the intersection seo and content marketing
TRANSCRIPT
Al BiedrzyckiSenior Marketing ManagerHubSpot@albiedrzycki
1SEO in 20042Content & SEO3How Google Returns SERPs4Off-Page SEO5Technical SEO6Avoiding Penalties7Wrap-up and Questions
AGENDA
SEO IN 20041
What We Used to Do
The Result...
SEO: circa 2004
SEO today (2016!)
Oh, and it’s always changing
So, What is SEO?Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results—often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results.Anything that humans or technology do to influence those results is considered the practice of SEO.
CONTENT & SEO2
Your Content Has to be GoodCriteria for good content:1. One-of-a-Kind: Doesn’t appear
anywhere else on the web.2. Relevant: Contains content that
engines can interpret as on-the-topic.3. Helpful: Solves the searcher’s query
in a useful, efficient manner.4. Uniquely Valuable: Provides
information that’s unavailable (or hard to get) elsewhere.
5. Great UX: Is pleasurable to consume on any device.
Your Content Has to Be Human
Your Content Has to Leverage KeywordsKeyword research is still very important. Researching the competition around ranking difficulty will still be the first step.Research around topics/themes rather than direct keyword matching-- not just the main keyword, but the related keywords. Use related keywords as “cast members”
Your Content Has to Be HelpfulWhen creating content, answer as many questions as possible. Google is trying to figure out what your intent is, and answering questions helps Google associate your content to queries.Use natural language and variations, or “semantic keyword research
Your Content Has to Be Structured1. Structure your content. Use
headers, paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.
2. Most important content goes in Header/Main Body tags.
3. Sidebars and footers are weighted less.
4. Cite sources (if necessary) just like you would in a college paper
Social Media Can Gauge IntentSites such as Facebook and Twitter provide search engines with important clues about which web pages people are talking about, or have shared with each other.Tip: Use social channels to drive the dialogue!
Personalized Search Plays a RoleSearch engines have been able to use a logged in user’s Social Network usage, and their previous searches, to determine what is more importantly to them personally.Data can be pulled from: Location, device, search history, email and calendar, Google+, browser history and bookmarks
HOW GOOGLE RETURNS SERPs3
How Google Presents DataWhat types of search results does Google returns for a specific query?1. News2. Images3. Local Businesses4. Rated Results (e.g. stars)5. Products6. Videos7. One-box / answer results
How Google Categorizes Queries
How Google Judges QueriesRating Scale Description
Vital Essential to the search query
Useful A page that is very helpful
Relevant A page that is helpful for many or some
Slightly Relevant A page that is helpful, but not entirely relevant
Off-Topic or useless A page that is helpful for very few users
Unrateable A page that cannot be evaluated for a specific query
Loyalty & Visitor Engagement
OFF-PAGE SEO4
It’s All About Building RelationshipsRemember that building links requires an “ask”1. Social Media2. Leaving insightful comments on
blogs/content3. A friendly email4. Advertising“Links are a great side effect of awesome relationships”
Link Building vs. Link EarningGoogle doesn’t want to count links you can “build”1. Build relationships that earn2. Use content to drive editorial
links3. Aim for resource pages and
blog rolls, no directories4. Buy exposure that leads to links
Don’t just focus on the “big guys” when link building. They’re overwhelmed with requests and may experience “fatigue”.
Link Earning Tips: Avoid Spam 1. Link quantity is dying (or
dead)2. You could get penalized
for spammy or “unnatural” links
Secrets for Link Earning Tools for outreach:● Conspire● BuzzSumo
Tips for Outreach:● Keep an organized spreadsheet of all your outreach targets. ● Know when “scale” and “spam” cross paths.● Use SE operators to help identify if they have a submissions
page or notes on if they accept external communicationsa. Go to Googleb. Type in site:www.domain.com “TERM” to see if that language
is used on their website.
Link Earning With Link BaitLinkbait is any online activity that has the specific goal of attracting links from other websites.Types:1. Infographics - (easy to embed & offer
source code for others to use/share on social
2. Ego Bait – Designed to be targeted at specific influential individuals (i.e. 18 Startup Founders Share Their Lowest Moments Before Coming Out On Top)
3. How-To Guides / Resource style content
4. Interviews5. Tools (Calculators, etc)
TECHNICAL SEO5
Crawling & IndexingIt’s important to ensure your website is easily crawlable by creating an XML Sitemap and being wary of barriers:1. Javascript (it’s fine in HTML, but
avoid it in excess)2. Flash3. Frames / iFrames4. Cookies (i.e. “smart” versions of
pages aren’t currently indexable)
Know Your Status Codes● 200 - Everything is a-ok!● 301 - Permanent redirect. New page is indexed.
Link equity is transferred from the old page to the new.
● 302 - Temporarily moved. Not removed from indexing, but link equity is not preserved.
● 404 - The page no longer exists. The page will eventually be dropped from the index.
● 500 - Server error exists and no content is accessible to crawlers or search engines.
● 503 - A “temporarily unavailable” status. Tells crawlers to come back later.
URL ConstructionEvery URL is constructed in four, and optionally, more parts:1.Protocol - HTTP or HTTPs2.Subdomain - www or custom3.Domain - your custom name4.Top Level Domain (TLD)
- .com, .org, etc
URL OptimizationURLs should be:1. Unique2. As short as possible3. Keyword focused4. URLs are best built using a
separator between the words in the slug. The types of separators that are acceptable are, in order:a. Hyphen (ie. built-like-this)b. Underscore (ie. built_like_this)c. Plus (ie. built+like+this)
Don’t Forget About Site Speed!It affects ranking and UX
AVOIDING PENALTIES6
Why Did I Lose My Rank?1.Manual Action - Someone at Google
manually removed you for breaking the rules
2.Algorithm Updates - Panda, Penguin, etc.
3.Data/Index Updates - Your were beaten out by the competition.
4.Filtered out - Copyright claims, excessively similar results, etc.
Once You’ve Cleaned it up...
QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU.