SEO Best Practices

Friday, June 6, 14 Wednesday, June 11, 2014

SEO Best Practices To Maximize Your Google

Ranking June 11, 2014

CONFIDENTIAL ‹#› Wednesday, June 11, 2014

TribalVision and SEOBoston provide markeJng and SEO consulJng

An entrepreneur with 20 years of markeJng experience, Chris Ciunci is the founder and CEO of

TribalVision – an outsourced markeJng department for hire for small and mid-‐sized businesses. Chris oversees the firm’s strategic

direcJon, client work and business development efforts. Chris works closely with clients, partners,

and employees to develop comprehensive markeJng strategies that revolve around

generaJng new busines.

Daniel Zayets-‐Volshin is one of Boston’s leading SEO experts. With over a decade of experience in Search Engine OpJmizaJon, PPC Management, Affiliate MarkeJng as well as SEO-‐friendly Web Design & Development, Daniel acquired a truly wide set of Web MarkeJng skills. He is one of the founders for SEOBoston -‐ Boston’s top ranking organic SEO

Company which offers SEO services and consultaJon for Boston based businesses. Daniel

collaborates o_en with TribalVision on web markeJng projects.


Agenda

Today’s SEO Landscape Improving Your Site: The Basics GooglePlus Best Practices 5 Tips to Start Using Tomorrow

Questions


Today’s SEO landscape is rapidly evolving

Meta-‐data is becoming less criJcal 1

Video is now a must for those who want to compete – by 2015 it will be 90% of all online traffic 2

Traffic increasingly comes from mobile devices 3


Why meta-‐data is (somewhat) less important than in the past

Being the #1 ranked search engine, it’s important to know that Google has

removed meta keywords from its algorithm.

However, other search engines s-ll use meta keywords in their

calcula-ons.

Meta Descrip-ons are s-ll important: Google uses meta descripJons to give

searchers more informaJon about your site. Without a meta

descripJon, Google will hand-‐pick something from the site it feels is relevant to what the searcher is

looking for

h"p://melbel.hubpages.com/hub/Meta-‐Data-‐for-‐SEO

Due to updates in Google’s Hummingbird algorithm, keyword density is no longer important (seman=c

search allows engines to return relevant queries

based on context, not just search terms – so,

frequency becomes less important in rela=on to value of the context)

h"p://www.keloland.com/business/detail.cfm/keywords-‐are-‐dead-‐keywords-‐arent-‐dead/?id=163782


Video

Linking YouTube to Your Website

Linking YouTube to your website makes the 2 plaiorms into a combined enJty, allowing the value of the videos from your channel to generate value for the page where it’s placed.

Use TranscripJons

CreaJng & uploading your own transcripts will help Google understand the content of your videos. YouTube automaJcally creates a transcript for you of what it thinks it hears (which can be unreliable).

YouTube ParJcipaJon You should be the person who watches other people’s videos, likes/dislikes them and comments on them. Especially the videos in the relevant field -‐ it works towards your rankings

h"p://searchenginewatch.com/ar=cle/2343365/10-‐Video-‐SEO-‐Tips-‐That-‐Can-‐Truly-‐Impact-‐Your-‐Rankings h"p://www.lucrazon.com/extra-‐seo-‐juice-‐by-‐adding-‐youtube-‐video-‐transcripts

Social Signals

Social Signals are extremely important in video ranking. If you have a video that gets naturally shared it will be done though social sharing opJons on Youtube -‐ do not not ignore this sharing part as this is what makes it look real.


Mobile

Mobile Website Responsive Website

“70% of mobile searches for products or services will result in a sale in the near future.”

h"p://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/06/04/7-‐ways-‐that-‐seo-‐is-‐uniquely-‐important-‐for-‐entrepreneurs/


Agenda


Questions


Know your niche: industry & compeJtor research

h"p://moz.com/blog/illustrated-‐seo-‐compe==ve-‐analysis-‐workflow

IdenJfy your compeJtors & gather data on their SEO & PPC performance

Compare your site and back links with your compeJtors & industry giants

Choose targeted long tail keywords based on your analysis

A compe--ve analysis will provide you with more informed keywords, allowing you to begin your on-‐page op-miza-on with a strong founda-on.


Cover your bases of on-‐site opJmizaJon using your keyword selecJons

URL A page’s URL should be first and foremost straighiorward and meaningful. The use of relevant keywords in it sJll maoers a lot and so is a geo locaJon if your business targets local market. .Com URLs are valued more than .org, .net or .us ones.

Meta Keywords

Though not as relevant as in the past, the meta keywords tag should not be ignored. They allow the relevancy of the page to be based on the set of keywords and should not be abused (display only keywords used on the actual page).

Meta DescripJon

Meta descripJons in most cases will show up in search results right under the link. They are a great opportunity to showcase what the page is about, include relevant keywords and to include the catchy call to acJon in roughly 155 characters.

Keywords Keywords should be used in the Jtle tag & meta descripJon, keyword tag as well as used throughout a page’s content it’s headers and subheaders (H1-‐H4 Tags).

Title Possibly the most important element of on-‐page SEO, the page Jtle tells search engines (and people!) what your page is all about. The Jtle should contain keywords and be no longer than 70 characters in length. If possible make it into a quesJon.


Take your wrioen content to a new level -‐ make it Hummingbird-‐friendly

Content The content pages should ideally be structured around answering a quesJon or providing a valuable set of Jps – this is how people search and what they click on. The content needs to present value, feature quotes and links out to outside material

Photos Use as much visual content as possible and apply the appropriate alt tags -‐ with useful keywords to those photos. Make them funny, make them with text, make them unique to stand out from the crowd.

Videos A Relevant video with proper meta data embedded on the page, can help a page to rank higher. Use videos for the relevant material, industry quotes or relevant presentaJon. Make the page more diverse in content.

Amount of Text

Ideally the textual content should be between 2000-‐3000 words (about 6 pages of text) -‐ this sort of format for presenJng informaJve content is ideal for Hummingbird

Readability The viewer needs to be able to read the text by skimming through it’s sub-‐headers, by doing a more extensive 1 minute read, as well as by doing a detailed reading. Use a lot of bullet points and clearly divided secJons to make your content digesJble.


LocaJng on-‐page elements

Press OpJon + Command+ U 1

Press Command + F 2

Search for Title tag, meta descripJon, keyword tags, H1, H2, H3, H4 3


Example on-‐page elements

Title Tag


Example on-‐page elements

Meta DescripJon

Keywords Tag


Example on-‐page elements conJnued

H1 Tag

H2 Tag

H3 Tag

H4 Tag


Off-‐site opJmizaJon (link-‐building) process

Before building links it is vital to get a full landscape of keywords appropriate to your industry that get a lot of traffic and especially those keywords that are long tail and get a lot of traffic. Short keywords are usually not ac-on-‐oriented while longtail ones are.

Research them in Google Adwords for free by creaJng an account. Don't send all of the links to the home

page. Send the links to the sources that are more relevant for the link rather than sending all of it to the home page. In fact, some of the best link building

campaigns focuses on evenly spreading the en-re site.

Integrate the keyword into the backlink coming from the source to your site. Diversify the variaJon as if the link

repeats to many Jmes the same way it looks arJficial.

It is beoer to get 1 link forma very powerful source than 20 links from a

barely known sources.

Keywords

Where to Link-‐Build

How to Link-‐Build

Not All Links Are Created Equal


More strategies for link-‐building

Even though press releases are no longer counted by Google towards your link building collecJon, a well wriHen and distributed Press Release might get picked up

by some publica-on and those are usually a great source for valuable links.

Make sure that the informaJon is consistent. Some of the directories are paid like Yahoo, while some are free like SuperPage. Make sure that the directories are

whitelisted before you post there.

Business Directories

Blogs and Forums

Press Releases

Engage in the comments/discussions on the blogs and forums and make comments on those with links to your website. Typically you need to become an established contributor first before you would be allowed to backlink to your

website. You also need to check as a lot of websites are “no follow” meaning that they don't pass the link juice outside of the website.


Even more strategies for link-‐building

Social Links

Likes, shares and +1s are counted towards your back-‐linking factors, especially if people who mark your content are an authority with more people following them than they follow. Social links gain more strength when they get re-‐tweeted on Twioer and +1 re-‐shares on Google Plus.

.Gov & .Edu These are some of the most desirable links. Make sure if you are gewng the .edu links that they come from USA or at least Canada, Australia or the UK.

Foreign Links

In general, links from other countries might help you rank beoer in those countries, but will not help you as much in your naJve country and can even harm you if used inappropriately. It is sJll worth gewng them from English-‐speaking countries, but it’s recommended to avoid them otherwise.

Resource Websites

Links from resource websites are some of the most important links. The most pracJcal way to build such links is to search the content and locate broken links, restore the content on your site and suggest the owner of those broken links to fix the link by linking to your website as you have a fixed version of that content.


Social

Social is now an integral part of any serious SEO campaign. Social is growing as a source of credibility for companies and individuals online, making it important to

know how to op-mize your presence.

Frequency of posts Quality content Consistent photo across mediums

Number of comments Presence across plaRorms

Number of retweets Number of followers vs.

number of people followed

AcJve Google+ account (it is vital for appropriate

rankings)

Number of likes


Agenda


Questions


Google +: Circles & Account Type

h"p://www.je]ullas.com/2013/11/11/how-‐to-‐increase-‐your-‐seo-‐with-‐google-‐plus/h"p://www.drumbeatmarke=ng.net/seo-‐blog/google-‐circles-‐everyone-‐needs-‐g-‐posse

A fully saturated Local GooglePlus account is vital for appropriate rankings.

Use photos with appropriate photo names (i.e. keywords), use hashtags and make the post keyword rich

Your page needs to be updated regularly – going dark can result in a major drop in ranking

Grow your circles: more circles = more value = Authority Ranking

359 million acJve users on Google+ (a plaiorm for YouTube, Hangouts, Maps and Local MarkeJng)

Google gives arJcles and posts created by circled profiles a leg up shi_ing them to the top of SERPs and shi_s up websites affiliated with AcJve Google + Pages

Just like on YouTube-‐ parJcipate in discussions on Google Plus


Google+: Best PracJces

Use Keywords Use keywords in the descripJon – make sure the explanaJons is very keyword rich but not stuffed – it must sound natural

Link Link to your website from your Google+ page or ask your developer to help you. If you have mulJple locaJons, get Google Plus Local and link them to the subdomains of the site -‐ essenJally breaking each locaJon to the subdomain presence. Google considers subdomains as almost a unique website.

Circles You should be growing the numbers of people that follow you versus who you follow. Ideally the raJo of followers should be larger than people you follow.

RegistraJon Type

Local page registraJon is the ideal case scenario. Choose the keyword rich name especially “keyword”+”city” those and then register the google plus local lisJng under same name.


Reviews

1

Reviews from people with established Google Plus or acJve YouTube accounts get higher ranking 2

Ask the reviewers to include the relevant keywords in the review as those help with the local rankings 3

Ask your customers for reviews on Google Plus, SuperPages and other directories. Again -‐ Try to avoid Yelp as long as you can.


One 5-‐star Review = 3 posiJon jump


Reviewers with more authority rank higher


Local

Google Plus syndicates reviews from other directories, so the more diverse the list of white-‐labeled directories where you have reviews, the beHer it

will be.

Helps with local ranking. If interested, please ask for a list aSer the

presenta-on.

New Product Launches Client-hosted Events

Google Plus does not punish for reviews being le_ close to each other like Yelp does. Nevertheless, try to spread them apart as ranking and spam algorithm

may change

It is vital that you have the same contact info (phone and address) in different

directories and on the site itself as that is how the local informaJon is being

verified

Types of Local Directories for Submissions

Reviews on a Diverse Range of Directories

Frequency of Reviews Same Contact Info on the Site & Directories


Agenda


Questions


Top 5 Jps you should start implemenJng tomorrow

If nothing else, make sure all of your webpages have Jtle tags. 1

Create a local Google Plus Account and link it to your website 2

Try to avoid Yelp for as long as you can (focus on GooglePlus instead) 3

Use free tools at your disposal to make the opJmizaJon process easier (i.e. Alexa, SEMRush, Moz On-‐Page Grader) 4

Make your content informaJve and with a value at its source -‐ and don’t be afraid to link it out 5


Agenda

Today’s SEO Landscape Improving Your Site: The Basics GooglePlus Best Practices 5 Tips to Start Using Tomorrow Questions

Friday, June 6, 14 Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Thank You!

Internet

SEO Best Practices