On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO): What Marketing Agencies Need to Know

Partner Program Training Program

November 2010

Peter Caputa IV

Partner Program Manager

Twitter: @pc4media

pcaputa@hubspot.com

#HubSpotSEO

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time• Review of Basic SEO Terms• All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

3

Demand: Everybody Wants More Search Traffic

4

Be the Expert: SEO is Still Misunderstood by Most Marketers

5

Do The Right Thing: There are Lots of Bad Eggs

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4059/Improving-Your-Search-Rankings-With-SEO-Pixie-Dust.aspx

6

Lead In: SEO Can Be a Start to Larger Service Offerings

7

Practice What You Preach

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time• All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

Long Tail Keywords

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4723/6-Ways-to-Leverage-the-Long-Tail-in-Your-Marketing.aspx

Blue Ocean Keywords

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6002/Finding-Blue-Ocean-Keywords-A-Fresh-Look-At-The-Long-Tail.aspx

11

Each Page Should Be Optimized with Different Phrases

Page One:Social Media

Page Four:Social Media

Page Three:Social Media

Page Two:Social Media

?Which page does Google rank you for “content strategy”?

12

Use Variations of Your Important Phrases

Page One:Social Media

Tips

Page Four:Social MediaResources

Page Three:Social Media

Services

Page Two:Social Media

Portfolio

!

13

Even Better…Expand Your Core Keywords

Take a keyword core to you and expand on it

Example: Social Media becomes….• Facebook Page Creation• Twitter Strategy• Social Media Services• Social Media Advertising on Facebook• Social Media Influencer outreach

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

Blogging is Critical to Increasing Search Traffic

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

Two things at work to get the top…

• Relevance• For a given keyword search, web pages are indexed to that

keyword• In other words…“Relevance gets you on the list (SERP)”

• Authority• Google uses inbound links to measure how much authority you

have• In other words…“Authority determines how high you go”

17

25% of SEO = On Page (Visible)

• Page Title

• URL

• H1,H2,H3 tags

• Page Text• Bold

25% of SEO = On Page (Invisible)

• Description

• Keywords

• Alt text on images

20

On-Page SEO elements - Visible

On-Page SEO – 25% of the SEO

Equation

21

On-Page SEO - Behind the Scenes

22

Meta Description Tips and Tricks

• Make sure you have your keywords for the page appear in your Meta Description. This will help ensure Google uses your Meta Description

• Make your meta description short as SERPs don’t display much information.

• This is your chance to convince traffic to click through to your site, a crucial component in determining relevance for your site!

Title, URL and Image File Hints

23

Page Titles

URLs

Image File Name

70 Characters max., keep important keywords up front, separatekeywords with “pipes” (ex. | ), every page title should be unique.

Have child-page urls carry keywords after the forward slash, separate keywordsWith “dashes” (ex. - ) or “underscores” (ex. _ ).

Rename image-file names with keywords, separate keywordsWith “dashes” (ex. - ) or “underscores” (ex. _ ).

24

Image Optimization!

• Basic rule – Use Alt Text

• Advanced tips:• Use unique alt text for all images on a page. Same alt text for

every image could raise some red flags for search engine spiders

• Do not put alt text on 1 KB navigational or spacing images• Put keyword in image name: fitness-running.jpg• Use .jpg or .gif and keep the image small for quick load time

Ranking On-Page SEO Elements by Importance

1. Page Titles/Title Tags

2. URLs

3. Headings

4. Page Text

5. Meta Description

6. ALT text/File Name/Image Caption

7. Meta Keywords **

25

**As of late 2009 it was confirmed that none of the major search engines include meta keywords in the current algorithms. However, we believe these keywords are still being indexed and may be used again in the future so, in our

estimation, it is still a best practice to take the 2 minutes to add these while building pages.

75% of SEO = Off Page

•Recommendations from friends1. “I know Mike Volpe”2. “Mike Volpe is a marketing expert”3. You trust the person saying this

•Links are online recommendations1. A link: www.HubSpot.com2. Anchor text: Internet Marketing3. Link is from a trusted website

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

Design Elements to watch out for

• Sites designed in Flash• Image-based navigation• Java-based navigation• Too many images• Text placement and tables

28

Sites designed in Flash: How to Tell

29

Right click on content

Sites designed in Flash: Not SEO Friendly

30

Other things to watch for

• Image or Java-based navigation• Spiders can’t crawl it.• Can prevent proper site indexing

• Two many images• Search engines can’t read images• Reduces indexable content

• Text placement and tables• Text should be above large images• Text in tables may not be “read” correctly

31

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

33

Navigation: Use Keywords in Navigation

34

Optimizing your Navigation: What to Avoid

• Avoid image navigation because Google can’t read what the image is

• Avoid JavaScript navigation as Google may not be able to follow this navigation to other pages, thus failing to index your whole site

35

Optimizing Your Navigation: Be Descriptive

Internal Link Structure: Anchor Text

36

Keyword rich anchor text, click and it goes to…

Internal Link Structure: Anchor Text

37

Internal Link Structure: Anchor Text

38

Much more effective than: Automatic Email Marketing Campaigns click here

39

Utilize Nofollow Links to Tell Google Where to Go

40

Text Placement & Tables

41

Use 301 Redirects When Changing Page Names

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32/The-301-Redirect-How-To-Change-Your-Website-Address-Without-Losing-Search-Rankings.aspx

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

Website Grader SEO Tool

Page Grader

• Analyze each page of your site to see which produce the most value for you (traffic, leads, ranked keywords, links)

• Automatically recommend improvements to optimize each page of your site

Keyword Grader

• Determine what keywords to optimize your pages around based on relevance, search volume, and how difficult it will be to rank on the first page of Google

• Identify critical long tail words (high conversion rates, low competition)

• Monitor your rank against competitors for each keyword/phrase

• Determine the specific page on your site that is ranking for each keyword(phrase) and how to make further improvements

On Page SEO Analysis

Article/Page SEO Performance Analysis

Off-Page SEO

Link Grader

• Identify opportunities to generate more return from your existing links

• Monitor your live inbound links and which inbound links are producing the most value for you

• Aggregate your competitors inbound links to discover new link building opportunities that you have not taken advantage of

Agenda

• Why SEO is Especially Important For Agencies/Consultants

• Keyword Research & The Long Tail• Content is Key to Increasing Traffic/Time • All You Need to Know About SEO for SMBs• Things to Avoid• When Designing a Website• Becoming an SEO Expert Using HubSpot Software• Getting Help

How to Get Help…

Learn the Value of the HubSpot Software…

• As a Marketing agency or consultant, you have access to longer trials IF you are interested in becoming a HubSpot Partner/Value Added Reseller

• Start a 30 day free trial for your website. http://bit.ly/99SOv or client: http://bit.ly/7bENS

• Gives you access to http://success.hubspot.com

What’s HubSpot?

• Inbound marketing software + training• Over 1,500 customers in 2 years• 130+ employees• Still growing!

53

Learn the Benefits of the Value Added Reseller Program

• Group of 200+ marketing agencies and consultants who leverage HubSpot software to more effectively and efficiently provide value to their clients.

• Support for developing new services, building lead funnel, sales and customer support and assistance, ensuring customer ROI and success.

• Margin share of 20% on all deals for the life of the customer

• Additional benefits for VARs who bring on 3+ customers and maintain high customer success rates.

A Group that Wants to Change How the World Does Marketing!

Ask for Help…

• Request a Consultation with a Senior Member of the HubSpot Team to discuss your skills, goals, etc: http://www.hubspot.com/partners/marketing-agency-consultation-request

• Apply for Sales Development Program: http://www.hubspot.com/partners/marketing-agency-sales-development-program/

List of Upcoming Classes/Link to Recordings

55

http://www.hubspot.com/partners/training-program/classes

Weekly Email about Upcoming Classes - Thursday

56

Live Webinar: Every Tuesday @ 1PM EST

57

Additional Webinars SOMETIMES on Thursday at 2PM EST

Register for Weekly Class(es) to Get Login

58

59

Some Homework & Recorded Stuff Too…

Download: http://www.hubspot.com/partner-program--inbound-marketing-calculator