keeping up with google

Keeping Up With

Alex Membrillo, CEO

@alex_membrillo

@cardinalws

Cardinal Web Solutions is a creative group of marketing professionals skilled at leveraging traditional and innovative mediums empowering small to medium-sized businesses and national brands. We focus on driving your profits through improved search results rankings, increased website traffic, social media orchestration, and other interactive marketing techniques.

About Cardinal Web Solutions

Atlanta’s #1 Interactive Marketing Agency

Proprietary and Confidential 2

Before we begin…

• Interrupt me with questions!

• If you don’t there is still designated Q&A time, tweet your

questions to #BLAHBLAHBLAH

• Smile at who you’re sitting next to, you’ll be working together

today

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Keeping Up With Google

1. How well do you know your Google Algorithm updates?

2. Integrated Search Strategies

3. Activity

4. Measuring search campaign results (the right way)

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What’s Up With Google

Algorithm Updates?


Google's response to your query about chocolate includes a

knowledge graph listing about Snickers candy bars. Which

penalty or update contributed to the satisfying answer?

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• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

A skydiving website contains several pages with very

similar content. Which penalty or update sent their rankings

plummeting?

• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

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70% of a Chicago plumber's backlinks contains anchor text

that reads: "Chicago plumber." Which penalty or update

flushed his rankings down the drain?

• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

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A magic & novelty shop decided to save money by cutting

all web page content to 50 words or less. Which penalty or

update caused their rankings to vanish into thin air?

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• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

An antique shop's SEO strategy involved thousands of links

from spammy sites. Which penalty or update made

their page one rankings a thing of the past?

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• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

Proprietary and Confidential

Panda

Released: February 2011

Purpose: To fight web spam by preventing sites

with poor quality content from achieving top

rankings on the Google SERPs

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Panda

Best practices to avoid being penalized:

1. Avoid “thin” content

• Landing page content: 500+ words

• Blog content: 400+ words

2. Avoid duplicate content

• Create ONLY unique, useful and relevant content for your site

3. Avoid featuring primarily advertisements “above the fold” and

pages dominated by advertising

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Penguin

Released: April 2012

Purpose: To freeze out sites that

are using over-optimized and

low-quality linking practices

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Penguin: Best Practices To Avoid Penalties

1. Diversify your keyword anchor text keywords by using the 80/20

rule

• 80% of your anchor text should be branded keywords and

the remaining 20% of keywords can be keywords related to

your business or services (keywords you want to rank for)

2. Avoid “keyword stuffing.” Use keywords naturally in the flow of

content, along with related forms of keywords

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Penguin: Best Practices To Avoid Penalties

3. Avoid / remove backlinks from low-quality,

“spammy” sites

• Types of links to identify:—Links from “link farms” (pages with little content and many links)—Blog networks, including guest-blogging networks —Blog commenting spam—Forum signature spam with exact match anchor text—Article marketing links with signature spam—Low-quality directories

• Use Google Disavow tool to get rid of the

junk

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HummingbirdReleased: September 2013

Purpose: To improve search results through better interpretation of search queries

As opposed to updates like Panda and Penguin, Hummingbird is a

complete retooling of Google’s algorithm. The focus is on understanding

the intent behind a search—rather than simply the individual words used

in the search—and returning the most useful results.

One example given by Google of a before-and-after Hummingbird:

“acid reflux prescription.” Pre-Hummingbird results for this query featured

mainly a list of drugs, while current results also feature articles and news

stories about the disease in general, including alternative treatments.

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Adapting an integrated

search strategy


What comes to mind when you

hear “integrated search strategy?”

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Integrated Search Strategy

1. Technical SEO

2. Content

3. Social Media

4. Paid Search

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Technical SEO Goal: Audit and optimize websites for

consistent visibility on search engines.

Strategy:

Website structure

Indexing submissions

Keyphrase Strategy

On-site optimization

Implementation of tracking signals

Link building21

Content MarketingGoal: Produce compelling content that builds

customer base by addressing pain points for each

segment of target audience.

Strategy:

Define pain points for target demographics

Build campaign based on marketing objectives,

distribution channels and potential audience reach:

Expert content for brand authority

User reviews for trust factor

Branded content for loyalty

Social Media for brand awareness22

Social Media

Goal: Increase brand awareness and

customer base through social media sites.

Strategy:

Facebook Insights

Social Listening

Engage audience in conversations

#FindNewsjackingOpportunities

Videos

Make your brand relatable

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Paid SearchGoal: Drive conversions through targeted

advertising strategies that reach users at key

points in the purchase process.

Strategy:

A/B testing

Paid search ads within results page

Display advertising

Remarketing campaigns

Conversion testing and optimization

Custom goal tracking

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Increase ROI

Test & share strategic keywords for optimal CTR and

conversions

Brand lift through multiple channels at once

Monitoring & reporting for SEO/PPC can be done

through one medium

Benefits of Integrated Search

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Implementing Integrated Search Campaigns

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Goals

Short-term goals?

Long-term goals?

Align campaign strategy and

reporting

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Understand the audience

Listen to audience

What segments are on each channel?

What are their pain points?

Consumer Insights

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Site Structure

Indexing

Search for branded terms

Google cache

Duplicate content

Accessibility

Technical Audit

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Get all teams involved to

speed up processes

Channels consumers come

from?

New visitors vs. Returning

visitors

Search for branded terms

Brand Strategy

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SEO + PPC =

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Integrated Opportunities: Data-driven

Content Strategies

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Integrated opportunities: Guest Blogging (Wisely)


Guest Blogging = combines new school

of thought (content!) with old school

tried and true methods (link earning)

Guest Blogging

Most Powerful Link EquityBrand AwarenessIndustry AuthorityUser Experience

Press Releases

Most Powerful Link EquityBrand AwarenessIndustry AuthorityUser Experience

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Integrated opportunities: Guest Blogging (Wisely)


The Golden Rules of Guest

Blogging:

1. No one night stands.

2. Write awesome content.

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Integrated opportunities: User-generated content


Focusing on/Understanding the

Consumer

Keyword

Opportunities/Authority

User engagement

Conversions

Brand

awarenessGreater word-of-

mouth advertising

Consumer

loyalty

Site

depth

Visibility

Overall

online

authority

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1. Invite consumers to engage

with your brand online.

2. Inspire the conversation

(ie. fake it til you make it)

3. Incentivize, incentivize,

incentivize!

Integrated opportunities: User-generated content

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How should you (or your agency)

measure your SEO campaign’s

success?

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Poll: Which is most important to you for measuring

your SEO campaign’s success?

• Keyword Rankings

• Website Traffic

• Goal Completions (Form fills,

Phone calls, Purchases, etc.)

• Number of backlinks

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KPIs:

Let’s talk about

those SEO keyword

ranking reports

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1. With Google secure search, you don’t know which

keywords are actually driving your website traffic

anymore

KPIs: Problems with Measuring Keyword Rankings

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2. You’re missing out

on the long-tail

keywords

• Over 70% of searches are long-tail searches.

• Google’s Keyword tool doesn’t account for these.

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3. The structure of the SERP continues to evolve

2006

Quite

basic


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2008

Top

Navigation

Prominent

Ads


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2010

Local listings,

Maps,

Review Data,

Universal

Search,

Structured

Data


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2014

Knowledge Graph

Local Carousel

Local Listings

Ad Extensions

Google offerings:

Google My Business,

Google+,

authorship, Google

Shopping

Video results

News results

Social results


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KPIs: What Should Your SEO Reports Tell You?

Reach: This is more important than Organic Search Traffic, because it includes Referral

and Social Traffic.

Endorsements: Links, Mentions, Press, Social Authorities. Creates an SEO Feedback loop – you

can reach out to people and form relationships

for new link building opportunities.

KPIs: Business objectives, Goals, Conversions, Assisted Conversions, Sales, Leads, Revenue.

The Bottom Line: Your reports should show how SEO’s efforts resulted in

achieving your business goals.

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How well is your strategy

working?

To download today’s presentation as

well as receive a Complimentary

Search Audit visit -

www.cardinalwebsolutions.com/AMA

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http://www.cardinalwebsolutions.com/AMA