Agenda:

Chapter 4 – On-Site SEO

Break
Chapter 5 – Off-site SEO

Group Project Outline (TBD)

What is the point of SEO?

Organic Traffic. And.

Get LOTS of it!

It’s “Free!”
 SEO Value in Organic Search

Paid Search!

Organic Search
Using SEO
strategies/tactics
Source: Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz.com and Sparktoro.com
Why does organic search
cost money?
 Chapter 4:
On-Site SEO
 Chapter Objectives
• Identify the keywords that would be most worthwhile for
a website to target in its search engine optimization
efforts.
• Improve a webpage’s relevance for a target keyword by
suggesting specific changes to the webpage.
• Improve a website’s likelihood of ranking for a set of
keywords by suggesting changes that will improve the
website’s quality signals to search engines.
• Identify possible technical issues that could be impeding
a website’s rankings.
Figure
3.17 How
Google
Works

7
Copyright © 2020, 2019, 2018 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Figure
3.17 How
Google
Works

8
Copyright © 2020, 2019, 2018 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 Google Evolution
• PageRank
• Panda
• Penguin
• Pigeon
• Hummingbird
• Knowledge Graph
• RankBrain
• Mobile-First

Google algorithm updates: the latest news and guides (searchengineland.com)

 What is On-site SEO?

Refers to actions taken on your website to

get organic traffic.
The 5 Components of On-site SEO
Size - # of pages a website has

Time/Age

Popularity (Off-site SEO Chapter 5 – after break)

Linking (internal linking)

Text (keywords on your site)

 Size
# of pages a website has

All else being equal, the more pages a site has, the
more traffic.

For example:
Site A:
100 pages. 1 visitor per page =
100 total visitors

Site A:
200 pages: 1 visitor per page =
200 total visitors
 Time/Age
https://www.whois.com/whois/

https://archive.org/
 Website Popularity (off-site
SEO)
Chapter 5 – skip to AFTER the break
because this is off-site SEO
Linking (Internal)
MyVega.com example
(internal linking)
Text
 Keywords on your Site
You need to tell Google what your pages on your
site is all about.
 Choosing Keywords
• Relevance
• Traffic
• Competition
• Current ranking
• Usage
Keyword Relevance
 Traffic/Competition/Current Ranking:
Keyword mapping

• How to get this data?

• Use software like SEMRush or Ahref or Moz.com

 Keyword Usage
• URL
• Title Tag
• Header Tags
• Main Content
• Alt Text
• Anchor Text
 Keyword Usage – URL
URL
Title Tag
Header Tags
Main Content
Alt Text
Anchor Text
 Keyword Usage – Title Tag
URL
Title Tag
Header Tags
Main Content
<title>Vega | Plant-based Nutrition </title>
Alt Text
Anchor Text
 Keyword Usage – Header Tags
URL
Title Tag <h1 class="hero-banner__title">drink more greens</h1>
Header Tags
Main Content
Alt Text
Anchor Text
 Keyword Usage – Main Content
URL
Title Tag • Virtually no written content
Header Tags • Keywords in <h2> and <h3>
Main Content etc. etc. etc. tags
Alt Text
• The content portion of the
Anchor Text
pages
 Keyword Usage – Alt Text # 2
URL
Title Tag
Header Tags
Main Content Example Here:
Alt Text
Anchor Text Write good Alt Text to describe
images | Digital Accessibility​
(harvard.edu)
 Keyword Usage – Anchor Text
URL
Title Tag
Header Tags
Main Content
Alt Text
Anchor Text

Text that you see with

an underlying link to
another page.
 Click-Through Rates from SERP
• Title Tag
• Meta Description
• URL
 Other Things in On-site SEO
• Bounce Rate – SUPER important

• Original content – SUPER important

• Load time of your site and pages – Very

important

• Fresh Content – Important

• Grammar and spelling – “OK” important

Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate: Visitors who does not

perform any action on the site and exits
the site. This counts as a bounce. The
bounce rate is a percentage of all
visitors who visit and does not do
anything and exit.
 Original Content
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.overstock.com/Jewelry-Watches/18k-14k-Gold-2-1-3ct-TDW-Diamond-Halo-
Bridal-Ring-
Set-F-G-SI1-SI2/7900399/product.html" />
 Load Time
• Overstock pages are data intensive
– Could cause slow loading
– Technically up to date

– Pingdom speed test examples:

– Amazon.com vs Myvega.com vs Ryderseyewear.com
 Fresh Content
• New products available
• Sales and promotions
• Articles
• Reviews
• Q&A
Grammar and Spelling
Break – 5 minutes
 Chapter 5:
Off-Site SEO
 Chapter Objectives
• What off-site SEO is and its objectives and how it
affects SEO in general
• Popularity metrics in off-site SEO – how popularity is
measured by Google’s search algorithm
• How content market helps off-site SEO
• Finish it off with an in-class team exercise
 What is Off-Site SEO?
Refers to actions taken outside of your
own website to impact your rankings
within SERPs.

Linking to or promoting your website, and

effectively "vouching" for the quality of
your content. *

Source: https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo
How Important is Off-Site SEO?

Off-site SEO: 55.92% of ranking factor weight.

*Source: https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo
 Main Goal of Off-Site SEO
Main goal: Be POPULAR! Get as many links
from QUALITY external sites to your site.

How do you measure quality external sites?

Sites with HIGHER domain authority (DA) score than your own
website.
OR
Sites with similar or slightly lower DA score than your own
website.
 Domain Authority Score

Example of MOZ in action…

How does MOZ show the DA score of

websites?
 Off-site SEO = Link Juice
What is link
juice?
Refer to the value or equity or
“popularity” passed from one
page or site to another.**

Backlinks from EXTERNAL

sites to your site provides link
juice to your site.

More link juice tells Google that your site is popular, thereby
making Google place your site higher in SERPs.
* Image source: https://catchupdates.com/
** Source: moz.com
 Links
Snippet of HTML code of a link:
Google has long been the world’s <a
href= “https://google.com”>top search
engine</a>.

Will show as:

Google has long been the world’s top
search engine.

The anchor text is “top search engine”.

 NoFollow Links
“Don’t follow links on this page” –
Do not give link juice to the site I am linking to.

-Not trusted content

- Why used? On Forums and comments sections. Ex:
Reddit or commenting on social accounts.

-Paid links
- Why used? Paid ads are for money. Google
exclusively forbids PAID backlinks. Most ads are
managed by ad networks, so links from paid ads
are automatically “nofollow” and managed by the
ad networks.
 NoFollow Links
“Don’t follow links on this page” –
Do not give link juice to the site I am linking to.

-Affiliate ads and links

- These are technically paid ads and links because
the intent is for affiliates to make a commission
from the clicks.
 NoFollow Links
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-sport-sunglasses/

<a class="product-link"
href="https://wclink.co/link/18376/95337/4/44596/?merchant=Ryders%20Eyewear"

rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-gtm-trigger="product_link" data-

store="Ryders Eyewear" data-vars-store="Ryders Eyewear" data-vars-outbound-
link="https://wclink.co/link/18376/95337/4/44596/?merchant=Ryders%20Eyewear">Ryders
Seventh</a>
 Popularity Metrics
(how to get link juice)
• Number of backlinks
• Backlinks from related/relevant websites
• Anchor text
• Link neighborhood
• Link freshness
• Link diversity
• Social sharing
 Popularity Metrics
Number of backlinks.
All else being equal, the more backlinks a website has, the
more popular it is. However, the backlinks have to come from
as many different external sites as possible. After all, you can
“fake” or “cheat” by having 1 million backlinks from 1 single
site going to your site.

Backlinks from related/relevant websites.

If you want to know who the best surgeon in your city is,
you’d probably trust the opinion of another doctor over the
opinion of a random citizen in your community. If a website
can attract links from several sites with expertise in the same
or similar subject matter, the site would be deemed to be
popular.
 Popularity Metrics
Anchor text. A large proportion of anchor text simply uses the domain name,
company name, or “click here” as the anchor text. But the keywords used
in descriptive anchor text gives vital clues about the content you can find
on a page.

So, anchor text such as “click here” or “your domain name/company name”
won’t be as useful as anchor text that describes the backlinks’ content.

BAD! Click here to visit Ryderseyewear.com.

GOOD: Ryderseyewear.com is the best eyewear brand in the entire world

for cyclists.

BEST: Ryders Eyewear is a 36+ year old brand that appeals to mountain
bikers and cyclists. Our eyewear is stylish, comfortable to wear, and is
infused with hi-tech. Come and visit our site and enjoy savings.
 Popularity Metrics
Link neighborhood. High quality websites tend to generate links from (and
give links to) other high quality websites (as well as a mix of medium- and
low-quality websites). Low quality websites almost never get links from
high quality websites. So examining your link profile (as well as the link
profiles of those referring websites) provides clues both as to the quality
of the website and its likelihood of being a spam website.

Question: How to tell a high quality website from another? Hint: Use a
type of scoring method we discussed previously.

Link freshness. High quality websites continually post new, exciting content
that generates new links. If a website has generated millions of links but
the pace of those links falls dramatically, the search engine will figure that
the website is no longer producing high quality content or is no longer
relevant to as many people.
 Popularity Metrics
Link diversity. If a website generates links from a wide variety of websites
and a wide variety of kinds of websites, the website must have broad
appeal. .com | .net | .ca | .edu etc. etc.

BUT, in general, it is BETTER to have fewer backlinks from relevant or

similar sites than to have MORE backlinks from a wide variety of sites.

Social sharing. This is at the bottom of the list for a reason: it’s the least
important of the metrics. Social media data does not factor prominently in
its rankings, but social sharing can indirectly affect ranking dramatically by
being the source of people discovering your website, which may lead to
links.
 Content Marketing
What is content marketing?

Content marketing is
a marketing technique of creating and
distributing valuable, relevant and
consistent content to attract and acquire a
clearly defined audience – with the
objective of driving profitable customer
action.*

Usually, content marketing only generate

traffic that is in the awareness or interest
stages of the conversion funnel.

*Source:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/09/19/what-is-
content-marketing/#55e2a59510b9
 Content Marketing
Off-site SEO + Content Marketing

Objective # 1 - Have external sites link to these articles and

blog posts, thereby creating backlinks.

It’s tough to have external sites link to product pages or pages

that sell things. It is MUCH EASIER to have external sites link to
articles and blog posts that don’t “obviously” sell things.

Objective # 2 – Have Google rank your articles and blogs on

the 1st page of SERPs, thereby bringing in organic traffic.
 Content Marketing
Examples of how content marketing is
used with Off-site SEO:

Dailyhive.com – thousands of articles

written to generate organic traffic.
Objective: generate impressions to sell
advertising space.

Smithoptics.com – their blog generate

awareness and interest in eyewear.
Objective: Push visitors into the desire and
action stages to convert to sales.
 Types of Content that Ranks
Content Type Example

Blog post Live & Dare's Benefits of Meditation

Infographic
Much internal linking to its own site pages
Short-form evergreen content Jim Collin's Piece on Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals

Short and simple

To the point
Long-form article Wait But Why on the Fermi Paradox

Not short… but it is to the point and offers a lot of

information.

No fluff.
Photo gallery Right Hairstyle's 100 Cool Short Hairstyles for
Men

A # list of top 100 or top ### so and so works!

Generates interest.

Slider format – each slide is a different page. Best

case scenario is that 1 visitor would visit 100
different pages.
 Types of Content that Ranks
Content Type Example

Information-rich list Wareable's Best Fitness Trackers of 2016

Notice something… interesting with the date of

2016 and UPDATES!

Interactive tool Zoopla's House Prices Tool

Interactive tools, calculators, widgets, plugins

allow visitors to interact.

Visualization of complex data CNN's Election Results

Blends interactive tools + infographics + current

events into one!

Research paper Oracle Marketing Cloud’s Research Collection

Technical information backed by research.

 Content Example (Interactive Tool)

How music travels: the evolution of western dance music

Source: http://moz.com/blog/10-extraordinary-examples-of-effective-link-bait
 Creating Content
How do new content marketers fail?
# 1: Create content of low quality
# 2: Create content that only has the potential for broad appeal
instead of content with appeal to a smaller/niche audience.

Appealing to a smaller audience is much more likely to generate links because the
competition for that type of content is lower. If you try to create content with
broad appeal (say, for example, “The best ten movies you can see on Netflix”),
there will be lots of competition, so people are likely to link to some other content
unless your content is truly the best.

If your content appeals to a narrower audience (say, for example, “Top 5 stretches to
relieve sciatic pain”), the competition for that content will be lower. In addition,
people tend to relate more readily to content that is uniquely relevant to them
(e.g., someone who suffers from sciatic pain will more readily view the latter
example as being personally relevant and useful to them, because they will think,
“That’s me,” but a Netflix user doesn’t as readily think, “Hey, I’m a Netflix user, so
this is super relevant.”
 Creating Content
When creating content for a website for SEO purposes, the
content could appeal to:

# 1 - The business’s customers

# 2 - Other businesses in the same industry

# 3 - Businesses in related industries.

 Creating Content
Take an example of a chiropractor.

Customers:
The most typical chiropractic customer needs relief from back pain

Industry professionals:
Other chiropractors are valuable targets for editorial links because (1) they
typically have a website, (2) links from those websites would be considered
related links, (3) it is easy to create content that is personally relevant to
them. Content ideas may include tips on running a chiropractic business,
management of a customer’s treatment program, attracting new clients,
add-on services that a chiropractor can offer.

Ancillary businesses:
Massage therapists, yoga teachers, alternative medicine providers,
disability lawyers, and more have businesses that might come in contact
with chiropractors.
 Fyidoctors Example

What do we do? For content marketing?

Who is in charge? Or leads content marketing?

 Friday OLG
OLG Exercise. Individual exercise.
Due on Friday, Feb. 9 at 11:59pm

Please create a 1-page word document.

Upload on BrightSpace (week 4)

Go to www.fyidoctors.com

For on-site SEO, tell me 7 things that can be improved.

Guidelines: fewer than 20 sentences.
 Next Class

• Chapter 6 – Paid Search!

• Group Project Outline
• Social Simternship outline

64