58 percent of leisure and 64 percent of business travelers begin with search engines (Kenshoo) and if your website isn’t even showing up in Google's search results you might as well still be paying for an advertisement in the Yellow Pages.
Google continues to change how it ranks websites like yours and if you’re not staying up-to-date with these algorithm changes, such as Panda or Penguin, your website could be penalized without you even knowing it!
Liz Day covers the current state of search engine optimization (SEO), our recommended best practices as a result of Google’s algorithm updates, and how a strong organic presence can help maximize your online revenue.
Moving Beyond Twitter/X and Facebook - Social Media for local news providers
The State of SEO: Google algorithm updates and best practices
1. THE STATE OF SEO
Liz Day
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
2. SUMMARY
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
• About me
• Google updates
• Panda
• Penguin
• Hummingbird
• Best practices
3. ABOUT ME
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
• Liz Day
• Digital Marketing Account Manager at RezStream
• California born, Illinois raised and Colorado
transplant
• Dog enthusiast, not yet owner
• Oldest of 5 kids
4. ABOUT REZSTREAM
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www.rezstream.com
• RezStream has been providing solutions to the hospitality industry since
the company was founded in 2005.
• Located in Denver, Colorado
• 21 employees
• Majority of our clients are independently owned properties.
• RezStream’s hospitality solutions include:
• Reservation Software
• Online Booking Engine
• Website Design Services
• Digital Marketing Services
• Other services include GDS, Photography & Videography
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
6. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving and promoting a
website in order to increase the site’s organic exposure in the search engines.
7. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
8. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
How does Google and the other search engines determine my search results?
Search engines like Google craft mathematical equations – algorithms – to
determine quality website pages from poor quality website pages. From there,
Google ranks the quality pages based on the algorithm.
9. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
Each year, Google updates
its search algorithm around
500-600 times.
10. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
Why does Google and the other search engines make algorithm updates?
To provide users with high quality, relevant information.
11. GOOGLE UPDATES
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Panda updates are generally focused around the content on your website.
The algorithm determines quality content, internal linking and any signs of
content spam.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
PANDA UPDATE (Initially launched in February 2011)
12. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
PENGUIN UPDATE (Initially launched in April 2012)
Penguin algorithm updates have been solely focused on unnatural inbound
links to your website from third party sites. Google has made it very clear
they want sites to have natural quality links versus a large quantity of links
that are irrelevant to the websites’ industry.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
13. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
It was named “Hummingbird” because it is “precise and fast”. Google pushed
this update to better understand their searchers meaning behind each
search query, i.e. location.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE (Initially launched in August 2013)
14. GOOGLE UPDATES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE (Inititally launched in August 2013)
16. LINKING| BEST PRACTICES
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• Don’t go out and build links for the sake of building links
If you get the wrong links, Google will penalize you.
• Ensure all links are relevant, i.e. TripAdvisor
Links provide relevancy clues that are tremendously valuable for search
engines.
• Create a compelling reason for other sites to link to yours
The safest and most proven way to build quality, inbound links for your
website or blog is to create useful or entertaining content.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
17. TITLE TAG| BEST PRACTICES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
“If your webpage was a store on the side of a busy
highway, the title tag's job would be to capture
attention and get people in the door.” -Moz
18. TITLE TAG| BEST PRACTICES
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A great title tag can result in more clicks and more traffic to your site, while a
poorly crafted title can cause people to skip over your site and visit one of
your competitors.
• Keep title tags relevant to the page
• Keep title tags unique to each page
• Avoid keyword stuffing
• And …
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
19. TITLE TAG| BEST PRACTICES
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• Keep title tags to 55 characters or less to display full title tag
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
Google's search engine results page redesign increased the font size of title
tags.
20. CONTENT| BEST PRACTICES
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Content can be either visual, auditory, or written. It includes everything from
blog posts, articles, website pages, social media posts, infographics, photos
and video.
• Review your Google Analytics to identify poor quality pages on your
website and revise to reflect high quality content.
• Does this content help my users? If not, remove it from your site.
• How can you make your customers lives easier by solving a common
problem they face?
• Review your social media analytics to discover new opportunities.
• Create an editorial calendar.
• Hire a professional to write your website’s content.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
21. CONTENT| BEST PRACTICES
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• Make sure each page answers a question to prevent getting penalized for
the page(s) being “too thin” or of “low-quality.”
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
22. CONTENT| BEST PRACTICES
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
23. SCHEMA| BEST PRACTICES
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www.rezstream.com
Schema is a type of micro data that makes it easier for search engines to
parse and interpret the information on your web pages more effectively so
they can serve relevant results to users based on search queries, i.e. people,
food recipes, events and reviews.
Benefits of Schema include:
• It’s FREE
• Eye catching results
• Potential increase in clicks via search results
• Offer quality results to searchers
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
“Pages with Schema.org integration rank better by an average of four positions compared to
pages without Schema.org markup.” -Searchmetrics
24. SCHEMA| BEST PRACTICES
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You can promote a variety of information utilizing Schema including:
• Packages and specials
• Contact information, i.e. Phone Number, Email Address
• Reviews
• Upcoming event
• Logo
• Interaction amount, i.e. 20 “likes”, 5 comments, 200 downloads
• And more …
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
25. SCHEMA| BEST PRACTICES
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Schema can be added to any page on your website. RezStream recommends
working with your site developer to get various types of Schema added.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
“Less than 1 percent of websites have implemented Schema.org markup.” -Searchmetrics
26. GOOGLE+| BEST PRACTICES
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Google offers marketers the opportunity to interact with visitors
through many more touch points, including YouTube and directly in search
results. This means that for visitors who engage with you through Google+,
the potential traffic channels multiply.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
“The number of people who interact socially with any Google products on a monthly basis now
reportedly exceeds 500 million.” -USA Today
27. GOOGLE+| BEST PRACTICES
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• Include a “Tagline”, an engaging “Introduction”, offer all “Contact Info”,
link “Website” and take advantage of the “Links” section.
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
28. MOBILE| BEST PRACTICES
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www.rezstream.com
A responsive website allows visitors to access all pages and information
about the property. Offering an accessible website for every user on every
device is a must!
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
“US mobile travel sales to increase 60% in 2014.” -eMarketer
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www.rezstream.com
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
Google offers best practices when it comes to mobile-friendly websites.
Make sure to follow to prevent your site from being penalized.
“67% of the time when we're using a PC we're also using another device.” -Google
MOBILE| BEST PRACTICES
30. CONCLUSION
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• Be aware of Google’s search engine updates to maximize exposure
• Relevant linking and natural acquisition through content
• Revise title tags to reflect 55 characters or less
• Develop and promote engaging content for your customers
• Implement schema on website to beef up your site’s search engine
results
• Claim, verify, optimize and manage your property’s Google+ page
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
31. CONNECT
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www.rezstream.com
Website: www.RezStream.com
Email: Liz.Day@RezStream.com
Social Media:
– www.Facebook.com/RezStream
– www.Twitter.com/RezStream
– www.Plus.Google.com/+Rezstream
– www.RezStream.com/Blog
3801 E Florida Ave. Suite 800
Denver, CO 80210
Sales: 866-360-8210
So we’re a small company, but we have a lot of love for the travel industry which really appealed to to me when I took the job 4 years ago because well, I love travel and I was going to be able to become an expert in the field, not just a jack of all trades
Reservation software is the foundation of the company and we’re currently in Beta testing for the new reservation software release which is expected to launch in the next few months
Online booking engine includes a desktop and a mobile booking engine
Website design services include custom and template website solutions
Digital marketing services include SEO, PPC, Social Media and Email Marketing services
If your site cannot be found by the search engines, i.e. Google, Bing and Yahoo!, or your content cannot be put into their databases, you are missing out on incredible growth opportunities.
So what do I mean by organic? Click next slide!
Businesses have two opportunities when it comes to search engine marketing: 1) organic search listings and/or 2) paid search listings
Organic search results are located within the green border that is not blurred out
SEO is the tactic you perform to increase your organic exposure
Paid search results are located within the orange border that is blurred out
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is the tactic you perform to increase your paid search exposure
RezStream recommends doing both tactics, but if you have to choose between the two for budgeting purposes, SEO is what we recommend focusing on since you’re not paying anything when a visitor clicks on your business’ organic listing (which is the case for pay per click advertising)
So how does Google and the other search engines determine your results? Algorithms!
What are algorithms? Algorithms are mathematical equations to determine high quality pages from poor quality pages
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t share their exact equation with us so we don’t know everything Google is evaluating when rendering search results to their users, but some factors that Google does include in their algorithms are provided when they conduct major updates
500 is a lot. However, these updates can be either minor tweaks that you don’t even notice or they can be really big updates that can impact your website’s organic exposure.
Because Google and the other search engines are constantly updating their algorithm, it’s important to have a professional on your side to keep you ahead of the curve
During MozCon, I had an “aha” moment as Oprah likes to call it. One of the speakers said “SEO is not a project. There’s no end date- it’s a constant work in progress” which makes total sense.
Google and the other search engines will never stop making updates because they want to constantly improve their users experience. Therefore, you should never have the mindset that SEO is a set it and forget it tactic. It’s constantly evolving based on the changes that are being made so you need to be adjusting your strategy accordingly.
They want to provide their users with the best information and experience possible!
Now that we know more about Google and how the search engines work, let’s talk about some of the major updates Google has made over the past years and the goal behind each one.
Google’s goal for Panda was to prevent websites/pages that offer users poor content or information from showing up in their search results
Google doesn’t want to provide poor information to their users!
So what does Google consider to be poor quality content? They have a blog outlining all the guidelines so I encourage you to go out and read it so you are aware of how Google is judging your website’s content, but some popular characteristics include
Misspellings
Not enough text on each page, i.e. 1-2 sentences per page
Duplicate content meaning several pages on your website that have the exact copy
The next update …
Penguin was focused on punishing websites that were engaging in spammy link practices.
What do I mean by “spammy” link practices? Examples include having your website listed on websites that are completely irrelevant to what your business offers, i.e. pet friendly lodging directory when you’re not a pet friendly property. It doesn’t make sense and it’s confusing to the user!
You want to be careful who you are linking to … Google looks at this information!
Hummingbird is often referred to as the conversational algorithm update
Google was no longer just focusing on the words of the searchers query- but the search engine was taking previous search history and your location and time into context before rendering results
Think of a link as a vote
In the past, it was all about getting the most votes for Google to consider your site as being an authority whereas now, it’s not so much the quantity as it is about the quality
A title tag or title element is the summary of your pages content, much like a headline of a news article it should accurately and concisely convey the page’s content.
This element is critical to both user experience and SEO, the user wants to know what information they’ll find on that page and the search engines use that tag to make sure they’re presenting the searcher with what they want.
First things first! Review your Google Analytics!
How to identify poor quality pages on your website? Look at the visitor metrics like bounce rate, exit rate, new users, time on site, etc.
If it’s unrelated content that is not useful to your audience like an old event page, don’t spend the time attempting to make it more useful, kill the page. For example, if you notice that an old holiday page is performing poorly, does it make sense for you to invest resources into making that better or more relevant to your audience? Probably not.
It’s important to conduct an audit of your site’s content because it could hurt your future efforts, i.e. poor quality pages will bring your potential new pages performance down
SEO and social should be working together. For our clients who using both services, we have conversations with Stephanie, our social media specialist, all the time about potential content building opportunities for those clients. She can tell us what people LOVE reading about which can then give us ideas on what topics we should focus on when it comes to creating new pages so I encourage you to look at your own posts to identify what’s engaging to your audience and then using that as a great resource in developing new pages.
Travel: property videos, recommended restaurants in your area, itineraries, top 10 lists, upcoming events, guest interviews,
Schema was developed by the search engines
The reason behind it was of course the users. So what did they do? They offered us, marketers, the opportunity to enhance your organic search listings to offer more information to their searchers in the search results.
Some key benefits:
It’s FREEEEEEEEEE
Eye catching results because they’re bigger and offer more information
By the listings taking more real estate on the results page, you could attract more clicks and traffic to your website
Offering more information to the searchers based on what they’re looking for
The engagement you receive on your Google listing, the more exposure Google will offer you in search exposure via listings
Make sure to fill out the listing featuring all your business’ information: tag line, introduction, contact info, website and links
Make sure your page is verified. You know if your page is verified by seeing the check mark next to your name and next to the website URL
You can verify your URL and business email address
Once the page is filled out, make sure to encourage reviews! The more engagement you have your page, the chances of Google displaying your listing above your competitors increases.
Listings like your Google My Business are important for local businesses because they help your business receive exposure in the local listing section in Google, Bing and Yahoo!
Visit your website on your smartphone to see how easy it is to make an online booking from navigating the pages to making an online reservation
Responsive websites reside on the same URL as your desktop website and size to your device screen
Because responsive websites sit on the same URL (they do not redirect to a m. or mobi URL), it’s easier for Google because Google has to do less thinking
However, it’s important that whatever type of mobile friendly website you go with, that it’s quick to load
It’s so important to Google that they created a PageSpeed tool that will help you identify how to speed up loading times