We’re going to cover every step in the process for outranking your competitors. From researching keywords to ranking high, this is a complete course on search engine optimization. This extended session focuses on the specific actions that drive the rankings and targeted traffic.
In this in-person class Andy Crestodina, Strategic Director and Founder of Orbit Media, will cover all of the most common SEO questions:
What are the biggest mistakes that website owners make?
Does duplicate content really hurt your rankings?
What are the most important search ranking factors?
What actions give you a durable advantage?
Which tools are truly useful? Which are free?
How is SEO ROI measured?
After attending this session, you’ll know how to:
Pick your battles: Find the phrases that you can win for
Indicate relevance: Use keywords in ways that show you’re the real thing
Target topics: Go beyond the keyphrase, finding semantic clues
Build authority: Grow your site’s credibility through networking and collaboration
Be opportunistic: Use Analytics to quickly find low-hanging fruit
Once finished, you’ll never look at webpages the same again.
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robots.txt
• Tells search engines what they
should and shouldn’t crawl
• Set it up carefully, to give search
engines good instructions
Disallow: / = no crawl!!
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1. Know your Domain Authority
2. Don’t expect to rank for a phrase if it’s way
outside of your league!
ACTION: Understand authority and competition
More here: How to increase your Domain Authority
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source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational
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Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational
?
$
brand
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al
97. Two types of visitors.
Two types of phrases.
Two types of pages.
Two types of conversions.
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Topics and website structure
CENTRAL HUB
Main topic, business category
RELATED SUB-TOPICS
Answers to the main questions,
“how to” articles
SUPPORTIVE BASE
Broad range of helpful, related
topics
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Keyphrases and website structure
PRIMARY KEYPHRASE
Home page targets the most competitive phrase
SECONDARY KEYPHRASES
product categories, services pages
TERTIARY KEYPHRASES
Phrases related to the problem, not the solution
$
$
?
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1. Popularity
People are searching for it
2. Competition
We have a chance of ranking for it (competition)
3. Relevance
If someone searches for it and finds us,
they’ll be happy!
Three criteria for choosing keyphrases
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1. Confirm that there is some demand for the phrase
2. Target phrases only if your authority is in the same
range as the other high ranking pages
ACTION: Keyword Research
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1. <title>
Use the phrase once in the beginning of the title tag
2. <h1> header
Use the phrase once in the header
Where to use the phrase
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1. <title>
Use the phrase once in the beginning of the title tag
2. <h1> header
Use the phrase once in the header
3. Body text
Use the phrase 2-4 times every 500 words
Where to use the phrase
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1. <title>
Use the phrase once in the beginning of the title tag
2. <h1> header
Use the phrase once in the header
3. Body text
Use the phrase 2-4 times every 500 words
4. Meta Description
Use the phrase once in the meta description
Where to use the phrase
157. We’ve been working on an intelligent model... that understands
real-world entities and their relationships to one another:
things, not strings.
Amit Singhal
Google
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Semantic connections to “footer design”
website copyright
copyright text
website footer examples
header and footer
website footer definition
at the bottom of the page
designing a website footer
fat footer
guidelines
standards
best practices
usability
content
ideas
inspiration
links SEO
sitemap
social media
navigation
purpose of
responsive
template
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Semantic connections to “footer design”
website copyright
copyright text
website footer examples
header and footer
website footer definition
at the bottom of the page
designing a website footer
fat footer
guidelines
standards
best practices
usability
content
ideas
inspiration
links SEO
sitemap
social media
navigation
purpose of
responsive
template
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ACTION: Indicate the relevance
1. Use the target phrase in the title, header and body text
2. Find and use the words and phrases that are
semantically connected to the phrase you’re targeting
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ACTION: Write long?
1. Cover the subject in a detailed, thorough way
2. Answer all of the related questions
3. Make it the best page on the internet for the topic
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1. Confirm the category (and add others)
2. Check citations (MOZ Local)
3. Indicate location on the website
4. Get a few nice reviews!
Local SEO Action Items
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Your “readers” are scanners
source: How Little to Users Read? NN Group
Users have time to read at most 28%
of the words during an average visit.
20% is more likely.
249. 1. Write content that answers questions
2. Use sentences that include complete questions and
complete answers
3. Write detailed posts that rank high in the first place!
How to Rank #0
@crestodina