SEO FITNESS WORKBOOK:

THE SEVEN STEPS TO SEARCH ENGINE

OPTIMIZATION SUCCESS ON GOOGLE

2019 EDITION

BY JASON MCDONALD, PH.D.

© 2019, JM INTERNET GROUP

https://www.jm-seo.org/

Tel. 800-298-4065
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
i) Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
ii) Basics ................................................................................................................................. 23
1.1) Attitude........................................................................................................................... 33
1.2) Goals............................................................................................................................... 41
2.1) Keywords ....................................................................................................................... 53
2.2) Keyword Worksheet ..................................................................................................... 83
3.1) Page Tags ..................................................................................................................... 113
3.2) Website Structure ........................................................................................................ 145
4.1) Content SEO ............................................................................................................... 171
4.2) Blogging ....................................................................................................................... 191
4.3) Press Releases .............................................................................................................. 207
5.1) Link Building ............................................................................................................... 221
5.2) Social Media ................................................................................................................. 249
5.3) Local SEO & Review Marketing............................................................................... 265
6.1) Metrics .......................................................................................................................... 315
7.1) Learning ....................................................................................................................... 343
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the SEO Fitness Workbook! Fully updated for 2019, this workbook explains
how to succeed at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in seven steps. SEO, of course, is
the art and science of getting your company, product, or service to show at the top
of relevant Google or Bing searches, for free. With most customers turning first to
Google, Bing, or other search engines, SEO is your free gateway to more inquiries,
more customers, and more sales.

SEO = FREE ADVERTISING ON GOOGLE

Free advertising on Google? Yippie! On Bing? Double Yippie! But, here’s the rub: SEO
seems really complicated.

Is it “too good to be true?”

Believe me, I understand your frustration with SEO and with the frauds, scoundrels,
and dishonest robbers who plague my beloved SEO industry. I know the complaints,
and I hear them often from students in my classes in the San Francisco Bay Area,
including my popular “Marketing without Money” class at Stanford Continuing Studies
as well as my online SEO course also taught via Stanford Continuing Studies (Learn
more at http://jmlinks.com/34y). Here are some of the most common complaints:

• We need to get our company to the top of Google for relevant keywords; our
competitors are there, but we’re not!

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 • We redesigned our website and it looks fabulous. But now, we hardly show on
Google at all, even for our own company name!
• We hired an SEO company, spent several thousands of dollars, and achieved
nothing. So-called “SEO experts” are just thieves!
• I don’t understand computers, can’t write HTML, and I can’t do SEO. Game
over!
• I pay attention to Google, and SEO seems to change constantly. There’s no way
we can keep up with Penguin, Panda, Semantic Search, and Mobile-Friendly
Website Design. You’ve got to be kidding!
• Here’s a new one for 2019. Google has moved towards “artificial intelligence,” so it
doesn’t matter anymore whether you know SEO. Google will just “figure out”
what your website means. (#NOTTrue)
• We hired an obscure third world SEO firm, they built 50,000 blog links, and now
we have been obliterated by Google’s Penguin update.
• SEO is just too hard for anyone without a degree in Computer Science from Yale
University to be able to do. We give up! (They then start uncontrollably sobbing).
• We’ll just do AdWords (and spend thousands of dollars). Google clearly needs more
money from struggling small businesses just like ours, so they can invest in self-driving cars and
gourmet meals for their pampered employees!
• And yet another new one for 2019. It’s all about Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and
Instagram. SEO is so “old school,” no one does it anymore. (Then they immediately
search Google to find the closest pizza restaurant or best supplier of organic widgets for their
business).

I hear and feel your pain. I am just a regular guy, and I have been confronted with what
I call techtimidation probably as much as you have.

TECHTIMIDATION =THE USE OF JARGON BY

TECHIES TO INTIMIDATE MERE MORTALS

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However, I firmly believe that a little education, a lot of hard work, and some common
sense are all you really need to succeed in SEO. The computer nerds (and Googlers)
would like us all to believe SEO is difficult – no impossible – without a computer
science degree.

Poppycock. Hokum. Hooey. Malarkey, Rubbish, Baloney and even B.S.!

You can do SEO. You can succeed at it. It is easier than you think.

The purpose of this book is to, first, make you believe in yourself, second, empower
you with the basic knowledge of how the SEO game is played, and third, help you
make a detailed SEO plan for your business.
More on this later.

Let’s return to SEO, the art and science of getting your product, service or company to the top of the
search engines.

Google Algorithm Updates

Recent years have seen some terrifying Google search engine algorithm updates, such
as Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird, and Pigeon. (Google algorithm updates are named after scary
animals in the zoo). There’s even been a so-called “Medical Update” and a public release
of Google Search Quality Raters General Guidelines that talk about acronyms such as E-A-T
(Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and YMYL (Your Money or Your
Life) at http://jmlinks.com/47v.

Yikes! It’s enough to make your head spin. Backwards. So hard you become an Internet
meme.

Among the most important, Penguin has been an algorithm attack against “low quality”
links, and Panda has been an algorithm attack against poor quality content. In addition,
Google has recently penalized sites that are not “mobile friendly” and made major
changes to local search results (Pigeon). The local “snack pack” box on local searches
like “pizza” or “plumber,” for example, has been reduced to three listings, or in some

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cases just two results, wreaking havoc on local small businesses that depend on Google
for customer inquiries. In some markets, such as that for plumbers in the Bay Area, the
Local Pack is being crowded with ever-more-annoying ads, and on the mobile phone,
Google has done a good (SIC!) job of crowding out organic results with ads at the top
and bottom of the page.

Google’s other moves towards so-called “semantic search” via the RankBrain algorithm
update have been moves to embed “artificial intelligence” into the Google search engine.
Everything seems to be “going mobile,” going “voice,” and getting frightfully complex
for your average small business owner or marketer. Is Artificial Intelligence a game-
changer? Is Genesis Skynet? Will Arnold Schwarzenegger come back as the
Terminator?

Google, in short, has been busy changing the rules of the SEO game. Or has it?
Here’s an important tip: don’t believe everything you read on the blogosphere, and
don’t believe every official statement by Google on SEO. There’s a lot of
disinformation and misinformation out there, and often changes apply to some
industries but not to others.

Have you heard of “fake news?” Well, there’s a lot of it in SEO, and one of the
whoppers is that “SEO is constantly changing” and implicit to that “Just give up – write
content for humans and spend money on Google AdWords.”

I beg to differ. I beg to explain, and I beg you not to panic. Yes there have been changes,
and yes Google is “going mobile” and moving to “voice search” and “Artificial
Intelligence.” But here’s the good news: the basics haven’t really changed, and if you
stick to the basics according to “white hat” SEO – you’ll be fine.

Let me repeat that:

the basics have not changed in SEO.

This workbook will explain what not to do, and what to do, to succeed at SEO in this
post-Penguin, post-Panda world, RankBrain, AI, New World Order. And, it will also
educate you on the unchanged basic rules of SEO success.

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(If you don’t know what Panda, Penguin, and RankBrain are… don’t worry – I’ll explain
later).

Back to SEO.
What is SEO? SEO, of course, is the art and science of getting your company, product,
or service to the top of Google's organic (free) results. If you’re a seller of “industrial
fans,” it means that when customers search Google or Bing for “industrial fans,” they
will see your company’s product at the top of the search results. If you’re a local business
like a pizza restaurant or a probate attorney, it means showing at the top of Google for
searches such as “pizza delivery” or “probate lawyers in Houston.”

Why is SEO so valuable? Simply put, SEO is valuable because nearly everyone turns
first to Google to find products, services, or companies and because SEO costs nothing
(other than knowledge, blood, sweat and tears). SEO, in short, is free advertising on
Google! And there ain’t nothing better than free, is there? (Well, a few things, but please
keep your mind on the subject at hand).

How the Process Works

Let’s step back and ponder how the marketing process works on Google. Customers
turn to Google first to find new products and services, new companies and consultants.
They tend to ignore ads, and they tend to read and click through on the organic listings
that show on page one of Google, especially the top three positions. Looking at it from
the perspective of a small business, Google is the beginning of a chain of very valuable
marketing events.

Ranking on Google for free means you are getting free advertising,

free advertising means free clicks from Google,

free clicks from Google mean free web traffic, and

free web traffic means more sales inquiries and ultimately more sales.

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SEO essentially turns “free advertising” into “paid sales,” which if you think about it
for a moment, is an incredible return on investment!

(Note that for most of the book I will refer to Google rather than search engines in general, or Google,
Bing, and Yahoo specifically. (By the way, Bing powers Yahoo’s search results, meaning there are really
just two search engines in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe: Google and Bing). The good news
is that the SEO methods to rank on Google will generally work just as well for Bing and Yahoo).

An SEO Checkup

Some questions for you:

1. Do your potential customers use Google or Bing to find companies, products or

services like yours?
2. Taking a common search query relevant to your company (e.g., “industrial fans,”
or “best pizza in Tulsa”), do you see your company on Page 1 of Google,
positions 1, 2, or 3? High on the page, or low on the page? Do you see yourself
in the “local” results which occur for “local” searches such as personal injury
attorney, CPA, or sushi?
3. Taking a whole bunch of relevant keyword search queries to your business (the
“universe” of search terms by which customers might search for your company, product or service),
do you generally show up on Page 1 of Google, positions 1-3? positions 1-10?,
or not at all?

If you generally appear on Page 1 of Google, and especially in the top positions 1, 2, or
3, for all your relevant keywords, you can stop reading this book. You pass with an A+.
If you generally do not appear, then keep reading. Or if you appear only on some search
queries, but not others, or if you’re not really sure what your search queries are, then
you need help.

If you have no idea what search word “queries,” “positions” on Google, or “high” vs.
“low” on the page mean, don’t worry. Don’t feel stupid. You need help, and I am going
to teach you.

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Isn’t SEO Hard?

Well, that’s what Google would like you to think (so spend money on AdWords…) And
that’s what many in the SEO industry would like you to think (so pay us big consulting fees,
and don’t ask any questions!)

I don’t agree. SEO isn’t easy, but it isn’t exactly hard either.

I’ve taught thousands of people in my online classes, in classes at Stanford Continuing

Studies and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and in corporate workshops, and
I can confirm that there is a lot of confusion about SEO. People think it’s hard, or
impossible, or mysterious, and that’s simply not correct.

SEO IS EASY; LIKE GETTING FIT IS EASY.

SEO, you see, is a lot like physical fitness. Although everyone can conceivably run a
marathon, for example, few people make the effort to learn how and even fewer take
the disciplined steps necessary to train for and ultimately finish a marathon.

Does that make running a marathon easy?

No.

But does that make running a marathon hard?

Not really.

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Like running a marathon, SEO is conceptually simple (exercise a lot, train with discipline,
don’t give up) but practically hard (you have to work at it nearly every day).

And, of course, the Olympic champions don’t just work hard, they work smart.
That’s the beginning of the good news. If you just learn how to work smarter (not
harder), you’ll find that SEO isn’t really that hard. And it gets better.

For one thing, you probably aren’t really aiming to run an SEO marathon. You’re
probably aiming just to “get in shape,” meaning to get to the top of relevant keywords
that narrowly fit your industry and/or your geographic area. Your more modest goal of
helping your business to get free advertising on Google via SEO means only basic
knowledge is required, and only modest effort.

Indeed, once a small business website is in decent SEO-friendly shape, my guess is

about five hours a week on “Internet marketing” will suffice to keep you at the top of
Google. Results vary, of course, as every situation is unique. But SEO is much, much
easier than you’d think.

You’re Smarter than Your Competitors!

Even better, in most industries, you’ll find that your competitors are not that smart.
Most industries are not as competitive in SEO as you would think, and metaphorically
speaking, you don’t have to run faster than the bear; you just have to run faster than
your buddy.

Let me rephrase that. You are not competing against Google. You are competing against your
competitors, and they aren’t that much smarter than you. In fact, I bet they might even be
dumber.

Indeed, I’d wager that 90% or more of your competitors are doing little to nothing in
terms of SEO. If you just make a modest effort, and if that effort is channeled with the
effective knowledge I will teach you in this book, I’ll wager that there’s a very strong
possibility that you’ll be on page one of Google, if not in the very top positions.

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The Seven Steps to SEO Success

This workbook guides you through the seven steps to successful SEO. Along the way,
we’ll set goals, understand technical details, and have fun. Along the way, I will be your
“fitness coach” to explain how it all works and to motivate you to keep trying.

You can do this!

Throughout this workbook, I will share with you other examples of businesses that
understand SEO and succeed using the seven steps.

The seven steps to SEO fitness are built on a philosophy of empowerment. Can you
understand SEO? Yes you can! Can you implement SEO? Yes you can! It takes some
knowledge, it takes some effort, but yes you can do it.
Get motivated! Imagine me as your personal fitness coach, dressed in hot pants and
with a hot pink megaphone exclaiming, “Work harder! Work smarter! You Can Do
This!” while you sweat to the oldies on the treadmill with just a few “miles” to go…
OK, stop imagining me in hot pants with a hot pink megaphone. It’s getting weird. But
the point is that with a little knowledge, a lot of hard work, and a “never give up”
attitude, you can succeed at SEO. You can get your company, product, or service to
page 1 of Google. Certain restrictions and limitations apply, see store for details. (We’ll discuss
many technical issues, going forward, but yes, you really can do SEO).
Before we dive in, allow me to share just a few more points of background.

» MEET THE AUTHOR

Well, first of all, who am I and what makes me an expert? My name is Jason McDonald,
and I have been active on the Internet since 1994 (having invented the Internet along with Al
Gore). I have been teaching SEO, AdWords, and Social Media since 2009 - online, in
San Francisco, at Stanford University Continuing Studies, at workshops, and in

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corporate trainings. Over 4000 people have taken my paid trainings; over 25,000 my
free webinars, and over 10,000 subscribe to my YouTube channel. I love figuring out
how things work, and I love teaching others! SEO is an endeavor that I understand,
and I want to empower you to understand it as well.

Learn more about me at https://www.jasonmcdonald.org/, at my corporate website

https://www.jm-seo.org/, or be brave and email me a question or comment to
[email protected]. Just Google “Jason McDonald,” and you’ll find me there at
the top, beating out several much better-looking guys who have six pack abs and careers
in sports as well as a New Age Guru who does spiritual trainings in Australia.
#RevengeOfTheNerds

Don’t believe I’m good at SEO, Google “SEO Expert San Francisco” (you’ll see me there),
Google “AdWords Expert Witness” or “SEO Expert Witness” (Yes, I do legal work –
there’s good money in it, and I have kids to support), or Google “SEO Classes Chicago” (You’ll
see the JM Internet Group,” my training and consulting company which isn’t even in Chicago). Try
going to Amazon and entering, “SEO” or “Social Media Marketing.” You’ll find my
books. Amazon is a search engine, and yes I do Amazon SEO as well. But I digress.

Here’s a screenshot of Bay Area SEO Consultant:

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And here’s one for AdWords Expert Witness:

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I rank at or near the top for San Francisco and Bay Area searches for “SEO expert,”
“SEO consultant,” and “SEO agency;” for expert witness searches for my legal work
in SEO, AdWords, and Social Media Marketing; and for niche searches such as
“AdWords Coupons,” “Best Books on SEO 2019,” and “Best SEO Conferences.”
Uncle? Give up? Still don’t believe me? Call me up, or email me before you buy this
book, and I’ll give you reference examples of my SEO clients (who don’t want their
competitors to know about me).

» WHY THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT

There are quite a few books on SEO out there! There are zillions of blog posts! There
are thousands of SEO consultants! There are hundreds of crazy harebrained schemes…
But there is only one workbook: the SEO Fitness Workbook.

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How is a workbook different from a book? Here’s how.

First of all, this workbook speaks in practical, no-nonsense English. Whereas most
of the SEO books out there are by experts for experts, this workbook explains SEO in
plain English and does not get lost in the details. Most businesspeople don’t need to
know every gory detail about SEO; rather they need practical, hands-on advice about
what to do first, second, third and so forth. The SEO Fitness Workbook is as much about
“doing SEO” as it is about “understanding SEO.”

Secondly, the SEO Fitness Workbook is hands-on. Most SEO books are meant to be
passively read. SEO Fitness Workbook, by contrast, gives you “hands on” worksheets and
deliverables. In fact, each Chapter ends with a DELIVERABLE marked in bold. Each
Chapter also has TO-DOS (marked in bold) because a workbook is not just about
reading, it’s about doing and succeeding. Each Chapter has a list of “action items”
and a quiz to test your knowledge.
Third, while most books are outdated on the day they are published, the SEO Fitness
Workbook connects to up-to-date Internet resources such as free SEO tools via the
companion SEO Toolbook, and hands-on YouTube videos that show you how to
succeed. After all, in the 21st century, a “how to” book should be more than a book,
shouldn’t it? It should be a gateway to up-to-date knowledge.

Fourth, I encourage you to reach out to me with your questions. Simply email
[email protected] or visit http://jmlinks.com/contact. I truly enjoy the
teaching of SEO, and I truly encourage my readers to ask questions. In fact, I learn as
much from my students as they do from me because either I quickly know the answer
to the question, or it’s something weird and puzzling, and we’ll learn the answer
together. Don’t be shy! Obviously I can’t give you hours of expensive consulting time
for free, but – within reason – I answer each and every short question that comes in.

» WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

I have written SEO Fitness Workbook for the following groups of practical business folk:

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 Small Business Owners. If you own a small business that gets (or could get)
significant customer traffic from the Web, this book is for you.

Small Business Marketers. If you are in charge of marketing for a small

business that gets (or could get) significant customer traffic from the Web, this
book is for you.

Marketing Managers. If you lead a Web team of inside or outside bloggers,

SEO content writers, or other Internet marketing technicians including external
SEO companies, this book is for you.

Web Designers. If you design websites but want to design sites that not only
look good but actually rank high on Google search, this book is for you.

Non-profit Marketers. If you work at a non-profit or governmental agency that

depends on Web search traffic, then this book is also for you.

Anyone whose organization (and its products, services, or other offerings) would
benefit from being at the top of Google, for free, can benefit from the SEO Fitness
Workbook.

» THE SEVEN STEPS TO SEO FITNESS

Here are the seven steps to SEO fitness:

1. Goals: Define Your Goals

2. Keywords: Identify Keywords
3. On Page SEO: Get Your Website to “Speak Google”
4. Content Marketing: Create Quality Content for Google and for Humans
5. Off Page SEO: Build Links, Leverage Social Media, and Go Local
6. Metrics: Measure and Learn from Your Results
7. Learn: Never Stop Learning!

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And here are the seven steps to SEO fitness in more detail –

Step #1: GOALS. SEO, like physical fitness, is purpose-driven! You can’t achieve your
goals if you don’t define what they are.

1.1 Attitude – attitude is everything, and SEO requires a commitment to learning

how SEO works as well as a desire to implement positive SEO-friendly changes.
Goal 1.1 is to have the right attitude.

1.2 Goals – define what you sell, who your customers are, and how best to reach
them. Define website goals such as to get online sales or acquire customer names,
phone numbers, and email addresses as sales leads.

Step #2 KEYWORDS – identify your keywords. Keywords drive nearly every aspect
of SEO, so you need a well-structured, clearly defined “keyword worksheet.”

2.1 Keywords – identify high-volume, high-value keywords.

2.2 Keyword Worksheet – build a keyword worksheet and measure your rank on
Google and Bing.

Step #3 ON PAGE SEO for your website. Once you know your keywords, where
do you put them? It begins with page tags, proceeds through website organization, and
ends with an “SEO audit” that outlines your SEO strategy. The nerd word for this is
“On Page” SEO.
3.1 Page Tags – understand basic HTML tags, and weave your target keywords
into strategic tags such as the TITLE, META DESCRIPTION, and IMG ALT tags.

3.2 Website Structure – build landing pages, restructure your homepage, and
optimize website layout through keyword-heavy link sculpting.

Step #4 CONTENT MARKETING. They say that “content is king” in terms of

SEO, and they are right. In this section, you’ll create a long-term content strategy that
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moves beyond the “quick fix” of your site to a day-by-day, week-by-week system of
SEO-friendly content.

4.1 Content SEO – devise a content strategy, specifically who will do what, when,
where, how, and how often – that is, a short and long-term SEO content marketing
strategy including an inventory of the content you need to succeed.

4.2 Blogging – set up a blog that follows best SEO practices, including all-
important connections to social media platforms like Google+ and Twitter.

4.3 Press Release SEO - leverage press release syndication services for SEO,
because press releases are an easy technique to get links and build buzz on social
media.

Step #5 OFF PAGE SEO – links and social media. “Off Page” SEO leverages
external web links and social media to boost your website’s authority on Google. Use
the traditional tactic of getting relevant inbound links. Then, leverage social media
platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube to enhance your SEO efforts
via “social authority!”

5.1 Link Building – conduct a link building audit and create a long-term link
building strategy.
5.2 Social Media SEO – look for social media mention opportunities, and enable
relevant social profiles to enhance Google’s trust in your website as an authoritative
resource.
5.3 Local SEO – local SEO stands at the juncture of SEO, local, and review based
marketing, and so we dive into how to optimize a website for local searches.

Step #6 METRICS – measure and learn from your results. Like physical fitness,
SEO is a process that starts with a defined set of goals and employs specific
measurements about goal achievement.

6.1 Metrics - measure your progress towards the top of Google, inbound keywords,
and paths taken by customers once they land on your website.

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Step #7 LEARN - never stop learning. SEO starts with self-discovery, proceeds
through technical knowledge, and ends with the hard work of implementation.
7.1 Learning – use Chapter 7 to get access to companion worksheets and the very
important SEO Toolbook and my secret dashboard, which provide hundreds of
free SEO tools, tools to help you in all aspects of SEO, from identifying keywords
through page tags to links and social mentions.

» REGISTER YOUR WORKBOOK FOR FREE ONLINE RESOURCES

Please register your Workbook. You’ll not only get a full-color PDF copy of this
Workbook to download with active, clickable links to the resources (very handy to read
at your computer). You’ll also get my updated SEO Toolbook, my secret SEO Dashboard,
and all the Workbook’s companion worksheets to help you step-by-step. You’ll even
get a free pony! (OK, you won’t get a free pony, but you’ll get loads of hands-on
materials to help you start “doing” SEO).
To register, follow these easy steps:

1. Go to the JM Internet Group Website, click on “Register Your Workbook,” or

just go directly to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz.
2. Reenter your passcode: seo19tz
3. If you have any problems, contact me via http://jmlinks.com/contact or call
800-298-4065 for help.

Sign up for email alerts at http://jmlinks.com/free, and - last but not least- watch a
few of my YouTube videos at https://www.youtube.com/jmgrp; you’ll find I am as
crazy and enthusiastic on video as I am in this book!

Access Jump Code Links

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Note: throughout this book I use the website http://jmlinks.com/ to point to
resources. You can either click on the resource directly in the book (if you’re reading in
digital format). Or, simply go to http://jmlinks.com/ and enter the JUMP code. For
example, to visit http://jmlinks.com/7a simply go to http://jmlinks.com/ and
enter “7a”. That will take you to the referenced Internet resource.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial of how to use the jump codes at

http://jmlinks.com/jump or just visit http://jmlinks.com/ directly and
enter jump.

» SPREAD THE WORD: TAKE A SURVEY & GET $5!

If you like the book, please take a moment to provide honest feedback. Here’s my
special offer for those eager enough to take a short survey –

1. Visit http://jmlinks.com/survey.
2. Compete the survey on the book, as indicated.
3. Include your email address and any feedback (good, bad, positive, negative)
about the book).
4. I will gift you $5 via Amazon gift eCard.

This offer is subject to change without notice.

» COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 2019, Jason McDonald, JM Internet Group, and Excerpti

Communications, Inc., All Rights Reserved. No reproduction or citation without
written consent of the publisher. For details and to contact us, visit our website at
https://www.jm-seo.org/.

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This is a completely unofficial guide to SEO. Neither Google nor Bing / Yahoo have
endorsed this guide, nor has Google, Bing, or Yahoo nor anyone affiliated with Google,
Bing, or Yahoo been involved in the production of this guide.

That’s a good thing. This guide is independent. My aim is to “tell it as I see it,” giving
you no-nonsense information on how to succeed at SEO.

In addition, please note the following:

• All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. I have no relationship
with nor endorsement from the mark holders. Any use of their marks is so I can
provide information to you.

• Any reference to or citation of third party products or services whether for

Google, Yahoo, Bing, or otherwise, should not be construed as an endorsement
of those products or services tools, nor as a warranty as to their effectiveness or
compliance with the terms of service of Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

The information used in this guide has been reviewed and updated as of December,
2018. However, SEO changes rapidly, so please be aware that scenarios, facts, and
conclusions are subject to change without notice.

Additional Disclaimer. Internet marketing is an art, and not a science. Any changes
to your Internet marketing strategy, including SEO, Social Media Marketing, and
AdWords, is at your own risk. Neither Jason McDonald nor the JM Internet Group nor
Excerpti Communications, Inc. assumes any responsibility for the effect of any changes
you may, or may not, make to your website or AdWords advertising based on the
information in this guide.

» ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No man is an island. I would like to thank my beloved wife, Noelle Decambra, as my

personal cheerleader in the book industry. Gloria McNabb has done her usual tireless
job as first assistant, including updating this edition as well the SEO Toolbook. My

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daughter, Ava, inspired me on YouTube, and my daughter, Hannah, has inspired me
with her grit and determination as the best audio editor ever. Last but not least, my
black Lab Buddy, kept my physically active and pondering the mysteries of Google on
many jaunts through the San Francisco Bay Area.

And a huge thank you to my students – online, in San Francisco, and at Stanford
Continuing Studies. You challenge me, you inspire me, and you motivate me!

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Page | 21
Page | 22
 II
BASICS
I love analogies because, as a teacher, I find that they help my students quickly
understand new things. Thinking of SEO like fitness, for example, helps people realize
that they need to set “fitness goals,” learn some tips and tricks about how to “get fit,”
and then create a systematic plan (and stick with it) to achieve their goals. As opposed
to having your head swimming with technical mumbo-jumbo, the fitness analogy helps
you see that SEO is something you can do. It’s empowering.

Before we get into the technical details, I want to give you another analogy that will
help you in your quest to get to the top of Google. SEO is like getting a job. It has
its job desired (your keywords), its resume (your website), its references (your
inbound links), and its job interview (your website landing).
In this Chapter, I will give you a conceptual framework to understand search engine
optimization. Once you have a conceptual framework, you can then refer back to it, as
you dive into very specific tasks such as optimizing a landing page or soliciting inbound
links. It’s a map that will keep you oriented in the right direction.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:
» Understand that SEO Parallels Getting a Job

» Keyword Research

» Understand “On Page” SEO

» Understand “Off Page” SEO

» Set Landing Page Goals

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» UNDERSTAND THAT SEO PARALLELS GETTING A JOB

Let’s consider the search for a job. How does the job market work? People want to “be
found” as the “ideal” candidate for a position. So what do they do? Four important
things:

Job Desired – Identify a Desired Job. Job seekers take a look inside their souls
and identify the job they want. If they’re smart, they took a look outside at the
job market as well, and look for connection points between the job of their
dreams, and the jobs that are in demand in the labor market. For example, my
dream job is sipping margaritas in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, writing science fiction
novels, but the demand for that isn’t so high. So I’ve taken a passion for language
and turned that into a job as an SEO writer and consultant. Notice how the “job
desired” matches “keywords” as in (SEO consultant).

Resume - Create a resume. Job seekers create a keyword-heavy resume that

explains the job that they want to get, and their qualifications for that job. If, for
example, they want a job as a BMW auto mechanic, they create a resume that
emphasizes keywords like “auto mechanic,” “auto repair,” and even “BMW
repair” by prominently displaying them in the right places, including the subject
line of emails they send out to prospective employers. And employers “scan”
resumes looking for those resumes that “match” their keywords. Notice how
“keywords” are embedded in the written resume.
References - Cultivate References. Beyond a great resume, the next aspect of
job search is cultivating great references. Knowing the boss’s spouse, having the
head of the BMW auto mechanic school, or someone else important or
influential put in a good word can elevate your resume to the top of the heap. In
short, strong references get your resume looked at, substantiate that your resume
is factually accurate, and possibly get you a job interview. Notice how
“references” are external validations that you are as great as your resume claims
you to be.

Job Interview – Wow Them Face-to-Face. Once you get their attention,
what’s next? The job interview is the next step towards landing the job, it’s the
“free glimpse” of what you have to offer that “sells” the employer on making a

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 financial commitment by hiring you. Notice how a “job interview” is a “free”
taste of you as an employee. The use of something free is obvious, once you notice
it, and notice how strong websites usually offer customers something free as well.

The marketing equation is: job desired > resume > references > job
interview > job.

Hopefully you can already see that SEO is a lot like getting a job. How so?

Identifying the job you want equals identifying keywords that are in
demand. Before you put virtual pen to virtual paper to build out your website,
you have to understand your Business Value Proposition, and who wants what
you have to sell. “Keywords” connect what you have, with what customers want.
This is called “keyword research.”
Creating a resume equals creating a strong, keyword heavy website. Your
website, in a sense, is your business resume, and it needs to have keywords placed
on it in strategic places to “talk to” Google as well as human searchers, and just
as with a job search, you have to research the hot-button keywords that people
are searching for and place those in strategic positions. This is called “On Page”
SEO.
Cultivating references equals getting links and going social. Just as you
cultivate references to get your resume elevated to the top of the heap, so you
cultivate inbound links, fresh buzz, and social authority to elevate your website
to the top of Google search. Getting other websites to link to you, positive
reviews of your business on Google, and mentions on social media sites like
Google+ or Twitter is called “Off Page” SEO.

The job interview equals the website landing. Once you get noticed, your
next step is a fantastic job interview. The equivalent of the job interview is the
landing behavior on your website. Once they land from Google, you want them

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 to “take the next step,” usually a registration or a sale just as at a job interview,
which leads to the final step, getting hired or making a sale.

The SEO equation is keyword research > On Page SEO > Off Page SEO
> website landing > sales inquiry or sale.

Keep this conceptual framework that SEO is like a job search in the back of your head
as you read through this Workbook. Here’s a simple model of the parallels:

Job desired = keywords = identify keywords that customers search for.

Resume = On Page SEO = create a keyword-heavy, easy-to-understand website.

References = Off Page SEO = solicit many inbound links, social authority /
mentions, and freshness via blogging.
Job Interview = optimize the landing page experience to lead to a registration or a
sale.

Metrics = is it working? Am I getting relevant job interviews (“inquiries”) and

job offers (“sales”)?

Build a Better Resume (or Website)

Once you realize that the process of SEO parallels the process of getting a job, you’ll
realize something else. Just because the process is easy-to-understand does not mean
that most people do it correctly. If you’ve ever had the (mis)fortune of having to look
through job applications and resumes, for example, you can vouch for me that many (if
not most) resumes are terrible. They’re hard to read, they’re ambiguous about the job
desired, and they don’t systematically substantiate their claim that they are the “perfect”
candidate for the job.
Most resumes, in short, stink.

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Looking over to the Web, you’ll realize that just because SEO is conceptually easy to
understand does not mean that most Web sites are SEO-friendly. In fact, most websites
are ambiguous at best vis-à-vis their keyword targets, have terrible landing experiences,
and don’t have any systematic link-building in place.

Most websites, in short, stink.

But just because most people have terrible resumes, or terrible websites, does not mean
that yours has to stink, too. In fact, this is the first hugely optimistic observation. With a little
knowledge and a little hard work, you can elevate your website above your competition.
You can “build a better website” via SEO and vastly improve your performance on
Google.
Of course it depends on how competitive your industry is, and how skilled your
competition is. It varies industry by industry. But in my experience, most small business
websites can see a vast improvement by following a few simple SEO guidelines.

Your website, just like your resume, does NOT have to be perfect. It just has to be
BETTER than that of your competition. And your competition is not made of Albert
Einsteins and Madame Curies, but just regular guys and gals most of whom probably
know less about SEO than you do.

» KEYWORD RESEARCH
Let’s drill down into the first element, “keyword research,” the equivalent of identifying
a job that you want that’s also in demand in the marketplace. We’ll get into some cool
tactics and tools in Chapter Two, but for now, here are the steps:

1. Write down your Business Value Proposition, with an eye to the “words” that
“describe” what you have that people want.
2. Look for “words” that connect “what you sell” with what “customers want.”
3. Brainstorm how customers might search Google to find your company, product
or service.

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 4. Write down a “keyword list” with special attention to those keywords that are
really, really hot matches connecting a customer who’s “ready to buy” with “what
you have to sell.”

At the end of this process, you’ll have a list of keywords that your customers type into
Google. (If you need help on the marketing ideas that exist “before” SEO, consult my
The Marketing Book at http://jmlinks.com/twaggle).

» “ON PAGE” SEO

Let’s drill down into the second element, “On Page” SEO, the equivalent of a great
resume. What are the steps? We’ll assume that you have your keyword list in hand; that
is, you know “which job” you want, or in SEO terms, which keywords you want to
optimize for. Once you know your keywords, where do you put them?
In terms of “On Page” SEO, the main places you put your keywords are as follows:

Page Tags. Place your keywords strategically in the right page tags, beginning
with the TITLE tag on each page, followed by the header tag family, image alt
attribute, and HTML cross-links from one page to another on your site.

Keyword Density. Write keyword-heavy copy for your web pages, and pay
attention to writing quality. Complying to Google’s Panda update means placing
your keywords into grammatically correct sentences, and making sure that your
writing contains similar and associated words vs. your keyword targets.
Home Page SEO. Use your homepage wisely, by placing keywords in relatively
high density on your homepage and, again, in natural syntax, as well as creating
“one-click” links from your homepage to your subordinate pages.
Website structure. Organize your website to be Google friendly, starting with
keyword-heavy URLs, cross-linking with keyword text, and using sitemaps and
other Google-friendly tactics. I also recommend writing a short, keyword-heavy
footer on your website with links to your main landing pages.

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“On Page” SEO is all about knowing your keywords and building keyword-heavy
content that communicates your priorities to Google just as a good resume
communicates your job search priorities to prospective employers. We’ll investigate
“On Page” SEO more deeply in Chapters Three and Four.

Write for Google, and for Humans

Among the trends of recent years and one getting stronger in 2019 is the trend towards
“natural syntax,” “semantic search,” and “artificial intelligence.” Google is getting
smarter and smarter, which means that your prose needs to be more “natural” than
ever. Answering customer questions via your website as if you were talking to a
customer is a key writing strategy for the “new” On Page SEO in an environment of
voice search and artificial intelligence. Yet you want to write keyword-heavy content
that is Google-friendly but also easy-to-read, relevant content that is good for humans.
It’s not Google OR humans; it’s Google AND humans.

» “OFF PAGE” SEO

Let’s drill down into the third element, “Off Page” SEO, the equivalent of great
references. Here, you do not fully control the factors that help you with Google, so the
game is played out in how well you can convince others to talk favorably about you and
your website. Paralleling job references, the main strategic factors of “Off Page” SEO
are as follows:

Link Building. As we shall see, links are the votes of the Web. Getting as many
qualified websites to link back to your website, especially high authority websites
as ranked (secretly) by Google, using keyword-heavy syntax, is what link building
is all about. It’s that simple, and that complicated.

Social Authority / Mentions. Social media is the new buzz of the Internet, and
Google looks for mentions of your website on social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter,
and Facebook as well as how robust your own social media profiles are.

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 Online Reviews. If you are a local business, customer reviews especially on
Google and, to a lesser extent, on Yelp and industry-specific websites like
Avvo.com for lawyers and Healthgrades.com for doctors, etc., greatly influence
your SEO performance. Accordingly, you want to solicit reviews from real,
happy customers so that they write online reviews about your business on
Google, Yelp, and other major review sites.
Freshness. Like a prospective employer, Google rewards sites that show fresh
activity. “What have you done lately?” is a common job interview question, and
in SEO you need to communicate to Google that you are active via frequent
content updates such as blog posts and press releases.

“Off Page” SEO is all about building external links to your site just as getting good
references is all about cultivating positive buzz about you as a potential employee. We’ll
investigate “Off Page” SEO more deeply in Chapter Five. Oh, and due to the recent
Google algorithm change called Penguin, we’ll emphasize that you want to cultivate
natural inbound links as opposed to artificial links that scream “manipulation” at Google!
It’s good believable references that help you in a job search, and, post-Penguin, it’s good
believable links that help you with SEO.

» SET LANDING PAGE GOALS

Let’s drill down into the fourth element, “Landing Page Goals,” the equivalent of great
job interview skills. The point of a great website isn’t just to get traffic from Google,
after all. It’s to move that potential customer up your sales ladder – from website
landing to a registration for something free (a “sales lead”) or perhaps even a sale.
So in evaluating your website, you want to evaluate each and every page and each and
every page element for one variable: do they move customers up the sales ladder? Is
the desired action (registration or sale) clearly visible on each page, and if so, is it enticing
to the customer usually with something free like a free download, free consult, free
webinar and the like?

Just as after a job interview, your family and friends ask whether you “got the job,” after
a Web landing you are asking yourself whether it “got the action” such as a registration

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or a sale. Web traffic just like sending out resumes is not an end in itself, but a means
to an end!

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on the basics of SEO explained in “plain English”
at http://jmlinks.com/17k.

We shall now explore each of these topics in-depth.

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Page | 32
 1.1
ATTITUDE
Most books on SEO start with the technical details. What’s a TITLE tag? How do you
understand your Google PageRank? Which factors in the Google algorithm have
changed recently? We’ll get to all that, but I want to start this book with a pep talk about
attitude.

Attitude, they say, is everything.

And nowhere is that more true than in SEO. This is an industry full of information
overload, pretty rude intimidators of a technical geeky type, and an 800 lb Gorilla
(Google), that would really rather you just spend money on AdWords advertising than
understand how you can get to the top of Google without paying it a penny.
To succeed, you’ll need a positive, “can do” attitude.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:
» Learn from Francie Baltazar-Schwartz that “Attitude is Everything.”

» Identify “Can Do” vs. “Can’t Do” People.

» Learn to Measure.

»» Deliverable: Inventory Your Team & Get Ready.

» FRANCIE BALTAZAR-SCHWARTZ AND ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

The Internet is a wonderful place, and Google sits pretty much at the center of it. Got
a question? “Just Google it!” We certainly know the reality of “Just Google it” in terms of

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customers looking for companies, products and services. But it also goes for more
important questions like the meaning of life (42), and what is a LOL cat, anyway?

For example, Google “Who said ‘Attitude is Everything?’” and you’ll find out that this
quote is attributed to one Francie Baltazar-Schwartz. You can read it at
http://jmlinks.com/5i. The point of “attitude is everything” is that you have two
choices every day: either to have a positive, can-do attitude or to have a negative,
can’t do attitude. (Remember: if you are reading this book in print format, visit
http://jmlinks.com/ and enter the JUMP code, in this case “5i”).
This relates very dramatically to success at SEO, just as it does to success in pretty much
everything else in life from physical fitness to your job to your marriage.
How does it apply to SEO? Well, let’s look at the facts and let’s look at the ecosystem
of people and companies in the SEO industry.

Fact No. 1. SEO is technical, and at least on the surface, seems pretty
complicated and hard. So, if you start out with the attitude that you “can’t do it,”
you’re already on the path to defeat. If, in contrast, you start with the attitude
that you can do it, that other people are clearly doing it (people no smarter than you),
you’re on the path to success. Attitude is everything.

Fact No. 2. Google does not want anyone to believe that SEO is easy. In fact,
because Google makes its money from advertising (nearly 90% of nearly $20
billion per quarter - see http://jmlinks.com/13k), it wants you, too, to believe
that advertising is the way to go. Google has no incentive to explain how SEO
works, and in fact, has every incentive to do the opposite. If you are intimidated by
Google, you’re already on the path to defeat. If, in contrast, you pay attention to the
facts and realize that SEO is free, while ads cost money, that you can do SEO,
and that you can get to the top of Google for free… you won’t worry about the
propaganda from a multibillion dollar corporation. Attitude is everything.

Fact No. 3. The SEO industry is full of so-called experts, gurus, tools providers
and others who pretty much make their money by intimidating normal folk into
believing that SEO is incredibly complicated and only nerds with Ph.D.’s in
computer science can do it. They want you to stay in a state of dependency and
keep paying them the big bucks... So if you allow technical nerds to intimidate
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 you, you’re already on the path to defeat. If, in contrast, you realize that they
aren’t really any smarter than you and that SEO isn’t just about technology, it’s
about words and concepts and marketing messages, you’re on the path to
success. Attitude is everything.

Oh, and as SEO becomes more and more social, you’ll want to have an open mind
about social media as well. You can really get yourself motivated by watching a video
by “Kid President” (Robby Novak), who is twelve years old, has several million views
on YouTube, and was actually invited to the White House by then-President Obama.

VIDEO. Watch a “Can Do” attitude video by “Kid President” at

http://jmlinks.com/5j.

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For your first TO-DO, therefore, concentrate your mind and create a positive attitude:
this is going to be fun, this is going to be educational, this is going to be a journey! Your
attitude is everything as to whether you’ll succeed or fail at SEO!

In fact, since the video screenshot was taken, this video now tops 43 million views as
of December, 2018! If a twelve-year-old can get 43 million views and meet the President,
don’t you think you can at least get to page one of Google?

» IDENTIFY “CAN DO” VS. “CAN’T DO” PEOPLE

In most situations, you’ll need to depend on other people. In fact, the attitude of the
people on your team (your webmaster, your content writers, your product marketing
managers, your executives…) is also incredibly important. Are they “can do” or “can’t
do” sort of folks?
Henry Ford, the great industrialist, once made this clear observation:

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”
― Henry Ford

In terms of SEO, there are those people who think that a) they can’t learn it, or b) it
can’t be done. And, guess what: they’re right. And there are those who think that a)
they can learn it, and b) it can be done. And, guess what: they’re right, too.

Which camp are you in? Your team members? Can, or can’t?

So for your second TO-DO, look around your organization and make a list of those
people who need to be involved with your SEO project. For example:

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 Management and Marketers. These people are involved in the sense of
understanding who your customers are, what you sell, and what the sales
objectives are for your website. Your website, after all, isn’t an end in itself but a
means to an end: more sales.

Content Writers. Who writes (or will write) content for the website? These
people need at least a basic understanding of your keywords and, even better, an
understanding of how “On Page” SEO works so that they know where to
strategically place keywords on web content.
Web Designers. News flash: your website isn’t just for humans! It’s also for
Google. You’ll have to educate your web design team that your website needs to
“talk” to Google just as much as it “talks” to humans. As we will learn, what
Google likes (text) isn’t generally what people like (pictures).
Web Programmers. The folks who program the backend, like your URL
structure, your XML sitemaps and all that technical stuff. Who are these people
and how will you get them on board for the SEO project?
Link Builders. Google heavily rewards websites that have many inbound links
to them, and so you’ll need “link builders” to ask directories, trade associations
or trade shows, bloggers, journalists, and other websites to link back to your
website. What people in your company interface with outside websites, and are
in a position to solicit inbound links?
Social Media and Outreach Experts. Social media is the new wave in SEO,
so you’ll need those folks who are (or will be) active on Twitter, YouTube,
Facebook and the like to be “SEO aware,” in the sense of how social media
impacts SEO performance. You’ll need folks who participate in social media
and can encourage social influencers to share your website URLs. (For an in-
depth discussion on social media marketing, see my Social Media Marketing
Workbook at http://jmlinks.com/smm).

Indeed, if you have some really obstructionist “Can’t Do” people, you’ll need to
strategize either how to a) persuade them to participate, b) get them out of the way,
or c) work around them.

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» LEARN TO MEASURE

As you assemble your team, you’ll want to get their buy-in on learning SEO. It isn’t
rocket science, but it’s also not something you’ll learn in a day. First, they’ll need to
learn the basics (as we discussed in the previous Chapter). Second, they’ll need to learn
many of the more esoteric topics as needed. Content writers, for example, will need to
be keenly aware of keywords and how to write semantically friendly SEO text. Web
programmers will need to understand XML sitemaps and so on. Third, they’ll need to
be committed to lifelong learning, as SEO changes over time. A good strategy is to
schedule monthly meetings or corporate email exchanges about your SEO progress.
Let’s also talk a little about measurement and metrics. One of the biggest stumbling
blocks to successful SEO is the idea that it can’t be measured. It can. How so?

Know your keywords. Once you know your keywords, as you’ll learn in Chapter
2.1, then you can start to measure your rank on target Google searches.
Inbound search traffic. Once you set up Google Analytics properly as you’ll
learn in Chapter 6.1, you can measure your inbound “organic” traffic from
Google, including some data on inbound keywords. You’ll learn how people get
to your website, and what they do once they get there.
Goals. Every good website should have defined goals, usually registrations
and/or sales. Once you define goals in Google Analytics, you can track what
traffic converts to a sale, and what doesn’t. (Then you can brainstorm ways to
improve it).

When you first start, you’ll often have little idea of your target keywords, little idea of
your rank on Google, and little idea of your traffic patterns from landings to
conversions. But that doesn’t mean SEO isn’t a measurable activity! It just means you
are not yet measuring.

Why is this important? As you set up your team, and establish the right attitude, you
want to establish the idea that SEO is measurable. If someone has crazy ideas (such as

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Google doesn’t pay attention to URL structure, or keywords don’t matter), you can measure these
ideas vs. correct ideas (that keywords in TITLE tags do matter a great deal, keyword-heavy
URL’s help a lot). Establishing a culture of measurability will help you get everyone on
your team, even the most recalcitrant “Can’t Do” people to realize that SEO works,
and SEO can get your website to actually generate sales or sales leads.

Measurability is a critical part of Step No. 1: Setting (Measurable) Goals.

»» DELIVERABLE: INVENTORY YOUR TEAM AND GET READY

Now we’ve come to the end of Step 1.1, your first DELIVERABLE has arrived. Open up
a Word document and create a list of all the people who are involved with your website,
from the marketing folks who identify the goals (sales or registrations?), to the content
writers (those who create product descriptions, blog posts, or press releases), to the
Web design people (graphic designers), to the Web programmers, and to your outreach
team for social media and links. Make an inventory of who needs to be involved in what
aspects of SEO, and if possible, set up weekly or monthly meetings about your SEO
strategy.

At a “top secret” level, you might also want to indicate who has a “Can Do” and who
has a “Can’t Do” attitude. You’ll want to work to bring everyone over into the “Can
Do” column!
Consider having an “attitude is everything” meeting about SEO, and get everyone to
stand up on the tabletops and shout: “We can do this!”

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Page | 40
 1.2
GOALS
SEO, like physical fitness, can’t be accomplished without goals. Are you training for a
marathon, or a sprint? Want to look better naked, or just be healthier? Want to dominate
Google for “industrial fans,” for “organic baby food,” or for “probate attorney St.
Louis?” Is the purpose of your website to get sales leads, or to sell products via
eCommerce? SEO can tell you how to get to the top of Google, but it can’t tell you what
your company’s goals are vis-à-vis potential customers. To succeed at SEO, you need to
have a clear vision of your sales ladder starting at the customer need and then proceeding
as follows: keyword search query → landing on your website → sales inquiry → back and
forth → actual sale. For an eCommerce site, the goals and sales ladder would be the same,
except that rather than a “sales inquiry” the goal would be an actual website purchase.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:
» Define Your Business Value Proposition

» Identify Your Target Customers by Segment or Personas

» Establish Marketing Goals

»» Checklist: Goals Action Items

»» Deliverable: A Business Value Proposition Worksheet

» DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS VALUE PROPOSITION

What does your business sell? Who wants it, and why? In this Chapter, you’ll sit down
and fill out the “business value proposition worksheet.” A BVP, or “business value
proposition” is a statement that succinctly defines what your business does and the

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value that it provides to customers. For example, a cupcake bakery bakes yummy
cupcakes that people want to eat; a dry cleaner cleans people’s dirty clothes; and an
automobile insurer provides insurance for people’s cars. You produce something that
other people want, so what is it?

Define Your Business Value Proposition

One way to define your business value proposition is to look at other companies on the
Web, and “reverse engineer” their BVPs.

Here are some more examples, with links to sample websites.

For a Chicago retailer of Rolex watches such as Howard Frum Jewelers
(http://www.howardfrum.com/), the business value proposition is selling both new
and used Rolex watches, plus servicing and repairing Rolex watches.
For an industrial fan company like Industrial Fans Direct
(http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/), the business value proposition is to
provide quality industrial fans for harsh environments such as factories or farms.
For a San Francisco mortgage broker, such as Natasha Lovas, the business value
proposition is to help people get cheap mortgages easily. Her website is
http://www.san-francisco-mortgage-broker.com/.

For any business, a business value proposition is your “elevator pitch” to a potential
customer - what do you offer, that they want?

For your first TO-DO, write a sentence or short paragraph that succinctly defines
what your business does and how it provides value for customers. For the
worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode
“seo19tz” to register if you have not already done so), and click on the link to
the “business value proposition worksheet.”

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» IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET CUSTOMERS BY SEGMENT OR PERSONAS

Your business value proposition explicitly describes the relationship between what you sell
and what they want. Now dig deeper: segment your customers into definable groups or
what are called “customer personas.” Literally imagine a potential customer. What does
she look like? What does she want? What are her pain points? Imagine her unique
characteristics and needs, and how they point to how her “needs” can be addressed by
your product or service.

For instance, Howard Frum Jewelers might segment its customers into the following
personas:

• Chicago office workers seeking quick and convenient watch repairs for their
Rolex watches on their lunch hours (Time-conscious and location-sensitive).
• Folks looking to buy “used” Rolex watches as collectibles (Watch collectors).
• Chicago residents looking to purchase Rolex watches (Luxury and/or Rolex watch
lovers).
• USA residents who own Rolex watches but live in smaller cities and towns yet
need repair (Mail-in Rolex repairs nationwide).

Similarly, a Las Vegas real estate broker might segment his customers by space need –
office, warehouse, retail. Moreover, there might be a segmentation based on those
looking to rent vs. buy. And a Miami divorce attorney might segment her customers or
clients into men vs. women, those with substantial property vs. those without, those
who have children vs. those who do not.

In summary, a “segment” or “buyer persona” is a group of like-minded

customers.

For your second TO-DO, open up the “business value proposition worksheet”
and identify your customer segments or buyer personas – customers who
differ by type (income level, geographic location), by need (high end, low end,
rent vs. buy), or even geographic location. Try to see your customers as specific

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 groups with specific needs, rather than one amorphous mega group. Begin to
think about how each might search Google differently, using different keywords.

For a fun tool to help you visualize your buyer personas, visit
http://jmlinks.com/29s. And if you’re new to marketing, let me suggest my new
book, The Marketing Book at http://jmlinks.com/twaggle, which is a “prequel”
to this book on SEO. It will help you overview your entire marketing strategy in a quick
and easy read.

» ESTABLISH MARKETING GOALS

Moving from business value proposition and customer personas, it’s time to think
about definable goals or actions for your website. For most businesses, a good goal is
to get a registration / email address / inquiry in exchange for something free such as a
free consult, eBook, or webinar. A Las Vegas real estate company, for instance, might
want visitors to the website to “send a message” about their property needs, or register
for a free consult with a leasing specialist. Similarly, a divorce attorney might want a
potential client to reach out for a free phone consult, and a watch repair shop might
just want people to call or email to discuss their watch repair needs, and get directions
to the shop.
For most businesses, marketing goals on the Web usually boil down to –

• A Website registration, contact form, or email via the website – for a free
consult, a software download, a free e-book, a newsletter sign up, etc.
o Note: a phone call generated via the website should count the same as
the above.
• A sale – an e-commerce transaction such as the purchase of a candy gift tin on
an e-store, or an iPhone skin via PayPal.

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A well-constructed website will lead customers to an easy-to-see first step. Here’s a
screenshot from http://www.reversemortgage.org/, one of the top websites for the
Google search “reverse mortgage,” with the goal marked by a red arrow:

Reversemortgage.org knows what it wants: first, to rank at the top of Google search for
“reverse mortgage,” second, to get the click; and third, for a potential customer to
start towards the goal, i.e. the process of finding a lender (and giving the Website his
name, email address, and phone number for a sales follow up!).
Abstractly, your process and goals are probably as follows:

1. Rank high on a Google search query (“reverse mortgage” in this case).

2. Get the click from Google to your website.
3. Once they land, get them to take the “first step” or “goal” (usually fill out a
feedback form, send an email via the website, or for an eCommerce site to
make a first purchase.).
4. Follow up with them by email or phone, if necessary, to complete the sales
process.

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Your Sales Ladder

Defining your next steps or goals of your website is inseparable from defining your
sales ladder. Web searchers are actively looking for an answer to their query, and they
are anything but passive: if they don’t see what they want, click, bounce, bye, and they’re
gone.

(Some marketers talk of a “sales funnel,” a concept I do not like because it implies that customers are
passive, like little marbles that fall into your website and into your registration or sale. I do not think
people on the Web (or in life) are passive at all. I think of people as active searchers, searching Google,
clicking to websites, finding what they want (or not), and being quite skeptical about whether they
should take the next action.)

Customers Are Like Salmon

Let me explain why thinking of customers as jumping “up” a “sales ladder” is a better
way to think than “down” a “sales funnel.”

I think of customers like salmon jumping up from sea level in frigid Alaskan rivers, jumping
higher and higher up fish ladders (put there by the Alaskan Department of Fish and
Game) to get to their goal: the spawning ground. The fish are motivated (after all, there’s
mating to be done), and they are active participants in the process. You can’t “bait” them
with junk either: they need something good at the end of the process.
A good Alaskan fishery expert doesn’t engineer one huge, high jump for the salmon
but rather a series of smaller, easier-to-jump hurdles that can move the fish from goal
one to goal two, etc. Why? Because if the first jump is too high, and too scary, the fish
won’t make it.

Similarly, make your own “first step” non-threatening, and easy! Don’t attempt to go
from a website landing to a major purchase; rather break the process into smaller, easier,
and less threatening “baby steps.” One of the best early steps in your goals is to give
away something free like a free consultation, free eBook, or free Webinar.

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 GIVE AWAY SOMETHING FREE IN EXCHANGE FOR
CONTACT INFORMATION

Having something free (a free webinar, a free consultation, a free e-book) is a tried and
true way to make the first step of your ladder easy and non-threatening. People love
free, and will give away their email and phone contact information for something free
that is also useful. (From your perspective, this then gives you their email and/or phone number for
you and your sales staff to follow up on). If you are selling something, think of a free sample
or money back offer; anything that reduces the risk of making that first buying decision.

A good example of this is in the hair loss / hair restoration industry. Take a look at
Oxford Biolabs, a purveyor of hair restoration products at
https://us.oxfordbiolabs.com/. Notice how they have links to a “free eBook” and
“Buy Now” in the header on every page. Here’s a screenshot:

In other words, they have a way for you to “nibble” on a free eBook if you’re not quite
ready, and a garish “Buy Now” button if you are. This is a website that knows the goals
it wants users to perform.
Using this strategy of free and/or clear goals, make the first step of your sales ladder
exciting, enticing, and ideally free!

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 VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial of the importance of giving away something free
on your website at http://jmlinks.com/17p.

Don’t Make Customers Think!

Your customers are busy, harried people. The phone is ringing, the baby is crying, the
boss is there waiting outside the office as they search Google for products or services.
They’re busy, multi-tasking people. The design of your website needs to be easy and
non-threatening from the perspective of a customer. If you ponder this “as if” you were
“inside” the head of the customer, for example, he would be thinking something like
the following (using the example of a person who has international tax problems and is
looking for a CPA or accountant with knowledge of international tax issues):

1. Customer identifies a need. “I have income tax issues with respect to

international taxes. I need help doing my bookkeeping and preparing my taxes
for state, federal, and international tax compliance.”
2. Customer turns to Google. “I think I’ll search Google for ‘international tax
accountants’ in Oklahoma City, OK” (which is where he lives).
3. Customer refines his keywords. “I will type into Google searches such as
‘international tax CPA,’ ‘Accountant for International Tax problems OKC’, and
‘accounting firm overseas taxation in Oklahoma City.’”
4. Customer browses Google results. I will browse the first three or four listings
on Google (ignoring the ads), and click over to the first website at the top of
Google.
5. Customer clicks FROM Google TO each website. He thinks to himself,
“Hm. This looks interesting! They seem to do international taxes, but I don’t
know…what else is on this website?”
6. Customer sees a free offer, or first easy step on the sales ladder. “Oh look,
they have a YouTube video that explains their firm, let me watch that.”
7. Customer takes the next easy, non-threatening step on the sales ladder.
“That was pretty good, but oh look, they have a ‘free consultation by phone’

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 offer. Let me fill out their feedback form with my name, email address, telephone
number, and good time to call.”
8. Customer transitions from the Web to human to human interaction. Ring,
ring. “Who is it?” “Jason McDonald Accountants, we see you are interested in
our free 20-minute consult.” “Yes, I am… I have these international tax
problems… blah, blah, blah.” (Conversation with the customer begins).
9. Customer consummates the sale. Enough trust has been established, and the
customer signs up for the service.

At the end of this process from customer need to keyword search query to landing to
browsing the website to taking the easy free actions such as watching a YouTube video and
signing up for a free consultation, hopefully the lead turns into a sale. What you want
to do for your own company is take out a piece of paper, and outline steps similar to
the ones above. Work backward from #9 to #1, and customize the process for your
own company, product, and/or service.
You will then see that keywords start the process on Google, but the process (hopefully)
ends on your website with a sale or sales lead.

Set up a Focus Group

Don’t make them think! Don’t make your website hard to navigate! Take a moment
and look at your web pages from the perspective of a Google searcher. Does it answer
a search question? Is the “next step” or “goal” easy to see? Does it look easy or free to
take that “next step”” Don’t make customers think! Don’t make customers hunt for
goals, or they’ll bounce back to Google and be gone.
Indeed, it’s a good idea to get friends, family, or others outside your company to come
in as a “focus group” and have them look at your website, and attempt to find your
goals. If they struggle, you need to revise your website to make it easy. KISS: keep it
simple, stupid is a good motto for effective website design!

If average people can understand your website, and can clearly see the “next step” that
they should take like a free consultation, free webinar, or free eBook download, then
your website works. If not, you need to redesign it.

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Put it All Together

For your fourth TO-DO, open up your “business value proposition worksheet”
and brainstorm your desired web landing next steps or goals (registrations
and/or sales) as well as your sales ladder, including the possible use of something
“free” to make that first step easy for customers.

For extra credit, begin to think about how you will measure these goals. As we will
learn in Chapter 6.1, you can use Google Analytics to measure goals such as registrations
or sales. But you can also use tactics like call tracking software (for a sample call tracking
vendor, check out CallRail at http://jmlinks.com/34z), special toll-free 800 numbers,
vanity phone extensions, and offer codes to track whether someone is coming from a
Web search to a phone call into your call center.

Goals and measurability go hand-in-hand.

»» CHECKLIST: GOALS ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of goals! Take the Goals and BVP quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzbv. Next, here are your goals Action Items:

❑ Define your business value proposition and write a short, one paragraph
summary of it. What do you sell?

❑ Brainstorm and identify your customer segments or personas. Who wants,

what you sell?

❑ Identify marketing goals for your website, namely –

❑ Early stage goals such as ranking on Google or web traffic.

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 ❑ Intermediate stage goals such as registrations for a free giveaway like
an eBook or eLetter

❑ Late stage goals such as sales leads and/or eCommerce sales

❑ As part of the above, brainstorm what you can give away for “free” in
exchange for capturing customer names, email addresses, and contact
information.

»» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED BUSINESS VALUE PROPOSITION WORKSHEET

Now that we’ve come to the end of Step 1.2, you should have your DELIVERABLE
ready: a completed business value proposition worksheet. This worksheet should
define your business value proposition, customer segments, search paths, desired next
steps (goals) and your sales ladder, and even how you plan to measure customer
progress along the sales ladder. In Chapter 2.1, we will turn to defining your keywords
(which builds upon this knowledge), but first let’s turn to the “big picture” of how SEO
works.

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Page | 52
 2.1
KEYWORDS
If Step #1 is “Set the Right Expectations,” Step #2 is to define your keywords.
Customers start their quest to “find you” by typing in keywords or key phrases into
Google, Yahoo, or Bing. (For simplicity’s sake, I’ll use the word keyword to mean either
a single or multi-word phrase as a search engine query). Identifying customer-centric
keywords is the foundation of effective SEO. Your best keywords match your
business value proposition with high volume, high-value keywords used by your
customers.

• In Step 2.1, we’ll brainstorm our list of keywords, focusing on “getting all the
words” on paper as a keyword brainstorm document.
• In Step 2.2, we’ll turn to organizing these keywords into a structured keyword
worksheet.

For now, don’t worry about how to organize your keywords. Your goal in this Chapter
is to identify all your possible keyword targets on paper; this Chapter is about
brainstorming your keyword universe.
Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Brainstorm Your Keywords

» Use Google Tricks to Identify Possible Keywords

» Reverse Engineer Competitors’ Keywords

» Use Free Keyword Discovery Tools

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 » Understand Some Keyword Theory

»» Checklist: Keyword Action Items

»» Deliverable: Keyword Brainstorm Worksheet

» BRAINSTORM YOUR KEYWORDS

Sit down in a quiet place with a good cup of coffee or tea, or if you prefer, a martini,
i.e. anything to get your ideas flowing! Your first TO-DO is to brainstorm the keywords that
a customer might type into Google that are relevant to your company, your product,
and/or your service. Ask yourself and your team:

When a potential customer sits down at Google, what words do they type in?
Which keywords are DEFINITELY those of your customers?

Which keywords are CLOSE to a decision to buy? Which are farther away, earlier in the
customer journey?

Which customer segments or buyer personas use which keywords, and how might keywords differ
among your customer segments?

Which keywords match which product or service lines as produced by your company?

Conduct a Keyword Brainstorming Session

Set up a formal keyword brainstorming session with your marketing team (it might
be just you by yourself, or it might be your CEO, your marketing manager, and a few
folks from the sales staff). Devote at least ONE HOUR to brainstorming keywords;
close the door, turn off the cell phone, tell your secretary to “hold all calls” and start
drinking (either coffee or martinis).

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 Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm the keywords that customers are typing into Google. Try
not to miss any possible keyword combinations!

Do this, first, individually – take out a piece of paper, and write keyword ideas down
WITHOUT talking to the others in your group.

Don’t be shy. Don’t leave anything out. The goal is to get EVERYTHING on paper, no
matter how ridiculous it might be.

After folks have written down their ideas one-by-one, have a group session and go over all the
keywords each person has identified.

Drink some more coffee, or more martinis, and keep brainstorming – write all possible keywords
on a whiteboard, a piece of paper, or a Word / Google document.

Don’t censor yourself because there are no wrong answers! The goal of this exercise is
to get the complete “universe” of all possible keywords that customers might type into
Google.
“Think like a customer” sitting at his or her computer screen at Google:

• Assume you are a completely new, novice customer. Assume you

know next to nothing. What single words or multi-word phrases
(keywords) would you type into Google?
• Segment your customers into different “buyer personas.” What
keywords might each group use, and how would they differ from other
groups?
• Are there are any specific “helper” words that a potential customer
might use? Common helper words specify geographic locality (e.g., “San
Francisco,” “Berkeley,” “San Jose”), for example. Others specify things
like “free,” “cheap,” “trial,” or “information.”
• Don’t miss your synonyms and adjacent terms! If you are a “lawyer,”
don’t miss “attorney.” If you are a “dry cleaner,” don’t miss “wash and
fold” or “laundry service.” If you are an “SEO expert,” don’t miss “SEO

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 consultant” or “digital marketing expert.” If you are an orthopedic
surgeon, don’t miss “knee doctor” or “hip specialist.”

If you’re working with a team in multiple locations or your team members can’t all meet
at the same time, there’s a online tool called “Seed Keywords” at
http://jmlinks.com/29f. Take each buyer persona or buyer scenario and type it into
this tool. Then distribute the URLs to your team to collect their individual ideas as to
how a customer might search Google.

To conclude this first TO-DO, open up the “keyword brainstorm worksheet” in either
Word or PDF, and begin to fill it out as completely as possible. For the worksheet, go
to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (enter the password code “seo19tz’ to register if you
have not already done so), and click on the link to the “keyword brainstorm worksheet.”

For right now, don't worry about the organization of your keywords. Don't police your
thoughts. Write down every word that comes to mind - synonyms, competitor names,
misspellings, alternative word orders. Let your mind wander. This is the keyword
discovery phase, so don’t exclude anything!

» USE GOOGLE TRICKS TO IDENTIFY POSSIBLE KEYWORDS

With a list of just a few keywords from your brainstorm session, it’s time to turn to
some Google tricks and tools to beef up your keyword list from these “seed” or
“starter” keywords. You can find a complete list of keyword discovery tools in the
companion SEO Toolbook (Keywords Chapter) or on my SEO dashboard (available at
http://jmlinks.com/seodash), but here are my favorite strategies starting with
Google’s own free tools.
First, simply go to Google and start typing a keyword. Pay attention to the pull-down
menu that automatically appears. This is called Google Suggest or Autocomplete and
is based on actual user queries. It’s a quick and easy way to find “helper” words for any
given search phrase. You can also place a space (hit your space bar) after your target
keyword, and then go through the alphabet typing “a”, “b”, etc.
Here’s a screenshot of Google Suggest using the key phrase “motorcycle insurance:”

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Hit your space key after the last letter of the last keyword (e.g., after motorcycle insurance)
and more keyword suggestions appear. You can also type the letters of the alphabet –
a, b, c, etc. and Google will give you suggestions. Here’s a screenshot for the letter “b”:

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Second, type in one of your target keyword phrases and scroll to the bottom of the
Google search page. Google will often give you related searches based on what people
often search on after their original search. Here’s a screenshot of Google’s related
keywords for “motorcycle insurance” -

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Note the helper words it tells you people use to search: cheap, rates, best, “how much,”
comparison, cost, and average. These are wonderful clues as to how customers search
Google? You can also click on a “related keyword,” then hit the space key to see more
autocompletes, type in “a,” “b,” or “c,” etc., as well as scroll to the bottom and look at
related searches.

In this way, you can use Google autocomplete and related searches to quickly and
efficiently brainstorm your keyword list.

Ubersuggest

A fantastic third-party keyword tool is Ubersuggest at http://jmlinks.com/35a. It

basically types through the alphabet for you, and gives you closely related keyword
phrases. Here are your steps:

1. Visit Ubersuggest via http://jmlinks.com/35a.

2. Type in a “seed” or “starter keyword” such as “motorcycle insurance” in the box.
3. Click on “keyword ideas” on the left.
4. Add relevant keywords to your list.

Ubersuggest also provides volume and CPC (cost per click) data, but for now, just use
the tool to formulate keyword ideas. It is especially good at identifying helper words. In
the case of “motorcycle insurance” we get “quote,” “cost,” and “online” for example.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on how to use Google autocomplete and
related searches to generate keyword ideas at http://jmlinks.com/18n.

Keyword Patterns

As you work on your keyword brainstorming session, remember that you’re looking for
these types of keywords:

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 • Core keywords (often also called starter or seed keywords). These are the
minimum necessary to make a relevant search query. Examples would be “knee
doctor,” “knee surgeon,” or “orthopedic surgeon.”
• Synonyms. These are words that mean essentially the same thing. “Lawyer” vs.
“attorney,” “doctor” vs. “surgeon” vs. “specialist,” “car” vs. “auto” vs.
“automobile.” It is critical to identify all synonyms as a search for “knee doctors”
is not the same as search for “knee surgeons.”
• Helper words. These are words that are added on to the core keyword or key
phrase such as “quote,” “online,” or “free” in the case of “motorcycle
insurance.”

You should already begin to see patterns, realizing that helpers can cross many keyword
types and that synonyms such as lawyer vs. attorney exist. You should also note that
people generally use about 6th-grade level English to type into Google. Almost always,
the 6th-grade level word like “knee doctors” will have more volume than the Ph.D. level
word like “orthopedic surgeons.”

Don’t let reality confuse you! A search for “NYC knee doctors” is not the same as a
search for “NYC knee surgeons” or “New York City knee specialists” even though “in
reality” they are the same thing. We’re playing a word game with Google, not a game
about reality, and it’s a rookie mistake to think that Google will figure out that a website
that only mentions “orthopedic surgeon” is also the same thing as one that mentions
“knee doctors.”

Google is a machine, not a mind reader, so you need to capture every relevant word pattern at
this phase. Don’t miss synonyms or adjacent keywords!

For your third TO-DO, open up your “keyword brainstorm worksheet” and write down
the keywords garnered from these free tools. You want a messy, broad and complete
list of the “universe” of possible customer keywords via your own brainstorming

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process, via reverse engineering your competitors, via Google tools such as
autocomplete and related searches, and via third-party tools like Ubersuggest.

» REVERSE ENGINEER COMPETITORS

After you’ve completed this first wave of brainstorming, you and your group members
should then do some searches on Google for target keywords to identify high-ranking
websites. Take a few of the keywords you’ve already identified, and type them into
Google. As you search Google, identify your “Google competitors,” that is, companies
that are on page one of the Google results and therefore doing well in terms of SEO.
You'll want to reverse engineer their keywords.
Here are your steps:

1. Type a keyword into Google from your list.

2. Identify the top three or four websites that show up, especially ones that are
companies / competitors.
3. Click over to their website, whichever page ranks for the Google query you
entered in step one.

Next, you’re going to view the HTML source code of their ranking page. Here’s how.
First, click over to their homepage or whatever page is showing up on page one of
Google for a search that matters to you. Next, view the HTML source code of this
page. To do this, in Firefox and Chrome, take your mouse and right click, then View,
Page Source. In Internet Explorer, use View, Source on the file menu. CTRL+U will
also pull up the source code for any web page. Finally, find the following tags in the
HTML source code:

<Title>
<Meta Name="Description" Content="...">
<Meta Name="Keywords" Content="...">

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If you have trouble finding these HTML tags, use CTRL+F (on a PC) or Command+F
(on a Mac) on your keyboard, and in the dialog box type

<title (to find the TITLE tag) (Note: you need that “<” character!)

description (to find the META DESCRIPTION tag)

or

keywords (to find the META KEYWORDS tag)

Note that there are some vagaries in the rules of HTML. So while it’s always <Title>
for the TITLE tag, the DESCRIPTION or KEYWORDS word can be close to or far
away from the word META. So you may have to play around with CTRL+F / find to
locate these tags. Also, while every page must have a TITLE tag, not every page will
have a META DESCRIPTION or META KEYWORDS tag. Don’t worry if you don’t
find each of these three tags on every page, as not every page follows correct HTML or
uses all tags.
And, for now, don’t worry about what this tags do. We’re just using them as a tool to
brainstorm keyword ideas.

Here’s a screenshot of http://www.globalindustrial.com/c/hvac/fans, one of the

top Google performers for the search “industrial fans” with the three critical tags
highlighted -

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In this way, you can take a starter keyword like “industrial fans,” find competitors that
rank high, look at their HTML source code for TITLE, META DESCRIPTION, and
KEYWORD and then identify synonyms and helpers. In this case, we’d go from
“industrial fans” to “pedestal fans” with helpers like “quality” and “commercial.”
SEOCentro offers a nifty, free tool to analyze META TAGS at
http://jmlinks.com/37w. Again, do a search, identify a competitor that ranks high
on Google, and then take the URL and paste it into this tool. For example, for
“motorcycle insurance,” this URL ranks in position #3:

https://www.esurance.com/insurance/motorcycle

Then, paste this URL into the tool. Scroll down the results and you get a summary of
all the keywords starting with the TITLE and DESCRIPTION and ending with density.
Here’s a screenshot of the keyword densities for the eSurance page:

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Using this tool, you can quickly “reverse engineer” any competitor on the Web and
browse their keywords.

Read Out Loud

As you look at competitor source code and the SEOCentro tool analysis, read the
results out loud to your group members. That is, read the <TITLE> tag of your
competitor’s ranking page, the META DESCRIPTION tag, and the KEYWORDS tag
out loud. Read some of the data output from the SEO Centro tool as well.

As you read tags and content out loud, listen for keywords, and keep in mind the
question, “Would a customer likely type this into Google?” The goal of viewing the

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source of your competitors’ pages is to “steal” their keyword ideas, and write down any
relevant keywords onto your “keyword brainstorm” document.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on how to use “view source” to reverse
engineer competitors at http://jmlinks.com/5k.

A Note about the Keywords Meta Tag

Note that at this point you are just using “View Source” to “reverse engineer” your
competitors and their keywords. The TITLE and META DESCRIPTION tag are very
important for On Page communication, as they communicate keywords to Google. The
META KEYWORDS tag, however, is ignored. That said, many people still use the
META KEYWORDS tag and it’s a useful window into your competitor’s thought
process. (It isn’t always in use, so you may not always find it in the HTML source code). So, at
this point, you’re just peeking behind the curtain at their keyword targets to double
check your own keyword list and identify any keyword patterns you may have missed
in our own brainstorming session. Don’t worry (yet) about what the HTML tags do,
including the fact that the META KEYWORDS tag does nothing.

For your second TO-DO, open up your “keyword brainstorm worksheet,” and jot down
the top five competitors who appear at the top of Google for your target keywords, use
the tactics above to view their source, and then write down keyword ideas taken from
their TITLE, META DESCRIPTION, and META KEYWORDS tags as well as the
SEOCentro tool.
Did you discover any keywords you left out in your first brainstorming session? If so,
be sure to write those on your list.

» USE FREE KEYWORD DISCOVERY TOOLS

Now it’s time to use some more sophisticated tools. We’ll start with the most powerful
tool, Google’s Keyword Planner. Recent changes have meant that you can use only
use Google’s official Keyword Planner tool, effectively, if you have a paid Google Ads
(AdWords) account and are actually spending money. So, although we’ll first investigate

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how to use this tool, I will also point you to two alternative keyword tools: the
Twinword Ideas keyword tool and Bing’s Keyword Planner, which are more open to
“free” users.

VIDEO. Watch two quick video tutorials on how to use the Google AdWords
Keyword Planner in general at http://jmlinks.com/17j and to brainstorm keywords
at http://jmlinks.com/18m.

Sign up for AdWords

To use the Keyword Planner you’ll need to sign up for Google Ads (formerly known
as AdWords) at https://ads.google.com/. You’ll need a credit card to set up an
account. I recommend doing your best to identify relevant keywords, create some ads,
and allocate no more than $300 / month for your ads. You just want to fund it with
enough money so that after a few months it will fully share data with you; then you can de-
activate your campaigns.
(You can even call Google Ads at 866-246-6453 and ask them for help on how to set
up your advertising campaigns; just set a low budget such as $100 / month). If you’re
worried about credit card fraud, just go to your local grocery store and get a “gift card”
with the VISA logo to set up your Google Ads account. I know it’s a bit of a pain, but
once you have an operational Google Ads account, you can use the Google Ads
Keyword Planner to research SEO keywords. It’s a worthwhile investment!
Now, let’s return to the Keyword Planner. Here are the steps to access the tool:

1. Log in to your Google Ads account at https://ads.google.com/.

2. Find the “wrench” icon at the top right of the screen and click on it.
3. Click on “Keyword Planner” on the left.
4. Click on “Find new keywords”
5. Enter a “core” or “starter” keyword such as “knee doctor”.

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Once you have entered a “core keyword,” the tool gives you a nice list of suggestions
including the “average monthly searches.” As it is a far from perfect tool and we are
only brainstorming keywords, you can ignore everything except the far right column.
Scan it to look for:

Synonyms. For example, “knee doctor” vs. “orthopedic surgeon” vs. “knee
specialist”.

Helper words. For example, “best,” “top,” and “near me.”

Here’s a screenshot for “knee doctors.”

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You can filter by “closely related keywords” as well to zero in on helper words by
clicking the “add filter” button and you can sort by “Average monthly searches” to look
at volumes. Do not get fixated at volume at this point, however. Look for synonyms
first and foremost, and then for helper words.

As you brainstorm, keep in mind the distinctions among keyword types as well:

Educational or early stage keywords. These are words like “knee

replacement” or Knee surgery” in which the searcher is just beginning to learn
about the topic and is not necessarily close to a buy decision or engagement.

Transactional keywords. These are words like “knee specialists” or “knee

doctors Boston” that indicate they’re close to a buy decision or engagement.

Branded or reputational searches. These are searches for individual

companies or, in this case, doctors, and indicate searches just before an
engagement. “Reviews” is a very common helper word.

I’ll return to these distinctions in a moment, but for now, just start to wrap your head
around how a search for “knee pain” is an early stage search query while a search for
“best knee doctors in St. Louis” is a late stage search query, close to a buy or engagement
decision. It is the latter that are most valuable for SEO.

Don’t Miss Your Synonyms and Adjacent Terms!

Notice how the tool gives you both helper words and synonyms. For example, you get best
knee replacement, telling you that best is a helper word, and you get doctor as well as
surgeon, orthopedic as well as knee. The tool is telling you how people search: some people
search for knee doctors, and others for orthopedic surgeons. Many people search for best knee
surgeons (and to the contrary, few search for worst knee surgeons). Because to Google
a word is just a word, you want to be sure to capture ALL your key synonyms. A search
for “best knee doctor in San Francisco” is different from a search for “best orthopedic
surgeon in San Francisco,” even though the latter may include the former, i.e. many
people searching for orthopedic surgeons who do knees. This is true across all domains;

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a lawyer, to Google, is not the same as an attorney. In summary be sure to identify all your
helpers and synonyms, and write these down on your Keyword Brainstorm Worksheet.

Revert to the Old Tool

Google has a knack for taking out really useful features as it “upgrades” its tools. It’s
very frustrating and is a constant reminder to me to never set foot in a Google self-
driving vehicle nor get in front or in back of one. Despite Google’s brand identity as an
all-knowing tech company, its tools are sloppy and disorganized. Go figure.

So click back up wrench icon, and then “Keyword planner” on the left. Then find the
link to “Open previous Keyword Planner” which at the time of this writing was still
available. The old interface was better and had some nifty features which are not yet in
the new tool and which I hope that Google, in its infinite wisdom, does not abolish.
Once there, click on “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category”
and enter in your “core keyword” such as “knee doctors” and then the blue “get ideas”
button. This gets you into the old interface.

Here, you can do some neat tricks to learn more about your keyword universe. Since
we’re focusing on discovery, click on the “Ad group ideas” tab. Here’s a screenshot:

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Google’s “Ad group ideas” are a quick and easy way to identify synonyms and adjacent
terms. So, starting with “knee doctors,” it gives us “knee specialist” as well as
“orthopedic surgeons,” which are both wonderful synonyms for this pattern. Note how
“knee specialist” is a synonym, while “orthopedic surgeons” which means someone
who might do hips, knees, and shoulders is an adjacent term.

Your job is to first identify these terms and then ask whether they represent what you
sell or not. Some terms will be “hot,” that is dead on for what you sell, while others will
be “cold,” meaning an adjacent terms that is just so-so. Some will be micro searches –
very specific, and some will be macro searches, groups “up” the hierarchy that include
what you do but also other thing. A knee surgeon is an orthopedic surgeon, but so is a
hip surgeon, and so on and so forth. It’s a word game, so pay attention to the patterns
of words.

Even better, you can click into a group and see helpers for that group. If you click on
“Knee specialist,” for example, here’s a screenshot:

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You can easily see that “near me” is a helper word indicating geography and then with
a little brainstorming you’ll realize people search for “San Francisco,” “Oakland,” and
“Bay Area” when searching for a knee specialist. Note that my account is receiving
exact data for “Average monthly searches,” while if you have a brand new account, you
might just be receiving data ranges. This is why it pays to advertise on Google ads; you
get more complete data in the tool.

Refocusing the Keyword Planner

You may notice that the tool gives you very broad and often irrelevant keyword
suggestions, so I often recommend that you refocus it to just your target phrase and

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related phrases. To do this, on the left-hand column where it says “Keyword Options,”
click there, and then select “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms” by
moving the blue button to “on” and clicking on the blue “save” button. Here’s a
screenshot:

Once you click “off” to “on” for “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms,”
you’ve reset the Keyword Planner to zero in on more specific keywords. The old
interface tool will also give you data comparing keywords to each other by volume and
value. To do so, type a string of keywords into the tool such as:

knee pain, knee surgery, knee surgeons

Here’s a screenshot of the data returned:

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You can see that there are 165,000 searches per month for “knee pain” vs. 12,100 for
“knee surgery” and just 1,600 for “knee surgeon.” (Note that these search volumes
refer to exact match only: they take into account only when a searcher enters
that phrase and nothing more.)
Other tools such as the Bing Webmaster Tools keyword tool, the Twinword Ideas tool,
or robust paid tools such as those offered by MOZ.com or AHREFS.com keyword
tools also give us keyword ideas, volumes, and bids or “values.”

What does this data tell us?

» UNDERSTAND SOME KEYWORD THEORY

As you’re drinking martinis or coffee, brainstorming with your teammates, using
Google and other keyword tools, and doing search after search on Google, you want to
wrap your head around the fact that you’re playing a word game with Google. First and
foremost, it’s all about what are the search queries typed in by customers (or spoken by
customers to their phones or Google devices). Visualize a buyer persona, grasp his pain
point or desire, and research those search queries he’ll type into Google.

That’s the key point of keyword research: getting a comprehensive yet

laser-focused understanding of the keywords used by customers.

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Next, however, with all your keywords jotted down on a whiteboard, Google doc, or
Word doc, it’s time to begin to understand some keyword theory. Just as if you were
playing Scrabble or Words with Friends, you’d want to know that the “x” is worth more
than the “e” and that the word “xylophone” is worth more than the word “everyman,”
you need to understand that in SEO, not all keywords have the same value.

To understand what this all means, let’s use an analogy: fishing and fish. As the SEO
technician, you’re the fisherman of course.

First, you want to “fish where the fish are.” Let’s review the previous screenshot from
the Google Keyword Planner:

Note that it says the “Average monthly searches” is 165,000 for “knee pain” vs. 12,100
for “knee surgery.” This is called volume, and it corresponds to “where the fish are.”
Generally speaking, you want to optimize on keywords that have a fair amount of
volume, just as if you are a fisherman, you want to “fish where the fish are.”

But it’s not just about volume, it’s also about value. Take a look at the “Suggested bid”
column and you’ll see that while advertisers are willing to pay just $1.50 for a click from
Google to their website for “knee pain,” they’ll pay four times more or $5.36 for “knee
surgery” and $5.46 for “knee surgeon.” All of the paid tools, and not just the Google
tool, will give you some type of column called CPC or “Cost per click.” Remember that
Google makes its money off of advertising through an auction system. Advertisers
compete in the Google Ads auction to get clicks FROM Google TO their website.
They’re spending money via advertising to make money; and the crowd isn’t stupid. It

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will bid UP the value or cost-per-click of keywords that are likely to end in a sale and
likely to end in a profitable sale and bid DOWN the value or cost-per-click of keywords
that are just tire-kickers or not likely to end in a sale.

It’s easy to see this in a fish market. Go into Whole Foods or your local fish market,
and you’ll notice that the price per pound of Tilapia (sort of a garbage, farmed fish) isn’t
very expensive, while the price of wild Salmon is quite expensive. Farmed Tilapia might
be $2.99 a pound, farmed Salmon might be $9.99 a pound, and wild Salmon might be
$19.99 a pound. Consumers are bidding “up” the price per pound of yummy, healthy
fish and bidding “down” the price of not-so-yummy and not-so-healthy fish. In
addition, in terms of quantity or volume, there’s a lot of farmed Tilapia and farmed
Salmon to be had and (unfortunately) not a lot of wild Salmon due to overfishing.
Scarcity also plays a role in the supply and demand of the fish market.

So it goes with keywords. Advertisers are bidding up keywords like “knee surgery” or
“knee surgeon” because these are likely to end in a very expensive sale or engagement
(a knee surgery can cost upwards of $75,000), while bidding down keywords like “knee
pain” because these are likely to end in, at most, the purchase of an aspirin or ibuprofen
which costs less than $1. The CPC column, in other words, is a clue as to the value of
keywords. This is why advertisers are willing to pay just $1.50 for a click from Google
to their website for “knee pain,” but they’ll pay four times more or $5.36 for “knee
surgery” and $5.46 for “knee surgeon.”

As you look at your keywords, therefore, you can start to identify those keywords that
are high value vs. those that are high volume. You’ll also see there’s a trade-off, just as
in the fish market. Generally, the higher the volume, the lower the value and vice-versa.
But you’re looking for keywords that have sufficient value and sufficient volume for
your keyword plan.

Secret Fishing Holes are Best

Indeed, you’re looking for “secret fishing holes.” If you find keywords that have good
volume and are high value TO YOU, meaning they are likely to convert to sales or sales
leads FOR YOU but have not been “discovered,” these are very good keywords! This
means a keyword that is “nichey,” that gets at exactly what you have to offer and yet

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isn’t so discovered by the crowd that the price (and competition in SEO) hasn’t yet
been bid up.

For example, there are many hypnotherapists. Most focus on weight loss, anxiety, and
smoking cessation. But suppose you use Ericksonian hypnosis, which is a special kind
of hypnosis based on indirect and metaphoric suggestions. People who know
something about hypnosis may be drawn to this methodology and might search for:

Boston Ericksonian hypnotherapists

This “nichey” keyword isn’t completely discovered. It’s a “secret fishing hole” that very
tightly matches what you have, that they want. It will be easier to rank for, and you’ll
more easily convert people who click from Google to your website.

Riches are in the niches.

Be on the lookout for “secret fishing holes.”

To use a different example, a knee surgeon who specializes in knee surgery for athletes
or arthroscopic knee surgery, for instance, may have found a highly specialized and
lucrative niche. It’s not all about volume, after all. It’s about value. And it’s not all about
value to the crowd, it’s about value to you as a business, meaning which searches really
indicate a person who is very hot for your product or service and very likely to buy.
Back to our fishing examples:

The worst thing to do is to fish where there aren’t any fish.

The next worst thing to do is to fish for low-quality fish that aren’t good to eat.

The next worst thing to do is to fish where all the other fisherfolk are competing
against you.

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 The smartest and most wonderful thing to do is to discover a “secret fishing
hole” and keep it secret.

More on Educational vs. Transactional Keywords

Another way to look at this issue is to focus on keywords that are early in the sales ladder
occur usually when a person is just learning, just educating himself about an issue and
not likely to buy something. These are called educational keywords and generally have
low cost-per-click in AdWords. Keywords that occur late in the sales ladder are when
they are looking to buy something, or make an engagement. These are called
transactional keywords and generally have high cost-per-click in AdWords. In
general, you want to optimize for transactional keywords as they are “where the money
is.”

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on distinguishing educational vs.

transactional keywords, volume vs. value at http://jmlinks.com/18k. .

You’re best SEO occurs at focused, transactional keywords, not educational keywords.
You’re looking for the “sweet spot” between volume and value, education and
transaction.

Let me emphasize this:

Identify and optimize for transactional, late stage, high-value keywords.

I, Jason McDonald, do not want to be at the top of Google for “SEO.” But I do want to be
at the top of Google for “SEO Expert San Francisco.” Why? Because the former is an early
stage, low-value educational search, while the latter is a late stage, high-value transactional
search: someone who wants to hire me as a high-paid consultant.

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 A knee surgeon wants to be at the top of Google for “San Francisco Knee Surgeons” and not
for “knee pain,” because the former are potential patients looking for knee surgery and the latter
could be practically anyone with a sore knee and just needing an aspirin.

That said, you still need to rely on your instinct to determine your best keywords and
then bolster that with real data from your Google Analytics, which we discuss in the
last Chapter. The Keyword Planner is only a tool, and the art of SEO still means a lot
of head-scratching to identify those keywords that are not just high volume but also
high value.

Micro Search Queries

“Niche” keywords aren’t just long tail (multiword), either. A Los Angeles watch repair
shop focusing on high-end watch repair, might optimize for “Watch Repair Los
Angeles” (lots of volume, but low in value as it may be people who just need a battery or
have a Timex they want repaired). But a little research will identify brand-oriented
searches such as “Rolex Repair LA,” “Breitling Repair Los Angeles,” or “Tag Heuer
Repair LA.” People who know their brand and are looking for an expert in repairing
that brand are likely to convert; watch repair “riches” are in the “niches” of brand-
oriented search queries.

Alternatives to the Keyword Planner

As I’ve indicated, Google now requires that you spend money to get accurate data out
of the Keyword Planner. Accordingly, my recommendation is to allocate a hundred
dollars per month to Google AdWords and run some actual ads for your keywords for
three months. For less than $300 or so, you’ll then be able to use the Keyword Planner
for keyword discovery, and Google Ads gives you the absolute best data about actual
search queries. (Once you’ve done your research, you can turn off your Google Ads
campaigns).

If you don’t have a few hundred dollars to pay to Google for AdWords, then I
recommend you use one (or all) of the following free keyword tools: Bing Webmaster

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Tools’ Keyword Tool (http://jmlinks.com/19g) or the Twinword Ideas tool
(http://jmlinks.com/47a). Here’s a screenshot from the Twinword Ideas tool for
“knee doctors”:

Like the Keyword Planner, this tool gives you keyword ideas, helpers, volumes, and
value. Paid tools such as AHREFS.com or the MOZ.com tools also have robust
functionality. For a little money, whether spent on Google Ads or on a paid tool, you
can get access to keyword synonyms, helpers, volumes, and value as measured by the
CPC (Cost per click) advertiser are willing to pay.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on alternatives to the Google AdWords Keyword

Planner at http://jmlinks.com/19d.

Get ALL Your Keyword Ideas Down on Paper

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For your final TO-DO, open up your “keyword brainstorm worksheet,” and jot down
keyword volumes and the CPC values of relevant keywords. Again, don’t worry about
being organized. Just indicate – in general – which keywords are higher volume vs.
higher value, which ones are educational vs. transactional. It won’t be a perfect map,
but you will start to see patterns as to volume and value.

»» CHECKLIST: KEYWORD ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of keywords! Take the keyword quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzkb. Next, here are your keyword Action Items:

❑ Hold a keyword brainstorming session with your team, and write down
your “starter keywords” based on your knowledge of what potential customers
type into Google.

❑ Use Google autocomplete, UberSuggest.io, and Google's related

searches to build out your keyword list based on your “starter keywords.”

❑ Identify competitors who rank for Google on your keywords, visit their
websites, view their HTML source code and use their TITLE, META
DESCRIPTION, and KEYWORDS tags to help you identify the complete
universe of keyword relevant to your business.

❑ Use the Keyword Planner or alternative free or paid Keyword Tools to

look for ideas, volumes, and values as you build out your keyword list.

❑ Begin to organize keywords into logical groups with core keywords

and helper keywords, with an eye to their volume vs. value data.

❑ Be on the lookout for “niche” or “micro” keywords that indicate high-

value search queries by customers who are late in the sales ladder and likely
to make a purchase. “Riches are in the niches.”

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Keywords for my favorite free tools
for keyword discovery. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.
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»» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED KEYWORD BRAINSTORM WORKSHEET
Now we’ve come to the end of Step 2.1, and you should have the Chapter
DELIVERABLE ready: your completed keyword brainstorm worksheet.

Remember the “Keyword Brainstorm” document will be messy. Its purpose is to get
all relevant keywords, helper words, and keyword ideas about volume and value down
on paper. In Step 2.2, we will turn to organizing our keywords into a structured
keyword worksheet.

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Page | 82
 2.2
KEYWORD WORKSHEET
Now that you have a keyword brainstorm document, it’s time to get organized! Step
#2.2 is all about taking your disorganized list of keywords and turning them into an
organized, structured keyword worksheet that reflects your keyword groups as well as
keyword volume and value. You’ll use your keyword worksheet as your “SEO
blueprint” for many tasks, such as measuring your rank on Google, structuring your
website to tell Google which keywords matter to you, writing better blog posts and so
on. In my method of doing SEO, I emphasize that it is absolutely essential that your
company create and use a keyword worksheet to guide your SEO efforts.

Do not skip this step!

The DELIVERABLES for Step 2.2 are your keyword worksheet as well as a rank
measurement / baseline of where your website ranks for target keywords searches
on Google.
Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Identify Your Main Keyword Groups

» Create Your Keyword Worksheet

»» Deliverable: Your Keyword Worksheet

» Measure Your Google Rank vs. Keywords

»» Deliverable: Rank Measurement and a Baseline Score

»» Checklist: Keyword Worksheet Action Items

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» IDENTIFY YOUR MAIN KEYWORD GROUPS

After you complete your keyword brainstorm worksheet, your head may be spinning
(especially if you and your team were drinking martinis rather than coffee as the elixir of choice during
the brainstorm exercise). Now it’s time to shift gears and to organize those keywords into
“keyword groups” with an eye to both keyword volume and value.

Here’s where we’re going:

Brainstorm your keywords > organize them by keyword group into a keyword
worksheet > measure your rank on Google / Bing for sample keywords > restructure
your website to better “talk to Google” vis-à-vis your keyword patterns.

Let’s look at some example websites.

Most businesses have a few different product or service lines, and often a few different
customer segments. Take a look at Progressive Insurance
(https://www.progressive.com/), for example, and you’ll quickly realize that they
have different types of insurance offered such as auto insurance, motorcycle insurance,
RV insurance, and even Segway insurance. Take a look at
https://www.progressive.com/insurance/ as well as
https://www.progressive.com/sitemap/ to see the organizational structure of their
website, and you’ll quickly realize that the “structure” of the website reflects the
“structure” of how people search for insurance. Those who are on a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle are searching in one way, and those looking to ensure their Segway are
searching in another.

So in terms of keyword groups and matching landing pages, we have:

motorcycle insurance = a group of keywords around motorcycle insurance like cheap

motorcycle insurance, motorcycle insurance quote, etc. = a landing page on the website.

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 Car insurance = a group of keywords around car insurance like cheap car insurance,
automobile insurance, car insurance quote, etc. = a landing page on the website.

Segway insurance = a group of keywords around Segway insurance like cheap Segway
insurance, people mover insurance, etc. = a landing page on the website.

etc.

Outline a Hierarchy of Your Keywords

If you think of keywords as living in “keyword groups” inside a hierarchy, you can
actually sketch out a structural hierarchy to your website. If you worked at Progressive
Insurance, for example, you’d have a hierarchy like this:

Home Page: introduce the major keyword themes of the website around
“insurance,” and then:
> Landing Page: “Motorcycle Insurance”

> Informational / blog posts: additional pages on “motorcycle

insurance” such as “unique motorcycle coverages,” etc.
> Landing Page: “Car Insurance”

> Informational / blog posts:” additional pages on “Car insurance”

such as “comparing types of auto insurance coverage,” etc.

> Landing Page: “Segway Insurance”

> Informational / blog posts:” additional pages on “Segway

insurance” such as “types of Segway coverage,” etc.

If you pay attention to the URL structure of the website, you can also see how the
organization of the URLs follows the keyword groups:

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 https://www.progressive.com/ - “homepage”

https://www.progressive.com/auto/ - “auto insurance group”

https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/snapshot/ -
“subordinate page”

https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/compare-
car-insurance-rates/ - “subordinate page"
etc.

In other words, Progressive has conceptualized their keywords into a structured

keyword worksheet that reflects “core” keywords and related “helper” keywords and
phrases, and then implemented a highly organized website hierarchy that literally
reflects this.

Your key to-do is to take your keywords and organize them into a hierarchy because Google
(run by engineers) prefers websites that have a clear organization.

Here’s a diagram of a very common and effective SEO-friendly, hierarchical website

structure that reflects how people search:

Homepage

Landing Page #1 (Core keyword #1)

Sub landing page #1a (Core keyword plus helper #1a)

Sub landing page #1b (Core keyword plus helper #1b)

Landing Page #2 (Core keyword #2)

Sub landing page #2a (Core keyword plus helper #2a)

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 Sub landing page #2b (Core keyword plus helper #2b)

Blog

Blog post #1a (on a micro topic)

Blog post #1b (on a micro topic)

Of course, there will be other pages on your website that are “for humans,” but in terms
of SEO optimization, you can’t really do better than a simple category- and subcategory-
based hierarchy. In Chapter 3.2, we’ll return to this topic and discuss the need for a
keyword footer, sitemap, and “link-sculpting” to connect all your pages together around
your keyword themes. But for now, start to look at your keywords and organize them
into categories and subcategories as you might for animals > mammals > rodents and
animals > mammals > canines, etc.

SEO Silos

Bruce Clay, one of the gurus of the SEO industry, has coined the term “SEO Silos” to
explain how keyword structure should determine website architecture. You can read an
excellent article by Clay entitled, “SEO Siloing: How to build a website silo
architecture,” at http://jmlinks.com/37u.

KEYWORD HIERARCHY = WEBSITE

ORGANIZATION

Another example of a well-designed hierarchy is Industrial Fans Direct

(http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/). Take a look at their website, and you’ll see
that they have product categories such as blowers, man coolers, ceiling, bathroom fans,
etc., and that these reflect the “needs” of consumers who “search Google” using words
that reflect those needs.

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 blowers = a group of keywords around blowers = a landing page on the website.

roof exhaust = a group of keywords around roof exhaust = a landing page on the
website.

etc.

As on Progressive.com, you see coherent URLs that reflect the keyword hierarchy:

https://www.industrialfansdirect.com/
https://www.industrialfansdirect.com/collections/blowers-and-
blower-fans

https://www.industrialfansdirect.com/collections/blowers-
and-blower-fans/low-pressure-volume-blowers

https://www.industrialfansdirect.com/collections/blowers-
and-blower-fans/inflation-blowers
etc.

If you look carefully at the top left quadrant of each web page, you’ll also see that the
subordinate pages have a “breadcrumb trail” which is a hierarchical set of links up
and down the categories. Here’s a screenshot:

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Again, if you were privy to their internal documentation, I am sure that we’d find a
Keyword Worksheet that is guiding the structure of the website from homepage to
landing pages (“core keyword groups”) to sub-landing pages (subordinate keyword
phrases).

If you’re using WordPress, there are easy plugins that will create a hierarchical
breadcrumb trail for your website (see http://jmlinks.com/47b).

Organize Your Keywords into a Keyword Worksheet

With these examples in mind, it’s time to revisit your own keyword patterns, and
transform your disorganized keyword brainstorm document into an organized keyword
worksheet. First, circle the “core keywords” that reflect your basic product or service
categories. Usually you’ll see a one-to-one correspondence of a “product group” that
matches a “core keyword,” as you see in the examples above. These “core keywords”
become your “keyword groups.” Second, you’ll also see a bunch of helper words like
cheap, best, San Francisco, quote, rate, etc., that are often entered alongside the core keyword.
Third, look for phrases that combine a “core keyword” with a “helper keyword” to
make a phrase. These become the “subordinate keyword groups” in a child-to-parent
relationship to the “keyword groups” above them.

Taking as our example, Commuter Cleaners

(http://www.commutercleaners.com/), you’ll see

Core Keyword Dependent Phrases

Dry Cleaning dry cleaning Stamford, dry cleaning

Greenwich, specialty dry cleaning, same
day dry cleaning, etc., as well as helper
words like “best” or “top-rated.”

Home Pickup & Delivery Dry Cleaning home pickup and delivery dry cleaning
Stamford, Greenwich home pick up dry
cleaning, etc., as well as helper words like
“best” or “top-rated.”

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 Wash and Fold wash and fold Stamford, wash and fold
New Canaan, etc., as well as helper words
like “best” or “top-rated.”

Specialty Cleaning purse cleaning, leather cleaning, wedding

dress cleaning, fur cleaning, etc., plus city
names like Stamford or New Canaan as
well as helper words like “best” or “top-
rated.”

Remember: a “core keyword” is the minimum necessary to make a logical search, and
it is often more than one word. So it’s:

dry cleaning (not dry or cleaning alone) (and dry cleaner as a close synonym)

wash and fold (not wash or fold alone)

and even

home pick up dry cleaning, home pickup and delivery dry cleaning to represent the very
high-value service of when Commuter Cleaners literally picks up, cleans, and
then redelivers your dry cleaning and wash straight to your home. (It’s OK to
combine very closely related words into one keyword group).
Throughout, there would be helpers such as best, top, top-rated, Stamford, Greenwich,
local, same-day, etc. Notice how some of these are qualifiers (like best, top, top-
rated) and others are geographics (like Stamford, Greenwich, local, or near me).
Many companies have this sort of pattern, and end up with what I call “service
line” landing pages (e.g., “wash and fold”), and geographic landing pages (e.g.,
“Stamford CT”).

Remember: “don’t let reality confuse you!”

How so?

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Well, though Commuter Cleaners doesn’t actually do “wash and fold,” consumers still
search for that service. In their brain is the idea that they want to get someone else to
do their laundry, and they know the word pattern, “wash and fold.” They might not
know the word pattern,“home pickup and delivery laundry,” so the Commuter Cleaners
website reaches out to them on the keywords that they actually search. The searcher is
never wrong, and in Google’s universe “lawyer” is different from “attorney,” and
“laundry service” is different from “wash and fold service.” Even “SF” is different from
“San Francisco” and “NYC” from “New York.”

Words matter because you’re playing a word game, not a reality game.

Similarly, “specialty cleaning” doesn’t correspond one-to-one with keyword searches

like “purse cleaning” or “leather cleaning” but it’s close enough to be the “parent” of
that “family.” The point is that the core keywords are like the “parent” in a keyword
“family,” so that “specialty cleaning” is the “parent” to the “children,” i.e., “purse
cleaning,” “wedding dress cleaning,” and “fur cleaning.” And, because this is a local
business, we realize we need to “pepper and salt” the city names Stamford, Greenwich,
New Canaan, Port Chester, etc., throughout the content of the website. Why? Because
people often search for “specialty dry cleaners” plus a city, as for example, “specialty
dry cleaners Norwalk.”
Indeed, because city searches are incredibly important to this website, the website
sports city-specific landing pages such as http://www.commutercleaners.com/lp-
norwalk_ct/ in order to rank for searches such as “Norwalk specialty dry cleaners” on
Google and Bing. (Note: do not overdo these “city” search pages, as technically
speaking, they can be considered “doorway pages” (http://jmlinks.com/37v) by
Google!)

In short, a keyword group isn’t entirely driven by reality. It’s driven by a group of
interrelated keywords that you want to rank for, some of which exist in reality and some
of which do not. It’s about linguistic patterns, not reality, so put your linguistic thinking
cap on as you outline your keyword worksheet.

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How Many Core Keywords do You Have?

People often mistakenly think that they have “hundreds” of keywords, when in fact
they usually have only about five to ten core keyword groups or structural patterns,
and these then form hundreds of possible keyword queries. As on Progressive.com,
IndustrialFans.com, and CommuterCleaners.com, as listed above, you’ll see that a core
keyword should become one, and only one, landing page on the website.
Let me repeat that:

One core keyword will (ultimately) become one landing page on your
website.

Looking at keywords for SEO in terms of core keywords makes it easy to see that a
company will usually have about five to ten core keywords, and about five to ten
corresponding landing pages on the website. (I explain landing pages in more detail in
Chapters 3.1 and 3.2).

Keyword Volume and Value

As for keyword volume and value, you’ll then see that you take a core keyword and you
can look at the volume of the entire “cluster” of keywords around it, as well as the value
as measured in Google’s Keyword Planner or other keyword tools that reflects the
“value” of these keywords in the sense that they are likely, or not, to end in a sale.

Volume = are there a lot, or just a few, searches on Google that reflect the core
keyword and its dependent phrases?

Value = if a searcher enters any one of the search queries in the cluster, is it of
high, or low value, to your company, as measured in the likelihood that it can
become a sale, and if it becomes a sale that that sale makes you a lot (vs. a little)
of money?

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Essentially, any keyword that has sufficient volume AND sufficient value as to be a
likely customer should become a landing page. You should create landing pages for:

Core keywords. These are keywords with sufficient volume and value.

Micro / high value. These are very nichey keywords that are of such high value
as to be a likely sale and/or a high-value sale even if they do not have very high
value.

Long tail / high value. These are very nichey keywords that are of such high
value as to be a likely sale and/or a high-value sale even if they do not have very
high value.

Your blog posts will become long tail keywords and other long tail patterns (or micro
patterns) that are odds and ends, but not keywords that rise to the level of evergreen,
high-value keywords. At this point in your SEO project, keep one eye looking forward
to your website organization but realize that, for now, you’re lumping together your
keywords into core keywords, micro keywords, and long tail keywords and placing them
in a hierarchy on your keyword worksheet.

For your first TO-DO, download the keyword worksheet. For the worksheet, go to
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (then re-enter the passcode “seo19tz”), and click on the
link to the “keyword worksheet.” Note this is a Microsoft Excel document but can be
converted to a Google spreadsheet.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to create a Keyword Worksheet at

http://jmlinks.com/17m.

Inside the document, list each major pattern of your keywords (which reflect a product
or service grouping of your company) on a line all by itself in the first column. Return
to the Google AdWords Keyword Planner (or other keyword tool) and note both the

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keyword volume and keyword value (suggested bid) that correspond to each core
keyword.

» CREATE YOUR KEYWORD WORKSHEET

Now it’s time to fill out your keyword worksheet in more detail. In your spreadsheet,
you’ll be filling out columns for the following:

Core Keywords. These are the minimum words necessary to create a relevant
search. If you are a watch repair shop servicing high-end watches, for example,
your core keywords would be phrases such as “watch repair,” “Tag Heuer
Repair,” “Rolex Repair,” etc. This is the first column, and reflects the core,
structural keyword patterns and indicates volume and value.
Note. If, to your business, a phrase is important enough (e.g., Rolex watch
repair vs. Tag Heuer watch repair vs. just watch repair), then break it out into
its own core keyword group / line item on your keyword worksheet. Do
this even if these words are closely related (e.g., Rolex repair vs. Hamilton
repair vs. Tag Heuer repair for watches).

Helper Keywords. Common helpers are geographics like San Francisco,

Berkeley, and Oakland. In the watch examples above, other helpers would be
“best,” “authorized,” “NYC” etc. that combine with the core keywords to make
the actual search query (e.g., “Best watch repair NYC” or “authorized Rolex
repair NYC”).

Sample Search Query Phrases. Take your core keywords plus your helpers and
build out some “real” search queries that potential customers might use. Group
these by keyword family. For example, you’d have a keyword group called “Rolex
Repair” and underneath, related keyword phrases such as “Rolex Repair NYC,”
“Authorized Rolex Repair Midtown,” or “Best Rolex Repair Shop New York,”
etc.

Search Volumes. Indicate the volume of searches (where available) as obtained

from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner.

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 Search Value. Indicate whether a given keyword family is of high, low, or
negative value to you and your business. Does it indicate a searcher who is
probably a target customer? If your answer is strongly yes, then this is a “high
value” search term! Does it clearly indicate a non-customer? If so, this is a “low
value” or even a “negative” search term. I often mark “hot,” “warm,” or “cold”
next to a keyword group.
Competitors. As you do your searches, write down the URL’s of competitors
that you see come up in your Google searches. These will be useful as mentors
that you can emulate as you build out your SEO strategy.

Negative Keywords. Are there any keywords that indicate someone is definitely
not your customer? Common examples are cheap or free, as these are often
indicative of people with little or no money, or little or no intention to buy
something. (These negative keywords are not so important for SEO, but if you engage in
AdWords, they will become very useful.)

Priority Order

Not all keywords are created equally. Some are high volume (lots of searches), and some
are high value (they are customers ready to buy something, or take an important action like filling
out a feedback form, or calling with an inquiry). With respect to your business, take a look at
your keyword worksheet and think about which queries are a) the most likely to be a
potential sale, b) the most likely to be a high-value sale, and c) the least likely to be
ambiguous. (An ambiguous or problematic keyword is one that has several meanings,
that might cross business products or services, and is, therefore, more difficult to
optimize on than an unambiguous keyword. Compare fan for example, which could be
a hand fan, an enthusiast for a sports team, or an electrical appliance to blow air with insurance
which refers to one, and only one, type of product.)

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on educational vs. transactional, volume vs. value
keyword theory at http://jmlinks.com/17n.

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Prioritize Your Keywords: Hot, Warm, or Cold?

Prioritize your keyword families on the spreadsheet from TOP to BOTTOM with the
highest priority keywords at the top, and the lowest at the bottom.
Remember the volume vs. value trade-off. “Transactional” keywords (those close to a
sale) tend to have higher value, but lower volume; whereas “educational” keywords (those
early in the research process) tend to have lower value, but higher volume.

However, here’s the rub: because of the see-saw between value and volume, there is no
hard and fast rule as to what should be your top priority. It can’t be just volume, and it
can’t just be value.

In fact, I recommend you use a column on the far left and call it “hot / warm / cold.”
Sit down with the CEO or sales staff, and play a “hot / warm / cold” game by asking
IF a customer entered such-and-such into Google, would it be hot (definitely our customer),
warm (probably our customer), or cold (not our customer)?
Prioritize the “hot” keywords at the top of the Keyword Worksheet, and the “warm”
keywords towards the bottom. I often throw out the “cold” keywords entirely. This will
help you see the complexity of keyword patterns as some keywords will be “easy” to
categorize as hot / warm / cold and others might be more challenging – perhaps they
have a lot of volume, but are ambiguous, or perhaps they are high value but just so little
volume, or the customers don’t know to search for them.

The art of SEO is targeting the keywords most likely to generate high ROI, which is a function
of BOTH volume and value.

Competitive Level

Another tricky attribute is competition. As you research your keywords, pay attention
to the competitive level. You can guess that a keyword is competitive (many vendors
want to “get the click”) based on:

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 • The suggested bid in the Keyword Planner: the higher the suggested bid, the
more competitive a keyword.
• The number of ads shown for related search queries: the more ads you see, the
more competitive a keyword.
• The more you see the keyword phrase in the ads: the more competitors have
“discovered” a high-value keyword phrase, the more likely they are to include it
in their ad headlines, and the more competitive is the keyword.

Remember, you can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner or another Keyword
Tool to gauge the competitive level as measured by volume and cost-per-click. If you
are using the Keyword Planner, be sure to click on the Columns Chevron and enable
“suggested bid” and “competition.” Note: use the “old” Keyword Planner as Google
has stupidly taken away some of the data in the “new” Keyword Planner.
Here’s an example screenshot for knee pain, knee surgery, and knee surgeon for location of
United States:

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Note that knee pain has 110,000 average monthly searches, competitive level is
“medium” and suggested bid is $3.69. Contrast that with knee surgeon, which has only
720 searches per month, competition is also seen as “medium,” but the bid is
substantially more at $4.96. (Remember that this tool only gives you exact match: in those 720
searches are ONLY the exact phrase “knee surgeon.” If the searcher typed in “best knee surgeons,”
that does not count in the total of twenty. Therefore, the tool grossly underestimates volume.)
If you were a New York City knee surgeon building out his keyword worksheet, you’d
want to prioritize “knee surgeon” and “knee surgery” over “knee pain,” yet realize that
the competitive level is higher for these terms.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial about how to gauge competitive level at

http://jmlinks.com/17q.

Search Patterns

For now, let’s return to the structural patterns or keyword groups. It is very important
to conceptualize the way that people search, i.e., the mindsets by which they approach
your business. Let’s take the example of the Walkup Law Firm, a personal injury law
firm in San Francisco at https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/.
Notice how the organization of the website follows the logical keyword hierarchy for a
personal injury law firm in San Francisco:

Personal Injury. This, in combination with terms such as “lawyer,” “attorney,”

or “law firm” and geographics like “SF” or “San Francisco” is the umbrella term
for what they do. Note the landing page at
https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/areas-of-specialty/.
Specific Injury Searches. These are searches by people who have a specific
legal need such as they’ve been in a car accident or have suffered from medical
malpractice. Note the landing page for “car accident lawyer” at
https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/auto-accidents/. Take a look at that
page and pay special attention to the content, how it has both “lawyer” and

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 “attorney,” both “Northern California” and “San Francisco,” and so on and so
forth. Someone thought through the synonyms and helper terms and placed
these into the content on the page. It’s no accident (pardon the pun)!

Micro or Long Tail Searches. These are searches for super specific types of
legal needs such as “wildfire litigation attorney” at
https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/ca-wildfire-loss/. These are not
flagship, high volume searches but are micro or long tail searches which are high
value. Someone who’s fighting an insurance company over a wildfire loss will be
overjoyed to find a lawyer that specializes in this, and hence the conversion rate
will be high.

Trending, Micro, or Long Tail Searches. Take a look at the law firm’s lively
blog at https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/blog/. The lawyers blog on
topics that are trending or fit within their matrix of keywords. For example,
there’s a blog post entitled, “San Francisco Skateboarders: Know Your Legal
Rights,” which obviously targets folks who have been in a skateboard accident.
How’s that for a laser-focused search?

Branded or Reputational Searches. Your brand image is very important to the

success of your marketing. You want to monitor your online reputation by
ranking highly for your branded or reputational searches, populating the Internet
with positive information, and crowding out any negative information about
your company. These are important for your keyword worksheet. A branded
search, for example, is Walkup Law Firm or Walkup Law Firm reviews, which you
can check out at http://jmlinks.com/47c. Obviously, the law firm is working
hard on its online reviews and reputation!

We’ll get into website organization in Chapter 3.2, but for now you can use Walkup
Law Firm’s website as a good mental map against your own keyword patterns. It’s a
well-organized hierarchy of keywords and it reflects a keyword worksheet or blueprint
that was used behind the scenes in the SEO optimization of the site.

In sum, the keyword worksheet for your company should reflect keyword volume, value
(as measured by the “fit” between the keyword search and what your company has to
offer), and the structural search patterns that reflect the “mindset” by which people search.

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 VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on building a keyword worksheet at
http://jmlinks.com/17m.

» DELIVERABLE: YOUR KEYWORD WORKSHEET

After some brainstorming, hard work, and organization, and perhaps a hangover after
all the martinis you drank, you should have your first DELIVERABLE ready: a completed
keyword worksheet in an Excel or Google spreadsheet. The first “dashboard” tab
should be a high-level overview to relevant keywords, reflecting the structural search
patterns that generate the keyword groups, next the keyword volumes as measured by
the Google Keyword Planner or other keyword tool, and finally the values measured
by the Google cost-per-click data and your own judgment as to which search queries
are most likely to lead to a sale or sales lead. Other tabs (which you will fill out over
time) include a tab for reporting, a tab to measure your rank on Google vs. keywords,
a tab for local search rank, and a tab for landing pages.

Your keyword worksheet is your blueprint for successful SEO, but don’t think of it as
a static document! Rather, think of your keyword worksheet as an evolving “work in
progress.” There is as much art as science in SEO, and in many cases, the formal tools
like the Keyword Planner only get you so far.

The Art of SEO: SEO and Cooking

Gut instinct as to how your customers search, especially which searches are likely to be
close to a sale, is just as valuable as quantitative research! In fact, rather than think of
SEO as a science, I strongly recommend you use other analogies. For example, I like to
think of SEO like the art of cooking: it has technical elements for sure, but it also has
inspiration and a je ne sais quoi of tricks and techniques that you just have to “do” rather
than “learn.”

In fact, at my Stanford Continuing Studies class, I often have students watch a very fun
video on Julia Child and then compare the art of SEO to the art of French cooking.

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 VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on how SEO is more like cooking than
science at http://www.jmlinks.com/5q. Get motivated!

You cannot learn to cook by just reading cookbooks and philosophizing about cooking;
you have to actually break some eggs, and make an omelet. And truly good cooks aren’t
just technical robots; they have a passion for their patrons, and an instinct about what
makes something truly great.

SEO – like cooking – is an endeavor that has both technical and artistic elements.

The point here is that although you should spend time researching the volume, value,
and competitive levels of your target keywords, ultimately you’ll see somewhere
between five and ten keyword structural patterns. At that point it’s “good enough” and
you’re ready to start optimizing your website. Good cooks, cook, and good SEO’s, do SEO.

» MEASURE YOUR GOOGLE RANK VS. KEYWORDS

I’m sure you’re eager to start optimizing your website, now that you’ve built out your
keyword worksheet. We’ll start that process in the next Chapter. Let me advise you,
however, to take a moment and begin to measure some baseline metrics for your
website. Why? Because you want to establish a baseline of your rank on Google at the
beginning, before you optimize. This will help you chart your progress, stay motivated,
and have a record to show to your pesky boss when she barges in six months from now
and says that “SEO is stupid” and you haven’t made any progress.

Install Google Analytics

I highly recommend that, if you haven’t already done so, you install Google Analytics
(https://analytics.google.com/) on your website, if possible via Google Tag
Manager (https://www.google.com/analytics/tag-manager/). Just make sure that
the tracking code is on your website and pulling data. We’ll discuss Google Analytics in

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detail in Chapter 6.1. But for now just get it installed on your website, so that it’s
recording user behavior.

Measure Your Rank vs. Your Target Keywords

Returning to your rank measurements, Google rank refers to whether your website is
on the first page Google returns for a search queries. In the industry it’s called SERP
rank for “search engine results page rank.” Counting the organic results only, there are
positions 1, 2, and 3 (the “Olympic” positions) and then positions four through ten
(“page one” positions). Anything beyond position ten is not good. (Note that because of
localization there is also your rank on the local “snack pack” of three local results originating as Google
reviews - more on this below.)

You want to measure your website rank vis-à-vis your target keyword phrases, whether
you are on page one (< 11) or in the “golden” positions of 1, 2, or 3.

Why Rank Matters

Why do we care about our Google rank? First of all, the Olympic positions (1, 2, and
3) capture the lion’s share of clicks; by many estimates, over 60%! Second, being on
page one (top ten results) means you are at least “in the game.” But third, as good SEO
experts, we want to measure our rank before, during and after our SEO efforts to
measure our progress and return on investment (ROI). We can also feed this data back
into our strategy so that we can then focus our content and link efforts (e.g. blog posts,
product pages, press releases, link building) on searches where we are beyond page one
vs. creating new content for searches for which we are already in top positions. Indeed,
if you are spending money on Google AdWords advertising, you can use your rank for
the organic results to optimize your spending; minimizing your spend on words for
which you show “for free,” and increasing your spend on keywords for which you do
not rank well.

In short, measuring Google rank makes us work smarter, not harder!

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Measure Your Rank Manually

With your keyword queries in hand, as built out from your keyword worksheet, you
can measure your rank manually by simply entering your target search queries, and
counting your position on the first page. Be sure to be “signed out” of your Google
account or use “incognito mode” (http://jmlinks.com/18p) as Google customizes
search results. You want to see your true rank on Google searches, not your
personalized rank. Here are your steps:

1. Open up a web browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox in “incognito” or

“private window” mode.
2. Go to Google.com.
3. Input a keyword phrase from your keyword worksheet.
4. Find your website, counting down from the top of the organic results.
a. If you appear on page one, note your rank as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 up to 10. Be
sure to count only the organic results, ignoring a) the ads on Google, and
b) the local “snack pack” results which can be visible in a box of three on
local searches such as “Sushi” or “probate lawyer,” etc.
i. If applicable, record the local “Snack Pack” rank separately as A
(#1), B (#2) or C (#3).
b. If you do NOT appear on page one, note your rank as NP (not present)
as it doesn’t really matter if you are position 11 or position 110 as few
people go beyond page one.
5. Record your rank on your keyword worksheet, on the rank tab.
6. Repeat for other keywords on your keyword list.

Usually, a company will have between five and ten core keyword patterns, and between
fifty and one hundred variations of keyword phrases built by combining the core
keywords and helper words. Don’t get discouraged if your rank is poor when you begin
an SEO project. Be positive: the only way you have to go is up!

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Measure Your Rank Using Tools

While it’s getting harder and harder to use free tools to measure your rank on Google
because Google doesn’t like to share this data with external companies, there remain a
few free tools that allow you to input keywords and check your rank on Google. One
of the best is the FATRANK plugin for Chrome (http://jmlinks.com/25w). After
you’ve installed the plugin, here are your steps:

1. Visit the website you want to check rank for (i.e., your own website or that of a
competitor).
2. Click on the FATRANK icon at the top right of Chrome, which looks like an
orange Pokemon.
3. Enter a keyword and click the blue “check” icon. Here’s a screenshot:

You can do this for multiple keywords. Then click on “Session Report” and it will give
you a nice list of your keywords and rank which you can export into a CSV file. Another
good free tool is SerpSurf.com at http://jmlinks.com/38w.

VIDEO. Watch a video on how to measure your rank using FAT Rank as well as
the Google AdWords Preview tool at http://jmlinks.com/18h.

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Because rank checking is an important metric, I recommend you graduate to a paid tool
such as Whitespark.ca, AHrefs.com, or MOZ.com. These tools allow you to upload a
list of tens or even hundreds of keywords and check your rank on Google and Bing as
well as the “local pack” if you are a local business.

Record Your Keyword Rank Data

I recommend recording your keyword rank on at least a monthly basis, and inputting
this into your keyword worksheet on the rank tab. This will give you a baseline before,
during, and after you start your SEO project.

On an on-going basis, use the resulting rank data to identify “strengths” (places where
you appear in the top three or top ten) and “weaknesses” (keywords for which you
appear beyond page one, or not at all). Having identified your keyword rank weaknesses,
you now know where to target your SEO efforts!

Measure Local Search Results Manually

As you check rank, be sensitive to the fact that the free tools generally measure only
your organic rank on a non-localized basis. Google “localizes” search results, especially
short tail phrases: searchers in different cities, see different results. For example, a
search for “probate attorney” in Dallas will return Dallas probate attorneys, whereas the
same search in San Francisco will return San Francisco probate attorneys even though the
searcher does NOT enter the city.
This happens with many “short tail” searches that have a local character such as: attorney,
CPA, accountant, pizza, sushi, massage therapist, marriage counselor, etc. – any search terms
that generally indicate someone is looking for a local small business.

The free Rank Checker tools listed above, unfortunately, do NOT calculate your rank
in a localized fashion. Therefore, if local search rankings are important to you, you
need to manually check your rank on Google+ local as shown in the “snack pack”
usually consisting of three results on Google.

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To check your local rank (varying your position city-by-city), use the Google AdWords
Preview Tool at http://jmlinks.com/18r or the free SERPS local rank checking tool
at http://jmlinks.com/18s.

VIDEO. Watch a video on how to measure your local rank using the Google
AdWords Preview tool at http://jmlinks.com/17s.

Here’s a screenshot showing the search for “Pizza” and the “snack pack” of three local
results with location of Fremont, California:

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In this example, therefore, you’d record position #1 (A) for Domino’s, #2 (B) for Pizza
Hut, and #3 (C) for Round Table Pizza. Positions greater than #3 appear on the
“second page” of local results (on both the phone and the desktop) and are worth
considerably less than positions, #1, #2, and #3. (Note: it has become industry-
standard practice to record local rank in the “snack pack” as A / B / C not 1 /2 / 3).
For your own company, identify short tail local searches and record these on your
keyword worksheet, on the “local rank” tab.

Measuring Your Rank in Different Cities

Let’s say you want to look at your locations in multiple cities such as San Francisco, San
Jose, and Oakland. You cannot do this directly in Google, you have to use the AdWords
preview tool which you can get to directly in AdWords by logging in, and on the top
menu, selecting the “Wrench icon” and then “Ad Preview and Diagnosis.”
Alternatively, you can access the preview tool directly at this URL
http://jmlinks.com/13m.

Here’s a screenshot of the tool with location set to Tulsa, Oklahoma, device set to
“mobile,” and search term set to accountants:

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(You can ignore the warning that says “Your ad is not showing” as that refers to
advertising).

If you want to measure your local rank, you’ll need to manually change the tool city by
city. In addition to the “snack pack,” notice that the organic ranks themselves will also
change for localized keywords. So, in this case, you’ll have to manually rank check both
your rank in the snack pack and in the organic results. You can do this for the mobile
phone, desktop, or tablet plus vary the city. To do this, change the “Device” on the far
right. Mobile rank does not yet vary as dramatically as rank based on localization but it
does vary.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on using Google and/or the AdWords
Preview Tool to measure your local rank at http://jmlinks.com/17s.

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Because of localization and differences on rank for mobile, tablet, and desktop, it can
be very time-consuming to measure your rank for fifty to a hundred keywords and many
tens of target cities. For this reason, if local SEO matters a lot to you, I highly
recommend paying for a paid rank-checking tool such as Whitespark.ca, as this tool can
measure your rank in different cities for many different keywords in a systematic and
automated fashion.
Time is money, and a paid rank-checking tool will save you a lot of time.

»» DELIVERABLE: RANK MEASUREMENT AND A BASELINE SCORE

The final DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is to measure your rank across a statistical
sample of between twenty and one hundred keywords, depending on how complex
your company is. Using either free or paid tools, input these data on a monthly basis
into your keyword worksheet rank tab(s).

»» CHECKLIST: KEYWORD WORKSHEET ACTION ITEMS

Here are your keyword worksheet Action Items:

❑ Build out your Keyword Worksheet with columns for “core keywords,”
“helper keywords,” “sample search queries” as well as volume and value.

❑ Identify your core keyword groups, led by one keyword “parent” with
various keyword “children” or phrases. Also identify your helper
keywords which, in combination with the core keywords, build out the
universe of target keywords and key phrases you want to rank for.

❑ Prioritize your keyword groups as hot, warm, or cold, placing the hot
keyword groups at the top. Look for specific micro or long tail searches
that are high value to your company.

❑ Identify competitors and place them on your Keyword Worksheet.

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 ❑ Use FATRANK or one of the paid rank-checking tools to do your first rank
analysis of your website vs. your keywords targets.

❑ If necessary, chart your rank for "short tail" searches that vary by city
location.

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Keywords for my favorite free tools
for keyword discovery. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

Page | 110
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Page | 112
 3.1
PAGE TAGS
Once you know your keywords, where do you put them? “Page Tag” SEO is the quick
and easy answer to that question, and it is the most important to-do in Step #3. In Step
#3, you take your keywords from your keyword worksheet, place them in strategic
locations on individual web pages via page tags and also restructure your website to
send clear signals to Google about your keyword targets. In other words, you work at
two levels: first, the level of individual page content, and second, the level of your
website as a whole. If you don’t know HTML, don’t worry; modern CMS systems like
WordPress, Squarespace, or Drupal do the hard work for you.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Understand Page Tags, HTML, and Talking to Google

» Page Tags and Poker

» Weave Keywords into Page Tags
» Use WordPress for Key SEO Tags

» A Visual Test for Keyword Density

» The Answer Box

»» Deliverable: A Completed Page Tag Worksheet

» Set Up Your Homepage

»» Deliverable: A Completed Homepage Page Tag Worksheet

»» Checklist: Page Tag Action Items

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» UNDERSTAND PAGE TAGS, HTML, AND TALKING TO GOOGLE

HTML is the language of the Web, and it is based on what are called “tags” in HTML.
At a very simple level, if you want a word to appear bold on a web page, you put the
“tag” <strong> around the word such as “We sell <strong>running shoes</strong>”
in the HTML text of the web page. This will display in browsers with the phrase
“running shoes” in bold as for example:

We sell running shoes.

If you are using a WYSIWYG editor like WordPress or Dreamweaver, the editor will
“hide” this code from you, but behind the scenes the true foundation of the Web is
HTML, and the foundation of HTML is page tags. For a super simple introduction to
HTML, visit http://jmlinks.com/13n.

HTML: the Browser, the Website, & Google

Here’s what most people do, and don’t, understand about page tags and the Web:

• The Browser. Page Tags such as <strong>, <a href>, <img alt>, etc., structure
how the browser displays information to the user – bold, a link, an image, etc.
(Most web designers and marketers understand this).
• The Website. Page Tags structure the interrelationship between pages on a
website, especially through <a href>, the “anchor” or “link” tag but also through
CSS style sheets. (Most web designers understand this in terms of navigation for humans,
but not communication to Google).
• Google and other Search Engines. Page Tags send signals to Google about
which keywords are important with respect to an individual website, and even
the website as a whole (Few people outside the SEO community understand this).

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Indeed, a very unfortunate fact in web design is that most web designers are visual
people who only look at how a website looks “to humans” and fail to understand how
it communicates “to Google.” Not surprisingly, many beautiful websites fail to “speak
Google” and thus fail to rank on search engines.

Viewing the HTML Source / Page Tags

To see the true HTML behind the visible Web, go to any webpage with your browser,
right click on your mouse (or CTRL+U on the PC/ COMMAND+U on the Mac),
select “View Source” in Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, or Chrome. The HTML code
you see is the true language of the Web, and this code is what Google or Bing actually
uses to index a web page. For example, here is a screenshot of the HTML source code
for Geico’s page on “Motorcycle Insurance” (https://www.geico.com/motorcycle-
insurance/) showing the all-important TITLE tag:

Here’s their TITLE tag:

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 <title>Free Motorcycle Insurance Quotes Online |
GEICO</title>

The TITLE tag controls the top of the browser, the text you see if you bookmark this
page, and the headline of the page on Google. And here’s their H1 (Header) tag:

<h1 class="h1">Motorcycle Insurance</h1>

The H1 makes this sentence appear in a big bold font. Here’s a screenshot of what it
looks like “to humans:”

Most web designers understand that this HTML code structures how the browser
displays the information about Geico’s landing page around the phrase Motorcycle
Insurance, putting it in a big font at the center of the page. But what they miss is that this
HTML code is also sending powerful signals to Google about keyword targets.

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In a very simple way, if your page has <strong>running shoes</strong> on it, you
are not just bolding the word running shoes in the browser; you are also signaling
Google that the keyword phrase running shoes is important to you. In our Geico
example, their page is sending a powerful signal with both the TITLE and H1 tag by
including the phrase “Motorcycle Insurance” in them. Guess what? Geico ranks #2 on
Google for the search query “motorcycle insurance.”

PAGE TAGS SIGNAL KEYWORD PRIORITIES TO

GOOGLE

If, for example, you write an HTML page like this:

<h1>Learn about our Car Insurance</h1>

We sell the best <strong>car insurance</strong> in Houston

Which will render in a browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari as:

Learn About Car Insurance

We sell the best car insurance in Houston

This is doing two things:

1. Telling the Web browser to render the first sentence in big, bold letters, and to
render the phrase “car insurance” in bold text.
2. Signaling to Google that the words: Learn, About, Our, Car, Insurance are
important to you – these are words that you would like to rank for on Google.
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 (Google ignores common words like learn or about, which are called “stop words”
and instead will focus on car and insurance as the important words).

It’s an unambiguous communication to Google that when someone searches for

“motorcycle insurance,” Geico would like to rank this specific page for that query.

Your Website is Your Google Resume

Remember the “Job Search” analogy? Your website is like a resume. If you are looking for
a job as a BMW auto mechanic, for example, you would bold the words auto,
mechanic, and BMW on your resume, wouldn’t you? That bolding would not only
make the words appear blacker on the page, it would also “signal” to the person reading
your resume that you want to “rank” (i.e., be considered for a job for) those terms.

Your Website = a Resume

Manipulating Page Tags = Bolding / Making Bigger Keywords on the Resume = signals to
Google

Now that I’ve drilled this concept into your head through repetition (it’s that important!),
you should realize that you must design for two audiences: humans and Google.
Fortunately, you do not have to be an HTML expert. You need to understand just the
basics of HTML because modern WYSIWYG editors like WordPress do the HTML
coding for you. Using WordPress, for example, here’s a screenshot of my webpage on
AdWords Expert Witness services as seen inside the editor:

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I have highlighted the Page Title (which becomes the TITLE tag), and the H2 (which
becomes the Header 2 Tag) in yellow. The red arrows show where you can change the
header tag in WordPress, as well as where the actual header text is located. You can
view the actual page on the Web at http://jmlinks.com/5r. (Right click, and view
source to see the HTML code that underlies the browser-visible web page).

In this way, WordPress makes it easy to “speak HTML” and “talk to Google.” You just
have to know which tags are important for SEO, and how to get those tags
implemented in WordPress. (If you are using another editor, such as Squarespace or
Dreamweaver, accordingly, you have to figure out what items in the editor yield what
items in HTML).

The Yoast Plugin

Even better, if you are using WordPress, I highly recommend the Yoast WordPress
Plugin at http://jmlinks.com/5s. It enables you to “split” the WordPress
HEADLINE from the SEO-friendly TITLE tag, as well as easily add a META

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DESCRIPTION tag to your pages. Yoast creates a little box at the bottom of each page
where you simply enter your TITLE and META DESCRIPTION information for
Google (with an eye to your keyword targets). Here’s a screenshot:

» PAGE TAGS AND POKER

By inserting keywords into your HTML Page Tags, you are “talking to Google.” You
want, however, to do more than talk to Google: you want to win.

But which tags send the strongest signals?

To understand which tags are the most important, let’s use a new analogy: page tags
are like the cards in poker.

PAGE TAGS = POKER CARDS

Now any good poker player knows that the Ace is more powerful than the King, and the
King more powerful than the Deuce, and that Full House beats two of a kind. These are the
“rules of poker.” (The fact that many people don’t understand the rules or strategies of poker is akin
to the fact that many people do not understand the rules or strategies of Page Tags in SEO. Accordingly,
most people play poker poorly, and most people play SEO poorly, too. You, my friend, are going to
learn some basic rules, however, and begin to “crush your competition.”)
Your first step is to learn the values of the key HTML tags. To begin, examine the
following table showing the most important page tags “as if” you were playing a game
of poker with Google and your competitors:

TAG POKER COMMENT

<TITLE> Ace Most important tag on any page, place your target
keyword in the <TITLE> tag of each page.
<TITLE> of the homepage is the most powerful tag

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 on any website. (59 visible characters; about 80
indexed).

<A HREF> King Keyword-heavy links cross-reference pages to each

other, and communicate keywords to Google.

<IMG ALT> Queen Have at least one image per page, and put your target
keyword into the ALT attribute of the image.

<H1> Jack Google loves the header family, so use at least one
<H1> per page. Use <H2>, <H3> sparingly.

<META 10 If you include the target keyword in the <META

DESCRIPTION DESCRIPTION> tag, Google will use it 90% 0f the
> time. (300 character limit).

<BODY> or 9 Write keyword-heavy prose on each and every page

keyword density of the website. Aim for natural syntax and about 5%
keyword density.

<STRONG>, 3, 4, 5 Use bold and italicize keywords on the page,

<B>, <EM> strategically.

<META Joker Ignored by Google. Use it as a “note to self” about

KEYWORDS> the keyword targets for a particular page.

The above table is very important. It tells you that once you know the target keyword
for a given page, then place that keyword inside of the <TITLE>, <A HREF>, <IMG
ALT>, <H1>, <META DESCRIPTION> and <BODY> (visible content). Don’t
overdo this, but don’t underdo it, either. (More on writing Google-friendly content in a moment)

Get and Read Google’s Official SEO Starter Guide

Google produces an official guide to SEO that emphasizes just how important tag
structure is to Google and SEO. I strongly recommend that you download the guide
and read it thoroughly at http://jmlinks.com/googleseo. It doesn’t tell you

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everything, but it’s a good, basic guide to On Page SEO, the art and science of
structuring your content to “talk” to Google in terms of your target keywords.

Besides explaining the basics of On Page SEO, the guide also has two other usages:

Sleep Aid. It is an excellent sleep aid, so when you just can’t get drowsy, simply
start reading. You’ll be dreaming ZZZZZs in no time. (I keep a copy under my pillow
for this very reason).

Attack Weapon. If you’re working with a recalcitrant web designer, team

member, or CEO, who doesn’t believe what I’m telling you in this book because
I’m “just” Jason McDonald SEO guru of San Francisco, California, print out the guide
on paper. Next, you can roll up the guide, and start beating him or her on the
head, explaining: HERE’S A CRAZY IDEA. TO GET TO THE TOP OF
GOOGLE CAN WE PLEASE JUST DO WHAT GOOGLE TELLS US TO
DO? If you print the guide with an inkjet and moisten it prior to the beating, you
may also be able to get the Google logo to bleed off onto their forehead.

Seriously, the guide is a great basic, official guide to On Page SEO and should be
required reading for anyone on your team involved in search engine optimization.
Hate reading? Here are some videos:

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial of TITLE, META DESCRIPTION and

KEYWORDS “meta” tags for SEO at http://jmlinks.com/17r as well as a
video on how to do a page tag analysis at http://jmlinks.com/5u.

I also highly recommend you read my “SEO Page Tag Template” at

http://jmlinks.com/18t. The end result of page tags is to understand that page tags
communicate your keywords to Google, so your first TO-DO is pretty obvious: weave
your keywords into your page tags, starting with the all-important TITLE tag.
Basically:

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 Target keyword > embed in TITLE, META DESCRIPTION, HEADER, IMG
ALT and VISIBLE PAGE CONTENT

Now, do NOT overdo this! “A little salt is good for the soup, but too much salt ruins the soup.”
You want to take a specific landing page, and focus Google’s attention around one, and
only one, keyword phrase.

Focus One Page on One Keyword Target

As you build out your landing pages and blog posts (leaving aside for a moment your
homepage), let’s discuss focus. Generally speaking, you want one page on your website
to match one target keyword pattern on Google. To see this in action take a look at
Nationwide’s Pet Insurance website at https://www.petinsurance.com/, more
specifically how they have:

Dog insurance at https://www.petinsurance.com/dog-insurance.aspx and cat

insurance at cat insurance at https://www.petinsurance.com/cat-insurance.

Visit those pages and RIGHT CLICK > VIEW SOURCE. You’ll notice that the tag
structure, starting with their TITLE TAGS focuses on one, and only one, type of
keyword or pet. So they have a “dog insurance” page that is all about “dog insurance”
(and no “cat insurance”), and they have a “cat insurance” page that is all about “cat
insurance” (and no “dog insurance). Indeed, their homepage is focused on “pet
insurance” (the umbrella term) with downward “one-click” links to each landing page.
And each page has tag structure that communicates cleanly and efficiently to Google
what the page is about.

That’s just how Google likes it.

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Remember: Google is a company founded by engineers and run by engineers, you
know, the kind of dweeby nerds that got beat up in High School with pocket protectors
and a highly organized set of multicolored pens. You know, the guys and girls who were
on Chess Club because they liked rules and didn’t like chance. Those people. The ones
with few friends. Well, today they rule the world, and they like websites that would win
neurotic organization awards for neurotic organization. Everything has a place and
everything is in its place. The dogs are on the dog page, and the cats are on the cat page,
and the pets on the pet page.

It’s Google’s world. You and I just live in it.

Audit High-Ranking Pages and “Reverse Engineer” Their Page Tags

Now that you know how Page Tags “talk” to Google, revisit some top-ranking pages
especially by companies like Geico, Progressive, or eSurance that clearly practice high-
stakes SEO. Revisit Google searches like “motorcycle insurance,” “car insurance,” or
even “Segway insurance,” and see how the winning websites are “speaking Google” via
Page Tags.

The insurance industry is an excellent place to look for SEO Olympians! They’re playing
high stakes competition, and they do everything right.
For example, revisit a high-ranking page such as the page on Progressive.com for
“Segway Insurance” (https://www.progressive.com/segway/) view the source
code via CTRL+U / COMMAND+U, do a CTRL+F / COMMAND+F and search
for “Segway Insurance,” and notice how that target keyword phrase (“Segway
Insurance”) has been strategically embedded into the tag structure and visible content.
Compare it with other top-ranking pages such as
https://www.esurance.com/insurance/segway and notice how they do the same.
These pages are using Page Tags to communicate to Google that they want to rank for
“Segway Insurance.”

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial of a page audit at http://jmlinks.com/5v.

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Now, toggle back to your sad, pathetic web pages, and notice how inefficiently they are
talking to Google. Notice how disorganized and unfocused they are. Notice how the
keywords are not embedded in the Page Tags, or if they are, how it’s all done in a messy
or disorganized way. Then go onto Amazon or Netflix and watch the 1984 movie,
“Revenge of the Nerds.” It’s time to get your website, starting with your landing pages,
into pocket-protector, multicolored pen in each correct color-coded case, sort of order.

Toggle back to your web pages and have your “Aha” moment and realize that you need
to revise their keywords / page content vis-à-vis their page tag structure to “speak
Google.” #nerdalert.

» WEAVE KEYWORDS INTO PAGE TAGS

In summary, now that you know that the TITLE tag is the most important tag, that
Google likes the header tag family, that each web page should have at least one image
tag with the ALT attribute defined to include a keyword, and should link across to other
web pages based on your target keywords, you are ready to write a strong SEO page or
re-write an existing page to better communicate keyword priorities to Google.

Page Tags and Keywords for All Pages Except the Homepage

We will deal with the homepage separately, because the homepage is both incredibly
important to SEO and has unique responsibilities. But, for all pages EXCEPT the
homepage, here’s how to write SEO-friendly content for one, and only one, specific
page and matching keyword target:

1. Define your target keywords. Using your keyword worksheet as well as the
various keyword tools, define the target keywords for the specific page. A best
practice is to focus on a single keyword per individual landing page or blog post.
2. Write a keyword-heavy TITLE tag. The TITLE tag should be less than 80
characters, with the most important keywords on the left. The first 59 characters
will generally appear on Google as your headline.

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 3. Write a keyword-heavy META DESCRIPTION tag. The META
DESCRIPTION tag has a 90% chance of being the visible description on
Google, so write one that includes your keywords but is also pithy and exciting.
Its job is to “get the click” from Google. Character limit is 300 characters, but
focus your most important content in the first 155 characters.
4. Write a few keyword-heavy header tags. Start with an H1 tag and throw in a
couple of H2 tags around keyword phrases.
5. Include at least one image with the ALT attribute defined. Google likes to
see at least one image on a page, with the keywords around the ALT attribute.
6. Cross-link via keyword phrases. Embed your target keyword phrases in links
that link your most important pages across your website to each other around
keyword phrases.
7. Write keyword dense text. Beyond just page tags, Google looks to see a good
keyword density (about 3-5%) and keywords used in natural English syntax
following good grammar.

Presto! You now “speak Google.”

DON’T OVERDO IT!

Finally, don’t overdo it! That’s called keyword stuffing and it’s dangerous. A little salt is good
for the soup, but too much salt ruins it. So don’t fall into either extreme. Know your
keywords and write keyword-heavy content that’s good for Google, including putting
your keywords into strategic tags. But don’t go crazy and think that just by stuffing
keywords in willy nilly, you’ll succeed. Google isn’t stupid.

Write with Pizzazz

Also, as you write your TITLE and META DESCRIPTION tags, remember to write
both “for humans” and “for Google.” For Google, you need to get the target keyword

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into the tag. For “humans,” you need some pizzazz that says “Click me! Please click
me! This is a great fit for what you’re looking for!”

Take a look at the Progressive listing on Google for “motorcycle insurance,” for
instance, and notice not only that it has the target keyword but also has some marketing
pizzazz. Here’s a screenshot:

Is Progressive really the “#1 insurer?” Can you really “Ride with the #1 motorcycle
insurance company?” Not really, but there’s no Google police against this puffery, so
they’ve written tag content that has the target keywords in it and also hypes their website
as the best place to click to for “motorcycle insurance.”

As you write your own tags, therefore, don’t be modest. Be a marketer.

» USE WORDPRESS FOR KEY SEO TAGS

You don’t have to be an HTML expert to properly use page tags for SEO. Modern
CMS systems like WordPress, Squarespace, or Drupal will do most of the heavy lifting
for you. You just have to know that in terms of HTML output you need to get your
keywords into the proper tags. Since WordPress is the dominant platform, let me give
you an example using WordPress. We’ll use my page on “AdWords Expert Witness,”
which targets my rank on Google and Bing for my services as an expert witness in
litigation on AdWords (usually for trademark infringement). It’s an easy-to-understand
keyword target that is very high value even if it’s low volume.
With that target keyword in hand, I log in to WordPress and edit the page. I’ll assume
you have the Yoast plug in installed as well. First, I scroll down and find the Yoast
plugin at the bottom of the page. I find the “Snippet preview” in Yoast and click “Edit

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Snippet” and then write an “SEO Title,” which becomes the TITLE tag and a “Meta
Description” which becomes the META Description tag. Here’s a screenshot:

Next, I scroll back up to the top of the page in WordPress and write a “Post Headline”
which will become an H1 tag. Here’s a screenshot:

Note also that the “Permalink” or URL contains the target keyword phrase of
“AdWords Expert Witness” shown as adwords-expert-witness. Then, as I write content, I
pepper and salt phrases like “AdWords expert,” “litigation,” “expert witness,” and
“Google ads” throughout the copy. As I create sub-headers, I select the header family
on the menu. For example, here’s a screenshot for “AdWords Expert Witness –
Deliverables:”

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By selecting “Header 2” in WordPress, I make sure that the HTML output is:

<h2>AdWords Expert Witness – Deliverables:</h2>

Finally, I make sure that I have at least one image on the page and I select the “ALT”
attribute and put the keyword into it. Here’s a screenshot of that:

In this way, even if you have only a rudimentary knowledge of HTML yet know the key
HTML tags for search engine optimization, you can use a modern CMS system like
WordPress or Squarespace to make sure that you get your keywords into the right tag

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positions. As you output pages, then “View Source” and verify that the output you are
getting has the proper tag structure. You can check out my page targeting “AdWords
Expert Witness” at http://jmlinks.com/47f.

» A VISUAL TEST FOR KEYWORD DENSITY

As you are writing new pages or analyzing existing ones, however, keep in mind that
keyword density on the Web is more redundant than in normal English writing.

Few SEO experts and even fewer average marketers really realize just how redundant,
repetitious, repeating, reinforcing, and reiterating strong prose is for Google! Furthermore, it’s
not just about stringing keywords in comma, comma, and comma phrases. The Google
algorithm, post-Panda, clearly analyzes text and looks for natural syntax, so be sure to
write in complete sentences following the rules of grammar and spelling.

Write keyword heavy text in natural English syntax sentences, while avoiding comma,
comma, and comma phrases. What keyword density is “just right?” The best answer is
to do your searches and look at who is actually ranking already.
Let’s revisit “Motorcycle Insurance” as an example. Here’s a screenshot of the Geico
motorcycle insurance page, using CTRL+F in Firefox to highlight the occurrences of
the phrase “motorcycle insurance”:

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Second, how keyword dense is a page? Well, according to Chrome, the page has 15
occurrences of the phrase “motorcycle insurance” (using CTRL+F) and according to
SEO Centro’s Meta Tag Analyzer (http://jmlinks.com/37w) it has a density of 1.07%
for “motorcycle insurance.” Third, the #1 ranking page (Progressive’s at
https://www.progressive.com/motorcycle/) has 12 occurrences, and density of
.96%. So we can see we need well-written text that has about a 1% occurrence of the
target phrase.

Keyword density, in short, is higher than if you were to write the pages “for
humans” but not so high as to incur a Google penalty.

A less technical way to look at Web content is what I call the visual pinch test. Find
pages for very competitive Google searches (such as “motorcycle insurance” or
“reverse mortgage” or “online coupons”), highlight their keywords by using CTRL+F
(PC) / COMMAND+F (Mac) in Firefox, read the text aloud and pinch yourself every
time the keyword is used. At the end of the page, you should be in pain! If you are not
in pain, the density is too low. If you’re in the hospital, it’s too high. In terms of metrics,
a good rule of thumb is about 1-2% density, but remember also that it’s not just numeric
density but the occurrence of keywords in normal sentences that matter.

Page Content: What Comes First?

Google likes text, but people like pictures. There is a trade-off between the heavy,
redundant text favored by Google and the clean, iPhone like picture websites favored
by humans. The usual solution is to put the eye candy for humans towards the top, and
the text-heavy stuff for Google towards the bottom. Revisit many of the pages on
Geico.com or Progressive.com and you’ll notice how the eye candy for humans is at
the top, and the redundant text for Google is at the bottom.

Another page that does this in a really obvious way is the Fillmore Florist homepage at
http://www.sfflowershop.com/. Scoll to the bottom of that page. Here, let me show

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you the horror. Here’s a screenshot of the text on the bottom of their homepage with
a huge list of all the cemeteries and funeral homes in San Francisco:

They know that people search for florists near such-and-such cemetery or funeral
home, and they’ve stuffed these phrases into their homepage.
Now, this text and their homepage text as a whole are pretty gross and violate Google’s
terms of service post-Panda by having comma, comma, comma, comma phrases ad
infinitum. But their website nonetheless ranks well on Google for searches like same day
flower delivery San Francisco, most humans never scroll down to this garbage on the
homepage, and instead look at the eye candy at the top.

That said, there’s a trade-off here because Google isn’t stupid. It clearly sees words at
the top of your page as more important than words at the bottom. In this way, you can
see that the Geico page for “motorcycle insurance” accomplishes the same strategy of
“eye candy” for humans at the top and “keywords” for Google at the bottom with more
style.
Revisit it at https://www.geico.com/motorcycle-insurance/ and notice how they
have visuals at the top and text at the bottom yet have the target keyword “motorcycle

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insurance” in an H1 tag high on the visible text. Geico creates SEO-friendly content
with a lot of style and grace. That’s what you want to do, too.

The Panda Update

Periodically Google updates its algorithm, to improve the search results and combat
what is called “Web spam.” One of the most important algorithm updates was called
Panda, and Panda specifically targeted keyword stuffing, which is the overuse of keywords
on a page such as you see on the Fillmore Florist page. In this post-Panda world, the
key thing to do is to hit a “sweet spot” of just enough keyword density but not so much
as to trigger a penalty. Even more important, don’t think of keyword density as a
simple numeric percentage, but rather as the strategic weaving of keywords into HTML
tags and text. Here are post-Panda principles to writing SEO-friendly content:

1. Know your keywords. Keywords remain as important as ever! In addition to

your focus keyword, however, look for related or adjacent keywords. A page
targeting “motorcycle insurance” for example should have sentences that also
contain words like riding, rate, quote, Harley-Davidson, etc. Use Google
Autocomplete and Google related searches functions to find “adjacent” words
and weave them into your content. Write like people talk, and write at about 6th-
grade level.
2. Use natural syntax and good grammar. Write using good subject, verb, object
structure. Gone are the days when you could just write keyword, keyword, keyword.
I recommend you should read your page content out loud: it should sound
heavier than normal English in terms of keywords, but not so heavy as you sound
crazy. Grammar- and spell-check your final visible content.
3. Avoid comma, comma, comma phrases; another way of saying write normal,
natural prose (but still containing your keywords!). Google is aware of the
obvious tricks such as sentences with twenty-five commas, and white text on a
white background. Don’t be stupid. It can work, but it can create a penalty and
you’ll disappear from Google until you fix it.
4. Don’t be too perfect. Don’t have an optimized, perfect TITLE and META
DESCRIPTION and ALT ATTRIBUTE for an IMAGE, etc. – mix things up a
bit.
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Post-Panda, the trick is to be keyword heavier than normal English, but still retain good,
natural syntax. A little salt is good in the soup; too much salt ruins it.
A good litmus test is:

• Does your page contain the target keywords in the key HTML tags yet with some
variety and adjacent keywords? And,
• Is your numeric keyword density between 1 and 2%? And,
• If a “normal” person reads your page, will he or she be unaware that it has been
optimized for SEO yet hear the keyword phrase loud and clear? And,
• Does the page actually convey useful information to the human reader?

If the answer is YES to these questions, you’ll probably survive Panda. If the answer is
NO, you are either underoptimized (keywords do not appear in key tags) or overoptimized
(density is too high, text is clunky and weird to “normal” humans).

Another easy rule-of-thumb. Do your target searches and look at the content of the
current “winners.” Find the middle ground characterized by the winners in your
industry and be as text heavy and dense as they are, but not aggressively more so.

Keywords No Longer Matter?

Finally, you may read on the blogosphere that “keywords no longer matter.” This is an
incredibly stupid and dangerous idea, based largely on ignorance and on Google
propaganda about so-called semantic search. “Just write for humans and don’t worry
about SEO, or SEO-friendly page tags,” is a common refrain among the ignorant.

Indeed, with recent chatter about Google’s RankBrain algorithm update, there is more
and more talk about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and voice search. The idea is that Google
is getting better at a) inferring meaning from how people talk, and b) predicting how a
search for one thing (e.g., “pizza”) leads to a search for another thing (“directions to
Jason’s Pizza Emporium of Palo Alto”). RankBrain and voice search, however, are far

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from impacting most searches on Google (especially “transactional” search terms), and
are not quite ready for prime time. For those of us with small businesses, we can focus
on writing good, keyword-heavy prose in the proper HTML and SEO-friendly format.
Follow the instructions above for SEO-friendly prose that is also easy for humans to
read, and you’ll be fine. To learn more about RankBrain, see http://jmlinks.com/35c.

Even more important, remember that keywords still matter and are not going away
anytime soon. Here’s why.

First, people type keywords into Google and speak keywords into their mobile phones
and these words are the “connection points” indicating what they want Google to go
out an “find” for them. Secondly, language in and of itself is sui generis based on
keywords, and Google isn’t going to change language. We don’t beat around the bush.
Rather, we say things like, “Honey do you want PIZZA tonight?” to our spouses and
“Excuse me, do you know where the TOILET PAPER is?” to the employees at the
supermarket. So keywords mark what we want in actual human language. They are not
going away!
Third, the keywords META tag is ignored but this confusion between a META tag and
keywords causes even more confusion. It’s the META tag that’s ignored, not keywords.
And, finally, this idea that “keywords don’t matter” is based on a false choice: either
you write FOR PEOPLE or you write FOR GOOGLE, when in fact, you can write
for both.

Aim for the sweet spot of keyword density high enough for Google but not so high as to be
unreadable, or “stuffed” in the parlance of SEO. A little salt is good for the soup, and too
much salt ruins it. But you need salt to make soup! Google isn’t abolishing “keywords” any
more than cooks are going to abolish salt!

To use another analogy: as I always tell my wife on our yearly road trips: speed a little,
honey, but don’t be the fastest car on the Interstate. If you don’t speed, you won’t get
there first (or near first), but if you drive the red car, right past the cop at 120 mph,
you’ll get pulled over. Don’t underdo your keyword density, and don’t overdo it either
(welcome to post-Panda SEO content).

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And don’t believe everything you read on the blogosphere. A lot of it is pure dribble.

» THE ANSWER BOX

Search is moving towards voice search as more and more people talk into their mobile
phones or speak into devices such as Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google home. So
search is moving towards “natural speech,” which means that as you research your
keywords and write your content, you want to think more and more about how people
talk and about how people answer questions with natural syntax.

Take a high-value search such as “How do I repair my credit?” Try searching that on
Google. You’ll see what’s called the “Answer box” showing prominently in the first
position (or what’s come to be called “Position Zero”). Here’s a screenshot of the top-
ranked website formatted into what is called the Answer Box on Google:

Check out the winning web page on INC.com at http://jmlinks.com/47d. Next,

notice their HTML tag structure vis-à-vis target keywords and how they use tags such
as the H2 tag and numbers like “1,” “2,” “3,” etc. They are “answering” the question
posed to Google almost “as if” you as a human were asking them a question and they

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as a human were answering back. The trend is thus towards semantic question and
answers “as if” you were having a conversation with web searchers.

Also note that just below this answer, you’ll see what are called PAA’s or “People also
ask.” Here’s a screenshot:

Each of these is it’s own “answer” to a common “question.”

Clearly, Google wants to go in the direction of natural Q&A speech and it’s rewarding
websites that answer back in an organized fashion with a higher ranking. The magic
words to learn more about this trend are “featured snippets” or “position zero.” You
can Google “How to rank for position zero?” or “How to rank in featured snippets?”
and you’ll find blog posts and YouTube videos explaining the steps. The long and short
of it is:

1. Research your keyword targets and state them in question format.

2. Answer these questions by placing the appropriate keywords in the key HTML
tags. Write content that regurgitates the question and answers it back “as if” you
were having a conversation.
3. Use tags such as the Header tag family, TABLES, and lists to indicate a step-by-
step structured response.
4. Build links and do Off Page SEO (which we’ll discuss in Chapter 5.1).
5. Rank for “Position 0” by out-doing your competitors in terms of SEO.

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For an in-depth explanation of “featured snippets” and how to rank for them, visit
http://jmlinks.com/47e. As you work with Google to build out the new AI (Artificial
Intelligence) web, just remember that “Genisys is Skynet.” Say to your Google device,
“Hey Google! What is the date Skynet becomes self-aware?,” and you’ll understand.

» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED PAGE TAG WORKSHEET (FOR ONE PAGE)

The first DELIVERABLE for Step Three is a completed page tag worksheet for one
specific landing page, other than your homepage. Take either a new page or an existing
page of your website, and compare it against the desired target keyword. (Note: each
page should have one, and only one, keyword target. Using the “page tag worksheet,”
audit the page for how well it communicates the keyword target to Google. For the
worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ), and
click on the link to the “page tag worksheet.” Note: you’ll want to do this at least for all
of your major landing pages.
As you work on your On Page SEO, here are two free, useful tools to help you analyze
your keywords vs. tag structure and visible content.

SEO Workers at http://jmlinks.com/5w.

SEO Centro at http://jmlinks.com/13p.

Input an individual web page from your website into one of these tools and check it
against its keyword target. The page’s target keyword / keyphrase should be clearly and
prominently indicated in the tool; if not, you are not correctly signaling keyword
priorities to Google. For more nifty tools to help with Page Tags, refer to my SEO
dashboard at http://jmlinks.com/seodash and scroll down to the subsection called
Page Tags.

Obviously, your TO-DO here is to audit the content of not just one page on your website
but rather each and every page on your website, especially your landing pages, and
upgrade them to SEO-friendly HTML for Google. Note as you do this that each landing
page should focus on one, and only one keyword group, as Progressive.com does with a

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unique landing page for auto insurance, another one for motorcycle insurance, and yet
another one for Segway insurance. By having a single keyword focus per landing page
you will vastly improve your chances of ranking on Google.

» SET UP YOUR HOMEPAGE

Page tag SEO applies to your homepage, but your homepage is so important you should
handle it in a very specific way. Your homepage is your “front door” to Google and the
most important page of your website. Google rewards beefy, keyword-heavy
homepages that have a lot of text. Think carefully about every word that occurs on this
page, and about the way each word is “structured” by embedding it into good HTML
page tags. Here are your important “to do’s” for your homepage:

Identify your customer-centric, top three keywords. These three “most

important” words must go into your homepage <TITLE> tag, the most powerful
tag on your website!
Repeat the <TITLE> tag content in the <H1> tag on the page. There should
be at least one <H1> but no more than three per page.

Identify your company’s major product / service offerings. Re-write these

using customer-centric keywords, and have <H2> tags leading to these major
landing pages, nested inside of <A HREF> tags. Be sure to include the keywords
inside the <H2> and <A HREF> tags!
Have Supporting Images. Google rewards pages that have images with ALT
attributes that are keyword heavy. Don’t overdo this, but have at least one and no
more than about seven images on your homepage that have keywords in their ALT
attributes.

Create keyword-focused one-click links. Link down from your homepage to

defined landing pages around target keyword phrases.

• Write lengthy, keyword-rich content for your homepage. You need not
just structural elements, but lots of beefy prose on your homepage that
clarifies to Google what your company is “about.”

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For good homepage ideas, look at Healthy Paws Insurance
(https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/), eSurance
(https://www.esurance.com/), as well as some of SEO-savvy Bay Area medical
malpractice attorneys such as http://www.danroselaw.com/. Now, some of this is a
bit overdone, but the point is to see that effective SEO homepages have a lot of text,
contain the target keywords, and embed the keywords in key tags often with links
“down” to specific landing pages.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on effective SEO homepages at

http://jmlinks.com/18g.

Or, choose your own industry, do some high-level searches on Google or Bing, and
reverse engineer the homepages of the winners at SEO. Then, proceed to audit your
own homepage: how effectively does your own homepage “speak Google?”
In auditing your homepage, it should:

• Have a TITLE tag that succinctly explains your business value proposition, and
includes at least three highly valued keywords in the first 59 characters.
• Have a META description tag that explains your business value proposition,
contains your keywords, and is written in a pithy, exciting way to “get the click”
from Google to your website. The character limit, of course, is 300 characters.
• Follow the principles of Page Tag SEO by weaving your keywords into the
main tags such as the H1 / H2 family, the A HREF anchor tag, the IMG alt tags,
etc.
• Have keyword-dense, well-written text that explains what you do and contains
your target keywords.
• Have “one-click” links down to your most important landing pages.

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It should also be visually appealing to humans, and lead to a desired action such as a
sale or a registration form. Don’t forget the carbon-based life forms!

A Warning about Too Many Changes

One final warning. Don’t change your TITLE tags frequently. Google will penalize a
site that has such-and-such Homepage TITLE tag on day 1, and then another on day
7, and still another on day 44. A good rule of thumb is to decide on your TITLE tags
for your homepage and key landing pages. Run them by your boss and team members,
and sleep on it. Then deploy them, and do not change them again for at least ninety
days. This rule is really for the TITLE tags, but not the content itself. Ironically, Google
actually rewards Homepages that have “new” content such as featured blog posts, so
optimize your TITLE tags and leave them alone but feel free to update your content,
especially blog posts and press releases.

» DELIVERABLE: A HOMEPAGE PAGE TAG AUDIT

In the next Chapter, we’ll learn a bit more about how website structure influences
Google and SEO, but we can begin the process now by doing a page tag audit for
your homepage. The most powerful tag on your website is the homepage TITLE tag,
so start there. Drill down to the text content on your homepage and verify that it
contains the priority keyword targets identified in your keyword worksheet.

WORKSHEETS. For your DELIVERABLE, analyze your homepage’s existing Page

Tag vs. target keyword status, and devise a “quick fix” strategy to improve
keyword placement in important tags. For the worksheet, go to
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” to register if you
have not already done so), and click on the link to the “homepage worksheet.”

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»» CHECKLIST: PAGE TAG ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of page tags! Take the Page Tag quiz at http://jmlinks.com/qzpt.
Next, here are your page tag Action Items:

❑ Learn the basics of HTML Page Tags and SEO. Which tags are the most
important?

❑ Download and read the Google SEO Starter Guide. Verify that you are
implementing its recommendations on your website.

❑ Audit at least one “landing page” for SEO; ultimately, audit all of your key
landing pages for Page Tags. For each -

❑ Identify the keyword target and closely related keywords.

❑ Verify that the keyword target is in the TITLE, META

DESCRIPTION, IMG ALT, A HREF, and HEADER tags.

❑ Write keyword-heavy visible content that is also easy-to-read

for humans and follows grammatically correct English, including
having related phrases and words just like people talk.

❑ Audit your homepage for SEO.

❑ Know your keyword targets and closely related keywords. Usually, the
Homepage identifies the MOST IMPORTANT two or three keywords for the
website.

❑ Verify that the keyword target is in the TITLE, META

DESCRIPTION, IMG ALT, A HREF, and HEADER tags.

❑ Write keyword-heavy visible content that is also easy-to-read for

humans. Be sure to get the five or seven key phrases that you want to rank
for on your homepage, including helpers words and qualifiers such as
cities or locations.

❑ Create “one-click” links FROM the homepage TO the landing pages

around keyword phrases.

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Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Page Tags for my favorite free
tools for tags. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

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Page | 144
 3.2
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Website structure – that is, the “organization” of your website - is a major part of Step
#3. Whereas page tags approach SEO from the perspective of individual web pages,
website structure turns your attention to how your entire website communicates keyword
priorities to Google. How you name your files, how you “reach out” to Google, how
you link your homepage to and from your landing pages, and how you optimize your
landing pages all combine to make a good SEO strategy, great!

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Define SEO Landing Pages

»» Deliverable: Landing Page List

» Write a Keyword Heavy Footer

» Create a Blog and Start Blogging

» Use Keyword Heavy URLs over Parameter URLs

» Leverage the Home Page for One Click Links

» Be Mobile-friendly, Fast, and Secure

» Join Google and Bing Webmaster Tools

»» Deliverable: Website Structure Worksheet

»» Checklist: Website Structure Action Items

» DEFINE SEO LANDING PAGES

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We’ve already touched several times on the key concept of landing pages. From the
perspective of SEO, a landing page is a page that targets one, and only one, specific
core keyword. For example, you see this clearly on Geico.com with specific pages for
“motorcycle insurance,” “car insurance,” and even “ATV insurance.” Revisit their
sitemap at http://jmlinks.com/47g to browse their landing pages, but as you do so
turn your perspective not to the individual pages and how they are SEO-optimized but
to how the entire website structure works as a symphony of focus vis-à-vis Google.

Landing pages are not simply about “page tags.” It’s not simply about optimizing them
one-by-one. It’s about integrating them into the structure of the website to
communicate interrelated themes to Google and to prioritize which keywords are the
most important to the website. Technique we will discuss are a) “one-click” links from
the homepage to the key landing pages, b) “one-click” links from a keyword footer to
the landing pages, c) both HTML and XML sitemaps, and d) using blog posts to inject
freshness to core landing pages by upward links. In addition, external link-building to
key landing pages is yet another tool in the SEO toolbox.

Pet Insurance
In order to visualize SEO-friendly website structure, let’s turn our gaze towards the pet
insurance industry. Notice, right out of the gate, that in terms of keyword patterns or
search queries on Google we have:

pet insurance at http://jmlinks.com/37x,

dog insurance at http://jmlinks.com/37y, and

cat insurance at http://jmlinks.com/37z.

So we have one ambiguous keyword phrase and two non-ambiguous phrases, and all
of the three are pretty transactional. By the time someone is searching for “cat
insurance,” he’s done with education and he’s ready to buy (or at least get a quote).
Among the high-ranking websites for these patterns we have:

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 https://www.petinsurance.com/

https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/

https://www.aspcapetinsurance.com/

Now, each has done a very good job at identifying their target keywords and weaving
them into the proper HTML tags (TITLE, IMG ALT, A HREF, etc.), as well as writing
good SEO-friendly copy that contains not only the target keywords but related words.
Let’s look at their website structure or organization and make some observations,
using Healthy Paws as an example. We have:

A Home Page with optimized TITLE tag and SEO-friendly text, focusing on
the more generic “pet insurance” at
https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/ and then a

A Landing page on “Dog Insurance” with optimized TITLE tag and

SEO-friendly text at
https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/dog-and-puppy-
insurance

A Landing page on “Cat Insurance” with optimized TITLE tag and

SEO-friendly text at
https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/cat-and-kitten-
insurance.

Notice as well how the Home Page has “one-click” links down from the Home Page
to each Landing Page. Here’s a screenshot:

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And here are some excerpts of the HTML code linking from the Home Page down to
the landing page for “dog insurance:”

<img class="right mobile-hide"

src="/Images/V3/HomePage/icon_healthy_paws_dog_and_puppy_insurance
.png" alt="Our dog and puppy insurance" />

<h2 class="greenTitle mobile-hide" style="margin-left: 0;">Dog

Insurance</h2>

<img class="mobile-show" style="display: inline-block;"

src="/Images/V3/HomePage/icon_healthy_paws_dog_and_puppy_insurance
.png" alt="Our dog and puppy insurance" />

Learn more about our <a href="/dog-and-puppy-insurance">pet

insurance for dogs</a> and puppies.

Take a look as well at the footer of the website and notice how each and every page has
textual links to the key landing pages, as indicated by keyword phrases. Here’s a
screenshot:

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And here’s the HTML code:

Well done, well done, well done! Everything is working together as a team – Homepage,
Landing Pages, and Footer to send clear signals to Google about the keyword target.
For your homework, take a moment and do the search “Pet insurance” on Google and
then visit some of the top ranking websites – petinsurance.com,
healthypawsinsurance.com, and aspcapetinsurance.com. Notice how each of them has
this same structure of an optimized “Home Page,” optimized “Landing Pages,” and
cross-links between them around the target keyword phrases. Don’t miss the use of the
site-wide footer as well.

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 THERE AREN’T A THOUSANDS WAYS TO AN SEO-
FRIENDLY WEBSITE. THERE’S JUST ONE WAY.

As you return to your own website, audit it to verify that you have a well-defined
homepage and then specific landing pages that represent that core keyword families you
identified in your keyword worksheet. A common mistake is to think that there are
thousands of ways to build an SEO-friendly website, when – in practice – there is just
this one simple structure of homepage > landing pages plus a keyword footer, and a blog
alongside.

Let’s dive into the blog for a moment. Most strong websites have a blog as Healthy
Paws does at https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/blog/. Notice as well
that they have blog “categories” that touch on their keyword themes:

Thus the blog adds to their SEO symphony be reinforcing to Google the keyword
themes and reminding Google that they have new or fresh content. A good blog post
also links up or “link sculpts” up to the key landing pages, thus injecting freshness into
the Google algorithm vis-à-vis the most important keyword themes. Hence, you need
a blog to complete your SEO-friendly website structure.
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Localized Landing Pages: a Special Case

If your business has a local element, it is often useful to create localized landing pages
for individual cities or towns that are “helper words” for your keywords. For example,
Stamford Uniform and Linen (http://www.stamfordlinen.com/) wants to dominate
Google not only for keyword phrases such as “Stamford Linen Service” (where the
business is located) but for those in nearby towns where they lack a physical store, such
as “Hartsdale Linen Service” or “Greenwich CT Linen Service.” One method to
accomplish this is localized landing pages.

Check out the company’s homepage, scroll to the bottom and notice the “one-click”
links to landing pages for target cities plus the keyword search “uniform rental service.”
One of their target cities is Hartsdale, Connecticut, even though they are technically
located in Stamford. Indeed, Stamford is part of the “suburban sprawl” outside most
American cities, where one city (Stamford) blends into others like Greenwich, New
Canaan, and Hartsdale. People search by city and Google optimizes results by nearby
locations.

What can a business do then that needs to optimize for fragmented city-specific
searches? Create localized landing pages, that’s what they can do. (Now, this is a
tactic that is close to a violation of Google’s terms of service, called “doorway pages,”
so if you use this strategy you need to make sure that each page has unique, valuable
content specific to the needs of the target city. Don’t overdo this! You can get away
with a few landing pages of this type, but not with hundreds. See below for further discussion).
A good tactic is to give “driving directions” from various cities to your home office,
therefore giving each city-specific page a reason to exist and making it read as useful for
humans. At the same time, you can optimize it for SEO.

For example, take a look at the Hartsdale page at

http://www.stamfordlinen.com/hartsdale/. Also notice how each landing page is
unique, with content at the bottom of each city that is unique and different from the
others in the set. In addition to writing unique content for each page, you can also
identify and city “local historical facts” about the city, or perhaps “famous people” from
the city. You need to create unique and valuable content for each city-specific landing
page.

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Try some Google searches such as “Stamford Linen Service,” “Hartsdale Linen
Service,” or “Greenwich CT Linen Service” to see how effective localized landing pages
can be!

Another site that uses this effectively is Jonathan D. Sands. Check out his sitemap at
http://jmlinks.com/13q. You’ll see localized landing pages for cities such as
Larchmont, Mamaroneck, and New Rochelle reflecting localized search patterns such
as “Larchmont Personal Injury Lawyer” or “Mamaroneck Personal Injury Lawyer.” Mr.
Sands office is actually located in Mamaroneck, NY, but his SEO is trying to capture
localized search patterns for nearby cities.

Doorway Pages and Localized Landing Pages

Caution: localized landing pages can be considered “doorway” pages by Google,

especially post-Panda. You can read the official Google perspective on doorway pages
at http://jmlinks.com/6a. The trick for localized landing pages is:

• Be conservative: create only a few landing pages for specific cities. Less is more.
• Make sure each has unique and valuable content.
• Imagine you are a Googler reading this page: does it have a reason to exist,
other than being optimized for SEO?

To see a company that has gone overboard on this tactic, visit

http://www.certstaff.com. Go to any page of that website and scroll to the bottom:
you’ll see page upon page of city-specific landing pages. This is a dangerous tactic, and
sets that company up to be penalized, and completely removed from Google. Be
careful! Less is more! Yet, it’s working for certstaff.com. Try a search for “Fort
Lauderdale Javascript training” and you’ll find them in position #1 on Google. Ditto
for “Unix classes Oklahoma City” and so on and so forth.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on SEO landing pages at

http://jmlinks.com/5z.
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»» DELIVERABLE: A LANDING PAGE LIST

Inventory your existing or to-be-created landing pages to reflect your major keyword
patterns as described in your keyword worksheet. Using the “website structure
worksheet” in combination with your keyword worksheet, create a list of your high
priority landing pages. Each page will then be optimized via page tags and ultimately
“one-click” from the homepage, using a keyword heavy syntax. I recommend a tab on
your keyword worksheet that identifies no more than ten SEO-friendly landing pages
for your website.

» WRITE A KEYWORD-HEAVY FOOTER

A second tactic I recommend is to write a keyword-heavy footer. Take a look at

Progressive.com, scroll to the bottom, and check out their footer. Notice how the
footer has direct links to major pages, all around the phrase “insurance” as in
“motorcycle insurance.” Or, take a look at my site
https://www.jasonmcdonald.org/ or https://www.westpawdesign.com/.
Again, scroll to the bottom and see that target SEO keywords have been embedded in
the footer with direct links to landing pages. Or take a look at Attorney Sands website
at http://jmlinks.com/13q and again, you’ll see a keyword-heavy footer.
Here's a screenshot of the West Paw Design footer, with “one-click” links to keyword-
specific landing pages:

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And here’s one for Stamford Linen:

In both cases, there are keyword-focused links from the footer to the more important
landing pages.
Your keyword footer should be short, well-written, and contain only your most
important keywords. Link FROM the keyword footer TO your target landing pages.
The footer increases the site-wide density of your website for your target keywords and
allows for “link sculpting” – linking around strategic keywords to your key landing
pages. Here’s another tip. I find the best success writing subject / verb / object footers,
that is footers that speak in complete sentences vs. just throwing keyword links on the
page. I also find that even if the key landing pages are in the top, visible navigation “for
humans,” I find best success when I have a redundant keyword footer “for Google” in
the bottom navigation.

Using your Keyword Worksheet and the “landing pages” tab, make sure that as you
create new pages for your website as well as blog pages that you link FROM these pages
TO your landing pages around keyword-specific phrases. Again, do not overdo this.
Just as a general rule, cross-link your pages to each other around important keyword
phrases.

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» CREATE A BLOG, AND START BLOGGING

Once you have your basic structure of Home Page > Landing Pages, and Footer > Landing
Pages, it’s time to create a blog. Blogs are critical for both SEO and for social media
marketing, as a good keyword-heavy blog allows you to comment on keywords that
matter to you and your customer. In terms of social media marketing, a blog gives you
a place to put content that is of interest to your human readers and customers (See my
Social Media Marketing Workbook on Amazon at http://jmlinks.com/smm for more
on this topic).
In terms of SEO, a blog allows you to do the following:

1. A blog allows you to write short SEO-friendly posts on long tail keywords.
Take a look at the West Paw Design blog at
https://www.westpawdesign.com/scoop/. Notice how the company blogs
on topics of interest to pet owners, and also optimizes its blog posts on keyword
topics such as “Dog-Friendly National Parks” (http://jmlinks.com/35d). Also
notice how the blog links over to key landing pages, especially those that are
product-oriented. Or, take a look at the Mentor Graphics blogs at
https://www.mentor.com/blogs/ and notice how that hi-tech company uses
its blogs to write engineering articles yet touch on keywords that matter to it such
as “Sensor Modeling and Signal Conditioning Circuit Design” (esoteric keywords
for a techie industry) (http://jmlinks.com/13s).
2. A blog gives “freshness” to your website, with Google rewarding sites that have
frequent postings. Indeed, I recommend that you automate your homepage so
that it constantly rotates your three most recent blog posts onto the homepage
as at https://jm-seo.org/. Scroll down to “News and blogs” to see my most
recent three blog posts.
3. A blog allows you to link “up” to your strategic landing pages, and pass
“freshness” to those landing pages. Your landing pages will not change
frequently, but by blogging on related topics you can communicate to Google
that you are fresh and alive. For an example of this, read my blog post on “SEOs,
San Francisco, and Eating Your Own Dog Food” at http://jmlinks.com/38a.

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Blogs are covered in Chapter 4.1 on content, but in terms of website structure, realize
that having a blog and posting SEO-friendly, keyword-heavy content to your blog on a
regular basis is a “must” for success at search engine optimization. I recommend you
commit to at least four blog posts per month on your keyword themes.

» USE KEYWORD HEAVY URLS OVER PARAMETER URLS

URLs or web addresses are what you see in the URL or address bar at the top of the
browser. Google pays a lot of attention to URLs; URLs that contain target keywords
clearly help pages climb to the top of Google. Here’s a screenshot of the Progressive
landing page URL for “Motorcycle Insurance”:

I have highlighted the URL in yellow.

Try a few competitive Google searches such as “Reverse Mortgage Calculator”
(http://jmlinks.com/13t) and notice how the URLs that are on page one often

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contain the target keywords. Here’s the #1 result for “Reverse Mortgage Calculator” at
http://www.reversemortgage.org/About/Reverse-Mortgage-Calculator and
here’s the #3 result at http://reversemortgagealert.org/reverse-mortgage-
calculator/.

What’s the takeaway? If possible, choose a domain that contains your target keywords.
Beyond that, make sure that your URLs (file names) contain the target keywords.
Consider these two examples:

Example 1 / Geek File Name - http://www.yourcompany.com/files/

llk1/2/kyoklaol.html. No “clues” to Google as to what is “contained” inside these
directories and files.

Example 2 / English File Name - http://www.sf-attorney.com/medical-

malpractice/obstetrics.html. The domain, directories, and file names all indicate that
this is a medical malpractice attorney, specializing in suing OB/GYN doctors.

By the way, what goes for URLs also goes for images: name your images after keywords
just as you name your URLs after keywords. Rather than naming an image
“image215.jpg” have your graphic designer name your images after your keywords such
as “medical-malpractice.jpg.”

Re-read the Google SEO Starter Guide (http://jmlinks.com/googleseo) and you’ll

notice that Google says, “Improve the structure of your URLS” (pg. 8) and “Optimize
your use of images” (Pg. 18), so – again – just be crazy and do what Google is literally telling
you to do: put keywords in your URLS and IMAGE file names / alt tags!

As part of the DELIVERABLE for Step #3, conduct an inventory of your website URLs
and image file names (as well as ALT attributes). Are they keyword heavy? Do the
visible keywords match the keyword themes from your keyword worksheet?

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Parameter URLS

Just as important, avoid parameter URLs. Parameter URLs are URLs that contain
numeric, crazy, geeky codes such as the question mark (?), percent sign (%), equals sign
(=), or SessionIDs (often marked SESSID=), these indicate to Google that these are
“temporary” pages not worth indexing. Static, keyword heavy URL’s far outperform
URLs that tell Google a website is database-driven via geeky parameter URLs.

PARAMETER URLS = KISS OF (SEO) DEATH

As examples of sites that use parameter URLs, visit http://www.zilog.com or

http://dl.acm.org. Both sites have URL’s full of session IDs, question markets, etc.
Refer back to the Google SEO Starter Guide (http://jmlinks.com/googleseo) and read
the section on Parameter URLs. On page 8, Google says:

URLs like (1) can be confusing and unfriendly. Users would have a hard time
reciting the URL from memory or creating a link to it. Also, users may believe
that a portion of the URL is unnecessary, especially if the URL shows many
unrecognizable parameters. They might leave off a part, breaking the link. Some
users might link to your page using the URL of that page as the anchor text. If
your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with
more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would
(2) (emphasis added)

Here’s an example URL on Zilog.com:

http://zilog.com/index.php?option=com_product&task=product&businessLine=1&id=
77&parent_id=77&Itemid=57

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To Google, that URL looks like a mess of information; therefore, this page is going to
receive a negative ding in the search algorithm for its target keywords.

Avoid parameter URLs at all costs as Google severely deprecates them in

its search results!

If you do have parameter-based URLs, insist that your webmaster convert them to
“pseudo-static” URLs. You can Google “pseudo-static” URLs for articles on this topic.
If you are using WordPress make sure that the “permalink” setting has keyword-heavy
URL’s. Just to make our lives more miserable, there are blog posts even by Google that
say parameter URLs are OK. Don’t believe everything you read on the blogosphere!
Try searches that matter to your company and count the number of parameter-based
URLs that are ranking on page one of Google. I guarantee it won’t be many, if any. If
you get into an argument with a geeky Web nerd who says the official Google blog said
such-and-such about parameter URL, take out your copy of the Google SEO Starter Guide
and smack him on the head.

PARAMETER URLS: JUST SAY NO.

Siloing and Link Sculpting

Bruce Clay, one of the gurus of the SEO industry, has coined the term “SEO Silos” to
explain how keyword structure should determine website architecture. You can read an
excellent article by him entitled, “SEO Siloing: How to build a website silo
architecture,” at http://jmlinks.com/37u. Secondarily, Matt Cutts of Google wrote a
landmark blog post in 2009 on “PageRank Sculpting” (http://jmlinks.com/38b). The
point of this discussion of URL structure and internal linking has been to emphasize
the following:

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 1. Your website URL’s should be keyword-heavy and reflect the core keywords as
determined on your keyword worksheet. It goes without saying that you refrain
from using parameter-based URLs.
2. If at all possible, “like” content should be put into “like” directories (e.g., all the
content on “cat insurance” should “live” in a directory called abc.com/cat-insurance
as in abc.com/cat-insurance/get-a-cat-insurance-quote and abc.com/cat-insurance/kitten-
insurance, etc. This is what Bruce Clay means by “siloing.”
3. If siloing is not possible, then links on your website FROM any given page TO
your landing pages should be around the keyword phrase, i.e., any blog post that
mentions “cat insurance” should link around the phrase “cat insurance” to
abc.com/cat-insurance. This is what Matt Cutts is implying by “PageRank
Sculpting.”

In addition, you should refrain from linking outwards to other websites, except when
they are in your keyword community and are quite important. A Brahman Cattle
breeder, for example, should like to Brahman.org (the National Association of Brahman
Cattle breeders) and a San Francisco pizza restaurant should link to both SFGov.org
(the City of San Francisco) and the American Pizza Community
(http://www.americanpizzacommunity.com/) which promotes pizza as a shared meal in
communities everywhere and is “in” the keyword community of pizza.

In summary, how you structure your URLs, how you link to and from your internal
pages, and how you link outwards are strong signals to Google as to your keyword
targets. So do all of this in a very organized, systematic, and judicious way. Don’t take
all of this too seriously and drive yourself crazy, however. Do the best you can, the
point being to use your keyword themes to structure your links. And eat a lot of pizza,
especially with friends, because a) pizza is good, and b) friends are good.

» LEVERAGE THE HOMEPAGE FOR ONE CLICK LINKS

Google interprets your homepage as the most powerful page on your website, and as
we saw in the Page Tags Chapter, you want to have lots of keyword-heavy text on the
homepage. In addition, you should embed our most important keywords into the
homepage TITLE tag. Beyond that, you should leverage your homepage as a “one-

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click” gateway to your landing pages. It’s as if your HTML communicated this message
to Google:

Home Page > One Click to Landing Pages = Hey Google! These keywords are
important to us!

Google also looks at the directory structure, namely the presence of keywords in URLs
and how “far” those URLs are from the homepage or “root” directory. So, in addition
to naming your directories and files after your keyword families and high priority
keywords, and placing “one-click” links from your homepage, create a directory
structure that is “shallow” or “flat.”

http://www.yourcompany.com/medical-malpractice/sue-doctors.html (2nd level)

is seen by Google as “more important” than

http://www.yourcompany.com/1/files/new/medical-malpractice/sue-doctors.html (5th
level)

Thirdly, your homepage needs to communicate “freshness” to Google by having at least

three fresh press releases and/or three new blog posts. Having new, fresh content that
is “one click” from the homepage signals to Google that your website is alive and
updated (vs. a stagnant site that might be out of business), so it’s a best practice to rotate
press releases and/or blog posts through the homepage as “one-click” links.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on SEO-friendly homepages at

http://jmlinks.com/18g.

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» BE MOBILE-FRIENDLY, FAST, AND SECURE

For the past few years, Google has emphatically trumpeted the “mobile revolution.”
Most searches now occur on mobile devices such as phones and tablets, and Google
has declared itself a “mobile-first” company. On November 4, 2016, for example,
Google announced “Mobile-first indexing” on the official Google Webmaster Central
Blog (http://jmlinks.com/38y). The idea is that they will look, first, at how your site
looks on a mobile phone and that will become THE index for both the desktop and
mobile versions of Google. Sites that are not mobile friendly, and/or slow may be
penalized with poor rank on Google, or even drop out of Google altogether. For a good
article on how to prepare for the “mobile first’ index see http://jmlinks.com/39c.

Here’s what you need to do. First, make sure you are using a responsive website design.
If you’re using WordPress, a so-called “responsive” WordPress theme will accomplish
this pretty easily. Just verify that your theme is responsive. If you’re using another
platform, you’ll need to verify that your platform is responsive. Squarespace, for
example, is already responsive (http://jmlinks.com/38z). (Use the free AdWords
preview tool at http://jmlinks.com/39g and change the device type to mobile device to
check out how your site looks on a phone). Second, make sure your website is fast –
as fast as is possible. Use a tool like WebPageTest (http://jmlinks.com/39a),
Google’s own PageSpeed Insights (http://jmlinks.com/39b), or
SEOSiteCheckUp.com’s (http://jmlinks.com/39d). Inside of Google Analytics, you
can click on Behavior > Site Speed to get detailed information on your site’s speed over
time. Contact your web hosting company and purchase everything that speeds up your
website! The cost is inconsequential compared with the negative impact of a slow
website.

Finally, if you are a big site such as a publisher, you can explore Google’s move to
promote AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) at http://jmlinks.com/39e. For most of
us, if we are a) responsive, and b) fast, our websites will survive the transition to “mobile
first” just fine. Don’t panic.

Be Secure. Be https.

As for security, Google is also promoting the transition from http and to https (secure).
A site like the JM Internet Group (https://www.jm-seo.org/) is secure and marked

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by https; a site like the JM Links Website (http://jmlinks.com/) is not secure and
marked by http. (The “s” stands for secure or encrypted). All things being equal, the https
sites may begin to outperform non-secure http sites (non-encrypted). Google is even
threatening to “warn” users in Chrome about non-secure elements on websites! To
learn more about http vs. https, visit http://jmlinks.com/39f. The bottom line is that
you should begin planning a transition to https, though in my opinion this is not (yet) a
critical SEO factor for most small business websites that are not eCommerce. If you
are eCommerce and collecting credit card or payment data, it goes without saying that
you should be https or secure.

» JOIN GOOGLE (AND BING) WEBMASTER TOOLS

Google rewards websites that make its job easier! Set up sitemaps for Google (and
Bing), and participate in their official programs for Webmasters. Sign up for Google
Search Console (formerly called “Webmaster Tools”) for your website
(http://jmlinks.com/6c) as well as Bing Webmaster tools
(http://jmlinks.com/6d). Then follow the steps below to alert Google to your
Google-friendly files as follows.
First, create an HTML sitemap that makes it easy for a search engine spider to go
from Page 1 to Page 2 to Page 3 of your website. If you use Javascript / CSS pulldowns
for navigation, your HTML sitemap is a critical alternative path for Google to index
your website. Second, use the free tool at http://jmlinks.com/6e to create your XML
sitemap. If you are using WordPress, look for a plugin that creates an HTML sitemap
as well as an XML sitemap. Third, create a robots.txt file that points to your XML
sitemap. (Note: if you are using WordPress, just search popular plugins for XML
sitemaps and robots.txt functionality). Test your robots.txt file to verify that Google can
easily index your website.

Fourth, after you have created these files, submit your sitemap.xml file via Webmaster
tools. Pay attention as well to your “crawl errors” and “HTML suggestions.” All things
being equal, sites that participate in Webmaster tools will beat out sites that do not.
Here’s a screenshot of how to submit an XML sitemap via Google webmaster tools:

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Click on Sitemaps and follow the instructions to submit your XML sitemap.

Fetch as Google
Another feature available in the Google search console is “fetch as Google” located at
Search Console > Crawl > Fetch as Google. (Note: this feature is only available in the “old”
version of Search Console at this time of writing, so transition back from the “new” to
the “old” version by clicking “Go to the old version” at the bottom left to access this.)

What fetch-as-Google does is alert Google to new or revised content on your website,
thus increasing the speed at which your site gets indexed in Google and is available to
rank high.
If you create a new page on your website, or edit an existing page, for example, you can
log in to the Google search console and “submit” your new URL to Google. In this
way, you get into the Google index faster and can more quickly climb to the top of
Google. Here’s a screenshot:

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This feature is also useful to get a new blog post indexed. First, write a new blog post.
Second, log in to Google Search Console, and go to “Fetch as Google.” Third, submit
your URL to Google. This accelerates the indexing of a timely post to your blog.

To find out if content is indexed, use the site: command on Google. Enter a URL of
your website after site: (no space) on Google. To see an example, go to
http://jmlinks.com/13u which confirms that the blog post at https://www.jm-
seo.org/2016/08/google-local-impness-description/ is “in” the Google index. If
not, then I could use “fetch as Google” to alert Google to index / reindex it.

Set a Preferred Domain

You should also set a “preferred” domain (available under the gear icon, top right of
the screen, under “site settings.”). This is because you want to tell Google to use
http://jm-seotips.org not http://www.jm-seotips.org. This prioritizes one format
for SEO. Here’s a screenshot:

Similarly, via your Web hosting company, make sure that the one you do NOT want
redirects to the one you do want. For example, if you go to https://jm-seo.org/, it

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redirects you to https://www.jm-seo.org/. The magic word here is the “htaccess”
file, which you can read about at http://jmlinks.com/6f. Generally, I’d ask your
resident computer nerd or the tech support at your web hosting company to make sure
one, and only one, format is in use.

To test this, choose one preferred version such as https://www.jm-seo.org/. Then

create an email to yourself or text file of the three alternate versions, click on them and
make sure that they all redirect to the current version:

https://jm-seo.org > https://www.jm-seo.org/

http://jm-seo.org > https://www.jm-seo.org/

http://www.jm-seo.org > https://www.jm-seo.org/

Also take your domain as in jm-seo.org and search on Google using the site: command
as in site:jm-seo.org. Verify that all the results returned are to your one, and only one,
preferred version. Check this out at http://jmlinks.com/47h.

Turning back to Search Console (again in the “old” version only), click down from
Search Traffic to International Targeting and set your country to United States (if
you are in the USA), or to whatever country you are in (if you are somewhere else).

Other To-dos in Webmaster Tools

There are some other features of value in Webmaster tools. Scrolling down the left
menu in Google Search Console, let me point out the following:

Messages. If you are penalized by Google (or Bing), you may see a warning
message when you log in. Plus, you can be emailed alerts for web problems such
as manual penalties or hacking.
Search Appearance. Drill down into some information about how Google sees
your website structure, including so-called “microdata.”
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 Search Traffic. Google will give you some data about which keywords you rank
for, as well as links to your site from other sites. In addition, it has a “mobile
usability” check up feature to give suggestions as to how friendly your website is
to mobile users.

Google Index. Here, you get information on how indexed your site is by
Google, blocked resources, and how to remove URLs from the public index.
Crawl. Google gives you information on how it is crawling your website,
including errors as well as the important “fetch as Google” function described
above.

Security Issues. If you’ve been hacked, Google will alert you and give you tips
on how to recover.

You should also link Google Search Console to your Google Analytics account. For the
help file, visit http://jmlinks.com/47j.

Bing’s Webmaster tools has similar features. In particular, Bing’s information on

inbound links to your site and keyword discovery tools are meritorious as is Bing’s SEO
Analyzer which gives feedback on how SEO-friendly a URL is.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial of how to use Google Webmaster Tools (Search
Console) at http://jmlinks.com/17u.

» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED WEBSITE STRUCTURE WORKSHEET

At this point, you have the major components of the Chapter DELIVERABLE: a website
audit using the “website structure worksheet,” namely:

1. Your homepage. Optimize your Home Page TITLE tag, META

DESCRIPTION tag, IMG ALT’s, and visible text. Link down to your key
landing pages.

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 2. Your target landing pages. These are your product or service pages that
match common keywords searches your customers do on Google. Inventory
the ones that you have as well as the ones that you need to create, and then
outline the SEO-friendly content you will write (or rewrite) and weave into
the correct tag structure.
3. Create a Keyword Footer. Write a short paragraph with keyword-optimized
links to your key landing pages.
4. Your Blog. Set up a blog, and started to blog on your keywords.
5. Your URL structure. Avoid parameter (numeric, special character) based
URLs in favor of keyword heavy URLs, and build a “shallow” website
organization.
6. Your Google-Friendly Files. Make sure you’ve signed up for Google (and
Bing) webmaster tools and Google Analytics, including an HTML sitemap
and robots.txt file.
7. Participate in Google (and Bing) Webmaster Tools. You should have
registered for Webmaster Tools and crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s in
terms of sitemaps (both XML and HTML) and preferred domain.

DELIVERABLE. Complete the “website structure worksheet.” For the

worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz”
), and click on the link to the “Website Structure Worksheet.”

»» CHECKLIST: WEBSITE STRUCTURE ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of website organization! Take the Website Structure quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzws. Next, here are your structure Action Items:

❑ Define, based on your keyword worksheet, your 3-10 SEO landing pages.

❑ If appropriate, create localized landing pages but make sure that they have
useful content for humans (!). Do not overdo this!

❑ Organize your website structure from the Home Page to the key landing
pages to the blog; write a keyword footer.
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 ❑ Make sure you have “one-click” links to the landing pages from the
Home Page.

❑ Make sure you have “one-click” links to the landing pages from the
keyword footer.

❑ Set up a blog and start blogging (more in the next Chapter).

❑ Verify that you have non-parameter URLs

❑ Verify that you are mobile-friendly (“responsive”) and fast.

❑ Silo or “link sculpt” to/from your key landing pages based on keyword
themes

❑ Link out to a few key industry-specific websites.

❑ Set up and join Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Website Structure Tools for my
favorite free tools for website organization. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

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Page | 170
 4.1
CONTENT SEO
In Step #1, you defined your goals; in Step #2, you identified your keywords; and in
Step #3, you structured your pages and website to talk to Google about your target
keywords. In Step #4, you begin to populate your SEO-friendly website with keyword
heavy content.
Content, after all, is king.

But let’s be clear. Just throwing content up on your website willy-nilly won’t help your
SEO! Why? Well, for one, we’ve already learned that well-structured content (SEO-friendly
page tags, SEO-friendly website structure) is critical for success at SEO. For two, that
content needs to be well-written and include your keywords in sufficient density. And,
for three, Google increasingly looks at not only grammar and related words but whether
the human user actually finds it interesting, so you need to write content that’s good for
Google AND good for humans.
In Step #4, we will expand on this by creating an SEO Content Marketing Strategy
(“Content SEO” for short) built upon your keyword targets.

Content SEO is all about creating web pages that match Google search queries with
compelling, relevant content, be that on a specific web page, a press release, or a blog
post. Content SEO is all about creating an on-going “content marketing machine”
(daily, weekly, monthly content) that produces compelling SEO-friendly content for your
website. And, in the new synergy between SEO and social media marketing, Content SEO
is also about creating content that real people want to read, and want to share on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks.

Let’s get started!

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TO-DO LIST:

» Dispose Yourself of the False Content Dichotomy

» Identify Keyword Themes

» Create a Content Map

» Set up a Blog and Start Blogging

» Create a Content Marketing Plan

»» Checklist: Content Action Items

»» Deliverable: A Content Marketing Plan

» DISPOSE YOURSELF OF THE FALSE CONTENT DICHOTOMY

Allow me to get up on my soapbox here for a moment. As you’ve read this book, so
far, you’ve surely realized that I make a big deal about keywords. I strongly advocate
that you research your keywords and that you identify five to ten core transactional
keywords for your website. I also recommend, as we shall see in more detail in a
moment, that you focus on keyword families or clusters of keyword, including
educational search queries, especially for your blog.

SEO stands or falls, in my view, with keywords.

However, you will undoubtedly read on the blogosphere that Google has “moved
beyond” keywords and that Google can “figure out” what you mean (or what the
searcher intent) is. Just recently, for example, I read Neil Patel’s article, “Why You
Shouldn’t Do Keyword Research for Your Blog Posts (And What to Do Instead)”
(http://jmlinks.com/38c). As a good teacher, I want to expose you to this newer,
sexier, and easier theory of how to succeed at SEO: just write great content for Google
and let Google do the rest. It goes under the ruse of “content marketing,” and it’s
wrong.

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In this view, you can abandon worrying about keywords (and about your rank on
keyword queries as well). You can just write “for humans” and not worry about Google,
SEO, and the tried-and-true methodologies of researching keywords, inserting
keywords into the proper HTML tags, writing keyword-heavy text and yet not
overdoing it in the age of Google Panda. Neil Patel is a smart guy (probably smarter
than I am), and there are many gurus who follow this new thinking. Well, like there was
the “New Math,” there’s the “New SEO.” (And like the “New Math” or the “New
Coke,” I don’t think this is going to end well).

First and foremost, this idea of writing just “great content for Google” is based on a
false dichotomy, a false choice. Either you write for Google or you write for humans,
either you embed your keywords in HTML tags or you write for Google, and so on and
so forth. In my humble opinion, you can do both and you should do both. It’s a “false
choice” to think you can’t research keywords and yet write great content, or that you
shouldn’t pay attention to the keywords people search for and write content
accordingly.

Furthermore, SEO is an endeavor that can be measured. Do some searches that matter
to you. Look at the top three winning results. Check to see if they have placed those
keywords into key tags, and written content that at the very least spits back the keyword
phrase to Google. Or, as you work on your SEO, create keyword-heavy content that
follows the system I am teaching and content that follows this “New SEO” of letting
Google think for you absent keywords. Then check which content ranks, and which
content does not. In fact, in everything that follows in this Chapter, I am assuming that
you are going to do your best to write content that humans actually read, humans
actually find engaging, and humans actually find motivates them to take your desired
action, whether that’s a sales lead or an eCommerce sale.

I believe in “content marketing.” I just believe that you can do so by combining

the more traditional SEO focus on keywords with the newer focus on writing
great content that’s engaging for your human audience. I believe in “both/and”
not “either/or” when it comes to content.

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Once you’ve disposed yourself of the notion that you should abandon keywords and
create content “just for humans,” you’re ready to dive into SEO-friendly content
marketing.

» IDENTIFY KEYWORD THEMES

Every successful website has keyword themes just as every successful company or
organization has a focus. You don’t produce everything, nor do your target searchers
search Google for everything. You focus, and they focus. If you are Safe Harbor CPAs
(http://www.safeharborcpa.com/), a CPA firm in San Francisco, for example, your
target customers search Google for things like “San Francisco CPA Firms,” “Business
CPAs in San Francisco, CA,” or keyword specific searches such as “CPA Firm for IRS
Audit Defense in SF,” or “FBAR Tax Issues.” Guess what? Safe Harbor CPAs has
matching content on its website for each of those queries, including an active blog, and
that’s no accident!
If you are a Houston probate attorney, you’ll need lots of content about “Houston”
and about “probate” plus related terms like estate planning, guardianships, and wills.
Take a look at http://www.fordbergner.com/ and – guess what – that site has well-
optimized content, including an up-to-date blog, on exactly those keyword themes.

Both sites also have lots of content on their blogs about “adjacent” or “educational”
keywords as contrasted with more purely transactional keywords. If you take a look at
the Bergner blog, for example, you’ll see blog headlines such as:

What to do with an IRA when estate planning

What Rights Do You Have as a Beneficiary?

Estate Planning: Tips To Pass on the Family Farm

Not Every State Handles Guardianships as Well as Texas

etc.

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If keyword discovery is about organizing your SEO strategy around keyword themes,
then content SEO, in turn, is about creating a strategy to produce the type of content
that “matches” your keyword themes on an on-going basis.

MATCH CONTENT TO SEARCH QUERIES

The first step is to match your keyword themes as identified on your keyword worksheet
with content that needs to be produced. Among the most common themes are:

Branded or Navigational Searches. These are searches in which customers

already know your company, and simply use Google to find you quickly. In the
example of Safe Harbor CPAs, a branded Google search is literally “Safe Harbor
CPAs,” while for Ford Bergner Law Firm it is “Ford Bergner.” Matching
content: your “about you” page on the website.
Reputational Searches. Customers often research reviews about a company,
product, or service online before making that final decision to make a purchase.
Google your company name plus “reviews” and make sure that what they see
about your company is positive; you’ll be creating and encouraging content to
proliferate positive content about your company’s reputation. Matching
content: people don’t search for testimonials about a business; they search for
reviews. So rename your testimonials page on your website to reviews for better SEO.
Also claim and optimize your company profiles on various reviews sites like
Google, Yelp, CitySearch, Judy’s Book, etc., and encourage happy customers to
write reviews.
Anchor Searches. These are searches in which a core customer need matches a
core product or service. In the example of Safe Harbor CPAs, an anchor search
would be “San Francisco CPA Firms,” or “Tax Preparation San Francisco.” For
a large company like Progressive Insurance, the anchor searches are “Auto
Insurance” or “Motorcycle Insurance.” Matching content: your landing pages.

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 Educational Anchor Pages. Besides transactional keyword searches,
there are often common and repeated “educational searches” for which
people want long-form content. An example would be an explanation of
the difference between follicular unit extraction and follicular unit transplantation
as techniques for hair transplants. Or, another example would be an
explanation of how to contest a will under Oklahoma law. Matching content:
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) documents, eBooks, and long-form
blog posts.

Keyword Specific Searches / Long Tail. Searches that are usually (but not
always) long tail searches (multiple search keywords), and reflect a very focused
customer need or educational query. For example, “How to defend against an
IRS audit?” or “Rights and responsibilities of a trustee in Texas” vs. just “CPA
Firm” or “Probate attorney.” Matching content: blog posts.
Keyword Specific Searches / Micro Searches. Short but micro-focused
search queries such as “Tag Heuer Repair,” or “Breitling Repair,” or “AdWords
Coupons.” These are short but very specific search queries. Matching content:
blog posts or micro landing pages.
News and Trending Searches. These are searches reflecting industry news,
trends, and buzz. For example, with recent IRS initiatives to crack down on
overseas assets, a search such as “FBAR” reflects an awareness of foreign asset
disclosure requirements. Similarly, if you were a networking company, growing
awareness of computer security would make blog posts on “cybersecurity” a
good bet to attract interested customers. Matching content: blog posts, press
releases, and video summaries (with matching YouTube videos)

These are not the only types of keyword queries and matching content that might
exist; just the most common. Your TO-DO here is to track trending topics, and
blog on them quickly to “get ahead” of the news cycle. Use tools like Google
Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts), Feedly (https://feedly.com), and
Buzzsumo (http://www.buzzsumo.com) to monitor trending topics in your
industry.

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Evergreen Content and Link-bait Content

Many SEO content experts also distinguish between evergreen keywords (keywords that
are always valuable such as “CPA San Francisco”) vs. time-sensitive content (such as
“2019 Tax Changes). And don’t forget the difference between educational search queries
and transactional search queries (“knee pain” vs. “best knee surgeon in San Francisco”).
Finally, there is link bait content (such as infographics, or tutorial posts), designed to
attract links, and of course social media content, especially content that is designed to be
highly shareable on networks like Facebook or Twitter. Brainstorm content that has a
long shelf-life, and that will attract user interest and inbound links.

Here’s a screenshot from Backlinko (http://jmlinks.com/18v) showing an

“Evergreen” FAQ on how to build links for SEO:

And here’s a long form post on “How to contest a will in Texas”

(http://jmlinks.com/38d) from Sheehan Law of Austin, Texas:

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Regardless of the target keywords, the basic goal is to map out the types of content that
are most relevant to you and your customers, and to start a content marketing process
that generates highly relevant content on a regular basis. So your process is:

1. Identify a target keyword phrase, and match it to branded, educational,

evergreen, anchor content, etc. Note: another way to think of this is to
brainstorm “customer needs” or “customer pain points.” What do your
customers want to learn about? What interests them that relates to your
company, product, or service? What hurts or scares them? What do they desire
or want?

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 2. Brainstorm the type of content you need to produce that best matches the
keyword query such as a long-form blog post, an FAQ document, or a short and
quick blog about a trending topic.
3. Produce the content on a regular and systematic basis.
4. Promote the content, often by syndicating it as a Press Release, sharing it on
social media, or even advertising it on Google, Facebook, or Twitter.

For your first TO-DO, review your keyword worksheet, brainstorm your keyword
patterns, and group your keyword families into patterns that reflect branded search,
reputational search, anchor search, esoteric search, and news search and other
patterns.

» CREATE A CONTENT MAP

Now that you have your keyword themes, it’s time to brainstorm the types of content
you are going to create that will match the relevant keyword theme. Your second TO-
DO is to create a content map. In a sense, you are “reverse engineering” the process
of Google search: taking what people search on Google as your endpoint, and creating
the type of content that has a good chance of appearing in Google search results as
your starting point. Your content map will map your keyword themes to the relevant
locations on your website.

Here’s a table mapping out how keyword themes are generally reflected on website
locations:

KEYWORD WEBSITE LOCATION COMMENTS ON CONTENT SEO

THEME

Branded Home Page, About You, Branded search is all about making
Searches Testimonial Pages sure you show up for your own
name as well as commonly
appended helper words like
“reviews.” Make sure that at least

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 some TITLE tags communicate
your name, and your “about” page
is focused on branded search. Don’t
forget branded search for key
company employees (JM Internet
Group vs. Jason McDonald, for
example).

Anchor Searches Home Page, Landing Anchor or transactional search

/ Transactional Pages, Product Pages terms generally reflect your product
Searches (High Level), FAQ categories in the format that
documents, eBooks customers search. Revisit
progressive.com, for example, and
you’ll see how each anchor search
query is reflected in a focused
landing page. In addition, the site
navigation and links are “sculpted”
around keywords to pull Google up
to the target landing pages. Besides
landing pages, FAQ documents,
Q&A documents, or infographics
can match these anchor keywords.

Very Specific Product subpages, blog Your esoteric searches are generally
Searches posts. long tail searches, and/or searches
for very niche, focused products or
services (“micro” searches). These
are less competitive than anchor
searches and are well served by
content on product subpages on an
e-commerce website as well as blog
posts.

News Searches Press releases, blog posts Every industry has news, buzz, and
timely topics! The place to put this
content is generally either in a press

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 release on your website, and/or a
blog post.

Educational Blog posts, FAQ These are when the potential

Searches document, possible customer is in “learn mode” as in
eBooks the “causes of hair loss” rather than
“Best Hair Transplant Surgeon in
Miami.”

For your second TO-DO, take your keyword themes and map out where they should be
reflected on your website into your content map or content calendar. I recommend
doing this in Excel. Check your rank on Google searches vs. relevant search queries for
each type – if you are not on page one, or not in the top three positions for a query…
you have work to do! If possible, create a content or editorial calendar and divvy up
who in your company will be responsible for writing which content. The goal is to make
a “content marketing machine” so that you are constantly feeding fresh content to your
website and to your social media. Think factory production, not William Shakespeare!
In some cases, you may have missing elements (for example, you don’t have blog or don’t
produce press releases); in others you may have the elements there already (product
specific pages, for example) but their content is not SEO-friendly (has poorly defined
TITLE tags, content does not reflect logical keyword target, etc.). Regardless, you are
mapping your keyword themes to the logical locations on your website with the goal of
getting into a rhythm or content creation process of creating SEO-friendly content on
a regular basis.

Social Media & SEO

Google increasingly pays attention to social media, especially shares on Twitter. In

addition, what people “share” on social media is also often what they “search for” on
Google and what they “link to” on their blogs. So keep an eye on social media as you
research and build out content for your website and blog.

What types of content interests your customers? What types of content are they likely
to share? Use a tool like Buzzsumo (http://www.buzzsumo.com/), input your

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keywords, and identify the most shared content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
This tells you what type of content is popular, and therefore you can produce that
content yourself.

Here’s a screenshot from Buzzsumo showing the most shared article on “hair
transplant” for the past year:

Another useful tool is Google trends (http://jmlinks.com/38f). David Meerman

Scott coined the term “newsjacking” to describe a method of first identifying trending
topics and second creating blog or social content that “newsjacks” that content for your
own purposes. Watch his video at http://jmlinks.com/38g.

Click Backs and Google

Finally, related to the trend towards social media, is the idea of “click backs.” Google
monitors your every move (we all know that, or at least we should). They know your behavior

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on Google, on websites via the Analytics tracking code, via AdWords cookies, via
YouTube, and via your Android phone. They know everything. Don’t believe me?
Google, “Is Google God?,” and you’ll end up at the ChurchofGoogle.com at
http://jmlinks.com/47k.

Google knows when you do a Google search, click over to a website, and quickly “click
back.” They know you didn’t find what you wanted, so to speak, and there is evidence
that they may penalize sites that have “thin content” as measured by quick or frequent
click backs to Google. In this way, and parallel to efforts to monitor social media,
Google is likely already penalizing sites that have low-quality content, content that is
just a few paragraphs, and content that is not engaging to users. This trend is likely to
get stronger in the future.

Indeed, these intertwined trends – social media and Google monitoring – speak to
upping your content marketing game by producing long-form content, content that is
truly engaging and content people love to read. Quality and engagement are metrics not
just on social media; they are now metrics for SEO-friendly content as well.
Is it easy to produce high-quality content? Well, no, it isn’t. But did I title this book,
“The Ridiculously Easy Guide to SEO?” No, I didn’t. We’re all competitors in the
content game, however, so just remember that you only need to produce content that
is better than your competitors, not perfect content.

» SET UP A BLOG AND START BLOGGING

To succeed at SEO, you must have a blog! Blogs are great for social media marketing,
and for SEO, your blog helps in these important ways:

• Micro-specific Content. Whereas your major landing pages must reflect

“anchor” searches, your blog can have a nearly infinite number of pages tied
together by keyword themes. Your blog gives you the easy ability to create a lot
of content and match that content on the many small, fragmented and long-tail
searches that make up today’s search behavior. Often you might not win on the
“major” searches but you can make up for this by winning on the “micro”

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 searches, many of which will be low volume but high value. (In addition, your
blog gives you content to share on social media).
• Freshness. Google rewards sites that have new, fresh content. Having a blog
gives you an easy way to churn out fresh content and send a freshness signal to
Google: we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive... I recommend at least four blog posts
per month for this reason, and rotating three blog posts on your homepage as I
do on https://jm-seo.org/. Another good blog is Albertson & Davidson,
California probate lawyers, at http://jmlinks.com/47m. Try Googling various
educational searches in your industry plus the word “blog,” and look at what
competitors who are ranking on Google are blogging about.
• Website Size. Size matters (at least to Google)! Given the choice between pizza
restaurant No. 1 with 10 web pages, and pizza restaurant No. 2 with 1000 pages,
Google will prefer the larger website: it must be more important because it has more
content. A blog allows you to expand the size your web content.

As for blogging platforms, the best, by far, is WordPress. If you do not already have a
blog, touch base with your Web developer and insist that he or she set up a blog for
you. Major providers such as GoDaddy have easy-to-use, out-of-the-box WordPress
packages. As you blog on WordPress, be sure to “tag” each blog post with keyword
themes that reflect your keyword targets (as identified on your keyword worksheet).

Take a look at our blog at http://jmlinks.com/15k for examples of best blogging

practices for SEO, including tagging blog posts based on keyword themes. Here’s a
screenshot of our WordPress “tag cloud,” located at the far left of every page on our
blog:

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Notice how our WordPress tags reflect our target keywords such as AdWords, SEO,
and Social Media Marketing as indicated with a bigger font, meaning more blog content.
To learn more about WordPress tags, please visit http://jmlinks.com/6n.

Also, as blogging evolves between SEO and social media marketing, consider
“vlogging,” that is video blogging on YouTube, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn. You can
“repurpose” content by having a textual blog version and a video blog version. The
more the merrier!

Blog Hosting
For SEO purposes, it is better to host your blog on a subdirectory (not subdomain) on
your own site (http://www.company.com/blog not blog.company.com) than on
another site (http://company.wordpress.com/). However, the “Perfect is the enemy
of the Good” (Voltaire), so if you can’t host on your own domain, host on another
platform. For a quick blogging platform, I prefer Blogger (http://www.blogger.com)
to WordPress.com (http://www.wordpress.com), as the former is very SEO-friendly
while the latter (ironically) is not, and has many obnoxious lock-ins to prevent you from
porting your blog to your own site at a later time. (Note: just to confuse you,
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Wordpress.org is the site for the free software (good), whereas WordPress.com is a revenue-
generating site (bad)).

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on SEO-friendly blogging at

http://jmlinks.com/17t vs. how to blog for social media marketing purposes
at http://jmlinks.com/16p.

In a nutshell, a blog post that is meant for SEO is meant to be “searched for” and to
assist you in propelling your website to the top of a relevant search query on Google; a
blog post that is meant for social media marketing, in contrast, is aimed at being “shared” by
real humans on sites like Facebook or Twitter. Both are important and valuable reasons
why everyone needs a blog!

Start Blogging
Having the structure of a blog means nothing if you aren’t blogging! I recommend at
least four blog posts a month, each about 3-5 paragraphs in length and each focusing
on your keywords. Be sure to identify a keyword target for each blog post plus weave
the keyword target into the important HTML tags as well as write content that is good
for humans and good for Google. (See the next Chapter for an in-depth discussion of blogging.)

At this point, begin to outline a blog calendar that identifies the topics you want to blog
on and who is going to do the blogging. Wrestle up team members, from the CEO and
other executives, to the product marketing managers, and even the sales rep’s. The more
people you involve in the blogging process the easier it will be to create the quantity
you need.

»» CHECKLIST: CONTENT ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of content marketing! Take the content quiz at

http://jmlinks.com/qzcs. Next, here are your content marketing Action Items:

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 ❑ Revisit your keywords, looking beyond landing pages to which keywords
match which content types as for example how an “educational search query”
can match a blog post or an evergreen FAQ document.

❑ Build a content map or content calendar, laying out the matches between
keyword themes or types and content to be produced.

❑ Research which content tends to be shared on social media in your industry

with an eye to the “social media” aspect of SEO and content.

❑ Assign content production to team members, such as who will write

which blog posts or which types of anchor or evergreen content.

❑ If you haven't already, set up a blog on your website. Begin to

brainstorm your blog topics and assign who is going to write what with respect
to your blog.

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Content for my favorite free tools
for content marketing. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

»» DELIVERABLE: A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN

Now that you have a content map of your website vs. your keyword themes on your
keyword worksheet, you are ready to produce your DELIVERABLE: a content
marketing plan. Your content marketing plan will consist of these basic phases.

Phase 1: Quick Fix. Based on your keyword worksheet including the content
map, conduct an inventory of existing pages. Adjust their TITLE tags, META
DESCRIPTION tags, and content to bring that content into alignment with your
logical Google searches. I usually also write a “keyword footer” and place on all
website pages to increase keyword density and allow for link sculpting. Don’t
forget to optimize the content of that all-important homepage!
Phase 2: Content Inventory. Are you missing anything? Often times, there will
be a very important keyword pattern that has no corresponding landing page, for
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 example. Or your site will not have a blog, or you will have never set up a press
release system. Inventory what you are missing and start to prioritize what needs
to be done to get that content on your website. Commonly needed elements are:

• Blog. I recommend at least four blog posts per month; these can be on
easy, man-on-the-street type themes but you really need to commit to at
least four, and make sure that they are relevant vis-a-vis your keyword
themes.
• Press Releases. As discussed in Chapter 4.2, I recommend at least two
per month and (if possible), using the CISION / PRWEB system
(http://www.prweb.com/ or Newswire
(https://www.newswire.com)) to syndicate them (cost is approximately
$350 / month).
• Landing Pages. Make sure that each major search has a corresponding
landing page. In addition to your transactional landing pages, make sure
that you brainstorm educational searches and create long-form content
such as FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) documents. These are great
“link bait,” i.e. ways to attract inbound links to your website.
• Anchor or Evergreen Content. Consider writing the “ultimate” guide to
major topics in your industry, provocative “hot button” issues, and other
timely topics. This type of content is great to a) attract links, and b) to
acquire customer email addresses and contact information. Most
companies need to commit to one, and only one, type of anchor content.

Phase 3: Content Creation Process. Once you have done the Quick Fix to the
website and created any missing landing pages, set up a blog, and/or set up a
press releases system, you need to create a content creation schedule and process.
This is an assessment of who will do what, when, where, and how to create the
type of on-going content that Google and Web searchers will find attractive.

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WORKSHEETS. For your DELIVERABLE, fill out the “content marketing worksheet,”
specifically each phase. For the worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz
(reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ), and click on the link to the “content marketing
worksheet.”

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Page | 190
 4.2
BLOGGING
Nothing is as easy or as powerful for SEO as blogging! While landing pages reflect your
anchor keyword terms, and press releases can build inbound links via syndication,
blogging allows you to sculpt content for narrower keyword queries as well as to
respond quickly to industry buzz and trends. In addition, frequent blogging - like
frequent press releases- sends a powerful signal to Google that your website is “fresh.”
Every website should have a blog!

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Why Blog?
» Make a Blog Calendar

» Set Up Your Blog for Best SEO

» Write SEO-friendly Blog Posts

» Rank for Featured Snippets

»» Checklist: Blogging Action Items

»» Deliverables: Blog Calendar and Your First Blog Post

» WHY BLOG?

Why Blog? Blogging is one of the most powerful, highest return-on-investment (ROI)
activities you can engage in, after you’ve SEO optimized your homepage and your
landing pages. Here’s why. First, an active blog sends out a “freshness” signal to

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Google, Bing, and Yahoo saying “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.” Google prefers sites
that have new, fresh content.

Why? Well, you have to look at the world from Google’s perspective. Google’s goal is
to return highly relevant, active websites for any search query. So, if a user searches for
a pizza restaurant in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, Google has a set of pizza websites to consider.
It will choose the one that has optimized for the keywords “Pizza” and “Okmulgee,”
plus has active inbound links, plus has many reviews on Google, and – all things being
equal – the one with the more active blog. Why? Because Google is concerned that the
other pizza restaurant – the one without an active blog – is out of business. If it’s June
3, 2019, and the last blog post on Website A was May 3, 2019, and the last blog post on
Website B was June 1, 2017, and the last blog post on Website C was… well Website C
doesn’t even have a blog… then Website A is the winner (all things being equal).

AN ACTIVE BLOG TELLS GOOGLE, “YOU’RE

ALIVE!”

Second, after freshness, a blog allows you to write content on micro or long tail search
keywords. To use our pizza example, the primary keyword might be “Pizza” or “Pizza
Okmulgee,” but there may be some searches for “best pizza restaurants in Okmulgee
for kids’ birthday parties.” These are high value, low volume searches. A quick blog post on
how to select the best pizza restaurant in Okmulgee for kids birthdays is an easy way to
get to the top of Google for these micro, or long-tail search phrases. So, an active blog
allows you to create a lot of content on lots of varied themes. It costs next to nothing,
and can be free advertising on long tail keyword queries. How great is that?

Third, an active blog increases the volume of content on your site. All things being
equal the bigger site will win on Google. If, for example, Pizza restaurant A has ten
pages, and Pizza restaurant B has one hundred pages, then Pizza restaurant B must be
better in Google’s eyes (all other factors being equal). Bigger means better; more
content means a more serious website. Use the site: command plus your domain to check
how many pages you have indexed on Google, and then use the Search Tools > Anytime
> Past Month drop downs to find out if you have new content that is being indexed by
Google. Here’s a screenshot:
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Remember it’s site: no space and your domain as in site:jasonmcdonald.org in the Google
search bar. To see this in action, visit http://jmlinks.com/14d.
Fourth, a blog allows you to pass link juice up to your landing pages. When you blog
on best pizza restaurant in Okmulgee for kids, you can link “up” to the landing page for Pizza
and the landing page for Okmulgee Pizza when you use those phrases in your blog and
link directly from them, again passing “freshness” and “link juice” up to those landing
pages. Finally, a blog (especially long-form blog posts) can act as “link bait.” When you
write an interesting, in-depth blog post on an industry topic, especially trending or
puzzling topics, people are likely to find it and link to it, thereby attracting links to your
website. In addition, people often share blog articles on social media, helping you both
for SEO (by getting social mentions of your URLs and website) and social media
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marketing (by creating sticky, interesting, shareable content that gets your brand in front
of more customers).

In summary, you just gotta blog!

» MAKE A BLOG CALENDAR

As you begin to blog, remember to stick with your keyword themes. Don’t blog on just
anything – blog on topics that contain your keywords. Stay on topic. A good way to
brainstorm topics to blog on is to take a “seed keyword” or phrase like “how to contest
a will” and then look at the related searches at the bottom of Google. Here’s a
screenshot:

There’s no excuse for writer’s block, as Google related searches will give you a clickable
list of interesting topics.
As an SEO Content strategist, look around your company and identify blog topics as
well as other company employees who can contribute to the blog. Unlike press releases,
blog posts can be much more informal, opinionated and quick. So whereas you might
generate just two press releases per month, set a goal of at least one blog post per week,
if not more. I generally recommend two press releases per month and four blog posts
per month as a solid website goal. The word blog, after all, comes from web log, and is
meant as a running commentary on what’s going on on your website, at your business,
and in your industry.

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 YOU CAN’T REALLY OVERBLOG

Think of Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise: “Captain’s log, Stardate 4.2.51535,
Spock and I have beamed down to the planet to investigate. I will check out the beautiful women, and
Spock will be taking soil samples.” Kirk logged, and logged, and logged his way across his
five-year mission, and he was pretty shameless. So don’t be shy: blog, blog, blog, blog,
blog! You can’t really overblog as long as you write decent content, and if you don’t
toot your own horn, who will?

As long as your blog content is fresh, original, and keyword-heavy, all blogs posts will help your
SEO. The more the merrier!

A Blog Calendar

Depending on your company size, a blog calendar can help you keep track of possible
blog topics and themes. You can also assign out the blog posts to different members
of your team. Don’t try to do all the blogging yourself.
Here is a sample blog calendar for a hypothetical roofing company in Dallas, TX.

SAMPLE BLOG TOPIC: WHEN TO POST:

We complete a roofing job. Write a blog post about each roofing

job, when completed, with
information on the city where the job
was located, the type of roofing
material used, and customer reaction.
Goal is to help with geotargeted
searches.

Our day-to-day in a host city for a job. Because geographic search terms are
important for a roofing company,

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 create city-specific blog posts such as
your favorite “taco joint” in the city,
or variances in city roofing codes.

Industry trends and events Any time there is an industry trend,

such as a new roofing material, chime
in with an opinion. Ditto for any
industry events or events in the Dallas,
Texas, area.

New website content Blog about our website, explaining

what new content we are creating and
why.

Partnership Announcements Identify potential blog opportunities

with our partners.

Industry Awards or Milestones Any time we win an industry award or

cross a milestone (such as the 1000th
follower on Twitter), it’s time for a
blog post!

You’ll see many similarities between successful SEO blogging and SEO press releases.
The difference is one of degree: blogging is quicker, more informal, and more a quantity
play vs. the more formal, higher quality status of press releases. Commit to writing four
blog posts per month, and stick with it.
If you’re freaked out about creating this much content, you can go to a site like
Fiverr.com and enter “blogging” and easily find lots of decent writers who can write at
least a rough draft. Give them a keyword prompt, tell them you want five to seven
paragraphs, and then do the final SEO-friendly edits yourself. (I do find that most
bloggers don’t understand SEO, so it’s easier to do the final SEO optimization myself).

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» SET UP YOUR BLOG FOR BEST SEO

The best blog platform by far is WordPress (http://wordpress.org/). Ask your web
designer and/or ISP to install WordPress on your site. If you are building a new site,
use an ISP like GoDaddy that makes WordPress a “one-click” installation. If you are
running WordPress, be sure to install the Yoast SEO plugin (https://yoast.com/) so
that you can easily optimize the blog post TITLE and META DESCRIPTION tags.
And, if you don’t have the budget for WordPress, I recommend Google’s blogger
platform at http://www.blogger.com/. Regardless of your platform, follow these
basic principles for successful SEO blogging:

Host your blog on your own site. Blogging helps with site freshness vis-a-vis
Google as well as acts as link bait. So it makes little sense to host your blog on
another site. If at all possible, host your blog at your own domain in the
subdirectory position as for example, http://www.company.com/blog.
(Subdirectories are better than subdomains, by the way: company.com/blog is better
than blog.company.com).

Check each blog post for good SEO. As you write a blog post, check to make
sure that your blogging platform allows for basic “On Page” SEO: a keyword
heavy TITLE tag, META DESCRIPTION tag, the use of the header family, one
image with the alt attribute defined, and keyword-heavy cross-links.

Make sure your blog allows for keyword heavy tagging and cross-
indexing. Make sure that your blog allows you to “tag” a post with keywords
and that these “tags” act as URL cross-links.
Verify that your blog URLs are keyword heavy. Numeric, parameter-centric
URLs are very bad for SEO, so make sure that your blog generates keyword-
heavy URLs for each post.

At the homepage level, a best practice is to have “one-click” links from your homepage
down to at least three, rotating blog posts. You can use the “Display Posts Short Code”
plugin in WordPress (http://jmlinks.com/47n) to accomplish this easily. Here’s a

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screenshot from the homepage of https://www.morenoranches.com, a Brahman
cattle breeder, showing new blog posts to their site, and a list of upcoming events:

And here’s a screenshot from my JasonMcDonald.org website, homepage, again

showing three recent blog posts:

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The blog posts freshen the website, allow for micro or long tail keyword targeting,
increase the size of the website, and give something to share on social media. You just
gotta blog!

Tag Your Blog in WordPress

Many people do not correctly “tag” each blog post, yet tagging is incredibly important
to SEO-friendly blogging! (Note: I’m talking about WordPress “tags” not HTML
“tags.” Unfortunately we use the same term for both things). Make sure that your blog
tags match your keyword themes, and make sure that when you write a blog post each
post gets tagged. One of the better blogs to emulate is by Nolo press
(http://blog.nolo.com/). Here’s a screenshot of the tags at the bottom of the page
for a post on bankruptcy forms:

WordPress has two types of tagging: “categories” and “tags.” From an SEO
perspective, both accomplish the same thing: lumping your posts into SEO-friendly
cross-linked URL’s. Both are strongly encouraged because both give Google an SEO-
friendly URL structure to grab onto. Here’s a link to the Nolo blog “Chapter 7” tag:
http://jmlinks.com/14j. Notice how the practitioners at Nolo are churning out blog
post after blog post on their keyword theme of “Chapter 7,” and related keywords! And
notice the URL structure itself, which mimics the target keywords and signals to Google
that this blog has quite a bit of content on bankruptcy:

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 http://blog.nolo.com/bankruptcy/tag/Chapter-7/

Another example of a really good SEO-friendly blog can be found on Thomas

Upchurch Law. Check out their blog at http://jmlinks.com/14g. Notice how he
blogs on his target keyword themes such as “estate planning” and “will contests.” To
find good blog examples in your own industry, go to Google and do a search for your
keywords as in “probate” plus “blog” and then browse the top websites. For an example
search, visit http://jmlinks.com/14h.

» WRITE SEO-FRIENDLY BLOG POSTS

Blogging is a complementary SEO content strategy to your anchor landing pages, your
homepage, your product pages, and your press releases. Whereas anchor landing pages
focus on your evergreen anchor keyword terms, your blog can focus on more keyword-
specific, timely topics. Blogging is especially useful for posting content that responds to
quick industry trends. Here is a wrap up of the steps towards writing an SEO-friendly
blog post:

1. Identify the target keywords. A good blog post is laser-focused on a very

narrow keyword, so do your keyword research first! Use Ubersuggest.io, Google
autocomplete, and the Google Keyword Planner to identify keyword topics and
related keywords to your targets.
2. Follow “On Page” SEO best practices. Make sure that your post follows all
of the “On Page” rules such as a keyword heavy TITLE, META description, at
least one image with an ALT attribute that contains the target keyword, etc.
3. Consider an action or purpose. Have a defined action for each blog post,
usually by embedding a link from the blog post “up to” one of your defined
anchor landing pages. Another use of blog posts such as “Top Ten Things that
Can Go Terribly Wrong at Your Wedding” is link bait or share bait; people will
link to informative, provocative, shocking blog posts and/or share them on
social media.

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 4. Tag your blog post. Identify keyword themes for your blog that match those
of your keyword worksheet and recognize that each blog post is part of a
keyword cluster, supporting the entire website’s SEO themes.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on SEO-friendly blogging posts at

http://jmlinks.com/17t.

For a template on an SEO friendly blog post, visit http://jmlinks.com/14e. For a fun
blog topic generator, check out http://jmlinks.com/14f.

» RANK FOR FEATURED SNIPPETS

It’s no secret that Google is going all out for voice search. As Google’s own Google
home begins to compete with Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, there’s a gold rush
towards voice searches on the phone and in the home. “Hey Google! How do you tie
a tie?” or “Hey Google! How tall is Donald Trump?” or “Hey Google! What are the
best movies of 2019?” are becoming common searches as we “talk” to computers on
our phone and in our home.

Accordingly, Google has rolled out what are called featured snippets. For example,
here’s the featured snippet for “How to tie a tie” (http://jmlinks.com/38h).

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Featured snippets or also often called “Answer Boxes,” and they are prominent text
that occurs on some types of search queries.

Featured snippets frequently occur for searches that are educational in nature such as
“how to” do something, as well as ratings and reviews, such as “best” of such-and-such
as in “best SEO conferences.” They also tend to occur for financial, mathematical and
other type of “requirement” queries such as “what are the best home mortgage rates”
or “improve my credit score.” But they occur for transactional queries such as “What
are the top selling cars of 2018?” and so forth.

Related to featured snippets is a subordinate box called “People Also Ask” or PAAs. If
you search for “improve my credit score,” for example, you’ll also see a box labeled
“People also ask.” Here’s a screenshot:

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Each of the PAAs is essentially a featured snippet in its own right, so the rules of ranking
are essentially the same (though not the same answer shows for a featured snippet in its
own right vs. a PAA to a related snippet!).

How to Rank for Featured Snippets

It’s not easy to rank for a featured snippet, but when you do you get a lot of traffic from
Google. Here are the steps to rank for a featured snippet:

1. Identify relevant search queries for your company that are also likely to
generate a featured snippet such as “how to,” “best,” or “step-by-step”
questions. Pay special attention to those queries that are already generating
featured snippets in your industry.
2. Write and optimize a blog post vis-à-vis the target featured snippet query,
using HTML for numbered or bulleted lists, tables, and other designations that
clearly indicate to Google this is “organized” or “step-by-step” content.
a. Along the way “regurgitate” the question(s) and answer(s) to Google, as
in “How do make chicken soup,” you ask? Well, first, you bring the
chicken stock to a boil, second, you add in the vegetables.” Imagine you
are a Google Home, Alexa, or Siri device that is being asked a question

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 such as “How do you make chicken soup,” and you are “answering” step
by step.
3. Use all your Off Page SEO tactics such as mentioning your post on social
media, featuring it on your homepage, building external links to it, etc. Conduct
an “Off Page” SEO audit and look for opportunities to promote your potential
featured snippets.

Don’t get discouraged. it’s not easy to rank for featured snippets, but it is incredibly
valuable. Featured snippets are relatively new and not everyone even agrees on what
factors decide which queries generate them, and which factors determine who wins
“Position 0,” (“Position Zero”), which is another term for featured snippets. For more
information on featured snippets, see http://jmlinks.com/38k.

»» CHECKLIST: BLOGGING ACTION ITEMS

Here are your blog Action Items:

❑ Set up your blog if you haven’t already; I recommend the WordPress

platform. Be sure to enable “WordPress tags” so you can “tag” individual posts
on your keyword themes.

❑ Create a blog content calendar, laying out the matches between keyword
themes or types and blog posts to be produced.

❑ Research which content tends to be shared on social media in your

industry with an eye to the “social media” aspect of SEO and content.

❑ Assign blog content production to team members, such as who will

write which blog posts and how frequently. Set a goal of at least four blog
posts per month.

❑ Write each SEO-friendly blog post with an eye to what Google wants
(keyword-heavy, SEO-friendly tags and content) and what humans want
(interesting, fun content that answers their needs or questions).

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 ❑ After you write a blog post, use Google Search Console’s fetch as Google
feature to notify Google to index your content. Then, use
site:yourdomain.com/blogpost.html to verify that your content is being indexed.

❑ Make sure that your homepage has your three most recent blog posts on
it with “one-click” links down to them and that each blog post links “up” to your
target landing pages.

❑ Try to rank for featured snippets. They’re the new, new thing!

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Blog Tools for my favorite free
tools for blogging. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

» DELIVERABLES: A BLOG CALENDAR AND A SAMPLE BLOG POST

The DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is your blog calendar. This can be as simple as a
Word document or Google document that serves as an “idea list” of when to generate
a blog post. The goal is to avoid writer’s block and get into a rhythm of generating at
least one blog post per week, if not more. The second DELIVERABLE is your first SEO-
friendly blog post, uploaded to your own site and tagged with appropriate (keyword)
tags. Use the “page tags worksheet” to step through an SEO-friendly blog post from
keyword target to final content.

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Page | 206
 4.3
PRESS RELEASES
After you’ve created your landing pages, anchor or evergreen content, and begun to
blog, it’s time to shift gears towards Off Page SEO. We’ll cover Off Page theory in greater
detail in the next Chapter, but for now just realize that you want people to talk about
your website across the Internet. Press releases function as a bridge between On Page
and Off Page SEO: like blog posts, they live on your website and add fresh content,
but like social media mentions and links, they become references external to your
website that draw Google’s attention to your website.
Here are the reasons why Google likes press releases. First, websites that have new,
fresh content are clearly more “alive” than websites that never get updated. We live in
a fast-paced world, and users want the latest iPhone software, the latest news about
Donald Trump, and the latest nutritional supplement. Google wants to give users the
latest and greatest on any topic as well. Second, fresh content signals to Google that
your website and business are still alive vs. the many “walking dead” websites that are
businesses dead or dying in this age of economic turmoil. And third, press releases have
a unique SEO advantage: syndication. Free and paid syndication services like PRLog,
NewsWire, and Cision’s PRWeb connect with blogs, portals, other websites and even
Twitter feeds to push your press releases across the Web, creating inbound buzz and
backlinks which Google interprets as signs of community authority. Press release SEO,
in short, gives a three-for-one benefit!

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» What is a Press Release?

» Make a Press Release Calendar

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 » Upload Your SEO-Friendly Press Releases

» Leverage Press Release Syndication Services

»» Checklist: Press Release Action Items

»» Deliverables: Press Release Worksheet

» WHAT IS A PRESS RELEASE?

Have you ever heard the quip about the weather, that everyone talks about it, but no
one does anything about it? Or, if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of
your own? Well, there’s some truth in these adages: you need to toot your own
(marketing) horn to be successful, and press releases allow this in spades.

But what is a press release, and how does it differ from a blog post? Think of a blog
post as a much shorter, more informal, off-the-cuff type of content vs. a more formal
press release in which your company FORMALLY ANNOUNCES something NEW
AND EXCITING. A common example would be when you launch a new product. If
you’re the Ford Motor Company, for instance, and you’re announcing the new and
improved 2019 Mustang, then it’s time for a press release, usually written in the format
of:

Detroit, Michigan – January 2, 2019. The Ford Motor Company, the leading producer
of American-made sports vehicles, is proud to announce their new 2019 Mustang. With a
venerable history as an American “muscle” car, the new 2019 Mustang will also be eco-friendly
with its hybrid engine.
etc. etc.

Basically Ford has some NEWS and it’s ANNOUNCING that news to the world
via a press release.

In fact, you can browse the official press releases of the Ford Motor Company at
https://media.ford.com/. You can browse other sample press releases at

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http://jmlinks.com/13x and http://jmlinks.com/13y. In fact, it’s a good idea to
take a keyword like “organic” and search for it on PRWeb.com to find press releases in
your industry. To see a sample for “organic,” visit http://jmlinks.com/47q. Replace
“organic” with one of your keywords in the search bar and find out which competitors
are already issuing press releases. Notice how company after company is “tooting its
own horn” by announcing “news,” and realize that you can, too.

» MAKE A PRESS RELEASE CALENDAR

What can make a good press release? Almost anything. Keep your keyword worksheet
in mind and look for press release opportunities around your company, products, or
services that match up with your SEO keyword targets. I recommend you create a press
release calendar of opportunities.

Tip. Many people are too “shy,” acting as if they and their company don’t have any
“legitimate” news. Don’t be shy! If you don’t toot your own horn, no one will toot it for you.
And remember that for SEO purposes, you’re really aiming your promotion at Google, so if
“real people” read your press releases, that’s great, but your real objective is to use press releases
to influence Google to rank your website higher. If they influence Google, you should be happy!

For your first TO-DO, open up a Word document, title it “Press Release Calendar,”
and write down a list of possible press release topics and dates of the release. For
example:

SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE TOPIC: WHEN TO RELEASE:

New product or service Every time you have a new product or

service, generate a press release.

Annual Trade Show Generate a press release before the

annual trade show, as well as after

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 announcing your participation to
celebrate your success.

Personnel Changes Generate a press release for every

major corporate hire.

New website content Generate a press release after any

major blog post, list of “top seven
resources,” infographic, etc., and even
when you update a landing page or
anchor content.

Partnership Announcements Generate a press release after any

cooperative partnership with a
company or supplier.

Industry Awards or Milestones Any time you win an industry award

or cross a milestone (such as the
1000th follower on Twitter), it’s time
for a press release!

Your press release calendar will help keep you focused, and tie your press release
opportunities to your keyword worksheet. The goal is to avoid writer’s block and get
into a rhythm of at least two press releases per month. Have a company meeting and
divvy up the responsibilities by assigning writing a press release to different people in
the company for different events, or for different months. Make your SEO a “team
sport,” rather than attempting to do it all yourself.

Steps to Writing an SEO-friendly Press Release

Once you have an idea in hand, here are the steps to create a press release:

1. Identify the press release idea. Realize that a press release can be not only a
new product or a new technology but something as simple as your participation

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 in a trade show, an event that you may be having, a new hire, new inventory, or
even your commentary on an industry trend. Literally, anything new can
become a press release!
2. Connect the press release idea to a target keyword from your keyword
worksheet. The point of generating press releases, after all, is to improve keyword
performance.
3. Include an http:// format link to your website in your press release, preferably
near the target keywords. For example, have a sentence that says something like
“To learn more about our amazing car insurance, visit
http://www.ourcompany.com/car-insurance.”
4. Create your press release following “SEO best practices” for on page SEO as
explained in Chapter 3.1. Be sure to include your keywords in the Headline /
Title, and in the actual content of the release itself.
5. Upload the press release to your website, be sure that your website has a press
release section with each press release on an independent URL, and include a
“one click” link from the homepage to the press release.
6. Leverage free and/or paid syndication services such as PRLog.org and
PRWeb.com to proliferate mentions of your press releases around the Internet.

To browse sample press releases that follow the correct procedures, visit
http://jmlinks.com/47p.

» UPLOAD YOUR SEO-FRIENDLY PRESS RELEASES

Double-check your press release to make sure that it follows “On Page” SEO best
practices. Here’s your checklist:

ITEM SEO PAGE TAG STRUCTURE

Pithy, exciting headline <TITLE> tag

First paragraph with “main idea” <META DESCRIPTION> tag and

first paragraph.

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 Target URL A target URL on your website, to
which you want to attract Google.
Embed this in the first paragraph, and
have it as a “naked” URL (http://)
format in the third paragraph.

Several paragraphs describing your Write keyword heavy copy and

news and an image. include at least one image with ALT
attribute.

Contact information for more info. Embedded URL early in the press
release, set up in http:// format plus
contact information at the end of the
release

In other words, follow your HTML page tag template to optimize your press release in
terms of its on-page SEO. Be sure to embed your target keywords in your <TITLE>
tag, and use best SEO practices like the H1 family, <B>, <STRONG>, ALT attributes,
for images etc. Write keyword-heavy text for the press release body! Make sure that it
has a snappy <TITLE> and a snappy META DESCRIPTION / first paragraph so that
people will be interested in “reading more.”
At the website structure level, your best practice is to have a directory called “news” as
in http://www.yourcompany.com/news/ and to host each press release in HTML linked to
from a primary news gateway page. I also recommend that you run at least three press
releases on your homepage, with “one-click” links down to each new press release. All
of this freshens your website and pulls Google into your new content.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on how to write an SEO-friendly press

release at http://jmlinks.com/18f.

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Good examples of press releases can be found http://jmlinks.com/13z and
http://jmlinks.com/14a. Duct Tape Marketing has a nifty tool to help you write a
press release at http://jmlinks.com/14b. Here’s a screenshot:

Press Releases After the Penguin Update

Before the Penguin update to Google, you could use Press Releases to “optimize” your
inbound links. (Remember that the Penguin update is a Google algorithm penalty for
suspicious inbound links). For example, you’d create a bunch of press releases all linking
back to your site around the phrase “industrial fans” or “motorcycle insurance.” This
manipulation did not make Google happy, so the search giant pressured the major
services to add the NOFOLLOW tag to their releases, which nullified much of this
benefit, as part of Google’s so-called Penguin algorithm update.

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Thus, for a short while, press releases had little impact on SEO. However, there is
always another turn of the screw. Now, despite the fact that press release URL’s remain
“nofollow” in most circumstances, Google does tend to reward sites that issue them.
(Trust me: I know this based on client experiments; the reason probably being that in many industries,
Google has so few links to choose from among competing sites that the sheer quantity of press release
links can be sufficient to help a site get to the top).
Google denies this (http://jmlinks.com/47r), and you’ll read on the blogosphere that
press releases don’t work. You’ll also read that the moon landing was faked and that
the earth is flat. The trick here is to be skeptical, experiment, and don’t go crazy issuing
five thousand press releases in one month.

SET A GOAL OF ONLY TWO PRESS RELEASES PER

MONTH

In addition, if you use ONLY the http:// format for your clickable links, there are still
a small percentage of sites that retain the DOFOLLOW link structure. So be sure to
include links FROM the press release BACK to your site in the format of
http://www.company.com. The reality is that Google is often forced to choose not
between two GREAT sites to rank for a search query but between two just OK sites;
if yours is the site with a few inbound links via Press Releases, including nofollow links,
you can often win.

The perfect is the enemy of the good (Voltaire).

You don’t have to run faster than the bear, just faster than your buddy (Unknown).

Google might publicly say one thing, but the reality might be something altogether different and
this includes the value of nofollow links.

To see examples of Press Releases issued by the JM Internet Group with examples of
proper link formatting, visit http://jmlinks.com/6q. As is so often true in SEO, “A

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little salt is good for the soup, but too much salt ruins it.” In other words, I recommend
that you create two – but no more than two – press releases per month for syndication,
that you use the http:// format in your links, and that you write them in proper English
with real or quasi-real news in them. Strive for them to be “good for humans” and
“good for Google,” and they work.

» LEVERAGE PRESS RELEASE SYNDICATION SERVICES

Once you’ve created your press release and uploaded it to your own website, you are
ready to leverage press release syndication services. The best free service is PRLog.org
(http://www.prlog.org/) and the best paid services are Newswire
(https://www.newswire.com) and PRWeb.com (http://www.prweb.com/),
owned by Cision. You can learn more about the available packages from Newswire at
http://jmlinks.com/35e. Cision is just as good at a technical level, if not a bit better,
but their website is really hard to follow, so just call them at 866-459-2598 and inquire
about their press release packages. They also run PRWEB at
http://www.prweb.com/ which has self-service options.

If you have budget, I highly recommend setting up a paid account on one of these
services. With a yearly package, the cost per release is about $175. A paid service gets
you many times the benefit of the free services like PRLog.org.

After you’ve set up your account on one of these services, open your press release in
one browser window. In another window, log into the press release syndication service
and begin the process of submitting a release. Copy and paste the following from your
press release into the syndication service -

Headline. Make sure it includes your target keywords!

Quick Summary. Write a pithy, exciting one-to-two sentence summary. This

will usually become your META DESCRIPTION tag on the syndication service.

News Body. Copy and paste your news body. Be sure to embed a URL after the
first or second paragraph, and write in the simple http:// format (since embedded
links may not be retained in syndicated press releases).

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 URL / Active Link. Make sure that your press release has at least one
prominent link to your website, and make sure it is in the http:// format.
News is especially good at getting Google to index new web pages on your site!

Contact Information. Include a description of your company with a Web link

and email address for more information. This is another link-building
opportunity.
Tags. Select appropriate tags for keyword / content issues as well as target
geographies.

Finally, commit to publishing press releases on your website and using news syndication
on a regular, consistent basis. It’s better to publish one release per month, consistently,
than six releases in one month and nothing for six months. For an online press release
template, visit http://jmlinks.com/6r. To see sample press releases on PRWEB as
written by the JM Internet Group visit http://jmlinks.com/14c.

VIDEO. Watch a quick video tutorial on how to syndicate press releases at

http://jmlinks.com/18f.

WORKSHEETS. For the corresponding worksheet, go to

http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” to register if you
have not already done so), and click on the link to the “press release worksheet.”

Measure Your Results

As you churn out press releases, measure your syndication by doing Google searches
for the headline of your release in quotation marks. For example, our press release
headlined, “JM Internet Announces Social Media Marketing Book for Small Business
Now Available as Audiobook” garnered approximately 123 results on Google
(http://jmlinks.com/38m). Here’s a screenshot:

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Each paid service will also generate reporting that shows the “pickups” of your press
releases. In this way, you’re getting the benefit of syndication links back to your website,
pickup on real sites on the Internet, and even social media pickups on Twitter,
LinkedIn, and Facebook. You can even go into Google Analytics and measure referrals
from various websites that ran your press release, in that way seeing which actual
websites real people read and click over from.

»» CHECKLIST: PRESS RELEASE ACTION ITEMS

Here are your press release Action Items:

❑ Identify press release opportunities around your company such as new

products, participation in trade shows, new hires, or even pseudoevents such as
new blog posts.

❑ Create a press release calendar of two press releases per month.

❑ Write each press release following SEO best practices and post to your
website.

❑ Syndicate your press release via a service such as PRLOG, PRWEB, or

NEWSWIRE and include an http:// format link in the release.

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 ❑ Measure your results, especially replication across the Internet, by searching
for your press release by the headline in quotation marks

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Press Releases for my favorite free
tools for press release issues. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

» DELIVERABLES: A PRESS RELEASE CALENDAR AND A SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE

The first DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is your press release calendar. This can be as
simple as a Word document or Google document that serves as an “idea list” of when
to generate a press release. The goal is to avoid writer’s block and get into a rhythm of
generating at least two press releases per month. The second DELIVERABLE is an SEO-
friendly press release, uploaded to your own site and pushed out via a syndication
service such as PRLOG.org or PRWEB.com. Use the “press release worksheet” to
guide you to success.

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Page | 220
 5.1
LINK BUILDING
Steps #1 to #3 are “On Page” SEO: things you do to your own website. Step #4 is
about content: content marketing, blogging and press releases. In Step #5, we fully cross the
Rubicon, shifting our attention 100% to the actions of others through “Off Page” SEO.
Just as references matter to an effective job search, external links matter a great deal to
effective SEO.

Step #5 in the Seven Steps to SEO Success, therefore, is to “go social.” Google pays
incredible attention to how others talk about your website, whether in the format of
inbound HTML links or inbound social mentions. We’ll turn first to links, the more
traditional of the two, and in the next Chapter look directly at social authority and
social mentions. In Chapter 5.3, we’ll turn to reviews, which for local companies, are
a key aspect of “Off Page” SEO.

Remember that a link from a directory, blog, web portal, or other industry site to your
website is counted as a vote by Google that your site is important. The more links (votes)
you have, the higher you show on Google search results for your target keywords. But
how do you get links? In this Chapter, we outline the basics of effective link building
for SEO.
Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Understand Links and Off Page SEO

» Beware the Penguin

» Define Your Link Objectives

» Solicit the Easy Links First

» Identify Directory, Blog, and Other Link Targets
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 » Reverse Engineer Competitors’ Links

» Create Link Bait

»» Checklist: Link Building Action Items

»» Deliverable: Link Building Worksheet

» UNDERSTAND LINKS AND OFF PAGE SEO

Google’s genius was to be the first search engine that effectively counted links as votes.
Prior to Google, search engines basically looked at page content, and it was therefore
very difficult to figure out which site was better if the page content itself contained the
keywords. Google realized that you could look at how websites linked to other sites, in
a kind of grand vote scheme on the Internet.

For example, why do I rank so well for the searches SEO expert Bay Area, or AdWords
Expert Witness? Among the reasons is that I have many sites linking to
JasonMcDonald.org. BAIPA.org, for one, links to my website, JasonMcDonald.org at
http://jmlinks.com/6u. In this way, BAIPA.org is “voting” that my website is
important. Similarly, the Authors Guild (Authorsguild.net) (http://jmlinks.com/18w)
also links to me. These “votes” reinforce my On Page SEO and propel me to the top
of relevant searches on Google. The same is true for Progressive.com and Geico.com
for searches in the insurance industry; these sites have many other sites linking back to
them, thus “voting” to Google that these are the “most important” sites for a query like
“motorcycle insurance.”

Links are Like Votes

In short, a site with more links to its website from other sites than its competitors have is seen
by Google as more important, and ranks higher on Google, all other things being equal.

LINKS ARE LIKE VOTES

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Think of links like votes in an election, and you’ll begin to understand how it works.

Quantity. How do you win the US Presidential Election? Get more votes.
Generally speaking, the candidate who wins the popular vote becomes president.
(OK, not always – but, at least, that’s what we tell our kids!) If two websites are
competing, the website with more links must be more important and therefore
wins. (Link quantity)

Quality. Not all votes are alike, however. The voter must correctly vote for a
candidate by marking his or her name correctly on the ballot. (Think hanging chads
in Florida and confusion about voter intent in 2000). If two websites are competing, the
website with more links that contain the keyword target will win (Link syntax).

Authority. Not all votes are equal. In the 2016 Presidential election, the votes of
people in Michigan counted a lot more than the votes of people in California.
Indeed, if you look back to 2000, the votes of the justices on the Supreme Court
counted the most, throwing that election to George Bush, even though Al Gore
had won the popular vote. (Link authority or PageRank).

In general, therefore, links are like votes, and you want to secure as many external
websites as possible linking to your website. But that’s not the whole story; it’s more
complicated than simple quantity (just like votes in a US Presidential election), so you need a
more detailed understanding of how Google counts links.
Let’s dive in to the three variables at play in the game of link-getting or “link-building,”
as it is called in the industry.

#1 Link Quantity
All things being equal, the website that has more websites linking to it will rank higher
on Google. If, for example, Website A in the “industrial fan” industry has 1,000 sites
that link to it, and Website b has only 500 sites that link to it, Website A will rank higher
on Google.

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#2 Optimized Link Syntax

An optimized link contains the target SEO keyword. If, for example, Website A has many
(or more) links that have the blue linkable text around the phrase “industrial fans” vs.
Website B that has more links that say only http://www.myfans.com/ or “click
here,” then – all things being equal, Website A will outrank Website B for the query
“industrial fans” on Google.

If you’re confused as to what an optimized link is, here’s an example of a link “to”
Progressive.com from Progressivecommercial.com at http://jmlinks.com/47s.
Here’s a screenshot:

And here’s the HTML code:

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This means that the link itself is telling Google to rank progressive.com/motorcycle for
“Motorcycle Insurance.” Anytime you are on a website, hover your mouse over a link,
and that link is a keyword – that is an “optimized link” that is signaling to Google the
keyword context for the referenced website. That’s link syntax.

#3 Domain Authority or PageRank

If quantity matters, and quality or syntax matters, there’s a third element: authority.
Links from more powerful sites count for more than links from less powerful websites.
It stands to reason, for example, that a link from the New York Times (NYTimes.com)
is worth more than a link from the Tulsa World (Tulsaworld.com). Accordingly, the
Google algorithm quantifies this difference in authority.
While Google doesn’t share its algorithm, third-party tools like AHREFS.com allow
you to peek behind the curtain and see the relative Domain Authority of different
websites.
For example, NYTimes.com has a Domain Authority of 94, while TulsaWorld.com has
a domain authority of 81. My website, JasonMcDonald.org, has a DA of 26. In other
words, not all links are created or valued equally: a link from the NYTimes.com is worth
an incredible amount, a link from TulsaWorld.com is also great, and link from my
website to yours is good but not in the same league, not at all.

Google calculates this Domain Authority (or “PageRank” as it is referred to

historically) based on the number of links not just to any domain but to specific web
pages or URLs on that domain. It’s self-referential: the more websites that link to a
URL, the more important that URL is, and the more “authority,” “PageRank,” or “Link
Juice” that URL has to pass to other URLs on the Internet. It’s sort of like the popular

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kids in High School. How do you know they’re popular? Because the other popular kids
like them, and those popular kids have the “authority” to pass their popularity to new
kids who come to the school. Dogs chase their tails, popular kids beget more popular
kids, and the most important websites on the Internet lend credibility to the other “very
important” websites.

If, in other words, Website A has more links from more authoritative websites than
Website B, then – all things being equal – it will outrank Website B.

Relevance Matters

Authoritative isn’t just raw domain authority, however – it’s relevance, too. For a Brahman
cattle breeder, a link from Brahman.org (DA of 51) may be worth more than a link
from NYTimes.com because of the relevance of the linking website. Keywords, in other
words, re-enter the picture. Because Brahman.org talks about Brahman cattle (and not
organic potatoes), it’s a highly relevant AND authoritative website for websites that
want to rank for terms like “Brahman bulls.” By contrast, if you want to rank for
“organic potatoes” a link from the Potato Association of America
(Potatoassociation.org), especially their page on “organic potatoes) at
http://potatoassociation.org/industry/organic-methods is an extremely relevant
AND authoritative link for you to get.

In sum, the cool kids in school that are jocks are relevant if you want to be a cool
athlete, and the cool kids in school that are theater people are relevant if you want to
be an actress. It’s the same thing on the Web with respect to links. Authoritativeness
and relevance work together.

Summing Up

Before your head explodes with all this complexity, let’s keep it simple. You want other
websites to link to you -

1. in high quantity (more is better);

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 2. with the right syntax (try to get your keywords in the link text itself, rather than
just an http:// link or a “click here” link); and
3. from high Domain Authority websites (NYTimes.com is worth more than
TulsaWorld.com), as well as from sites that are relevant to your industry (a link
from Brahman.org is worth more to a Brahman cattle ranch website than a link
from Pizzaexpo.com).

In summary, links are like votes, and you want quantity, quality, and authority. As
you solicit links from other websites, remember, however, that you won’t always get a
trifecta or perfect quantity, quality, and authority from a link, so get what you can. As
Voltaire said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

SOLICIT LINKS (AND DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL

STUFF)

It Gets Complicated

This is only a simple model of how links work in the Google algorithm. The reality is
more complicated. For instance, what if Website A has a higher quantity of links to it,
but Website B has better syntax vis-à-vis the target keyword? Or, what if Website A has
better syntax, but Website B has a few links from very high authority websites? Or what
if Website A has many, high quality links but Website B has a few, high quality links
and better “On Page” SEO? The Google algorithm takes all these factors into account;
so remember, it’s not just one factor that propels you to the top of Google but the
algorithmic summation of these weighted factors vs. your competitors.

Because “it’s complicated,” just remember – in general – to always be on the lookout

for links to your website as you also remember that success at SEO is “everything
working together” factor-by-factor.

A Word about NoFollow

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Here’s another wrinkle about links and link-building. At a technical level, the
rel="nofollow" attribute tells Google to ignore a link; these types of links are devalued
by Google. So if you see nofollow in the HTML source code it’s a sign that given link is
not as valuable. Here’s a screenshot of the Pokemon page on Wikepedia, for example,
with an outbound link to the official Pokemon website:

And here’s the HTML source code showing the link, including the nofollow attribute,
therefore nullifying the link:

<a rel="nofollow" class="external text"

href="http://www.pokemon.com/">Official US website of
<i>Pokémon</i></a>

You can see it at http://jmlinks.com/6w. What this means is that the link FROM
Wikipedia TO pokemon.com does NOT help its SEO because the nofollow attribute
tells Google NOT to count the link as a vote. Commonly, as you look for links to get
to your website, be sure to look at the source code and if you see the nofollow attribute
then these links are not valuable. The most common “nofollow” links are links from
blog comments, links from social media sites, and links from some associations or
directories.

Note: a link that does NOT contain the nofollow attribute is commonly referred to as a
dofollow link, although there isn’t technically a dofollow attribute.

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Don’t freak out, however, and don’t overthink it. You don’t have to be an HTML
source code genius to understand links! Just realize that, generally speaking, links in
comments on blogs are all nofollow. Craig’s list, Wikipedia, and many directory links are
also nofollow. Many links on social media are also nofollow. Press release links are
commonly nofollow too. These links are not as valuable as links that do not have the
nofollow attribute (called dofollow links in SEO lingo).
However… in SEO there’s always another twist of the screw…

Do Nofollow Links Matter?

The first take-away is that nofollow links do not help SEO. This is the official Google
position and commonly held position in the SEO community. However (there’s always a
however in SEO), my opinion is that nofollow links actually do count, and can help your
SEO. Think of links like a stock portfolio: you want diversity in your links – some
nofollow, some dofollow, some in the HTTP format, some in your brand name, and some
in your keyword syntax. Nofollow links are like “penny stocks” – one-by-one, not very
valuable but in totality, they can indeed be valuable.

Google, in short, probably devalues the weight of nofollow links to the tune of 90% or
95%, but they still seem to carry some weight. No one knows for certain but because
Google has terrified so many sites into making blank nofollows across all outbound links,
Google has created a problem for itself. For many smaller sites (competing for many
narrow keywords), there aren’t many links that differentiate site #1 from site #2. This
is often the case for many small businesses. You might have ten links, and your
competitor might have seven. And if all (or most) of these links are nofollows, then
Google still has to decide. Presto! Nofollow links suddenly count. For a fascinating study
of the power of nofollow links visit http://jmlinks.com/47t.

Just Get Links

Again, before you give up in despair at all this technical mumbo-jumbo: just remember
to get links. Ask customers, suppliers, and other business contacts whom you know to
add a link FROM their website TO your website. It can be as simple as asking the
janitorial company that cleans your office, or the pizza company that delivers your office

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pizza, to go on their website and add a link FROM their site TO your site. Or, to ask a
customer who has a blog to write a product review about her experience, and have her
include a link in that blog post FROM her blog TO your website. Or, ask Mom, Dad,
Uncle Jay, your best friend… anyone who has a blog to write up an article about you,
and link TO your website.

Register for professional associations that include links to your website. Set up your
social profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other sites. Ask everyone you know
who has a website to write something about your company and link over to it.

Just get links!

Just like in real-world elections, the most important part of successful link building is
sheer quantity. Politicians don’t always sweat the small stuff; they kiss a lot of babies,
and shake a lot of hands in their quest for high quality votes. So should you in your
quest for links!

POLITICIANS KISS BABIES & SEOS SOLICIT LINKS

For further step-by-step directions on how to solicit links, I highly recommend the
MOZ guide at http://jmlinks.com/14n and the BackLinko SEO link-building tactic
list at http://jmlinks.com/38r.

» BEWARE THE PENGUIN

Google’s “Penguin” update, launched in April 2012, is an on-going algorithm attack

against artificial link-building. While officially Google says that you should NEVER
“build links” but rather just wait “passively” for links to come to your site, a passive
strategy will get you nowhere.

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 You can, must, and should “build links.”

However, you have to be aware of Penguin, and solicit links in a smart fashion. First,
let’s consider what Penguin penalizes, and then let’s turn to the “big picture” of link-
building, post-Penguin.

First, Penguin penalizes a large quantity of in-bound links from “low quality” websites
as well as “overoptimized links.” “Low quality” websites are generally artificial blogs –
blogs that are poorly written, contain non-related content, and are clearly created “for
search engines” and not for people. A good example of this scenario is Indian-based
SEO companies that built thousands upon thousands of blogs (called a private blog
network), and then (for money) will link back to your site around a target keyword
phrase such as Miami divorce attorney, or organic baby food. It is easy for Google to detect
this chicanery and penalize sites with this sort of a link footprint.

In fact, if you are solicited by SEO companies offering link schemes that directly involve
posting links to your website on low quality blogs or low quality directories, do NOT
fall for these schemes! They will hurt you much more than help you.

What are Overoptimized Links?

“Overoptimized” links are links from other websites to your website that all include the
same keyword phrase over and over. A “divorce attorney,” for example, might create /
pay for / solicit links from blogs all around the exact phrase “divorce attorney.” He
would end up with, for example, 1000 blogs all linking back to his website, all having
the format of:

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah divorce attorney (linking to:

http://www.divorceattorneywebsite.com) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Now, to have 1000 links all exactly alike, all linking back to the same website is
“unnatural,” isn’t it? So what Penguin did was look at the “link footprint” of websites

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and identify “unnatural” link footprints. It then penalizes these sites by taking them off
of Google or harshly pushing them from Page 1 to Page 101.

Penguin looks for “unnatural” link profiles: many links from low quality blogs or
directories as well as many optimized links. You can use the Remove ‘em tool at
http://jmlinks.com/6x to check your own link footprint.

Link Diversity

Second, when building links post-Penguin, you should a) never solicit links from low
quality blogs and/or easy, free directories, and certainly not get links from sites the
blatantly advertise “links for sale,” and b) pay attention to the (over)optimization of
your link structure. A good general rule of thumb is 1/3 http:// links, 1/3 branded links
(links to your company name), and 1/3 optimized links. In HTML code these are written
as:

Check out Jason McDonald’s SEO consulting website at

https://www.jasonmcdonald.org/ (naked or http link).

Check out <a href= "http://www.jasonmcdonald.org/ ">Jason

McDonald’s</a> SEO consulting website. (branded link)

Check out Jason McDonald, an amazing <a href=

"http://www.jasonmcdonald.org/ ">SEO consultant</a> in San
Francisco. (optimized link)

Link diversity means having people link to you in different formats, and to get links
from a variety of sources: trade associations, blogs, directories, non-profits, etc.

Fortunately, for most companies, too many links and too many overoptimized links are
the least of their problems; most companies just have too few links. But, that said, if you
engage in serious link-building, you must “beware the Penguin” and build a “natural”
yet robust inbound link profile. Build links at your own risk!

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Outbound Links from Your Website

Finally, Penguin penalizes websites that are “too perfect.” Pre-Penguin, many SEO
experts would advise you never to link out FROM your website TO other websites.
This advice is no longer correct; a website that has zero outbound links looks suspicious
to Google. Similarly, many websites would use the nofollow attribute on all outbound
links, or to “sculpt” links internally. After Penguin, this kind of behavior is a dead
giveaway that you are attempting to manipulate Google. So, don’t be “too perfect:”

Do not refuse to link outbound to other websites because a website with zero
outbound links looks suspicious to Google.

Do not “nofollow” all your links to other websites, as the use of “nofollow” on
all outbound links can also look suspicious to Google.

Do not “nofollow” certain internal links in an attempt to link sculpt, as this also
looks suspicious to Google.

Therefore, post-Penguin, I advise you to strategically link out to highly reputable

websites in your industry. A breeder of Brahman cattle, for example, should link out to
sites like the National Brahman Association (brahman.org) as well as other websites in
the cattle industry. A San Francisco attorney might link to the city of San Francisco
(SFgov.org). The objective is to convince Google that you are a good “Net citizen,”
and you are linking out as well as receiving links in. Just keep your outbound links to a
minimum, and make sure that they are to highly reputable sites in your own industry.

You may also hear a warning that “reciprocal links” will cancel each other out – if the
Brahman cattle breeder is listed on Brahman.org, and he also links over to Brahman.org,
this will “cancel out” the “link juice,” for instance. While this might theoretically have
some truth in it, in practical terms I do not find this to be so. Yes, it is better if people
only link to you (and you do not reciprocate), but I just wouldn’t stress this too much.
In all of this, I am assuming you have a) relevant links, and b) you aren’t massively
engaging in reciprocal link schemes. So much of proper link building is proper scale.
Did I ever mention to you, that “A little salt is good for the soup, but too much salt
ruins the soup?” Don’t overdo any type of link-building.

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Google’s Hypocrisy

As we conclude this explanation of what links are, why they matter, and the basic ideas
on how to build links post-Penguin, let me stop for a moment and talk about Google’s
hypocrisy. Google famously had the phrase “Don’t be evil” as their corporate motto,
which besides being pretentious, has probably turned out to be yet another empty
platitude by yet another big corporation. Google, like all big corporations, keeps its eyes
on profits, and has a very effective corporate marketing machine working hard to create
a brand image of efficiency and honesty. Google isn’t any better, or any worse, than any
other big corporation.
In terms of links, the official propaganda of Google is that no one should ever build
links. (Read it at http://jmlinks.com/14r). In Google’s opinion, we should all just
passively wait until links “spontaneously” emerge on the Web, and then Google will
“objectively” evaluate the link footprint of competing websites and choose the “best”
website to place at the top of its results.
I’m sorry to destroy your illusions, but if you’ve read this far in this book, you should
realize, by now, that the idea that Google results are “objective” is pretty ridiculous. It’s
a competitive war between companies to get to the top, and in any serious keyword
competition, everyone is working very hard to “manipulate” Google. Your competitors
(at least the smart ones) are building links, and you pretty much have to, too, even
though Google’s official public line is that you should NEVER solicit links.
Everyone, quite simply, has to violate the rules without any clear guidance as to what
the “real” rules are. Google simply looks the other way, and occasionally smacks down
a vendor or two when it gets out of hand. You can either be 100% compliant with
Google’s policy on links (and end up spending a fortune on AdWords), or you can violate
Google’s policy and succeed.

It gets worse. Google even encourages companies to “turn in” competitors that are
violating its policies. Watch an official video on this at http://jmlinks.com/14t. You
can even “turn in” a competitor via the official Google webspam form at
http://jmlinks.com/14u. Here’s a screenshot:

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Nefariously, the effect of all these activities is to encourage users to turn in other users
as well as what to create “negative SEO” when one competitor “fakes” noncompliance
by another competitor (and turns them in) to destroy their website performance. It’s a
mess, and far, far from “don’t be evil” in terms of its impact. Yet Google, happily
making millions, doesn’t seem very concerned about the devastating impact its policies
have on websites, or on the “unintended consequences” of its policies.

Now, I’m not saying go 100% to the dark side via black hat SEO and build or buy fake
links. And I’m not saying I have a solution for how this could be done differently. I’m
not Google, and I don’t have a zillion dollar budget to figure out a solution. It’s Google’s
world; we just live in it. But what I am saying is put your best foot forward, solicit real links
from real websites, and you’ll go a long way towards succeeding. But don’t publicly
announce what you’re doing, and don’t wave a red flag under Google’s nose.
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Similarly, with respect to the nofollow attribute in Web links, Google publicly says that it
nullifies the value of all links, but in my experience, this isn’t exactly true. Some nofollow
links do seem to help. And, even more ominously, there are many, many examples of
websites that are heavily violating Google’s policies on links, and doing very, very well.
Enforcement of any rules is sporadic at best, and Google takes periodic action against
high profile violators to “frighten” the SEO community into compliance. See, for
example, the “Rap Genius” incident in which Google made an “example” of Rap
Genius as a site that had gone “too far” in soliciting links at http://jmlinks.com/14s.
There are many, many sites that are violating Google’s policies just as badly, but Rap
Genius was singled out, and made an example.

Be Skeptical. Experiment and Do What Works

The bottom line is that you should be skeptical about what Google says are the rules,
and what the rules are. You should be skeptical about what you read in the blogosphere
about these policies. And you should be silent when, and if, your website is doing well
in terms of SEO for fear that a competitor will turn you into Google. You should not
get greedy and “go too far.” The art of SEO is figuring out what actually works despite
what Google says, despite what you read, and staying pretty silent about it. Just as you
might drive on Highway 101 in California – speed, but don’t be the fastest car on the
freeway. As for the posted speed limit, it’s not the “real” limit, but who knows what the
“real” limit is? You certainly can’t ask the Highway Patrol!
So, now that we’ve taken a little side journey into Google’s misleading and contradictory
policies on links, let’s return to some relatively safe tactics to build links to your own
website (at your own risk, of course).

» DEFINE YOUR LINK OBJECTIVES

Now that you know the game – that links are like votes, it’s time to define your objectives.
We’ll assume you’ve SEO-optimized your homepage, landing pages, keyword footer,
and that you’ve begun to blog and issue press releases. Those tasks are done, or
underway. In terms of links, therefore:

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 • Links are like votes, i.e. quantity.
o Objective: get people to link to you.
• Link syntax matters, i.e. quality. It matters whether links are around your
keyword phrases and/or come from content that talks about your keyword
themes.
o Objective: get links that contain your keyword phrases.
• Link PageRank or Web Authority matters, i.e. authority. Some sites (e.g.,
NYTimes.com) or more authoritative than others (e.g., TulsaWorld.com).
o Objective: get authoritative sites to link to you.
• Link Footprint matters, meaning you want a “natural” footprint of about 1/3
naked http links, 1/3 branded links, and 1/3 optimized links from quality
websites.
o Objective: increase inbound links to your website but do so in a “natural”
way in terms of the footprint.

In terms of authority, also realize that in any given industry, certain industry hubs are
considered very authoritative. If you are selling Brahman cattle, for example,
http://www.brahman.org/, the website of the American Brahman Breeders
Association is the most authoritative website for the keyword Brahman cattle. If you
are a pizza restaurant, getting the “American Pizza Community”
(http://www.americanpizzacommunity.com/) to link to you is your goal. Every
industry has certain key websites, key associations, key directories, key bloggers, key
trade shows, etc., and your objective here is to identify the most authoritative websites
in your industry and get them to link to you!

Don’t Get Discouraged

Now that you know the link game, don’t get discouraged. People commonly think,
“Dratz, no one will link to us… we are so boring… or our industry is so dumb that no
one will link to anyone.” However, you don’t have to run faster than the bear, just faster
than your buddy! You’re not running for President of the United States, it’s more likely
that you’re running for school board in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, an election decided by
tens or hundreds of votes. Your competitor faces the same challenges as you, so if you
just pro-actively solicit links – even just a few links – you’ll usually win.
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 He might have two links to his website, and you’ll have three. You win.

He might have ten links to his website, and you’ll have twelve. You win.

Let’s turn, now, to link-building: systematic strategies for getting other websites to
link to your website for SEO. (For an in-depth list of ideas to help you brainstorm your
link-building tactics, check out the BackLinko guide at http://jmlinks.com/14p.
Another good one is Quick Sprout’s Advanced Guide to Link-building by Neil Patel at
http://jmlinks.com/38n.)

» SOLICIT THE EASY LINKS FIRST

Your ecosystem partners, i.e. those companies you do business with on a regular basis,
are your easiest link targets. If you attend an industry trade show as an exhibitor, for
example, ask for a link back to your company website from the trade show website. If
you buy a lot of stuff from a supplier, require a link back to your company website from
their website as a condition of doing business. If you sponsor a local charity like the
Breast Cancer Walk Pittsburgh, ask for a link back to your company website from the
charity website. If your boss teaches a class at the local university, help him set up a link
from his profile page back to your company website. If anyone in your company gets
interviewed or is able to write a guest blog post on another website, make sure that they
get a link back in their author profile! If Grandma or Grandpa (or the friends, family,
or contacts of key employees), has a website or blog, ask them to link to you.

You get the idea: create a culture of link solicitation in your organization, so that on
a day-in and day-out level everyone in your company is soliciting links, and (over time)
getting them.

Don’t forget your social media profile links! If local search is important to you, make
sure that your company is included in Google My Business, Yelp, Citysearch and other
local listing sites. Be sure to set up a Twitter, Google+, Facebook and other social media
profiles for your companies and include links in those profiles.

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 VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on easy link-building tactics at
http://jmlinks.com/17w.

Your first TO-DO is to open up the “link building worksheet,” and fill out the easy link
target section. For the worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the
passcode “seo19tz” to register if you have not already done so), and click on the link to
the “link building worksheet.”

» IDENTIFY DIRECTORY, BLOG, AND OTHER LINK TARGETS

Quality directories, blogs, and other websites found on Google make great link targets.
How do you find them? For directories, do a Google search for keywords such as
“AddURL + Your Keywords,” “Directory + Your Keywords,” and/or “Catalog +
Your Keywords.” As you browse these sites, make note of their Domain Authority
(use MOZ.com or AHREFS.com, and the Domain Authority metric) and keyword themes
that align with your own target keywords. Use the Solo SEO link search tool
(http://jmlinks.com/14q) for a quick and easy way to look for possible link targets.

A marriage counselor in Bethesda, Maryland, for example, might search Google for:

marriage counselor directory (view this search at http://jmlinks.com/6y)

directory of therapists

relationship therapist directory

directory Maryland businesses

directory woman-owned businesses

Her goals are to a) identify quality directories that have dofollow outbound links, b) figure
out how much it costs and/or what are the procedures to be listed, and c) acquire those
directory links. Remember: if it’s absolutely easy to get in, every SEO will do it and the
directory will be low quality or contaminated. You want serious directories that
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either cost money and/or have real qualifications to be included. Do not list
yourself in free directories. Quality is important!

Identify Relevant Blogs

To find blogs, type your target keywords plus the word “blog” into the Google search
box. For example, our marriage therapist might type in “marriage therapy blog” at
http://jmlinks.com/19h. You’re looking for blogs that will allow a guest post and/or
blogs that are interested in your keywords. Remember to also pro-actively ask
customers if they have a blog, and if they do, solicit them to write something about your
company, product or service. Then you have to devise an idea / solicitation that they’d
like to include on their blog, plus include a link back to your website.

A common tactic is to give out product samples, for free, in exchange for a product
review and link back on the blog. (Again, with an eye to Google’s sensitivity about links,
don’t “overdo” this – find high quality, legitimate bloggers, and don’t publicly announce
your product-review-link program!). Do NOT go to a public blog exchange and buy
links – that’s way too obvious, and too dangerous!

Complementary Competitors
Finally, do searches for your major keyword phrases. As you search, segregate your
direct competitors (sites so similar to your own that there is no way that they would
link to you) from your complementary competitors. These are sites like blogs,
personal websites, portals, directories, Wiki entries and the like that “show up” on your
searches but may have a complementary reason to link to you. A wedding
photographer, for example, might search for not only directories of wedding suppliers
but also florists, priests, caterers, bakers, and facilities that would likely exchange links
due to the complementary nature of their businesses.

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Sponsor Non-Profits and Include Links

Another great tactic is non-profit link-building. Solicit non-profit links: identify relevant
non-profits, and pay them as a “sponsor” with a link from their website to your own.
As with all link-building tactics, do not overdo this.

A good way to do this is to search Google using the site: command, as in:

site:*.org “your keywords”

For example: site:*org “organic food” (http://jmlinks.com/7d).

For example: site:*.org “organic food” “link to your website”

(http://jmlinks.com/7e).

You thus identify non-profits in your keyword community, and can even drill down to
those that allow paying sponsors to link back to their website. Voila: a link-building
strategy based on helping non-profits!

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to identify nonprofits for link-building at

http://jmlinks.com/18e.

To-dos for Link-Building

Your second TO-DO is to fill out the section of the “link building worksheet” focusing
on blogs, portals, and directories. For the worksheet, go to
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ), and click on the link
to the “link building worksheet.”

» REVERSE ENGINEER COMPETITORS’ LINKS

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to “reverse engineer” who links to your
competitors, and then solicit links from those websites? You can easily do this.
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Many fabulous tools exist to “reverse engineer” inbound links of competitors. Most
offer a limited “free” version, and for about $99 / month, you can access a robust paid
version. I recommend signing up for at least one month, spending the $99, and doing
some in-depth link research. You can download all the data into Excel spreadsheets,
and then cancel your account.

Your objective is to identify complementary websites that link to a competitor but who
may also be willing to link to you. Type each competitor’s homepage URL into these
tools, and then surf to the appropriate websites, making note of the PageRank (domain
authority), content, and contact information for your “Link Building” target list. Here
are my three favorites:

Link Explorer by Moz (https://moz.com/link-explorer). Type your

competitor’s homepage into this tool, or the URL of a highly ranked site on
Google. Browse to see who is linking to your competitors.
Ahrefs (http://ahrefs.com/). Similar to Open Site Explorer, this tool allows
you to input a competitor URL and reverse engineer who is linking to that
competitor.

Open Link Profiler (http://www.openlinkprofiler.org/). This tool tracks

new links to your website (or to competitors), and requires no registration and
no payment. It’s totally free!

Here’s a screenshot of Open Link Profiler’s analysis of

http://www.progressive.com/ showing that that site has over 20,239 linking
domains totaling to over 710,460 inbound links. No wonder progressive.com dominates
searches for insurance!

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 VIDEO. Watch a video on how to use the AHREFS tool and other link discovery
tools to “reverse engineer” competitors at http://jmlinks.com/18d.

At the end of this process, you should have a defined list of “link targets” sorted by
PageRank (Domain Authority) and their keyword themes with your “keyword
community.” Your third TO-DO is to take this list, and then go one by one through the
results, soliciting links from the various targets. If summer is here, link solicitation is a
great task for a cheap intern! Or, go to a site like Fiverr.com
(http://www.fiverr.com/) and identify a cheap outsourced worker to do the “grunt”
work of your link solicitation system.

» CREATE LINK BAIT

Link bait takes link building to the next level. Link bait is the art of creating content
that is so compelling that people will spontaneously link to it, without you even having to
ask. Let’s run through some common link-bait ideas.

Content Bait

People love in-depth content, so write an in-depth “Frequently Asked Questions”

document or article that fits the needs and interests of your industry. If you’re a probate
lawyer, for example, write a beefy article to your blog on “How to avoid probate.”
Beefy, in-depth, good content becomes link bait for journalists, bloggers, and
influencers on social media looking to point their audience to the “ultimate guide” on
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a key topic. Here’s a great example. BackLinko has written the “definitive guide” to
Link Building (which is, in and of itself, link bait) at http://jmlinks.com/7b.

Ego Bait

Have a customer of the month contest (if your customers have websites), have a
supplier of the month award (if your suppliers have websites). Email, call, and even give
gifts to blogs, portals, and other content sites that might be willing to cover you and
your company. In link building, remember you are dealing with other people, so look
at the situation from their perspective: what’s in it for them? If you “feature” them with
an award, they’ll often spontaneously link to you – plus your “award contest” can get
press, publicity, and links.

Product Sample Bait

Give away free samples of your product only to people who have a blog, and/or are
willing to share your site on social media. Ask them to write honest product reviews,
and require a link back in the blog article.

Scholarship Bait

Identify a noble cause (preferably relating to your keyword targets), and create a
scholarship program for deserving students. Next, require an essay as part of the
application (which will be great content for your blog, and ego bait). Then, identify
relevant colleges and solicit them to link “out” to your scholarship. It’s win win: the
student gets a scholarship, and you get links from quality .edu domains to your website.

Ultimate (Free) Guide Bait

An ultimate guide or free eBook can be excellent link-bait. Write the definitive eBook
on “top ten new technologies” for your industry, write a provocative FAQ document
with “how to” templates, or tell an emotional story. HubSpot has done a fantastic job
of this. Check out their eBooks at http://jmlinks.com/38p.

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Badge Bait

Consider creating badges: customer of the month, best tool for such-and-such, partner
companies, verification of a certification test, and so on and so forth.

Have you ever noticed how many Yelp results show up high on Google search? Have
you ever thought of how many companies have Yelp badges on their websites, with
links up to their Yelp listings? Now that you know something about link-building, you
can see that Yelp is surreptitiously tricking businesses to link “up” to Yelp.com. The
small business webmaster who posts a link to his Yelp listing, saying, “Check us out on
Yelp,” is sending link juice “from” his website “to” Yelp. Yelp, in summary, uses a link-
bait strategy to manipulate Google.

Consider being the “Yelp” of your industry via badges. Here’s a screenshot giving an
inside look at how Yelp promotes its link juice via badges:

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You can view the Yelp badge system at http://jmlinks.com/7f. Note: if you use
“badge bait,” be Penguin-aware. Make sure to vary the inbound link text and structure
across your badges so as to not trigger a Penguin penalty. For example, the ALT image
attribute for some badges would have keyword No. 1, others keyword No. 1, others
just your company name, etc.

Widget Bait

If you have a programming budget, create widgets such as BMI calculator, the real-
time price of gold, a reverse mortgage calculator. Any sort of free tool or widget that is
relevant to your industry can be link bait to bring in links in a spontaneous way. Monex,
a company that sells gold, silver, and platinum bullion, for example, has an example of
“widget bait” at http://jmlinks.com/7c. Infographics are another way to get links:
create an informative, humorous, outrageous or shocking infographic and let the links
roll in!
Your fourth TO-DO is to have a company meeting and brainstorm possibilities for link
bait. If you see opportunities, create a step-by-step plan to implement your link bait
strategy. Notice as well that what constitutes “link bait” is also fabulous for social media
sharing.

»» CHECKLIST: LINK-BUILDING ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of link-building! Take the link-building quiz at

http://jmlinks.com/qzln. Next, here are your link-building Action Items:

❑ Understand the basics of links and link-building, specifically - quantity, quality

(optimized links), and authority (PageRank or Domain Authority).

❑ Be link-aware as a company or organization, constantly asking people

to “link to you,” as for example when a journalist or blogger writes an
article, you participate in a trade show, or you join an industry association,
etc.

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 ❑ Be also Penguin-aware and seek for a “natural footprint” of many
links - naked (http), branded (your company name), and optimized (your
keywords).

❑ Create a link-building system, going from easy to most difficult -

❑ Ecosystem partners - solicit links from suppliers, friends, colleagues,

etc.

❑ Social media profiles - set up, claim, and link from your social media
profiles as on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

❑ Industry associations and directories - inventory and get listed in

the “best” industry directories that provide outbound links. Don't forget
industry trade associations and other organizations key employees may be
members of (e.g., “National Association of Women Small Business
Owners,” etc.)

❑ Solicit links from bloggers - identify and solicit links from relevant
bloggers in your industry; consider guest blogging.

❑ Non-profits - identify and sponsor relevant nonprofits with link-backs

to your website.

❑ Link-bait - if possible, generate a “widget” or “badge” or even a long-

form blog post as “content bait.” Perhaps a scholarship program. Create
content that is “so good” bloggers and others will spontaneously link to
it.

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Link-building section for my
favorite free tools for link-building. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

»» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED LINK-BUILDING WORKSHEET

The DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is a completed link-building worksheet. For the
worksheet, go to https://www.jm-seo.org/workbook (reenter the passcode
“seo19tz” ), and click on the link to the “link-building worksheet.”
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Page | 248
 5.2
SOCIAL MEDIA
A topic unto itself, Social Media has many SEO implications. Social mentions - that
is the sharing of your website links on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more
- is a new kind of link building. Having robust social profiles (like an active Twitter
feed or active Facebook Business Page) signals Google and its search algorithm that your
company is active and important. This is called social authority. Indeed, Google My
Business (Google’s platform for local businesses) presents unique SEO opportunities,
particularly in the area of having a robust corporate profile with many local reviews, as
we shall discuss in the next Chapter. In addition, Google’s partnership with Twitter is
a clear sign that having a robust Twitter profile and having your links “tweeted” is now
a must-do.

SEO is going social, so in this Chapter, we explore the brave new world of Social
Media SEO.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Understand Social Media SEO

» Get Social Mentions!

» Set up Robust Social Profiles

»» Checklist: Social Media Action Items

»» Deliverable: A Completed Social Media SEO Worksheet

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» UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MEDIA SEO

Links, as we have seen, count as votes in SEO. Google clearly rewards sites that have
many keyword-relevant links (especially those from high authority websites), with
higher positions on Google search results. Social Media in a sense builds on this
network of link authority. How so? While Google has not publicly clarified how it uses
what are called social signals in SEO, we can postulate some logical patterns of how
Google might interpret social signals.

If Website A has its URL “Tweeted” and Website B does not, then Website A must be more
important.

If blog post A on trending topic #1 has 12 tweets of its URL, and blog post B on trending
topic #1 has 35 tweets of its URL, then blog post B must be more relevant for the corresponding
Google search query.
If Website A has 20,000 followers on Twitter, and Website B has only 100, then Website A
must be more important.
In a nutshell, having your URL’s tweeted, shared on LinkedIn or Facebook, or mentioned on
other social networks is a form of link-building.

Evidence that this occurs is visible in how Google quickly figures out trending news.
It’s common knowledge that the first place people go to for breaking news is Twitter,
and accordingly, a quick Google search of a trending topic (try searching Google, for
example, for “The Kardashians,” or “Donald Trump,” or “iPhone Games”) and you’ll
often find new and fresh content that is being shared heavily on Twitter.

For instance, here’s a screenshot of the search for “wildfire,” showing recent news and
tweets about California Wildfires:

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Compare that with a search for “wolverine:”

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What these two searches tell us is that – by monitoring social media – Google figures
out that the former search is for news and news events, while the latter is a stable search
that is definitional in character. Behind the scenes, Google is using social networks like
Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to “figure out” which searches are time-sensitive and
which ones are not. Now, take that a step further, and you’ll realize that many searches
are mixed. A search for “iPhone,” for example, is a mixture of stable and news-oriented
information. Social media is the intervening factor; the takeaway is that we can influence
Google by influencing our social media profiles and buzz.

Another clue is Google’s relationship with Twitter. Google has a formal partnership of
Twitter in which Google gets first crack at the Twitter “firehose” of breaking news. It
stands to reason, therefore, that having your URLs shared on Twitter might help them
for SEO purposes.
How does social media impact SEO?

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First and foremost, sites that enjoy inbound links via social mentions of URLs from
social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Facebook are clearly topical and relevant to
Google. A simple site:twitter.com search on Google reveals over 382 million indexed
Tweets, and a simple site:facebook.com search on Google reveals over 714 million indexed
Facebook posts.

Google clearly pays attention to the social sharing of links!

SOCIAL SHARES ARE THE NEW LINK-BUILDING!

Second, robust and active social profiles are another obvious clue to Google of your
website’s relevance. Many sites link out to their Yelp account, Twitter account,
Facebook page, LinkedIn page, etc., and those social sites can be indexed by Google.
Google can clearly “see” how active your company is on social media, how many
“followers” you have, and whether those followers, in turn are active and/or important.
Most importantly, Google can “count” your “reviews” on Google My Business, Yelp,
YellowPages and other local review sites.

(Note: we discuss the impact of reviews in the next Chapter, 5.3 on “Local SEO”).

It stands to reason that having an active social media footprint, with active posts, many
engaged followers, and many reviews is a new signal to Google about your website’s
relevance. Indeed, much of this is keyword centric, another reason why knowing your
keywords is paramount to SEO success!

Third, social search has made the Web more human. Whereas in the past, the creators
of Web content were relatively invisible, new ways of communicating “microdata” can
tell Google how many reviews your site has, who the content author is, and whether
this author has an active, engaged follower community or not. Realizing that SEO is
now a social game positions your company for not just the present but the future of
SEO success on Google.

Note: this Chapter focuses on using social media for SEO purposes. For social media
marketing in its own right, please see my Social Media Marketing Workbook available on
Amazon at http://jmlinks.com/smm.

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To be clear, remember that “traditional links” remain far, far more important than social
shares to this day: so if you have to choose between a “traditional link” (e.g., from a
blog post) and a “social share” (e.g., the Tweeting of your URL), choose the former.
Links still remain the dominant currency of SEO, worth far more than social
media shares.

» GET SOCIAL MENTIONS!

Getting social mentions of your URLs is a lot like traditional link building. First, look
for easy social mention targets. Ask customers, suppliers, and ecosystem partners to
tweet your URLs, share your company’s blog posts on Facebook, and to “like” them
on Facebook. Second, “reverse engineer” competitors or use common Google and
social media searches to find social media sharers who might be interested in your
content.

Get Tweeted
In this regard, Twitter is the most important network for SEO purposes. You want to
not only set up your business Twitter account and tweet out your own URLs (e.g., a
new blog post or new press release). You also want to get real people on Twitter to
tweet those URL’s, too.
To find people Tweeting on your keywords, go to Twitter advanced search at
http://jmlinks.com/14w, type in your competitor names or your keywords and look
for Tweeters who have a) many followers, and b) tweet on your keyword themes. Then
reach out to them and encourage them to tweet your latest blog post, press release, or
informative new widget. Here’s a screenshot showing a search for tweets on “organic
food”:

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Second, you can use Buzzsumo (http://www.buzzsumo.com) to identify social
shares of your keywords. Here’s a screenshot:

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Inside of Buzzsumo, you can click on “View sharers” to find the Twitter accounts of
people who shared a piece of news. Here’s a screenshot:

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Buzzsumo, unfortunately, is a paid tool with only limited functionality for free.

So, third, an alternative is to use the website Hashtagify.me and look for #hashtags that
are similar to your keywords. (Note do not use spaces when researching hashtags, so its
#organicfood not #organic food). You can then also look for the top Twitter accounts for
those hashtags. Here’s a screenshot of http://hashtagify.me for #organicfood:

Finally, if you’ve written a blog post on a trending topic, consider advertising on Twitter,
Facebook and/or LinkedIn to get it “picked up” while still timely, thereby encouraging
more “free” shares of your URL.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to get “social mentions” at

http://jmlinks.com/17v.

Don’t forget that Google is another great way to search other social media sites for
heavy sharers. Try Google searches like site:facebook.com {your keywords}, site:linkedin.com
{your keywords}, site:pinterest.com {your keywords}, etc. to identify site-specific individuals
who are good targets to share your own content. You can try a sample search at
http://jmlinks.com/7h.

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 VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to use the site: command to identify social
sharers at http://jmlinks.com/16g.

Reach out to Bloggers

Don’t forget blogs and bloggers! Go to Google, type in your keywords plus the word
“blog” and look for relevant blogs. For example, type into Google: “blog proteomics”
to find blogs that cover the fun-filled world of proteomics. Here’s a screenshot:

Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com) is another search engine that

focuses specifically on social media content. Bloggers are great targets because a link in
a blog post is a real, traditional, SEO-friendly link, blog updates signal to Google new,
fresh, content, and bloggers are often quite active on Twitter and other social media
networks. Blogs are the gold standard, in other words, of social mentions.

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As you reach out for links and social mentions, focus on win-win opportunities. For
example, if you sell products send out product samples to key bloggers, Tweeters, and
Facebookers and ask them for honest product reviews, “tweets” of your URLs, and
“shares” of your links on Facebook or Twitter, in exchange for samples.

(Remember, however, that – technically speaking – any type of link-building outreach is a violation of
Google terms of service so be judicious, and act at your own risk, and be aware that sending out product
samples requires FTC notice to be placed on any blog posts.)

Your first TO-DO is to open the “Social Media SEO worksheet,” and complete the
section entitled “social sharers.” For the worksheet, go to
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz/ (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ), and click on the link
to the “Social Media SEO worksheet.”

» SET UP ROBUST SOCIAL PROFILES

In addition to trying to get people to tweet or share out your URLs, it’s a no-brainer
that Google looks for companies with robust social pages. Given two companies
competing for a top position on Google, one with thousands of people following its
Twitter feed, and another without a Twitter account at all, which company do you think
is going to win top placement on Google? This same fact probably goes for other social
networks as well, especially ones like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or
Pinterest that are open to the Google crawler at least at the account level. (Facebook is
closed to Google at the so-called “registration wall.”)

For each social media network, be sure to fill out your company pages with relevant
keywords and cross-link from each social profile to your website. Here are the most
important for most companies with links to their business help guides (if available):

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/business)

Instagram (https://business.instagram.com/)

Twitter (https://business.twitter.com/)
LinkedIn (http://jmlinks.com/14x)

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 YouTube (http://jmlinks.com/7j)

Pinterest (http://business.pinterest.com/)

Once you set up a business page, be sure to populate your company description with
your relevant keywords and cross-link it back to your website. Be sure to also link from
your homepage to your social network pages to make it easy for Google to see which
website corresponds to which social network. All of the networks have easy to use
badges that enable these important cross-links; just look for badges in the relevant
business help center as listed above. Be sure to be consistent about your physical
address, telephone number, and website address.

Next, start posting and sharing content. Obviously, it’s better if you get real social
engagement, but for SEO purposes, you want to at least post something. A simple
model is to take your monthly blog posts and tweet out the blog post URLs to your
Twitter account, Facebook Page, LinkedIn company page, etc. You can use a
scheduling program like Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com) to schedule these in
advance. Your objective is to get your URL’s out into social media at least on your own
account, if not on the “real” accounts of influencers on social media.

You also want to build followers. The more followers you have on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, etc., the more important you appear to Google. Ask customers,
friends, family, business colleagues, neighbors, random street people, and anyone else
to “follow” you on Twitter, Facebook, etc., so as to build up the numeric quantity of
followers. Yes, it would be awesome if you were really engaged on social media, but for
all intents and purposes on SEO, it’s just about raw followers and raw shares of your
Web content. Google isn’t a person and it isn’t so much interested in the quality as in
the quantity of your presence on social media.

Posting SEO-friendly Content

Finally, as you post content to a social network, keep your keywords in mind, grow your
fan base, and encourage interactivity between you and your fans. Social media is a two-
for-one benefit: first, the direct benefit from the social media platform itself as you

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engage with users, and second, the indirect benefit as Google “observes” how popular
you are and feeds that data into its SEO algorithm.

Your second TO-DO is to open up the “Social Media SEO worksheet” and complete
the section “Social Media Profiles.” For the worksheet, go to
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ), and click on the link
to the “Social Media SEO worksheet.”

»» CHECKLIST: SOCIAL MEDIA ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of social media for SEO! Take the social media for SEO quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzss. Next, here are your social media Action Items:

❑ Identify influencers who can “share” your content, especially on Twitter.

Create a list of “key influencers” such as bloggers, persons on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, etc., and have an outreach strategy to alert them to key content.

❑ Use “Advanced Search” on Twitter, Buzzsumo.com, and/or

Hashtagify.me to build out your influencer list.

❑ Use Google search for “blog” plus your keywords to identify influential
bloggers.

❑ Set up robust Social Profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,

etc., and populate with links back to your website. (If you’re a local business, see
the next Chapter on Google My Business and local SEO.)

❑ Set up Hootsuite.com to manage your social shares, and begin populating

them - at a minimum - with content from your blog.

Check out the free tools! Go to my Social Media Dashboard for my favorite free tools on
social media marketing. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/smmdash.

»» DELIVERABLE: A COMPLETED SOCIAL MEDIA SEO WORKSHEET

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The DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is a completed “Social Media SEO worksheet.” For
the worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz/ (enter the code ‘fitness’ to
register if you have not already done so), and click on the link to the “Social Media SEO
worksheet.”

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 5.3
LOCAL SEO & REVIEW
MARKETING
Let’s suppose you have a restaurant, or you’re a local plumber, dentist, CPA, or divorce
attorney or any of the thousands of local businesses that service customers in their day-
to-day life. Before the advent of social media sites like Yelp, Google, YP.com, Airbnb,
TripAdvisor and their kind, consumers might have gone to the physical yellow pages
or perhaps visited your website after a Google search. You were in charge of your
marketing message; your customers couldn’t really “talk back.”

The “Review Revolution” led by Yelp and since followed by Google, YP.com, Airbnb,
TripAdvisor, Angie’s list, Amazon, Facebook, and other sites, dramatically changed the
local landscape. A happy customer can leave a positive review about your business, and
a not-so-happy customer can leave a scathingly negative review.

Reviews, in short, allow consumers to talk back: the good, the bad, and the ugly. And the just
plain crazy.

Moreover, it’s not just that customers leave reviews. It’s that customers read reviews,
indeed that they rely on reviews when making judgments about which businesses to
patronize. If they see five star or four-star reviews on Google or Yelp, they may reach
out to your business with a phone call or email inquiry, or visit your restaurant, bar, or
coffee shop. If they see two-star or negative reviews on Yelp, Google, or other local
review sites, they may skip over you and go to competitors who have better online
reviews.

Online reviews, in short, can make, or break, your local business.

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Using Yelp and Google as models, this Chapter explores the “Review Revolution.”
While the focus will be primarily on local businesses, it’s a fact that the “review
revolution” impacts any business in which customers Google the business name plus
“reviews” prior to making a purchase, which is pretty much all businesses.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:

» Explore How Review Sites Work

» Inventory Companies on Yelp, Google, or Other Relevant Sites

» Claim and Optimize Your Listings

» SEO Your Local Website

» Cultivate Positive Reviews

» Monitor and Improve Your Online Reputation

» Measure your Results

»» Checklist: Review Action Items
»» Deliverable: A Local SEO Marketing Plan

» EXPLORE HOW REVIEW SITES WORK

Imagine it’s 1994, ten years prior to Yelp’s founding, and you have a local Italian
restaurant in Los Angeles, California. One day you are lucky enough to be visited by
the review critic for the Los Angeles Times. You recognize her from her picture in the
paper, and you realize that she can make – or break – your new Italian eatery. You do
your best not to let her know you recognize who she is, and you do your utmost to
ensure that she has a positive experience at your restaurant. One week later your hopes
and prayers are answered: a positive restaurant review in the local newspaper. Business
booms.
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Alternatively, if she had written a critical review of your restaurant, business would not
have boomed. It would have busted. The restaurant critic, in short, had an immense
amount of power over local restaurants. However, if a) you were a small restaurant
you had minimal chance of ever getting reviewed, and b) if you were a divorce attorney,
plumber, massage therapist, CPA or many other types of local businesses, there were
essentially no reviewers available. For those types of businesses, there were essentially
no reviews at all.

Enter the Review Revolution. In October 2004, Yelp (http://www.yelp.com) was

founded. Consumers could now review not just local restaurants but plumbers, dentists,
massage therapists and thousands of other types of local businesses. The Review
Revolution was like any other mass revolution: the masses burst open the doors of the
castle, turned over the table and chairs, and even executed the “ruling class.” It was a bit
bloody. It was a bit noisy. And it was a bit unpleasant. If, for example, you were the Los Angeles
Times restaurant critic, your absolute power over restaurants was broken. The Review
Revolution brought democracy to local reviews. Now anyone could review anything.
Say “bye bye” to the review aristocracy, and hello to review by the masses. And this
didn’t just happen on Yelp. It happened to books on Amazon, to apps on the Apple
App Store and Google Play, to music on those digital platforms, to movies on the
IMDB archive, and on and on.

But here’s the rub. Like the French Revolution, the Review Revolution brought the
masses into the ecosystem. It has not been very organized or coherent; online reviews
run the gamut from informative to ridiculous, from true to faked. Whereas the big
reviewers of the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and New York Times were
educated and civilized (though they could be brutal in their reviews), the new review
class can be rough and tumble. Anyone – and I do mean anyone – can write a review:
good, bad, or ugly. And let’s not forget: just plain crazy. To be frank, we are still living in
this unsettled Review Revolution, and like the French Revolution, there is no going
back: the old system is dead.

UNDERSTAND THE REVIEW REVOLUTION

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If you’re reading this Chapter, you’ve probably already grasped that online reviews can
make or break your local business performance. Many, if not all, potential customers
consult online review sites like TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Yelp, or Google before engaging
with local businesses. If they see positive reviews, they are primed for a positive experience.
If they see negative reviews, they are so negatively primed that they may avoid any contact
whatsoever with your business. Reviews now impact all types of local businesses; nearly
every local business is being reviewed online 24/7 365. And products are being
reviewed on Amazon, employers are being reviewed on Glassdoor.com, and nearly
every business (even B2B businesses) are being reviewed via Google “reputational
searches,” that is, when prospects simply Google your company name plus the word
“reviews,” as for example, “Geico reviews” or “Zoho reviews” on Google.

The Review Ecosystem

Reviews are a fact of life, but how do reviews work? Let’s step back for a moment and
ponder the review ecosystem. With Yelp as the most important independent local
review site, we will use Yelp as our model and recognize that what’s true for Yelp is
generally true for all review sites because they all follow the same social media rules of
engagement. (Most of this also applies to reviews on Google, which is far and away the
#1 site for consumer reviews online.)
Here’s how review sites work:

1. Businesses have listings. Business listings are created without the permission or
participation of the business owner and exist whether or not the business owner has
claimed, optimized, or participated in the review ecosystem. You as the business
owner do not have the right to “delete” your listing on a review site! It’s like a business Page
on Facebook, to the extent that your business has an online “Page” on Yelp,
Tripadvisor, Healthgrades, etc. But unlike on Facebook, you are not in control!
2. Customers write reviews. Registered Yelp users (or Google users, or Airbnb
users, or Glassdoor users, etc.) are able to write reviews about any business they
choose. If your business is not listed, users can even create a listing for your business and then
review it. These reviews may be good or bad, extremely positive or so negatively

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 scathing as to infuriate you as the business owner. The Yelpers are basically in
control, not the businesses.
3. Customer reviewers also establish reputations. The more reviews a customer
writes, the older his or her profile as a reviewer on Yelp, the more friends on
Yelp, the more thumbs up or thumbs down to their reviews, the stronger their
profile gets. Yelp has filters to filter out “fake” or “weak” reviews from showing
entirely. The stronger the customer profile, the higher their reviews rise on the
pages of those businesses that they have reviewed. Your business and the Yelpers
are both simultaneously establishing a reputation, and that reputation impacts
whether your information (your listing, their review) shows prominently on Yelp.
(Remember: the same is true for Google, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, and even
Amazon).
4. Businesses establish a reputation. As your business is reviewed on Yelp, the
more positive reviews it has, the more customers see it prominently in the search
results, and the more come to visit it (especially first-time customers). But the
more negative reviews you have, the less you’re seen in search, and the fewer
customers you get. This is called a “virtuous circle” and a “vicious circle.”
5. Prospective customers read reviews. Potential customers visit sites like Yelp,
CitySearch, TripAdvisor, Google, and search for businesses via keywords. They
find businesses of interest and read the reviews. Generally speaking, people
believe reviews especially if there are a lot of them, and even if they do not know
the reviewer personally (which they generally don’t). This is called “stranger
marketing.” Reviews thus function as a “trust indicator”:
a. Positive reviews incrementally help your business to get new customers;
b. Negative reviews, however, can have a disproportionately devastating
impact on your business.
6. Businesses claim their local listings. Businesses have the right to claim and
optimize their listings. By claiming its listing on a site like Yelp, a business can
“optimize” it by improving the business description with accurate keywords,
uploading photos, responding to reviews, and in some cases as on Google
posting social updates. While businesses cannot delete their listings nor their
negative reviews, they can participate in the new social media ecosystem of
reviews.

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Another major point to grasp is the “virtuous circles” and “vicious circles” of review
marketing: the more positive reviews you have, the more likely you are to rank at the top
of new customer searches (and thus get more customers and more positive reviews), while
the fewer reviews you have and/or the more negative reviews you have, the less likely you
are to rank at the top of new customer searches (and thus get more customers). And
yet still another key point: the official policy of all the review sites is that you, as a
business, should just passively do nothing and not even so much as ask for reviews.

For an overview to Yelp by Yelp, visit http://www.yelp-support.com/. For your

first TO-DO, sign up for a Yelp account (as a consumer, not a business) if you do not
already have one. Next, go to Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/) to explore some of the
following categories in your local city by typing these keywords into the Yelp search
box:

Sushi Restaurants
Jazz

Plumbers

Divorce Attorneys

DUI Attorneys

Bail Bonds

Let’s take Bail Bonds, for example. Here’s a screenshot of a search for “bail bonds”
near San Francisco, CA:

Use the clickable links below to do the search:

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 • Here’s a search for “Bail Bonds” near San Francisco, CA at
http://jmlinks.com/4i.
• And here’s one of the top search results: Le Bail Bonds at
http://jmlinks.com/32k. (There’s something so classy about being bailed out
of jail by the French).

Here are some things to notice about the Le Bail Bonds listing.

First, scroll down about half way and look for “From the business” in red. It starts with
“We have multiple offices.” This is the business listing, as edited and submitted by
the business. This indicates that this business has claimed their listing. (You’ll also see
a blue “Claimed” check mark next to the business name). Note the inclusion of relevant
keywords, the types of search queries users might type into Yelp. Here’s a screenshot:

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Second, notice the photos at the top of the listing at http://jmlinks.com/32m. Click
on the photos, and notice how they are “keyword heavy” including the phrase “bail
bonds” and the location “San Francisco.” These can be submitted either by the business
or by users. So, if you don’t submit photos, your users might (and they might be
favorable, or unfavorable, to your business).

Third, read some of the reviews. Notice that for any individual reviewer, Yelp indicates
how many friends they have on Yelp and how many reviews they have written. For
example, here is a screenshot of a review by Leslie L of San Jose, California:

Fourth, click on a reviewer photo, and you’ll go up to their Yelp profile. For example,
click on “Leslie L” and that will get you up to her profile at http://jmlinks.com/46s.
You can see that Leslie has 2 friends, has written 16 reviews, and uploaded 5 photos:

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Read her reviews and make a guess as to how “real” and how “unsolicited” her reviews
are. Some reviews and the reviewers who wrote them will look very legitimate, and
others might look solicited, paid, or even faked. You’ll soon realize that Yelp, like all
the review-based sites, is a hodgepodge of unsolicited and solicited reviews, real and
fake reviews, and so on and so forth. To the untrained eye, it can be hard to tell which
reviews are truly real and which ones are fake; all the review systems are plagued by fake
or paid reviews, even if the average customer is not that aware of this problem.

For example, here’s a screenshot of a suspicious review:

Notice how Chloe D, has zero friends, has written only one review, lives in Manhattan
and yet reviewed a San Francisco Bail Bonds. Is this a real review? A solicited review?
Or a faked review?

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Fifth, return to Le Bail Bond’s company page on Yelp, and scroll to the very bottom
and click on “reviews that are not currently recommended.” Yelp has a filter that
attempts to filter out “fake” reviews and filter in “real reviews.” Here’s a screenshot:

You can see that Yelp has filtered out 22 reviews which its algorithm feels are fake
and/or solicited. For example, here’s a filtered review by David A who has 0 friends
and only 1 review:

Read some of the other “non-recommended” reviews and attempt to guess which ones
are truly real and which ones might be fake. Do you think Yelp is doing a good, or bad
job, with its filter? How do the reviews shown prominently compare or contrast with
the reviews at the bottom, or the reviews that are hidden?

You should quickly realize that the reviews that “stick” tend to be from people with
robust profiles, extensive reviews, and a relatively long history on the review site. Their
reviews also tend to be beefy and specific, with a lot of content that describes a real
experience. The reviews that get filtered out tend to be from people with sparse profiles,
few or just one review, and a short history on the review site. The content of the reviews
tends to be generic or sparse as well. This isn’t always the case, but this is the general
pattern. The artificial intelligence inherent in these review algorithms, in short, is getting
better and better at giving top billing to real reviews and filtering out fake reviews. Far
from perfect, yes, but that’s the trend.

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Now, before you go crazy and start soliciting reviews, keep reading. It’s more
complicated than this, but you should begin to see that review marketing – like all of
marketing – is a game of being pro-active and not passive.

Compare Yelp to Other Review Sites

Reviews do not exist only on Yelp, however. Take any review site (Google, Airbnb,
Avvo, Healthgrades, Amazon) and do the same exercise.

For instance, check out some reviews on Amazon, as a contrast to Yelp, by clicking on
http://jmlinks.com/4m and http://jmlinks.com/4n. For example, here’s a
screenshot of the #1 ranking garage door remote on Amazon showing it has 868 customer
reviews:

And here’s a screenshot of one of the “customer profiles” of a reviewer of the product:

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Notice some facts:

• The #1 organic result for “garage door remote” on Amazon has 868 reviews,
and 270 answered questions.
• The #1 organic result for “garage door clicker” is titled, “Chamberlain Group
KLIK3U-BK Clicker Universal 2-Button Garage Door Opener Remote with
Visor Clip, Black” – lots of keywords “stuffed” into the product title.
• The customers who are reviewing it are being scored by how robust their profiles
are, how many reviews they have written, the age of their profiles, helpful votes
by others, etc., and probably (in terms of Amazon) whether they have purchased
a lot or not many products on Amazon.

What’s unique about Amazon is that – unlike Yelp or Google – Amazon has data on
purchases, that is, Amazon knows whether or not the reviewer actually purchased the
product. These are called “verified purchase” reviews on Amazon. This type of data on
purchases is available on review sites like Airbnb as well, and is something that
distinguishes that class from sites such as Google or Yelp that do not really have
purchase behavior.
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So as you audit and identify the review sites that matter to you look for differences and
similarities to the general patterns. This can impact how you play the game as for
example on Amazon where you need to encourage people who actually purchased your
product to write reviews as compared with non-purchasers.

Is the new review system fair? Is it a better opportunity for your business than in 1994
when there were no online reviews? Whether it’s fair or not, good or not, is a different
issue than how you as a business can (and should) play the game of reviews to win. You
do not make the review world; you simply live in it.

LIFE IS NOT FAIR. NEITHER ARE REVIEWS. GET

OVER IT.

None of this is perfect, and I am not singling out Yelp, Amazon, or Google. I am
drawing your attention to the Review Revolution and the fact that it is not just real
people spontaneously reviewing businesses but rather a mix of people writing real
spontaneous reviews, people writing solicited (yet real) reviews, and even fake people
writing fake reviews.

Users Believe Reviews

Users believe online reviews! According to a BrightLocal study, fully 92% of consumers
now read online reviews (vs. 88% in 2014), and 68% say positive reviews make them
trust a local business more (vs. 72% in 2014). You can read the full study at
http://jmlinks.com/5b. Another excellent book on the social aspects of the Review
Revolution is Bill Tancer’s, Everyone’s a Critic, at http://jmlinks.com/37b.

Unhappy Small Business Owners

In my face-to-face classes on social media, review sites are among the most
controversial. Yelp, in particular, is literally hated by many small businesspeople because

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a) they have received what they think are unfair negative reviews on Yelp, and b) Yelp
has a reputation for strong-arming businesses into paid advertising. (Yelp disputes this
charge, though rumors have dogged the company for years – see
http://jmlinks.com/37c).

Here’s why local businesses often get quite emotional about sites like Yelp:

1. Often times, the only reviews they have about their business are negative reviews,
which they feel are inaccurate or unfair.
2. They do not understand how to claim or optimize their listings, nor how to
respond to reviews.
3. They do not realize that generally, if they do nothing, they are going to get
negative reviews disproportionately.
4. They do not realize that there is a small yet very vocal minority of “haters” on
reviews sites that troll businesses and write scathing and bitter negative reviews.
5. They do not understand how reviews work, and how to influence reviews in their
favor.

Moreover, many small business owners do not step back and compare 2019 with 1994.
Then, only the rich, famous, connected, or lucky got reviews in the local papers. Getting
reviewed was like winning the lottery: great if it happened in a positive way, but not
something upon which you could build a marketing strategy. Today, however, any
business can get reviews, and consumers can read those reviews online. The reality is
that the Review Revolution created an enormous positive marketing opportunity for
your business.

Let me repeat that:

The Review Revolution created an enormous positive marketing opportunity for your business!

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You can either be bitter and angry that your business has negative reviews, or you can
be positive, learn the game, and start to leverage the unbelievable fact that – today –
even “boring” businesses like plumbers, divorce lawyers, or CPAs can get reviews and
use review marketing to market their businesses.

Who Writes Reviews?

Let’s talk about who writes reviews. Let’s get real. Let’s assume you are a local plumber.
I have a clogged toilet. I go online and find your business. You come out, you fix my
toilet, and you give me a bill for $300. You did a good job, and I am happy with the
service.

Will I go online to Yelp and write a review? It’s doubtful. Unlike my relationship with
a local French restaurant, I am not “proud” that I have a leaky toilet, and I got it fixed.
While I will likely go on Facebook and share a selfie of me and my wife at the local
French restaurant, and likely go on Yelp and write a positive review to “showcase” how
wealthy I am, and what a great husband I am, I am not “excited” that you provided me
with excellent service with respect to my waste removal system in my bathroom,
otherwise known as my toilet. No selfies to Facebook, hopefully, no Snapchat of me
on my newly fixed toilet, no positive review to Yelp.

My toilet has been fixed. I’m happy. Done. Over. End. Writing a review is the last thing on
my mind.

Now, let’s say you come out for my toilet repair, and you do NOT do what I consider
a good job. Perhaps you crack my tile floor, or perhaps you get dirty water on my rug,
or perhaps I just don’t like you, or perhaps I find your fee of $300 unreasonable.

I’m mad. I hate you. I pay the bill. I’m angry, and I want revenge.

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I think to myself, “I’ll show you.” I go online and vent my anger in a Yelp review. I
explain to fellow Yelpers (and the world) how terrible you are, how they should never
use your business, etc. etc. I do this to “let off steam” as well as to “feel good about
myself” that I am “doing the world a favor” by righting the wrong of your terrible
business. I want you to go out of business. I want you to fail. That’s justice to me, the
unhappy customer.
(Don’t believe this happens? To read reviews of the “worst food of my life” on Yelp,
visit http://jmlinks.com/4z). You’ll see a lot of unhappy, bitter, nasty people on
Yelp, and that’s just for food.

Here are the dirty little secrets of the review ecosystem (with the possible exception
of entertainment venues like restaurants, bars, museums, etc.):

• Consumers believe online reviews when making a purchase decision.

• However, outside of “fun” industries like restaurants and entertainment, the
most likely customer to leave an unsolicited review is the unhappy
customer. The very unhappy customer is very likely spontaneously to write a
nasty review about your business!
• Outside of “fun” industries, happy customers are NOT likely to write
reviews. They are not pre-motivated to share their experience with your
plumbing company, your CPA firm, your DUI attorney services on Yelp without
a nudge from you. Outside of “fun” industries, you must solicit reviews from
happy customers to succeed.

Two other customer segments are likely to leave reviews.

• Review geeks / extreme Yelpers – which would be people like myself, digitally
connected and participatory in the Yelp (or Google, TripAdvisor) ecosystems.
Review geeks are not necessarily primed to leave positive, or negative reviews.
They just tend to review frequently. As Yelp has evolved, more and more people
ARE leaving reviews spontaneously about local services, which is a good thing.

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 • The hostile minority - these are unhappy campers who, because of sites like
Yelp, now have a way to vent their rage at nearly everything. These “unhappy
campers” tend to leave unhappy review after unhappy review: bitter and negative,
they tend to hate everything and leave a destructive trail of negative reviews in
their wake. Unfortunately, without any fault on its part, Yelp enabled the very
unhappy, bitter people of the world to spread their negativity by venting against
businesses. Don’t believe me? Try some Yelp searches, look for negative reviews,
and click “up” to the profiles of the reviewers. In just a few minutes, I guarantee
that you will find some very negative, pathetic sad little people.

UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS OFTEN WRITE REVIEWS

Contrast what you see with “non fun” businesses, with what you see around “fun”
businesses like restaurants, bars, or coffee shops. Here, Yelp (and other review sites)
leverages the social media narcissism so present in our society. Similar to what you see on
Facebook, people like to “showcase” their positive achievements. Look at me! I went to
fancy restaurant X, I went out to dinner, I went to this amazing museum, ate at this exclusive diner,
drank at this cool bar, smoked cigars as this cool cigar bar, etc.

For businesses outside of restaurants and the like, the takeaway here is to realize the
following:

If you do nothing, the most likely reviews you will get will be negative reviews.

And another truth. In more and more industries, your competitors are pro-actively
soliciting reviews and pretty much getting away with it. So if you are passive, you might
have ten positive reviews and a couple negative ones, but you’ll be competing against a
pro-active business that has forty positive reviews and just a couple negatives. It’s an
arms race to get positive reviews.

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Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Now, don’t shoot the messenger. Every business will get at least a few negative reviews,
sooner or later. If you have just a couple, that’s OK and normal (compare yourself to
other, similar businesses to establish a baseline). But if you’re getting negative review
after negative review after negative review, you don’t have a Yelp or online review
problem, you have a business problem. Don’t shoot the messenger; the Review
Revolution gives you a new window on how actual customers feel about your product,
service, or front-line, customer-facing employees.

Official Policy
Now, let’s return to the Review Revolution, and look at the problem from the
perspective of a business owner in some “non-fun” line of business such as plumbers,
CPAs or accountants, divorce attorneys, or roofing companies. You’re unlikely to get
positive reviews unless you do something pro-active. But what’s the official policy on
reviews?
The official policies of Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor and the like is that you – as the
business owner – are not allowed to solicit reviews in any way, shape, or fashion. Yelp,
for example, advises business owners:

Don’t ask customers, mailing list subscribers, friends, family, or anyone else to review your
business. (Source: http://jmlinks.com/4g).

TripAdvisor’s explanation is one of the most detailed, and you should read it at
http://jmlinks.com/4h. It’s informative and contradictory in that, like all the review
platforms, it ignores the fact that the most likely reviews come from unhappy customers
and/or the bitter minority of weirdos on the Internet.

Even Amazon has changed its once more lenient policy to one in which it is now taboo
to give away free products yet require a review (http://jmlinks.com/37d). Amazon
states, “In order to preserve the integrity of Community content, content and activities
consisting of advertising, promotion, or solicitation (whether direct or indirect) is not

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allowed, including… Offering compensation or requesting compensation (including
free or discounted products) in exchange for creating, modifying, or posting content.”

The Review Dilemma

So here’s the review dilemma:

• On the one hand, if you do nothing, you are very likely to receive negative reviews
from unhappy customers and not so likely to receive positive reviews from happy
customers (true in all cases, except perhaps entertainment-type industries), but
• On the other hand, the official terms of service forbid you from soliciting reviews
from customers.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The reality of the Review Revolution is that in most cases and certainly in competitive
industries like divorce law, DUI cases, plumbers, roofers, etc., most successful
companies are pro-actively soliciting reviews. This does not mean that they are faking
or buying reviews; it only means that they are nudging, cajoling, begging, emotionally
incentivizing, and otherwise motivating happy customers to go online and take the time
to write positive reviews around their business.

Is this fair? No.

Is this in accord with the terms of service? No.

Is it the reality? Yes.

Is it the public reality? No. Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, Amazon, and all the other companies
do their best to police reviews, but the reality is that the fact that reviews are heavily manipulated
by vendors is an open secret.

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But wait a second.

Is life fair? No.

Was it likely that your plumbing company would have been reviewed in the paper in 1995?
No. Your small restaurant? No.

Even though the posted speed limit on the highway is 60 mph, do most cars actually go 60
mph? No.

The Review Revolution has given you an enormous, positive opportunity to reach new
customers, just like the Interstate Highway System gives you the opportunity to travel
cross-country at 65 to 80 mph even though the posted speed limit may be 75 mph (in
the West) and 60 mph (in the East).

Don’t be the fastest car on the road. Don’t be the red Mazda Miata going 95 mph in front of
the cop. Just be in the fast car group, just not the fastest, most egregious car.

For now, just understand that positive reviews are the key to success, that soliciting
reviews is technically against the terms of service, and begin to realize that you are going
to have to create a strategy to solicit positive reviews, despite the posted terms of
service.

Let’s turn, first, to identifying companies to emulate on the various review sites. I’ll
return after that to dealing with the problem of soliciting reviews without getting into
trouble.

» INVENTORY COMPANIES ON YELP, GOOGLE, OR OTHER RELEVANT SITES

If you are a local business, it will be pretty obvious that reviews matter. Even if you are
a national business, however, you should realize that online reviews still matter. (This is

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because many people will Google your company name plus “reviews” to check out your
reputation before completing an important purchase).

Your first step, therefore, is to identify which review sites matter to your business. Your
second step is to browse similar businesses on those sites and conduct an inventory of
what you like and dislike about their listings, realizing that unlike on Facebook, listings
on review sites generally occur with or without the permission of the business. Actual
control is much more limited. Your third step is to claim and optimize your listings, and
your final step is to create a pro-active system to solicit positive reviews in such a way
that you don’t get in trouble with the review platforms.

Among the most important review sites are:

Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/) – the largest local review site with great strength
in restaurants, more popular in “Blue” states like New York or California than
in “Red” states like Florida or Texas.

Google (http://www.google.com/). Accessibly by doing Google searches on

relevant keywords. In some cases, you’ll need to first find a company, and then
Google its name to find its Google page (more below).

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com). Rather new to the review ecosystem,

Facebook is beefing up its reviews of local businesses. See
http://jmlinks.com/37e for Facebook’s help file on business reviews.

TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/). The leading travel review site.

YP (http://www.yp.com/). The traditional yellow pages gone digital.

VRBO (http://www.vrbo.com/) – a site for identifying short-term vacation

rentals.

Airbnb (http://www.airbnb.com/) – the leading site for vacation rentals.

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/) – earth’s largest retailer, with reviews
on billions of products.
Glassdoor (http://www.glassdoor.com/) – reviews about businesses from the
perspective of employees.

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Facebook is a special, and growing case of reviews. Consumers don’t pro-actively search
Facebook (yet) for reviews, but they are beginning to leave them. So Facebook reviews
generally function only as “trust” indicators, and/or encourage eWOM (electronic word
of mouth). To enable Facebook reviews for your business, see
http://jmlinks.com/32p.

IDENTIFY COMPANIES WHO DO REVIEW

MARKETING WELL, AND REVERSE ENGINEER
THEM

The easiest way to find logical review sites for your company is as follows:

1. Identify the keywords by which prospective customers might search for you.
For example, if you are a Sushi restaurant in San Francisco, those keywords might
be words such as “Sushi,” “Sushi Bar,” “Japanese Restaurant,” “Japanese
Caterers,” etc.
2. Google those keywords and note which review sites come up.
a. Also try Google searches by keyword plus words like “directory” or
“reviews” as for example, “family law attorney directory” or “family law
attorney reviews.”
3. Click over to the review sites, and make a list of them.
4. Go over to each review site, re-input your search query keywords, and begin to
browse company listings on the review sites you have identified.

For example, take “vacation rentals Lake Tahoe” and search it on Google
(http://jmlinks.com/4p). Also try “directory of vacation rentals.” Then, browse the
search results, and you’ll see sites such as:

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 https://www.flipkey.com/

http://www.homeaway.com/

http://www.vrbo.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

https://www.tahoeaccommodations.com/

http://www.vacationrentals.com/

https://www.airbnb.com/

In this case, you then find out if you already have a listing on each site, if so claim it,
and if not create one, and then optimize it. You then begin to solicit positive reviews
on each of the most important sites.

You can also check out Bright Local’s list of best citations by category at
http://jmlinks.com/46t as well as Moz’s at http://jmlinks.com/46u. These
capture the most common places to be listed, but I recommend that you also pro-
actively search Google for “directories” by keyword, as well as browse your competitors
to identify industry-relevant sites.

By using this techniques, you can quickly make a list of the key review sites that are
most relevant to your company.

Google is the Most Important Review Site

Among listing and review sites, “Google My Business” (GMB)
(https://www.google.com/business) is the most important by far. First and
foremost, it’s owned and operated by Google and has clear priority on Google search.
Having a strong presence via your listing on GMB is the No. 1 way for your business
to show on local-related Google searches. It doesn’t take much to look forward and
realize that if local matters to you, and your customers use Google, you’ll need to
optimize your Google My Business listing! Even if local does not matter to you, try
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searching for your company name plus “reviews” and your Google My Business listing
and reviews will often show up in position #1, but take note of what does show up and
begin to claim and optimize other listings as well.

Return to Google, let’s just be honest up front. Google has done a terrible job of
managing the Google My Business program. They are constantly changing the format,
rules, structure, set up – enough to drive a social media marketer insane!
As of September 2018, here’s the current set up:

Consumers simply browse Google. Consumers simply go to Google, type in

keywords such as “Pizza,” “Italian restaurants,” or “Family Law Attorneys” and
see companies show up in the “snack pack,” which is the three listings showing
(usually but not always with stars). Here’s a screenshot:

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 Consumers need a Google account to post reviews. Consumers can post
reviews to Google with either a Google+ account or just a Google account.
Anyone, however, can read a review.
Consumers rate businesses. Consumers rate businesses on a five-star system
and can leave detailed reviews (good, bad, ugly) on the system, whether or not
the business likes it.
Businesses can “claim” their Google listings at Google My Businesses. To
“claim” their listings, businesses go to Google My Business at
https://www.google.com/business and they can add a description (now
invisible to consumers), photos (visible on Google), and respond to reviews.
Businesses can post announcements to their Google My Business Listing.
Google now allows a local business to make a post to its business which will
show up when someone Google’s the business name as well as often (but not
always) when someone does a relevant search on Google, and your business wins
a placement on Google Maps. See http://jmlinks.com/37f for information on
this new opportunity.
Google reviews are critical to success at local SEO. Here’s why:

1. Reviews drive your company to the top of Google. The more reviews you have
on the Google system, the higher you show on Google searches for local
keywords.
2. Consumers read and rely on Google reviews, even if they don’t understand
where they came from or how to write them. The reality is that while few
consumers write reviews, many if not most people believe them.

Inventory Companies and Their Local Listings

As you browse local review sites, identify relevant companies and make a list of their
listings on Yelp, Google, or other sites that are relevant. Make a note of:

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 • Does their listing appear claimed?
• Photos: cover photos and profile pictures. Do you like what you see? Why or
why not?
• Reviews. How many reviews do they have? Are they mostly positive or mostly
negative? Click on the reviewers. Do they seem “real”? Unsolicited? Solicited?
Faked? Are vendors responding to reviews? Try to reverse engineer how they
might be soliciting or encouraging reviews.
• Questions and Answers. Google now allows customers to ask questions and
vendors to give answers. Do you see this feature in use in your industry?
• About Tab. Check out their about tab, or listing. Read it. Do you like how it’s
written? Does it include relevant keywords?

For your second TO-DO, download the Review Research Worksheet. For the
worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” , and
click on the link to the “Reviews Research Worksheet.” You’ll answer questions as to
whether your potential customers are using reviews, which review sites are important,
and inventory what you like and dislike about their review marketing set up and
marketing strategy.

» CLAIM AND OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTINGS

Now that you’ve identified which local review sites matter, it’s time to claim and
optimize your listings. All of the sites work in essentially the same way, although there
are differences in the details. The basic steps are:

1. Identify the local review site for which you want to “claim” your company listing.
2. Find your listing on the site.
3. Follow the instructions to “claim” it, usually by phone or postcard verification.
4. Optimize your listing description by writing keyword-heavy text, uploading
photographs, and populating your listing with your hours of operation and other
details.
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 5. Make sure that your website links back to your listing, and your listing links to
your website.
6. Make sure that the business name, address, and phone number are the same on
both the listing site and your website (be consistent).

To do this for Yelp:

1. Go to http://biz.yelp.com/
2. Enter your business name, and address and hit Get Started in red.
3. Follow the instructions to claim your business, usually by phone verification.
4. Once you have claimed your listing:
a. Click on Business Information on the left; re-write your description to
contain logical keywords that potential customers might search for,
including synonyms (pizza, Italian restaurant, catering, for example).
b. Choose relevant categories from the list provided.
c. Enter your basic information, hours, specialties (business information),
history, and “meet the business owner” with an eye to logical keywords.
d. Click on photos on the left, and upload nice photos.
5. Make sure that the address and phone on Yelp are the SAME as the address and
phone on your website.
6. Make sure that your website links to your Yelp listing (usually in the footer), and
that your Yelp listing links to your website.
VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to claim and optimize your business on Yelp
at http://jmlinks.com/16x.

To do this for Google:

1. Sign in to your Google account or Gmail (if you use Gmail).
2. Go to https://www.google.com/business

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 3. Click on the green “Start Now” link on the top right. Or, if you don’t see that,
click on the blue “Add location” button at the top right.
4. Follow the instructions to claim your business, usually by postcard verification,
and sometimes (if you’re lucky) by phone verification.
a. When you get the postcard, enter the PIN as indicated in the instructions.
b. This will verify your listing and give you control.
c. DO NOT LOSE THE LOGIN EMAIL AND PASSWORD as it is very
hard to reclaim a listing!
5. Optimize your business description by clicking on “info” on the left column.
Using the “pencil” icon then edit each option.
a. Business name
b. Address. Enter your correct local address, and make sure it matches the
address on your website exactly.
c. Categories. This is very important – choose highly relevant categories,
and fewer are better than more, so be as specific as possible though you
must use Google’s pre-set categories.
d. Hours of operation.
e. Phone number. Do not use an 800 number – use a local number, one
that also exists on your website.
f. Website.
g. Description. Write a short, keyword-heavy description of your business.
6. Click on “photos” on the left to change your profile picture, and cover photos,
as well as add interior and/or exterior photos.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to claim and optimize your business on
Google at http://jmlinks.com/17d.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on why Yelp matters for both SEO and social media
marketing at http://jmlinks.com/17e. Note that Yelp drives reviews on the Bing

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 Search Engine. For example, check out this Bing search for Pizza at
http://jmlinks.com/37h.

Other local listings like YP.com or Citysearch follow similar procedures. To find all of
your “second tier” listings, you can go to Yext (http://www.yext.com/) and enter
your business name and phone number in the box in about the middle of the page.
Then click on the “scan now” blue button on the right. Here’s a screenshot:

For free, Yext will identify all your local listings. You can then click over to each and
claim and optimize each. Or, if you have budget, you can subscribe to Yext, and they
will do this for all local listings including Yelp but excluding Google. A competitive
service to Yext is MOZ Local at http://jmlinks.com/37g. Whitespark at
https://whitespark.ca is yet another one. Yext is the most expensive, and fastest. The
other two are slower and less expensive. My preference would be Whitespark as it seems
to be the cheapest and they do the most meticulous job, “by hand,” while the other two
are automated.

Citation Consistency and Google Local Searches

To show up on Google search, it is important that ALL review sites and your website
have the SAME company name, the SAME phone number, and SAME physical
address. Make sure that your company name, phone number, and physical address
appear on your website, usually in the footer. (This is called NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
consistency).
“Citations” refer to the external listings on review websites that confirm (to Google and
Bing) that your business has a certain phone number and physical address. This is used

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by the search engines to filter local search results by their proximity to the searcher or
the geographic terms used in the search query.
Using a service like Yext, MOZ, or Whitespark allows you to claim, optimize, and make
consistent this information across hundreds of review sites. This consistency is a big
help to showing at the top of local searches on Google or Bing / Yahoo. Regardless of
how you do it, try to get NAP consistency between your website, the two most
important local review sites (Google and Yelp), and then the 2nd tier sites using a service
like Yext, MOZ, or Whitespark (or doing that manually if you’re a glutton for
punishment).

Organize and Claim Your Local Listings

For your third TO-DO, make a spreadsheet of ALL relevant local review sites. Go to
each, and claim / optimize your local listings. Be sure to note your login and password!

• CLAIM YOUR GOOGLE AND YELP WITH A PERMANENT

CORPORATE EMAIL (NOT AN EMPLOYEE EMAIL) such as
[email protected] or [email protected]. If not that,
create a Gmail to use for all your local listings.
• DO NOT LOSE YOUR GOOGLE AND YELP LOGIN AND
PASSWORDS!

Lost password retrieval on Yelp and Google is a disaster! Neither system has a good
password retrieval function; on Yelp in particular, if your password is lost, God help
you. Do not lose your passwords! Write them down somewhere where you will be able
to find them in a few years.

» SEO YOUR LOCAL WEBSITE

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, of course, is the art and science of structuring your
website so that it ranks well on Google searches. Local is an area that crosses both SEO
and social media marketing. While you are working on your review marketing efforts,

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let’s review the SEO of your website to make sure that your website SEO and your
local review efforts are in harmony:

• Optimize Your Home Page. Make sure that your Home Page, especially the
TITLE tag contains your keywords and your city. If you are a Miami plumber,
make sure that both the word “Miami” and the word “plumber” appears in the
visible text of your homepage. Make sure that there is visible content on your
homepage that includes your target keywords and every city in which you have
an office. If you have multiple locations, create landing pages for each one and
link each landing page to the local listings for that city. A few vendors that do a
good job of this are PetFood Express (http://petfoodexpress.com/) and
Home Depot (https://www.homedepot.com/). Notice how each has a “store
finder” section of the website, and each local store has a local landing page on
the primary website.
• Create a Consistent NAP. Include a consistent NAP (Name / Address /
Phone Number) on your website that matches the NAP on your Yelp, Google,
and other local review sites.
• Cross-link from your website to your Google and Yelp listings.
• Make sure that all your listings, especially Google and Yelp, link back directly
to your website.

Optimize Your Contact Us Page

Even if you have only one location, be sure to have an “about us” or “contact us” page
on your website as an optimized page for that city and target keywords. Optimize that
page for your target home city by including the city name and keywords in your TITLE
tag, plus visible content. Also, on that page, include an embedded Google map, which
you can generate by searching for your company on Google, clicking up to the maps
tab, and then click the share tab. Next, click on “embed map” to get the HTML code
to embed a Google map on your website. Here’s a screenshot:

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Finally, use the microdata / schema.org system to embed the appropriate JSON-LD
schema markup on your website. You can also use the Google “Structured Data
Markup Helper” at http://jmlinks.com/46v for this function. J.D. Flynn has also
created an online tool that will guide you through creating JSON-LD data for you at
http://jmlinks.com/32q.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on local SEO at http://jmlinks.com/46w.

» CULTIVATE POSITIVE REVIEWS

Returning to the social media and review aspects of local, we’ll assume you’ve claimed
and optimized the relevant listing services for your local business. Most often this will
be at least Google and Yelp, and in specific industries, it might include TripAdvisor,
VRBO, or Airbnb. If you sell products, it might be your product listings and uploads
on Amazon. Or it might be on Glassdoor.com.
At this point, you have two options:

1. Wait passively for positive customer reviews, and hope that the positive reviews
will outpace the negative reviews (according to the official policy of Yelp,
Google, etc.).
2. Be pro-active and try to encourage your happy customers to post reviews.

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Which do you think the winners in local search and social media are doing?

Legal Disclaimer
You are responsible for everything you do in terms of your Internet marketing. Nothing I am writing
here should be construed as required or recommended advice. Legally, I am recommending that you do
nothing (option #1).
Take responsibility for your own actions as a marketer, and act on your own risk!

Soliciting Reviews
That said, here is the reality. If you wait passively for reviews (unless you are in the a
very fun industry like restaurants, coffee shops, or bars), the most likely scenarios will
be a) no reviews, or b) bad reviews, or at least a preponderance of bad reviews. You the
business owner or marketer can, however, fight back against this dynamic. Here are
some strategies to solicit positive reviews about your business:

Face to Face. This is the most powerful way to get positive reviews. The
employee who is “face to face” with the customer builds rapport with the
customer. A scenario might be:
Technician: “OK, I’ve fixed your toilet. Let’s run through it together, and verify it’s in
working order.
Client: Yes, it’s great. Thank you so much!
Technician: You’re welcome. Hey, if you have a moment, could you do us a HUGE
FAVOR and write a review on Google or Yelp about your experience?
Client: Yes.
• If the client knows how to do this, just give him or her a card with
a direct link to the review site location.

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 • If the client does not know how to do this, give him or her a card
with step-by-step instructions.
Phone Reminders. Either at the time of service or shortly thereafter, call the
customer to see “how it went,” and if they’re happy, ask them to write a review
online.
Paper Reminders. Either at the time of service, or shortly thereafter, mail a
physical postcard thanking the client for their business, and asking them to write
a review on Yelp, Google, etc.
Email Reminders. Either at the time of service, or shortly thereafter, send an
email thanking the client for their business, and asking them to write a review
online.

The reality is that face-to-face is, by far, the strongest way to motivate customers to
write reviews, phone contact the next strongest, and so on and so forth.

Help Customers Write Reviews

Many customers may not understand how to write a review, so a step-by-step
instruction sheet would be helpful. Use a URL shortener like http://bit.ly, or
http://tinyurl.com to shorten the link to your local review listing page.
Google: Generate a REVIEW US URL on Google
Google, as I have explained earlier, is really a mess. To find a short, easy link to your
customer reviews on Google follow these steps.
1. Go to the GradeUS Google review generator tool at http://jmlinks.com/13j.
2. Enter your business name and city or postal code, and press the blue “Get
Google Review Links.”
3. Select your company from the list it provides, and hit “Continue.”
4. Click on the link for “Open in Search Results” and highlight the huge URL string
it gives you from Google.
5. Copy this URL string.

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 6. Go to http://tinyurl.com/ and paste this URL into the box “Enter a long URL
to make it tiny.”
a. If you like “customize” your URL to make it easy to remember / or just
cool.
b. Here’s an example: http://tinyurl.com/revjasonseo.
Alternatively –
1. Go to Google at https://www.google.com/ and enter your company name
plus a keyword and/or your city.
2. Click on the “blue” Google reviews link (you MUST have at least ONE Google
Review to use this method!).
3. Highlight the huge URL Google gives you in the top of the browser.
4. Copy this URL string.
5. Go to http://tinyurl.com/ and paste this URL into the box “Enter a long URL
to make it tiny.”
a. If you like “customize” your URL to make it easy to remember / or just
cool.
b. Here’s an example: http://tinyurl.com/revjasonseo.
You can write this in an email or on a printed sheet of paper. Here’s an example of an
email I might send to my clients:
Greetings!
Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve your Internet marketing and
consulting needs. As the owner of the Jason McDonald SEO Consulting Agency, I
truly appreciate your business!
If you have a moment, I would REALLY appreciate an honest review on one of
the local listing sites. Here are the instructions:
Google.
1. Sign into your Google and/or Gmail account at
https://www.google.com/.
2. Go to http://tinyurl.com/revjasonseo.

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 3. Click on the white “Write a review.”
4. Write your review
Yelp:
1. Sign into your Yelp account at http://www.yelp.com/.
2. Go to http://bit.ly/jason-yelp.
3. Click on the red “write a review” button
4. Write your review
Thank you,
Jason McDonald

TO GET POSITIVE REVIEWS, ASK HAPPY

CUSTOMERS TO REVIEW YOU

WhiteSpark, which is a leading local review tool company, offers a free tool to help you
create nice-looking Web pages and handouts to encourage reviews at
http://jmlinks.com/4t. In addition, a few paid services are emerging that “pre-
survey” your customers. Essentially, they first ask your customer if they liked your
company and its product or service. If yes, then that customer is prompted to write a
review. If no, then the customer is given a longer detailed survey and that survey is sent
to you the business owner; the customer is NOT prompted to write a review. One such
service is ReviewBuzz (http://www.reviewbuzz.com). Others are GatherUp
(https://gatherup.com/) and ReviewInc (http://www.reviewinc.com).
Note, however, that recently Yelp in particular began to crack down on these services,
blocking reviews that originate via their pre-surveys. The “nerd word” for this is called,
“review gating.” Even Google has now clarified that they are against review gating (See
http://jmlinks.com/47w). All of this gets you back to the “damned if you do,
damned if you don’t” conundrums of review marketing, and it reinforces the
importance of you, as a small business owner or marketers, taking matters into your
own hands and doing your utmost to ask happy campers, and only happy campers, to

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“do you a favor” and write you a review online. Automating this process is more likely
to trigger penalties as opposed to doing it customer-by-customer, face-to-face.

Be Judicious. Understand “Plausible Deniability”

Understand that according to the official policy, even a mild handout asking for an
“honest review” is a violation of the terms of service of most of the review providers!
Therefore, I do NOT recommend that you post these publicly on your website. Be
judicious: give them out in printed or email format, and only to those happy customers
who have been pre-selected by your staff.
Obviously, if a client is unhappy and you cannot fix it to make them happy: DO NOT
ASK THEM FOR A REVIEW.
In fact, a common strategy is to manually use “review gating” as follows:

• Conduct a survey of customers after they use your service asking them a) if they
are happy, b) if they would write a review, and c) if they know how. This could
be done formally (an email survey on a site like SurveyMonkey
(http://www.surveymonkey.com)) or informally just be pre-asking the
customer face-to-face, over the phone, or via email. You can also use Jotform
and “conditional logic” to set up this type of pre-survey on your website (See
http://jmlinks.com/37j).
• If they ARE happy, then ask them nicely to write a review.
• If they are NOT happy, either a) make them happy, or b) do NOT ask them
for a review.

In this way, you avoid motivating unhappy customers to review you online. Indeed, if
you are in a sensitive industry (e.g., Bail Bonds, apartment rentals) in which many
customers are not happy, I do not recommend you even publicize to your clients face-
to-face or in the real world that you are on the review sites. If many of your customers
will be negative, then do not make it “easy” for them to give you a negative review!

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Paying for Reviews
Let’s face it. Review marketing is the “contact sport” of social media marketing. In
certain industries (e.g., DUI attorneys, private detectives, breast augmentation services),
many reviews are solicited if not faked and sometimes incentivized with monetary
payments.
Should you pay for reviews? Generally speaking, I would not pay for reviews. (I am
talking about real clients not completely faked reviews). Some companies do incentivize
by giving $25 Starbucks or Amazon gift cards once a review is published; however, if
this becomes known to a Yelp or a Google you wrong a very strong risk of being
severely penalized.

Offering monetary incentives to get reviews is a dangerous strategy, so be forewarned.

Yelp will even mark your listing with an aggressive naughty notice if you are busted
paying for reviews. You can browse real examples of this on Yelp at
http://jmlinks.com/4u. First and foremost, therefore, if you choose to “go to the
dark side” and offer payments, I would not publicize it! And: I AM NOT
RECOMMENDING THAT YOU DO THIS. I am just pointing out that it is done.
Also, note that not only is “paying for reviews” likely to bring down the wrath of Yelp,
you can also bring down the wrath of Yelp by offering to pay a negative reviewer to
take down their review. Yelp even now explicitly forbids spiffing employees when they
successfully get a review. Anytime you are offering money in exchange for a Yelp
behavior then you run that risk – so be forewarned about just how uptight Yelp is about
reviews and payments! (Google and other sites have similar policies).

Incentivize Employees
A better way to increase your positive review count is to offer your employees an
incentive, rather than the customer, for reviews published online. Assume for example
you are a local pizza joint. Offer your employees a $25.00 bonus EACH after each
positive review on Yelp. Or if you are a roofing company, give the technician a handout
explaining how to write a review online, and give him a $25.00 bonus EACH TIME a

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customer posts a review. In that way, you motivate your front-line employees to be
customer-friendly, and when there is a positive customer experience, to politely ask the
customer to write an honest review on Yelp, Google, etc.

Motivate your employees to ask for reviews!

I would not put any pro-active review solicitation strategy in writing on the Internet,
just as I would not call the California Highway Patrol and inform them that, in general,
I go five miles faster than the posted speed limit while driving the highways and byways
of the Golden State.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
But just as going 65 mph in a 60 mph zone is unlikely to cause a police action, polite
nudges to encourage real reviews from real customers are unlikely to be a big problem.
If you do it, just keep it private, and do so at your own risk.

Don’t Overthink It. Just Ask for Reviews from Real Customers
In my experience, if most businesses would simply ask a few clients for reviews, they
would get them. Yes, you’ll ask ten clients to get one review. But you’ll get that one
review. The real problem is to motivate employees to ask and ask and ask and ask to
get that one review to go live on Yelp, Google, or other review sites.
Recognize, understand, and accept that you will ask ten people to get just one review.
That’s just how it is: customers are self-centered and lazy (but we love them).
Getting positive reviews is hard work. It’s not done in a day. Slow and steady will win
the race. Just create a culture at your business of great customer service and an
awareness of that “special moment” when a customer is happy to ask for a positive,
honest review.

JUST ASK. IT’S SO SIMPLE. JUST ASK.

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Do anything and everything honestly and ethically possible to encourage your best
customers to “spread the word” by writing reviews about your business online. After
just a few positive reviews, you will be amazed at what they do for your business.

Responding to Negative Reviews

Negative reviews will happen. As the business owner, you may feel as if someone
walked up to your newborn baby sleeping calmly in her stroller and said to you:

Your baby is ugly. Your baby stinks. I hate your baby. I had a bad experience with your baby,
and I am going to tell the world how much the baby that you are working for blood, sweat, and
tears is terrible.

Here’s an example:

You’re human. You’re close to your business. It is like your baby. Your first reaction
will be ANGER.

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 Resist the temptation to respond in kind. Do not go online and argue with the
negative consumer. Do not insult them. Do not use unprofessional language.
When you wrestle with a pig, the pig gets dirty, and the pig likes it.

Instead:

• Calm down. Wait at least 24 hours before doing anything. Sleep on it.
• Have someone else deal with negative reviews: an outside consultant or
employee who is not emotionally involved. Let a calm head prevail, and it
probably will not be the head of the business owner.
• Try to fix the problem. If at all possible, reason with the person (you can usually
contact them via Yelp, Google, etc.), and see if you can fix the problem. In some
cases, you can, and then you can politely ask them to change the review.
• Respond. State your side of the situation in a positive, professional manner while
acknowledging the right of the reviewer to her own opinion.

Remember: every business will get a few negative reviews, but if your business has more
than the average… you may have a “business” problem and not a “review” problem.

Don’t shoot the (review) messenger.

Do Not Validate the Bad Review

Please note that if you have a negative review on a site like Yelp, Google, Amazon, etc.,
and the reviewer has a weak profile (e.g., this is their first review, few friends, etc.), if you
respond to it, you are validating that review and making it more likely to appear high in
your profile. Generally speaking, therefore, I recommend waiting at least a month
before responding to a negative review by someone with a weak profile. There is a
strong chance it will be filtered out as fake (especially on Yelp). But if after a month, it
is still there, then consider a response.

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Responding to Reviews
To respond to a negative review, do as follows. First and foremost, take the high
ground. You can log into your business account / profile and respond to negative
reviews. This is one of the benefits of claiming your business profile. But be positive
and professional. Acknowledge their right to their opinion, but be firm as to your right
to state your opinion as well. Second, state your side of the situation but realize you are
NOT talking to the unhappy customer. You are talking to the person reading your
reviews and deciding whether to reach out to you for a possible business engagement.
Explain your side of the story. Often times, negative reviews come from nasty, unhappy
people (which you can politely point out as for example, by asking the reader to click
on the reviewer’s name and see all their other negative reviews to realize that this is just
a negative person). Or, the person wasn’t a good fit for your business (so explain why).
Or the person is being plain crazy. For example, I have had plastic surgeons condemned
on Yelp because their waiting room was too hot, or other clients condemned because
they didn’t respond to an email. Finally, if the review is fake (i.e., by a competitor) or
obscene or racist, you can complain to Yelp, Google, etc., and in some cases, they will
remove the reviews. (To do this, log in to a personal account on Yelp, and right-click
on the offensive review. You can then flag it and complain).
To read Yelp’s official guide to responding to reviews, visit http://jmlinks.com/5e.
To read Google’s, visit http://jmlinks.com/5f. To read TripAdvisor’s, visit
http://jmlinks.com/5g. For whatever review site that matters to your business, you
can usually search their help files for advice on how to respond to reviews. However,
remember that the official policies are often very naive about how the game is truly
played.

SWAMP NEGATIVE REVIEWS WITH POSITIVE

REVIEWS

A better strategy is to ignore the bad reviews and focus on soliciting positive reviews to
“swamp” the negative reviews in an ocean of positivity. Again, in no way shape or form,

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am I advising you to be dishonest or solicit fake reviews. I am simply advising you to
ask happy customers to just take a few minutes and tell their happy stories. If you pro-
actively solicit positive, real reviews, you can drown out or swamp the negative reviews
with a preponderance of positive reviews. In short, getting positive real reviews is the
best way to respond to negative reviews.

You don’t ask; you don’t get.

For your fourth TO-DO, download the Review Solicitation Worksheet. For the
worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” , and
click on the link to the “Reviews Solicitation Worksheet.” You’ll create a strategy to
encourage positive reviews about your company.

» MONITOR AND IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

Reputation management is a new buzzword about protecting one’s online reputation,
whether for an individual or a business. To understand reputation management, first
back up and consider the sales funnel, often explained as AIDA: Awareness, Interest,
Desire, and Action. Prospective customers go through distinct phases as they consider
solutions for their problems, needs, or desires:

Awareness. An awareness of the problem and the beginning of Internet

searches and social media outreach to friends, family, and colleagues about the
problem, need, or desire and possible solutions. In this phase, searches are often
“educational” in nature as in “how to cater a wedding” or “wedding ideas.”

Interest. As a customer becomes aware of available market solutions, they

develop an interest in vendor offerings and even may make a shortlist. At this
stage, and the next, they move closer to an “action,” i.e., a purchase or
engagement with a vendor solution. Searches at this point become “best wedding
caterers” or “Boston catering companies,” etc.

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 Desire. Interest shifts towards desire and the customer begins to narrow down
his or her shortlist. At this point, searches become reputational in nature. They
may search a business name PLUS words like reviews or complaints. If your business
were named Gina’s Italian Kitchen, for example, they might search Google for
“Gina’s Italian Kitchen Reviews” or “Complaints against Gina’s Italian
Kitchen,” or “Gina’s Italian Kitchen Wedding Catering Reviews.” Reviews is
the operative word; if he or she finds positive reviews, that confirms your business
is a good choice, whereas if he or she finds negative reviews, they may take you
out of the consideration set entirely.

Action. A choice is made to purchase the service or engage with your business.
Upon completion, the customer may decide to leave her own review about your
business for others.

Reputation management, in short, is monitoring and protecting your online branded and
reputational searches. To be frank, it is also about attempting to upgrade positive
reviews and positive brand mentions so that your online brand image shines.
To understand the search patterns, you can use the example of my company, The JM
Internet Group. For example –

a “branded” search is: “JM Internet Group”

a “reputational” search is “JM Internet Group Reviews”

Review sites such as Yelp, CitySearch, Google, etc., as well as ones specific to your
industry, can have an extremely positive – or extremely negative – impact on your online
reputation. Indeed, branded searches on Google (searches for your company name, or
your company name plus ‘reviews’) often return Google profiles and reviews directly
on the right side of the page. For example, here’s a screenshot of the search “Mecca
Coffee Company” on Google:

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You can try the search at http://jmlinks.com/32n. Notice the primacy of reviews
and the highlighted Google listing information plus review count on the far right. Scroll
down the page and notice how Google identifies reviews on sites like Facebook, Yelp,
and even Beeradvocate. Someone interested in going to the Mecca Coffee Company in
Tulsa is likely to search for the company by name or perhaps for “Mecca Coffee
Company Reviews.” This is even more true for high-value searches like probate
attorneys, roofing companies, or kitchen remodeling contractors.

GOOGLE YOUR COMPANY NAME PLUS REVIEWS AND MONITOR YOUR ONLINE
REPUTATION

In addition to identifying, claiming, and optimizing your business listings on relevant

review sites, you should also monitor your business on these sites. Usually, the act of
claiming your listing in and of itself will generate an email anytime someone reviews
your company. Paid services such as ReviewPush (https://www.reviewpush.com/),
Free Review Monitoring (https://freereviewmonitoring.com/), and
ReviewTrackers (http://www.reviewtrackers.com/) are sophisticated alert systems
so that you always know whenever a new review is published about your business.

The reality is that you need to monitor your business reputation at least monthly, if not
even more frequently. This means:

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 1. Doing Google searches for your company name as well as your company name
plus “reviews;” and
2. Identifying the key customer review sites that matter for your business, such as
Google, Yelp, YP.com, Avvo, etc. (this will vary by industry); and
3. Monitoring your review count, average star score, and whether you are getting
more positive reviews each week or month;
4. Responding to negative reviews as needed; and, of course –
5. Pro-actively soliciting positive reviews on the key review sites to bolster your
reputation.

For your fifth TO-DO, at a minimum set up a monthly checkup of your listings on the
major review sites, you have identified. Note in a spreadsheet how many reviews you
have, how many are 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 stars. If you have budget, consider using a paid
monitoring service.

» MEASURE YOUR RESULTS

Let’s sum up the bottom line. Reviews impact your business in two important ways:

• as a positive (or negative) “trust indicator” that you are a trustworthy business
partner; and
• as a signal to search engines and review sites that you should rank high on
searches for relevant keywords.

MONITOR YOUR REVIEWS

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Measurement of reviews, therefore, is focused on these two variables. On your keyword
worksheet, I recommend that you create a tab called “local.” Then every month, create
a line item (for example, March 2019), and note down for your business:

The review site, number of reviews you have, and cumulative star rating.

Secondly, try searches for your strategic keywords on Yelp, Google and/or on other
relevant review sites (e.g., Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc.), create a line item for each month,
and indicate your position on those searches. For example, Andolino’s Pizzeria was
measured as No. 2 for the Google Search “pizza Tulsa” as seen in this screenshot on
September 26, 2018:

This would be recorded as Andolini’s ranking #1 in the Google local pack, and having
959 reviews with a 4.5 star score. In other words, the restaurant is in good shape on
both review sites. If it had dipped to a lower position on Yelp, for instance, then a to-
do would be to encourage more Yelp reviews.

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The two major aspects of monitoring your reviews, therefore are 1) your review count
on each review site, and 2) your position on keyword searches on those sites. To the
extent possible, you can then accelerate your efforts for a lagging site and relax a bit for
a site for which you rank well and have positive reviews. (Note to monitor your rank,
you can use the Fat Rank plugin for Chrome to monitor your rank on Google searches
at http://jmlinks.com/25w or graduate to a paid rank measurement service such as
AHREFS.com, MOZ.com, or SERPS.com. A good free tool to vary your location on
Google search can be found at http://jmlinks.com/26z.)

»» CHECKLIST: REVIEW ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of the Review Revolution! Take the Review marketing quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzrv. Next, here are your review Action Items:

❑ Research whether your customers (and competitors) utilize reviews. Which

sites seem to matter for reviews, and why?

❑ Identify a few customer profiles that match your buyer personas, and
determine how active they are as reviewers.

❑ Identify companies or products to “reverse engineer” who is doing a

good job on various review sites both in terms of their search rank and
their review volume and aggregate star ratings.

❑ Set up or claim business listings (e.g., claim your Google My Business

account, Yelp account, Airbnb listings, etc.). Be sure to write down the
passwords and keep them safe!

❑ Optimize your business listings by writing keyword-heavy copy into the

business or product description, and uploading relevant photos.

❑ SEO your website for local search by including city names and keywords on
your homepage, plus launch city-specific landing pages especially for those cities
in which you have a physical location. Be sure to include your physical address
and phone number so that it’s easy for Google to see where you are located in
the physical world. Include JSON-LD markup language / Schema markup
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 language using the Google Webmaster’s Structured Data Mark up Helper at
http://jmlinks.com/46x.

❑ Optimize your NAP consistency by having a consistent name, address, and

phone on your website and on all relevant listing sites. Consider using a service
like Moz Local, Yext, or Whitespark to claim and optimize your secondary
listings.

❑ Create a review solicitation strategy that you are comfortable with. This
may be as simple as simply requiring employees to “ask” for a review after each
job, or as complex as a pre-survey that has a review follow up.

❑ Pay attention to your company’s branded searches on Google and

whether review sites are showing up as part of a reputation management
strategy.

❑ Respond to negative reviews, but be polite and take the high ground.

❑ Measure your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as total reviews and
aggregate star ratings each month.

Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Local SEO / SMM for my favorite
free tools on local and review marketing. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

»» DELIVERABLE: LOCAL SEO MARKETING PLAN

Now that we’ve come to the end of our Chapter on local reviews, your DELIVERABLE
has arrived. For your final TO-DO, download the Yelp / Local Marketing Plan
Worksheet. For the worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (re-enter the
passcode “seo19tz”), and click on the link to the “Yelp / Local Review Marketing
Worksheet.” By filling out this plan, you and your team will establish a vision of what
you want to achieve via local reviews.

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Page | 314
 6.1
METRICS
Google Analytics is the best free Web metrics tool available today. It is, however, only
a tool. It doesn’t tell you what to measure, nor what to do with the information you
acquire. Before you even start with Analytics, your first step is to think through what
you want to measure, and why you want to measure it. Common metrics are your rank
on Google for target keyword queries, traffic sources or how people find your website,
your top landing pages, your bounce rate, and whether landings on your website convert
into goals, such as registrations or sales. Second, after you’ve identified what you want
to measure, you need to turn to not just Google Analytics but other metrics tools and
understand how to use them. Third, there are even more advanced techniques that can
“slice and dice” your data so that you truly know what’s going on with your website.
Finally, there’s no point in getting all this data unless you do something with it, so you
need to take the knowledge gained from Analytics and turn it into actionable to-dos.

Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:
» Define What to Measure

» Measure Your SERP Rank

» Measure Your Domain Authority and Social Metrics

» Use Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

» Use Google Analytics Basic Features

» Use Advanced Features in Google Analytics

»» Checklist: Metrics Action Items

»» Deliverable: Google Analytics Worksheet

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» DEFINE WHAT TO MEASURE

Metrics, especially as seen through the prism of Google Analytics, can seem
overwhelming. Most marketers and small business owners want to measure whether
they are ranking on Google, whether they’re getting traffic, and whether that traffic is
converting (or not) into sales or sales leads as indicated by feedback forms. In terms of
more specific items, here is a breakdown of things you should commonly measure or
record every month on the 1st of the month:

1. Your Rank on Google Searches. SEO starts with whether your website is in
position 1, 2, or 3 on Google or at least page one. Using your keywords as
identified on your keyword worksheet, you want to measure your rank on Google
and its improvement over time. By knowing which keywords you rank well for,
and which you rank poorly for, you’ll know where you need to concentrate your
efforts.
2. Your Domain Authority and Links. Off Page SEO is all about links, so you
want to use a tool like MOZ.com or AHREFS.com and measure the domain
authority of your website, and the number of inbound links. With your link-
building efforts, this should improve over time.
3. Social Media & Reviews. Social media is increasingly important for Off Page
SEO, so you want to measure your “followers” on Twitter, your “likes” on
Facebook, and your “followers” on LinkedIn for your company page. In
addition, if local matters to you, you want to keep track of your review count
on at least Google and Yelp. Through your promotion efforts, you want to see
an increase in followers and reviews over time.
4. Traffic Sources. Turning to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, you
want to measure your “traffic sources” to learn how people find your website,
especially your best performing keywords and referrer websites.
5. User Behavior. Once they land on your website, do they convert to a sale or
sales lead, or do they just browse around and leave? Learn what people do once
they land on your website, especially marketing goals such as registrations or
completed sales. Understand successes and failures and investigate ways to improve
your conversion rate.

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For your first TO-DO, call a marketing meeting, sit down with a blank piece of paper or
a Word / Google doc, and brainstorm what metrics are most important to you as a
marketer. How do people find you? What do they do once they land on your website?
Many marketers speak also of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which can be
something as specific as inbound calls from customers or something as conceptual as
your brand equity. In terms of SEO, what background metrics, such as rank on Google
and reviews on Google or Yelp, turbocharge your success on Google? Identify these
and other KPIs that can be translated into something concrete to measure.

It’s also important to keep the general “flow” of the “sales ladder” or “sales funnel” in
mind:

Awareness / need > keyword search query > your website ranking on Google > click from
Google > landing on your website > user behavior > sales lead or sale

Your KPIs should take measurements at any point along this process, with an eye to
what can go “right” or what can go “wrong” at any step. For example, you might not
rank on Google at all. Or you might rank, but not get the click because your TITLE
and META DESCRIPTION are not enticing. Or you might get the click, but not the
sale or conversion because your landing page experience isn’t very compelling, etc.

» MEASURE YOUR SERP RANK

Your SERP rank (Search Engine Results Page) measures your website’s position versus
a target search query. Once you know your keywords, then the first KPI is whether you
rank or not for various related search queries on Google. (You may read on the
blogosphere that rank doesn’t matter, but that’s just silly. Measuring rank is indeed
getting harder to measure because of localization and personalization, but this doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t pay attention to your rank on Google vis-à-vis your keyword
targets! No rank, no click, no click, no sale.)

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Let’s review some of the ways to measure where your website ranks on Google vis-à-
vis your target keywords.

#1 Measure Your Rank Manually

Simply go to Google and use “incognito” mode in your browser. In Chrome, that’s
hidden in the top right under the “three dots.” You can also login to your Google
account (top right when you are on Google.com) under your picture. Alternatively, you
can go to Google.com (https://www.google.com/) and make sure you are “signed
in.” Then, go to https://www.google.com/preferences and find “Private results.”
Click “Do not use private results.” Here’s a screenshot:

Next, while browsing in “incognito mode” or with “private results” off, do your
searches by entering your various keyword phrases into Google. Then find your domain
on the Google results page and count your position from the top, being careful to only
count the organic results (i.e., ignoring ads and ignoring the “local pack”). Record them
as 1,2,3, etc. up to 10 on an Excel spreadsheet or on a tab on your keyword worksheet.

#1b Measure Your Rank Manually for Local Search Queries

As we discussed in the previous Chapter, Google varies the results for certain “local”
searches based on your user location. For example, a searcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sees
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different search results for “Pizza” than a searcher in Portland, Maine. You can check
your localized search results via the AdWords Preview Tool at
http://jmlinks.com/15g or via the SERPS.com location tool at
http://jmlinks.com/26z. Record your rank on Google for location searches in the
“local pack” as A, B, or C, or if there are variations in organic, then track those as well
location by location. Here’s a screenshot of the AdWords Preview tool for “pizza” with
location set to Tulsa, OK:

And here’s a screenshot of the “local snack pack:”

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Andolini’s would thus be position “A,” Domino’s position “B,” and Joe Momma’s
position “C.” Note that it is industry practice to record positions in the Local Pack as
“A, B, C,” not “1, 2, 3” to distinguish them from your rank in the organic results.
At any rate, you can see that you need to manually:

• Check your rank on Google vs. your target keywords in the organic positions;
and, if necessary,
• Check your rank on Google in the “local pack” vs. your target keyword city-by-
city; and, if necessary,
• Check / recheck your rank on Google in organic positions if those also vary by
city in addition to the “local pack.”

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to check local rank at

http://jmlinks.com/17s.

It’s time-consuming to do this, so if at all possible, I recommend paying for a paid tool
such as WhiteSpark.ca, which will automatically record your rank by keyword, ignore

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personalization, and allow for localization city-by-city. Moz.com, AHREFS.com,
SEMRush, and other vendors also offer paid rank-checking tools. Time is money so I
recommend a paid tool for this measurement.

» MEASURE YOUR DOMAIN AUTHORITY AND SOCIAL METRICS

Your PageRank or Domain Authority is a measurement of your authority on the

Web. It is not really publicly released, so use third-party tools such as MOZ.com or
AHREFS.com that will give you your domain authority. As we learned in link
building, think of your Web Authority as a measurement of how important your site
is on the Web.

I recommend you measure your domain authority as a surrogate for Google PageRank
on a monthly basis. Go to MOZ Link Explorer at http://jmlinks.com/7y, input your
website homepage URL, and note the two metrics at the top of the page: domain
authority and linking domains. Record each of these on your keyword worksheet each
month. Here’s a screenshot for jm-seo.org:

Domain authority is a surrogate for Google PageRank, or a metric that measures how
important Google thinks your website is. A site like nytimes.com might be 100, whereas
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jm-seo.org is a 43, and a tiny, unimportant site might be a 7. What’s important is your
domain authority relative to competitors, and whether this improves over time.
Linking domains is the number of websites that link to you; again, you want this to
grow over time. You can see here it’s a 1.4 thousand, meaning 1400 websites link to the
domain. Total links at 31.1k indicates the total number of links to the site. The Spam
score (located on the far left column) is an attempt, after Google’s Penguin update, to
measure whether your site is on the “naughty list” or not.

Another good site to use for this purpose is AHREFS.com. Here’s a screenshot from
their tool:

The nomenclature is a bit different, but both tools essentially give you a score for your
domain, a number of other domains linking to you, and a raw number of inbound links.

Choose a tool you like, be consistent, and record at least your domain authority, and
linking root domains each month. This gives you an indication as to whether your link-
building is working or not.

Social Media Metrics

Next, measure your followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., your page views,
and your review count on Yelp and Google. You want these all to move in a positive
direction, over time. Increasingly, SEO is “going social,” so it’s a good time to be aware
of how your social authority is improving over time.

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Record your follower count on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. each month by
logging into each account and recording the number. That’s easy enough. To track your
review count as a local business on Google, simply Google your company name and
record the review number. Here is a screenshot of Tulsa’s Mecca Coffee Company
showing thirty reviews on Google:

Yelp is the No. 2 review site, so I also recommend tracking your Yelp reviews as those
feed Yelp as well as Bing. Just go to https://www.yelp.com and search for your
company by name and city. Here’s a screenshot for Mecca Coffee Company showing
six reviews on Yelp:

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You’d also want to track the third most important review site, Facebook. Mecca Coffee
has 89 reviews on Facebook with a 4.8 star score. You can see it at
http://jmlinks.com/47u.
If you are a local business, reviews are incredibly important. So on your keyword
worksheet, create a tab called “social” and add in your social media sites such as Google
or Yelp that have customer reviews. Chart the number and the average star score each
month. Mecca Coffee would thus record 66 Google reviews with a 4.5 star average, 6
Yelp reviews with a 4.5 star average, and 89 reviews on Facebook with a 4.8 star average.
Do this each month.

» USE GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE (WEBMASTER TOOLS)

I’ll assume you’ve claimed your Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) account
as well as the corresponding Webmaster Tools account on Bing. These give you some
unique items that are not available in Google Analytics. First and foremost, Google
Search Console will give you a rough idea of your inbound keyword queries. On the
left hand menu, click Performance. Next, drill into queries, where Google will give you a
rough idea of those queries for which you performed well. On the far right, you can
click the arrow to download your query data. You can also see data for pages, countries,
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and devices. Take this data with a grain of salt, as it’s not clear that it’s entirely accurate
but it gives you some data on the keywords people are entering, for which you rank on
Google, and the clicks from Google to your website.

Next, again on the far left, click on Links. Google will give you a dashboard of your
top linked pages and top linking sites. Click into Top Linking Sites > More to see a
complete output of all the sites linking to you. Here’s a screenshot:

Record that raw number each month; in this example, it’s 39,451. Over time you should
see this number grow as you build more and more links to your website.

You can also link Google Search Console into Google Analytics, so you can see this
data in one place. For information on how to link them, visit
http://jmlinks.com/15b.

As for Bing Webmaster Tools, similar data is available.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on how to use Google Webmaster Tools (Search
Console) at http://jmlinks.com/17u.

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» USE GOOGLE ANALYTICS BASIC FEATURES

Now that you have these measurements, it’s time to dive into Google Analytics
(https://analytics.google.com/). If you haven’t already, install the required tracking
code on all pages of your website. If you’re using WordPress you can use Google
Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights at http://jmlinks.com/8e. Alternatively,
the latest and greatest way to install Google Analytics is to install Google Tag Manager
(https://tagmanager.google.com/) and then follow the instructions to install
Google Analytics “on top of” tag manager. Learn more at http://jmlinks.com/15c.

Once you have installed the Javascript code on your site and allowed enough time to
elapse for data to accumulate, it’s time for some basic Analytics. Log in to Analytics,
and scroll down the left-hand menu. Here’s a run-down:

• Click on Audience, to see basic data about how many visitors are coming to
your website daily, where they are coming from, and basic traffic sources such as
search engines vs. referring sites.
o Click on Geo to see where your website visitors come from by country,
state, and even city.
o Click on Technology to see browsers that they use (e.g., Chrome, Firefox,
Edge, Safari).
o Click on Mobile to see your web traffic: desktop vs. tablet vs. phones,
and even phone types.
o Click on Users Flow for a nice, pictorial map of how people “flow”
through your website.
• Click on Acquisition and browse “referring” sites such as blogs, portals, news
releases, etc., that are sending users from their website to yours via clicks.
o Click on All Traffic > Channels to see how people get to your website,
by Direct (URLs and bookmarks), Organic Search (Search Engines), Referral
(links from other sites) and Social (social media sites like Facebook or
Twitter).
o Click on Source / Medium and Referrals for another view of the above
data with an easy-to-read breakdown by name.

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 o Click on Google Ads (formerly AdWords) if you are running
advertisements on Google; here, you can get data down to the keyword
level.
o Click on Search Console, Queries to see which keywords and key
phrases are performing well for you in generating incoming web traffic.
(Link your Google Analytics to your Google Search Console for this
feature).
o Click on Social for detail on social media networks; click on Users Flow
here for a pictorial representation.
o Click on Campaigns to see activity you have “tagged” as a campaign or
UTM string. (To “tag” inbound links as from a Bing advertising campaign,
a Facebook or Twitter campaign, etc., see http://jmlinks.com/15d.)
• Click on Behavior to see what people do on your website.
o Click on Behavior Flow for a nice, pictorial map of how people “flow”
through your website.
o Click on Site Content and then drill down to All Pages (your most
trafficked pages), Landing Pages (first page they touch), and Exit Pages
(last page they touch).
o Click on Site Speed for information on how fast your website is, including
Speed Suggestions.
• Click on Conversions to see whether traffic is “converting,” usually buying stuff
on eCommerce and/or filling out feedback forms as sales leads.
o Click on Goals (if you have defined goals, see below) to see what goals
exist and whether they are converting.
▪ You can also drill down into Reverse Goal Path, Funnel Visualization,
and Goal Flow for some visuals about how people get to your goals
and whether or not they convert.
o Click on Overview, Reverse Goal Path, and Funnel Visualization (if
you have defined these elements to see the paths taken to/from a goal).
o Click on eCommerce (if you are running an eCommerce site) for
information on purchases.

VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on basic Google Analytics at

http://jmlinks.com/17y.

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Basic Google Analytics provides you a lot of key information on incoming web traffic
such as geographic location, mobile platform, and browser version. Finally, you can
click on the date field at the top far right of Analytics to change the date filter for data
or to compare two time periods.

» USE ADVANCED FEATURES IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Beyond Basic Analytics, there are advanced features in Google Analytics that you do
not want to miss. One feature is called Page Analytics. To activate it, first install the
Install the Page Analytics Plugin for Chrome (http://jmlinks.com/18z). Next, make
sure your are logged into Google Analytics and then visit your website. On the top right
of the Chrome browser, you’ll see a little orange icon with a squiggly line in it. Make
sure this says enabled. Here’s a screenshot:

It’s very easy to miss! It’s very small and in the top right of the Chrome browser. With
that turned on, then visit your website. If the Force is with you, Google Analytics will
populate your website with little orange percentage icons that tell you what percent of
people are clicking where on any page on your website. Here’s a screenshot from
JasonMcDonald.org:

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This tells you that on my homepage 9.5% of the people click on the link for “SEO
Consultant” and 5.1% click on “Social Media Expert.” I highly recommend that you
enable this add-on to Chrome and browse your site to see how users flow through your
website. It’s amazing!

Segments in Google Analytics

Next, return to Google Analytics proper and let’s explore segments. Segments allow
you to “slice” and “dice” your data based on criteria such as “new visitors” vs. “repeat
visitors” or the geographic locations from which visitors come. Imagine that you want
to see how people from Oklahoma behave on your website vs. people from Texas, or
whether people who come from Facebook convert better than people from Twitter.
That’s what Segments allow.

Unfortunately, however, Google hides this feature behind the “Add Segment” area
when you first log in. Simply click on that to bring forth Segments:

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Segments offers “pre-built segments,” available on the left-hand side under View
Segments > System. Here you’ll find segments such as “Mobile and Tablet Traffic.” Click
this to “filter” your data to see ONLY people coming from mobile phones and tablets,
for example. Others of note are:

Organic Traffic. Click here to filter and see ONLY traffic from search engines.

Paid Traffic. Click here to filter and see ONLY traffic from AdWords and other
forms of paid advertising as on Bing or Yahoo.
Referral Traffic. Click here to filter and see ONLY traffic from links on other
websites.

Sessions with Conversions. Click here to filter and see ONLY traffic that
actually converted (completed a goal or made a purchase). (Note: this requires
that you first establish at least one goal in Analytics or connect Google Analytics
to your e-commerce platform).
Tablet and Desktop Traffic. Click here to filter and see ONLY traffic from
tablets or desktops.

The concept is to first click on a Segment, and then click the blue Apply button. Next,
with these Segments on, browse other data in Google Analytics on the right menu such
as the Geo information, or landing page information to see what’s going on with respect
to ONLY that Segment. You can enable up to four segments to compare at any given
time. (For help with Google Segments, visit http://jmlinks.com/15e).

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 VIDEO. Watch a video tutorial on Google Analytics segments at
http://jmlinks.com/18a.

For example, here’s a screenshot comparing “Organic Traffic” and “Referral Traffic”
by looking at landing pages:

This shows that organic traffic was responsible for 1,386 visits to the AdWords Coupon
page vs. only 32 for referral traffic. In this way, you can compare / contrast traffic
sources or other elements as you scroll through AdWords data. It’s marketing “slicing
and dicing” at its best!

Custom Segments

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You don’t have to be content with the pre-built segments in Google Analytics. Simply
click on the red “New Segment” button and follow the step-by-step wizard to create a
custom segment. Scroll down the left-hand menu to filter your data by parameter;
“conditions” is probably the most useful feature here. Remember to use the “Help” file
(available top right, under the three dots) if you don’t understand what a term means.
You can read the Google help file on how to create a custom segment at
http://jmlinks.com/19b.

You can use a custom segment, for example, to track user behavior that originates in a
newsletter, a Facebook ad campaign, or even to compare the behavior of people from
Texas vs. people from Oklahoma.

Creating and Emailing Reports

Throughout Google Analytics, you can take any “view” that you set up an “export it”
by clicking on “export” in the top right. Here’s a screenshot:

If you click on “Share” (again as indicated in the top right, above), you can email any
report you create. For example, you could set up a custom segment to look only at your
Oklahoma traffic, and then have Google automatically download and email this
“report” every 1st of the month. Here’s a screenshot:

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Goals and Conversions

Having played around with segments, next set up “Goals” for Analytics by registering
your “Thank you” page after a registration or purchase. A goal is something you want
people to do on your website. Common goals are:

1. Fill out an inquiry form.

2. Sign up for an email newsletter.
3. Make an e-commerce purchase.

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In each case, find the URL for the “thank you” page, and record that. You’ll use this
“Thank You” URL as your goal in Analytics. For example, if you send a web inquiry
via JM-SEO.org, you’ll end up at https://www.jm-seo.org/thanks/ which becomes
the URL / goal for web inquiries.

To set up a goal, go to the primary login page on Analytics by clicking on “gear icon”
at the bottom left corner inside of Google Analytics. Here’s a screenshot:

Next, click on your profile name (usually your website URL). Then click on “goals” in
the middle of the page. Here is where you define a “goal” and a “funnel,” which is the
steps taken to reach the goal. Once you’ve defined a goal, Google Analytics will happily
record the complete goals under the “Conversions” tab on the left in Analytics. Here’s
a screenshot showing that JM-SEO.org received 89 email inquiries or goal #2’s in
October, 2018:

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Note that if you enable one or more segments such as All Traffic, Mobile Traffic, and
Tablet / Desktop Traffic, you can compare segments against goals. For example, here’s
the same goal comparing All, Mobile, and Tablet / Desktop traffic, showing I received
89 total inquiries, with 32 coming from Mobile and 57 from Tablet / Desktop:

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You can also change your time horizon, express this information graphically, and export
it into a PDF or automated email. In Advanced Analytics, you can therefore see not
only how people get to your website but the steps that take as they click through your
website up to a goal, and you can use Segments to slice and dice which people are more
or less likely to complete a goal.

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 VIDEO. Watch a video on how to set up goals in Google Analytics at
http://jmlinks.com/17z.

For detailed help with goals, visit the official explanation at http://jmlinks.com/19a.
Note: if you connect your e-commerce platform to Google Analytics, it will
automatically take completed sales as “goals,” which is pretty nifty as you can “slice and
dice” your customers via segments to figure out who converts and who doesn’t.

Sessions with Conversions

Finally, once you’ve enabled at least one goal or connected to e-commerce, Google
Analytics turns on a very important segment: Sessions with Conversions. Turn that on
by accessing the Segments Menu and then System. Here’s a screenshot:

With “Sessions with Conversions” turned on, you can then browse through Google
Analytics looking at only those people who completed a goal / conversion. This is as if
Macy’s could analyze the store behavior of only those people who actually bought

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something, vs. everyone else who was “just looking.” The “Session with Conversions”
segment is a fantastic way to cut out the noise and discover how you’re getting your
most valuable web traffic, the traffic that converts.

Help in Google Analytics

Help is available at the top right corner under the “Question Mark” icon on the top
right inside of Google Analytics. Here’s a screenshot:

Another way to find “Help” is to visit https://support.google.com/analytics/.

Once there, type in your query, such as “What is a Bounce Rate?” and you’ll find pretty
good answers.

Google Analytics Learning Resources

Finally, don’t miss some of the free official Google videos available for learning more
about Analytics. These are located at the Google Analytics Academy at
http://jmlinks.com/8a. Ironically, these Analytics IQ Lessons are hard to find inside
of Analytics. (They’re hiding under the “Discover” tab at the far left). Click on
“Discover” and you’ll see not only the Analytics Academy but also links to the Help
Center, Analytics Blog, and other tools that work with Google Analytics. Be sure to
check out Google Data Studio (https://datastudio.google.com/) and Google
Optimize (https://optimize.google.com/), which are Google’s latest and greatest
reporting and analysis tools built on top of Analytics.

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»» CHECKLIST: METRICS ACTION ITEMS

Test your knowledge of metrics! Take the metrics and Google Analytics quiz at
http://jmlinks.com/qzme. Next, here are your keyword Action Items:

❑ Define what you want to measure including your KPIs, ranging from your
rank on Google to completed actions like feedback forms.

❑ Systematically measure your rank on Google each month. If possible,

subscribe to a paid tool as they are easier-to-use than manual rank
checking.

❑ If appropriate, measure your rank vs. local keywords into the “local
pack” on Google.

❑ Measure your review count on Google and Yelp, as well as your

aggregate review stars.

❑ Measure your domain authority to gain knowledge on your link-

building efforts.

❑ Use Google Analytics basic features to learn about what happens once
people land on your website.

❑ Use segments to slice and dice your data by customer type, origin, or
other parameters.

❑ Define goals such as feedback forms or eCommerce sales to measure

what’s converting, what’s not, and why.

❑ Take the knowledge obtained from your metrics effort, make changes to
your website strategy and content, and continually improve the ROI from your
SEO efforts!

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Check out the free tools! Go to my SEO Dashboard > Metrics for my favorite free tools
for Google Analytics and metrics. Just visit http://jmlinks.com/seodash.

»» DELIVERABLE: GOOGLE ANALYTICS WORKSHEET

The DELIVERABLE for this Chapter is a completed Google Analytics worksheet. For
the worksheet, go to http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz (reenter the passcode “seo19tz” ),
and click on the link to the “Google Analytics worksheet.”

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 7.1
LEARNING
SEO is a competitive game that never stops evolving! The Google algorithm changes
and adjusts, user behavior evolves, and your competitors also improve their SEO skills.
Recently, for example, social media and mobile search have become ever more
important to SEO, as have both localization and personalization issues. Google
continues to consolidate search results between mobile and desktop, and Panda and
Penguin continue to evolve. In 2019, the transition continues to “voice search” and
“artificial intelligence,” which no real clarity on what that means (especially the
“intelligence” in “artificial intelligence.”) Google+ is (finally) dead, and Google is
cozying up to Twitter up to even a possible acquisition. New algorithm changes are no
doubt in the works over at the Googleplex!

All require the successful practitioner of SEO to adapt.

“Never stop learning” must be your motto! In this Chapter, I point to resources to help
you be a life-long learner.
Let’s get started!

TO-DO LIST:
» Download the Free Companion SEO Toolbook

» Use the Worksheets

» Bookmark and Read SEO Media Resources

» A Final Request: Please Review me on Amazon

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» DOWNLOAD THE FREE COMPANION TOOLBOOK

The SEO Toolbook is a companion to this SEO Workbook and contains hundreds of free
tools, organized by the Seven Steps. Register for free materials, including my SEO
Toolbook, SEO Dashboard, and companion worksheets to this book at
http://jmlinks.com/seo19tz/. Re-enter the password seo19tz when prompted.

You can also access my dashboard directly at http://jmlinks.com/seodash. That has

links to the Toolbook, plus my favorite tools are easy to click and organized by topics
/ Chapters.

If you know of any other free tools, please email me as I am always on the lookout!

» USE THE WORKSHEETS, RESOURCES, VIDEOS, AND QUIZZES

Throughout this SEO Workbook, I have referenced helpful worksheets, videos, and
resources. Don’t miss the fun-filled quizzes. These follow the Seven Steps methodology
and can be accessed at the book landing page after you have registered.

VIDEO. Browse available YouTube videos at http://jmlinks.com/19c.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel as well as free alerts on free toolbooks at

http://jmlinks.com/free.

» BOOKMARK AND READ SEO MEDIA RESOURCES

SEO changes frequently, so I urge you to pay attention to Google directly as well as the
many wonderful blogs that cover search engine optimization. Those are available in the
SEO Toolbook.

Stay Informed: Blogs, Conferences, and Books

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Among the best blogs, I recommend Search Engine Land
(http://searchengineland.com/) and Search Engine Journal
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/) in particular as well as the SMX
conference (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/). I also recommend checking
Amazon for new books on SEO; don’t take my word for it – pay attention to what
other experts and gurus say about search engine optimization. In terms of books, here’s
a direct link to Amazon’s SEO bestseller list: http://jmlinks.com/15h. If you’re
looking for a “deep dive” book in terms of technical SEO, I highly recommend Eric
Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie Stricchiola’s The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine
Optimization at http://jmlinks.com/15j. It assumes you know the basics as taught in
my book, and then leads you deep into the jungle of technical search engine
optimization.

NEVER STOP LEARNING

If you have any problems, questions, comments, or just want to talk about life and SEO,
please email me at [email protected],via http://jmlinks.com/contact, or
call 800-298-4065 for help. Good luck!

» A FINAL REQUEST: PLEASE WRITE A REVIEW ON AMAZON

If you’ve read this far, I want to extend my profound thanks. It’s a true labor of love to
write any book, and this book has been no exception. If you have a spare moment and
the spirit moves you, I would really appreciate an honest review about the SEO Fitness
Workbook on Amazon.

• Here’s a link directly to the book on Amazon: http://jmlinks.com/seo. Just

visit that link and write your short, honest review of the book.

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When you’ve done so, please send me a quick email. Thanks in advance for your
support.

Never stop learning!

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