Getting Found in 2014

12 easy ways to generate more love from Google and increase your brand’s visibility online

What is organic search?

Organic search results: Unpaid, natural listings on search engine results pages (SERPs) that are surfaced and ranked based on their relevance to a user's query.Fun fact: 93% of consumers search for a product online before they buy. 46% of those searches are for fast information about your business or product.

G+ | Google LocalTop Overall SEO Ranking Factors (Moz.com)Place Page Signals (19.6%) (Categories,

Keyword in Business Title, Proximity, etc.)External Loc. Signals (16%) (IYP/aggregator

NAP consistency, Citation Volume, etc.)On-page Signals (18.8%) (Presence of NAP,

Keywords in Titles, Domain authority, etc.)● Verify your G+ page● Complete your profile and categories● Include your website and social media URLs● Resolve duplicate listings with Google Help

Check your NAP

NAP = Name, Address, Phone Number

Check your listing on getlisted.org (Moz Local)

Bonus tip: Keep your original phone number in

the footer if you use a tracking number.

Get listed

One of the most effective ways to generate SEO “juice” for your local business is to essentially “localize” your business across the internet. Google sees these listings as citations that verify your existence and legitimacy.Focus on directories with authority: Yelp, BBB, Foursquare, etc. Fact: 59% of consumers use Google every month to find a reputable, local business. [Via Search Engine Watch]

Forget the low quality directories

Google released Penguin to punish those sites that were building low quality backlinks to their website.

Bottom line: You don’t need to submit to 1,000 directories to help your rankings.

Submit your sitemap

This file is an index of all the pages on your site. It's a quick reference for search engines of content that you want indexed.Note that submitting a sitemap does not guarantee indexing. You should look at it more as a method of getting a search engine to learn about your website.XML site maps can simply be submitted to Google via Webmaster Tools, under the Site configuration panel.Once submitted, see what errors Google finds in Webmaster Tools and make updates accordingly.

Meta Descriptions = Pitch Yourself

A meta description is the text that appears below your page in a search engine result that explains what the page is all about. Meta descriptions still matter, just not in the same way they used to. They used to be a place to optimize for keywords. Now, it's more important you write something interesting that makes readers want to click so you can improve conversion rates from SERP results to your website. Answer the question: Why read this?

Don’t OD on keywords

Matt Cutts has made it clear: Keyword stuffing will get you banned from Google search.● No benefit to your readers● Use a free keyword density

analyzer like seobook.com

● Rule of thumb: Try not to exceed 5% keyword density

Photos & Alt Tags

Generic photo names/alt tags are wasted text. Tell Google about your content wherever possible. Increase time on site with creative, relevant photos that help to break up text.Search engines cannot read images, but they can read text. The alt text helps them figure out what the images are all about.

DSC10435843.jpb -> Company-Blog.jpg

Facebook is still your friend

Facebook handles close to 1 billion search queries per day.Promote blog posts, events, & drive traffic to your website with Facebook ads.Low CPI & CPC compared to Google AdWords

Bonus tip: Add location to photos to optimize for mobile and get more exposure.

Social search is here to stay

One of the biggest changes in the last decade is the way social media plays into SEO. Google now takes into account tweets, retweets, Facebook posts, and Google+ authorship for rankings.Facebook posts and tweets are indexed.

Be mobile-friendly

According to Google, 61% of mobile searchers who land on non-optimized site will immediately leave the site and return to Google to find one that is more readable.Google prioritizes mobile-optimized sites on search results for users on such devices.

Answer Questions

Instead of thinking about keywords, think about the questions someone would ask to find your company online and create content for it. Hummingbird according to Google: "The main focus was that the new algorithm allows Google to more quickly parse full questions (as opposed to parsing searches word-by-word), and to identify and rank answers to those questions from the content they’ve indexed."What’s the best….How do I….Where can I find...

Be a Good Panda

Panda was launched to prevent sites with low quality content from ranking on page one Takeaway:Don’t post just to post

The is no universal number for how often a brand should post content online. Instead, focus on creating content when you have something valuable to share that is relevant to your target audience's interests and will draw people to your site.

Good luck!

When in doubt, tell it with cats.

Feedback? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. mallory@growafanbase.com