Think like an SEO

Think like an SEOA step-by-step guide to building a high performance site

Presented by Jon HenshawCo-founder and President of Raven Tools

It has become difficult to separate SEO from other marketing

practices

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SEO is anything that will help you get free traffic from search

engines

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Let’s build a site like an SEO!

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Step 1: What’s your market?

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Research what’s working for sites already in the same space

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Step 2: What’s the purpose?

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Step 3: Create a strong brand

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Is the name memorable?

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Is the name relevant?

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Is an acceptable domain available?

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Are the social profile names available?

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summitsession.com

@summitsession/summitsession

/summitsession /summitsession

A strong and memorable brand can bring you a ton of organic traffic

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Step 4: Information Architecture

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What is your target audience looking for?

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How do they search for it?

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Make your navigation and site structure match the intent of your target

audience.

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Make your navigation and site structure assist the comprehension for a search

bot.

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Step 5: User Experience (UX)

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A poor UX will result in bounces back to the SERP

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A poor UX will keep people from linking to you

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A good UX will make the site 💰

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Step 6: Optimize ALL THE THINGS!

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Don’t use a 💩 hosting provider

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Use SSL

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Use a mobile/responsive framework

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Reduce the size of images

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Use SVG

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Use image optimizers

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EWWW Image Optimizer for

WordPress

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Create smaller versions for mobile

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Use SRCSET to deliver the correct image

<img alt="my awesome cat" src="image.png" srcset="cat-hd.png 2x, cat-med.png 640w, cat-med-hd.png 640w 2x" />

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Create images optimized for the device

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Use Google PageSpeed Insights

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This is what a perfect score looks like**you will never see this again

Use Inline CSS and SVG to make less calls

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Use structured data to enhance listings

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Consider using JSON-LD for schema.org

Credit: Supercharge Your SEO with JSON-LD by Travis Bliffen

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Future proofing: Do what makes sense to Google

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Example: HTML attributes for mobile/UX

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type=“number”

type=“date”

type=“tel”

…and do everything else that is considered standard SEO

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Step 7: Track ALL THE THINGS!

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Add Display Features for GA to track Demographics and Interests

ga(‘require’, ‘displayfeatures’);

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Create them with GA Confighttp://gaconfig.com/

Add Event Tracking for GA to track clicks and goals

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<a onClick="ga('send', 'event', { eventCategory: 'partner', eventAction: 'amazon', eventLabel: 'shop', eventValue: 1});"

href="http://amzn.to/1JzUBtR">Time Capsule</a>

Paste code in links and/or buttons

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Advanced Content Tracking

http://raven.link/contenttracking @RavenJon

Monitor your site for problems and issues

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https://raventools.com/site-auditor/

Step 8: Analyze for insights

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Use Google Search Console (aka Webmaster Tools)

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Analyze top performing content and keywords

Analyze by device for potentinal opportunities

Use Google Analtyics for monitoring and insights

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Create Goals associated with

Events

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Use GA Demographics & Interests to influence what you write

Research top referrers for content and link opportunities

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Thanks!Jon Henshaw@RavenJon

Slides available at: http://www.slideshare.net/jonhenshaw