DIGITAL MARKETING BASICS: SEO

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1 DIGITAL MARKETING BASICS: SEO Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of increasing website visibility or ranking visibility in a search engine's "organic" or unpaid search results. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, global competition, and how people phrase their search (usually referred to as a keyword). While a site can gain success without SEO, modifying a website s content, HTML, and coding this process is called optimization can generate sustained long-term growth. Optimization works by increasing relevance to specific keywords and by removing barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. It is important to note that SEO is not a path to overnight results. Search engines grant top ranking positions to sites with the most trustworthy, relevant content. Just as in interpersonal relationships, this trust takes time to establish. SEO Organic listings are those query results that aren t determined by advertisements. These rankings gain positions from search engine optimization (SEO) techniques including optimized website code, content, and link building. They typically appear under PPC ads (if there are any bids on that particular phrase). They require more effort to implement and take longer to show results. However, once gains are made, they are more lasting than a PPC campaign and are, ostensibly, free. PPC PPC ads are paid ads displayed at the top and to the right in traditional search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The advertiser only pays when a prospect actually clicks on the ad and ads are triggered only when a user voluntarily searches for a word or phrase that is part of a pre-selected buy by the advertiser. They are quick to implement and show immediate results.

2 PPC ORGANIC/ SEO Reach Search is the most popular medium for locating information, with 100 billion+ searches per month on the Google search engine alone. A comprehensive SEO strategy is designed to position your website to gain relevant, qualified traffic without paying for PPC ads. Long Tail Return While PPC offers an instant boost in visitors to your site, SEO can position a site to be relevant for the long term. Ranking for high value keywords is competitive, but can pay dividends over a long period of time. Cost Unlike PPC, once a ranking is earned, it requires no cost to a website. Visitors who find your site through organic search results are free to you. This allows for a balanced digital marketing strategy with the precision and immediacy of PPC ads to long term, sustained success with SEO.

3 Unique, Relevant Site Content Search engines blend multiple types of content into a search engine results page (SERP) based on the anticipated intent of the user. Therefore, to provide more opportunities for higher rank, it is important for websites to contain a wide variety of unique content (text, pictures, videos, infographics, etc.) that relate to the page subject. Multiple types of content blended in Google SERP

4 Organized Site Structure A well-planned website with keyword-rich URLs goes a long way in ensuring usability for humans and findability for search engines. For example, the following URL, is descriptive for search engines and easy to read for users. Keyword-rich URL emphasized in Google Title tag as seen in Google Accurate Title Tags and other metadata Website metadata, such as title tags and meta description tags, serve to inform both search engines and users about the subject of the content on each page. The example below shows how selected metadata is displayed in Google. Meta Description tag as seen in Google

5 NATIONAL vs LOCAL SEO National SEO A national campaign strives to rank for a product, service and/or price. National SEO is easier to implement and requires less work, but puts you into a more competitive environment that is less likely to be effective. National SEO competes for broader, and therefore, more competitive keywords. Local SEO A local campaign strives to rank for a product, service, price, and location. Local organic search requires a large amount of effort, development, and diligence, but the reward is a less competitive playing field that should bear the fruits of your labor. Local SEO competes for more specific, and therefore, less competitive keywords, has less competition locally for a top 10 ranking (organic space). National Organic Search Rank for Product/Service/Price More Competition for Relevant Keywords Higher Search Volume Minimal Site Modifications / Development Required Slower to Show Results Call Targeted at National Level Local Organic Search Rank for Product/Service/Price/Location Less Competition for Relevant Keywords Lower Search Volume Large Scale Site Modification / Development Required Quicker to Show Results Calls Targeted at Local Business Local search is fast becoming the epicenter of online for many businesses. Focusing not only on brand name or product, local affords the opportunity to get address, phone, images, coupons, hours of operation & other meaningful date to local searchers. Just as paid search advertising is about creating relevancy, local search/seo takes it one step further by offering more local touch points. The goal as stated by Google, the local algorithm takes into account 3 main factors: proximity, relevance, and prominence.

6 301 Redirect A permanent server side redirect of one URL to another, used when changing a page s URL. A 301 redirect prevents the poor user experience a 404 creates and, unlike a temporary 302 redirect, passes 90-99% of all link juice. Alt Tag An alt attribute in an image tag provides a text alternative of an image for screen reader users. The short, descriptive text also helps search engines better understand what a page is about and is an opportunity for important placement of a page s targeted keyword for better optimization. Anchor Text The visible text of a hyperlink that helps visitors and search engines understand what they will find on the page linked to. Including the targeted keyword of a page linked to in the anchor text helps boost the destination page s ranking for the keyword, but overuse of keyword-rich anchor text, especially exact match keyword anchor text, is a red flag, appearing to Google as unnatural linking. Canonical URL The preferred URL selected when the same content is accessible through multiple URLs. Although visitors see and as the same page, search engines see them as separate pages with duplicate content. The value of the pages gained through links is split rather than one page receiving all value. Implementing a 301 redirect or rel=canonical tag tells search engines the canonical URL. To prevent duplicate content issues with syndicated content, cross domain use of rel=canonical tag enables one version to be ranked. Keyword A word, or set of words, that a user enters in search engine. A sound SEO strategy optimizes each web page with the goal of drawing in visitors who have searched specific keywords. Link Juice The ranking power passed to a webpage through external or internal links. This link equity is a powerful ranking factor. Long Tail Keyword A keyword that includes three or more words. These longer phrases have lower search volume, but provide a more targeted visitor. Smaller businesses should consider targeting long tail keywords, as they are lower difficulty and often have more qualified searchers. Common keywords such as 'software' are more competitive. However, a long tail keyword might be software for creating GIFs, would be a more effective term to target. Metadata Data that tells search engines what your website or webpage values. Metadata includes: page title, meta description, image alt tags, and more. Page Title The name you give your web page, which is seen at the top your browser window and in search results. Page titles should contain keywords related to your business. Words at the beginning of your page title are more highly weighted than words at the end.

7 Meta Description A brief description (fewer than 160 characters) of the contents of a page. This is often displayed on search engine results pages below the page title as a sample of the content on the page. Nofollow Adding the nofollow attribute to a link tells search engines not to follow the link or pass link juice to the destination page. Nofollow basically tells search engines you are not vouching for the page linked to, or that it is a paid link. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising method in which an advertiser puts an ad in an online advertising venue and pays that venue each time a visitor clicks on his/her ad. Google AdWords is the classic example of this. Robots.txt A text file instructing web crawlers on files/directories that can or cannot be retrieved in a site. Robots.txt is useful in blocking sections of a site from a search engine index, but an incorrectly written file can easily result in an entire site being blocked. SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page) The page that you are sent to after you run a query in a search engine. It typically has 10 results on it, but this may vary depending on the query and search engine in question. Traffic The visitors to your site. URL The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the web address of a page on your site (example: XML Sitemap A file informing Google and other search engines of URLs available for crawling. A sitemap may also provide additional information including when files were last updated and which pages are most important.