September 17, 2016

AAF-ORLANDO
AD HELP DAY

SEM/SEO - THE PLAN

On-Page SEO is vital to achieving high rankings in a very competitive online environment. While algorithms shift, the basics of SEO have not changed. The best strategy is to optimize all basic elements so that your site is weatherproof to search engine algorithms changes. Realistic ranking expectations are important. Keep an eye out for SERP changes and results starting from day one but don’t be surprised if results take months. Consider making adjustments at benchmark points such as: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months.

What to expect: On average, it will take between 3 to 6 months to start seeing SEM results, and SEO results will continue grow over time if done well.”

The core SEO areas to focus keywords on are:

  • Title tag - Beware boring and unoriginal tags that could be hurting your rankings. Create unique tags for EACH page.
  • H1
  • H2 tags
  • URL
  • On-page content, etc.

**Keep in mind that these elements are only one piece of the optimization puzzle. Technical and off-page (including link building) optimization are equally important. Your site should load quickly, be mobile-friendly and havea “crawlable” structure.

Lastly, it’s very important to build links to each piece of content you produce and while it’s no longer 100% necessary to have an xml sitemap ,Google does a good job of finding and indexing content on its own. Use this feature if you frequently syndicate content. A xml sitemap signals to Google that you’re the original creator of the content which is important to your site ranking.

If you have a non-WordPress site, use the XML Sitemaps tool to create a sitemap and then upload it to your root directory. If you have a WordPress site, use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.

**It’s well-known that meta-descriptions don’t have any direct SEO benefit BUT meta-descriptions are extremely important for enticing click-throughs in the SERPs. Think of them as your ad copy, and write compelling, benefit-driven copy that people can’t resist.

THE IMPORTANCE OF USER INTENT

Behind each search query is intent. Each time a user types in a query they have a specific cause or goal behind that search. Typically, those searches fall into 3 main categories:

  • Navigational: Looking for a particular business or website
  • Informational: Looking for specific information or answer to a question
  • Transactional: Looking to make a purchase or perform some other type of action

If you’re choosing keywords without giving thought to the intent behind those words, you could be wasting your time and money on keywords that will never convert. If your goal is traffic and page views, optimize for navigational and informational queries. These will generally be easier and less expensive to rank for. For commercial sites, optimize for transactional queries that will be more likely to convert.

TARGETING KEYWORDS

KEYWORD STRATEGY: Choose phrases that receive a decent number of searches, but that aren’t highly competitive. Look for phrases that are extremely relevant to your own personal products or services, and are therefore more likely to convert. If you find a keyword that no one else is targeting or bidding on, you may think you’ve found a goldmine. However, this usually means the keyword just wasn’t lucrative, so no one is bothering to target it. The key is to find words and phrases that have some competition (but not too much) and that will send a good amount of traffic. See which keywords your similar-sized competitors are ranking for, and ask yourself what you can do to outrank them.

LONG TAIL KEYWORDS: Optimizing for short tail keywords (usually one or two-word phrases) is enticing because of their higher search volume. However, they are not only harder to rank for, they’re often more general queries that will never actually convert. The majority of your traffic should be for very specific, targeted keywords of 2-4 words.

FREE HELPFUL TOOL:
SEMRush: A robust free component, SEMRush allows you to search keywords, see how they rank and find other publications who rank high for those words.

CONTENT IS KING

Since the release of Google’s Panda, writing short not well thought out content and keyword “stuffing” no longer works. Not only will this lead to a very poor user experience, it will kill your rankings. Keywords are still important, but the theme of your content is even more important. Choose a topic for your content, then include a variety of keywords and phrases that will help you flesh out the piece.

Top-ranking content is said to be approximately 1100-1300 words in length. If you’re consistently producing content that’s shorter than this, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve the results you want. Instead, focus on longer, more comprehensive content of at least 1100 words. However, remember that content length is less important than content quality; shorter pieces that are well-written and add something new to the conversation may rank highly as well.

**Remember to manually create title tags for each piece of content you produce. When writing your title tag, make sure to include your keyword(s), brand name and some type of ‘hook’ to entice click-throughs.

FREE HELPFUL TOOLS:

  • Canva: Described as “amazingly simple graphic design software,” Canva is perfect if you aren’t design-equipped. To use, you’ll need to create an account. With the free version, you’ll be able to create infographics, banners and presentations with ease. Then, embed them into your blog posts, pricing kits or other marketing efforts.
  • Pixlr: An online photo editor, with Pixlr you can perform the basics of Photoshop right from your browser. Whether you need to resize images, add an overlay or create effects, Pixlr allows you to do so and is user-friendly.
  • IMFree: An extension of website builder IMCreator, IMFree has a curated collection of free images and resources to meet your website’s needs, all for commercial use. The library is smartly and aesthetically organized with categories from people to food and drinks to fashion and beauty. IMFree also provides free website templates and icons.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media is part of a good SEO strategy, increasing visibility, traffic, and engagement/connection with your audience and helps search rankings. Focus on which sites YOUR target market uses and establish a presence. Promote and distribute your content through your social media profiles to get your name/brand in front of a larger audience.

These are the most popular social networking sites as of September 2016

  • Facebook Insights: Measure your social media efforts on Facebook for free with Facebook Insights. Built to track the performance of your business page, you can find how people are interacting with your posts, plus gather information on your audience for future content research.
  • Twitter Analytics: A free and user-friendly way to measure the performance of your business’ Tweets. By logging into your account, you can measure impressions and engagements over a specified time period.
  • Hootsuite: This social media scheduling system is a handy marketing tool for any business owner on-the-go. While Hootsuite is a paid platform, it does have a free component that works well for small businesses. With a free account, you can add up to three social accounts, schedule your posts and measure basic engagement.
  • YouTube
  • LInkedIN
  • Pinterest
  • Google Plus+
  • Tumblr
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • VK
  • Flickr
  • Vine
  • Meetup
  • Ask.fm
  • ClassMates
  • Snapchat

LINKS

INTERNAL LINKING is still a key SEO strategy. Not only does it help the search engines crawl your site more efficiently, it helps users find helpful, related content. identify and link to relevant content elsewhere on their site. While anchor text may not be quite as important as it used to be it does still have some influence and each little piece matters. When writing a blog post on your site or someone else’s, make a point of linking to at least 2-3 related pages on your site. Use anchor text that will make sense both from an SEO and user perspective

BROKEN LINKS:A couple of broken links probably isn’t going to hurt your SEO. However, any more than this could be seriously impacting both user experience and rankings. Every time a user gets a 404 page, they’re more likely to leave your site in search of info. And every time a search engine spider crawls your site and hits a broken link, their indexing of your site hits a roadblock.

FREE HELPFUL TOOL:

Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider identifies broken links.

BACKLINKS: Many businesses think that just by producing excellent content, they’ll naturally accumulate backlinks. However, intentional link building should still be part of your SEO strategy for each piece of content you produce. Focus on creating “link worthy” content, and then make sure those who are likely to link to it know about it. Focus on writing content that’s a resource to other bloggers and journalists, as these are the people who are most likely to give you links.

OUTBOUND LINKS: We know that outgoing links have an impact on search rankings. However, some marketers believe that including outbound links dilutes the “link juice” of their content. Instead, they prefer to not cite any sources (or as few as possible) in order to keep all that Page Rank on their own page. Include references (links) to authoritative sites in each piece of content you produce. This is great not only for SEO, but for user experience. In general, the more relevant links you include, the better!

SITELINKS: Your sitelinks are those little links that appear under your company or brand name in the search results. These are important as they provide various points of entry for visitors to your site.

GUEST BLOGGING & LINK BUILDING: I’m a huge fan of guest blogging. Use it to build up your authority, make connections and send traffic to your blog. Don’t use it, however, as your only means of getting links to your site. Google’s Matt Cutts posted a warning about this tactic a couple of years ago already: guest blogging solely for SEO purposes is dead. Guest blogging should definitely be part of your SEO and content marketing strategy. While you don’t have direct control over your site links, you can tell Google which ones you don’t want showing in the SERPs. Simply log in to your Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools), go to Search Appearance, and then Sitelinks, and let Google know which links you’d like demoted.

FREE HELPFUL TOOL:

Portent: If you have a general topic in mind for your next blog post, but you’re having trouble finding the best angle for the story, Portent created a Content Idea Generator. Enter your topic or keyword and the generator will suggest a headline for you—it’s definitely a lifesaver for creative block.

WEBSITE SPEED COUNTS

Google has been using page speed as a ranking factor for desktop sites for years and in 2016 having a fast-loading site is more important than ever. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check the speed of your site and find ways to improve it.

ANALIZING ANALYTICS

Congratulations, you’ve optimized your site! Now it’s time to measure your results. Your analytics will give you a good idea of whether or not your SEO strategies are working. If you’re missing this important step, you could be missing out on opportunities for increased traffic and rankings. Regularly check your analytics to see which keywords, traffic sources and content are driving the most traffic and conversions. Find ways to replicate those results in your future campaigns.

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