How to make Google LOVE you + Customers to FIND you
Quick and Easy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Part 2
Christie Osborne: Interactive Marketing Manager, Mammoth Lakes Tourism
Thursday, September 13, 12
Recap
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SEO (Search Engine
Optimization)
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Traditional Marketing versus
Content Marketing
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Knowing where people are in
the Sales Funnel
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Keyword Researching
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Keyword Research Redeux
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Keywords must meet 3 criteria
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Ensuring keyword terms/phrases have sufficient search volumes
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Ensuring chosen Keywords are relevant
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Assessing levels of relative competition
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Step 1: Brainstorming Initial List
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Listing of root brands and product/service names (e.g. lawyer)
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Brainstorming variations of product and brand-related keywords
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Talking to customers to determine what terms they use in search
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Studying competitors’ sites
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Adding geographic terms (e.g. Mammoth lawyers, personal injury
lawyers, slip and fall lawyers)
• Enter variations into Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which will
suggest additional variations
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Step 2: Filter by Relevancy
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Go for high quality traffic over lots of traffic.
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Look for high search volumes and low competition
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Mix competitive with long-tail terms
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Step 3: Beat the Competition
Authority
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Number of links to a website (more from various domains is better)
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Number of links to a specific page one hopes will rank for sepcific terms
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The anchor text of links to a certain page
Relevancy
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Keyword match in title of page
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Keyword match in sites internal navigation
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Keyword match in domain name
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Additional Prioritization Variables
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Competitive Advantage: Does your business have a distinct
competitive advantage in terms of price, service, or quality?
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Profitability: How profitable is your product or service? More
profitable products and services are more desirable to promote.
Thursday, September 13, 12
75% of SEO is Off Page
Recommendations from Friends
• “I know Christie Osborne”
•“Christie Osborne is a Marketing Expert”
•Seth Godin says: “Osborne’s a Marketing Expert”
Links are Online Recommendations
•A link: www.101greatescapes.com
•Anchor text: Luxury Accomodations
•A link from a trusted website: (VisitMammoth.com)
Thursday, September 13, 12
Off Page SEO: Build Connections
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Directories
Partners
Content is King!
• Start a blog, join the
blogosphere (engage:
comment, guest blog)
Create a tool (info graphic,
download)
Other
(viral
videos,
photos, etc)
Social Media
Press Releases
Answers, Forums, Wikis
Thursday, September 13, 12
Link Building
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Offer something valuable and
different: Guest post idea, how-to
tutorial, you-tube video, podcast,
downloadable guide.
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Try to get links from a variety of
sources (directories, forums, blogs,
social media ~ think outside the
box: Amazon Reviews, YouTube
and Flickr. How about good old
fashioned email?)
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Ask for specific anchor text, but
make sure to vary it!
Thursday, September 13, 12
Manual Link Building: Submit,
submit, submit
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Register: Google, Yahoo, Bing, DMOZ
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Directories: Google Places, All Top, Yelp, Google Local, Google Maps,
City Search, Twellow (yellow pages for twitter) getlisted.org, yahoo,
Best Of The Web, Open Table, Travelocity, Trip Advisor etc.
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Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Pinterest
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Participate: Forums (Linked-in, Mammoth Forums) Comment on
blogs, Tweet and write on people’s FB walls
Thursday, September 13, 12
Editorial Link Building
It’s all about building relationships!
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Start with High-quality content!
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Tell a Story
Stories build emotional
connections.
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What do you know that your
customer doesn’t, but NEEDS to?
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Make connections and promote!
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Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest
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Comment on blogs
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Email
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Be a giver, not just a taker!
Other Link Building Strategies
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High Quality Content: Remember to Promote, promote, promote.
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Outreach: Always explain why you chose to contact them and invite them to look at your
site or take a look at your page.
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Giveaways: Great for link building and raising awareness about your business. Giveaways
are also effective for increasing fans and followers on social media.
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Guest Blogging: You position yourself as an authority and have control over the anchor text.
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Use your community and customers.
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Ask existing satisfied customers to promote you. Email them with new articles or blog
posts. Have a newsletter that links to useful articles on your site and ask subscribers to
link to or tweet them.
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Create a badge or button people can use on their site. Include the html code that links
back to your site.
Thursday, September 13, 12
Google Analytics: Forget Overall Numbers
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Google Analytics: Top Content
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Google Analytics: Traffic Sources
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Google Analytics: Referring Sites
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Integrating Social
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Google’s New Search Algorithm
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Targeted low-quality sites such as content farms and websites
that produce a lot of content for the sole purpose of satisfying
Google’s SEO requirements
Social Sharing
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Google and Bing are now looking at sharable content
Thursday, September 13, 12
Twitter Tips:
Tweets are public and indexable by search engines
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Use your real name wisely. Unlike with
Facebook, it doesn’t have to be your real
name.
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Get followers and build recognition Every
follower is another link to your profile in
the “following page.”
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Make your user name count. Make it easily
remembered, and keyword-rich.
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Stay focused. Stay relevant and use
keywords. Link to both your site and others!
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Link, link, and link some more! Your
profile needs links too! LInk to your profile
from lots of different domains.
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Don’t forget your URL. While Twitters links
are “no-follow” a link to your website
encourages followers to check it out
Thursday, September 13, 12
Facebook Tips
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Get a vanity URL
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More “likes”= more potential
for content to be shared.
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Use likes and comments to
research content
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Message and tag people, but
don;t get too spammy
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Use FB “notes”: Customer Q
+A, RSS feed
Use About Section: Use
keywords
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Make posts “public”
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Use images effectively
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Create a content strategy for
Facebook
Thursday, September 13, 12
If you do nothing else...
1. Research, Research, RESEARCH
(Yes, I just shouted at you)
4. Good description to encourage
click through
5. Well Optimized Images
2. Submit to Google and set up a
Webmaster Tools + Analytics
Account
6. Update content regularly
7. Participate!!!
3. Proper <TITLE> and <H1> tags
8. Share and share alike
Thursday, September 13, 12
Resources:
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SEO-moz
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Scribe SEO
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Copy Blogger
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Dragonfly SEO
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Google Webmaster Central Blog
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SEO for Dummies
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Lynda.com
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;-)
Thursday, September 13, 12
Final Thoughts
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Questions
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Evaluation
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TheInternalBlog.com
Thursday, September 13, 12