1. | SEO 101 1
SEO 101

2. | SEO 101 2
Today’s Agenda:
• Introduction
• What to expect today
• How search engines work
• What is SEO?
• Foundational SEO
• On and off page basics

3. | SEO 101 3
Nate Plaunt
Sr. SEO Strategist
@NatePlaunt
bit.ly/1LoDdWN
Today’s Presenters
Taylor Pettis
Sr. Marketing
Manager
@tpettis
linkd.in/1dsZJAa

4. DOES SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
REALLY MATTER?

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Organic Search is the #1 Driver of
Website Traffic
From a usage perspective, new studies have found
that organic search drives 64% of all web traffic.

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Search Engine Optimization
FACT:
79% of search engine users say they
always/frequently click on the natural search
results.

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A New Click Rate Study For Organic Results
On average, 71.33% of searches resulted in a page one Google organic
click. Page two and three get only 5.59% of the clicks. On the first page
alone, the first 5 results account for 67.60% of all the clicks and the results
from 6 to 10 account for only 3.73%.
http://marketingland.com/new-click-rate-study-google-organic-results-102149
Page 1 = 71.33%

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A New Click Rate Study For Organic Results
Ads / Shopping
Results
Local / Map
Results
Organic Results
31% Click
through
14% Click
through

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Does SEO Really Matter?
YES!
If you are not optimizing for search you are
already behind your competition.

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What to Expect:
• A solid understanding of how search
engines operate
• Learn how to beat out your competition in
the search engine results
• Actionable tactics you can implement
today
• Tools to implement SEO

11. WHAT DID YOU SEARCH TODAY?

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What Did You Search Today?

13. | SEO 101 13
What Did You Search Today?

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How Search Engines Work

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• Over 200 “ranking factors” help to decide
where your site ranks
• Roughly 10,000 sub-factors
• Fewer ranking factors in algorithm
• Heavy reliance on social factors
Search Engine Algorithm Key Components
1

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Google’s Algorithm Key Components
1
Top 4 Components
1. Trust / Authority of
the Host Domain
2. Popularity of the
Specific Page
3. Anchor Text of
External Links to
the Page
4. On Page Keyword
Usage
According to 72 SEO’s Surveyed by Moz

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U.S. Search Engine Market Share
http://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/
64.2 %
20.2 %
12.7 %
Everyone else 2.9 %

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Not all results are organic
Organic

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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
"natural" or un-paid ("organic")
search results.
Source: Wikipedia

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What is SEO? (Simplified)
SEO is two things:
1. The practice of making your website as
accessible as possible to search engines.
2. Ensuring your website is as useful and
relevant as possible to your current and
prospective customers.

23. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 101
THE BASICS

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SEO 101:
Ensure your site
is accessible to
search engines.
SEO 201:
Ensure your site is
relevant and useful
to your visitors.

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Technical and structural factors

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Technical and structural factors
• Goal: Ensure accessibility for Search
Engines & Users
• Foundation of your entire online
presence, so it’s important to get it right
• Search engines have very clear
guidelines for webmasters to follow when
building sites

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What To Look For
• Can your entire website be crawled?
• Is your website indexed by the search
engines?
• Does your website have any errors?
• Is your page load time too slow?

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How You Can Do This
• XML sitemap
• Accurate robots.txt file
• Google Search Console
• Page speed optimization

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What to Avoid
Any unnecessary hurdle for the search
engines
• Flash
• JavaScript
• URL Parameters

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Here’s What Humans See

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Here’s What Search Engines See
(not a glitch)

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XML Sitemap
The XML sitemap is a map of your website
that enables search engines to efficiently
crawl and index your site.

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XML Sitemap
Various tools can help you generate an
accurate and up-to-date sitemap:
• Screaming Frog Spider
• CMS plugins like Yoast
• Other web-based sitemap generators
- www.xml-sitemaps.com

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Robots.txt file
The robots.txt file is a directive for all “bots”
visiting your site.
• It tells them what URLs to crawl or not
crawl
• Simple text file – can be created with
notepad

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Robots.txt file – *Pro Tip
Use the
Robots.txt testing
tool in Google
Search Console
to troubleshoot
errors in you file
and to test
individual URLs

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Google Search Console
Google Search Console (formerly Google
Webmaster Tools) is a free resource with tons of
valuable information available to all website owners.
• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

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Why Does Speed Matter?
Last year, mobile search overtook desktop search.
• The gap between mobile and desktop will widen
• Fast page load speed is critical to optimizing for
mobile
• “Mobile-geddon”

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Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights is another free tool from
Google that gives you a prioritized roadmap on how
to fix speed issues on your site.
• https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

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On and Off Page Factors

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On and Off Page Factors
• Goal: Demonstrate Relevance and
Authority
• Search engines want to provide users with
search results that are relevant to their
query and authoritative in nature.
• Building upon a sound technical structure,
we make sure that search engines and
users are able to fully understand what
various pages on your website are about.

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On-page SEO refers to
factors that you can
control directly on your
website
Examples of on-page
factors are:
• Metadata
• Internal links
• Content
• Technical / Structural
Off-page SEO refers to
factors “out of your
control” on other websites
Examples of off-page
factors are:
• Inbound links
• Social Media
• Mentions
• Local Directories
On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO

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What To Look For
• Are your on page elements optimized?
• What keywords are you ranking for?
• Who is linking to you?
• Who is linking to your competitors?

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On Page SEO Elements
• URL
• Page Title
• H1 heading
• H2 headings
• Meta Description
• Page Copy
• Alternative image text

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On Page SEO Elements
Page Title: Unique
and descriptive
URL: Descriptive
and readable by
both humans and
search engines
H1 Heading:
Unique and
descriptive
H2 Headings:
Sub-topics of the
page
Page Copy:
Descriptive,
unique, and
keyword rich
Alt Image Text:
Descriptive and
keyword rich

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Page Title
Good:
Organic Result #1
Bad:
Organic Result #245

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URL structure
Good:
Organic Result #1
Bad:
Organic Result #260

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On Page SEO Elements
Meta
Descriptions

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A Tale of Two Devices

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A Tale of Two Devices

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What Keywords Do You Rank For?
Ground Rules:
1. Don’t “Google yourself”
2. Use a keyword tracking tool
- SEM Rush (freemium)
- Bright Local (paid)

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What Keywords Do You Rank For?

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Off Page SEO Elements
• Backlinks
• Link anchor text
• Citations or Mentions

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Internal vs. External Links (Backlinks)
• Two types of links:
Internal and External.
• Internal links refer
to links within your
site, such as
navigation links.
• External links refer
to links outside of your
site, such as a link
from Wikipedia.
• Both are very
useful, but for different
reasons.

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How do Backlinks Help?
• Backlinks act as
“votes” for pages on
your site.
• Generally speaking,
the more links you
have from
authoritative sources,
the more your site is
trusted, and the better
your pages will rank.
YourWebsite.com
NewsSite.com ProductSite.com
IndustryBlog.com ShadySite.com

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Link Anchor Text
The words used in the anchor text of a link
to your site helps search engines
understand what that page is about.
So, if your site is about “Cats” the anchor
text cats would be preferable over click here.

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Who is linking to you?
Conduct a backlink
audit:
• Open your Google
Search Console
• Navigate to the “Links
to Your Site” section
• Check out who links
the most and to what
content
• *Pro Tip: this will help

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Who is linking to your competitors?
Conduct a competitive link analysis:
1. Use Open Site Explorer
- https://moz.com/researchtools/ose
2. Enter your competitor’s site into the search bar
3. Dig through their backlink profile
4. *Pro Tip: Identify where you can acquire some
of the same links!

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Citations
Citations are essentially a mention of your
brand on another site like a listing directory.
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• City Search

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Citations
It is important that these listings maintain
consistency and accuracy.
• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
*Check up on your listings using Moz Local
- moz.com/local

60. REVIEW

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1. If done right, SEO is a distinct competitive
advantage
2. Get the foundation right
3. Optimize your pages
4. Optimize your off page presence
5. Move up the pyramid…
Review

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SEO 101:
Ensure your site
is accessible to
search engines.
SEO 201:
Ensure your site is
relevant and useful
to your visitors.

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Measurement and Improvement

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Questions?

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1. Google Search Console
2. Google PageSpeed Insights
3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
4. Yoast plugin for WordPress
5. XML Sitemap Generator
6. SEM Rush
7. Bright Local
8. Open Site Explorer
9. Moz Local
Appendix – Tools Mentioned