seo lunch & learn (the learn part)

WeWorkLunch & Learn

SEO/Tech ExtraordinaireEli Feldblum

#RankAboveLL

CTO & Founder of

RankAbove

[email protected]

@FeldBum

201-815-9467

mailto:[email protected]

RankAboveSmart, Automated SEO

@GreycroftVC#RankAboveLL

About This Lunch & Learn

Learning (or re-learning) SEO

Basics & dispelling SEO Myths

The Human Side of Google.

Big Site Issues

Know the Knowledge Graph

‘Insider’ SEO Tips & Tricks

Mini Site Audits

Questions, Answers & Food


Back to Basics

Remember everything we

started doing, before we got

distracted by fun tactics?

That stuff still works really well.


The Basics: Keywords

Tools:

Google Instant

Keyword Planner

Trends

RankAbove

SEMRush

Use the one you like best—and use them

all for important stories or pages.


The Basics: Keywords

@GreycroftVC

RankAbove Keyword Planner Instant Trends

Tiny Houses

Tiny House

Tiny House Plans

Tiny Houses for Sale

Tumbleweed Tiny House

Small House Plans

Tumbleweed

Tiny Homes

Tiny House Plans

Tiny House Movement

Tiny House Nation

Small House Movement

Tiny House

Tiny House Plans

Tiny House Blog

Tumbleweed Tiny

House

Tiny Houses

Small House Plans

Tiny Homes

Tiny House for

Sale

Tiny House Nation

Small Houses

Tiny House

Tiny House Nation

Tiny House For Sale

Tiny House Plans

Tiny House

Movement

Tiny Houses Prefab

Tiny Houses on

Wheels

Tiny Houses Floor

Plans

Tiny Houses Cost

Small House

Movement

Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed Tiny

House Company

Tumbleweed Tiny

House

Tiny House

Tiny House Plans

Tiny Houses

Small Houses

#RankAboveLL

The Basics: Titles

Make sure your titles

match what your customers

search for.

Is that dress “pistachio?” Nobody

searches for a “pistachio” dress. It’s

green.

Called your TV movie “The TLC

Story?” Great. Everyone is going to

search for “TLC movie.”

Don’t let Google rewrite them.


The Basics: Content

Content is still king.

Especially now.

Good content = Good SEO.

Use your H1 tags, and always

endeavor to lead with the most

unique and most relevant

content.


The Basics: Content

Retailers:

If you use manufacturer

descriptions, no one will find

your products.

Fill in the gaps left by manufacturers, and

you may get some internal link

opportunities too.


The Basics: Internal Links

In fact, many of you don’t even

need more links, just better and

more consistent internal linking.

Create a plan or use technology to

standardize internal links across

your site

Look out for duplicate content

(more on that later).


The Basics: URLs

Your URLs are virtual and

generally controlled by your

CMS.

It pays to make them friendly and easy-to-

read.


The Basics: Schema Markup

Help Google understand

the context of your content.

Product schema

Breadcrumb schema

Whatever else applies to your site.

Find out more at schema.org.


The Basics: Rich Media

Google likewise doesn’t

understand your rich media

content—or even know its there.

Use XML Sitemaps (regular for

images and video for, um, video).

Check out the RankAbove/comScore joint

study on how well rich media performs.


The Basics: Soup to Nuts

Search Engines read top to bottom:

From titles, to URLs, to H1, to

Content, to Links. Tell a story.

Match the keywords you researched to

your internal links and to the content

on your site.

Be consistent.


Advanced: Internal Competition

Big sites grow dynamically,

and—unchecked—you can

easily become your own biggest

competitor.

Use the following checklist to prevent

thin, duplicate or competing content

from appearing on your site.



Do you have any empty category

pages?

Do you use tags? Has any tag has

ever appeared only once on your

site?

Do you allow users to create

content? Are there safeguards to

ensure they don’t duplicate

content?



Do two pagetypes on your site

serve similar purposes, like author

and bio pages?

How do you handle product

variations, like size, color and

quantity?

Find more issues with tools like

RankAbove or the site: command

in Google.


The Humans of Google

Site Quality Matters

A mix of algorithms and real

humans are looking at your site,

and they are looking for:

Speed to Load

Ad Coverage

Content Quality

Boilerplate Content

Reading Level

Links & Social Metrics

Design Aesthetic


But Didn’t SEO Change?

Panda and Penguin

You’ve probably heard that you

should be scared of them.

That’s true.

But they aren’t really game

changers—they are game

enforcers.


Knowledge Graph

Use Wikipedia, Freebase and

Google+ to get more visitors

and incredible exposure.


What is the Knowledge Graph?

It’s actually kinda what it

sounds like:

A graph of all the knowledge

Google has.

It’s a collection of data that

Google has gathered, and of

the connections between

those bits of data.

The collation of that data is

what is displayed.



It shows up in many forms. The one we see most often is this side

box or panel.



It also powers the “collections” we see on searches that return

specific lists of results, like casts of shows or movies.



And it answers questions.



It even compares things.


How Does it Affect Sites?

Usually, it hurts them.

Especially informational sites or

sites that show up for

informational queries, like:

Publishers

Wikis

Q&A Sites

Single-Purpose Data Sites



STUDY:

8 sites

20MM impressions

2MM clicks

@GreycroftVC

When the Knowledge Graph displayed, average CTR for sites in

the Top 5 Positions of Google dropped from 13% to 8%.

#RankAboveLL


In first position, average

CTR dropped from 22% to

12%.



Even sites

referenced in the

Knowledge Graph

lost traffic.

Once it was

introduced,

Wikipedia lost

more than 20%

of its US traffic.


But!

When used correctlythe Knowledge Graph showed

an overall increase in traffic for

sites, even when those sites lost

traffic on individual searches.

@GreycroftVC

Answers and panels (collations) hurt sites

The carousel and related links (collections and

connections) can help sites.

#RankAboveLL

Fighting Back

How do you use

the Knowledge Graph to

your advantage?

Wikipedia

Freebase

Collating and Organizing your

own information


Wikipedia

The Knowledge Graph’s

primary source of textual,

descriptive data

Luckily, you can—and

should—edit Wikipedia (I have

~5000 edits).

No need to promote your site

Don’t violate Wikipedia

guidelines


Wikipedia

Make sure that:

Wikipedia’s information,

especially the top intro

paragraph, are correct.

Related information in

Wikipedia is correct:

– Cast lists

– Car models

– Categories

– Etc…


Freebase

An incredible database of

nearly all the world’s info:

@GreycroftVC

It does exactly what the Knowledge Graph needs: it shows

the connections between different pieces of data.

Unsurprisingly purchased by

Google

That you can also edit

#RankAboveLL

Freebase

Make sure those

connections are correct

and that they include what you

want.

Connect data to a site!

A great way to subtly convince

Google to use your site as a

source for the Knowledge

Graph, or get the info you

want in the Knowledge Graph.

Only until April 2015!


Make Your Own Freebase/Wikipedia

If you do connect your site you’ll do best in the Knowledge

Graph if Google likes the site.

Keep it organized

Show connections and

collections

Make it highly structured

Bonus: If you can maintain it,

make it editable.


The Results

VH1 used the Knowledge

Graph

to their advantage, updating

Wikipedia and Freebase to

ensure all show and product info

was correct.

@GreycroftVC

Avg. CTR when the Knowledge Graph showed up (in all positions)

jumped to 15%!

#RankAboveLL

The Results

In fact, by tracking

IPs and visitor sessions

We saw that users actually

browsed more pages when the Knowledge Graph showed up!


The Results

For searches that returned

collection results, especially with visual collections,

CTR jumped to 20% in all

positions!


One Last Thing!

The Knowledge Graph

also grabs data from one more

very important source: your

favorite social network,

Google+!

Connect you Google+ page, and Google

will feature your latest G+ post for free!


SEO Tips & Tricks Free Traffic for eCommerce sites

The secret Macy’s doesn’t want

you to know about

How HappyPlace tricked you

One weird trick your agency

doesn’t want to know

But wait! There’s more!


The Coupon Page

For almost every retailerthe most popular branded searches

(and often the most popular

searches) are for coupons and

discounts.

Why give that away to RetailMeNot?


The Coupon Page

YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO OFFER COUPONS!


Macys.com Secret NavigationThe Macys.com you never see—unless you come from search.

@GreycroftVC

THE PERFECT COMBO OF SEO AND USABILITY

#RankAboveLL

Macys.com Secret Navigation

But it doesn’t sell quite as well as

Macys.com’s regular category pages.

Vs.


Macys.com Secret Navigation

They link to it contextually, but not overtly

They use it primarily where they don’t have

categories or subcategories (like cocktail

dresses)

Once the bot gets to /SLP/, it stays there. And

it likes it.


The Never-Ending Page

We all wants links, shares and other social

metrics for our articles.

How can your smaller site get as many likes, tweets

and links as the big guys?


The Never-Ending Page

Just run the same article forever. Or at least, on the same URL.


But Wait, There’s More!

@GreycroftVC

Food, Questions & Mini Site Audits

#RankAboveLL

More Information

[email protected]

201-815-9467

@FeldBum


seo lunch & learn (the learn part)

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