Advanced & Actionable SEO for WordPress Ryan Erwin Internet Marketing Chicago LLC. Internetmarekting.chicago.com
Disclaimer The information here reflects my personal opinion and can not be reproduced without my consent. Please contact Ryan Erwin at Internet Marketing Chicago ryan@chicago.com
Ryan Erwin Working with WordPress for 6 years Organizer for WordCamp Chicago for 5 years Worked in house managing and optimizing websites Left Day Job in early 2013 to start Internet Marketing Chicago: http://internetmarketing.chicago.com
Agenda What is SEO On and Off Page SEO Things to Avoid Forming a strategy Analyzing Results and Adapting Strategy Q & A
What is SEO Search Engine Optimization What does that mean??? Making your web content more searchable by the major search engines to give it a better chance of ranking on page 1. Many Search Engines out there. Here are the 3 biggest. Google is about 67% of search queries in the United States They are not the only search engine out there Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo (Powered By Bing) Make up about 30% Source: comscore 2014
Thinking about Search Factors How searchable is the business Is the site mobile responsive How fast does the site load How many inbound links Is the site blacklisted There are estimated to be 300+ data points in the Google search algorithm
SERP
FREE TOOLS Google Suite Google Analytics Google Webmaster Tools Google Adwords Bing/Yahoo Webmaster Tool
SEO Plugins for WordPress Yoast SEO & Yoast Analytics The most popular one in my experience and the only one I will vouch for SEO Ultimate All In One SEO Pack Various other plugins for sitemap generation, schema, database optimization
On Page SEO Physically on Site On Page Title Tag Meta Keywords Meta Description Header Tags Alt Tags Schema.org Sitemap
Off Page SEO Google Plus Google Local Linkbuilding Directories Social Media Key Takeaways Relevance and understanding this is an I scratch your back, you scratch mine social world
Things to Avoid White Hat vs Black Hat Buying Links.Sometimes. Link Farms Low Quality Content Networks Anyone who says they can beat the system Theme Here: THERE IS NO SHORTCUT
Content is KING Content Marketing is the Ultimate in SEO Content is King is a common catch phrase as it is exactly that. Nothing can replace High Quality Content Unique Content Optimized Content Talking Directly to and Training the Search Engines Crawling by bots/spiders Think of sites like Wikipedia, Nytimes.com, and other content providers.
Forming a Strategy What are your goals? Sales Leads Traffic for ads Set a content schedule based off achieving your goals What, When, and How are you publishing Email, Social, PPC, and Print integration Think about acquisition Example: Social post, to website, to conversion (sale, lead, or just traffic generation) Start Publishing!!!
Analyzing Results and Adapting Look at traffic via analytics What does this tell you? Did you achieve your goals? Did the content drive the traffic to do what you wanted? Use those lessons to drive your content creation strategy Do you need to split or A/B test page layout? Was there too much or too little content Was the page properly optimized? You have to exploit your wins and mitigate your loses. The key is to understand why something was or was not Successful
SEO is a mindset Understand the basics Seek out info and stay current and keep skills sharp. Learn everything about your industry Everything about your competitors What are others doing that are successful and why? Read and interact with like minded professionals Adapt to trends and be ahead of the curve Non-Mobile site penalty, (Mid April 2015)
Review Process Steps 1. Research 2. Plan 3. Execute 4. Analyze 5. Course Correct 6. Execute 7. Analyze
SEO Client/Job Acquisition Got my first SEO in house job by auditing web properties. Works the same way in agency model with potential client Audit ON and OFF page SEO factors Develop a template Audit will drive phase 1 of SEO for that job/client What needs to be fixed and what needs to be updated. (P1)
Post Audit 1. Research 2. Plan 3. Execute BEGIN HERE (P2) 4. Analyze 5. Course Correct 6. Execute 7. Analyze
THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING A Copy of These Slides can be found here: http://internetmarketing.chicago.com/wccbus QUESTIONS? ryan@chicago.com