The document discusses various factors that can affect search engine rankings, including links, keywords, authority, relevance, and user interaction signals. It provides tips on how to measure and improve authority and relevance through tools like MozBar and SEMrush. Content best practices like optimizing titles, headings, and on-page text are covered. Technical SEO basics like URL issues, redirects, and site speed are also mentioned. The document emphasizes the importance of thoroughly covering topics to create the best resource on the internet for searchers.

1. #wineweb
Why don’t I rank?
no. 99

2. #wineweb

3. #wineweb
Source: Ahrefs

4. #wineweb
source: Backlinko
Clicks by search position
400k
300k
200k
100k
1 10 20 30 40 50
Position
Clicks

5. #wineweb
Initial spike from
email and social
No real traffic from search
No rank

6. #wineweb
Initial spike from
email and social
Months/years of
search traffic
Some search traffic

7. #wineweb
Google loves me
Initial spike from
email and social
Tons of traffic over
time from search

8. @crestodina #wineweb
Jargon Alert!

9. #wineweb
Does that help you rank?

10. #wineweb
Does that help you rank?
Is that a search ranking factor?

11. #wineweb
Does that help you rank?
Is that a heavily-weighted
search ranking factor?

12. #wineweb
I have no evidence that it’s a heavily-
weighted search ranking factor.

13. #wineweb
I have no evidence that it’s a heavily-
weighted search ranking factor.
Dude, that’s just SEO superstition.

14. #wineweb
The search ranking factors

15. #wineweb
Links Keywords

16. #wineweb
Off-site On-page

17. #wineweb
Authority Relevance

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19. #wineweb

20. #wineweb

21. #wineweb
Which of these links and keyphrases affects your rankings?

22. #wineweb
Links TO your website. Keyphrases ON your pages.

23. source: SparkToro

24. Do I have a page on my website
that is relevant for that phrase?

25. #wineweb
Links TO your website. Keyphrases ON your pages.

26. Does my page have sufficient authority
to rank for that phrase?

27. #wineweb
Authority

28. Links matter to Google

29. Links are authority

30. Quantity = links from many websites

31. Quality = links from authoritative websites

32. #wineweb

33. #wineweb
How much authority do I have?
How do I find out?

34. #wineweb
Authority Relevance

35. #wineweb
Authority Relevance

40. Source: The MozBar Chrome Extension

42. @crestodina #wineweb
Authority = Ranking Potential

43. #wineweb
Estimating Competition
Do we have a shot at this?

44. #wineweb
Quick, Simple Authority Check
Turn on MozBar

46. @crestodina #wineweb
Your authority needs to be
in the same range
as the other pages that rank

47. #wineweb
A Better Authority Check
Moz Keyword Explorer

49. @crestodina #wineweb
Your authority needs to be
higher than the Keyword Difficulty

61. #wineweb
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

62. #wineweb
Domain Authority
vs.
Page Authority

68. #wineweb
Relevance

69. Is my page one of the top 10 pages
on the internet for that topic?

70. #wineweb
Three types of searches

71. #wineweb
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational

72. #wineweb
Online searches by type
Informational
Transactional
Navigational
?
$
brand
source: “Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries” Bernard Jansen, et al

74. @crestodina #wineweb
Every keyphrase is a competition.
Every page is a competitor.

75. source: SparkToro

76. #wineweb
Using Keyphrases
Indicate the relevance

77. 1. <title>
2. <h1> header
3. Body text
4. Meta Description
Visible = important

78. 1. URLs
2. Alt text
3. File names
4. Meta keywords
5. Etc.
Less visible = less important

79. 1. <title>
Use the phrase once in the beginning of the title tag
Where to use the phrase

81. Where is the title?
1. It’s above the address bar in your browser…

82. Where is the title?
2. It’s often the link in Google search results!
1. It’s above the address bar in your browser…

83. <title>Home</title>

84. 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

85. Once in the <h1> header

86. #wineweb
Template for search-friendly headlines
Web Content Checklist: 21 ways to publish better content

87. #wineweb
Web Content Checklist: 21 ways to publish better content
(keyword + colon + number + headline with benefit)
Template for search-friendly headlines

88. #wineweb
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

90. 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

92. #wineweb
Anatomy of a search snippet

93. Managing
your snippet
with a plugin

94. #wineweb
Quick, Simple Relevance Check
The Control + F Test

95. #wineweb

96. Anchor Text does not indicate
the relevance of this page

97. #wineweb
A Better Relevance Check
SEMrush On Page SEO Checker

101. #wineweb
Content Length and Detail
Is ”thin content” is less likely to rank?

102. #wineweb

103. #wineweb

104. #wineweb
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

105. @crestodina #wineweb
Make the best page on the
internet for your topic

106. #wineweb
User Interaction Signals
Do your visitors like your page?

107. #wineweb
Off-site On-page

108. #wineweb
User Interaction Signals ...and “RankBrain”
1. Click through rate from search results pages
2. Bounce Rate
3. Time on page

111. #wineweb
The Short Click vs. The Long Click

112. How do we get visitors
to stick around?

113. #wineweb
Types of formatting
1. Headers, subheads
2. Bullet lists, numbered lists
3. Bolding and Italics
4. Internal links
5. Multiple images

114. #wineweb
Avoid long, blocky
paragraphs

115. #wineweb
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.

116. Short paragraphs get read.
Long paragraphs get skimmed.
Very long paragraphs get skipped.
Jason Fried
Basecamp

119. Videos and images (esp. charts and diagrams)
add visual interest at every scroll depth

120. #wineweb
source: 2019 Blogger Survey

121. #wineweb
source: 2019 Blogger Survey

122. #wineweb
What about technical SEO?

123. #wineweb
Technical search ranking factors
• URL issues
• Redirect issues
• Schema
• XML Sitemap and Robots.txt
• Security (https://)
• Speed and loading
• Mobile friendliness
• Cannibalization and duplicates
• Missing meta data
Is it fast, crawlable, clear?

124. @crestodina #wineweb
…but not tonight

125. #wineweb
What about SEO
for navigational queries?

133. #wineweb
1. Search for each of those phrases. Like what you see?
2. Make sure there are pages specific to each keyphrase/topic
Tips for suggested branded searches

134. @crestodina #wineweb
What does our
“other homepage” look like?

142. #wineweb
1. Bid on competitors who bid on you
2. Answer “People also ask” questions in your GMB account
3. Polish up any reputation issues
3 Tips for the SERP for your brand