SEO FOR 2015

OVERVIEW

• SEO Overview/Terminology – Case study On-Page SEO

• What changed in 2014? – Case Study Link Profiles

• SEO for 2015–On-Page SEO –Off-Page SEO –Social Signals –Mobile Strategy –SEO/SEM Synergy • SEO Checklist

WHY YOU NEED ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION?

Why you need Organic Search Engine Optimization? 91% of US users use search on a regular basis and the numbers are

pretty high in other countr ies as well . 80% of the cl icks on Google are on the organic search l ist ings Above 50% online search is done through Google I f you are not doing it , your competitor is doing it . Do you want to

lose out on all these leads?

What is Organic Listing?

This is the normal l ist ing that appears in the Google Search Engine Result Pages without paying any amount to Google.

HOW TO DO SEO…

• Essentially, 4 things to do…

1.ON-PAGE SEO

2.OFF-PAGE SEO

3.Generate Local Signals

4.Generate Social Signals

HOW TO DO SEO… • On-Page SEO

– Things you actually PHYSICALLY do to your site…

• Content for your site (Make/Model Pages, etc.)

• Title Tags

• Meta Tags

• Description Text

• Putting up Specials

• Etc.

HOW TO DO SEO…•Off-Page SEO

–Things you do OFF your site…

•Link Building (i.e., links from bloggers, bookmarks, etc.)

•Citations (i.e., local directory listings)

•Etc.

HOW TO DO SEO… • Generate Local Signals – Google Asks: How relevant are you for local searches? (e.g., data entry service new

york, data entry service [GEO], etc.)

– Answer: Proximity, local mentions of your Services

• Local sites (Parts, Pizza, Golf, University, etc.)

• Local Bloggers

• Local Social Sharing (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.com, etc.)

• Local Directories & Citations

HOW TO DO SEO… •Social Signals – What is a “social signal”?

• Likes, Google+ Links, +1’s, mentions, tweets, re-tweets, etc., you get from Google+, FB, Twitter, Reddit.com, Social Bookmark sites, etc.

– Google has definitively said that “social signals” count in their organic ranking algorithm

but, nobody knows for sure how much…

• Google has limited crawl access to FB, Twitter, etc.

• May be getting information from Google Analytics

HOW TO DO SEO…

•The pieces of the puzzle…

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HOW TO DO SEO…

•The pieces of the puzzle…

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WHAT’S CHANGED??? Pirate 2.0 — October 21, 2014

More than two years after the original DMCA/"Pirate" update, Google launched another update to combat software and digital media piracy. This update was highly targeted, causing dramatic drops in ranking to a relatively small group of sites.

Penguin 3.0 — October 17, 2014

More than a year after the previous Penguin update (2.1), Google launched a Penguin refresh. This update appeared to be smaller than expected (<1% of US/English queries affected) and was probably data-only (not a new Penguin algorithm). The timing of the update was unclear, especially internationally, and Google claimed it was spread out over "weeks".

"In The News" Box — October 1, 2014

Google made what looked like a display change to News-box results, but later announced that they had expanded news links to a much larger set of potential sites. The presence of news results in SERPs also spiked, and major news sites reported substantial traffic changes.

Panda 4.1 (#27) — September 23, 2014

Google announced a significant Panda update, which included an algorithmic component. They estimated the impact at 3-5% of queries affected. Given the "slow rollout," the exact timing was unclear.

Authorship Removed — August 28, 2014

Following up on the June 28th drop of authorship photos, Google announced that they would be completely removing authorship markup (and would no longer process it). By the next morning, authorship bylines had disappeared from all SERPs.

HTTPS/SSL Update — August 6, 2014

After months of speculation, Google announced that they would be giving preference to secure sites, and that adding encryption would provide a "lightweight" rankings boost. They stressed that this boost would start out small, but implied it might increase if the changed proved to be positive.

Pigeon — July 24, 2014

Google shook the local SEO world with an update that dramatically altered some local results and modified how they handle and interpret location cues. Google claimed that Pigeon created closer ties between the local algorithm and core algorithm(s).

WHAT’S CHANGED???Authorship Photo Drop — June 28, 2014

John Mueller made a surprise announcement (on June 25th) that Google would be dropping all authorship photos from SERPs (after heavily promoting authorship as a connection to Google+). The drop was complete around June 28th.

Payday Loan 3.0 — June 12, 2014

Less than a month after the Payday Loan 2.0 anti-spam update, Google launched another major iteration. Official statements suggested that 2.0 targeted specific sites, while 3.0 targeted spammy queries.

Panda 4.0 (#26) — May 19, 2014

Google confirmed a major Panda update that likely included both an algorithm update and a data refresh. Officially, about 7.5% of English-language queries were affected. While Matt Cutts said it began rolling out on 5/20, our data strongly suggests it started earlier.

Payday Loan 2.0 — May 16, 2014

Just prior to Panda 4.0, Google updated it's "payday loan" algorithm, which targets especially spammy queries. The exact date of the roll-out was unclear (Google said "this past weekend" on 5/20), and the back-to-back updates made the details difficult to sort out.

Unnamed Update — March 24, 2014

Major algorithm flux trackers and webmaster chatter spiked around 3/24-3/25, and some speculated that the new, "softer" Panda update had arrived. Many sites reported ranking changes, but this update was never confirmed by Google.

Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014

Google "refreshed" their page layout algorithm, also known as "top heavy". Originally launched in January 2012, the page layout algorithm penalizes sites with too many ads above the fold.

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – ON-PAGE SEO

- Create a GREAT User Experience.

With Panda, all sites are given QUALITY SCORE – the better content you have, the higher you’l l rank

•The Panda algorithm uses site metrics to “score” your site

•The site “Quality Score” is based on things l ike:

•Time on Site

•Pages/Visit

•Page Load Time

•Other factors…

•Make Your Site Interesting to help these factors .

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – OFF-PAGE SEO

- Make sure your links are as “natural” as possible…

With Penguin, bad l inks can actually hurt you (Google used to ignore most of these)

•Do Linkbuilding by: –Content Marketing

•Hosting your content on real blogs ( l ink back to your site)

–Guest Posting

•Posting as an expert in area on a real blog ( l ink back to your site)

–Establishing local relationships

•Get l inks from them

–Real “Natural Linking”

•Infographics

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – SOCIAL SHARING

•“Share” your content on the social networks such as Google+, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, etc.

Images on Pinterest, Instagram etc.

• Here, an “inventory page” is being posted to Google+, FB & Twitter – This helps the page get indexed and ranked higher in Google

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – SOCIAL SHARING

•Traffic from Social Sharing

•1000+ visits from Social Media sites

•Sending a strong “Social Signal” to Google

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – MOBILE STRATEGY

•Mobile traffic is on the rise... •Mobile traffic will surpass desktop sometime in

2014

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – MOBILE STRATEGY

•The best mobile strategy is to make sure that you show up in Google Map Searches

•You can improve your positions in the maps by making sure you have updated “business listings”

•Also, make sure you have a mobile site and make sure metrics like page load time, bounce rates, time on site are good

•Google is ranks sites better if they have a “good user mobile experience”

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – MOBILE STRATEGY

•How Business listings affect rankings…

•Make sure you are listed in these and have correct information! (address + phone no) Business Reviews also helps.

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – SEO/SEM SYNERGY

•Make sure you do SEM (PPC + Display) along with SEO .

Go with Facebook & Twitter ads, if ready to invest for more.

SEO STRATEGIES 2014 & BEYOND – SEO/SEM SYNERGY

•Make sure you do SEM (PPC + Display) along with SEO

–PPC & Display helps generate organic traffic

–When both an organic and PPC listing show up, people are 50% more likely to click on one of your links

–PPC can generate social signals

–Performance of website is always best when both SEO & PPC are utilized

SEO CHECKLIST (5 POINT LIST) 1.Are you adding content to your site on a monthly basis?

2.Are your title tags optimized?

3.Are you adding meta tags

–Description, Keywords, Microdata, etc.

4.Are you building l inks to your site? –What is the anchor text? –Where, what, & how many? –Are you establishing local relationships?

5.Are you building/updating citations? –Yellowbook etc.

Thank You