introducing

SEO: It’s Your Move

everybody is looking for this

cause everybody wants to be

truth

“SEO has evolved to become the result of an actual marketing strategy versus marketing tactics” Rae Hoffman

Google’s goal = best answers

“We show the results at the top that answer the user’s queries directly

(after all we built Google for users, not websites).”

Posted by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google

why blog?

Companies that blog have

434% more indexed pages. And companies with more

indexed pages get far more leads.

--Search Engine Strategies Conference, NYC 2013

blogging is..

Blogging is an essentialmarketing component for

your business

simple advice

Not sure where to start with your blog content?

Follow one, simple rule:

Help other peopleFrom Shareaholic Blog: 4 Ways to Increase Audience Engagement Kali Hawlk

strategyBefore you jump into planning answer these

critical questions:– What triggers your customer to purchase?– What are you seasonal / sales goals?– What do you want to communicate?– Who are my customers; personas/segments– What questions can you answer, problems can you

solve, or understanding can you add?– What can you reasonably commit to?

seo planning is the 1st step

• seo is not an item to be left to the end

• plan first• w/o planning, you’ll

never get where you want to be

Photo credit: Oatsy40

long tail world

latent semantic indexing (LSI)

voice search

•coffee shops near me•Who has the cheapest gardening supplies

near me?

content types

• Photos• Videos; interviews, Q&A, demos• Text / written articles; in-depth, long-form• Podcasts & Audio Files

fundamentals

• solid, strong brand• great copy

• adds value• Exceptional User Experience • useful information

• fast; mobile responsive

google is mobile first

•“mobile-friendly criteria will continue to be a ranking signal”

•“after January 10, 2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as highly”

Webmaster Central Blog

secure your site

“security - top priority for Google

“HTTPS everywhere”

HTTPS as a ranking signalswitch from HTTP to HTTPS

Webmaster Central Blog Wednesday, August 06, 2014

essential

• Focus keyword and content analysis• Post titles and meta descriptions• Robots meta configuration• Readability check• Canonical• Breadcrumbs• Primary category• Permalink cleanup• XML sitemaps• RSS enhancements

all ins• Title

– page– file media library

• Text• Tags

– alt– post– H2, H3

• Page• Subheads• Descriptions

other considerations

• Relevant inbound links• Cross site links as on-

page navigation• No “click this link”

rather, “click for map to our location”

taxonomy

• Map it out• Identify primary• Supporting branches• Categories

– One per post• Tags as micro-categories

– Not contained in post titles

plan blog categories

Cupcakes

Chocolate Birthday DecoratingChocolate BirthdayBirthday

Parent Category Child or

Secondary Categories

Parent Category Child or

Secondary Categories

plan ‘tags’- micro-categories

DarkChocolat

e

WhiteChocolat

e

MilkChocolat

e

ChildCategoryChocolat

e

Tags

create editorial calendar

Superhero Birthday Cupcakes

Favorite Milk Chocolate Cupcake Recipes

How to decorate cupcakes with real flowers

Desserts

Chocolate Cupcakes

Birthday Cupcakes

Cakes

SunSatFriThursWedTuesMonTopic

after posting...promotion

“The real magic lies in content promotion. Without it, your content will struggle to earn a social mention, let alone a quality backlink.”*

• Where will they see it?• What will motivate them?• Where will you/they share it?

*Robbie Richards in 16 Explosive Content Promotion Strategies

lather, rinse, repeat

• monitor• adjust• refresh• keep alert to changes• competition

Photo credit: 1950sUnlimited