Introduction to

Search Engine Optimization

Getting Started With SEO to Achieve Business Goals

SEO is part of the broader topic of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), a term used
to describe all marketing strategies for search. SEM entails both
organic and paid search. With paid search, you can pay to list your website on a
search engine so that your website shows up when someone types in a specific
keyword or phrase. Organic and paid listings both appear on the search engine,
but they are displayed in different locations on the page.
So, why is it important for your business‟ website to be listed on search engines?
On Google alone, there are over 694,000 searches conducted every second.i
Think about that. Every second that your website is not indexed on Google, you
are potentially missing out on hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities for
someone to visit your website, read your content, and potentially buy your
product or service. Practicing SEO basics, as well as more advanced techniques
after those, can drastically improve your website‟s ability to rank in the search
engines and get found by your potential customers.
What about paid search? Yes, you can pay to have your website listed on the
search engines. However, running paid search campaigns can be quite costly if
you don‟t know what you‟re doing. Not to mention, about 88% of search engine
users never click on paid search ads anyway.ii
Because the sole purpose of a search engine is to provide you with relevant and
useful information, it is in everyone‟s best interest (for the search engine, the
searcher, and you) to ensure that your website is listed in the organic search
listings. In fact, it is probably best to stay away from paid search all together until
you feel you have a firm grasp on SEO and what it takes to rank organically.

How Search Engines Work

Search engines have one objective – to provide you with the most relevant
results possible in relation to your search query. If the search engine is
successful in providing you with information that meets your needs, then you are
a happy searcher. And happy searchers are more likely to come back to the
same search engine time and time again because they are getting the results
they need.
In order for a search engine to be able to display results when a user types in a
query, they need to have an archive of available information to choose from.
Every search engine has proprietary methods for gathering and prioritizing
website content. Regardless of the specific tactics or methods used, this process
is called indexing. Search engines actually attempt to scan the entire online
universe and index all the information so they can show it to you when you enter
a search query.

How do they do it? Every search engine has what are referred to as bots,
or
crawlers, that constantly scan the web, indexing websites for content and
following links on each webpage to other webpages. If your website has not been
indexed, it is impossible for your website to appear in the search results. Unless
you are running a shady online business or trying to cheat your way to the top of
the search engine results page (SERP), chances are your website has already
been indexed.
So, big search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are constantly indexing
hundreds of millions, if not billions, of webpages. How do they know what to
show on the SERP when you enter a search query? The search engines
consider two main areas when determining what your website is about and how
to prioritize it.
1. Content on your website: When indexing pages, the search engine bots
scan each page of your website, looking for clues about what topics your
website covers and scanning your website‟s back-end code for certain
tags, descriptions, and instructions.
2. Who’s linking to you: As the search engine bots scan webpages for
indexing, they also look for links from other websites. The more inbound
links a website has, the more influence or authority it has. Essentially,
every inbound link counts as a vote for that website‟s content. Also, each

inbound link holds different weight. For instance, a link from a highly
authoritative website like The New York Times (nytimes.com) will give a
website a bigger boost than a link from a small blog site. This boost is
sometimes referred to as link juice.
When a search query is entered, the search engine looks in its index for the most
relevant information and displays the results on the SERP. The results are then
listed in order of most relevant and authoritative.
If you conduct the same search on different search engines, chances are you will
see different results on the SERP. This is because each search engine uses a
proprietary algorithm that considers multiple factors in order to determine what
results to show in the SERP when a search query is entered.
A few factors that a search engine algorithm may consider when deciding what
information to show in the SERP include:
 Geographic location of the searcher
 Historical performance of a listing (clicks, bounce rates, etc.)
 Link quality (reciprocal vs. one-way)
 Webpage content (keywords, tags, pictures)
 Back end code or HTML of webpage
 Link type (social media sharing, link from media outlet, blog, etc.)
With a 200B market capiii, Google dominates the search engine market. Google
became the leader by fundamentally revolutionizing the way search engines work
and giving searchers better results with their advanced algorithm. With 64%
market share, according to Compete, Inc., Google is still viewed as the primary
innovator and master in the space.
 Before the days of Google (circa 1997), search engines relied solely on
indexing
web page content and considering factors like keyword density in order to
determine what results to put at the top of the SERP. This approach gave way to
what are referred to as black-hat SEO tactics, as website engineers began
intentionally stuffing their webpages with keywords so they would rank at the top
of the search engines, even if their webpages were completely irrelevant to the
search result
Long-Tail Concept & Theory
In order to get your website‟s content to rank on the search engines, you need to
take the path of least resistance. Although trying to rank for highly trafficked
keywords and terms may seem like a logical approach, it will most likely lead to a
lot of frustration and wasted resources. Also, even if you end up getting traffic
from these types of keywords, chances are the quality of the traffic will be low
due to disinterest in what you specifically have to offer.

Think of every search query as being like a snow flake - they are all different.
There are billions more unique search queries than there are generic ones. In
fact, if you were to add up all search engine traffic that comes from the most
popular keywords, it would not even come close to the amount of traffic that
comes from searches using those more unique queries. This is called the theory
of the long-tail.

A critical component of SEO is choosing the right keywords for

optimization. If
you sell shoes, you may want your website to rank for “shoe store,” (a head
term), but chances are you are going to have some trouble there. However, if
you optimize multiple pages on your website for each specific pair of shoes that
you sell, you are going to have much more success and it will be easier to rank
on the SERP. A keyword like “red tennis shoes with Velcro” (a long-tail keyword
or term) is a good example. Sure, the number of people that search for this
keyword will be much lower than the number that search for “shoe store,” but you
can almost bet that those searchers are much farther down the sales funnel and
may be ready to buy.

This is why long-tail keywords are so effective. They target people who are
looking to perform a specific action, like buy something, or looking for a
specific piece of information, like a how-to or a service that can solve their
problem. By choosing to optimize with long-tail keywords, you will find it
easier to rank on the search engines, drive qualified traffic, and turn that
traffic into leads and customers.

Website Content
As mentioned in the Content is King section, you want to write content that your
audience will find valuable and engaging. Aside from the topical nature of the
content, the way you format your webpages can have an impact on how the
search engine bots digest your content. Every webpage you create should have
a thought-provoking headline to grab the reader‟s attention, and should also
include the keyword or phrase that the webpage covers. Other body formatting,
such as bolding certain keywords or phrases, can help stress the importance of
phrases you are optimizing for.

URL Structure
The actual structure of your website URL can have an impact on the search
engines‟ ability to index and understand your website‟s content. Opting for a
more organized URL structure will have the greatest impact. Some website

creation software will insert arbitrary numbers and code in the URL. Although this
may be optimal for the software, it serves no other purpose. If you can edit the
URL to include the title of your webpage, you should do so. In fact, some website
creation software, like HubSpot, will automatically create URLs based off of your
webpage content in order to eliminate this issue.

Using Social Media to Spread Content

Use of social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn has
exploded over the last few years. In fact, the latest figures
from ComScore suggest that 16% of all time spent online is
spent on a social network.iv With hundreds of millions of
users across these social networks sharing content they find
online with their friends and followers, search engines have
begun to take notice.
According to SEOMoz, the amount of social activity that a
webpage has on social networks (shares, recommendations,
likes, links, +1‟s, etc.) is an important factor in that page‟s
ability to rank on the SERP.v Simply put, search engines
have realized that content shared on social networks is
extremely influential, and should therefore rank higher.
Beyond using social networks to engage new prospects,
drive leads, and build brand awareness, businesses should
consider all of the SEO benefits they miss out on by not
having a brand presence.
In order to capitalize on the boost to your SERP rankings from social media, you
need to make your content easy to share. Implementing social network buttons
across your website is the easiest way to accomplish this. Installing the buttons is
easy if you use a service like Better yet, automatically adds this functionality for
you
Using Email to Spread Content
Almost any business these days uses email to nurture relationships with their
current leads and customers, and utilizes promotional email blasts to attract new
ones. It is no surprise that with the death of direct mail over the past few years,
email marketing has exploded. It has never been easier to set up an email
program, upload your leads, and send them communication. Obviously, the
extreme rate at which businesses
have adopted email has
deteriorated its effectiveness
industry-wide. There is so much
noise out there that you need to
make every email send count.
Just like you need to make the
content on your website easy to
share in social media, you need to
do the same for email. Aside from
having clear call-to-action in your
emails to nurture your list, drive
leads, and convert them to
customers, you should also make it
easy for your email readers to
share the content with friends and post it to social networks. This will increase
the reach of your website content and make it easier for you to get inbound links
for SEO.
Check Your Web Analytics
Web analytics tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot will allow you to see what
organic search keywords are already driving traffic to your website. These
keywords will provide a good baseline of core keywords, and provide you with a
list of keywords and performance which you can benchmark your future SEO
efforts against

By this point you should have a firm understanding of what SEO is why every
online business needs to recognize how critical it is. Developing and executing
an SEO strategy can be a daunting task. However, this process is completely
manageable if you dedicate adequate time and resources to it. There are several
things to consider when getting started with SEO.
Make a List of Keywords
Do some keyword research and make a list of all the keywords you would like to
rank for on the search engines. Rank this list in order of priority or relevance to
your business. This should be a living and breathing document that you review
and update at least on a monthly basis. This will ensure you continue conducting
keyword research and allow you to make note of the keywords you are already
ranking for.
Build Keyword-Focused Pages
After conducting keyword research, you will have a good idea of how many
specific webpages you want to create. Each webpage will need content and
pictures. Also, you need to decide where these webpages will live on your
website and what other pages or offers they should link to. Make a list of the
assets that need to be created or gathered and devise a plan to get it done.
Set Up a Blog
As discussed previously, blogging can be an incredible way to rank for keywords
and engage your website‟s users. If your business does not already have a blog,
set one up and make a point to blog at least one a week. Remember, you are
blogging for your audience, not the search engines. Write about things your
audience and/or prospects are interested in, and they will naturally find you via
the search engines. Remember that every blog post is a new webpage (a lottery
ticket) for getting found on the search engines. Stay Current on
SEO News & Practices
Like the overall marketing landscape, search engines are ever-evolving. Staying
on top of current trends and best practices is a hard task. The best way is to
read. There are multiple online resources that make it easy for you to stay on top
of SEO news and changes that may impact your website. Here are a few
resources to check out and get you started:
1. www.SEOMoz.com
2. www.SEOBook.com
3. www.SERoundTable.com
4. www.SearchEngineLand.com
5. blog.hubspot.com
6. inboundmarketing.com
You should now have all of the tools and understand all of the concepts you need
to get started on SEO basics. Now, take your time to
figure the strategy that is
right for you and start optimizing

Glossary &
Additional Resources
Glossary
Algorithm - The calculation the search engines use to find the most relevant
information in relation to a search query.
Alt Tags - Short snippets of code that allow you to tag each photo on your site
with a short text blurb.
Anchor Text – Text in your webpage content that is linked to another website or
webpage.
Black Hat SEO – A back-handed approach to SEO that involves shortcuts and
manipulation of a website. It is prohibited by the search engines.
Keyword Density – How often a keyword is mentioned on a page.
Headline Tags – HTML code tags denoted by “<h1>Headline</h1>” that make
the text bigger than other text on the page.
Head Terms – phrases more generic in nature (usually 1-2 keywords long) that
garner significant amount of search engine traffic, but provide little return.
HTML – Stands for Hypertext Markup Language is a standardized code for
tagging text files to formate font, color, graphic, and hyperlinks to create
webpages.
Inbound Links – Links to your website from external websites that are not on
your domain.
Indexing – The process used by the search engines to crawl the web, scanning
webpages and storing information about them.
Link Building – The process of generating inbound links from other websites.
Link Juice – The boost given to a website‟s authority via inbound links from
other authoritative websites.
Long-tail – The theory used to explain that while a majority of search traffic
results from a small percentage of keywords (the head) there millions of unique
keywords that make up a significant volume of search traffic in aggregate (the
tail).
No-Follow – Tag placed in HTML code around links that are paid to tell the
search engines not to give them any link juice.
Search Query – Term used to describe the actual keyword or phrase a search
engine user typed into the search engine.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – Refers to all aspects of search, including
organic and paid listings.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – The process of optimizing your website‟s
content so it‟s easy for the search engines to find your content, index it, and
determine how relevant it is to a specific search query.
Tail Terms – Keywords phrases usually 3 or more keywords in length that garner
a small volume of search traffic but are much more valuable because they
provide a better qualified traffic than head terms.
No-Follow – Tag placed in HTML code around links that are paid to tell the
search engines not to give them any link juice.
Search Query – Term used to describe the actual keyword or phrase a search
engine user typed into the search engine.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – Refers to all aspects of search, including
organic and paid listings.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – The process of optimizing your website‟s
content so it‟s easy for the search engines to find your content, index it, and
determine how relevant it is to a specific search query.
Tail Terms – Keywords phrases usually 3 or more keywords in length that garner
a small volume of search traffic but are much more valuable because they
provide a better qualified traffic than head terms.
Additional Resources
Free Trial: Try the HubSpot Software Free for 30
Days!
Take HubSpot for a test drive to see how HubSpot‟s
SEO tools can help you generate more leads from
optimized search campaigns!
Click here to sign up for your free, 30-day HubSpot trial today!
i http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/files/2011/06/internet-60-seconds-infographic.jpg
ii http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-people-who-click-on-Google-search-ads-understand-the-difference
between-ads-and-organic-results
iii http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGOOG
iv http://mashable.com/2011/06/15/social-networking-accounts-for-1-of-every-6-minutes-spent-online-stats/
v http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factor
Traffic
Measuring overall traffic to your website from organic search is something you
should look at on a weekly basis. This will help you determine if that changes you
made in the previous weeks or months have started to have an impact.
Leads/ROI
Web analytics tools like Google Analytics and inbound marketing solutions like
HubSpot can make it easy to see how many conversions have occurred on your
website as a result of organic search traffic and keywords. These tools will also
allow to you set up multiple conversion definitions (visits, leads, customer) so you
can really get a sense of how much return you are getting on your SEO
investment.
Indexed Pages
Measuring how many pages the search engines have indexed for your site is an
easy way to measure the growth of your SEO efforts and your website. The more
pages that are indexed, the easier it is to rank for more keywords. Free tools like
HubSpot‟s Website Grader will show you how many pages you have indexed.
Measure indexed pages on a monthly basis. This number should always be
going up
Search for Keywords
Besides looking at your web analytics data or using a keyword research tool,
there is a lot to be said for simply going on the search engines and conducting a
few searches. Using the search engines can help you answer critical questions
like:
How much competition is in the space? See how many search results
there are. If there are hundreds of thousands or millions of results, ask
yourself if it is really worth the time and effort to play in that space.
Where do your competitors rank? Pick a keyword you would like to
optimize for and look at the top 20 results. Are you competitors anywhere
to be found? Where do you rank? Are you ranking at all? This information
will guide you in making a decision to carve out a niche for yourself with
keywords where your competitors are not playing, or you may find a
keyword you think is worth picking a battle over.


Keyword Research Tools

Google has a few tools that make it easy to conduct keyword research. The
Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a great place to start. You can insert one
keyword, multiple keywords, or even your website address, and Google will then
return a list of related keywords along with simple metrics to gauge how fierce
the competition is around each one and how many searches it gets on both a
global and local search level.

Another tool worth checking out is Google Insights for Search. This tool allows
you to enter multiple keywords and filter by location, search history, and
category. You are then given results that show how much web interest there is
around a particular keyword, what caused the interest (press coverage), where
the traffic is coming from, and similar keywords.
HubSpot also has its very own Keyword Grader tool, which helps you identify the
best keywords for optimizing your site, and also tracks results from each one.
This tracking feature allows you to see which keywords are actually driving traffic
and leads, and to continue optimizing your keywords over time based on this
information.
SocialSellinator and SEO
At SocialSellinator, our understanding of the intricate
dynamics of SEO allows us to cater to the specific needs of
our clients. Our SEO strategies are tailored to drive business
success, ensuring visibility, engagement, and conversions for
our clients' digital content. We use data-driven strategies that
align with our clients' business objectives and deliver
measurable results.
In conclusion, SEO is not just a trendy buzzword; it's a vital
component of successful digital marketing strategies. As we
navigate the future, businesses that understand the power of
SEO and leverage it effectively will continue to thrive in the
digital marketplace. Will your business be among them? Let
Social Sellinator help you unlock the power of SEO and
elevate your digital marketing game