This document provides an overview of a search engine optimization (SEO) training session. The agenda includes introductions, how search engines work, what SEO is, the SEO pyramid, local SEO, and a 30-minute SEO checkup. It discusses how search and searchers have evolved over time. It also covers technical on-page SEO factors like XML sitemaps, robots.txt files, and page speed as well as off-page factors like backlinks, citations, and competitors. Content strategy and content marketing are also summarized, including steps to identify gaps and fill them. The importance of local SEO and ranking factors is explained.

1. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION
TRAINING
DemandQuest
October 2018

2. TODAY’S AGENDA
1. Introduction
2. How Searching Has Evolved
3. What to expect today
4. How search engines work
5. What is SEO?
6. The SEO Pyramid
7. Local SEO
8. 30-Minute SEO Checkup

3. NATE PLAUNT
Sr. Digital Marketing Manager
Thomson Reuters
@NatePlaunt

4. DOES SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
REALLY MATTER?

5. Search Engine Optimization
FACT:
79% of search engine users say they
always/frequently click on the natural search
results.

6. ANATOMY OF A SERP
(SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE)
Paid Ads
Local / Map
Results
True Organic
Result
News Stories
(Organic)

7. • Organic traffic accounts for up to 64% of all website
traffic*
• Roughly 69,000 search queries happen on Google -
every SECOND!
• This translates into about 6 billion searches every
day**
ORGANIC SEARCH STATS
* Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-
accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study
** Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band

8. DIFFERENT SEARCH ENGINE, DIFFERENT RESULTS

9. U.S. SEARCH ENGINE MARKET SHARE
*Source:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/
63.2 %
24.2 %
11.5 %
Everyone else 1.1 %

10. U.S. SEARCH ENGINE MARKET SHARE
63.2 %
24.2 %
11.5 %

11. But the sandbox is
constantly changing…

12. • Each year, Google changes its search algorithm
around 500–600 times.*
• That’s roughly 1.5 changes
EVERY.
SINGLE.
DAY!
THE SHIFTING SANDBOX
• Source: https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

13. Major Google Updates Since This Class Last Year…
9.19.17 10.2.18
9.27.17 –
Unnamed
Update, major
flux to SERPs
10.17.17 –
Chrome HTTPS
Warnings
10.27.17 –
Featured
Snippets
dropped from
many queries
11.14.17 –
Unnamed
update, major
flux to SERPs
11.30.17 –
Snippet length
increase, MD to
300 characters
12.14.17 –
“Maccabees”
update, seasonal
sites get boost
2.20.18 –
Unnamed
update, major
flux to SERPs
3.8.18 –
“Brackets”
update,
prolonged rolling
update to core
3.14.18 –
Zero-result
SERP test
3.26.18 –
Mobile-First
Index roll out
5.13.18 – Snippet
length increase
test rolled back
5.23.18 –
Unnamed
update, major
flux to SERPs
6.14.18 – Video
carousels-
Videos moved
from organic
results into
dedicated video
carousel at top
of results
7.9.18 –
Mobile Speed
Page speed
now a ranking
factor for
mobile results
7.21.18 –
Unnamed
update, major
flux to SERPs
07.24.18 –
Chrome Security
warnings, all
non-HTTPS sites
“not secure”
8.1.18 – “Medic”
core update,
affect site
rankings for
health and
wellness vertical

14. BUT, THE ALGORITHM ISN’T THE ONLY THING CHANGING…
SEARCHERS ARE CHANGING TOO

15. TOP GOOGLE SEARCHES
2005
1. Myspace
2. Ares
3. Baidu
4. Wikipedia
5. Orkut
6. iTunes
7. Sky News
8. World of Warcraft
9. Green Day
10. Leonardo da Vinci
2017
1. Hurricane Irma
2. Matt Lauer
3. Tom Petty
4. Super Bowl
5. Las Vegas Shooting
6. Mayweather vs McGregor Fight
7. Solar Eclipse
8. Hurricane Harvey
9. Aaron Hernandez
10. Fidget Spinner

16. IN FACT, SEARCHERS ARE “EVOLVING”
THEY ARE LEARNING HOW TO INTERACT WITH SEARCH ENGINES TO GET SOLUTIONS
MORE QUICKLY

18. DOES SEO REALLY
MATTER?
YES!
If you are not optimizing
for search you are
already behind your
competition.

19. WHAT TO EXPECT:
• A solid understanding of how search engines
operate
• Learn how to beat out your competition in the
search engine results
• Actionable tactics you can implement today
• Tools to implement optimizations

20. WHAT DID YOU SEARCH TODAY?

22. WHAT DID YOU SEARCH TODAY?

23. WEBSITES SINCE 1998
0
200,000,000
400,000,000
600,000,000
800,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,200,000,000
1,400,000,000
1,600,000,000
1,800,000,000
2,000,000,000
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Series 1

25. HOW SEARCH
ENGINES WORK

27. WHAT IS SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is
the process of affecting the visibility
of a website or a web page in a
search engine's "natural" or un-paid
("organic") search results.
• Source: Wikipedia

28. WHAT IS SEO? (SIMPLIFIED)
SEO is two things:
1. The practice of making your website as accessible as
possible to search engines and human visitors.
2. Ensuring your website is as useful and relevant as
possible to your current and prospective customers.

29. THINK OF YOUR WEBSITE AS A HOUSE

30. Ensure your site is
accessible to humans
and search engines.
THINK OF YOUR WEBSITE AS A HOUSE

31. Ensure your
site is
relevant and
useful to
your visitors.
THINK OF YOUR WEBSITE AS A HOUSE

33. Ensure your site is
accessible to
humans and search
engines.
Ensure your site is
relevant and useful to
your visitors.

34. PHASE 1: PLAN FOR SUCCESS

35. PHASE 1: PLAN FOR SUCCESS
1. What is the business goal you are trying to achieve?
2. What are the key performance indicators that tell you if you’re on
or off track?
3. What are your baseline metrics?
4. What does your team look like?

36. HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
Source: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/

37. HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
Source: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/

38. HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
Source: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/

39. PHASE 1: YOUR TEAM
SEO
Project
Team
SEO
Dev.
P.M.
Analyst

40. TECHNICAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS

41. • Goal: Ensure accessibility for Search Engines &
Users
• Foundation of your entire online presence, so it’s
important to get it right
• Search engines have very clear guidelines for
webmasters to follow when building sites
TECHNICAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS

42. WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• Can your entire website be
crawled?
• Is your website indexed by the
search engines?
• Does your website have any
errors?
• Is your page load time too slow?

43. HOW YOU CAN DO THIS
• XML sitemap
• Accurate robots.txt file
• Google Search Console
• Page speed optimization

44. WHAT TO AVOID
Any unnecessary hurdle for the search engines
• Flash
• iFrames
• Serving content via JavaScript
• URL Parameters

45. HERE’S WHAT HUMANS SEE

46. HERE’S WHAT GOOGLE SEES
(not a glitch)

47. ROBOTS.TXT FILE
The robots.txt file is a directive for all “bots”
visiting your site.
• It tells them what
URLs to crawl or
not crawl
• Simple text file –
can be created with
notepad

48. ROBOTS.TXT FILE
Disallow: Disallow: /

49. ROBOTS.TXT FILE – *PRO TIP
Use the Robots.txt
testing tool in
Google Search
Console to
troubleshoot
errors in your file
and to test
individual URLs

50. XML SITEMAP
The XML sitemap is a map of
your website that enables
search engines to efficiently
crawl and index your site.
It is, essentially, the directory
for your site.

51. XML SITEMAP
Various tools can help you generate an accurate
and up-to-date sitemap:
• Screaming Frog Spider
• CMS plugins like Yoast
• Other web-based sitemap generators
- www.xml-sitemaps.com

52. WHY DOES SPEED MATTER?
In 2014, mobile internet usage overtook desktop usage.
• The gap between mobile
and desktop will widen
• Fast page load speed is
critical to optimizing for
mobile
• Mobile-first index began in
March 2018
• Page speed is a direct
ranking factor.

53. MOBILE
April 21, 2015…

54. Mobile-first design > AMP
MOBILE

55. GOOGLE PAGESPEED INSIGHTS
PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that gives
you a prioritized roadmap on how to fix speed issues on
your site.
• https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

56. ON AND OFF PAGE FACTORS

57. ON AND OFF PAGE FACTORS
• Goal: Demonstrate Relevance and Authority
• Search engines want to provide users with search results that are
relevant to their query and authoritative in nature.
• Building upon a sound technical structure, we make sure that search
engines and users are able to fully understand what various pages
on your website are all about.

58. On-page SEO refers to factors that
you can control directly on your
website
Examples of on-page factors are:
• Metadata
• Internal links
• Content
• Technical / Structural
Off-page SEO refers to factors “out
of your control” on other websites
Examples of off-page factors are:
• Inbound links
• Social Media
• Mentions
• Local Directories
ON-PAGE vs. OFF-PAGE SEO

59. WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• Are your on-page elements
optimized?
• What keywords are you ranking
for?
• Who are your organic
competitors?
• Who is linking to you?

60. ON-PAGE SEO ELEMENTS
• URL
• Page Title
• H1 heading
• H2 headings
• Meta Description
• Page Copy
• Alternative image text

61. Page Title: Unique and
descriptive
URL: Descriptive and
readable by both
humans and search
engines
H1 Heading: Unique
and descriptive
Sub-Headings: Targeted
sub-topics of the page
theme
Page Copy: Descriptive,
unique, and RELEVANT
Alt Image Text:
Descriptive and
keyword rich
SEO ON-PAGE ELEMENTS

62. PAGE TITLE
Good:
Organic Result #1
Bad:
Organic Result #32

63. URL STRUCTURE
Good:
Organic Result #9
Bad:
Organic Result #94

64. WHAT KEYWORDS DO YOU RANK FOR?
Ground Rules:
1. Don’t “Google yourself”
2. Use a keyword tracking tool
a) SEM Rush (freemium)
b) Bright Local (paid)

65. WHAT KEYWORDS DO YOU RANK
FOR?

66. OFF-PAGE SEO ELEMENTS
• Backlinks
• Link anchor text
• Citations or Mentions
• Competitors

67. INTERNAL vs. EXTERNAL LINKS
(BACKLINKS)
• Internal links refer to
links within your site,
such as navigation
links.
• External links refer to
links outside of your
site, such as a link
from Wikipedia.
• Both are very useful,
but for different
reasons.

68. HOW DO BACKLINKS HELP?
• Backlinks act as
“votes” for pages on
your site.
• Generally speaking,
the more links you
have from
authoritative sources,
the more your site is
trusted, and the
better your pages will
rank.
YourWebsite.com
NewsSite.com RetailSite.com
IndustryBlog.com ShadySite.com

69. WHY INVEST IN LINK BUILDING?
A technically sound site will only get you so far.
Without links, it simply will not have the equity or
authority to be visible in search engines.

70. LINK ANCHOR TEXT
• The words used in the anchor text of a link to your
site helps search engines understand what that
page is about.
• So, if your page is about “Lego Star Wars
collections” the anchor text Star Wars Legos would
be preferable over click here.

71. CONTENT STRATEGY

72. CONTENT STRATEGY
• Goal: Ensure Quality & Alignment with Audience
• To convert visitors to prospects or customers we need to have
high quality content that addresses their problems.
• Through keyword research and customer understanding, we
can determine the topics that are of interest to your customers
and where you have the opportunity to be competitive in
search engine results.

73. Understanding
who your user is, what problems
they have that you
are able to solve,
WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
and finding a way
to solve those
problems.
+ =

74. what problems
they have that you
are able to solve,
WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?

75. WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• Am I speaking to my customer
in their language?
• Do I have the content they are
looking for?
• Where is there opportunity to
provide an answer to a
question?

76. HOW YOU CAN DO THIS
1. Identify buying personas or audience
segments
2. Understand the decision making process
3. Keyword research
4. Content inventory

77. • Match existing content to personas
and steps in the buying cycle.
• Identify areas that lack content and
fill gaps.
Content Inventory & Gap Analysis
VS.

78. Content Inventory & Gap
Analysis
URL Worker
Willy
Fashion
Freddy
Awareness Interest Consideration Purchase
Intent
/401-red-wing-mens-
6-inch-boot-brown
x x x
/footwear/6-
hawthorne-8113-
08113
x x x
Awareness Interest Consideration Purchase
Intent
Worker
Willy
15 17 10 5
Fashion
Freddy
11 2 7 13
Content Inventory & Gap Analysis

79. MSV: 40,500 MSV: 49,500
KEYWORD RESEARCH
WASHING CLEANING

80. MSV: 720 MSV: 18,100
KEYWORD RESEARCH
HOUSE
WASHING
HOUSE
CLEANING

81. MSV: 90 MSV: 90
KEYWORD RESEARCH
EXTERIOR
HOUSE
WASHING
OUT-
HOUSE
CLEANING

82. THE LONG TAIL

83. CONTENT STRATEGY STEPS
1. Business Objectives
2. Persona / Buying Cycle Analysis
3. Keyword Research
4. Content Audit
5. Gap Analysis
6. Recommendations

84. Content Marketing

85. CONTENT MARKETING
• Goal: Right Content in front of the Right People in the Right Place
at the Right Time
• Content Marketing is the practice of distributing your content
through various channels.
• Get the right types of content to the right audiences.

86. CONTENT MARKETING

87. LOCAL SEO

88. WHAT IS LOCAL SEO?
Local SEO is the process of making it as easy as
possible for prospective customers to find
information about your company online, either
when they search specifically for your
enterprise or for any businesses that provides
particular goods and services nearby them.
• Source: LocalU.org

89. WHAT IS LOCAL SEO?
Enhancing the
visibility of your
business for queries
with “local intent”

90. LOCAL SEO RANKING FACTORS
1. Google My Business signals
2. Link signals
3. On-page signals
4. External location signals
5. Review signals
6. Behavioral signals
7. Personalization signals
8. Social signals
Source: https://moz.com/blog/local-search-ranking-factors-survey-results-2017

91. HOW YOU CAN DO THIS
• Ensure your contact info is present
• Acquire relevant local links
• Make sure your Google My Business page is accurate
and optimized
• Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone #)
• Create engaging, quality content
• Make your site the best in your area
• Ask for reviews!

92. GOOGLE LOCAL RANKINGS
(RIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH)
Relevance
“Relevance refers to how well a local listing matches
what someone is searching for. Adding complete and
detailed business information can help Google
better understand your business and match your
listing to relevant searches.”
Source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091

93. GOOGLE LOCAL RANKINGS
(RIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH)
Distance
“Just like it sounds–how far is each potential search
result from the location term used in a search? If a
user doesn't specify a location in their search,
Google will calculate distance based on what’s
known about their location.”
Source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091

94. GOOGLE LOCAL RANKINGS
(RIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH)
Prominence
“Prominence refers to how well-known a business is. Some
places are more prominent in the offline world, and search
results try to reflect this in local ranking. Prominence is also
based on information that Google has about a business from
across the web (like links, articles, and directories). Google
review count and score are factored into local search ranking:
more reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a
business's local ranking.”
Source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091

95. CITATIONS
• Citations are essentially a mention of your brand on another site like a
listing directory.
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• City Search

96. CITATIONS
• It is important that these listings maintain consistency
and accuracy.
• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• *Check up on your listings using Moz Local
• - moz.com/local

97. REVIEW

98. 1. If done right, SEO is a distinct competitive advantage
2. Get the foundation right
3. Optimize your pages and off-page presence
4. Strategically create and distribute content
5. Optimize for local visibility
TL;DR

99. MEASUREMENT & IMPROVEMENT
And then do it all over again!

100. 30 MINUTE SEO CHECK UP

101. 1. Analytics Platform (Google Analytics)
2. Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools)
3. Bing Webmaster Tools
4. Google
5. Screaming Frog Spider
6. Crawl Data Visualization Spreadsheet
7. Panguin Tool – by Barracuda Digital
8. Word, Excel, Google Docs, pen and paper, or anything
else you want to use to make a checklist
WHAT YOU NEED:

102. 1. Google Analytics - https://www.google.com/analytics/
2. Google Search Console - https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home
3. Bing Webmaster Tools - http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
4. Google - https://www.google.com/
5. Screaming Frog Spider - http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/
6. Crawl Data Visualization Spreadsheet – http://bit.ly/DQCrawl
7. Panguin Tool - http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/
8. For Reference only: Webcast of the 30 Minute SEO Checkup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuBeESfBJrU
WHAT YOU NEED:

103. 30 MINUTE SEO CHECK UP:
STEPS

104. STEP #1:
CRAWL YOUR SITE WITH SCREAMING FROG

105. • Download Screaming Frog Spider
• http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
• Enter your domain into the box at the top and hit
Start
• *Pro Tip: exclude the “www” to capture info on all
subdomains
STEP 1: CRAWL YOUR SITE

106. • Access and download the Crawl Data Visualization
Worksheet
• http://bit.ly/DQCrawl
• Save your crawl once it’s complete
• Export the Crawl Overview Report as a .csv file
• Copy and Paste into the “Data” tab of the Crawl Data
Visualization Worksheet
STEP 1: CRAWL YOUR SITE

107. STEP 1: CRAWL YOUR SITE

108. Page Title: Unique and
descriptive
URL: Descriptive and
readable by both
humans and search
engines
H1 Heading: Unique
and descriptive
Sub-Headings (H2):
Targeted sub-topics of
the page theme
Page Copy: Descriptive,
unique, and RELEVANT
Alt Image Text:
Descriptive and
keyword rich
SEO ON-PAGE ELEMENTS
Meta Description: The
elevator pitch - unique
and descriptive

109. • Take note of:
• Any redirection (3xx), broken links (4xx), and server
error (5xx) status codes
• URL Issues
• Page Title Issues
• Meta Description Issues
• Missing Heading Tags (H1, H2)
• Mark any issues down on your checklist
STEP 1: CRAWL YOUR SITE - OUTPUT

110. STEP #2:
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

111. • If you haven’t already, go verify your site in Google
Search Console –
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home
• Once verified, click on your site to access the
Dashboard*
STEP 2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

112. • First stop here is to check out your crawl errors
report.
• Click on the section banner to access the report
• This will bring you to a different screen
STEP 2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

113. • Here you will see the graph on each type of error
encountered over time.
• Clicking on the individual error URLs will show you
exactly where that URL is linked from (internal or
external too!)
STEP 2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

114. • Next, from the left-hand
navigation, head to the HTML
improvements area
• Here you’ll find a listing of
issues with various on-page
elements such as:
• Meta descriptions
• Title tags
• Non-indexable content
• Take note of any issues
reported here and mark them
in your checklist.
STEP 2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

115. • Finally, make sure you do
not have any manual
actions from Google.
• These can be extremely
time consuming and
costly to clear up.
• If you see something
here, consult an
experienced partner.
STEP 2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
• Pro Tip: for a detailed walk-through on how to recover from a link based manual
penalty and a hacked content penalty, see instructions here:
http://www.threedeepmarketing.com/blog/complete-guide-google-manual-penalty-removal/
http://www.threedeepmarketing.com/blog/how-to-remove-a-hacked-content-google-manual-penalty

116. STEP #3:
BING WEBMASTER TOOLS

117. • If you haven’t already, go verify your site in Bing
Webmaster Tools –
https://www.bing.com/webmaster
• Once verified, click on your site to access the
Dashboard
STEP 3: BING WEBMASTER TOOLS

118. • From the left-hand dropdown menu, select “SEO
Reports”
• Although there is a lot of great information here,
we’re only going to check out this section.
STEP 3: BING WEBMASTER TOOLS

119. • Here you’ll find a list of “SEO Suggestions”
• Clickable links to lists of URLs on which the issue
occurs.
• Prioritize the most severe issues and mark them
down in your workflow checklist.
STEP 3: BING WEBMASTER TOOLS

120. STEP #4:
CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS

121. • Log into your analytics tool and access your website
profile
• For this example we are going to look at Google
Analytics as it is one of the most popular and
powerful website analytics tools on the market…and
it’s “free”
STEP 4: CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS

122. • Choose a period of time
you want to analyze and
compare it to the
previous year.
• Drill down into the
Channels report
• Here you’ll see a listing
of traffic by channel
• Next step is to click on
“Organic Search”
STEP 4: CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS

123. • Now change the Primary Dimension to “Landing
Page”
• Here you can see the year over year difference in
entrances per page from organic search
• Mark down any pages with drastic drops in your
checklist
STEP 4: CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS

124. STEP #5:
THE PANGUIN TOOL

125. • The Panguin Tool is a tool developed by a company
called Barracuda Digital
• It pulls in your organic data and overlays when major
updates to the Google algorithm have occurred
• This is SUPER helpful when trying to diagnose
whether or not your site took a hit
• While you are logged into Google Analytics, head over
to http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/ and follow
the instructions to connect your site’s analytics to the
tool
STEP 5: THE PANGUIN TOOL

126. • Once connected you will see something like this:
STEP 5: THE PANGUIN TOOL
Color-coded lines
represent updates to the
Google algorithm
Toggle switches allow you
to turn off update types

127. • Mark down major traffic correlations
• Read up on the provided information about the
update
• List out possible solutions in your checklist
STEP 5: THE PANGUIN TOOL

128. STEP #6:
GOOGLE YOURSELF (BUT NOT LIKE THAT)

129. • Pull up google.com in your browser and use the “site:”
advanced search operator to check your indexation
• Example: “site:domain.com”
• How many pages are indexed?
• How does this compare to your actual page count?
• If it differs greatly, mark it down in your checklist.
STEP 6: GOOGLE YOURSELF (LIKE THIS)

130. NEXT STEPS:

131. • High priority issues include:
• Internal redirection – 301 and 302 status codes
• Broken links – 404 status codes
• Page Title issues
• Uncrawlable website
• Manual actions
• Medium priority issues include:
• H1 and H2 issues
• Pages with traffic loss YoY
• Low priority issues include:
• Meta Description issues
• Alt image text
PRIORITIZE YOUR CHECKLIST

132. 1. Launch a crawl on your site with Screaming Frog
2. Download the Crawl Data Visualization spreadsheet
3. While crawl is running, log into Google Search Console
4. After that, log into Bing Webmaster Tools
5. Check your crawl, if it’s done export the crawl overview and
load data into the Crawl Data Visualization spreadsheet
6. Log into Google Analytics
7. While logged into GA, head over to the Panguin Tool
8. Check your indexation in Google
9. Mark down issues as you go
WORKFLOW TIMELINE AND REVIEW

133. THANK YOU!
NEXT UP: ADVANCED SEO
TACTICS
QUESTIONS?