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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: [email protected]
Skype: dmoscovitch
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danielmoscovitchseoexpert
Facebook: facebook.com/dmoscovitch1
Twitter: @dmoscovitch
Questions Anyone?