SEO for Corporate Clients Or.. C loaking Black with White

1. SEO for Corporate Clients Or..Cloaking Black with White By Tyler Collins Disclaimer: I am not Google and do not work for Google. The following are simply scientific observation and collective conclusions between myself and colleagues based on large collections of data through the work and research we do. The data sets used are from hundreds of sites that we work on directly along with data correlation across 10’s of thousands of sites and search queries analyzed by SearchMetrics, who’s data is also used herein.

2. Who Am I? • 12+ Years in SEO & Digital Marketing • SEO Geek, Consultant, Practitioner • National Speaker • Internet Entrepreneur • Founder, OCSEO.COM Areas of Focus

3. Understanding Your SERPS (QDD, QDF, etc) Any given search query may contain a variety of media results: Image (Google Search: “tsunami”) Government Wikipedia.org Understanding the media types relevant to search query intent gives you an advantage. Video (youtube) News Images Restaurant TIP: Analyze search results for your topic before creating content. Weather Museum In-depth Articles seen more frequently in results indicates growing importance of longer, more complex documents. In-depth Articles Social Media

4. Search Engines Love Rich Media • Different types of search queries justify different results • Some forms of media answer the user query more accurately • Rich Media Examples: • In-depth Articles • Video • Images • Infographics • PDF Files • Presentations

5. Search Engines Favor Useful Resources • Resources (Websites/Pages) That Are: • Unique and Original • Fresh or Recently Updated • Trusted and Authoritative • Media Rich, with a Variety of Formats

6. Does Your Content Deserve To Rank? Audio, Podcasts Videos Related Articles Images Whitepaper Recent News Links PDF Download

7. 3 Pillars of OnPage Optimization

8. OnPage Technology: Hierarchy of Factors

9. OnPage Technology: Infographic • OnPage Tech Tips: • Create Robust Site Architecture • Include Well-balanced Internal Links • Keep Short Loading Times • Keep The Site Up To Date • Optimize All Pages on Site

10. OnPage Technology: Performance Metrics • Site Speed: (page load times impact user signals!) • Clean code • Image/CSS/Scripts Caching • File/Resource management • CDN "content delivery network” • Hosting/Server Configurations (email me)

11. OnPage Technology: Take a Holistic Approach Trends regarding onpage technology have become more pronounced. It is fundamental for good rankings to include all onpage factors, especially when technical parameters of the site are concerned. Search engines do not seem to favor pages that meet certain onpage criteria, rather the absence of these criteria have a negative effect on the ranking. Top ranking websites show positive correlation for all these factors, and a negative correlation for their absence. Meaning, the presence of certain onpage technical factors is a basic requirement for ranking on the first pages of SERPs.

12. OnPage User-Metrics: Why It Matters "We have always relied on user feedback to improve the quality of our results” - Google.

13. OnPage User-Metrics: What Things Matter Bounce Rate Click Through Rate Time On Site CTR (from SERPs) - influenced by position, title tag, URL, meta desc Time On Site/Page ( Activity! ) - content length, resources, media, conversion, engagement Bounce Rate (back to SERPs) - user accomplishment, indicates whether or not users found what they

14. OnPage User-Metrics: Importance of CTR • Higher ranked sites receive more traffic per search. • Google has CTR expectations per ranking position.

15. OnPage User-Metrics: Supporting Metrics Additional Considerations: • Number Of Clicks Within A Site/Page • Number of Pages Viewed (avg per visit) • Return Visitors (validity/trust signal) • Comments On Content • Video plays, etc

16. OnPage User-Metrics: Suggestions • Start With Strong Understanding (analyze SERPs) • Use Analytics Software (crazyegg.com eye tracking) • Use User Testing Communities (usertesting.com) • Track, Test, and Implement Changes. (Before Testing) (After Testing)

17. OnPage User-Metrics: Infographic

18. OnPage Content: 3 Groups of Focus Composition & Quality Linking Advertisements

19. OnPage Content: Infographic 10,000 Search Queries Analyzed Top 30 Ranking Sites Across All Average Length of Text: 8,313 characters 975 words Average Number Internal Links: 130 (includes nav links) Top Ranking Sites Contained Very Few if Any Adlinks (ie: Adsense)

20. OnPage Content: SEO Considerations • Content (and its quality) becoming increasingly important (again) • No longer a “keyword” dominated SEO market. • Shift towards more complex topics (“content clusters”) • Google Hummingbird – new standards for semantics/context. • Ultimate Goal = quality and relevance to search query. Content must answer to a variety of search intent. The more topics a text reflects, the more holistic it is. The more holistic it is, the more relevant it is for users with different search intentions. Consequently, the content also ranks better for related, additional keywords as well as the primary keyword.

21. OnPage Content: Google Hummingbird Create #Nectar KEP CALM

22. OnPage Content: Create Proof “You shall know a word by the company it keeps” (Firth, J. R. 1957:11) • Relevant Co-Occurrence of Terms • Semantic Clusters (ie: topical proof) Example: Main Keyword: Social Media Marketing Relevant Terms: Business, Marketing, Media, Websites Proof Terms: Social Network, Engagement, Campaigns, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Posts, Share, Tweet, … KEP CALM

23. OnPage Content: Linking Within Content How to Enhance Content with Links Link Internally - Contextual Linking Between Pages(top ranking pages have more, think "Wikipedia") Link Externally to Trusted Sources, “authority links” (quality, relevance / be resourceful) Both Internal & External Links Should Make Sense to the Page & User Self-referential Link (9/10 page is linked from main navigation) Housekeeping: Remove Broken, Irrelevant, Unnecessary Links

24. OnPage Content: Use of Images 10,000 Search Queries Analyzed Top 30 Ranking Sites: Image Analysis FACT: Pages with more original images rankhigher in Google. (google “search by image”) Optimize Your Images File name: “keyword-phrase-here.jpg” Alt txt:Related/Proof TermsSurrounding txt:Use caption or desc as appropriate TIP: Use MORE unique, original images in your content.

25. OnPage Content: Use of Ads About Ad Blocks/Advertising Links • Not Commonly Found on High Ranking Pages • Most Pages in Top 30 Results Contain Less Ads (not more than 1) • URLs Ranking in Top 3 Positions Have Less Than 1 Ad on Average TIP: Don’t Use Them. If you are integrating ads.. - Limit usage and place below the fold. - Avoid Clutter & Redundancy

26. OnPage Content: Mapping Perfect Content 10 Steps to Creating High Ranking Content What’s Your Topic? (wait, don’t start writing yet) Step 1: Keyword Research (3-5 primary, 6-10 secondary, 30 related) Step 2: Analyze Top 10 Results (make notes, can you do better?) Step 3: Make A List of Questions to Answer (15-20) Step 4: Make A List of Relevant / Proof Terms* LSI Keyword Research (go to -> LSIKeywords.com) Step 5: Create 5-8 Custom, Original Images Step 6: Create or Find Video(s) to UseStep 7: Source/Create Other Rich Media (PDF/MP3 the article later, upload) Step 8: Make A List of 3-5 Authority to Cite (external pages) Step 9: Make A List of 5+ Internal Pages to Link to. Step 10: Build Your Perfect Page.

27. OnPage Content: Hierarchy of Importance

28. Case Study: Proof of Concept shortlink: goo.gl/FBVKZQ

29. Content Case Study: Proof of Concept shortlink: goo.gl/FBVKZQ Created, Published, and Ranked in Top 5 Results Within 24 Hours.

30. Backlinks: Major Ranking Factors What Things Matter? • Link Source: The Higher The Quality, The Better • Link Quantity: The Number of Backlinks is Important • On Average: Pages Ranked #1 Have Over 6,000 Backlinks • Sites in Second Spot Fewer Than Half • SEO Visibility of Linking Pages: measured by rankings/traffic. • Indicates Quality of Linking Page • Relevant Traffic Source = Ranking Boost • #1 Ranked Sites Have More Links From Sites With Higher SEO Visibility • Number of Referring Domains to Homepage • Number of News Domain Links to Homepage • Number of Links From Same Country • New Backlinks • Aged Backlinks ** • NoFollow Links • Link Anchor

31. Backlinks: Hierarchy of Importance

32. Backlinks: Industry Opinion “In order to attain the highest possible rankings, an increasingly sophisticated link building strategy needs to recognize positive trends in link quality factors. The backlink profile is now a healthy blend of a lot of layers of quality-driven factors. SEOs who are looking for single, isolated signals that can be unilaterally scaled and manipulated, will just not find them anymore.” - SearchMetrics

33. Zero Footprint Mindset • Avoid Detectable Patterns • * Applies to All Metrics • Sources • Content • Links within content • Social Shares • Anchor Text

34. LINK VELOCITY Timing Sequence Momentum Patterns Modifications

35. EXAMPLE: LINK SEQUENCE MATTERS Good Bad, without a good reason

36. LINK AGE New (recent, fresh) Old (aged, trusted)

37. Backlinks: Anchor Text • Be a Control Freak • Safety • Variation • Optimization • Branding (Buzz) • Modification • Deletion

38. Anchor Text: Types We Use Naked Urls(domain.com) Brand & Branded Terms (domain name, brand product) Text That Exists On The Page Keywords (keyword, keyword variation) Keywords with generic variations (click here for “keyword”) Keywords with positive sentiment (favorite “keyword”, best “keyword”) Keywords with stop words (looking for “keyword”, find a “keyword”) Generic words (click here, visit website) Generic words with positive sentiment (favorite resource, click here to be amazed) Capitalizations, punctuation, and other formatting (Keyword!, bold, italics, etc) Example Anchors: www.mywebsite.combest seo agency in southern california Check this out! you can learn about SEO here OMG, my favorite site orange county, ca

39. Be Smarter with Hyperlinks.. What is Google telling you to use? Text (from the page) Page Title (from the page) Domain.com(branded deep link) Images (from the page)

40. How Are Social Platforms Linking?

41. What are Social Platforms Using?

42. Anchor Text: Hierarchy of Importance

43. Social Signals: A Ranking Factor

44. Social Signals: Hierarchy of Importance The following chart illustrates the importance of various social signals pertaining to a website or page that achieves high rankings. TIP: Encourage social media engagement on your content.

45. Ranking Factors Summary Content Quality & Use of Rich Media proving to trump other factors. User-engagement metrics emerging as dominant factor (dependent on site quality) Social Signals playing very strong role in high rankings. Link Metrics continue to be absolutely necessary for high rankings as well. Well structured websites with clean code and fast load times perform better than those that without.Kangaroos can’t jump backwards.

46. Another “SEO” Suggestion In tight vertical niche markets, and/or longer tail searches, small brands can claim first spots with home page and specific URLs. Brands have risen to the top positions of the SERPs, even if there are certain factors they do not fulfill which lower-ranked sites do. Google treats Brands in a unique way, and they are often given the best possible reward, the top position in SERPs.

47. What Proves You’re a Brand? • Google: Make Your Brand Social • Verified Business Listings (caution review sites) • Web Directories (Business.com & Yahoo Dir) • Social Profiles (and activity!) • Consistent Content Creation (depends on niche) • Brand/Navigational Searches • Branded Links (SEO?, yep) • Media Buying (FB, Adwords, __?)

48. What is Google Telling Your “Brand” To Do? Link your YouTube channel to your page

49. “The more content you post, the stronger you presence can be on Google.com”

50. Weaponry: Let’s Talk Dirty • Fire Power • 23 Filipinos • Blog Networks • Link Emperor • SENukeXCr • RankWyz • ScrapeBox • DripFeedLinks • AddMeFast • SocialAdr • Indexers