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