Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

How Search Engines Find Your Content

A workshop series by Beth Browning

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• At the Highest Level it’s

– Driving traffic to websites from Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

– Optimizing a variety of variables such as content, website structure, as well as internal and external links (just to name a few) to increase the visibility and position on a search engine results page.

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What is Search Engine Optimization?

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Search Engine results pages are divided into “sponsored links” and organic listings. 

• Organic search defines search results that come up naturally based on the authority and relevancy of the various websites competing for search results.

• Paid search refers to ads that are relevant to the search, but where the link has been displayed because the search engine gets paid by the website owner for every click.

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Organic vs. Paid

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

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The anatomy of a Search Results Page

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• SEO is largely done through the use of incorporating keywords your target audience uses to search the internet.

– Keyword(s) = the words or terms that a person enters into the search box when they are looking for something on the internet or on a website

• SEO today is about more than keywords and links. SEO is still the process of optimizing web pages so they will be found on Google, but it’s also a lot more. 

• It’s about integrating with the other internet marketing strategies such as social media marketing, content marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), blogging, and website design.

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How is SEO Done?

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Well-structured and easy to navigate website

– Your website should be organized in a hierarchy that makes it easy for visitors and search engines to understand and follow the relationships between pages

– Pages within the navigation should be labeled in a clear fashion and when possible include important keywords

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Key SEO Success Factors

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Content

– Relevant – is related to the products and services sold on the website

– Quality – error free and grammatically correct

– Unique – has not been published on another site • Content that appears on the internet in more than one URL is considered to be

duplicate content. – Search engines will most likely only show one link to a piece of content – Sites that copy and publish someone else’s content will at best get no credit for the content and at worst

be penalized for it

– Fresh – search engines reward websites that frequently update and add new content

– Optimized - The use of keyword phrases appropriately incorporated into text, images, and video (don’t forget about local)

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Key SEO Success Factors

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Keywords + Content

Here’s the formula:• Good Keyword(s) + the WRONG context = the WRONG Theme (LOW

RELEVANCE)

• Good Keyword(s) + the RIGHT context = the RIGHT Theme  (HIGH RELEVANCE)

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Key SEO Success Factors

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Links– External Links - back links are links that come to your site from another website – a

link from one site to another is like a ‘vote’ for that site and it sends Google and the other search engines a positive signal about the website and its credibility. 

• Do Follow – links from most websites. Google follows these links from one website to another when they crawl a website. The links count as votes and the ‘link juice’ gets passed from one page to the other.

• No follow – links from blog comments and most social networks. Google does not follow these links – no-follow = no link juice BUT they are an important social signal and do have value

– Internal Links – the linking structure within your own site and how those links are written and displayed

• Content Distribution – promoting content through various channels including social media networks to increase visibility

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Key SEO Success Factors

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

The first Layer:

•Search engines do the following when finding content:

– Search the internet for relevant content –this is called “crawling” or “spidering”

– Index the content – store what they find and identify patterns in the data so it can be easily retrieved

– Process the content – compare the search term to the indexed content

– Calculate relevancy – determine which pages are most relevant to the search term

– Retrieve – display the results on a Search Engine Page

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How Search Engines Work

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Search History – Google keeps a record of the searches and incorporates it into calculating what’s relevant

• Social Sharing – if you share it, you must like it and Google will give you results that are similar

• Social Connections – content that has been shared by people you’re connected to on Google+

• Previous Search – Google looks at what you just searched on and combines it with your new search to see if it makes sense to include both terms in the results

• Mass Personalization – in addition to your individual behavior, Google takes overall search behavior into consideration

• Location – the physical address of the computer

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The Personalization Layer

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Relevance:  – How related is the business to the search term.  Let’s say you want to be found for the phrase

“Chinese Buffet” in addition to “Chinese Restaurant.”  If you don’t mention “Chinese Buffet” in your content, Google has no way of knowing that you offer it and you will not get a place in the local results.

• Prominence:  – This is determined how prominent or “well-known” a business is.  This is gathered from a variety of

sources on the web.  It’s all about citations, which in the case of local SEO, are a good thing.  A citation is a mention or ‘citing’ of your business on a web page.  The more often Google sees your business listed, the more certain Google is that your business is legitimate. 

• Distance: – This is the easy one.  Google calculates the distance from your location to the businesses in the area. 

The more specific you make your search, the more is taken into consideration. 

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And then there’s Local Layer:

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Search Engines are becoming answer engines

• Semantic search is technology used by the search engines that tries to figure out what’s behind the search request – what are they really looking for?– If someone types “soy candles” into the search box, do they mean:

• Buy one?• Learn how they are made?• Learn how to make them?• Benefits of Soy Candles?

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Other Factors - Semantic Search

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) is technology that incorporates a measure of Artificial Intelligence into the mix

• NLP is page specific which means that you don’t have to focus the content of your entire website on 1 – 2 topics– NLP is all about themes - it looks at the context of your page and whether or

not the keywords used within the content relevant to the theme of the page

• NLP also takes into consideration how well your content is written, not just how the well the keywords are used

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Other Factors -Natural Language Processing

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it isHow Search Engines Find Your Content

(and Display it on a Results Page)

It starts with your ideas and creativity

You turn the ideas into great content

Promote your content on social networks

People Spread the WordYou do the keyword research

Search engines crawl and index your pages

You build external links (many of them happen naturally )

Search engines follow the links to your site (they keep track of where the links came from)

Search engines listen to the social signals

Your prospective customer searches on a Keyword

The right people find you

Search engines consider•Location•Personalization•Social Signals•Quality•And more…

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

• Focus on being relevant to your audience, not on your rankings

• If you are driving traffic organically, you’re doing the right things

• The important thing is that you are found by the people who need your services – Google is sort of a match-maker that way

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There is no such thing as being # 1

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

Discover Your CustomersTaking the mystery out of SEO - my services

Website Analysis and Competitive Intelligence- Provide insights regarding strengths, weaknesses, and areas of opportunity for improving and optimizing an online presence within the competitive landscape.

Teaching-Conduct hands-on search engine optimization workshops for beginners to advanced

Search Engine Marketing-Develop marketing strategies and plans to promote both brand and business through search engine optimization

Mentoring- Relationship based training and knowledge transfer of skills to accelerate the growth of individuals and improve retention and performance.

Content Creation- Generate online content that is interesting and engaging for website visitors and is optimized for search engines.

Register for one of my workshops at: http://seotrainingpennsylvania.com/

For more locations, visit: http://www.searchengineacademy.com/

Subscribe to my blog for regular tips and insights (plus occasional musings): http://discover-your-customers.com/blog/

Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is

Thank You!

Questions?