The Intersection SEO and Content marketing

Al BiedrzyckiSenior Marketing ManagerHubSpot@albiedrzycki

1SEO in 20042Content & SEO3How Google Returns SERPs4Off-Page SEO5Technical SEO6Avoiding Penalties7Wrap-up and Questions

AGENDA

SEO IN 20041

What We Used to Do

The Result...

SEO: circa 2004

SEO today (2016!)

Oh, and it’s always changing

So, What is SEO?Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results—often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results.Anything that humans or technology do to influence those results is considered the practice of SEO.

CONTENT & SEO2

Your Content Has to be GoodCriteria for good content:1. One-of-a-Kind: Doesn’t appear

anywhere else on the web.2. Relevant: Contains content that

engines can interpret as on-the-topic.3. Helpful: Solves the searcher’s query

in a useful, efficient manner.4. Uniquely Valuable: Provides

information that’s unavailable (or hard to get) elsewhere.

5. Great UX: Is pleasurable to consume on any device.

Your Content Has to Be Human

Your Content Has to Leverage KeywordsKeyword research is still very important. Researching the competition around ranking difficulty will still be the first step.Research around topics/themes rather than direct keyword matching-- not just the main keyword, but the related keywords. Use related keywords as “cast members”

Your Content Has to Be HelpfulWhen creating content, answer as many questions as possible. Google is trying to figure out what your intent is, and answering questions helps Google associate your content to queries.Use natural language and variations, or “semantic keyword research

Your Content Has to Be Structured1. Structure your content. Use

headers, paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.

2. Most important content goes in Header/Main Body tags.

3. Sidebars and footers are weighted less.

4. Cite sources (if necessary) just like you would in a college paper

Social Media Can Gauge IntentSites such as Facebook and Twitter provide search engines with important clues about which web pages people are talking about, or have shared with each other.Tip: Use social channels to drive the dialogue!

Personalized Search Plays a RoleSearch engines have been able to use a logged in user’s Social Network usage, and their previous searches, to determine what is more importantly to them personally.Data can be pulled from: Location, device, search history, email and calendar, Google+, browser history and bookmarks

HOW GOOGLE RETURNS SERPs3

How Google Presents DataWhat types of search results does Google returns for a specific query?1. News2. Images3. Local Businesses4. Rated Results (e.g. stars)5. Products6. Videos7. One-box / answer results

How Google Categorizes Queries

How Google Judges QueriesRating Scale Description

Vital Essential to the search query

Useful A page that is very helpful

Relevant A page that is helpful for many or some

Slightly Relevant A page that is helpful, but not entirely relevant

Off-Topic or useless A page that is helpful for very few users

Unrateable A page that cannot be evaluated for a specific query

Loyalty & Visitor Engagement

OFF-PAGE SEO4

It’s All About Building RelationshipsRemember that building links requires an “ask”1. Social Media2. Leaving insightful comments on

blogs/content3. A friendly email4. Advertising“Links are a great side effect of awesome relationships”

Link Building vs. Link EarningGoogle doesn’t want to count links you can “build”1. Build relationships that earn2. Use content to drive editorial

links3. Aim for resource pages and

blog rolls, no directories4. Buy exposure that leads to links

Don’t just focus on the “big guys” when link building. They’re overwhelmed with requests and may experience “fatigue”.

Link Earning Tips: Avoid Spam 1. Link quantity is dying (or

dead)2. You could get penalized

for spammy or “unnatural” links

Secrets for Link Earning Tools for outreach:● Conspire● BuzzSumo

Tips for Outreach:● Keep an organized spreadsheet of all your outreach targets. ● Know when “scale” and “spam” cross paths.● Use SE operators to help identify if they have a submissions

page or notes on if they accept external communicationsa. Go to Googleb. Type in site:www.domain.com “TERM” to see if that language

is used on their website.

Link Earning With Link BaitLinkbait is any online activity that has the specific goal of attracting links from other websites.Types:1. Infographics - (easy to embed & offer

source code for others to use/share on social

2. Ego Bait – Designed to be targeted at specific influential individuals (i.e. 18 Startup Founders Share Their Lowest Moments Before Coming Out On Top)

3. How-To Guides / Resource style content

4. Interviews5. Tools (Calculators, etc)

TECHNICAL SEO5

Crawling & IndexingIt’s important to ensure your website is easily crawlable by creating an XML Sitemap and being wary of barriers:1. Javascript (it’s fine in HTML, but

avoid it in excess)2. Flash3. Frames / iFrames4. Cookies (i.e. “smart” versions of

pages aren’t currently indexable)

Know Your Status Codes● 200 - Everything is a-ok!● 301 - Permanent redirect. New page is indexed.

Link equity is transferred from the old page to the new.

● 302 - Temporarily moved. Not removed from indexing, but link equity is not preserved.

● 404 - The page no longer exists. The page will eventually be dropped from the index.

● 500 - Server error exists and no content is accessible to crawlers or search engines.

● 503 - A “temporarily unavailable” status. Tells crawlers to come back later.

URL ConstructionEvery URL is constructed in four, and optionally, more parts:1.Protocol - HTTP or HTTPs2.Subdomain - www or custom3.Domain - your custom name4.Top Level Domain (TLD)

- .com, .org, etc

URL OptimizationURLs should be:1. Unique2. As short as possible3. Keyword focused4. URLs are best built using a

separator between the words in the slug. The types of separators that are acceptable are, in order:a. Hyphen (ie. built-like-this)b. Underscore (ie. built_like_this)c. Plus (ie. built+like+this)

Don’t Forget About Site Speed!It affects ranking and UX

AVOIDING PENALTIES6

Why Did I Lose My Rank?1.Manual Action - Someone at Google

manually removed you for breaking the rules

2.Algorithm Updates - Panda, Penguin, etc.

3.Data/Index Updates - Your were beaten out by the competition.

4.Filtered out - Copyright claims, excessively similar results, etc.

Once You’ve Cleaned it up...

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU.