SEO 101The Fundamentals of SEO
About Learn SEO Houston
Moderators with over 25 years combined experience in SEO/SEM
SEO Software Strategist and Platform Developers
Guest Speakers at various events such as SMX London, DFWSEM, and other major expos.
Prominently fueled by 5 Hour Energy shots and trail mix (true story).
What is SEO?
The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to produce more traffic to a website by organically (not paid) improving the visibility of it in search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Traffic
Google Bing Yahoo Other
• 80% of search engine queries go through Google
• 8.5% use Bing• 9.5% use Yahoo• 2% use other search engines
Why not just use paid advertising?
87% of search engine users choose organic listings over ads.
Paid Search Ads are getting more and more expensive.
The synergistic effect between paid and organic listings can increase CTR by up to 20%
How Search Engines Operate
Crawling- The process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google index.
Indexing- Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page. In addition, it processes information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes.
Serving Results
Relevancy is determined by over 200 factors.
Pulls information from the index.
Social signals and web mentions are becoming prominent factors in Google’s ranking algorithm.
The Job of an SEOO
rgan
ic
SEOO
utr
each PR
Soci
al
Follo
win
g
Social
The Process
Great Content
Social Sharing
OutreachReputation Manageme
nt
PR Strategy
SEO Pyramid
Social
Link Building
Keyword Research and Targeting
Quality Content and Accessibility
Ranking Factors
Off Page SEO
Backlinks
Link Anchor Text
Social Signals
Web Mentions
Citations*
Authorship **
On Page SEO
Content
Schema.org
Interlinks
Keywords
User Experience (UX)
Latent Semantic Indexing
Authorship **
Ranking Factors
On Page SEO Off Page SEO
Authorship is a developing concept, but all signs point toward AuthorRank being implemented which will affect the rankings of article based on the Author whom it was written by.
Keywords
Keyword Research Google Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool (FREE)
SEMrush (Paid)
Wordstream (Paid)
Analytics SEO (Free with paid options)
Long Tail Keywords- Long Tail keywords are typically easier to rank and are keyword phrases that contain three or more words.
Low Hanging Fruit- Usually long tail keywords that produce a moderate to high amount of traffic, but have low competition.
Keyword Density- An important factor to consider when optimizing a page. It’s important not to over optimize, but still include the keywords in the page.
Latent Semantic Indexing- Latent semantic indexing allows a search engine to determine what a page is about outside of specifically matching search query text.
A page about Apple computers will likely naturally have terms such as iMac or iPod on it.
Important HTML to Know
Title Tags- <title>This is the title of my website </title>
Heading Tags <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6>
Alt Tags- Within an image tag to provide relevancy to the image.
Anchor tags (<a href=“http://www.learnseohouston.org” title=“SEO Classes Houston”>
Bold <b> ; italics <i> ; <strong> ;
<meta name=“description” content=“This is a meta description. This will show up in the search engine below the title.”>
<-Title<-URL
Author
Meta Description
Proper Use of the Heading Hierarchy
H1 Tags- Should only be used once on a single page to describe the main point of the page or the article. It will be very similar to the content you place in the title tag.
H2 Tags- Each main section of the web page or the article.
H3 Tags- Good for subcategorizing main sections of the site.
Heading 4, 5, and 6- Rarely used but if more subcategories need to be made, can be used to do so.
Technical SEO Factors
XML Sitemap
HTML Sitemap
Canonicalization
301 Redirect (Permanent)
302 Redirect (Temporary)
Robot.txt File
Page Load Time
Friendly URLS (http://www.learnseohouston.org/blog/live-seo-campaign/)
Custom 404 Page
PageRank- The currency of the web
Formula invented by Larry Page (CEO of Google)
PageRank is passed to other pages through links.
Way of gauging the authority of a page.
Generally speaking, if two pages were
equally optimized except for the PageRank
difference, the page with the higher PR
would rank higher.
PageRank- Not as important as it used to beTests and results have been indication that social factors are beginning to outweigh backlinks.
Google weighs the virality of content by taking into account the number of shares and the velocity of which those shares occur.
8 Ways to Build a Strong Social Following
Connect with authorities in your industry.
Build relationships with bloggers, journalist, and other active social media users in your industry/niche on Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook.
Publish quality content.
Speak at events.
Publish educational videos.
Host webinars.
Use Authorship.
Be consistent.
Panda and Penguin
• Duplicate Content• Low Quality Content• Relevancy• Hiding Text
• Backlink Spamming• Link Schemes (link wheels)• Link Relevancy• Link Diversity
Off SiteOnsite
Tools
Keyword Research
Backlink Analysis
Broken Link Checker
Page Optimization
Full Platforms
• Wordstream
• Keyword Discovery
• SEMrush
• Majestic SEO
• Ahrefs• Opensite
Explorer
• Screaming Frog
• Xenu Link Sleuth
• Check My links
• BloomReach
• Lipperhey
• Analytics SEO(You really think we’re going to give away our competitors? ;)
Free Competitive Auditing Tool: http://www.howgoodisyourseo.com
Shameless Self Promotion
Integrated with SEMrush for in depth keyword research data.
Integrated with MajesticSEO for superior backlink data – gain insight on competitors.
Completely white labeled solution.
Automate reports and export them to Excel, Powerpoint, or PDF.
Project management
Link Building Tool that helps you save time on research.
Track all Technical and On-Page SEO Factors
It’s All in One Place.
Save Time
Be More Efficient
Provide Better Service
Get Better Data
Infinite Scalability
Link Analysis
On-Page Analysis
Project Management
Competitive Analysis
Technical Analysis
Keyword Research
http://www.analyticsseo.com