Slides for them FanBase SEO Lunch and Learn in Raleigh, NC. SEO is not rocket science so we have combined 12 tips to help you get going!

1. Getting Found in
2014
12 easy ways to generate more love from
Google and increase your brand’s visibility
online

2. What is organic search?
Organic search results: Unpaid, natural listings on search engine
results pages (SERPs) that are surfaced and ranked based on their
relevance to a user's query.
Fun fact: 93% of consumers search for a product online before they
buy. 46% of those searches are for fast information about your
business or product.

3. G+ | Google Local
Top Overall SEO Ranking Factors (Moz.com)
Place Page Signals (19.6%) (Categories,
Keyword in Business Title, Proximity,
etc.)
External Loc. Signals (16%) (IYP/aggregator
NAP consistency, Citation Volume, etc.)
On-page Signals (18.8%) (Presence of NAP,
Keywords in Titles, Domain authority, etc.)
● Verify your G+ page
● Complete your profile and categories
● Include your website and social media URLs
● Resolve duplicate listings with Google Help

4. Check your NAP
NAP = Name, Address,
Phone Number
Check your listing on
getlisted.org (Moz Local)
Bonus tip: Keep your
original phone number in
the footer if you use a
tracking number.

5. Get listed
One of the most effective ways to generate
SEO “juice” for your local business is to
essentially “localize” your business across the
internet.
Google sees these listings as citations
that verify your existence and legitimacy.
Focus on directories with authority: Yelp,
BBB, Foursquare, etc.
Fact: 59% of consumers use Google every
month to find a reputable, local business.
[Via Search Engine Watch]

6. Forget the low quality directories
Google released Penguin to
punish those sites that were
building low quality backlinks to
their website.
Bottom line: You don’t need to
submit to 1,000 directories to
help your rankings.

7. Submit your sitemap
This file is an index of all the pages on your site. It's a quick reference
for search engines of content that you want indexed.
Note that submitting a sitemap does not guarantee indexing. You
should look at it more as a method of getting a search engine to learn
about your website.
XML site maps can simply be submitted to Google via Webmaster
Tools, under the Site configuration panel.
Once submitted, see what errors Google finds in Webmaster Tools and
make updates accordingly.

8. Meta Descriptions = Pitch Yourself
A meta description is the text that appears below your page in a
search engine result that explains what the page is all about.
Meta descriptions still matter, just not in the same way they used to. They
used to be a place to optimize for keywords. Now, it's more important you
write something interesting that makes readers want to click so you can
improve conversion rates from SERP results to your website. Answer the
question: Why read this?

9. Don’t OD on keywords
Matt Cutts has made it clear:
Keyword stuffing will get you
banned from Google search.
● No benefit to your readers
● Use a free keyword density
analyzer like seobook.com
● Rule of thumb: Try not to
exceed 5% keyword density

10. Photos & Alt Tags
Generic photo names/alt tags are
wasted text. Tell Google about
your content wherever possible.
Increase time on site with creative,
relevant photos that help to break
up text.
Search engines cannot read
images, but they can read text.
The alt text helps them figure out
what the images are all about.
DSC10435843.jpb -> Company-Blog.jpg

11. Facebook is still your friend
Facebook handles close to 1 billion
search queries per day.
Promote blog posts, events, & drive
traffic to your website with Facebook
ads.
Low CPI & CPC compared to Google
AdWords
Bonus tip: Add location to photos to
optimize for mobile and get more
exposure.

12. Social search is here to stay
One of the biggest changes in the
last decade is the way social
media plays into SEO. Google
now takes into account tweets,
retweets, Facebook posts, and
Google+ authorship for rankings.
Facebook posts and tweets are
indexed.

13. Be mobile-friendly
According to Google, 61% of
mobile searchers who land on
non-optimized site will
immediately leave the site and
return to Google to find one that
is more readable.
Google prioritizes mobile-optimized
sites on search
results for users on such
devices.

14. Answer Questions
Instead of thinking about keywords, think about
the questions someone would ask to find your
company online and create content for it.
Hummingbird according to Google: "The main
focus was that the new algorithm allows Google to
more quickly parse full questions (as opposed to
parsing searches word-by-word), and to identify
and rank answers to those questions from the
content they’ve indexed."
What’s the best….
How do I….
Where can I find...

15. Be a Good Panda
Panda was launched to prevent sites with
low quality content from ranking on page
one
Takeaway:Don’t post just to post
The is no universal number for how often a
brand should post content online. Instead,
focus on creating content when you have
something valuable to share that is relevant
to your target audience's interests and will
draw people to your site.

16. Good luck!
When in doubt, tell it with cats.
Feedback? Questions? I’d love to
hear from you.
mallory@growafanbase.com