wacvb presentation seo in 2012 and beyond

The State of SEO in 2012 and Beyond

ARNIE KUENN, PRESIDENT, VERTICAL MEASURES - @ARNIEK

@ArnieK #WACVBTechSummit

About Your Presenter…

• President of Vertical Measures - Offering SEO, Link Building, Social Media & Content Marketing Services

• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute & Online Marketing Institute

• Author of Accelerate! Move Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social and Content Marketing

Available on Amazon


Why Focus on Search?• 93% of all buyers

online or in stores use search prior to making a purchase

• 86% of searchers conduct non-branded queries.

• 94% of buyers click on organic links versus 6% on paid links for branded queries.

Sources: GroupM, Did-it, Enquiro, and Eyetools.


2011-2012 Google Panda Updates

• Biggest Google Algorithm update in years!• 100% Algorithmic, No Manual Changes• Clobbered Content Farms, Article Sites &

Duplicate & Weak content• Even YOUR website could be affected if you

have pages with weak content• More Rolling out with Respect to Cleaning

Up Spam on the Web• Even looking for “over optimization”


Universal Search Results

61% of all search results


Develop Your Strategy

• Why are you creating the content you are creating? • Who is your audience and who are you?• Where do you plan to publish your content?• What will you measure? • What is different a year from now?


Plan Your Content Calendar

• 1-7-30-4-2-1 Plan– 1=Daily (Twitter, Blog)– 7=Weekly (eNewsletter)– 30=Monthly (Webinar)– 4=Quarterly (eBook, Magazine)– 2=Bi-Annually (User Event)– 1=Yearly (Large Research Project)


Start With Keyword Research

• Keyword research should be the foundation

• What keyword phrases do your visitors use? (Check Analytics)

• For ideas use tools like….


Soovle.com


Ubersuggest.org


Google Adwords Keyword Tool


Question & Answer Sites

1618 results


Google’s Discussions in Search


What Works For Your Competitors?


Identify Types of Content to be Created


Content Ideas in a Spreadsheet


Long Tail is the Key!


Create Great Content


Benefits of a Blog

• Gives you a vehicle to post new content• Allows for internal linking• Keeps the search engines coming back –

have 434% more indexed pages*• Have 2X as many backlinks*• Your site gets 55% more traffic*• You have 79% more Twitter followers*

*Hubspot


Thanks to Miles Media


All Different – But Core Items

• Content is found through social media and search engines – so optimize it!

• Web pages, News, Local, Images & Videos1. Links pointing to your content2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)4. Image alt text tags 5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)6. Page load times7. Freshness of content8. URL structure (short & include KW’s)


Search Optimization Elements


How to Optimize Images

• Image files should be compressed as much as reasonably possible to reduce file size. Smaller files mean faster site load speeds. JPGs generally offer the best balance of file size & quality.

• Use relevant keywords in image filenames, separated by dashes (not underscores). Instead of "DL000031.jpg", use something like "red-sports-car.jpg"

• Make sure <img> tags have their "alt" and "title" attributes defined with descriptive, concise, keyword-related text. Do not stuff <img> attributes.

• Context matters. Google looks at content placed around the image, like titles and captions, for context about your image.

• Be sure to include images in your sitemap. The XML tags provide additional opportunities to define an image's title, caption, and even geographic location.


How to Optimize Videos

• Specific, Compelling Title –Would you click on “Our Company” or “V00023.mov?” neither will your audience. Use “Video” and change the file name too!

• Description - Say as much as you can in the first sentence or two, because many video sites will hide the bulk of your description. Include at least one link placed at the start of the description (with http://).

• Tags –This is where you can help your video appear in the “Suggested” or “Similar” videos section.

• Video Quality / Resolution – Shoot, edit and export the video in the highest quality available on the devices and software you use. The online video audience is very forgiving of skill level, but a low resolution video can make it difficult to see what is going on.

• Thumbnail Image – Pick the most visually compelling of the options they give you.


Promote Your Content

• Understand who your customer is and where they are online.

• Conduct PR and blogger pitches

• Develop relationships & build partnerships

• People share your ideas, link to your content.

• Mentions & Shares are signals (especially G+)


Pinterest!


Twitter – AJ Bombers• Milwaukee restaurant formed a

community by publishing specials & answering customer questions

• Have more than 12,000 followers • Estimate 75 percent of customers are

Twitter followers• Treat everyone on Twitter as if they are

regulars• Allow customers to write their Twitter

names on the walls of the restaurant


Facebook – The Motor Lodge (Prescott, AZ)

• Beat the crowds with a sneak peek of the Courthouse Christmas lights tonight from 5:30-6:30pm (the official Lighting Ceremony is Saturday).

• Time to get shopping so, for our Facebook buddies we will add 15% to any gift certificate that you purchase for holiday giving. Think of it, you provide a fun place to stay for your favorite people while appearing to be 15% more generous than you really are...It's a win, win!

• We thought you should know that waterboarding at The Motor Lodge has stopped! In case you never had the chance to experience the torture that was our showers, imagine standing in a phone booth while a 55 gallon drum of water was dumped on you from 8' up (a classic case of form over function...sorry). New and improved, ...adjustable and reachable showerheads make cleansing your beautiful body an absolute pleasure. Enjoy!

• Time to name the cat that adopted us 3 months ago! Whoever comes up with the winning name wins a free night in our swankiest room, #6. The cat is a neutered male, very friendly, green eyes and has a hole in his left ear. Voting ends Sunday at 5pm. (The post included a video of the cat.)


How Often Should You Post?

• The most common complaint from Facebook users is Newsfeed spam

• The most popular Facebook Pages post once a day or less.

• Posting one to four times per week produces 71% higher user engagement

• Focus on quality, not quantity on Facebook.• Only 50% of your posts should be about your

content. Businesses that share other content have a higher engagement rate.


Strategies for Effective Posts

• Post Length: 80 characters or less, 27% more engagement (as high as 65% in some verticals like retail).

• URL shorteners: Engagement rates are 3X higher for full length URLs

• Action Keywords: Fans follow instructions. Ask them to like, post, comment or tell you something.

• Ask questions at the end: 2X higher engagement rate.• Fill in the blank Posts: 9X more comments than other

posts.

Source: Buddy Media Platform


Distribute or Repurpose Content

• RSS feeds• Email Campaigns• Article Syndication• Web 2.0 Sites• Social Media Sites• Video, Photo, Presentation & Podcasts sites• These links will help your rankings!


Build Links to Your Content• Identify low hanging fruit

– Internal links– Blog & forum participation

• Targeted Links via…– Competitive research for similar content– Use search operators to find opportunities

• The best links:– Are from trusted sites– Have varied anchor text– Are from many different domains– Determined editorially


What are Bad Links?

• Multiple links to same site from same page • From same pages that have PPC – porn, pills and

casino links• Non-relevant or spammy footer links• Links from networks• Links on obvious links pages• Too much exact anchor text


Google’s Discussions in Search


Manual Link Building• Widgets or Badges• Competitive research for similar content


Link Attraction for Great Backlinks

• Links are given freely based on content that is so good, that it gets referenced on many websites.

• Create Interesting, Fun, Engaging Content– Quality Links from a variety of sources– Natural, editorially given links– Generate traffic to your website– No Risk!


They Don’t All Have to Be Grand Slams

Here are a few examples….

Hit a bunch of singles!


Free Guides Attract Links

474 backlinks from 123 unique domains


Infographics Attract Links



Interviews Attract Links




Links By Media Type

SEOMoz


Length of Post

SEOMoz


Link Research Summary

• Adding simple visual content, like lists and images, can increase the number of ILDs linking to you.

• Posts with videos included will attract almost 3 times more ILDs than a plain text post.

• Posts with all three media types (videos, images, and lists) will attract almost 6 times more ILDs than a plain text post.

• Contrary to common beliefs, large posts seem to attract more links than posts with 900 words or less.

• Posts with between 1800 and 3000 words will attract more than 15 times more ILDs than a post with less than 600 words.


Link Attraction - Summary

• Be patient and keep producing engaging content• Don’t count on the viral effect, you can’t force it• Think long-tail and solve your customers problems

with your content• Promote the good stuff• Do the math!


Measure!

• Measure for successes… and failures

• Check your rankings, traffic, conversions and other key metrics

• Focus on the strategies that are providing the best ROI and keep rolling out the content


Wrap Up

• Backlinks and social mentions are critical to search rankings

• Try to split your link building efforts/budget– 50% Manual Link Building– 50% Link Attraction through content

development and promotion• Optimize Your Content!

– Title Tags, Meta Descriptions and H1 are critical• It’s all about engaging content now!


All 8 Steps Matter

Free 24 page guide at VerticalMeasures.com


Thank You!

PAID FOR BY THE COALITION FOR BETTER WEB CONTENT

APPROVED BY ARNIE KUENN


Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.

Q & A?

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http://www.verticalmeasures.com/

wacvb presentation seo in 2012 and beyond

Technology

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freshness of content

core items content

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video sites