Digital Marketing using Google Services

5 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is a search engine? JGoogle is a Search Engine. Bing is a Search Engine. Yahoo is a search engine. Search Engine is a website that provides search results related to your queries. Google Search Engine uses its own Search Algorithms or programs to come up with relevant search results. Google sends a program called googlebot to crawl (Read) every website. It reads your website content and stores (indexes) it in Google’s databases. When someone enters a search query in Google Search, Google executes the algorithms to evaluate indexed content from the database and decides on the relevant search results to be displayed to the user. Algorithms are nothing but functions or programs in other words.

There are various search algorithms developed by Google. I will explain about few key algorithms in brief.

Panda: Panda algorithm is used to evaluate the website content and make a decision on sites with poor quality content. It helps Google rank websites with high quality content higher in search results. Google updates this Panda Algorithm time to time.

Penguin: Having genuine referral links to your website from good quality websites is the key for success for your Search Engine Optimization strategy. These referral links to your website is also called as Back Links. People do acquire false back links by way of doing link exchange or by acquiring links for money to push their website in Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Penguin algorithm is used to evaluate such activities and find such websites with false back links. This helps Google provide quality search results.

Hummingbird: Hummingbird algorithm provides Conversational Search results. For example, ask these questions to Google.

Snapshot 5.1 Hummingbird

Snapshot 5.2 Hummingbird

Hummingbird algorithm can understand and provide the answers to you (In addition to the search results).

That’s the power of hummingbird.

Pigeon : Pigeon Algorithm is used to provide relevant and accurate Local Business Search Results. For example, here is the search result page for “paediatrician in anna nagar” (Snapshot 5.3):

Snapshot 5.3 Pigeon

SEO On-Page and Off-Page

Online presence is not a one stop act. Being very active in this Internet World is highly necessary in order to maintain consistency. Having just a website is not going to bring you traffic. Promoting it constantly alone brings your website further up in the search results. Hence optimizing your website in order to achieve a top slot in the search results is necessary for your business to fare better.

We classify SEO activities into two
On-Page (Tuning your website)
Off-Page (Activities you do outside your website)

On-Page
On page optimization is the process in which you tune your website to improve the user experience and site performance.
For example: It is important to have a better Title and Meta Description to have a meaningful website description in Google Search.
It is important to reduce the Flash and Script issues to improve the performance. It is important to follow W3C Standards in order to reduce the coding errors.

Off-Page
Creating an awareness of your brand is how people come to know about your website. It is important that people hear out your business and the positives you have to offer. For example: You may form online communities and forums to contribute.
You may want to register in local business directories. You may want to contribute by writing articles about your business on various other sites and educate the ones who are new to the field. As you contribute through various means, your business will reach a wider audience and when the contributions are well performed a viral sensation about your business is achieved. This is an added advantage for your website ranking in Google.

5.1 On-Page

^{Analyze Flipkart On-Page Activities st}I searched for “buy samsung galaxy s5” in Google Search and Flipkart.com showed up in 1 position in Organic Search Results (Snapshot 5.1.1). Take a look at Flipkart’s description from the search result below:

“ Samsung Galaxy S5Price in India – Buy Samsung … - Flipkart”
“BuySamsung Galaxy S5for Rs.31999 Online, Also getSamsung Galaxy S5Specs &
Features. Only Genuine Products. 30 Day Replacement Guarantee”

Google usually fetches this information from Title and Meta Description tags from the webpage and displays it in search results. It is important to mention yourunique selling points,brand, call to actionandcore keywordsin Title and Meta Description. It should be unique and attractive for every web page to get the user attention. This is one of the key on-page activities you should follow. Let’s analyze Flipkart’s on-page further by opening this specific page. You may want to take a note and try to follow best practice.

Snapshot 5.1.1

Snapshot 5.1.2 Samsung Galaxy S5 webpage in Flipkart

We are in Samsung Galaxy S5 webpage in Flipkart ( Snapshot 5.1.2). Let’s take a closer look at their on-page strategy that helps them rank higher for the keywords searched by me (buy samsung galaxy s5) and also how they engage their visitors.

We are going to look and observe few things:
1. The Keyword Presence: “buy samsung galaxy s5”
2. Engaging components to make visitor stay on this page and take some action.
3. Tags Analysis from the page’s HTML Source

URL: URL contains this specific keyword “samsung-galaxy-s5”. Your URL should be user friendly and search engine friendly. Use meaningful URL. Name your folder and files based on your Product / Service. Structure your folders with proper category names.

Bread Crumps has this keyword “samsung-galaxy-s5”. If your website do not have Bread Crumps, ask your web developer to implement it.

Page Headerhas this keyword “samsung-galaxy-s5”. You need to make sure your core keyword for the page should be in header.

Images

Samsung Galaxy S5 Images in various angles for User Engagement. It helps user stay on this page.
Note:You will learn how these images help in SEO On-page when we go to HTML Tags section below.

Reviews and Ratings: Builds Trust and User Engagement.

Add to COMPARE: User engagement

Cross selling products: For engagement and to sell related products. This also helps in Internal Linking of other web pages. It is a good practice to link a webpage with one or more other webpages in your website. It helps in passing the value (link juice) of your webpage and improves your SEO on-page.

Call to Action:“Add To Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons to help user decidewhat next? It helps user take immediate action.

Unique Selling Points: “Cash on delivery”, “30 day replacement guarantee”, etc. Helps them make a decision.

Combos: Cross Selling other products like accessories. Note down the Keyword usage “Recommended combos forSamsung Galaxy S5”.

Other related products listing:It helps in internal linking and Cross selling

Content Strategy : Look at the keyword presence in “Key Features ofSamsung Galaxy S5” and they support this header with relevant content description as mentioned in this snapshot.

Similar strategy is followed for “Specifications of Samsung Galaxy S5”.

Try to provide enough content description for your Products and Services. It also helps you in increasing the mentioning of your core keywords.

Content is the main key for your on-page activity.

Reviews & Ratings: As people start
reviewing your products and services, it helps in content strategy as they share their
experience about the product or service. It also helps in engaging and trust building.

Tip: Ask your web developer to implement Rich Snippets for your Review Rating program. Google understands Rich Snippets and it improves the chances of showing your ratings in Google Search Results.

“Recommendations based on your browsing history” section helps Flipkart in user engagement by showing items based on the pages viewed. It also helps them in Re-Targeting or Re-Marketing their products or services.

Footer :

Footer page is the place where you can have internal links to key webpages in your website. Note some key links in Flipkart: Privacy, Terms, Cancellation, FAQ, Payments, etc. It builds trust in your system.

You may even mention about your certificates, associations and any other key information to build trust.

Trust is the main factor that you need to build to make user perform expected action in your website. Most of the online businesses fail because they fail in building trust. It takes time to build trust for a new online business. Think different here.

HTML Tags:
Let’s take a look at HTML tags for this Flipkart page and their SEO On-Page activities. To view HTML Tags, you need to open the Page Source. Right click on the page and click on “View Page Source” if you are using Chrome Browser or “View Source” in Internet Explorer.

It opens up theHTML Sourcefor this samsung galaxy s5 page in Flipkart. Let’s analyse key SEO On-Page Tags:

Title Tag:
<title> tag defines the page title. Usually this field is left unnoticedorit is filled up with some junk contentsorjust the website nameorsame title for all webpages in your website. You should not do that. This field is a key for your SEO activity and any Search Engines like Google reads this field when it crawls and indexes your webpage. Google usually shows your title in Search Results. Title Tag should be unique for every webpage in your website. Let’s check what’s there in samsung galaxy s5 page in flipkart.

They have their core keyword for this page “Samsung galaxy s5” mentioned in their title tag and also their brand name Flipkart.com. Make sure to mention your core keyword or topic discussed in that specific webpage in your title tag. Try to restrict the length of the Title field to around 65 to 70 characters. If you have a long text in Title Field, it will be truncated when Google shows it in Search Results Page.

Whom should I inform to change my Title tags for all webpages in my website? Good question. If you know web development, you may do it on your own. Or ask your web developer. If your website portal is built using famous applications like Magento or PrestaShop or OpenCart or Wordpress, you will get SEO Plugins for your portal. You can use those plugins to enter your Title Tags for every webpage.

Meta Description Tag:
One more key field always left unnoticed is Meta Description. This field should be filled with summary of your webpage content. This field should be unique for every webpage. Try to restrict the length of this field within 155 to 170 characters. Google usually shows this field in Search Results Page. Let’s take a look at Flipkart’s meta description

They have complete summary mentioned here. It has got the keyword, price, unique selling points and call to action.

Here is the Google Search Results with Flipkart’s Title and Meta description for Samsung galaxy s5 page.
You should use Title and Meta Description fields as a good marketing material to attract the user attention. Spend some time and effort in creating your title and meta description for all your webpages.

Image Alt and Source Tags:
Here is one of the samsung galaxy s5 image alt and src tags from the Flipkart page. Alt: It is called alternative text for the image. You need to describe the image. Here in this case “Samsung Galaxy S5(Electric Blue)”
Src: Image Source. It contains image location and the file name. The image file name should be a meaningful name. Here in this case the file name is “samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-...jpeg”

It helps Search Engines understand the description of your image.

Header Tags:
There are 6 header tags: H1 to H6. Headers are used to highlight the page or section title. As we are discussing about Samsung Galaxy S5, it is important to have this keyword highlighted with H1. It is also a important component for Search Engines like Google. Try to use headers in your webpage to highlight page and section titles.

Tips:
Create Product or Service specific webpages in your website. For every product or service, have a webpage and describe about it. Your keyword and content strategy are very important for every webpage you create. Instead of creating webpages targeting generic keywords, identify niche keywords or long tail keywords or acronym and form your content strategy for your webpage. For example, a person who does not have any idea about Inverter would search for generic keywords like UPS, Inverter, etc. Don’t target them. A person who is about to buy 850 VA Sine Wave inverter from APC would be searching for “best price for APC 850 VA Sine Wave Inverter” or “ APC 850 inverter price”. When you target these people and design your webpages, you will have less competition and also you get more sales.

Do not include all products and services in a single webpage. Your visitor may not like that. It also confuses your visitors.

Robots.txt
robots.txt is text file present in your website. You should create it and have your web developer place that in root folder of your website. robots.txt file provides instruction to search engines about the content that should not be crawled.

For ex. Let’s open www.locsea.com/robots.txt

“User-agent: *” - indicates that this instruction is for all search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Search Engines usually send a program called Crawlers to read your website. Google sends a crawler called googlebot. As you have mentioned “User-agent: *”, it means this instruction is for all Search Engine Crawlers. You can even write instruction for specific crawlers. For example, you can say “User-agent: googlebot”. All Search Engines read robots.txt and obey the instruction provided.

There are few more instructions provided by me in my robots.txt. I have instructed search engines to not to crawl my “/writers/” and “/proposal/” directories as I have confidential information. I do not want this information available to public through search engines. Use “Disallow: {/folder name/..}” command to block it.

Sitemap
As a best SEO on-page practice, a website should need to have a file called sitemap.xml. This file helps Search Engines like Google to crawl your website better. What does it have? Let’s take a look at www.locsea.com/sitemap.xml
This sitemap.xml file has all your webpage URLs mentioned along with change frequency. It helps Google identify and crawl your URLs.

You should generate this file for your website and place it in your website’s root folder. To generate this file, you should go to https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and enter your website domain name. Set the change frequency to hourly or daily or weekly or monthly as per your requirement. Click on start to generate sitemap.xml file for your website. Download this file and place it in your website root folder.

You should inform Google about your sitemap.xml location to make Google Crawl it. To do so, you have to use Google Webmasters Tools (Refer Chapter 11).

W3C Validation
It is important to follow W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards for your website. You should check for HTML, XHTML and CSS related errors in your website and resolve it. To do so, go to http://validator.w3.org and validate all your webpages including your domain home page.
Every webpage in your website should be validated in order to make your site W3C Validated. The steps to be followed to validate your pages are as follows:
Go to http://validator.w3.org/

Enter URL of your webpage and click on Check. It shows up errors in your webpage. Send those errors to your web developer to fix it. Please note you should do this for all webpages including your domain home page.

Page Speed Insights

Page Speed Insights is a tool available from Google to improve the webpage speed performance.

Go to https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ page.

Type in your webpage URL to be checked, and click the ANALYZE button

Toggle between the tabs MOBILE and DESKTOP Insights, and see through the suggestions given and optimize the pages according to the suggestions provided to improve the page speed performance of your website. You should do this for every webpage in your website.

Improving your page speed helps in loading the webpage faster and hence your visitors will be impressed. This will improve your visitor engagement and stay on your webpage for long time browsing your webpages. Improving the page loading time also helps in your SEO on-page as Google looks at it as one of the factors.

Canonicalization
It is important to set preferred unique URL to reach your home page. For example, LocSea’s home page can be accessed using various URLs as mentioned below:

http://www.locsea.com
http://www.locsea.com/index.php http://locsea.com
http://locsea.com/index.php

What does it mean? 4 different URLs to access LocSea’s home page. It splits up the value of your home page.

You should decide on a preferred home page URL (say http://www.locsea.com) and ask your web developer to create301 re-directentries in .htaccess file to point other 3 URLs to http://www.locsea.com. If you do this, you will have one URL to access your home page and it helps in your SEO on-page by improving the value of this page.

Try typing http://locsea.com/index.php and see what happens. It will take you to http://www.locsea.com.

Customized 404 Page Design
You should create Customized 404 Page Design to guide your visitors.
Assume you have a webpage URL “www.locsea.com/googleadwordstraining” but your visitor entered it with a spelling mistake like “www.locsea.com/googleadwordstraninig”. If you do not have a customized 404 Page, it shows “404 Page Not Found” error in your browser. The visitor may either go to Google to search for this page or go to some other website. Instead, to retain this user and improve engagement, you need to have your web developer redirect such visitors to customized 404 Page (Refer Snapshot8.1.3). You may provide content like this “This page has been moved or you are using old URL. You may be looking for one of these links below” and provide important links to go through or provide options to search your website. It helps your visitor stay on your website and look for other options. Never show “404 Page Not Found” error page to your visitors.

Snapshot 5.1.3 Customized 404 Page

Tips
Learn about Mobile Sitemap and Image Sitemap when you have time. Submitting Mobile Sitemap helps your website listed in Google Mobile Search.

Your webpages are the key for your SEO success. Identify niche keywords (long phrase, abbreviations)for your business and design your webpages with following points: · URL with niche keywords
· Header with niche keywords
· Your content describing niche keywords
· Images supporting niche keywords
If you design webpages targeting niche keywords, the chances are very high for such webpages to rank higher in Google Search. Usually people target generic keywords where competition is very high. They always miss the other part.

On Page Don’ts
Create your webpages primarily for users and not for search engines. Do not copy and paste others content in your webpage.
Do not use copyright content from others
Do not use images owned by others
Do not create webpages with hidden text or links
Do not create webpages with Spelling and Grammatical errors

5.2. Off-Page

While On-Page SEO mainly concentrated on the tuning requirements of a website, Off-Page focuses on creating an awareness of your product, brand or service. The significance of this fragment in building up a strong reputation of your business is vivacious. Contributing and showcasing your business brings in a larger traffic to your website. This in turn upgrades your website’s rank in the search results.
Factors that demonstrate a strong Off-Page presence is as follows:

Backlinks and analysis:
Backlinks:
Links from other websites that directs users to your domain are termed as backlinks. Also called as inbound links, the part played by this is immense when considered in terms of Search Engine Optimization. Since the quantity and quality of the backlinks a website has, plays a significant role in determining the ranking factor of that particular website, they are credited highly.

It will be good to have quality backlinks from quality websites which plays a role in the ranking of a website in Google Search.

It is important to be active in this Internet world by contributing, discussing, interacting, sharing and appreciating [especially in your domain]. This helps you create more branding and it indirectly creates online referrals in-terms of backlinks. Which in turn help your website rank higher in Google Search.

Backlinks are of two types: a) No-Follow Backlinks: b) Do-Follow Backlinks:

No-Follow Backlinks :
Not all backlinks are considered by Google. These links does bring in traffic to your website. Example:
<a href= http://www.example1.com rel="nofollow"> Locsea</a>
From the above code the hyperlink with a rel=”nofollow” attribute clearly mentions that the link falls under the ‘No-Follow’ category. *Links you place in Twitter are No-Follow Backlinks. Do-Follow Backlinks:
Do-Follow backlinks are the exact opposite of No-Follow backlinks. These links not just brings in traffic but also helps in ranking a website in Google Search. Though these are considered worthy in terms of SEO, the qualities of these links vary. The quality of the backlink is measured in terms of the Page Rank it comes from. Better the page rank, better the quality of backlink originating from it.
Example:
<a href= http://www.Locsea.com rel="external"> LocSea </a>
In the above example the attribute rel=”external” is the indication denoting that the hyperlink is a do follow backlink.

Note:Even if rel attribute is not found in the link, Google considers it as a Do-follow link.

Backlink Analysis :
Analysing the backlinks obtained for your website through certain software and tools is termed as backlink analysis. Backlinks of other websites, preferably your competitor’s too can be checked. This method is practiced in order to get the quality and count of backlinks obtained, and to strategize a healthy campaign to obtain fruitful results.
Google Webmaster Tools acts as an efficient tool in analysing the backlinks of a website. Webanalyticseo.com is another example of an online tool that performs a backlink analysis. MOZ.com has a pro tool for backlink analysis.

Press Release Submissions
Any event within the company that is worth a grand announcement can be published as an Online Press Release. Events such as a product’s launch or an achievement in its field qualify to serve this purpose. Facts that could be verified alone stand to be a participant. This gives your business a boost and increases traffic to your website when published. It not just supplies you with an efficient backlink but also serves as a content which could reach a larger audience.

Website Suggestions: prlog.com, prweb.com, siliconindia.com

Blog Submission:
Maintaining a blog either within the website or through various other blogging websites such as Blogger.com and Wordpress.org is an additional advantage. Since blogger.com is a Google owned subsidiary, preferring this would be a better option when compared to other blogging sites. Educating your customers about any updates would keep the audience intact. This method also assists as a platform to interact with customers and hear their feedback. Hence, improvements based on any complaints received could be rectified. Customers are the reason why your business runs. So, responding to their views would build trust within them.

Blog Suggestions: blogger.com, wordpress.org

Article Submissions:
Unlike blog submissions, article submissions are published in a third party website. Writing relevant articles and submitting them to websites that carry a lot of traffic could improvise the addressees significantly. Keeping in mind that the article written should not be submitted in multiple sites, an additional point to be noted is that the article should be creative and interactive, since it has the potential of bringing in a lot of visitors.

Website Suggestions: ehow.com, hubpages.com

Directory submission:
Submitting your website on online directories that are renowned in your local online directory list is one of the chief methods to create an online presence. Since directories are often searched for business related queries by the users, registering with online directories expands the presence of your business. In addition to it, the backlink obtained from such sites are often considered precious since the Page Rank of notorious directories are often high. Hence the backlink obtained is of greater quality.

Website Suggestions: dmoz.org, abc-directory.com

Forum Posting:
Considering that you are well versed with your business, helping the ones in need could actually improve the customer – company relationship. Internet is filled with forums where people discuss, criticize and argue about various things. Being an expert in your field, advising and answering to questions related to your field using your business’s name could attract many new customers and since the threads are saved for future purposes, your comments remain as a guide to newcomers.
Since the audience being targeted here are of the same field, conversions through your website can be expected when this method is performed efficiently.

Website Suggestions: myspace.com, forums.cnet.com

Online forums are usually based on a single field. Sign into the forums that represent your business type.

Community:
Creating communities on various social media platforms can enhance the engagement of your customers and could also proficiently increase the count of new customers. Google+ being one of the subsidiaries of Google, the weightage it carries when a community based on your product is created in it is of ample importance. Creating a community alone isn’t sufficient; a constant engagement in this alone would help build your business. Communities with better interaction tend to rise at a great pace. Hence, hearing out to every community member and appealing to their doubts and necessities should be done regularly. A greater advantage is that the articles and blogs published by you could get a large audience when showcased in your community.

Community Suggestions: Google+ Communities, LinkedIn Communities, Facebook Communities

Classified Submissions:
There may be handful of ways to submit your site online, but the classical and a still good and going way to submit your site is to try classifieds submission. Submitting classifieds may be a traditional way to build your business but, it is still a great idea to do so, because classifieds are not only done on print but also off print i.e., over the internet through many of the online classified submission sites that are available for free as well as on payment basis. Classified submissions still stand as a dominant method when advertising a product online.

Website Suggestions: olx.in, quickr.com

PPT Sharing:
Power point presentations are a graphical way of approaching the audience. Expressing your business through a pictured format and through text is an effective way to make the target audience understand the business. In fact this method is effective as well as a favoured setup by many across the internet. Sharing these files over the internet through various presentation sites such as slideshare.com and authorstream.com is a method that could effectively make your audience understands the business. These presentations could either be about the making of the product, what your services is about or the rise of your brand.

Website Suggestions: slideshare.com, authorstream.com

Social bookmarking:
Social Bookmarking is an online service which plays very powerful role that can contribute positively to bookmark and share the contents through social circle which eventually capitalizes the traffic. The practice of Social Bookmarking is phenomenal in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when combined with other link building strategies which will eventually contribute to high visibility and translate to higher traffic volumes and perhaps, higher conversion rate for the website. Nowadays, sites are specifically designed and marketed to targeted users in specifics to industry. Keyword positioning, tagging or targeting niche bookmarking sites and category would help gain qualified visitors.

Some of the social bookmarking sites are as follows: Delicious www.delicious.com
Digg www.digg.com
Diigo www.diigo.com
Google Bookmarks www.google.com/bookmarks Pearltrees – www.pearltrees.com
Pinterest – www.pinterest.com
Reddit – www.reddit.com
Stumbleupon – www.stumbleupon.com.

Off-Page Don’ts
Do not buy false back links from others to improve your search ranking. Do not do link exchange.
Do not do any unethical activities targeting to improve search ranking

Tips
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor Text is a keyword or phrase that links to specific webpage. For example, in below sentence, the Anchor Text is “Google AdWords Blog Page”.

“For more details on Google AdWords Optimization, visit Google AdWords Blog Page in LocSea.”

If you click on this Anchor Text, it takes you to the link
http://www.locsea.com/googleadwordsblog/. This specific phrase is hyperlinked with this link. It is important to have a meaningful Anchor Text. Do not create “Click Here” as an Anchor Text. Anchor Text is the key for your SEO link building exercise. Search engines give more attention to Anchor Text to decide on your website ranking.

If you have an imagewith a hyperlink to another webpage, how do you provide anchor text? Alt Tag acts as an anchor text for images with links. Make use of it. To learn about Alt Tag refer SEO On-Page.

Day to Day Approach (Sample recommendation)
I want to start with SEO On-Page and Off-Page. Also I need to work on Social Media to improve my Branding. If I can afford, I also want to spend for AdWords. How do I schedule my tasks?

Work out on a Weekly Plan On Day1: Implement On-Page Tasks

On Day2: A great creative post in Facebook or other SMO. Work on AdWords Campaign.

On Day3: Analyze Website Statistics using Google Analytics. Setup new features in Google Analytics

On Day4: Think about YouTube. Implement back link strategy.

On Day5: Write an article about your business and post it in your website blog or blogger or any other popular medium. Work on AdWords Campaign.

Work out on a Monthly Plan

On Week1 Day1: Competitor Analysis, Trend analysis, their back link analysis.

On Week2 Day1: Form on-page and off-page Strategy for your Online Business. Review your back links. Review your generic and niche keywords. Review your keyword rankings in Google Search.
On Week3 Day1: Review monthly Google Analytics data. Review your Device Strategy especially for Mobiles. Work on AdWords Strategy.

On Week4 Day1: Review what you have planned and what you have achieved. Have an excel report prepared for every week. List your pending tasks. Push it for next month. Prioritize your tasks and complete one at a time.

Work out on a Quarterly Plan
Set a Quarterly Target for your Keyword Rankings by defining On-Page and Off-Page tasks targeting Generic and Niche keywords.
Look at the trends and set a target
Work on Seasonal or Festival Plan. Work on offers.
Allocate Budget for SEO and AdWords evaluating the ROI from Organic and Paid Traffic. Evaluate the results and follow up.

Use this approach:

Work out on a Quarterly Plan -> Work out on a Monthly Plan -> Work out on a Weekly Plan.