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Auckland Bangkok Beijing Boston Chicago London Los Angeles Melbourne Milan Mumbai Munich New Delhi New York Paris San Francisco Shanghai Singapore Sydney Tokyo Wroclaw. A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
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Auckland Bangkok Beijing Boston Chicago London Los Angeles Melbourne Milan Mumbai Munich New Delhi New York Paris San Francisco Shanghai Singapore Sydney Tokyo Wroclaw A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) L.E.K. Consulting llc, 75 State Street, 19th Floor, Boston, MA 02109, USA T: 617.951.9500 F: 617.951.9392 www.lek.com
About Dan • Global SEO @ Kaspersky Lab, a leading multinational Internet Security • 14 years of Internet experience, 8 years of SEO experience • Agency side • Director of SEO for leading Boston-based Search Marketing firm • Head of Digital Product Management. Development of innovative SEO/SEM products • Corporate side • Global SEO for multinational technology company • Published author (Search Marketing Standard), conference speaker, Webinar presenter • Passionate about all things SEO • Contact me @: • douellette@gmail.com • www.linkedin.com/in/danouellet • @douellet • www.searchprinciples.com
About Tiffany • Digital Marketing Manager @ L.E.K. Consulting, a top global management consulting firm • 8+ years of experience in healthcare and digital marketing • Agency side • Started my career at pharma ad agencies in NYC • Transitioned to digital marketing at SEO/SEM firm in Boston working primarily with pharma clients • Corporate side • Managed website and all digital marketing initiatives for a Healthcare IT software company in Boston • Small business owner (www.PYRAMODE.com) • Passionate about patient advocacy and improving the patient-physician relationship • Contact me @: • t.lo@lek.com • tiff@pyramode.com • http://www.facebook.com/#!/tiffany.lomcgee • http://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanylomcgee
What is SEO? • Often referred to as “organic”, “natural”, or “free” search results • Process of getting traffic for “free” from search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc. when a user types in a keyword or keyphrase • The results (The SERP) are based on what the search engine deems as relevant to the user based on the keyword/keyphrase searched • Determined through proprietary algorithms which are constantly changing • What We See vs. What a Search Engine Sees
The SEO Landscape Many SEO Touchpoints Growing list of possible activities No longer just your website Collaborate with other digital channels
US Search Engine Market Share Google is the dominate player Google also dominating globally (Yandex, Baidu) Google’s average daily searches exceed 5 billion in 2012 Reason why efforts are typically around Google’s algorithm
The SERP (Search Engine Results Page) User-generated keyword Paid Search Results Organic Search Results
Key Principles of SEO • Indexability • Evaluate your site architecture • Is your site fully crawlable by search engine spiders or bots? • Google Webmaster Tools • Relevance • Content is king • Keywords, tags, URL’s and more • Google Adwords Keyword Tool • Google Analytics • Authority • Linking • Internal & External • Social Media
Indexability • The potential for your website or its content to be crawled or indexed by search engines • Content on any site is being downloaded by these spiders and stored in the master database of Google, the Google index • Also referred to as crawlability or spiderability • HTML text is the way to go. Alternatives such as images, flash files, Javascript, PDF’s and other non-text content may not rank as prominently by search engines • If you must, find alternatives to make sure text is as optimized as possible for example, video transcripts, alt attributes, etc • It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your site is, if it’s not indexable, you’re missing out on significant opportunities to gain additional traffic • Use Google Webmaster tools to see if any issues in particular have been flagged • 404 Error pages (301 redirect these immediately) • Any orphan pages? (not being linked to from anywhere on site and thus crawlers cannot access) • Sitemaps (HTML and XML) • Site speed & page load time
What are the search engine spiders crawling?Use Search Spider Simulator (A Firefox Add on) to find out.
Relevance • Content is king! • Is your content valuable? Does it have substance? • Does it contain targeted keywords? • Is your content engaging? • Are you keeping your content fresh? • Could this content be “spammy”? • Discuss example • Write for users, not search engines. • Use Google Analytics & Google Adwords Keyword tools • Broad, phrase and exact • Local vs. Global • Long-tail keywords • Optimize your PDF properties and filename • Be aware of duplicate content! • Eliminate it (if at all possible). What can you do to avoid it? Create unique content.
The Elements Title Tag Domain Name Meta-Description URL URL Link Text ALT Attribute Text
The Elements - Guidelines • Meta-Description – 160 characters or less • Can be longer but will get cut off in the SERPs. Considered to be a converting factor versus a ranking factor, so write your description to get consumer to click! • Page Title Tag – 70 characters of less • Include important keywords towards the front • Include “brand name” at the end. For example, “Masters in Health Communication | Tufts University” • URL/Filename length – Usually a maximum length of 2000 characters but PLEASE keep it short, succinct, and unique. Include keywords. Avoid too many parameters. • Own a unique domain name for best optimization as opposed to using wordpress, blogger, etc • ALT Tag/Attribute – 125 characters or less • Optimize for no more than 2 keywords and keep it as short as possible to make sure you’re not diluting the text for relevancy • Pretend the person reading can’t see the image, how would you describe the image?
Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/o/keywordtool) Soon to be replaced by Keyword Planner. Must have Adwords account Broad match: The sum of the search volumes for the keyword idea, related grammatical forms, synonyms and related words Phrase match: The sum of the search volumes for all terms that include that whole phrase Exact match: The search volume for that keyword
Authority • Links, audience and influence • Internal linking (passing authority throughout your site) • External linking • Partners • 3rd party links • Use optimized anchor text • Avoid 'click here' • Social media • Choose what’s right for your Brand • Be authentic • Keep your channels updated • Be influential • Monitor for reputation management • Social Mention • Kurrently
How SEO is Evolving • Linking vs. Awareness • Getting your content “found” • Leveraging partners • e.g. Kasperky & Watch Dogs • Become the expert • Google Authorship & Author Rank • Less Tech more Marketing • Think like a marketer • Social SEO • Social signals • A digital marketing channel • Channel integration • Email, ppc, social, mobile,
Thank you! Questions? t.lo@lek.com or douellette@gmail.com