SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Improving Your Library Website’s Search Engine Rankings

ABOUT ME

Jonathan HuntSr. SEO Account Lead with PMG

• 10+ years experience in SEO

• Focus in mobile & video marketing

Clients have included:

• J.Crew

• Consumer Reports

• Cole Haan

• G4 Television2

TODAY’S AGENDA

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What is SEO?

A Brief History of SERPs

How Searchers Search

The Quest for Ranking Factors

Local SEO

Mobile SEO

Tools to Get You Started

What is SEO?

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.”

-- MOZ.com

PEOPLE USE SEARCH ENGINES – A LOT!

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In August 2012, Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President at Google and responsible for the development of Google Search, disclosed that Google's search engine found more than 30 trillion unique URLs on the Web, crawls 20 billion sites a day, and processes 100 billion searches every month (which translate to 3.3 billion searches per day and over 38,000 thousand per second).

NO, SERIOUSLY… A WHOLE LOT!

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GOOGLE ISN’T THE ONLY FISH… JUST THE BIGGEST

8Source: jimmydata.com

A Brief History of SERPs

GOOGLE SERPS : 2001

Paid Search Ads

Natural Search Listings

GOOGLE SERPS : 2005

Paid Search Ads

Natural Search Listings

GOOGLE SERPS : 2016

Natural Search Results

PLAs

Paid Search Ads

Rich Results

GOOGLE SERPS : 2016 LOCAL INTENT

Natural Search Results

Local Pack Results

How Searchers Search

THREE TYPES OF SEARCHES

(Informational Queries)

• Reference Material

• Upcoming Events

KNOW

DO

GO(Navigational Queries)

• Hours of Operation

• Directions / Address

(Transactional Queries)

• Extend Check-Outs / Reservations

• Pay Fines

The Quest for Ranking Factors

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES RANK SITES?

• Backlinks

• Title Tags

• On-Page Keyword Density

• Content/Code Ratio

• User Signals

• Site Security

• Alt Tags

• Internal Links

• Many, many more signals

Google examines more than 200 signals as ranking factors.

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PILLARS OF SEO

Accessibility + Crawlability + Indexing

Content Relevance + Quality

Authority + Trust + Links

Site Security + Usability

PILLARS OF SEO

Can Google Read My Site?

Does Our Content Match Customer Expectations?

Do Users/Sites Trust Our Site?

Is Our Site Safe & Easy to Use?

PILLARS: CRAWLING & INDEXING

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SEO Overview

Crawling & Indexing Content Trust & Links Site Security & UX

CRAWLING + INDEXING

• Robots.txt

• XML Sitemaps

• Internal Linking

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ROBOTS.TXT FILE

• Every site should have a robots.txt file, usually living off the root directory or sub-directory.

• Example: https://www.mydomain.com/robots.txt

• File gives parameters around access to various bot-types, including search engines.

• Helpful for restricting access to sections of the site from natural search.

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XML SITEMAPS

• XML Sitemaps are dynamically generated files, listing the important pages within a website.

• Example: https://www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml

• File helps highlight important pages for Google and other search engines.

• Helpful for making sure Google is crawling and indexing the pages on your site that matter most.

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INTERNAL LINKING

• The process of linking from pages on your website to other pages, also within your website. This includes navigation, related topic widgets, footer links, etc.

• Google places higher authority on pages that are linked to more often from your own website.

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PILLARS: CONTENT

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SEO Overview

Crawling & Indexing Content Trust & Links Site Security & UX

CONTENT RELEVANCE + QUALITY

• On-Page Content• Visible content, which can be seen and experienced by the user. Google weighs

this content more heavily as it makes up the actual content for which users are searching.

• Meta Content• Content contained within the code of the webpage, but not readily visible to users

on the page.

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ON-PAGE CONTENT

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Readable Text

Images

Headers

HEADERS • These are specific HTML tags, used to denote sections of content on a page.

• Google places great weight on these elements, as they are key indicators on the nature and topic and content on the page.

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META CONTENT

Page Titles• Should give a quick headline on the content of

the page, plus branding

• This tag will also be used for the search listing headline in SERPs

• Length should be shorter than 512 pixels or 65 characters

Meta Descriptions• Longer description regarding the content of the

webpage

• Should use “call to action” language, as tag content could be used to fill SERPs listing “blurb” below headline

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STRUCTURED DATA

These are advanced tags that can be applied to content in a variety of ways. They help search engines contextualize the information on a page.

Structured data types include:• Local Businesses

• Events

• Reviews

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http://schema.org

PILLARS: TRUST & LINKS

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SEO Overview

Crawling & Indexing Content Trust & Links Site Security & UX

TRUST

• Authority

• Engagement

• History

• Identity

• Quality

• Text

• Numbers

• Paid

• Spam

LINKS

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TRUST & LINKS

PILLARS: SITE SECURITY & UX

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SEO Overview

Crawling & Indexing Content Trust & Links Site Security & UX

SECURITY & USER EXPERIENCE

Does your site utilize Http or Https protocol?

Does your site show strong “user signals?”

• Low Bounce Rate

• High Avg. Time Spent on Site

• Strong Pages/Visit Ratio

• Strong Organic Social Engagement

Is your site safe and easy to use?

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Intro to Mobile SEO?

HOW MUCH OF SEARCH IS MOBILE?

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As of 2015, more than 50% of all searches on Google are done from a Mobile device.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOBILE SITES

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• Separate URLs• Dynamic Serving• Responsive Design• Progressive Web App• Native Mobile App

MOBILE SITE TYPES: SEPARATE URLS

Effectively, you have two sites – one designed for desktop, one for mobile –which live permanently at different URLs, often on differing sub-domains.

http://www.mywebsite.com/ http://m.mywebsite.com/

SEPARATE URLS : REL=“ALT” & CANONICAL TAGS

These tags help tell Google which set of URLs are for Desktop, which are for Mobile devices.

http://www.mywebsite.com/ http://m.mywebsite.com/

Rel=“Alternate” Tags

Canonical Tags

MOBILE SITE TYPES : DYNAMIC SERVING

http://www.mywebsite.com/

Desktop HTML Mobile HTML

Dynamic Serving utilizes two separate HTML designs, loading only one based of device information to a single URL.

MOBILE SITE TYPES : RESPONSIVE

Responsive Design takes advantage of custom viewports / CSS styles to modify content, based on physical screen-size.

MOBILE SITE TYPES : PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS

• A hybrid approach utilizing the best of Responsive Design and Native Mobile App functionality, including:

• Fast Loading

• Push Notifications

• Consistent Browser Experience

• Smooth Animations / Transitions

• Good Performance with Low Connectivity

MOBILE SITE TYPES : NATIVE MOBILE APPS

Applications built to be installed on mobile devices:

• Built for specific OS’s

• Do not require browser

• Increase user loyalty

• Heavy development cost

NATIVE MOBILE APPS : GOOGLE’S F IREBASE APP

INDEXING

Google is now able to index the content of native mobile apps for natural search.

• Matches app content with website’s URL equivalent

• Provides small boost in mobile search rankings

• Heavy development cost

For users have your mobile app installed, clicking on an indexed search result trigger your app to open – directly to the targeted content – rather than progress to your mobile website.

AMAZON.COM : CASE STUDY • Mobile Site converts at 15%

• App converts at nearly 73%

• Non-Prime members were more likely to become Prime the longer they spent In-App

• In Holiday 2015, over 60% of customers were on Mobile – most using the Amazon App

GOOGLE’S MOBILE-FRIENDLY DESIGNATION

• What is it?Google rolled out the announced “Mobile Friendly” algorithm update on April 21, 2015. The update focused on website’s usability (UX) from a mobile device standpoint.

• Why is it important for SEO?The Mobile Friendly algorithm update is an important topic in the world of SEO, as failure to attain a mobile friendly designation could impact organic search rankings and performance.

GOOGLE’S MOBILE-FRIENDLY TEST

In advance of the Mobile-Friendly launch, Google rolled out a live test, where users could enter in the URL from a website and receive a pass/fail grade for mobile-friendliness.

• Determined at URL-level, not site-wide

• Mobile-Friendly =/= Mobile-Optimized

• Results could vary greatly due to Robots.txt restrictions

• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

GOOGLE’S MOBILE-FRIENDLY UPDATE

• Google updated “Mobile Friendly” algorithm on May 20, 2016. The update changed no standards for “Mobile Friendliness” but did increase their importance for mobile search rankings.

• The update also removed the “Mobile-friendly” designation in the actual search results. The test was still conducted and weighted in the algorithm, just no longer displayed in results.

• Many SEOs believe this update was done to better clear the path for AMP presence in Mobile search results.

GOOGLE ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES • Publicly announced in 2013

• Officially launched in Feb 2016

• Version of lightweight HTML for extremely fast loading

• Launched for publishers first, now branching to other verticals

• eBay just turned on 15 million eCommerceAMP pages

PAGESPEED IS IMPORTANT, Y’ALL!

• PageSpeed Has Always Been ImportantThe average user on desktop will abandon a website that takes longer than 4 seconds to load.

• On Mobile, Doubly SoOn mobile, the average user will abandon a website that longer than 2 seconds to load.

• Sometimes, it Feels Like a Catch-22Most website experience longer load times on Mobile due to device hardware limitations, signal reliability, and bloated HTML assets.

GOOGLE’S PAGESPEEDINSIGHTS

GOOGLE INTERSTITIAL PENALTY – COMING SOON

• Penalties assessed at the URL level

• Only affects initial landing pages

• Only affects visits from natural search

• Starting Jan. 10, 2017

“Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.” -

Intro to Local SEO

MOST MOBILE SEARCHES HAVE LOCAL INTENT

Google Now Says 56% of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent

Local Intent Other

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TOP CONTENT: N-A-P INFO

• The most important content for Local SEO will be your NAP information:

• Business Name

• Address

• Phone Numbers

• Other key items to include are:

• Website

• Operating Hours

• Directions

• Parking Info

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GOOGLE MY BUSINESS • Google My Business allows you to customize and better control your Google Maps listings and presence in Google’s Local Pack Results:

• Go to Google My Business site to sign up, or click “Claim This Listing” on your location in Google Maps

• Verify your listing – usually via Postcard

• Once verified, you will have access to control NAP info in Google Maps, as well as operating hours, images, description, etc.

Tools to Get You Started

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

• Benefits of Google Search Console:

• Monitor site indexing, crawling, basic search performance

• Receive alerts for any indexing issues directly from Google

• Manually submit XML sitemaps and URLs to Google for indexing

• How to Setup:• Include basic HTML tag in website “head” section to

verify

• Often requires admin-level access to setup properly

• Keep in Mind:• Data shows rolling 12 months, historical data NOT kept

GOOGLE ANALYTICS• Benefits of Googler Analytics:

• Free, robust tool for tracking onsite performance metrics across all channels, including SEO

• Easily integrates with Google Search Console and other Google tools

• How to Setup:• Go to google.com/analytics to sign up

• Requires admin-level access to setup properly

• Keep in Mind:• Can be very technical for setup – do not rush, and take

time to think through implementation before turning on.

GOOGLE TRENDS

• Benefits of Googler Trends:

• Free tool for tracking relative volumes between difference search queries

• Easy to use with filter system for date range and locale, including Metro-level granularity

• Keep in Mind:• Volumes are not absolute. Trends only returns indexed

values based on comparison.

THANK YOU