This is a talk I gave at Digital Dealer in Las Vegas, NV on October 15, 2013.

1. SEO Best Practices 2014
Pierre M. Fiorini, Ph.D.
Managing Partner
CF Search Marketing

2. About CF Search Marketing
•
Founded in 2007
•
2 Locations
– Miami, FL
– Portsmouth, NH
•
Chrysler Preferred Vendor since 2013
– Digital Advertising
– SEO
– Social Media/Reputation Management
•
Goals as a Provider
– Performance
– Service
– Technology

3. Overview
• SEO Overview/Terminology
– Case study On-Page SEO
• What changed in 2013?
– Case Study Link Profiles
• SEO Best Practices 2014
–
–
–
–
–
On-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO
Social Signals
Mobile Strategy
SEO/SEM Synergy
• Dealer SEO Checklist

4. What is SEO?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - A way to
improve rankings in organic search
SEM
SEO

5. SEO Why Bother?
• FREE TRAFFIC!!!
SEM/PAID
SEO/FREE

6. SEO Why Bother?
• Also…
– SEO traffic is highly converting traffic
– People trust organic results more than paid
– Local organic traffic produces 2X as many leads as
localized PPC traffic

7. 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

8. 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.

9. On-Page SEO: Case Studies
• Audi Mission Viejo
– Clean, sleek design
– Needs more home page content
• Cities, services, etc.
– Home Page Title tags need more geos
– Not much original content about Makes/Models
• Montrose Mazda of Kent
– Reasonable amount of home page content
– Title tags contain GEO’s
– Not much original content about Makes/Models
• Earnhardt Gilbert Dodge
– Tons of Home page content
– Geos in Title Tags
– Original Content about Makes/Models

10. 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.

11. Off-Page SEO - Example

12. How To Do SEO…
• Generate Local Signals
– Google Asks: How relevant are you for local searches?
(e.g., dodge dealers las vegas, dodge dealers [GEO], etc.)
– Answer: Proximity, local mentions of your dealership
•
•
•
•
Local sites (Parts, Pizza, Golf, University, etc.)
Local Bloggers
Local Social Sharing (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.com, etc.)
Local Directories & Citations

13. Local Signals Examples - Citations
• A great local signal coming from CitySearch:
– Audi Mission Viejo

14. 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

15. How To Do SEO…
• The pieces of the puzzle…
GOOGLE
ORGANIC
RANK
←
OVER
200+
Signals!

16. How To Do SEO…
• The pieces of the puzzle…
GOOGLE
ORGANIC
RANK
=
On-Page
SEO
Local
Signals
Off-Page
+
SEO
+
Social
Signals

17. What’s Changed???
• Major Algorithm Changes
– Panda (2011 - current)
– Penguin (2012, 2013)
– Hummingbird Update (2013)
• Google Wants
–
–
–
–
A GREAT user experience
No SPAMMY on-page stuff
Unique content
Natural Linking
•
Bad links can actually hurt
you now – Google used to
ignore bad links for the most
part…
On-Page Off-Page Voice
Factors Factors Search

18. Panda/Farmer Updates (2011-Current)
Panda Update Summary
• A major algorithm update hit
sites hard, affecting ~12% of
search results (huge!)
• Panda seemed to crack down on
thin content, content farms, sites
with high ad-to-content ratios,
and a number of other quality
issues.
• Panda has rolled out numerous
times over the years – now
incorporated into algorithm.

19. Penguin 1.0 (April 2012)

20. Penguin 1.0 (April 2012)
Manipulative
Anchor Text
Examples –
EXACTLY the stuff
Penguin 1.0 was
looking for…
dodge philadelphia pa
chrysler dealers tx
I.e., “Money
Keywords”
(keywords used in
AdWords)

21. Penguin 1.0 (April 2012)
• Summary
– Targeted Manipulative Anchor Text
– ~3.1% of all queries affected
– 1st time EVER Google went after this type of stuff
– Google went after Link schemes
– Targeted “Over-Optimization”
– Only the home page was used in Google’s analysis
– Google targeted “money keywords”
• dodge dealers nm
• honda brockton ut
• Etc.

22. Penguin 2.0, 2.1
• Penguin 2.0 (May 2013)
– Targeted ALL pages of the website
– Targeted same type of stuff (money kws)
– ~2.3% of all queries affected
• Penguin 2.1 (Oct 2013)
– Targeted same type of stuff (money kws)
– ~1.0 of all search queries affected

23. Case Study: Link Profiles
• Untouched Link Profile
– Problem is NOT enough links (13 different domains)
– www.montrosemazdakent.com
• Natural Link Profile
– Lots of links
– www.reemantoll.com
• “SEO Footprint”
– The type Google Penguin goes after...
– www.audimv.com

24. Hummingbird Update
Google’s Hummingbird Update (Aug 2013?)
• Hummingbird is a new search algorithm
that affects 90 percent of all searches.
• Examines the searcher’s query as a whole
understands the meaning behind it.
• For longer, conversational queries, Google
now gives much better results
– Voice search
PREDICTION: Hummingbird will make long tail searches
more & more important!

25. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond
• Improve On-Page SEO Strategy
– Unique Content (Panda Farmer update)
– No “SPAMMY” keyword ladened text (Panda may factor this)
– Create GREAT user experience to improve site metrics
• Elevate Off-Page SEO Strategy
– Content Marketing
– Guest Posting on blogs
– “Natural” linking (huge factor in Penguin)
• Utilize “Social Sharing”
• Implement Mobile SEO Strategy
• Leverage SEO/SEM Synergy

26. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – On-Page SEO
• Make sure content is UNIQUE and WELL-WRITTEN
With Panda, all
sites are given
QUALITY SCORE –
the better content
you have, the
higher you’ll rank
(Panda Farmer
Update)

27. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – On-Page SEO
• Avoid “SPAMMY” keyword ladened text…
“Welcome to ABC Dodge. Your
Dodge dealer in Boston, MA
serving Boston Massachusetts and
the surrounding areas of Boston
where Boston is a great city and
we love the Red Sox in Boston
where you can win FREE tickets if
you live in the Boston area…”
With Panda, all
sites are given
QUALITY SCORE –
the better content
you have, the
higher you’ll rank

28. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – On-Page SEO
• Create a GREAT User Experience…
• The Panda algorithm uses site metrics
to “score” your site
• The site “Quality Score” is based on
things like:
•
•
•
•
Time on Site
Pages/Visit
Page Load Time
Other factors…
• Make Your Site Interesting to help
these factors
With Panda, all
sites are given
QUALITY SCORE –
the better content
you have, the
higher you’ll rank

29. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Off-Page SEO
• Make sure your links are as “natural” as
possible…
• Do Linkbuilding by:
– Content Marketing
• Hosting your content on real blogs (link back to
your site)
– Guest Posting
• Posting as an expert in area on a real blog (link
back to your site)
– Establishing local relationships
• Get links from them
– Real “Natural Linking”
• Infographics
With Penguin, bad
links can actually
hurt you (Google
used to ignore
most of these)

30. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Off-Page SEO
• Natural Links are “Holy Grail” for SEO folks…
• One approach is to use
“Infographics”
• Generates tons traffic
and NATURAL links to
your site

31. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Off-Page SEO
• Natural links generated by infographic…
Blogger’s talking
about this site and
linking!
NATURAL
LINKS!!!

32. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Social Sharing
• “Share” your content on the social networks such
as Google+, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, etc.
• Here, an “inventory page” is being posted to
Google+, FB & Twitter
– This helps the page get indexed and ranked higher in
Google

33. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Social Sharing
• Traffic from Social Sharing
• 1000+ visits
from Social
Media sites
• Sending a
strong “Social
Signal” to
Google

34. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Mobile Strategy
• Mobile traffic is on the rise...
• Mobile traffic will surpass desktop sometime in 2014

35. SEO Strategies 2013 & 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”

36. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – Mobile Strategy
• How Business listings affect rankings…
• Make sure you are listed in these and have
correct information! (address + phone no)

37. SEO Strategies 2013 & Beyond – SEO/SEM Synergy
• Make sure you do SEM (PPC + Display) along
with SEO

38. SEO Strategies 2013 & 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

39. Dealer 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 links to your site?
– What is the anchor text?
– Where, what, & how many?
– Are you establishing local relationships?
5.
Are you building/updating citations?
– Yellowbook, Judy’s Book, etc.

40. Thank You
• Please talk to my associate to do a review of
your website and your Internet marketing
strategies
– SEO Audit
– SM/RM Audit
– SEM (PPC, Display, Retargeting, etc.) Audit
• Also visit BOOTH 1137
– Same row as Haystak, Cobalt, DealerX