The Secrets of SEO: What Your Web Guy Won't Tell You. ‘Build it and they will come’ might work for the field of dreams, but it does NOT work for websites. Your website must follow the best practices in SEO to get found online. But SEO is primarily a content strategy. Your web guy may know how to fill in meta tags, but he or she doesn’t know WHAT to put in those critical tags, nor does he know how to write content that will be rewarded by Google. This presentation explains how to find keywords in the “sweet spot” and other SEO secrets that can bring your website out of the search rankings’ basement and onto the first page.

1. WHAT YOUR WEB
GUY WON’T TELL YOU
The Secrets of SEO
Maria Verven, VERVE

2. MARIA VERVEN
 Entrepreneur and owner
of Verve P.R. and Vaping
Vamps
 25 year career in
P.R., former V.P. of Piper
Jaffray, FleishmanHillard
 Lecturer at the U of
MN, Teaches New Rules
of Marketing & SEO
classes
 Passionate about
helping small businesses
get found online

3. What is SEO?
Doesn’t my web guy do that?

4. HUB SPOT’S 2013 SEO MYTHS

5. WHAT HAPPENED?
There’s been a massive shift from
traditional marketing to Internet or
inbound marketing

6. THE BIG PICTURE
634 million websites
51 million websites added last year
42 million blogs, 60% of businesses have a
blog
11 million publish using social networks

7. OLD SCHOOL MARKETING
Yellow Pages
Newspaper Advertising
Direct Mail
Telemarketing
INTERNET (INBOUND) MARKETING
SEO: Search-Optimized Website
PPC & Banner Ads
Social Media
Content Marketing, “New” P.R.

8. WHY THE SHIFT?
Because
it cuts
the sales
cycle in
half –
or less

9. WHAT HAPPENED IN JAN 2012?
Assessment.com Google Analytics

10. WHERE WOULD YOU HANG A
PICASSO?
Building a
website that’s
not optimized is
like hanging a
Picasso in your
basement

11. SEO DEMYSTIFIED
SEO = Optimizing websites
so they show up higher in
the organic search engine
results
It is not PPC (pay per click)
SEM (Search Engine
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Marketing) includes both
SEO and PPC

12. U.S. SEARCH ENGINE MARKET
SHARE

13. DON’T FORGET ABOUT

14. SEO: LIKE A BRICK HOUSE
The House = SEO on
every page
The Chimney = Your
content strategy
(blog, social
media, P.R., etc.)
The Smoke = Keywordrich content updates

15. ON-PAGE VS. OFF-PAGE SEO
On Page SEO:
1. Pick the best
keywords for each
page
2. Do everything right
so Google “gets” it

16. KEYWORDS
 Words describing the
product or service
you’re selling
 Keywords are usually
a string of 3-5 words
 You want your site to
rank when people
search for your
keywords

17. TYPICAL GOOGLE SEARCH
Title Tag
Domain
Meta Description

18. KEYWORDS MUST MATCH
Your
Keywords

19. CHOOSING KEYWORDS
Use Keyword Tools
 Adwords.Google.com
Analyze the Competition
 Type keywords into search engine while logged out
 Research backlinks to highly ranked sites
Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools
 See which pages are getting the most traffic

20. FINDING THE SWEET SPOT
Keywords with
good search
volume
The
Swe
et
Spot
 Keywords that
aren’t overly
competitive

21. USING KEYWORD CLUSTERS

22. THE DEAD GIVE-AWAY
Title tag has
no keywords

23. KEYWORD CHART – Welchlin
Keyword
Traffic
Competition

24. HOW TO BUILD A WEBSITE
Build your website from the outside looking
in
Optimize every page for a different keyword
Content, content, content

25. WHERE TO USE KEYWORDS
Title and meta description (Meta tags)
Headings and content (On page)
Titles and descriptions for images and videos
Anchor text (text with a link to your website)
Internal and external links

26. META DESCRIPTION AND TITLE
Meta Title
 70 characters (about 8-12 words)
 Use keywords, avoid filler words (like your business name)
 Search engines read L to R. Include keywords first!
Meta Description
 160 characters
 Can be more promotional
Create unique meta tags for each page

27. QUALITY (ACCORDING TO GOOGLE)
Original content (250+ words)
Consistency and relevancy
Images and Videos
Correct spelling, proper grammar, proper text
formatting
Links and social shares from high quality
sources

28. BEST PRACTICES FOR CONTENT
250 words per page
Limit keywords to1-2 per page
Content should make sense & flow naturally
OK to substitute relevant keywords (lawyer for
attorney) and variations (speaker/speaking)

29. IMAGE OPTIMIZATION
Use keywords in Alt text to describe photos
Good: wedding photographer in
Maple Grove.jpg
Bad: bride photo.jpg, bride with
bouquet.jpg

30. OFF-PAGE SEO TIPS
Build links by creating quality content
Update content frequently
Do NOT invest in link-building schemes
Social search (intersection of social media
and SEO) is increasingly important
Usability of your site is also increasingly
important
 High bounce rate and low engagement are red flags

31. SEO FOR PR
Good P.R. is worth tons of link-building efforts
Optimize the title, lead and 1st 250 words
Free pitch services: PRWeb, Pitch Engine
“Deep link” to inside pages
Article marketing: 400-500 word articles using
keywords

eZineArticles.com, etc.

32. SOCIAL MEDIA

33. FINAL TIPS
SEO = part art, part science. Your web developer
may know the science but not the art of content.
SEO = an ongoing strategy. Ranking can take
months, so be patient.
SEO = part analytics. Look at your web stat’s to see
which pages are getting the most traffic.

34. KEEP IN TOUCH!
Maria Verven
VERVE
www.VervePR.com
mverven@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/mariaverven