What the * is SEO ... and how to use it Guest Lecture at The Hague University of Applied Sciences International Communication Management (ICM)
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
What the * is SEO ... and how to use it
Guest Lecture at
The Hague University of Applied SciencesInternational Communication Management (ICM)
Agenda
• Introduction• The web search landscape• What is SEO?• Ranking Factors• Personalization of results• How to measure SEO success• Roundup / Questions
Name:Arne van Elk
Current position:Specialist SEO & Information Architecture@ RNW Media.
Experience:• 18 years in online research, information
retrieval & management, journalism, web search
• 5 years in Search Engine Optimization.• 10 years training editors in web search,
online research & SEO
• NGO using media for social change• Connecting communities and change-makers• Target groups 15 – 35 year• Training Centre
RNW Media: Informed people shape a better future
• Democracy and good governance• Sexual health & rights• International justice
Themes
We work globally
Powered by
The Web Search Landscapeflickr.com/photos/72486075@N00/383577651
When did you last perform an online search?What kind of search?
Content quality: E.A.T.In the beginning ... we could browse the web
We used many search engines
Content quality: E.A.T.And ‘SERPs’ looked something like this
Content quality: E.A.T.Today’s SERPs look different
And only a few search engines remain
In large parts of the world there’s onedominant player
Why was Google succesful where others failed?
Major innovations in search technology, like Pagerank
They developed an efficientsystem of auctioning ads that appear alongside search results in a relevant way
See: www.seobythesea.com
You need deep pockets to keep track of‘everything’ that’s being produced online
Social can be ‘search’ too
We used to search on desktop only
Today we’re constantly mobile
From search to personal assistent
Integration of web results and in-app results
There are many ways for visitors to reach your website
Search is just one of them, these days often trumped by social
DIGITAL MARKETING: Many ways to reach potential audiences / customers
Search Engine Marketing
How important ‘search’ is to your overall marketing strategy depends on your business (what you have to offer).
Search Engine Marketing:
What is
SEO:Free traffic to your
website
SEA:Paid traffic to your
website
What is organic search traffic?
Free vs Paid results
Free vs Paid results on mobile
PLAs (product listing ads)
Regular mobile ads
Organicresultsbelow the fold
SEO starts with ...understanding the needs of your
audience, target groups, customers.
flickr.com/photos/batmoo/3734837951/
What kind of needs? - 3 Types of Search Queries
Do (Transactional)
Know (Informational)
Go (Navigational)
Searchers want to go directly to a website or a specific page.
Searchers want to know or learn more about a topic.
Searchers want to do or perform some web-mediated activity.
How can you help your audience or customers? What do they want to know, read, watch or buy?
flickr.com/photos/chriscwy/16166218964/
SEO = optimizing for PEOPLE who use search engines
How to rank in organic search
results?
What do YOUthink is most
important
You don’tsearch the web, you search in Google’s index
Ranking Factors
youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs
1. ContentSemantics, structure, layout, media rich
3. Backlinksquantity and quality of other websites linking to you
2. TechnologySite structure, internal linking, load times, meta tags, mobile friendly
4. User/Usage signalsbounce rates, high time-on-site
But what are the main ranking factors?
Ranking Factors
User signals: does it matter where users click?And how soon they return to the SERP? (long/short clicks)
User signals: clicks
https://youtu.be/n7ZKvq4I4ww?t=15m45s
Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land) interviews GoogleWebmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes. Go to 15m 45s.
Ranking Factors
“The main things that we use clicks for, are evaluation and experimentation”
Ranking Factors
There are other tools too that can be used to harvest user signals
Ranking Factors
Machine learning is now part of Google’s algorithm
http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440
It becomes difficult to tell how usage signals are taken into account to improve results (even to Googlers)
Ranking Factors
Ranking Factors
A keyword is the main link between the query typed in by the searcher, and yourcontent
It is how you ‘catch’ the searcher.
Ranking Factors
Google for a
fishing iconand you’ll find thispage. It has the right words in the right locations.
1. Page title2. On-page headline (H1)3. Image alt text
2
3
1 Ranking Factors
In addition: Google understands that thewhole website is specialized in icons.
Ranking Factors
Ranking Factors
Keywords are important, but Google will try to match searcher intentwith the best result.
Content quality: E.A.T.
Ranking Factors
ExpertiseIs the content on the page relevant to area of expertise of site and author
TrustDomain history, link graph, spam analysis
AuthorityWho is linking to you?
Content quality: E.A.T.
Ranking Factors
thesempost.com/google-quality-raters-guide-mobile
Which website has performed better in search engines?
Ranking Factors
Website 1
• Targets India• Exists 4 years• Provides lots of
information on private, sensitive issues
Website 2
• Targets Zimbabwe• Exists 4 months• Mostly publishes opinion
Ranking Factors
Website 1 Website 2
Which website has performed better in search engines?
Number of social shares a ranking factor?
Ranking Factors
Important element of ranking:
Google’s battle against spamRanking Factors
Important element of ranking:
Google’s battle against spamRanking Factors
Examples of negative ranking factors:
• Keyword stuffing• Hidden content• Scraped content• Too many ads• Shallow content
Apart from true ranking factors, what you see in search results is influenced by:
search history
Apart from true ranking factors, what you see in search results is influenced by:
Location
Apart from true ranking factors, what you see in search results is influenced by:
Language settings
Apart from true ranking factors, what you see in search results is influenced by:
Device
(Desktop or mobile)
Let’s do a ‘personalization’ test
Take your mobile, tablet or laptop and perform these searches:
1. international communication2. SEO3. Dutch lessons4. Apple5. The Hague
Take a screenshot of the results andshare them on Twitter with hashtag #HUSEOtest
My desktop ‘The Hague’ results, searching from Hilversum
How does your website perform in search?
(When you do test-searches for your site, don’t forget to open a private session)
How does your website perform in search?
1. Search on your brand’s name. Which results are shown?2. Do a site: search. How many results? Is the number of pages equal
to what you have on your site?3. Search on keywords you want to target. Is your site visible for
those queries?4. Check traffic from organic search, spot the trend5. Verify Google Search Console for your site and check all kinds of
info there6. If your pages are shown in results, what do they look like? Do the
search snippets look good, are any sitelinks shown?7. Check results on mobile. Do they look alright? Do you have mobile
friendly pages?
Rank monitoring, no exact science
More metrics to track
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/measuring-and-tracking-success
flickr.com/photos/hotcherry/1358179930/
You probablydon’t have any
questions, do you...
Remember: optimize for people, focus on your users (but facilitate easy crawling and indexing by search engines)
Thanks for listening!
Contact me on
twitter.com/avanelklinkedin.com/in/avanelkplus.google.com/[email protected]
Related Documents
