Search Engine Optimization

Marketing & Comms Lean in Circle

Agenda

- What is SEO?
- How does Google search engine work ?
- Which ranking factors are important?
- Where can you nerd out? (a.k.a iterature and blog recommendation)
- Free tools
What is SEO?

«The art of being found organically through a search engine»

Paid

Organic*

*Exception: Google My Business also allows paid entries.

It is labeled as «Ad».
How does Google* find you?

- Googlebot (also known as spider) crawls the web. Follows a link from
a known page to a new page.
- Mobile first since 2020: Googlebot crawls new websites in
smartphone view
- You can speed up the crawling process if you submit crawl request to
Google Search Console and add Sitemap.

*Focusing on Google here. As per March 2021 its search market share is 86%.
How does Google know what is on your
website?

- Google analyses the content of the page, catalogues, images and video
files embedded on the page. To help the bot:
- Create short, meaningful page titles
- Use page headings that convey the subject of the page
- Use alternative text for images and subtitle for videos
How does Google know what is on your
website?
What is a SEO Strategy?

I want to know more Just what I was

about SEO Strategy Best page for query
“What is SEO Strategy” looking for!

Search Engine
Bot
How to affect ranking positively?

- Google is not publishing the ranking factors. However, on their

Google Search Central Blog, on Twitter and in SEO hangouts they are
giving a handful of recommendations.
- SEO Experts pulled together extensive lists of ranking factors. For
instance: Google’s 200 Ranking Factors by Backlinko or a
weighted approach by First Page Sage.
What are important ranking factors?
Onpage Offpage

- Mobile friendliness - Backlinks

- Niche expertise (aka EAT: expert, authoritative, - Offsite mentions
and trustworthy) - Contribute actively with meaningful insights on
- Keywords in Meta Title Tag / Meta Description / blogs and forums
URL / H1, H2, H3 - Guest posting
- Image optimization - Site Security (SSL certificate)
- Consistency of publication / engaging content
(UX and Time on page)
- Internal Links
- Page speed (even more important from
June/July 2021)
- Match the search intent
It is important to match the search intent
of the user.
- Content matches the search intent of the user.
- Types of search intent:
Informational Commercial investigation Transactional Navigational

Queries typically Queries typically Queries typically Name of a product

include How, What, include best, A vs B, include buy, coupon,
Who, Where, Why, etc. review, comparision order, purchas, price
e.g. How to set up e.g. Hootsuite vs. Buffer e.g. Pricing Hootsuite Facebook
Facebook Business Profesional
profile?
Want to know more?

- Must read: Beginners Guide to SEO from Moz

- Want to nerd out? Newsletter from Brian Dean (Founder of
Backlinko), Ahrefs Blog, Seokratie Class (in German),
SEO Starter Guide from Google, Hola Seo Podcast (in Spanish)
Free tools worth knowing

- To find keywords and much more: Google Search Console

- To measure success: Google Analytics
- To measure page speed: Developers Page Speed Insight
- To see Domain Authority, Title Tag, Meta Description at a glance:
Moz bar
- To discover backlinks: Moz Explorer (Freemium)