Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics: How to Get on the First Page of Google Giselle Aguiar, Social Media Strategist & Trainer AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz 1 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 1 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Hi, this is Giselle and this is the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics class. With this class you will have an understanding of what it takes to get on the front page of Google search. There is a downloadable PDF of the slides and it will have all the clickable links to additional resources.
Search Engine Truth 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 2 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz 75% of users never scroll past the first page of the search results. If your site is coming up on page 2 or deeper, forget it. You might as well be nonexistent.
Paid vs Organic 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 3 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz 70-80% of users ignore paid ads. They know they re paid and they prefer the organic or non-paid results. 70% of the links search users click on are organic. They prefer the fresh content that they know those sites have.
Search is #1 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 4 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Search is the #1 driver of traffic to sites beating social media by more than 300%. However, social media does play a part in where you come up. I ll explain shortly.
Google Owns Search 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 5 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Google owns search. Back in 2015, Google had 64% of all desktop search and 83% of mobile search. As of August 2016, Google has over 79% of desktop and over 85% of mobile. Google changed the game with their algorithm updates that are constantly changing. Google s goal is to give the searcher exactly what they re searching for; Google wants fresh, relevant content written for the human reader in natural language = Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Inbound Marketing 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 6 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Inbound marketing is like a 3-legged stool. It s comprised of content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization or SEO. It all works together when done properly. You can t do one and not do the other 2 and expect to get good results.
Spidering 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 7 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz The search engine is like a spider and it crawls each page of your website looking for text and links. It indexes individual pages not websites. Each page needs to be optimized. It crawls the web regularly.
Road Blocks Frames Flash A lot of code 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 8 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz When the spider encounters these brick walls it bounces out and doesn t register the good text under it. Any websites using old, out-dated features like frames, flash are useless. As well as those that use a lot of code -which is usually found in do-it-yourself, drag-and-drop, free sites like Weebly, Wix or a website builder. If you re considering using one of these for your website, just to save money, don t. Look for my blog post with the video on Why I Prefer WordPress. To give you an analogy, these DIY sites are to WordPress what a golf cart is to a pick-up truck. The cart will get you where you re going, eventually. If you want to move stuff, you have to make several trips. With the pick-up, you ll get there faster and more effectively. It behooves you to invest in a WordPress site with hosting. Look for another blog post on Website Planning 101.
The Spider Doesn t See Pictures Videos 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 9 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz The spider doesn t see pictures or videos. It looks for the alt-text description on pictures or the name of the picture in the file name or link. I ll go over this in a bit. For videos, the titles are important when embedding. Make sure you use relevant keywords in both. Look for the video marketing and YouTube videos.
Keywords Think like the searcher Local, national, global Keywords or phrases High monthly searches Low to medium competition https://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 10 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz It s a paradigm shift: you have to think like the searcher. The consumer is in control. Put yourself in their shoes. What are they going to enter into the search box to find you? Are you local, national or global? You want to find the right keywords with high monthly searches and low-to medium competition, but you need to use them in your content that makes grammatical sense to the human reader. Google has a keyword planner that is free to use, but you have to setup an Adwords account. https://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner Look for a video on how to use this tool.
Website Domains https:// 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 11 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz What about your website d domain? That s your site s address. There are a lot of choices out there. When choosing a domain name make it Keyword-centric, if you re Local - put city and/or state; it has to make sense to both the searcher and the search engine. Using abbreviations may seem logical to you, but to the searcher and the search engine, it s not. It s all about Branding - it will be on your business cards and emails - make it easy to remember. Make sure it s not too long - not easy to typo. If it is easy to typo, see if the domain with the typo is available and grab it too. You can have more than one - pointing to your website. Be careful that your name is not similar to an existing company s. That also may confuse a searcher especially if it s off by one letter. Also, have it secure on the server side (https) helps in Google rankings. This has to be done by your hosting company. If it s already setup, you ll see a lock icon to the left of the address in the address bar. Look for the Branding Beyond the Logo class in the training center.
Website: Meta Tags Title: Name of company and/or location with main keyword(s) Keyword-centric meta description - 156 characters Long-tail keywords (phrases) 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 12 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Home is not the name of your business. Don t put the word home in the title or welcome. It s wasted characters. Your title should be your company name, what you do, and location if that is a factor. If your company name is hard to spell, put what you do and location first, then company name. Again, think like the searcher. If they don t know your company name and they re looking for say, a CPA near me. Google will go by how prominent the word CPA is in your site - title and text, how fresh your content is, and your location as listed in Google My Business. However, don t over use the word. Remember, it has to be in natural language and grammatically correct. Next is a Keyword-centric meta description - what shows up in Google search results page. Having a relevant, compelling meta description can be the difference between a searcher who clicks through to your page and one who clicks elsewhere. Note that anything more than 156 characters will get cut off. So put your major keywords in the beginning. Look for my how to blog video on how to optimize each blog post. Everything is keyword-centric - do your keyword research before you create your site. A long-tail keyword is a phrase or questions a searcher may ask. For instance someone seeking pain relief will enter how to alleviate shoulder pain. If you re a doctor who can help them, hopefully your blog post on the different types of shoulder ailments will come up on the first page.
Keywords 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 13 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz This graphic depicts keywords for a shoe store in Minneapolis. If someone is searching for the top lifestyle keywords, they are more likely to convert later. They re looking for information on things to do. If the shoe store has blog posts on these topics, their site will come up. If the searcher ready to buy, they re looking for more specific terms like hiking boots. Or they remembered the name of the store from the great article they read on hiking trails and they ll search for the name. Pause the video here and think about what lifestyle, product and brand keywords would apply to your business.
Relevant Links 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 14 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Besides text, Google also looks for relevant links. These can be either internal links to related content within your site or blog or external links to other peoples related content & your social media profiles.
Website Design & Navigation Easy on the eyes Easy to navigate Internal links Don t make people think! Don t make people work for what you want them to do! 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 15 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Build your site for the human reader, but with the search engine in mind. It needs to be easy on the eyes, easy to navigate. The Branding class covers the psychology of color. Internal links should make sense to the visitor. Think of it as a stranger walking into a store for the first time. You need to guide them where you want them to go. Don t make people think! Don t make people work for what you want them to do! Your homepage content should load quickly, and be long enough to clarify who you are, what you do, where you re located (if relevant), your value proposition - or what you have to offer, and what visitors should do next. These visitors should leave satisfied, not overwhelmed or underwhelmed -- and absolutely not confused.
Mobilegeddon https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 16 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz The first Mobilegeddon happened on April 21, 2015 - that s when Google changed their algorithm to require that every site be mobile responsive - not just mobile friendly to come up in search results. The second Mobilegeddon happened January 2017. That one blocks sites that have popups on their mobile versions from coming up in Google search. Remember, Google has 86% of all mobile searches. This link goes to Google s Mobile-Friendly Test: https://search.google.com/search-console/mobilefriendly
Page & Blog Post Structure H1 heading - only in the title of the page - what it is that you do - NOT Welcome! H2, H3, H4 sub-headings - help break up the page Bullets Text content - written for the human reader but keyword-centric Use bold and italics on your major keywords Graphics - with descriptions in the alt text box. For Blog Posts: 1 or 2 Categories - index topics - don t use uncategorized ever Several Tags - relevant keywords or phrases 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 17 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Let s talk now about static pages and blog post structure. Each blog post that you write becomes another page on your site. The more the better - I ll talk about that soon.. Put your major keyword or keyword phrase in the first paragraph of the page or post and in at least one of the sub-headings. Using bullets helps draw the reader s eye down the page. Many people just skim. Look for the blogging class for more details on how to blog using WordPress. It shows how to use the SEO by Yoast free plugin which guides you to optimize your pages.
Website Don ts Don t buy backlinks to irrelevant sites Don t repeat your keywords so the text is not grammatically correct Don t pay someone to do SEO 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 18 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Website Don ts - Don t pay someone to do SEO - you can do most of it yourself - that s why you re watching this.
What an SEO Firm Will Do An extensive SEO analysis Fix any issues on your site or give suggestions to your webmaster They may offer a blogging service They monitor your ranking and send you reports 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 19 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz - You might want to pay just for an extensive SEO analysis which will tell you why you re not coming up on the first page of Google. - But then again, if your site isn t getting good SEO, you should fire your webmaster. - Creating fresh content is part of it as I will cover in a minute, but you have to consider the voice. Any outsider doesn t know your business like you know your business. An outsider writes like a reporter. Now, hiring an editor is something different if you feel you are not a good writer. An editor will take your article, written as the expert, edit it and post it for you. Different voice. Video and podcasting are also options. - Monitoring is something you can do with Google Analytics and Google Search Console - which are free.
Why You Have to Blog It s the fresh content that Google is looking for The more content you have on your site, the happier Google is and the more it will reward you with higher rankings and establishing Authority on your topic Searchers click on organic search results because they know that they ll find the information they need on those sites It s up to you to provide that information Answer questions that are relevant to your business Google ignores stagnant websites 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 20 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz so if you re wondering why you re not coming up on the first page of Google, ask yourself, when was the last time you blogged? Better yet, what are your competitors doing? How often are they blogging?
Always Add a Graphic 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 21 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Always add a graphic, even if you re embedding a video. Search engines cannot see images on websites, so it is crucial to add the alt text description and relevant file name to ensure Google knows what the image is about. By not creating this text, you lose a huge opportunity to be as visible as possible online. Don t leave the file name as the numeric value that your camera gives it. Also, the social networks show the graphic in the posts and it makes it more eye-catching. Again, watch the blogging videos as they go into more detail on how to do this.
How Often Should I Blog? Source: Hubspot 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 22 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Anything less than weekly, you might as well not bother. 2-3 times a week is optimum. Blog daily for the first month if your site has been totally stagnant for over a year and you want to give it a boost. If you re not going to be blogging AT LEAST once a week, you might as well not have a blog. Remove the link from your site. It s hurting you more than helping. Google gives more priority to fresh content.
Free WordPress Plugins SEO by Yoast - helps each page and blog post to be optimized Google Analytics by Monster Insights Sovrn Editorial Assistant - adds links to related content on other people s sites; helps with tags and external links JetPack - sites statistics & automates sharing each blog post to social media + more! Social Media Feather - adds follow buttons to the end of each post - good external links to your social media 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 23 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz One of the reasons I prefer WordPress is all the free plugins. Here are the ones that will help you with blogging. You ll need some security ones also. Your web designer should be able to install the best ones for your site.
How Social Media Helps Add the link to your site to all of your company s social media profiles. Each time you share a link to your blog or website on social media, that link is indexed by Google. The keywords and hashtags in your description in each of the networks help with each of the networks internal search engines Over 58% of marketers who have been using social media for one year or longer have improved search engine rankings. (Hubspot, 2014) 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 24 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz That also goes to show you that it doesn t happen over night. In the notes are links to a couple of blog posts that will help. https://azsocialmediawiz.com/get-found-social-media-search-engines-powerful-google/ https://azsocialmediawiz.com/takes-time-see-content-marketing-results/
Google Being Social 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 25 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Let s go through each of the networks. Google+ is Google being social and now it s tied to Google My Business. (Look for the Google+ class on how to set that up). Any link shared publicly gets indexed in the search engine. The more often you post, the better your search page results. The JetPack WordPress plugin would do that automatically for you.
Twitter 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 26 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Twitter is the never-ending news ticker. Sharing blog post, pages from your site and call-to-action promo tweets regularly helps with SEO because tweets come up in Google searches. Use hashtags to brand your tweets and get extra exposure. Optimize your bio with relevant keywords and hashtags. Add a call to action link. Pin a promo tweet to the top so it s the first thing people see when they go to your page. Take advantage of what s trending to get extra exposure by spinning your marketing message around it. Don t ignore Twitter, it s a powerful tool when used properly. Look for the Twitter how-to videos.
YouTube Source: Mushroom Networks 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 27 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine next to its parent, Google. YT processes 3 billion searches a month. Video increases front-page Google Results by 53x. How to is the most searched-for term on YouTube. Make sure your YouTube channel is optimized. It s the most cumbersome to setup. You need branded channel art, channel and default descriptions with all your company information as well as keyword tags. Look for the video on YouTube and how to set up your channel.
Pinterest for SEO 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 28 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Pinterest is more powerful than Instagram with regards to SEO. On Instagram, you can t add a link to when sharing a post for free. When someone pins a picture or video from your website to Pinterest, it takes the link with it. When someone clicks twice on a pin, they re taken to the originating website. This helps tremendously with SEO. Look for the Pinterest videos especially if you want to reach consumers.
Linkedin 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 29 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz LinkedIn is more than just your resume you become known as an Expert in your field - fill out the summary section completely with what you want people to know about you and your business using relevant keywords. It establishes credibility; Helps with Reputation Management & Google searches - when someone Googles your name, your LinkedIn profile is usually one of the top 3 results. Under Contact and personal info, add links to your website, blog and Twitter and make sure your profile URL is customized with your name and doesn t have all the numbers after it. Share your blog posts in your personal updates as well as your company profile page - yes, that s like the yellow pages. Companies cannot have a personal profile - those are for individuals. Write articles on LinkedIn with links back to your website. All this helps with SEO. Look for the videos on LinkedIn and how to set up your personal and company profiles.
Customer Acquisition 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 30 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Inbound marketing has changed the customer buying journey. Rarely will they go from discovery to buying directly. That s called impulse buying. They ll either want to explore or engage before they buy. Exploring is on their own reading content on your website, watching videos and reading reviews. Engaging is actively asking questions either through the contact form on your site or messaging you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. So, yes, you have to monitor your social networks. You never know when a potential customers will message you from there.
Paradigm Shift 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 31 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz It s a paradigm shift: you have to think like the searcher. What are they going to enter into the search box to find you? You must have a website that s set up to capture leads with a clear call-to-action to download something useful to your target; a blog or videos providing the fresh content that Google is looking for; and you need to promote that content and engage with your potential customers on social media. Remember, the consumer is in control. Put yourself in their shoes. Look at everything from their perspective. What s the first impression?
Build Trust & Solve Problems 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 32 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz People buy from whom they know and trust. You need to establish trust and credibility and become know as an expert in your field or industry; Offer solutions to alleviate the target market s pain points Build long-term relationships; Who does your target market trust for information?
It s a Marathon Not a Sprint! 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 33 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Folks, it s a marathon, not a sprint. You re in it for the long haul. The minute you stop, people will think you fell off the face of the earth.
Your Social Savvy Solution 2017 Giselle Aguiar, SocialSavvySolution.com 34 AZSocialMediaWiz.com @AZSocialNetWiz Now you know what it takes to get on the First Page of Google. So what should you do now? First, clearly define your target market. Use the workbook linked here in the notes. Do your keyword research to figure out what your potential customer is entering in to the search engine when they need or want what you have to offer. Build your website for your target, but with the search engine keywords in mind. Blog often - 2-3 times a week if you re just starting out or you site has been stagnant - no less than weekly. Lastly, be more social! Share every post in all the major networks. Re-share them later. Take advantage of the other videos in the training center to learn or hone your skills. And remember, I ll be uploading update videos and more tips and tricks every month! Thanks for watching and I hope you re getting to be Social Savvy! http://azsocialmediawiz.com/wp-content/uploads/defineyourtargetmarketworkbook.pdf