Fueling the SEO Engine

1. Fueling the SEO Engine Alyson Harrold UC Berkeley Extension April 12, 2014

4. Who I Am • Agency, media, corporate marketing background • Online Marketing Agency • Collaboration of Technical & Creative • SEO • WordPress Websites • Online marketing audits • PPC • Content marketing • Etc, etc, etc....

5. Today's Takeaways 1. SEO Terminology 2. Buying Cycles & Keywords 3. Real-World Practices • Keyword Research • Free Tools • Hiring SEO Practitioner • SEO Writing Template (Bonus if time)

6. It’s a SECRET

8. JARGON

9. SEO Definition

10. Keyword • Misnomer • Actually a search phrase or string • “red patent leather shoes” • “Thai restaurant Palo Alto”

11. Indexed A web page, image, or other piece of content that a search engine has added to it’s database

12. SERP • Search Engine Results Page • Serves up possible answers to a search phrase, query, keyword, and now… search intent

13. Organic SEO • Fuel is Content • Quality • Quantity • Recency • Relevancy • Excludes anything Paid • Changes ALL the time

14. Two audiences • Human • The most important • Pays the bills • More complex • Spots fakes • Pays the bills • Machine • Constantly changing • Very predictable • Very important

16. CYCLE

17. SEO Cycle

18. Search Engine Spiders & Bots

19. Blindly Harvest Content

20. Index Content at HQ

21. Search Engine Results Page

23. Search Engine Results Page

24. Title & Meta Description • Mini Ad • Psychology Behind It • Caution against defaults

25. #1 Goal of Search Engines • Deliver positive experience for the Human Searcher • Most current content • Most relevant content • Fast & responsive sites • On Topic – clear & focused message • Authority • Other quality sites linking = votes of confidence

26. KEYWORDS

27. Keywords “An effective Web marketing plan requires an understanding of the ways your buyers speak and the real words and phrases they use. This is not only important for building a positive online relationship with your buyers, but also for planning effective search engine marketing strategies.” David Meerman Scott Author, The New Rules of Marketing & PR

28. EXERCISE 1

29. Keyword Brainstorm Exercise • Groups of 3 • Three Roles: • Timekeeper • Note Taker • Receiver • GOAL: come up with as many keywords in 5 minutes (Quantity vs. Quality)

31. The Buying Cycle

32. More About Keywords • Research • Website Architecture • Optimized Content

33. Keywords & Buying Cycle } Informational } Phases } Looking For Benefits } Comparing Features } $$$

34. The Buying Cycle

35. EXERCISE 2

36. Long Tail Keyword Exercise • Return to Groups of 3 • Review Keyword List • Assign Keywords to Buying Stage: • Problem / Need Identified • Research • Benefits • Features (Risk Alleviation) • Buying Decision • GOAL: Assign a buying stage to each keyword on your list in 5 minutes

37. Keywords & Buying Cycle } Informational } Phases } Looking For Benefits } Comparing Features } $$$

38. Website Architecture Blog Analytics Content Marketing WordPress SEO

40. Elements of Keyword Research • Similar Sites • Customer Search Behaviors • Trend Analysis • Map Keywords to Buying Stage

41. Colleagues Friends Vendors Customers Brainstorm

42. AdWords Keyword Planner

43. AdWords Keyword Planner

44. Repeat for every keyword you have

45. Google.com/Trends Index of 83 Holiday Season

46. Google Insights for Search More suggestions Can Drill Down to State & Metro Area Levels

47. ... and in Perfect World • Analyze by benefit (# searches) • Benefit-to-Opposition Ratio • Sort by Topic • Map to Buying Cycle (Sales Funnel) • Create Website Architecture

48. Keywords & Buying Cycle } Informational } Phases } Looking For Benefits } Comparing Features } $$$

49. Take the list, your site’s architecture and create the columns we talked about. ONE keyword per page. Keyword list and site

50. Real World SEO • Typical to have a website built without SEO structure • Do Research Anyway (abbreviated) • Be Realistic About Competition • Use Keywords in Content