SEO and What You Need to Know: Planning for 2017

@janetdmiller | @marketingmojo | marketing-mojo.com

SEO AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: PLANNING FOR 2017Janet Driscoll MillerMarketing Mojo

PRSASeptember 27, 2016


WHAT’S NEW WITH GOOGLE?






MOBILE






TITLE LENGTH• Desktop = ~ 70 characters with

spaces• Mobile = ~ 55 characters with

spaces


CONTENT


PANDA UPDATE

• Addresses duplicate content and thin content

• Very important to remove duplicate content from a site

• Now “regularly” runs• According to Gary Illyes at

Google, every few weeks


LINKS


PENGUIN UPDATES

• Penguin focused on linkspam• “Any links intended to

manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site.”

• LAST UPDATED 9/23/2016!› Previous update was 10/17/14



WHY IS REAL-TIME PENGUIN IMPORTANT?

• Last update before 9/23 had been nearly two years before!› In the meantime, sites had to wait for

the update to remove the penalty• Now sites can recover almost

immediately if they take corrective action


GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE• View links pointing to your site


GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE• See manual actions and warnings.


GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE• Disavow links


<a href=“www.mydomain.com/mypressrelease.html” rel=“nofollow”>Link to my website.</a>


GOOGLE POSSUM UPDATE?• Released in early

September• Seems to focus on local

results


LOCAL BUT NOT IN CITY LIMITS



ADDRESS AND AFFILIATION


WHAT YOU NEED TO DO• If you have multiple offices/locations,

be sure to enter each address for that location› Don’t just default to using one main

address or a corporate address/phone



TECHNICAL ISSUES







IMAGE SIZE


SEO MEASUREMENT


GOOGLE ANALYTICS TAGGING

• Passes information from your destination URLs into Google Analytics

• Tagging is automatic in Google AdWords by default

• https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en


FIX SELF-REFERRALS!

• Google Universal Analytics can create self-referral issues

• Self-referral:› Your site’s domain is listed as a referral site to

itself• When you switch from Classic to Universal,

you have to update the “referral exclusion list”


HOW SELF-REFERRALS HAPPEN IN UNIVERSAL

• Session length is 30 minutes by default

Referral Source/Medium:

Google/organic

Referral Source/Medium:YourDomain.com/

referral


WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT’S FIXED?

• Self-referral traffic becomes correctly attributed to the original source/medium


HOW DO YOU FIX IT?• Set referral exclusions under

PROPERTY setting in Google Analytics• Select Tracking Info/Referral

Exclusion List


WHAT’S LIKELY COMING


MORE PAID RESULTS IN LOCAL SEARCH



WHERE IS YOUR SITE LACKING?

PERFORM AN SEO AUDIT.


WHAT TO AUDIT?• Technical issues• Links• Content• Analytics


CAPITALIZE ON YOUR HARD WORK IN SEO!

• Retargeting› Put code on your site today!› You can’t build these audiences retroactively

• Platforms› Google AdWords› Google Analytics› Bing Ads

• Many cookies last at least 180 days

› Facebook› Twitter› Pinterest


CAPITALIZE ON YOUR HARD WORK IN SEO!

• Email marketing› Try to capture emails at minimum› Use for email campaigns

• Customer Match advertising› Platforms

» Google AdWords» Facebook


CONTACT INFO

JANET DRISCOLL MILLERPresident and CEOMarketing Mojo

434.975.6656 x101

[email protected]

@janetdmiller