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When you enter a keyword into any search engine, you
instantly get results (webpages) that are closely related to or match your
search query.
Search marketing is divided into two disciplines, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search marketing is inbound marketing on steroids and is one of the most effective marketing methods in the digital marketing era.
First, what is SEO?
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of affecting a website’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SRPs) for a target set of keywords/keyphrases.
The higher the position of a webpage on the organic search results pages, the more “visible” the page will be.
How do search engines work?
Algorithms
Search engines use algorithms to calculate how worthy a page is to a relevant search query. There are hundreds of factors (Google uses over 200 ranking factors) that are used to calculate the authority of a webpage, and PageRank (based on a scale of 0 – 10) is one of them.
Google assigns PageRank to every webpage it crawls. When another website links to your website, some of its PageRank is passed on to you. The more sites there are out there linking to you, the higher your PageRank will be and the more trustworthy your site will look to search engines.
Crawling
Search engines use bots or “spiders” to crawl billions of pages across the web by following links they find from billions of pages around the web.
Indexing
Search engines then store the information it collects into its index.
Ranking
When a search query is entered, a search engine digs into its index for pages matching the user’s search query, then sorts and displays the most relevant results to the user.
The order in which the pages are displayed are calculated by search engine algorithms, taking into account hundreds of ranking factors. Each page is then given a ranking score.
In order to rank highly on the search engines, your site needs to score higher than all the other sites that are eligible to show up for a relevant search query.
However, be warned that if you engage in shady methods and try to deceive the search engines, you will get yourself burned. Google is very strict on sites that try to manipulate their rankings and if you’re caught doing so, your site will get penalized and removed from the SRPs a.k.a. the “Google Slap”.
Google Major Algorithm Updates: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird
Every year, Google changes its algorithms some 500 times, that’s 1 – 2 times on average each day. Every once in a while, Google rolls out a major algorithm update, and when they do so, many sites suffer a drop in rankings while many others enjoy a raise in rankings.
Panda (2011)
Search marketing is divided into two disciplines, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search marketing is inbound marketing on steroids and is one of the most effective marketing methods in the digital marketing era.
First, what is SEO?
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of affecting a website’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SRPs) for a target set of keywords/keyphrases.
The higher the position of a webpage on the organic search results pages, the more “visible” the page will be.
How do search engines work?
Algorithms
Search engines use algorithms to calculate how worthy a page is to a relevant search query. There are hundreds of factors (Google uses over 200 ranking factors) that are used to calculate the authority of a webpage, and PageRank (based on a scale of 0 – 10) is one of them.
Google assigns PageRank to every webpage it crawls. When another website links to your website, some of its PageRank is passed on to you. The more sites there are out there linking to you, the higher your PageRank will be and the more trustworthy your site will look to search engines.
Crawling
Search engines use bots or “spiders” to crawl billions of pages across the web by following links they find from billions of pages around the web.
Indexing
Search engines then store the information it collects into its index.
Ranking
When a search query is entered, a search engine digs into its index for pages matching the user’s search query, then sorts and displays the most relevant results to the user.
The order in which the pages are displayed are calculated by search engine algorithms, taking into account hundreds of ranking factors. Each page is then given a ranking score.
In order to rank highly on the search engines, your site needs to score higher than all the other sites that are eligible to show up for a relevant search query.
However, be warned that if you engage in shady methods and try to deceive the search engines, you will get yourself burned. Google is very strict on sites that try to manipulate their rankings and if you’re caught doing so, your site will get penalized and removed from the SRPs a.k.a. the “Google Slap”.
Google Major Algorithm Updates: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird
Every year, Google changes its algorithms some 500 times, that’s 1 – 2 times on average each day. Every once in a while, Google rolls out a major algorithm update, and when they do so, many sites suffer a drop in rankings while many others enjoy a raise in rankings.
Panda (2011)
Lower
the rankings of low-quality sites.
Penguin (2012)
Penguin (2012)
Decrease
rankings of sites that engage in black-hat SEO.
Hummingbird (2013)
Hummingbird (2013)
Relevancy
and knowledge graph update (Semantic search).
Read
Moz.com for more details on the Google
algorithm change history.
What are some Black-Hat SEO techniques?
Cloaking – Displaying different results to search engines and users with the intent of manipulating SE rankings.
What are some Black-Hat SEO techniques?
Cloaking – Displaying different results to search engines and users with the intent of manipulating SE rankings.
Mass
acquisition of low quality links in a very short period of time.
Overuse
of keywords in article title and/or content body in a weak attempt to boost
rankings for relevant target keywords or key-phrases.
View
Google’s
content guidelines on various link schemes to avoid.
How do you do White-Hat SEO?
Well, just avoid doing Black-Hat SEO and you’ll be doing White-Hat SEO
How do you do White-Hat SEO?
Well, just avoid doing Black-Hat SEO and you’ll be doing White-Hat SEO
We
will cover essential on-page SEO such as image optimization, good internal
linking structure, quality and uniqueness/originality of the content, and more
later on.
SEO is divided into two parts – Internal SEO, and External SEO
To give you a better picture of SEO, let’s pretend you’re building a new shopping mall.
SEO is divided into two parts – Internal SEO, and External SEO
To give you a better picture of SEO, let’s pretend you’re building a new shopping mall.
Before
constructing your shopping mall, you first have to take into consideration
internal and external factors. Most importantly, you have to take into
consideration what makes a great visitor experience.
Internally, what is your shopping mall about? Is the theme of your shopping mall unique? Are different shop themes categorized into different levels? Do visitors find it easy to find their way around the mall?
Externally, have you taken the steps to put the word out that your shopping mall exists? Is your shopping mall listed in map directories, roadside signboards, or brochure stands in neighbouring malls?
If you’ve taken good care of both internal and external factors, chances are your mall will be booming with business.
Similarly, before building your website, have you considered…
Internally, what is your website about?
Internally, what is your shopping mall about? Is the theme of your shopping mall unique? Are different shop themes categorized into different levels? Do visitors find it easy to find their way around the mall?
Externally, have you taken the steps to put the word out that your shopping mall exists? Is your shopping mall listed in map directories, roadside signboards, or brochure stands in neighbouring malls?
If you’ve taken good care of both internal and external factors, chances are your mall will be booming with business.
Similarly, before building your website, have you considered…
Internally, what is your website about?
If
you don’t even know what your site is about, it’s very likely search engines
won’t as welIs
your site’s theme unique in any way?
Search engines love unique content and will reward high quality content. On the other hand, duplicate or scraped content will not do well on the SRPs.
Are your content themes properly organized and well interlinked?
Websites that have clean site structure with content properly organized into different categories enable search engine spiders to easily crawl through internal pages and index them appropriately.
Do users find it easy to navigate through your site?
Search engines can detect whether users will find it easy or not to navigate through a site. A well-organized site provides a good user experience, which is precisely what search engines were built for in the first place. Sites with a clean structure and a clear purpose tend to rank higher on the SRPs.
Externally, have you made the effort to communicate with other webmasters in your related niche?
Search engines encourage you to actively participate in your community and provide value. Providing value to your community boosts your reputation and increases the chances of attracting inbound links to your site.
Are the chances of them linking to your site high?
Have you taken the initiative to share your content through popular social networking sites? If your content is interesting, share-worthy, and of high quality, chances are you will attract a lot of inbound links.
Do you have a lot of other sites linking to your site, increasing your popularity?
The more inbound links (backlinks) you acquire, the more trustworthy search engines will deem your content.
If you answered yes to all the above questions, you’re doing great SEO!
Search engines love unique content and will reward high quality content. On the other hand, duplicate or scraped content will not do well on the SRPs.
Are your content themes properly organized and well interlinked?
Websites that have clean site structure with content properly organized into different categories enable search engine spiders to easily crawl through internal pages and index them appropriately.
Do users find it easy to navigate through your site?
Search engines can detect whether users will find it easy or not to navigate through a site. A well-organized site provides a good user experience, which is precisely what search engines were built for in the first place. Sites with a clean structure and a clear purpose tend to rank higher on the SRPs.
Externally, have you made the effort to communicate with other webmasters in your related niche?
Search engines encourage you to actively participate in your community and provide value. Providing value to your community boosts your reputation and increases the chances of attracting inbound links to your site.
Are the chances of them linking to your site high?
Have you taken the initiative to share your content through popular social networking sites? If your content is interesting, share-worthy, and of high quality, chances are you will attract a lot of inbound links.
Do you have a lot of other sites linking to your site, increasing your popularity?
The more inbound links (backlinks) you acquire, the more trustworthy search engines will deem your content.
If you answered yes to all the above questions, you’re doing great SEO!
Search
engines were built by humans, for humans. Focus your site on delivering a
great user experience and you can rest assure that your site will do well
on the search engines.
How Can SEO Enhance Your Overall Digital Marketing Strategy?
Improve Overall User Experience On Your Site
How Can SEO Enhance Your Overall Digital Marketing Strategy?
Improve Overall User Experience On Your Site
Having
good knowledge on the topic of internal SEO and on-page ranking factors will help
you better organize your site structure (arranging different categories
according to specific themes) to deliver a great user experience, construct a
good internal linking structure for better user navigation, and make your site
more engaging, resulting in higher conversion rates.
Increase Offline Sales
Help your customers find you better with local directory listings such as Google Places, Yelp, and Street Directory.
Increase Offline Sales
Help your customers find you better with local directory listings such as Google Places, Yelp, and Street Directory.
80%
of internet consumers in the product awareness stage conduct research online
before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
Online Reputation Management
Protecting your online reputation is getting more and more important these days as more and more consumers search for brand names on search engines instead of just entering the direct url i.e. “brandname.com” and the last thing you want them to see is a bad review of your company ranking above your company website.
Online Reputation Management
Protecting your online reputation is getting more and more important these days as more and more consumers search for brand names on search engines instead of just entering the direct url i.e. “brandname.com” and the last thing you want them to see is a bad review of your company ranking above your company website.
Read
more about Google
Bombing.
Enhance Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns
By understanding search engine ranking factors and social signals, you will be able to make well-informed decisions when strategizing your social media marketing campaigns.
For example, knowing that Google uses social signals from Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, Social bookmarking sites, etc, you can better decide where you should focus your social media SEO campaigns on. (Inbound links from Google Plus Pages with many good reviews and blogposts with many +1s, likes, tweets, and reshares tend to give a boost in rankings.)
Mark Traphagen does a personal case study explanation on how Google Plus Profiles and Pages Gain Search Authority.
How Do You SEO a Website?
Today I want to discuss on the topic of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is a form of art. It requires in-depth knowledge and understanding of how search engine algorithms work, quite a bit of skill, a lot of hard work, and persistence.
So what determines whether a website gets ranked on the top pages of Google? Let’s break it down here. SEO can be broken down into two separate disciplines – Internal SEO, and External SEO.
Enhance Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns
By understanding search engine ranking factors and social signals, you will be able to make well-informed decisions when strategizing your social media marketing campaigns.
For example, knowing that Google uses social signals from Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, Social bookmarking sites, etc, you can better decide where you should focus your social media SEO campaigns on. (Inbound links from Google Plus Pages with many good reviews and blogposts with many +1s, likes, tweets, and reshares tend to give a boost in rankings.)
Mark Traphagen does a personal case study explanation on how Google Plus Profiles and Pages Gain Search Authority.
How Do You SEO a Website?
Today I want to discuss on the topic of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is a form of art. It requires in-depth knowledge and understanding of how search engine algorithms work, quite a bit of skill, a lot of hard work, and persistence.
So what determines whether a website gets ranked on the top pages of Google? Let’s break it down here. SEO can be broken down into two separate disciplines – Internal SEO, and External SEO.
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