SEO Fundamentals for Business Owners - Local Search Association #LSABOOTCAMP

SEO Fundamentals for Business Owners

Roy MorejonPresident, Command Partners

Charlotte, NC

Local Search AssociationDigital Marketing Bootcamp

#LSABOOTCAMP

Why am I speaking?

• President and Founder of Command Partners• Full Service Digital Marketing Agency in #CLT• Voted Top Marketing Agency by Hubspot• 2014 Best Place to Work in Charlotte by CBJ• Co-Founder of SEMCLT in 2007• Featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, AdWeek,

SEJ, Fast Company, Pando Daily, Yahoo! Tech

What is SEO?

• “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website to make it more relevant to searchers and search engines.

• At it’s very core, SEO is about improving usability on a website..”

- Duane Forrester, Bing

It’s More Than Just SEO

• Original, engaging content that provides an answer, teaches, informs, is useful, inspires

• Quality site design

• Optimized path to purchase/convert

Why Do You Need SEO?

• Increase relevancy• Increase exposure• Increase visits• Increase page views• Increase revenue• Better UX• Investment in future• Users starting here

12 Tips To SEO Success1. SEO isn’t an overnight success story or a one-time effort. 2. Research targeted keywords3. The <title> tag is one of the most important tags for SEO 4. Add page-relevant, descriptive alt text to content images5. Write one keyword-rich <h1> tag per page to serve as the page’s headline.6. Write compelling <meta> descriptions for SERP snippets7. Every page should offer crawlable text for bots to create more keyword relevance.8. Submit a validated Sitemap.xml file to search engines via their webmaster tools.9. Canonicalize your URLs to eliminate duplicate content10. Never put content to be crawled inside images11. Don’t expect to get high rank for a newly-published page. “trust” takes time to build.12. Use social media to build a community that supports and amplifies your content/products/services.

SEO Checklist

• On-Page Technology • On-Page Content• Backlinks• Social Signals• Brand Factor• Traffic Signals

On-Page Technology Factors

On-Page Content Factors

Backlink Ranking Factors

Number of Backlinks

Social Signals

Why Do You Need Social for SEO?

• Signal of topical authority• Real-time – engines want fresh content, fast• Integrated social signals influence click actions

of searchers• Social signals remain only a few of hundreds

of signals for organic ranking

How to Build SEO Authority & Trust

• Know the topic inside out• Engage your community• Share useful content• Be consistent• Market your strengths• Be a go-to resource• Learn to spot trends in data• You’re an authority when others say you are

On-Site and Off-Site SEO Audit

Off-site SEO• Backlink Profile• Domain Authority• Google/Bing WMT• Social Media• Local Reviews• Content

On-site SEO• Title/Meta• Site Speed• Headings• Unique Content• Site Architecture• Internal Linking

SEO Case Study

SEO Questions?

Local Search Association#LSABOOTCAMP

@RoyMorejon

[email protected]://commandpartners.com/