SEO Basics, Plugins, Resources, and Tools (Feb 2020)

SEO Basics, Plugins, Resources, and Tools
Presenter: Pam Aungst
Twitter: @PamAnnMarketing
#WCPHX

@PamAnnMarketing
Agenda
1. What SEO means
2. How search engines work
3. The basics of a successful
SEO strategy
4. What to expect from SEO
5. My favorite SEO plugins,
sites, and tools

@PamAnnMarketing
Download Slides
Download these slides at:
PamAnnMarketing.com/Slides

@PamAnnMarketing
Hold Questions
To ensure that we get
through all of the
material, please hold
questions until the
end.

@PamAnnMarketing
About Me/Us
• Playing with code since 6 years old
• Creating websites since 1997
• Driving traffic to websites
professionally since 2005
• Marketing MBA, Nationwide
Conference Speaker
• Metalhead (Fav. Bands include
Slayer, Killswitch Engage, and
Lamb of God)
• In business 8+ years
• Provide services & training for SEO,
PPC, and Google Analytics
• Google-Certified Partner Agency
• Won several awards
• Launched private-label division
(Stealth™) for reselling our services
• Co-author of CrossCheckSEO plugin

@PamAnnMarketing
About Me – WordPress Stuff
• Using WordPress since 2009
• Spoken at a dozen+ WordCamps
• Co-organizer of the Morris County NJ
WordPress Meetup
• Unofficial speaker/sponsor recruiter for
WordCamp Montclair:
https://2020.montclair.wordcamp.org/

@PamAnnMarketing
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) is the art
and science of
influencing search
engines to rank your
content high in search
results.

@PamAnnMarketing
Why is SEO So
Important?
Search engines, unlike
any other digital
marketing channel, bring
"high-intent-to-buy"
users to your website.
These users are
specifically searching for
your company's
products and services,
because they want or
need them now or soon!

@PamAnnMarketing
SEO Basics:
How Search Engines Work and
Basic SEO Strategy

@PamAnnMarketing
How Search Engines Work
Google, today's most popular search engine, says that their mission is
“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and
useful” and that "the relentless search for better answers continues to be at the
core of everything we do."
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Founders of Google, in the garage where they started the company in the late 90s
From the Garage to the Googleplex

@PamAnnMarketing
Search engines have one very simple objective:
Present users the information they are seeking.

@PamAnnMarketing
Image credit and quote source: Search Engine Land
Although the mission of search engines is simple, executing on
that mission is not easy.
As of Google’s latest estimation, there were over 130 trillion
individual pages on the web. And that was over 2 years ago, so
there’s many more now!

@PamAnnMarketing
Therefore, search engines need
to use very complex
technology to analyze trillions
of web pages and decide which
ones provide the most
accurate and trustworthy
information for each search.
Although this technology is
complex, we can break it down
into 3 basic concepts.
Image credit: US Patent #6,285,999
A diagram depicting relationships between
web pages, from Google’s first patent,
“Method for Node Ranking in a Linked
Database.”

@PamAnnMarketing
Search engines need to perform
3 basic tasks in order to produce
search results.
1. First, they need to discover
web pages.
2. Then, they need to collect
the content from the web
pages.
3. Lastly, they need to sort the
web pages by relevance to a
search query.

@PamAnnMarketing
The more technical terms for
these steps are:
1. Discover = “Crawl”
2. Collect = “Index”
3. Sort = “Rank”

@PamAnnMarketing
SEO Strategy Basics

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy
At a high level, SEO has
two basic objectives:
1. Make your site easily
crawlable, so that
your content gets
indexed
2. Convince search
engines that your
content is worthy of
ranking high

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy
There are over 200
known ranking factors
that Google looks at.
But we can break them
all down into 4 basic
categories.

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy
Technical Content
Off-Page Measurement

@PamAnnMarketing
Think of SEO as a Game.
• The goal is to earn more points
than your opponents.
• There are many different “cards
in the deck,” in 4 different
“suits.”
• Some cards are worth more
points than others.
The Game
of SEO
Technical Content Off-Page Measurement

@PamAnnMarketing
The Game
of SEO
• You have to collect some cards in
each suit, but you can collect
more cards in one suit than
another, if that’s easier for you.
• You can either collect a lot of low-
point-value cards, or fewer high-
point-value cards, or a mix.

@PamAnnMarketing
The Game
of SEO
• In the end, as long as you end
up with more total points than
your competitors, you’ll out-
rank them.

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy - Technical
Basic Technical Optimizations to Make
Your Site Easily Crawlable & Indexable
1. Use a good Content Management
System (CMS), like WordPress, that
creates SEO-friendly pages and URLs
2. Implement SEO “helper” files, such
as XML sitemaps and robots.txt files
3. Use meta and header tags, like title
tags, meta descriptions, H1 tags,
and img alt tags
Technical

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy – Technical - Continued
4. Make sure your site loads FAST,
especially on mobile
5. Make sure your site meets Google’s
standards for mobile-friendliness
6. Make sure your site is secure (https
and basic security best practices)
7. Implement AMP (Accelerated
Mobile Pages)
8. Implement Schema Markup
Technical

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy - Content
Basic Content Optimizations to
Encourage High Ranking
1. Use the same keywords your
target audience is searching
with
2. Organize your content
logically, and link similar pages
to each other (internal linking)
3. Add fresh (new) content on a
regular basis
Content

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy – Off Page
Basic Off-Page Optimizations
to Encourage High Ranking
1. Get reputable and relevant
websites to link to your site
2. Build up social media
“signals” on your content
3. (For local businesses)
Create accurate local
listings in “online phone
book” sites
Off-Page

@PamAnnMarketing
Basic SEO Strategy – Measurement
Since SEO is a science, you
have to approach it with the
scientific method:
1. Form a hypothesis
2. Test it
3. Measure it
4. Repeat endlessly, doing
more of what works and
less of what doesn’t
Measurement

@PamAnnMarketing
The Game
of SEO
• Some of these things will be
easier for you than others
• Just focus on collecting as
many “points” as you can using
the resources (“cards”) you
have

@PamAnnMarketing
What to Expect
SEO Takes Time and Persistence.
1. Just like financial investments, it takes
time to earn a return from SEO. Be
patient.
2. SEO efforts can never stop. You MUST
consistently keep putting “gas in the
car.”
3. You will need resources. It takes either
time and/or money to do the web
development, copywriting, and brand-
building work that SEO requires.

@PamAnnMarketing
Favorite SEO Plugins, Resources, and Tools

@PamAnnMarketing
SEO Plugins
1. Yoast SEO
2. AMP for WP by Ahmed & Mohammed
Kaludi
3. WPRocket (paid)
4. Smush Image Compression and
Optimization by WPMU DEV
5. WP YouTube Lyte by Frank Goossens
6. Schema Pro (paid)
7. Redirection by John Godley
8. WP Sitemap Page by Tony Archambeau
9. Cross Check SEO by Pam Aungst & Paul
Barthmaier

@PamAnnMarketing
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Webmaster Blog
• Google Webmaster Hangouts
(YouTube)
• Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Land
• Moz (Whiteboard Fridays)
• SEO by the Sea*
(*Only for the nerdiest of SEO
nerds like me, who like to read
about search engine patents)
SEO Resources

@PamAnnMarketing
• Technical
• Google Tools:
• Search Console
• PageSpeed Insights
• Mobile-Friendly Test
• AMP Testing Tool
• Structured Data Testing
Tool
• Other Tools:
• WooRank or
ScreamingFrog
• GTMetrix or
WebPageTest.org
SEO Tools

@PamAnnMarketing
• Content
• For keyword research:
• Ubersuggest (free)
• KWFinder (paid)
• For identifying what keywords
your site is ranking for:
• “Performance” report in
Google Search Console (free)
• SEMRush (paid)
• Off-Page (Inbound Link Research)
• Google Search Console (free)
• Ahrefs (paid)
• Moz Link Explorer (paid)
SEO Tools

@PamAnnMarketing
The End!
QUESTIONS?
Download these slides at:
PamAnnMarketing.com
/Slides
Send heavy metal music
suggestions to:
pam@pamannmarketing.com
@PamAnnMarketing

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