SEO for Developers - Little Rock Tech Fest 2014

SEO for Web Developers

September, 2014

2014 LR Tech Fest – SEO for Web Developers

About Me

• Senior SEO Strategist, Globe Runner• Brand Ambassador, MajesticSEO.com• Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com• Practicing Organic/Natural SEO since 1996


Overview

• Search Engine Friendly Websites• Building Sites with Responsive Design• What is important for SEO?• Migrating Sites from an Older CMS• SEO Audit of Your Own Site• SEO Audit Tools• Google Webmaster Tools• Bing Webmaster Tools• Google Algorithm Updates


Search Engine Friendly Websites

• Indexable Content is Imperative• Content in HTML Text on page• Limited Text in Images• Flash & Java Supplemented by Text on Page• Use Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc.)• Video & Audio - accompany with transcript


Search Engine Friendly Websites

• Crawlable Link Structure: Use Text in Nav, Not Image Links• Important: Every page is linked from somewhereHOME PAGE

2 – 3 Key Phrases

Secondary Level Keyword # 1

(Broken Down by Category)

Secondary Level Keyword #2


Secondary Level Keyword #3


Sub Page KW (re-emphasize

secondary level keyword)







S






Are Any URLs Not Indexable?

Some Pages Not Reachable by Crawlers:• Submission-required forms• URLs blocked by meta robots tag or robots.txt file• Bots don't fill out forms (search forms)• Links in Flash, Java, other Plug-Ins• Links on pages with hundreds of links


Keyword Usage

• Keywords are fundamental to search process• Use Keywords in Your Content

Use Keywords In:• URLs• Title Tags• Meta Description Tags• Heading Tags• Image Alt Attributes (alt text)• Content on Page• Internal Links on Site


SEO and Responsive Design

• Responsive Design is Ideal—Mobile Site is Acceptable• SEO Benefits of Responsive Design:• 1 Site, 1 URL (no separate mobile site)• User Experience Enhanced: Combat High Bounce Rates


What is important for SEO?

• Search Engine Friendly Website• Indexable Content• Keywords Usage in Primary Locations• Internal Links Crawlable• Links in Navigation, also in context on pages• Link internally to “related” content, related products• Page Load Speed – users, search engines like faster load times• Move code to External files (e.g., .css, .js, etc.)• Usage of Structured Data (see Schema.org)


Migrating Sites from an Older CMS

• Keep old URLs whenever possible• Move URLs to directory structure

example: move from page.html, page.aspx, page.phpto /category/page/

• Map old URLs to new URLs using 301 RedirectCrawl site using crawler, make list of all old URLs

• Crawl and Audit Dev Site before Going Live• Put Robots.txt file on Dev Site• After site launch, watch 404 errors, Google Webmaster Tools• After site launch, remove Dev site


SEO Audit of Your Own Site

• Use a crawler to grab data, test crawling of site• Example Crawler: Screaming Frog SEO Spider• Data to review:

Title Tags – duplicates, missing, multiple, long, too shortMeta Description Tags – duplicates, missing, multiple, longUsage of www vs. non-www in internal linksCrawl Errors – 301s, 404s, 302s, 500s, etc.Outgoing Links – are you linking out to acceptable sites?Content Length – pages really short on total content


Google Webmaster Tools

• Verify Site in Google Webmaster Tools• Data to Review:

Site MessagesStructured DataHTML ImprovementsManual Actions (site penalized?)Crawl Errors? Going Up?

• Robots.txt Tester• Sitemaps (submit html, video)• URL Parameters

http://www.google.com/webmasters


Bing Webmaster Tools

Configure My SiteData To Review:• Sitemaps• Ignore URL Parameters• Crawl Control• Block URLs• Geo-Targeting• App Linking

Diagnostics & ToolsData to Review:• Messages• Index issues• Crawl Errorswww.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

Tools to Use:• Keyword Research, Link Explorer• Markup Validator


Google Algorithm Updates

• Google Panda Update• Google Penguin Updates• Google EMD Update• Google Page Layout Update• Google Knowledge Graph Update• Google Pigeon Update• HTTPS vs HTTP Secure Sites


Google Panda History• Rolled Out to US sites on February 24, 2011

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

• Rolled out Globally to English language users on April 11, 2011

• Also began to roll out data from sites that users block

• Latest update Panda #25 — March 14, 2013

- Panda updates now on rolling update schedule

• Panda Dance, Panda Recovery, June and July 2013

• Panda 4.0 — May 19, 2014

• Panda 4.1— Sept. 23, 2014


Google Panda Update History• Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011• Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011• Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011• Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011• Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011• Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12,

2011• Panda 2.5 — September 28, 2011• Panda "Flux" — October 5, 2011• Panda 3.1 — November 18, 2011• Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012• Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012• Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012• Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012• Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012• Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012• Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012• Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012

• Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012• Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012• Panda #20 — September 27, 2012• Panda #21 — November 5, 2012• Panda #22 — November 21, 2012• Panda #23 — December 21, 2012• Panda #24 — January 23, 2013• Panda #24 — March 14, 2013• Panda Dance — June 11, 2013• Panda Recovery — July 18, 2013• Panda 4.0 — May 19, 2014• Panda 4.1 — Sept 23, 2014

See the Google Algorithm Change History:http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change


Were You Hit by Panda?• Look at your web analytics• Sites affected had traffic loss starting in February, 2011.• Google Analytics for your site (Web Trends, Omniture, etc.)• SEM Rush for most sites (SEMRush.com)• How many sites recover?

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/google-panda/


Recovering from Google Panda• Make sure all content on site is “high quality”

• Review Google’s List:

23 Questions to assess quality

http://bit.ly/1gHZzQb

• Identify and remove least-visited pages

• Take out the trash, so to speak.

• Prevent Pogosticking from SERPs.

• Wait until next Panda update to see recovery (about a month)


Panda vs. Penguin

• Panda focuses on sites providing a bad user experience - Sites with low quality content

• Penguin focuses on spamdexing and link bombing.

Sells tickets nationally. If claim Local Listings, only rank in local Chicago area?


What is Google Penguin?Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.”http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

Goal is to “decrease rankings for sites that violate Google’s Quality Guidelines”.http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#3

Examples:• Keyword Stuffing, Over Optimization• Unusual linking patterns (outgoing links)


Google Penguin Update History• First reported April 24, 2012

• Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012

• Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012 (0.3 percent of queries)

• Penguin 2.0 (#4) — May 22, 2013

• Penguin 2.1 (#5) — October 4, 2013


Were You Hit by Google Penguin?• Look at Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, review dates

of Google Updates.


Recovering from Google Penguin

• Perform a full SEO Audit of web siteIdentify and fix problem areas on site that violate Googleguidelines (keyword stuffing, over optimization, etc.)

• Review Google Webmaster Tools for messages, suggestions

• Perform full link analysis of site, and CLEAN UP BAD LINKS- Download links from Majestic SEO, OSE, GWT, ahrefs- Review anchor text, clean up links to site- LinkResearchTools.com for further cleanup


Recovering from Google Penguin

• Disavow Links to Site (upload text file of URLs)domain:badlink.comorhttp://www.this-domain.com/has-a-bad-link.html

• Link Research Tools’ Link Detox Boost claims quick recovery

• Work on Authority, Trust of site and get new earned links

• Wait until next Penguin update to see recovery, sometimes two Penguin updates


EMD Update• Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012

Should be called the “Commercial Phrase” Update. But for PR purposes, I realize why Google calls it the “EMD” update.

• Google targeted “commercial phrases” with this update.• AdWords CPC Cost + # Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase Example:

$5.00 CPC + 20,000 Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase• Valuable Domain Names include Keywords (commercial phrases)• Not all keyword rich domains affected

• Sites without keyword rich domains were affected• Recover by cleaning up your link profile, especially anchor text• Link Profiles should have 70 percent or more “brand” anchor text, company

name, URL as anchor text.


Google Page Layout Update• Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012 • Targets pages with too many ads “above the fold”• Algo proof: content above fold, minimal ads above fold.• Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014 http://selnd.com/1qNV6DE


Knowledge Graph Update• Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012 • Added KG functionality to non-English queries• Get your site, org, business into Knowledge Graph.• DFWSEM.org https://www.freebase.com/m/0l2fnxr


Pigeon Update – Local Search• Pigeon Update for Local Queries — July 24, 2014• Affected local search queries, cityname + keyword searches• How Google uses a searcher's location• Many 7 packs now missing on queries

Takeaways:• Neighborhood boundaries widened• Different industries, different effects• Still seeing flux/changes for update.


HTTPS Secure Site – Ranking Factor

• Having https secure site is now a ranking factor• HTTPS isn’t just for ecommerce sites anymore.• Google announcement:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

John Mueller on reasons to switch to HTTPS:• Data Integrity – https ensures no one is altering your content• Authentication – trust you are the one serving the content

Move site from HTTP to HTTPS just like moving another site.


THANK YOU Contact Me

Bill HartzerSenior SEO StrategistGlobe RunnerEmail: [email protected]: (214) 236-4378Office: (972) 538-0260Direct: (469) 645-1231

Web: http://www.globerunner.comBlog: https://www.billhartzer.comTwitter: @bhartzer

SEO for Developers - Little Rock Tech Fest 2014

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