WHITE HAT: The Honest Way to SEO Success! By John Huegel, CPP, MBB John Huegel Photography All Rights Reserved

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2 About John Huegel Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) Small business owner in Erie, PA Photography studio Seniors, Weddings, Dancers Interesting Facts: Worked in IT, Manufacturing and Lean/Six Sigma Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt Jazz and Rock musician, recorded several CDs Authored 14 books, mostly on Photography Heart Attack and Cancer Survivor currently on 3 rd of 9 lives Runner, Indoor Rower, Low-Carb Guy Never used Photoshop At least 50% of my new business comes from web inquiries.

3 Downloadable Presentation! At the end, you will be able to download this presentation!

4 Why worry about SEO? 97% of internet users shop online More than half shop online and then purchase offline 70% use the internet for local shopping More than 50% have switched from phone book to internet Over 300 million daily internet searches 25% of all searches are people looking for local solutions For every $1 spent online, $5 is spent offline from searches

5 Search Engine Demographics #1 Google: 900M unique visitors/mo around 70% of searches #2 Bing: 165M/mo #3 Yahoo: 160M/mo #4 Ask: 125M/mo #5 AOL: 33M/mo #6-10: all under 20M/mo You NEED to be effective on Google and Bing

6 What does SEO Mean? SEO = Search Engine Optimization Making your web site more visible to your clients 90% is determined by how you design your website 10% is influenced by outside factors links

7 Positioning is everything! People abandon searches if they don't find what they want on page 1 30% of the clicks are on the first (organic) link on the first page more than the next 10 combined Organic listings are considered more legitimate than paid ads If you are not on page 1, you are missing many client engagements Goal: Be at the top of Page 1 for your targeted search words You can do that honestly, or you can try to "game the system"

8 White Hat? White Hat techniques are in line with search engines' recommendations and are not deceptive. Methods which create useful content for users, and increasing accessibility of that content, without trying to fool the search engine "spiders". Black Hat = techniques that mislead the viewer or the spiders

9 The Lingo Key words words or phrases your clients use in searches Organic results from natural searches, not paid promotion Spider search engine research robot program SERP Search Engine Result Page 7-result SERP pins on a map, limited to 7 hits Bounce Rate percent of time a client leaves a site/page Long tail seldom used searches, often easier to dominate Alt Text key words applied as picture descriptions or link names Page Title A formal title for a page, shows up in browser top Meta Description Formal description, shows up in SERP Analytics statistics and information that describe site access White Hat/Black Hat Honest/Not Honest ways to build SEO

10 Foundations of SEO Success 1. Site is Registered with search engines and local directories 2. Site is mobile and ios compatible 3. Keywords are chosen to respond to client searches 4. Keywords appear in the right places in the right proportions 5. Useful, original content - unique value proposition, not republished 6. Readable pages, minimizing text-in-graphics 7. Images - descriptions (alt text) 8. Active blog - lots of keyword heavy titles and text 9. Fresh, regular content updates 10. Good internal links to other sites and to other pages in your domain 11. Incoming links from other sites, with strong Alt text keywords

11 Tools we will use Google Search anatomy of a web search Creative Motion Design demo of an SEO-friendly host Google Places the FIRST place you should register Google AdWord Tools & Trends research keywords Google WebMaster Tools - Manage and Analyze your site Open Site Explorer research inbound links to your site Google Analytics - Traffic analysis

12 Anatomy of a Web Search Search Words Paid Ads! Top 7 Map More Paid Ads! Top 7 Results

13 More Anatomy Top 7 Reviews More Organic Links Factoid: 20% of all searches include local terms.

14 Now, for the details! Remember, you can download this stuff later!

15 Construct your site smartly HTML based, no Flash (Apple blocks it) Combined mobile and full browser Everything under one domain (www vs bare URL) Robots.txt file (don't crawl pages)

16 My Website on a PC Note the social links, one click away!

17 ios Friendly No Flash! Slow load time = high bounce rate! Site design is attractive on ipad

18 My Website on ipad Clean look, relatively consistent.

19 Mobile Friendly Don t make them use a desktop version too small! Simple display and navigation No Flash! Minimize images, and make them small Slow load time = high bounce rate! Accommodate all device types Learn from great sites - ebay, etc.

20 My Website on Mobile Same content, mobile feel, no extra effort.

21 Rationalize your Domain Clean up duplicate domain names (mydomain.com, These dilute your search rankings Use 301 redirection or canonical references

22 Forwarding a Domain 301 = permanent. Search Engines want this!

23 Create a Local Presence Claim your Google places account. Set up: Profile, Map, Sample images, Reviews, Updates, Offers Local Bing account Yahoo! Local Everywhere else you have accounts, update the bio, and website URL - make consistent! Nearly 2 million Google Places were claimed only 15% of small businesses

24 Google Places How it appears to clients

25 Google Places Interesting statistics available to the owner

26 Choose Your Search Terms / Keywords Choose popular terms with low competition; you will rank higher on those searches Focus on the two or three words that you think are most crucial to each page Ensure those words are in your title, meta description Mention them early and often on your page content Key Words can and should be different by page!

27 Slow Type Technique Will show you the most popular search terms

28 Google Keyword Tool Focus on high search count and low competition

29 Google Insights for Search showing three related terms ior%20photography%2c%20senior%20pictures%2 C%20senior%20portraits&geo=US&date=today %2012-m&cmpt=q

30 Google Insights for Search Sources of the search Facebook #1!!

31 Example Facebook Search FB uses Bing engine! photographers in erie pa

32 Key Word Consistency Page Title Page Description Content Links

33 Example Title: Erie Wedding Photography by John Huegel Description: Wedding Photography Information, prices, packages and links Content: Use keywords Wedding and Photography Links: text and alt-text contains keywords. Inbound links as well.

34 Assign Key Words By Page Home: Erie Portraits Weddings: Erie Wedding Photography Seniors: Erie Senior Portraits Packages: Wedding Photography Packages Samples: Wedding Photography Sample Images Planning: Senior Portrait Planning Pricing: Senior Portrait Prices Consistency overall + Specificity by page/topic

35 Set Your Page Titles Keywords, locality Page title, page header and description should be similar but not identical

36 <title>wedding Photography by John Huegel Photography, Erie's rising Wedding Photographer - John Huegel Photography</title> Setting Titles the Hard Way You or your web person will need to edit the HTML files

37 Setting Titles the Easy Way A web-based website manager is great!

38 Set up Page Descriptions Shows up in Google search results Longer than title, includes same/similar keywords <meta name="description" content="wedding Photography information by John Huegel Photography, featuring pricing, packages, albums, prints and engagement sessions for Erie, Jamestown, Edinboro and Meadville." />

39 Here it is in search

40 Meta Keywords meh. No longer used by major search indexing programs In the past, you could stuff keywords which would influence search engines. They got smarter, and now use content and title, things that are always visible to the client. You can use it to document the keywords you want to use. <meta name="keywords" content="wedding, photography, photographer, portraits,erie" />

41 Evaluating your site using Google Webmaster Tools

42 Google Webmaster Tools Clean up Crawl Errors first

43 Google Webmaster Tools Search queries actually used to reach your site

44 Google Webmaster Tools Search terms by page

45 Google Webmaster Tools Content assessment by keyword

46 Clear and Effective Internal Links Keywords in your anchor text Brand name links Vary link keywords slightly Get rid of "click here" text

47 Links on my website I could probably make them a bit more keyword-rich

48 Sensible Backlinking Local business directories: Yahoo, Bing, Google consistent spelling, address, etc. Social sites - Facebook, Twitter High page rank sites High traffic sites - newspaper/blog, TV Industry associations - PPA, clubs, chambers Guest post on other people's blogs Colleges and universities -.edu site links raise references. Linkedin you can mention white papers, etc. Lobby for good Anchor Text on inbound links Aim for quality, not quantity: Low respect sites = low respect for you!

49 Open Site Explorer You can use it against competitor sites as well!

50 Open Site Explorer I created the first couple. ErieBlogs picked me up somehow

51 Open Site Explorer Analysis of domains pointing to mine

52 Open Site Explorer Anchor Text analysis, may want to ask for better terms?

53 Keep Your Content Fresh! Issue a press release monthly pr.com Share information / expertise - free papers / PDF How-to documents, articles Content should be useful for years, not trendy Videos are great ways for people to share Tip: Build an FAQ - use Google Analytics (search words) to define topics, long tail. Fresh, valuable content drives better positioning

54 Evaluating usage using Google Analytics

55 Google Analytics Overall usage stats by day

56 Google Analytics Visits by duration. Longer visits are important to ranking.

57 Google Analytics Client Visit Flow. Amazing!

58 Google Analytics Another breakdown of search terms used to reach my site

59 Blogs Add Content, Too Use Word Press. It's very SEO friendly. Stay current on version updates Update your blog weekly. You can write a bunch and schedule publication Use Keywords, categories in blogs Alt-text on images. User content can be valuable - but watch out for spam! Turn on comments with registration and moderator approval only or you will get 1000 spams/month!

60 Blog Control Panel Note key word use in title and content

61 My Blog As seen by clients

62 Social Ties Consistency in branding and message/content is key! Facebook business page Cross link blog content Pinterest pin your favorite images among others LinkedIn Items of interest, white papers, press releases Twitter keep it interesting

63 Cultivate Reviews Google only shows their reviews Other review sites will increase presence. Sometimes people will leave reviews without you knowing!

64 Google Reviews I ask happy clients to leave reviews

65 Other Good Factors Visit duration - longer visits imply more value Pages per visit - More links visited imply more value

66 Avoid Black Hat Techniques Cloaking - serving up a different version of your site to crawlers Content Spinning - slightly rehashing someone else's content Using an SEO firm that guarantees rankings Participating in link schemes

67 But Does It Work? I was a bit behind in some updates And was ranking low on page on, or page 2 I did most/all of these things as I wrote the presentation After one week, I resampled

68 RESULTS Senior Pictures

69 RESULTS Senior Pictures Erie PA

70 RESULTS Wedding Photography

71 RESULTS Dance Photography In Erie

72 RESULTS Photography Classes Erie PA

73 Summary 1. Keep your domain tidy, mobile-friendly and crawlable. 2. Understand what key words your clients are looking for, and use them wisely. 3. Create original content that lends itself to being shared (Pinned, Liked, etc.) 4. Keep all of your resources in one domain to maximize your site ranking 5. Have an opinion, but don't offend. 6. Keep your content and your brand consistent. 7. Make a plan and commitment to work on SEO activities 8. Track and monitor your progress.

74 Suggested Action Plan 1. Define your value proposition/brand/uniqueness 2. Google Adwords Keyword Tool: Research your key words 3. Test them on Google, Bing; Note your page/position and date 4. Note who is at the top of page one and benchmark them: look at their source, note title, description, content, reviews, backlinks etc. 5. Sign up for Google Places 6. Sign up for Google Analytics. Put the tracking codes on your website 7. Sign up for Webmaster Tools. Link it to your Analytics account. 8. Set your pages' Title, Description, Headers, Keywords 9. Clean up your internal links - alt-text, dead ends, etc. 10. Refresh content, placing emphasis on keywords 11. Blog refresh - titles, keywords, alt text, categories, upgrades, comment settings 12. External link listings - register for the right local business, blogs, etc. 13. Revisit your social network ties FB, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter 14. Make a calendar for updates - web page content, blog entries 15. Track progress 1/month

75 Resources to Build Skills Right Click, View Source SEOMoz Beginner's Guide Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide Yahoo SEO Basics SEO for Dummies SEOMoz Beginner's Checklist for Learning SEO YouTube Videos - especially those by Google Follow SEO experts on Twitter Google's Matt Cutts blog Google WebMaster Central Blog

76 Good Links Periodic Table of SEO: d-periodic-table-of-seo SEOmoz Search Engine Ranking Factors survey

77 Special Offer Guild members only Creative Motion Design - 10% off code guild10off I get no benefit from this, just a benefit to you

78 Thank You! John Huegel, CPP John Huegel Photography jhphotomusic.com