “simple” areas that we will delve into. The more you learn over time about each area, the more complex “simple” becomes.


Using Search Engine Operators to Test SEO Technical and The Way Content Displays in Search Engine Results

Usually the very first thing I do when someone asks me an SEO question about a domain: (yes often even before the next check

which is for the Brand search result)

The “site:” command allows you to see a list of content (mostly pages) that have been indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing


Works for text and Images (and More) – Also note that examples are large Brands in order to better show diversity of possible results. More simple sites require more simple expectations


How Does Your Brand Show Up in the (site:domain.com) List of Returned Pages?

My 30 second to 3 minutes litmus test of the (site:domain.com) results is as follows: (detailed on next slides)

1. Is the Brand home page #1?

2. Are there mixed subdomains and directories in the results?

3. What do the titles and descriptions look like?

1. Duplicates? 2. Ugly? 3. Wrong?

4. WordPress Template Pages?


Is Brand Home Page #1?!You should not put 100% faith into Google returning the pages in the exact order of relative strength within the index, but to me it is a strong signal of a healthy site to have your main home page #1


Are your Subdomains Mixed?


If You Use Subdomains or Subdirectories, Use Them In the (site:) Operator

Vs.


Is Your Baby Ugly? Remember Google Looks at All the Siblings

Warning Signs: • Template that

doesn’t differentiate description enough

• Have you created a bunch of pages to act as “doorways” for search engines or humans?


More Operators

http://firecask.com/resources/search-operators-guide/

http://firecask.com/resources/search-operators-guide/


Searching for Your Brand• How does your Brand Show up in Search?

– This can be greatly improved through proper SEO

For more of my thoughts on evaluating brand search results please see: http://www.thesempost.com/it-is-2015-do-you-know-what-your-brand-looks-like-in-google-and-bing/

http://www.thesempost.com/it-is-2015-do-you-know-what-your-brand-looks-like-in-google-and-bing/


High Level Brand Search Result ReviewProtecting with Paid Search? Any competitors in here?

Sitelinks? Are they appropriate?

Is your title and description accurate and pleasing or “keyword-stuffed?”

Do you have only 7 total (non-indented) results, that include other properties you own?

Knowledge Graph or Local? Using Google +?


Is Your Brand “Matched” Properly?

Google often includes “Related To” types of boxes in their search results. When you are researching or just surfing around, make sure that your brand appears when the competitors do:

Also Big Brands: Is Google

doing this to you?


Free Tool: TechnicalUrivalet.com is a tool I like to use for SEO high level technical analysis for my site and to compare to my competitor sites (I have no ownership or financial interest in the site, and donate to them annually)


“A Student” aka “That Guy” SlideKnowledge can be both dangerous as well as annoying to people that are far more versed in a particular subject (Like SEO) than you are.

– But enough knowledge, applied in a diplomatic way, can have marvelous effect on ensuring core best practices are met for search engine friendly site coding


Page Title and Descriptions in Search Engine Results

One of the more confusing things about search engine results, for many business owners, is how the title and descriptions appear in the search results • There are far too many “if, and, and but’s” to discuss this topic in

the detail it deserves, but in general: your page’s title and descriptions are accessible to you to see if they match

• You can see them by using the “View Source” function with the right click

• And you can use a tool to see this. I like that if I am using Urivalet at a page-level, I can see this quickly as well within the same User Interface (next slide)


Page Title and Descriptions

http://www.acm.org/


Validating Site Speed Vs CompetitorsAnother hot topic for SEO these days is user-experience driven evangelism of site speed. Does this count? Two (intermediate difficulty) ways to check and start to develop your own educated opinion are by analyzing Google Webmaster Tools PageSpeed Insights, and using Urivalet to map your speed for specific pages versus the top competitors for those pages.


Urivalet Page Speed Dashboard - Use To Compare Your Competitors


Paid Tool - SEMrushI describe the difference between free and paid tools like that between a handheld and a cordless electric screwdriver. In most cases, you will save time and effort through a tool like SEMrush because it consolidates a lot of helpful data into one primary workspace, plus allows for completive research across a number of key areas:


Understanding Organic Search Performance


Identifying Competitors with the “Right” Content to Rank

Content marketing got sometimes out of control since 2010, and with ongoing algorithm changes, understanding who ranks well at a keyword level will help you to understand the type of content that likely works best


Understanding Who Links To YouIn SEO, other paid tools also exist which focus-in on certain aspects of the SEO world. SEMrush and its competitors sometimes leverage some of these tools in partnerships, but they likely exist a layer below what a typical executive would need. These include SEO daily-used invaluable tools such as Majestic and AHREFS, for example


Lastly – Are You Being Talked About By the Right People? Understand Who Links to You and How Often


Summary

• Leverage the site: operator to better understand your site’s indexation (is it in there?) and Search Engine Appeal (How does it look?)

• Leverage actual searches for your brand to ensure it looks good in the results, and is “matched” to the right competitors

• Use Tools to identify Technical, Content, and Linking health at a high level, to better understand what your SEO is trying to accomplish and how they are doing


Conclusion

• Thank you for attending!

• Questions?

• Find me @boggles

• [email protected]

• Let me know if you found me through this Webinar, should you contact me – so I know you are already partially trained ☺

mailto:[email protected]

#businessSEO

Offers:

All attendees will have access to:

A Free 30-Day Trial of SEMrush Guru: http://bit.ly/SEMrushFREE30-BOGGS

http://bit.ly/SEMrushFREE30-BOGGS

#businessSEO

Poll:

#businessSEO

Questions?

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Next SEMrush Webinar:

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THANK YOU

Chris Boggs Web Traffic Advisors @boggles

Peter Starr Northrop SEMrush

@SEMstarr