ACTIONABLE SEO

THE NUTS & BOLTS OF ORGANIC INBOUND MARKETING

DA N N YG R E E R @ G M A I L . CO M INVISIONAPP.COM @ DA N N YG R E E R
Search engine optimization (SEO)
is the practice of increasing the
quantity and quality of traffic to
your website through organic
search engine results.
Search Engine Results Page

PA I D S E A R C H
ENGINE MARKETING

ORGANIC SEARCH
[
RESULTS
For any business with an online presence, SEO matters.

Google click through percentages based on position in search, 2014

40

30

20

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 6-10 2nd Page 3rd Page
 T H E O L D DAY S

Keyword domains were

a key to ranking.
 T H E O L D DAY S

Keyword stuffing
was widely used.
Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of loading a
webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to
manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results, often
providing little value to the visitor.
But Google continued to get smarter.
They improve their formula all the time.
The days of SEO being a
game outsmarting
algorithms are over.
Today content strategy
and valuable, sustainable
strategies are essential,
not just tricks and links.

- Adam Audette, Chief Knowledge Officer, RKG

Search engines use algorithms
(mathematical equations) to determine:
RELEVANCE
How well does your site provide the
information that searchers are most likely
looking for with their keyword query?
POPULARITY
How many people have visited the page?
Where are they coming from? Do they stay
on the page (aka does your site provide
what theyre looking for)?
Ultimately this
determines your
position in the search
engine results pages
(SERPs).
But yes, it gets a little more complicated.
 51. URL contains keyword 101. Country top level domain (TLD) extension of the referral
1. Domain age 151. The shopping results
52. URL String 102. The location of the link in the content
2. Domain registration length 152. Images
53. Bullet points and numbers 103. Location of link on page
3. Keyword is present in top level domain 153. Brands and single website results
54. Use of references 104. The relevancy of the linking domain
4. Keyword the first word in domain 154. The easter egg results
55. Excessive amount of outbound links 105. The page level relevancy
5. Keyword featured in subdomain: 155. Twitter users accounts
56. Page priority in the sitemap 106. Link sentiment
6. History of domain 156. Volume of tweets
57. Volume of keywords that the page ranks for 107. Keyword featured in the title
7. Exact match domain (or EMD) 157. Volume of Facebook likes
58. The age of the page 108. A positive link velocity
8. A Country TLD extension 158. Volume of Facebook shares
59. Visibility of parked domains 109. A negative link velocity
9. Private vs. public WhoIs 159. The authority of Facebook user accounts
60. A layout that is user-friendly 110. Hub pages
10. A Penalised WhoIs owner 160. Volume of Pinterest pins
61. Quality and useful content 111. Links from authority websites
11. Keyword in H1 tag 161. Social sharing votes
62. The value of the content 112. Linked to as Wikipedia source
12. Keyword is the most frequently used phrase in article 162. The volume of Google+1s
63. The architecture of the website 113. Instances of co-occurrence
13. Title tag includes keyword 163. Google+ user accounts
64. Quantity of pages 114. Age of the backlink
14. Title tag begins with keyword 164. Social signal relevancy
65. A high-quality contact us page 115. Links from real websites Vs.blogs
15. Keyword in description tag 165. Social signals at website-level

Actually, it gets a LOT

66. Frequency of website updates 116. A natural link profile
16. Page loading speed of HTML 166. Known authorship
67. Visibility of the sitemap 117. Use of reciprocal links
17. The length of content 167. Social media accounts
68. Uptime of website 118. Backlinks from user-generated content (USG)
18. Keyword density 168. Use of brand name in anchor text
69. The use of TrustRank 119. Links from 301 redirects
19. LSI (or latent semantic indexing) keywords in content 169. Branded searches
70. Location of the server 120. Listed on DMOZ
20. LSI keywords featured in description and title tags 170. Facebook page
71. A valid SSL certificate 121. Schema.org and microformats
21. Page loading speed through Chrome browser 171. Website has popular Twitter profile

more complicated.
72. Privacy pages and terms of service 122. TrustRank of linking site
22. Use of rel=canonical 172. Linkedin
73. Navigation through the use of breadcrumbs 123. Number of forum profile links
23. Image optimisation 173. Linkedin business employees
74. Optimized for mobile 124. Volume of outbound links
24. Use of duplicate content 174. News sites and brand mentions
75. Duplicate meta information 125. Quality of content
25. Recent content updates 175. Use of co-citations
76. Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools 126. Site-wide links
26. The H2 and H3 tags 176. Volume of RSS subscribers
77. YouTube videos 127. The word count of linking content
27. Prominence of keyword 177. A tax paying business
78. Usability of website 128. The bounce rate
28. The order of keywords 178. Brick and mortar
79. User reviews 129. The organic click-through rate (for a keyword)
29. The magnitude of content updates 179. Poor use of redirects

There are over 200 known factors

80. The number of linking pages 130. The organic click-through rate (all keywords)
30. Historical updates for page 180. Penalty from Google Panda
81. Age of linking domain 131. Volume of direct traffic
31. Spelling and grammar 181. Use of bad neighborhood links
82. The number of linking root domains 132. Repeating traffic
32. Syndicated content 182. Use of pop-ups or distracting advertisements

and signals that influence rank.

83. The number of links from separate C-Class IPs 133. Data from the Google Toolbar
33. Helpful supplementary content 183. Over-optimization for the website
84. The alt tag for images 134. Volume of comments
34. Use of multimedia 184. Over-optimization for the page
85. Links from the competition 135. Websites that are blocked
35. The number of outbound links (or OBLs) 185. Advertisements above the fold
86. Links from domains such as .edu or .gov 136. Use of bookmarks in Chrome
36. The volume of internal links point to the page 186. Cloaking any affiliate links
87. Authority of link page 137. Time
37. Quality of outbound links 187. Use of affiliate websites
88. The authority of the linking domain 138. Use of geo-targeting
38. Theme of outbound links 188. Content that is autogenerated
89. Volume of social shares of the referring page 139. Use of safe search
39. The quality of internal links pointing to the page 189. Sculpting of excess pagerank
90. Guest posts for a blog 140. Freshness
40. Volume of broken links 190. Spam marked IP address
91. The links to homepage domain that page sits on 141. Diversity
41. Associated reading level 191. Spamming in meta tags
92. Use of nofollow links 142. Browsing history
42. HTML errors and W3C validation 192. Google Penguin penalty
93. The diversity in the types of link 143. Search history
43. The page hosts domain authority 193. A link profile that has low quality links
94. Bad neighborhood links 144. Google+ and circles
44. A pages pagerank 194. An unnatural influx of backlinks
95. Sponsored links 145. Complaints and DMCA
45. Volume of affiliate links 195. Warning of unnatural links
96. Excessive use of 301 redirects to page 146. Use of the Google news box
46. Length of URL 196. Backlinks from the Same Class C IP
97. Use of contextual links 147. Diversity of domain
47. URL Path 197. Anchor text that is poisoned
98. Link title attribution 148. Searches related to a transaction
48. Editors that are human 198. Relevancy of linking domain
99. Use of external backlink anchor text 149. Searches at local level
49. Category of the page 199. Selling of links
100. Use of internal link anchor text 150. Preference towards big brands
50. Tags on WordPress 200. The Google sandbox
So what can you do
TODAY to get your
site better ranked?
Lets take action!
10 IMPORTANT FACTORS
FOR SEO SUCCESS

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Two quick caveats

SEO is a long-term strategy.

No matter what anyone may try to tell or see you, you cant create a sustainable traffic-driving site
overnight. However, when done well, SEO has the power to drive significant FREE traffic to your site
for months and years to come.

Only Google knows the secret recipe.

What we discuss today are SEO best practices that come from leading industry studies and
publications, stemming from years of research. Google does not openly publish their SEO algorithm, so
in some cases were working from collective best guesses.
 Speed/
Content 01 04
Crawlability

ON-THE-PAGE SEO:
Mobile
Site History 02 05
Friendly
The process of making your
website search engine friendly.

Domain 03 Meta Tags 06

01 Content

01 Content builds relationships.

Relationships are built on trust.
Trust drives revenue.
Trust plays a large role in whether a site will succeed or fail from a search perspective.
Google's trust factor is a combination of many factors that they use to apply a value of
how trustful a site is. The more trustful a site is seen the more likely its articles will be
ranked higher on specific Google searches.
01 Content

Content should in most all

cases be empathetic and useful:
Does it delight or excite the visitor?
Does it solve a problem for them?

By creating action-oriented and engaging content you will:

- Build trust!
- Drive more organic traffic (high search volume)
- Potentially increase referral traffic from other sites and social networks
01 Content

Dont stuff with keywordswrite with SEO intent.

KEYWORD FINDER kwfinder.com

GOOGLE TRENDS trends.google.com ANSWER THE PUBLIC answerthepublic.com

KEYWORD TOOL keywordtool.io MOZ [PAID] moz.com

01 Content

A few keyword considerations

0 25 50 75 100

KEYWORD DIFFICULTY: The higher the value, the harder is to compete for that keyword.

If you're a very powerful,
important site with loads of
links and other strong ranking
signals, chances are good you
could more easily rank for
higher keyword difficulty
scoring keywords.
Conversely, if your site is brand
new or has few positive ranking
signals, you may find that even
lower difficulty keywords (those
in the 20s or 30s) are pretty
tough.
If you are attempting to rank
for keywords far outside your
areas of relevance and
authority you'll likely find that
it's much harder to rank, even if
the keyword difficulty scores
look achievable.
01 Content

Define your focusand your audience.

01 Content

A few content considerations

IMAGE SEO
Pick the right file name for your image
Image dimensions should match the image size as displayed
Reduce file size for faster loading
Use image alt text

LINKS (ON YOUR SITE)

Ensure that whenever you build a new piece of content you
are including links to relevant and important landing pages.
Links should also value to the reader, perhaps pointing to an
in-depth look at a topic which was only briefly mentioned in
an article, or pointing users at some relevant statistics.
01 Content
A few more content considerations
UPDATES
The volume of website updates
is a factor, particularly when
new content is added to the
website. Additionally, time-
sensitive content will often rank
higher in the SERP. Google
loves freshness.
LENGTH OF CONTENT
Content that features more
words can cover a wider
breadth and is often preferred
to shorter superficial articles.
Research from has found that
content length correlates with
SERP position.
ORIGINAL CONTENT
If identical content is
recognized on a site (even with
minor modifications) this can
negatively influence the sites
search engine visibility through
Google.
02 Site History

All other variables being equal, domains

that have been around for a while tend
to have a better chance of ranking.
The Google Sandbox is an Sites stay in the Sandbox can The Sandbox can be avoided
alleged filter placed on new vary from one to six months, to a degree by purchasing a
websites. The result is that a with three to four months website and making it live
site does not receive good being the normal time frame. before it is fully ready for
rankings for its most Less competitive searches will prime time. While the site will
important keywords and be given a much shorter stay, endure low rankings, it will
keyword phrases. while hyper-competitive start the clock ticking on its
keywords will often spend six Sandbox duration time.
months in the Box.
03 Domain STICK WITH THE MAJOR TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

When possible stick with .com, .org, .edu as these TLDs

tend to rank best. .io and .co are increasingly becoming
prevalent in the SERP. Generally
avoid .biz, .info, .name, .ws.

Whats in a SUBFOLDERS OVER SUBDOMAINS

[domain] Although the SEO implications of URL structure is often a

point of debate for web marketers, the general consensus

name? is using subfolders instead of subdomains.

Example:
website.com/blog is better than blog.website.com

AVOID HYPHENS AND WEIRD SPELLINGS

Google may see your site as spammy if the URL has

multiple hyphens.
04 Speed & Crawability
Faster pages rank and convert better.
SLOW SITE SPEED
Page load time, as well as
server response time, can
influence search rank,
especially with mobile, When
possible, utilize caching,
compress image size, and
remove any unnecessary code.
ERRORS AND BUGS
Pages that contain broken
links or images will weigh
your site down in the SERP.
Any not found pages that
Google has previously indexed
(404s) must be redirected to
avoid penalty.
SITE ARCHITECTURE
Your site should have a
structured flow for pages -
they should be internally
linked and follow logic. Avoid
any menus that are AJAX or
Flash, where robots may not
be able to follow.
05 Mobile Friendly

05 In 2016, mobile
overtook desktop as the
primary device used to
access websites.
Responsive design helps users who are increasingly likely to traverse
the internet using a mobile or tablet device, but who still expect their
desktop experience to be as smooth as ever. Going responsive is the
most effective way to make the most of mobile and tablet traffic, and
to of fer visitors the best possible user experience.
05

Google not only recommends RWD

as the best way to target mobile
users, but also favors mobile-
optimized sites when presenting
results for searches made on a
mobile device. This is especially
true when mobile users search for
local services.

- Search Engine Journal, 2014
06 Meta Tags

Meta tags are

TITLE
Meta title tags are displayed on search engine results pages as the clickable

snippets of
headline for a given result, and are important for usability, SEO, and social sharing.

DESCRIPTION

text that Meta description tags are used to summarize a web page's content. Search engines
sometimes use these snippets in search results to let visitors know what a page is

describe a about before they click on it.

pages ROBOTS
Meta robots tags tell search engines what to follow and what not to follow. It gives

content.
you the power to decide what pages you want to hide from search engine crawlers
and what pages you want them to index and look at.
 Inbound
07 Personalization 10
Links

OFF-THE-PAGE SEO:
Traffic &
08
Actions you can take to promote Social
your website on the web (besides Success!
advertising).

External
09
Content
07 Inbound Links

10 WAYS TO GET LINKS TO YOUR SITE

1. Create engaging and valuable content!

2. Do a PR/press push.

Inbound links are important for 3. Guest post on external sites.

SEO because search engines use 4. Provide downloadable freebies.

5. Infographics/surveys
them as a measure of a websites 6. Give testimonials (in exchange for link)

relevance and authority. 7. HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

8. Quizzes

9. Ecourses and ebooks

10.Interview influencers
08 Traffic & Social

The chicken and the egg:

Traffic increases position. Position increases traffic.
08 Traffic & Social

Maintain a social presence to create SEO impact:

DIRECT IMPACT COMES FROM INDIRECT IMPACT COMES FROM

Number of people that like your brand on
Facebook
Number of Facebook shares
Number of Twitter followers
Number of tweets mentioning your brand
name or including a link to your website
Increased inbound links and citations due to
improved online visibility/brand awareness
Increased positive reviews (in Google Local ,
Yelp, etc.) due to happier customers
Decreased bounce rate, higher time on site,
and more repeat visitors to your website
09 External Content
If you build it they might come
but youve got to show them the way.
VIDEO
YouTube videos often rank
above website links in the
SERP. Use transcriptions and
link back to your site in the
description. Leverage these
existing vibrant networks.
INFLUENCER PUSH
Develop relationships with
influencers. How can you turn
it into a mutually beneficial
partnership? Use them to
promote your new content or
product release (free links!).
MEDIUM, QUORA, ETC
Dont rely solely on your owned
channels (blog, site, etc).
Contribute content to existing
networks and link back to your
site. This associated linkage has
positive SEO impact.
10 Personalization

Search results are a

personalized experience.

Location awareness: country and locality

Personal search/site visit history
Social connections
 Global vs Local

Where is your target?

Global search engine optimization is right if your product, service or
business is trying to appeal to a worldwide target audience:

Business who sell digital products or products that can ship worldwide
Businesses that have worldwide locations
Online businesses have no specific location preference

Local SEO is best for small businesses who are only in one area, rather
than having multiple locations, or wide-reaching audience.

A global or local focus should drive your keyword strategy.

Seek, tweak, repeat.
All good SEO strategies are backed with data.

Use Google Analytics, or another analytics platform,

to track your site traffic. Hone in on how your
organic traffic is trending over time.

Additionally, see what pages are generating the

most organic traffic and mimic with new page
additions or content types.
Be patient.
Build for humans.
There are no shortcuts.
R

References
What is SEO? The Ultimate Guide to Off-Page SEO
https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo http://neilpatel.com/blog/everything-

& Resources
you-need-to-know-about-off-page-seo
Googles 200 Ranking Factors: The
Full List Four Important Ranking Factors,
http://seopicnic.com/google-ranking- According to SEO Industry Studies
factors https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
2017s-four-important-ranking-factors-
Optimizing Images for SEO
according-seo-industry-studies/184619
https://yoast.com/image-seo
Important SEO Tips to Know
Internal Linking for SEO
http://neilpatel.com/blog/10-most-
https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/
important-seo-tips-you-need-to-know
how-to/2428041/internal-linking-for-
seo-examples-and-best-practices Your Guide to Social Signals for SEO
https://moz.com/blog/your-guide-to-
11 Ways to Get Authority Links for
social-signals-for-seo
Your New Blog
http://neilpatel.com/blog/11-ways-to-
5 Must-Know Google Analytics
get-authority-links-for-your-new-blog/
Strategies To Measure SEO Success
All images in this deck from: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-
https://unsplash.com/ analytics-strategies-to-measure-seo\
Thanks for listening.
Download this deck at stoke.dannygreer.com

DA N N YG R E E R @ G M A I L . CO M INVISIONAPP.COM @ DA N N YG R E E R