MKTG 3333 Digital Marketing Ch. 4

optimize its My Business profile

1. choose accurate categories for the business. Inaccurate choices will hinder rankings. 2. Associate the My Business listing with a well-optimized landing page. 3. include the business location on the My Business title 4. periodically add photos to the listing

to provide valuable search results

1. determine which web pages are relevant to the searched-for phrase (keyword/keyword phrase)

local search ranking factors

1. my business 2. NAP 3. structured citations 4. reviews

poor security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption that ensures a third party cannot eavesdrop on an exchange between a server and a client. (HTTP indicates not TLS security, while HTTPS indicates a secure communication connection)

dirty sitemaps

XML sitemap provides a technical map of a website to search engine crawlers, which helps them index the site properly. If this sitemap contains broken links or other errors, instead of helping the search engine index the site properly, the company is now communicating to the search engine that its website is improperly managed (bad) or not trustworthy (worse)

search engines

calculate the relevance of a keyword phrase to a web page and not to a website

reviews

companies should solicit reviews from their customers - they carry greater weight in local search rankings

short load times

expect to see the content of a website immediately

crawling

explores all links to find new pages - URL server must prioritize crawling - crawlers are fast, but with limits - frequently updated content will be crawled more often - can be problematic

on-site SEO

formatting of content on the website to maximize its chances of ranking for all desired searches

search engines perform an incredibly difficult task

giving precisely the information a searcher wants based on a very small clue as to what the user is looking for

local search result

governed by a different set of rules than general search results, which also means that performing SEO for a website of a local service provider requires additional guidelines.

core fat head term

higher search volume ex. earrings

low bounce rate from landing page

if a user on a search engine clicks on a web page but then very quickly clicks the "back" button, this action is called a bounce -indicates that the web page did not provide the sought-for information

insufficient internal linking

if any of the pages within a site have not inbound links from other pages on the site, the search engines have no way to find those pages.

competition

if hundreds of websites are already targeting a particular search phrase, a new website may never have success ranking for that phrase

fresh content

important news - press section or company blog. Regular updates of a website are a positive signal to the search engines that the websites belongs to an active, reputable company

the pigeon update

improved estimation of the searcher's location so results could be more accurately tailored to the searcher's location. it also incorporated more quality signals (reviews, links, website formatting) in the local search results

keyword sfuffing

inserting the keyword phrase too often - a black-hat SEO tactic - not effective - search engines guard against this practice

current ranking

invest in SEO efforts into keywords and keyword phrases for better rankings

NAP

is an acronym for the Name, Address, and Phone number - crucial for local search results

traffic

keyword relevance has to be balanced with keyword search demand. - a website should target search phrases with a higher level of search traffic.

internal links

links to web pages within the same website - should use the linked-to page's target keyword phrase as the anchor text of that link.

local pack

most typical result for a search with local intent - a list of three local businesses that match the search, their location on the map, and review information, and links to their website

Long tail keyword phrases

multi-word phrases that are extended or more specific versions of a core fat head term. ex. gold Rolex watch - lower search volume - more relevant and easier to rank for than more generic terms

to have each keyword to produce the web page that is most pertinent to the searched phrase

need to match each target keyword phrase to a page within the website.

rankbrain

not an algorithm update but and input into Google's rankings. its an input that helps determine a web page's ranking for a search - produced by artificial intelligence

mobile-first ranking

on April 21, 2015 Google removed sites from mobile search results if their pages were not mobile-friendly.

to maximize a webpage's relevance score for a particular search phrase

place that search phrase in the most important page locations

Google Search Console

provides crucial data on search impressions, clicks, and many other features relevant to SEO

words in the URL

receive heavy weighting in the calculation of relevance, so the target keyword phrase should be in the URL.

indexing

recodes each web page as a "hit list" -a "hit" is a word occurrence -each web page indexed as a series of words

structured citations

refer to references and listings from other websites. ex. Yelp listing

secondary consideration

search engine optimization

quantity content

search engine users are more likely to find valuable information on a website with lots of content rather than a website with limited content. Quantity includes both the numbers of pages withing the website as well as the amount of content on a given page. Every page should have at least 100 words of content, and much more than 100 words when possible.

image alt text and file name

search engines cannot "see" images, so unless they are properly labeled, the search engine does not know what the content of and image on a page is

main content

search engines code up every word instance on a web page to determine what the web page is about

estimate competition by

search for a keyword and see: 1. which websites show up 2. whether the links to those websites are optimized perfectly for the keyword

ABC local pack

searches for gas stations and searches on branded terms like Starbucks - may or may not include a map

local finder page

shows a longer list of results

title tag

shows up at the top of a browser when one navigates to that page - receives heavy weighting in calculating relevance, so a web page should have the target keyword phrase in its title tag. - should be kept under 60 characters long

snack local pack

shows up for restaurant and entertainment searches, and omits the website and directions links and instead shows a picture of the restaurant.

poor mobile optimization

sites that are not mobile-optimized will not rank well on searches don on a mobile device

contextual interpretation

the ability to interpret the intent and meaning of a search phrase rather than simply finding web pages that used the searched-for words

organic search results

the links on a search engine results page (SERP) that are not paid for

relevance

the most important consideration in choosing target search phrases.

primary source of information on the quality of a web page

the number of links from other web pages directed at that web page.

ranking

the position the website shows up in the SERP within the organic search results. A ranking of 1 indicates that it is the top organic search result, while a ranking of 34 indicates it is the fourth result on the fourth page. Ranking above 10 = no traffic

goal of search engine optimization

to be a result of many different search queries - and even better, to be the top result on many different searches.

first step in conducting on-site SEO

to choose a list of search phrases to target for improvement in the search rankings (or, for a brand-new website, to chose a list of search phrases to try to rank for eventually)

first task in search engine optimization

to format the website so the search engine can accurately assess the topics your website is relevant to

goal of a search engine

to provide good results to search queries - direct their users to good websites

Google's Keyword Planner

tool that provides an estimate of monthly search volume of a given search phrase and related search phrases

original content

unique content increases the likelihood of a good ranking

the hummingbird update

was less an algorithm update and more an algorithm replacement. It was a completely new search algorithm that replaced old algorithm wholesale. -precise and fast (like a hummingbird)

primary consideration

web design and formatting to improve the customer experience

header tags

within the HTML code of a website, header tags surround the word or phrase that gives a title or label to sections of the web page - the words inside a header tag receive more weight in the relevance calculation, so the target keyword phrase should be in the header tag.

areas of optimization checklist when designing a website

1. URL 2. Title Tag 3. Header Tags 4. Main Content 5. Image Alt Text and File Name 6. Anchor Text

importance of mapping individual key word phrases to individual pages

1. performing mapping reminds the site developers which keywords need to be incorporated in tot he page content - encouraging them to ensure the page receives a high relevance score for that keyword phrase 2. clearly mapping different keyword phrases to different pages, the developer ensures that the right web page is displayed for the right search 3. keyword mapping can ensure a website isn't accidentally optimizing multiple pages for the same keyword (and thereby causing keyword cannibalization)

four factors the choice of target search phrases should be based on

1. relevance 2. traffic 3. competition 4. current ranking

search engine near-constant evolution two main factors

1. search engines must continually combat against black-hat SEO tactics (spam websites are constantly discovering new ways to manipulate search engine results) 2. search engine can never achieve perfection, so their is always room for improvement and innovation

Factors that affect whether a search engine assesses a web page to be high or low quality

1. short load times 2. low bounce rate from landing page 3. meta description and snippets 4. original content 5. fresh content 6. quantity content 7. quality content

to be a top search result

A website should be a: good search result provide high-quality content

the panda update

Google Panda, named after a key engineer on the team that generated the update - most significant singe update in Google's algorithm change history.

the penguin update

Google found that websites with over-optimized anchor text were often manufacturing back links (using black-hat techniques to generate these links). Google Penguin penalized websites with over-optimized anchor text

caching

HTML code of web page sent to repository - Google has cached copy of entire world wide web - cache - temporary storage

quality content

SEO efforts should focus more on creating quality content rather than formatting that content for the benefit of search engines

knowledge graph

a feature Google introduced in 2012 which is a repository of information about people, places, and topics that Google can show directly on the SERP instead of directing users to external pages to find this information - represented a shift in search engine philosophy, because the search engine ceased to function exclusively as a internet "router" - the search engine now started to provide answers directly to users.

alternative text (alt text)

a label or tag that indicates the content of the image - communicates information to web browsers for the visually impaired or to the browsers that have images deactivated.

backlink

a link on any other website that links back to your website

anchor text

a search engine uses the anchor text from backlinks as an objective, third-party description of a webpage.

Easiest tasks on the internet from a user perspective

a search on an internet search engine

meta description and snippets

a short (160 characters) description of the web page content. - not displayed for visitors - well written can increase traffic by generating a high click-through rate.

perfectly optimized

a webpage that is perfectly optimized for a multi-word phrase would have the phrase in its exact word order

long load times

a website that takes too long to load

my business

any company with a local presence should immediately register and verify its business with Google's My Business. - ensures that Google knows of the company's validity, and also enables Knowledge Graph results to show up for searches on the company's name

punishment for past crimes

any website that has engaged in black-hat SEO practices will typically be punished with poor rankings or will be completely removed removed from SERPs. - punishment should be temporary

off-site SEO

deals with the creation and dissemination of content on a website to build quality links to the site