ITSEO ZONE-THE DIGITAL AGENCY

1. Search Engine Optimization July, 15th 2023 ITSEO ZONE- THE DIGITAL AGENCY

2. 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 unpaid results - often referred to as "natural”, "organic”, or "earned" results

3. THE ANATOMY OF A SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Keyword / Search Query Paid Product Listings Paid Search Results Organic Search Results

4. SEARCH USERS PREFER ORGANIC LISTINGS Study of Search Queries (1.4 billion+ search) Source: Nielsen 94% 6% ORGANIC SEARCH CLICKS PAID SEARCH CLICKS

5. ORGANIC IS THE MARKET-WIDE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER Telling you what customers want in the moments that matter Buyers turn to organicat research stage Consumers use search engines for purchase decisions Smartphone users look for information, not brands

6. THE HIGHER YOUR WEB LISTING RANKS, THE MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC IT CAN ACQUIRE Organic Click-Through-Rate 43% of searchers click on the top 3 Organic SERP Rankings Search Rank Position

7. 02 HOW DOES SEO WORK?

8. Step 2: • Index and Cache Web Pages • Step 1: • Crawl Links and Web Sites • Step 3: • Apply Ranking Algorithm HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK? • Search engine bots crawl through the World Wide Web to find new websites based on the text on the website or links to websites • As bots find pages on the web, they decide whether or not they want to include that web page within their index based on their own set of criteria • Once a search engine has built up its index, it will rank the pages according to the relevancy to the search keyword and serve up the best results on SERP

9. Google Algorithm Changes many times 100% Secure Search In an effort to protect internet users privacy Google removed traffic data insights on a keyword level 2013 • Panda and Penguin Updates Poor quality content, duplicate content and bad backlink profiles penalized websites in the SERPs 2015 2017 Hummingbird Remodel Google algorithm includes “meaning technology” to better understand user intent; better content = better rankings 2017 Google Carousel and Rank Brain SERP update that highlights websites in a new features top page carousel; this new layout impacts visibility and CTR. Rank Brain is a query refinement tool based on AI

10. SERP LAYOUT EVOLVES TO MEET SEARCH USERS’ NEEDS IN THOSE MICRO-MOMENTS 10 Blue Links Highly Contextual

11. 3 KEYS TO HIGHER SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS Higher Search Engine Rankings • Create a cleanly coded, search engine friendly website • Be found on the web, promote your great content • Produce great content

12. CODE - Search engines read, they don’t see “XYZ”, Just what I was looking for Best page for query “XYZ” Search Engine Bot

13. CODE - ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION: TITLE TAGS • Why is it important? • Title is the most important on-page ranking factor and is the main text that describes an online document. • What it looks like in the source code: • Recommendation • Use rich keyword phrases that best describe the web page • Make them unique for each page and use a strong CTA (Call to Action) based on buyer intent • Try to keep them around 55-65 characters long 3 4 2 1

14. CODE - ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION: HEADER TAGS • What is it? • On-page HTML tags are located within the body copy that identify the most important text on the page. The H1 is the headline of the page. There are 6 header tags, ranging from H1 (the most important) to H6 (least important). • What it looks like in the source code: • Recommendation • Use H1 only once per page • Make sure the H1 is keyword rich and unique • You can use H2 and H3 tags multiple times, but keep them unique from page to page • Keep header tags in order 3 4 2 1

15. CODE - ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION: META DESCRIPTION • What is it? • A description of what your web page is about. It will also show up as the page summary on the SERP. • Why is it important? • An engaging and descriptive meta description will attract more clicks when your pages shows up in search results. Think of it as a mini ad. • Recommendation • Include strong call-to-actions • Make sure keyword is included early in the first line • Make them unique for each page • Try to keep them around 120-150 characters long 3 4 2 1

16. CONTENT - KEYWORD RESEARCH FACTORS RELEVANCE SEARCH VOLUME USER INTENT Competition (Difficulty to rank higher) Is your content and website addressing a need for this keyword? Would a customerexpect to land on your site after searching for this keyword? High search volume indicates higher potential visits, but may also indicate higher ambiguity (for example “holidays” vs “luxury holidays in Maldives”) Is the customerlooking to purchase, learn, or be entertained? Long tail terms offer lower search volume, but higher relevance; head terms offer higher potential visits, but lower relevance Head terms: High competition Long tail: Low competition 3 4 2 1

17. CONTENT - INTERNAL LINKS • What is it? • Internal links are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are commonly used in main navigation within a site. • Internal links are often useful for several reasons: • To allow users navigate a website • To help establish information hierarchy for the given website • To help spread link equity across a website • To use as a ”soft conversion” CTA for top-of-the-funnel content <a href="https://www.brightedge.com/products/s3/keyword-reporting">Keyword Reporting</a> 3 4 2 1

18. CONTENT - ANCHOR TEXT What is it? Anchor text is the visible text on a page that can be clicked on and links to another page. In the example to the left, the login page has is an internal link to another section on the BrightEdge site. The anchor text that can be seen, “Content Performance”. What it looks like: The anchor text comes after the link in the source code. <a href="https://www.brightedge.com/products/s3/keyword-reporting">Keyword Reporting</a> <a href="https://www.brightedge.com/products/s3/keyword-reporting">Keyword Reporting</a> 3 4 2 1

19. Work doesn’t stop when you hit “Publish.” Make sure to include promotional and cross-promotional efforts in your Content Strategy Community - Promote your good content Use following channels to amplify your content: Link Building Social Media Public Relations Offline Media (TV, Radio, etc.) Paid Advertising Events posters or leave-behinds (QR code) Printed collateral (QR code) 3 4 2 1

20. Link building is an ongoing iterative process where you build shareable, informative content and promote relevant content to the list of high-quality source domains through backlinks and social channels. COMMUNITY - What is LINK BUILDING? Why is this important? Link building is an important area of SEO,as it influences a site’s domain authority. Higher domain authority correlates to higher ranking. Higher volumes of high quality backlinks leads to higher domain authority. Recommendation Focus on a natural, well-diversified, relevancy-based link building strategy to strengthen your profile. Tactics should primarily be focused around acquiring links from high-quality domains - for example, a domain with a homepage that has a PageRank of 3+, or a domain with a Majestic Trust Flow of 20+. 3 4 2 1

21. COMMUNITY - What Are Backlinks? Without links, search engines might never find this page Backlinkspoint back to your site from an external site. They are considered to be “online currency”, getting a backlink is equivalent to receiving a vote of confidence 3 4 2 1