What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization 101
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Paid Search Listings SEO is the practice of improving and promoting a website to increase the number of Organic visitors the site receives from Organic listings in search engines. It is the art of ensuring you re optimizing your website content so that it can be found in search engines for words and phrases relevant to what your customers or potential customers are searching for. Organic Search Engine Results
SEO - Mobile SEO is the practice of improving and promoting a website to increase the number of Organic visitors the site receives from Organic listings in search engines. It is the art of ensuring you re optimizing your website content so that it can be found in search engines for words and phrases relevant to what your customers or potential customers are searching for. As an example to show importance of mobile that we ll speak to later, 30% of all visits to NSO.com comes from mobile devices(not including tablets)
How Many People Use Search Engines? Although the pace slows with people utilizing social networks and mobile apps more often to find information, search engines are used by almost 200 million U.S. people per year and this number continues to increase. US Adult Search Engine Users 200 195 190 185 180 175 170 165 160 155 2102 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 78.0% 77.0% 76.0% 75.0% 74.0% 73.0% 72.0% 71.0% 70.0% 69.0% 68.0% Adult SE Users(millions) % of Adult Population
Organic Traffic is the Primary Source of Traffic to Websites When it comes to driving internet users to a website, nothing beats organic search. According to data from BrightEdge Networks, organic search drove 51% of website traffic referrals worldwide during June and July 2014. emarketer.com
Keyword Research At the heart of SEO is Keyword Research. Keywords or Phrases are what our audience is using to help them find what they re looking for via search engines. There are several aspects of keyword research: Relevance Are the keywords our content is focused on the same keywords that our audience would use for searching? Search Volume How many searches do these keywords get? Competition Can I rank high in search engine results vs. the other sites that already rank high? Keyword Competition Difficulty Keyword nursing malpractice insurance 40% 880 malpractice insurance for nurses 40% 880 nursing insurance 40% 880 nursing liability insurance 36% 720 nurses service organization 41% 720 liability insurance for nurses 37% 590 nurse malpractice insurance 37% 480 nurse insurance 37% 320 nurse liability insurance 40% 320 rn malpractice insurance 37% 260 rn liability insurance 37% 210 rn insurance 33% 170 nurses liability insurance 37% 140 nurses insurance 40% 110 nurses malpractice insurance 37% 110 registered nurse malpractice insurance 26% 70 nursing student malpractice insurance 37% 50 nursing student insurance 41% 30 professional nursing insurance 34% 10 These keywords are then utilized when a page content and Meta information is developed. Each page should have a single focus or theme so that search engines can understand what that page is about and ideally list it high when a user searches using a related query. Google Monthly U.S. Searches insurance 88% 110,000 liability insurance 60% 14,800
On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO Although there are many aspects to SEO all fall under 2 primary buckets, On-Page and Off-Page. On-Page SEO is what we have control over on the site itself because we manage it. Off-Page SEO are influencing factors that our not part of our site. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) On-Page SEO Optimization Website Planning / Architecture Title Tag Meta Tags - Keywords - Description Robots.txt Website Content - Keywords, Key Phrases Long tail keywords - H1, H2, H3 Tags - Hyperlinks, ALT Text - Image Optimizations SEF (Search Engine Friendly) URL's - Bread Crumbs - Web Page Links - Web Page Internal linking - Internal Anchor Links - Sitemap (For SE Indexing) W3C Validation Off-Page SEO Optimization Link Popularity Analysis Competition Analysis Link Building - One Way Links - Reciprocal Links - Multiple Way Links Search Engine Submission Directory Submission Press Release Submission Article Submission Social Media Optimization Participation in Blogs, Forums Online Communities and Discussion Boards The next several slides focus on On-Page SEO optimizations that should be considered best practice for any website.
On-Page Optimizations URL Naming/Structure URL s should be developed with keywords in mind. The keywords in URL s will help the search engine understand what your site s pages are about. http://www.nso.com/ http://www.nso.com/individuals/ http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/ http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/ http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/benefits.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/clinical-nurse-specialist-malpractice-insurance.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/forensic-nurse-malpractice-insurance-coverage.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/legal-nurse-consultant-malpractice-insurance.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/malpractice-insurance-policy-gaps-student-nurse.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/nurse-malpractice-insurance-coverage.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/nurse-practitioner-malpractice-insurance-benefits-ny.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/nurse-practitioner-malpractice-insurance-coverage-florida.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/nurse-practitioner-malpractice-insurance-coverage.aspx http://www.nso.com/individuals/professional-liability/pages/student-nurse-malpractice-insurance-coverage.aspx
On-Page Optimizations Title Tag The Title Tag is probably the single most important optimization that can be made on a webpage. It is a clear indicator to search engines as to the content theme of any given web page. The Title Tag appears on your web browser s Tab Bar and can also appear directly in search results which can help influence click-through rates from the search engine results page. Best Practices: Feature primary keywords at beginning of Title Keep Title to less than 55 characters
On-Page Optimizations Meta Description Tag Search engines use a description for each Organic listing they provide. The Meta Description can be defined in the code of every page. The description tag doesn t affect your search ranking but is very important as it will very likely influence the user to click from the search results page. Do note however that a search engine may replace this copy for other page copy they feel is more relevant to the user s query. Best Practices: Feature primary keywords as they will be bolded in the description Keep the Description to less than 155 characters
On-Page Optimizations Body Content The content of any page on your site is the key driver of helping search engines understand what your page is about so that they can properly index it and display it for related search queries. Although your focus keywords will be necessary to tell your story, it s important to not stuff them. Search engine s have gotten very good at understanding semantics and related words. Write for your audience primarily but keep search engines in mind. Best Practices: Feature primary keyword in first 100 words Avoid content that can t be indexed by search engines such as Flash or only imagery Write for your audience Avoid over-stuffing keywords. Usage should flow naturally Consider additional best practices (included)
On-Page Optimizations Image ALT Attributes The primary reason for the development Image ALT tags is to provide replacement text for those with accessibility needs such as the blind that use text readers to browse the web. Correctly tagging the images on web pages not only provides assistance to those visually impaired, but also provides a chance that the image will appear in search results and these results are far more likely to be clicked on. The Image ALT tag also can provide search engines additional information about the contents of the overall theme of your page further encouraging them to list your page for relevant user queries. Best Practices: Name your image files using primary keywords Add image ALT tags to all images using natural language including keywords
On-Page Optimizations Audit An SEO audit is when a webmaster or agency partner will review the pages of your website to determine SEO issues that relate primarily to on-page issues such as keyword gaps, tagging and content opportunities and many other issues. For example, the page on the right has some of the previously discussed basic best practice issues that should be optimized: URL: http://www.nso.com/support/faq/businessowners This URL does not provide information about this page being about liability insurance Title: Business Owners This Title does not provide information about this page being about liability insurance Description: Welcome to HPSO This Meta Description does not provide information about this page or entice people to click on search results Image Tags: The image on the page has none
Site Information Architecture Having an SEO friendly site architecture is making sure that the site is built on a platform and code base that will support easy crawling and indexing by search engines. If search engines can t find, crawl and index your content then it will never rank or get traffic. Organized site structure also makes it easier for user and search engine navigation. A flat and prioritized site structure will not only benefit your visitors as they navigate your site, but it will also benefit search engines crawl and index you site. A messy or non-flat website makes things more difficult for users and search engines to find all pages. HOME
Site Navigation and Linking Your site s navigation is two-fold. Of course it s important for it to be organized in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find what they re looking for, but search engines use your navigation in a similar way. Search engine s will crawl your pages and every time they find a link, they ll crawl that next link and so on. It s important to tell a search engine what the linked-to page is about by naming the link using appropriate keywords whenever possible to help them to understand. This clickable link copy is generally known as anchor text. For links in page body content, it is also important to use keywords in your anchor text.
Link Building We have to remember that search engines are a business. Their model requires them to provide a service. If they are providing a quality service, more people will use them as opposed to their competition. To provide a quality service, search engine results must be high quality in relation to a users query. One way to evaluate the quality of a web page is by the content on the page as we ve discussed. Another way is to learn how others think of that page as providing quality content. They do this by reviewing links. Search engines use links from other sites as a determining factor in page quality. The more links that come from other sites the better. Especially if those links come from other sites considered high quality. It s important to promote your site and gain links from other high quality sites whenever possible.
Developing Content for On Page and Off Page SEO Adding quality content to your website is almost always a positive for on-page SEO if it is optimized correctly. Adding content that is high in quality or value will get shared by other s and will help your link building. The top types of content that people share are either entertaining or information that is easily and quickly digested. Common content types most shared Top 10 Lists Video PDF s Images Infographics It s important to make your most interesting content easily sharable. Provide social sharing, email sharing, URL sharing options to your content.
SEO for Mobile In May of 2015 Google claimed that more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US Knowing this, Google has placed high importance on the ability of your site to render correctly for mobile devices. They ve gone as far as lowering the organic rank of your site if it is not mobile friendly. When building your site for mobile friendliness, it s important to develop a site that is mobile friendly. Responsive Design is an approach to web design that considers screen size of the device viewing the website. Essentially, a given web page will render correctly in any size screen. Responsive Design is recommended by Google for website design.
SEO for Mobile vs. Desktop There are several key differences in optimizing specifically for the mobile user. Things to consider: Location More often than not this person is not in front of their computer. Often they are at a point of sale or in a critical decision making setting. Brevity The local searcher is more likely to be in a hurry to get their results and also doesn t want to type long keywords Focus on High Priority Content. Removal of other noise will benefit the mobile user Scroll Usage Although studies show that people are likely to scroll web pages further today, consider that you will have a smaller screen area to stay above the fold. Voice Search Many are using voice search as it is still cumbersome to type on a small screen While optimizing for SEO in general is usually sufficient, a good SEO strategy will always question, what about the mobile user that we d like to find this content? because there may be differences to consider at times.
Common Technical SEO Issues & Best Practices The below list points to additional common issues that are usually uncovered during a site audit. Of course, best case is to build your website pages with all of these in mind as it s better and more cost effective to address these during build instead of after the fact. Page Load Speed Google takes into account how long it takes to crawl a site and load it's individual pages. If it takes too long for Google to load and index a page, it will take too long for the average user to load it. Google will penalize pages that are slow to load. Mobile Friendliness Header Response Redirects Duplicate Content XML Sitemaps Robots.txt, Meta NoIndex, & Meta NoFollow Design your site's pages to mobile friendly responsive design standards. Google will penalize a site that isn't mobile friendly. A Header Response is information sent from the web server to the browser when attempting to access a page. For example, if a user tries to access a missing or deleted page, the server will send a "404" response. When updating URL's or deleting pages, it's important to remember to redirect people tyring to visit those pages with a search engine friendly 301 redirect. This type of Header Response tells Google that the page requested has been moved permanently to a different URL. Duplicate Content is one of the most common issues uncovered during a site audit. This is because having two copies of the same or similar content forces the search engine to share half importance between both pages. Lowering the value of these pages may allow a competitor to rank higher in search engines results. An XML Sitemap is a webmaster created document generally not seen by visitors but only search engines. It includes a list of every page on your website and assists the search engine in finding all pages. Robots files and Meta Commands are instructions provided to search engines and provide them with instructions to block or allow access to certain areas of your website
SEO Measurement & Tracking SEO should never be considered a Set It and Forget It project. The optimizations you make need to be monitored and adjustments need to be made based on results. In addition, there are ongoing factors that change in the digital space that need to be addressed over time. Consumer Habits Device Usage Search Engine Technology Updates New Media The above are just a few factors that affect how users get to your site via search engines. Having constant monitoring and being able to adjust to these changes makes proper on-page SEO an ongoing cycle. Monitoring and Reporting Optimizations Website Analysis The SEO Cycle Keyword Research Content Development
SEO Measurement & Tracking Keyword Rank Monitoring your set of primary keywords for rank fluctuation is important to determine where, how and why organic traffic trends change. It is this rank that directly correlates to organic search traffic to your site. Google Keywords Position Previous Change nso 1 1 - professional nursing insurance 1 1 - registered nurse malpractice insurance 1 1 - rn insurance 1 1 - rn liability insurance 1 1 - rn malpractice insurance 1 1 - malpractice insurance for nurse practitioners 2 2 - malpractice insurance nurse practitioner 2 2 - np malpractice insurance 2 2 - nurse practitioner insurance 2 2 - nurse practitioner liability insurance 2 2 - nurse practitioner malpractice insurance 2 2 - nurse practitioner malpractice insurance cost 2 3 +1 nurse practitioner student malpractice insurance 2 2 - student np malpractice insurance 2 2 - student nurse practitioner insurance 2 2 - student nurse practitioner malpractice insurance 2 2 -
SEO Measurement & Tracking Organic Traffic The ultimate goal is gaining and increasing organic traffic to gain awareness and leads. Use Google analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to measure overall organic traffic and specific key pages such as your primary lead generation pages. If your keyword strategy and content matches what your audience is already searching for, there will be a much higher likelihood of generating leads for this high quality audience that is interested in your content before they even get there.
SEO Tools An SEO will use a variety of tools to perform research, analysis and derive recommendations from. Below are a list of a combination of the more common tools and services that are well known. Without question, the #1 tool is knowledge of how all parts of SEO work together. There are many resources for learning more about SEO but it s probably start with information from the lead search engine, Google. Download the Google SEO Starter Guide. Also, follow the community at moz.com. It s very active and full of knowledgeable people. The most used software will be Excel or Google Sheets. You will find yourself reviewing and manipulating a lot of data. Other tools with more specific uses are found below. Keyword Research Keyword Rank Reporting Analytics Google Keyword Planner gshift Google Analytics Moz.com Advanced Web Ranking Google Webmaster Tools Spyfu Bing Webmaster Tools Audit Information Header Testing Content Ideation Raven Tools Webconfs.com Curata Moz.com Backlink Tracking Duplicate Content Testing Site Analyzer Moz Webconfs.com A1 Website Analyzer Advanced Web Ranking MOZ.com is a valuable resource for all things SEO. They create and update a SEO Developer Cheat Sheet. This along with the Google SEO Starter Guide are valuable resources when creating a site or making optimizations.