From Tom: For those of you who came to the workshop on November 11, thank you for participating! It was great for me to get back to teaching, which is one of the passions I have had over the past 15 years. To download the materials, please click on the image to the right. Our next workshop should be announced shortly. It will likely be about Social Media. but I'd like to add a little twist - using it in a way to help you save time while getting more quality customers. See you soon! Text from last night's presentation: Get Found on the INTERNET Tom Ossa Owner, Rockland Web Design Inc. November 12, 2014 Topics to be Covered • Introductions • Sources used for this workshop • How Google Works (Video) • Search Engine Ranking Factors • Exercise: A sample Google search • Google Analytics data • A little breaktime. • Writing workshop • Basic Do-It-Yourself SEO • Online communities for links • Questions and Answers Sources: • Google • Guide: How Search Works • Video: How Search Works • Webmaster Academy • Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide • Google Analytics Help Center • Bing • Bing Webmaster Tools Help & How To • Moz • 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors • Beginner’s Guide to SEO • Copyblogger • Mediative Eye Tracking Report • Other: • Lots of Starbucks Coffee • Spotify’s Psychedelic Rock Playlist Reference: How Search Works • Google uses spiders to crawl pages on the Internet • Links are how spiders find content • Once spider finds content, Google indexes the content • When someone searches for something, Google asks over 200 questions • Example: Are keywords in content? In title, URL, adjacent, synonyms? • Is the page of good quality, pagerank? • Results: Page titles, URL, text description. Also similar pages. Reference: Over 200 Ranking Factors • Links • Keywords • Site structure • Website Domain • Title, H1 Tags, Meta descriptions • Current web traffic • Social metrics (Up for debate) • Accessibility • URL rewriting • Number of characters in content • # of pages • Alt Tags • Much more. Source: Moz Ranking Factors 2013 Top 3 Search Driving Forces High quality content Links from trusted sources A well-structured website Types of Searches Users Perform • Do: Things like buying a ticket, listening to a song, or ordering food • Know: Name of band, restaurant, location. Information about a person. • Go: Find a specific website, such as www.theoatmeal.com Source: MOZ Beginner’s Guide to SEO Exercise: How Do You Search? Problem: You need to find the time for a movie that you want to see tonight. Please do this: Write down 3 ways you would put this into a search engine. Ways People Search: • Name of movie, theater, location, time • Find movie theater first (Probably add location) • Write in the name of the movie • Write name of movie review site • Ask question in sentence format: • “When (or what time) is ______ playing” • “Where is ________ playing?” • “Where is the movie playing, and at what time tonight? Source: Google Inside Search Tips and Tricks Exercise 2: Search Yourself! (Luke) Problem: You need to find your own product, service or information that you want to see right now. Please do this: Write down 3 ways you would put this into a search engine. Exercise 3: Let Someone Search You! Problem: You get the point…see below. Please do this: Tell your friend what you want them to look for. Have that friend write down 3 ways he/she would search. So…where do you get this data? Start with Google Analytics. Google Analytics: Find out Why Reference: Basic Definitions • Sessions: How many visitors • Session Duration: How long they stayed • Bounce Rate: What percentage of people left immediately (Video) • Pageviews: Total number of pages viewed • Goal conversion rate: 2% is the average • Users: Returning visitors Source: Analytics – Behavior metrics Some Important Metrics: • Audience: • Age and gender • Location • Device • Acquisition: • Organic / Social / Direct / Email / Paid • Keywords (Sessions vs. time on site) • Behavior • Content • Drilldown • Landing and exit pages • In-Page Analytics Source: Google Analytics How to Use the Data: • Make a list of the keywords that: • Were most popular • Identified your brand • Kept people on the site • Led to further engagement Use that data to adjust your site, plan your strategy and write your content. The Point: Listen to User Behavior First Source: Google Analytics and Mediative.com. Also CrazyEgg.com Google Keyword Planner Tool, others Source: http://adwords.google.com/ and Moz Tools WooRank & Moz – Check the Competition Source; WooRank, Moz, Raventools Reference: Check if your site exists • Site: domain.com • Submit your site: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url • …and your content: www.google.com/submityourcontent - every time you create a new page. • The easier you make it for users to navigate through your site, better for Google • Title • Meta Description • Alt tags, etc. • Check Robots.txt file (Techie thing, don’t worry about this.) Let’s talk about content & structure Search Engine Optimization that anyone can do. Webmaster Guidelines for Content • Content that is easily readable by users, and made for users • Unique, high quality content • Not deceptive of the users or search engines In short: Write for the users, not for search engines. Start with a Word Document Writing Styles • Straightforward – This is the product. These are the features. Buy it. • Storytelling – Explain what happened, and how we got here. • Conversational – I know how you feel, I felt the same way. • John Lennon – Imagine that there is no Heaven or Hell. • Long copy – The more you tell, the more you sell. • Direct from the CEO Copy – Authority. • Frank copy – The ugly truth. Source: Copywriting 101 from Copyblogger Writing Exercise • Someone calls you on the phone. You pick up, and the person on the other end of the phone says that he or she wants to understand what you (or your business does, and why he or she should get that product, service, or information from you. • Person says that you have three minutes to explain. Go. Source: www.copyblogger.com Reference: Performing Basic SEO • Write good title tags for every page you create • Describe the page in the meta description • Write good, compelling, interesting content • “Tag” your content (text, images, video, web address) for Google • Make your pages easy to navigate • Make sure your site can be crawled by search engines • Have a mobile version of the website • Announce via your blog, your social media, reputable news sources Source: Google Search Engine Starter Guide Title Tags (Title of Page) • Approximately 50-60 characters long • 2-3 important keywords at front of tag • Begin or end with your brand name • Remember to write for the users • Do not keyword-stuff your title tag. Sources: Google SEO Starter Guide / Beginner’s Guide to SEO / SEO for Bing / AuthorityLabs Meta Descriptions • Accurately summarize the page’s content • Create a unique description for each page • 155 characters or less is the standard, roughly the size of a text message • Some sources have theorized that Google can still “see” longer descriptions • …but they won’t show up for users. Source: Google SEO Starter Guide / Beginner’s Guide to SEO / SEO for Bing IMPORTANT: Keyword Usage in Body of Content • Choose a focus keyword or keyphrase for your article or topic • General rule is 3-5% of your content should be that keyword / keyphrase • For every 100 words, 3-5 of them are keywords or keyphrases • You can go a little higher than that if you need but don’t go too far… • Synonyms are a great way to keep using your original keywords without boring people DO NOT KEYWORD-STUFF. CMS: Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly • Needed to do the more advanced stuff • Write unique titles, descriptions for each page • Tag the images • Create hyperlinks to other content on site • For Wordpress: Download SEO Plugin • Yoast SEO is all sorts of fantastic. • All in One SEO Toolkit was ok, but Reference: Other Tagging of Content • Word count: Minimum 250 words (debatable) • Shoot for local first – mention where you are located. City and state is fine. • Create headings to separate main topics on pages • Images: Use the Tag • Videos: Post to YouTube – Describe everything and embed on website • Links: Use -A Title- • Remember – there are lots of resources available online, and through us. Source: SEO Copywriting Reference: Structure - Have Pages Easy to Navigate • Popular content should up top and to the left (if possible) • Logo should link back to home page • Easy to use navigation bar • Should accommodate any device (Mobile) • CMS systems have themes – reduces design element, and the budget significantly Getting Links to Your Content “The best way to get other sites to create high-quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.” Spiffy Ways to Get Links to Your Content • Do good deeds, write about them (better yet, others will write about them) • Create press releases and submit them to local, regional news organizations • Social media communities – answer questions • Testimonials / reviews – Ask clients to write them for you • Create profiles – fill them out completely (Yelp, Angie’s List, FindLaw, etc.) • Google Maps – Fill out all the information completely • YouTube videos – fill out the information completely • Forums like Reddit.com, LinkedIn – answer more questions, participate Developing Trust Online Choose the question to which you would most likely respond: The question that got results: iCARE: Developing Trust Online • I – Interaction • C – Concern for those in need • A – Approval & celebration • R – Resources…connect people! • E – Events, products, sales, cool stuff A Good Formula for Online Success • Each year: Plan writing about the one thing for which you want to be known. • Each quarter: Write the titles for 12 topics that you will write. • Each month: Choose the 4-5 topics you will be writing on each month • Beginning of each week: Pick one topic. Research it and write it in one hour. Seriously. • Next day: go back and do that basic SEO on it. 30 minutes should do it. • Rest of the week: Interact on social media and online communities for 30 minutes. • 80% of the time, just be cool and participate. It’s fun. • 20% of the time, promote your articles Source: Me. A Good Formula for Online Success • Each year: Plan writing about the one thing for which you want to be known. • Each quarter: Write the titles for 12 topics that you will write. • Each month: Choose the 4-5 topics you will be writing on each month • Beginning of each week: Pick one topic. Research it and write it in one hour. Seriously. • Next day: go back and do that basic SEO on it. 30 minutes should do it. • Rest of the week: Interact on social media and online communities for 30 minutes. • 80% of the time, just be cool and participate. It’s fun. • 20% of the time, promote your articles Source: Me. 301: Efficient vs. Effective • Busy + less time = more pressure • More likely to respond poorly • Examples of public gaffes (3) • Efficient: makes people feel like you don’t care • Effective: you care, AND save time • Never fully automate your humanity. Questions and Answers Ask anything. Really. Anything. The End. Source: The Three Amigos