Google has dominated search and probably always will. That said, this article will be based mostly on the Google algorithm.
The way people search is fundamentally changing due to mobile. The development of Google’s algorithm has better defined the intention of the searcher to provide more dynamic and personalized results. This experience will continue to get better as Google continues to build a graph on each and every one of us.
If you are signed in to Google Gmail, Google is tracking every move you make online. If you have Google maps installed on your phone, Google is tracking everywhere you go in the physical world. It’s just a matter of time before Google will know what you want before you do, based on your online and offline behaviors. The goal that Google is approaching is (AI) Artificial Intelligence. Kind of scary, but true.
Now let’s discuss details on helping you drive traffic to your website and make some serious $$$ at the same time.
Creating an Effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Strategy
1. Keyword research
An effective strategy starts with keyword research. You can use tools like http://www.semrush (Paid) and the Google Keyword Planner – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner (Free).
The Basics of Using the Keyword Research Tool
As you can see in the example above, I did a search for the words “Jeans” and “Blue Jeans.” The Google keyword planner provides the amount of search volume, which is what we need, as well as related keywords. Before writing content you want to be sure you do this research so you know what words to build your content around. All things being equal, you want to write about keywords that are getting a significant amount of search. I would also sprinkle in related search terms into your article so Google can better understand the theme of your pages.
2. Keyword density.
Now don’t go crazy with writing the targeted keyword (in this case “Jeans”) more than 2% of the total amount of words on the page. Ideally you want your article to be 600 words or longer. The longer, the better at this point.
Content Marketing
It’s definitely a good idea to have a solid content marketing strategy. This may include a curated Lookbook, product reviews, street style, etc. The goal here is to get traction and give inspired users the opportunity to “shop the look” at your store so you can monetize your posts to generate revenue.
1. Start with unique content
If you are selling jeans for example, be sure to create unique photos, content, and reviews if possible. The old days of having your stock manufacturers content will not work in today’s search environment due to smarter search engine algorithms. So take the time to write a unique description for each product. Provide Google with unique and informative content, and watch your rankings climb. Conversely, use spun content, duplicate photos and static pages, and watch your traffic drop.
More on content here http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html
2. Creating a blog with unique content
Creating a blog is a great way to drive traffic and a loyal following. If you opt for this strategy, you must be willing to go the distance before you generate enough traffic to make all of your effort pay off. Keep your content fresh and start with at least 2 new posts per week and work your way up if possible.
The Basics of On Page Optimization
On page optimization is arguably more important these days than off page link building.
1. Check your site for duplicate content.
Duplicate content can really hurt your Google rankings so let’s do some housecleaning. You must create unique content and be sure you remove any old duplicate content. This means content that has been either copied and pasted to your website, borrowed photos, etc. Here is a simple way to check your entire site for duplicate content:
Visit http://www.copyscape.com and enter in your url. See example below:
Copyscape will provide you with a list of pages on your own website or external websites that have duplicate or similar content to yours. Be sure to check all of your pages and get rid of the content that is even remotely duplicative by either rewriting it or use a “no index” attribute tag in the code of your site on that particular page. More on “no index” attributes here – http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html
Housekeeping
Whether you are using a proprietary CMS, Magento, WordPress, or a subscription based solution like Shopify, one thing you must do is be sure that your UI (user interface) is simple, loads fast, and provides a great and unique customer experience!
1. Use Google Page Speed Insights to check your site speed
Go here to test the speed of your website. – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Once you get your results, ideally you want to rank at least 70/100 for desktop and 60/100 for mobile. If you are under 70/100 for desktop and 60/100 for mobile, check with your webmaster to help speed your site up.
Preserving Link juice for maximum rankings
There’s some house cleaning you are going to want to do to effectively channel your link juice and preserve as much of it as you can. First thing I like to do is no follow/no index pages that I don’t want the search engines to crawl. Examples of these pages would be, archive pages, tag pages, all legal disclaimers, and category pages that have content excerpts. When you are done, setup a site map so that Google can easily index pages. If you are using wordpress there are plugins such as – https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/. All other non-Wordpress users go here – https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
Analytics and Conversion Based Optimization
There are tons of tools coming on the market to A/B split test (More here – https://www.optimizely.com/ab-testing), track searches, and improve conversions. Tools we use to track are Mixpanel.com (subscription), Google Analytics, and Statcounter (Free). If you are a large enterprise company with a proprietary shopping cart, you may want to build your own database to track for better control and scale.
I have data, now what?
You should spend time analyzing this data you collected to make changes to your website and marketing strategies. What does this mean? Create additional pages for “Light Blue Jeans” because your search data says there is a large amount of search for this. You could also use the data collected to remove unnecessary pages with low search volume. You can also use the data to increase product conversion and sign up abandonment. Mixpanel is great for this because you can choose variables on your website as data points to track. For example, wouldn’t it be great to have the ability to send an email to a person that started the process of buying a product on your website but at the very end abandoned the transaction. You can also keep track of what your users are browsing on your website. What pages are they visiting, what products are they clicking on. This data is priceless because the more you know about your user, the more personalized you can make the shopping experience.
Schema and Click thru Rate
Ever notice when searching Google results the little “stars” next to a product description for reviews (see example below)? How is this done you ask? This is possible by using a universal language created by Google, Yahoo, and Bing referred to as Schema Markup. Schema was designed to offer an enhanced search experience.
Studies show an increase of 30% CTR (Click Thru Rate) by providing schema markup in your results. Take the time and learn Schema Markup; it’s simple to learn and will help drive massive traffic over your competition.
Read more about implementing Schema here http://schema.org/.
Mobile Comes First
Google’s recent algorithm change – – Hummingbird was designed to better and more accurately understand the user intention on voice activated search (i.e. Siri, and Google Now). It’s reported that nearly 60% of search is being conducted on a mobile phone. This trend will continue to rise especially as screen sizes become larger, which increases the user experience and slowly eliminates the need for tablets and desktop computers.
It’s mind-blowing how many large retailers are still depending solely on a desktop based environment. Just by adding a mobile site or coding your site so its responsive, the increase in traffic and conversion make it a worthy investment.
More on responsive web design here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design
The old way of searching by a specific product type or name is still relevant but slowly being deprecated by mobile related searches. Go here to learn more about Hummingbird and mobile search – http://moz.com/blog/hummingbird-unleashed.
See the graphic below for examples:
Old desktop search
Mobile related search via Siri
This is where it is going. More and more search is being done via Siri and Google Now, which means the way in which people search is becoming more question based versus keyword based.
Search is a complex beast and is constantly evolving. There really is no magic bullet to dominating for every search term but if you follow the steps above and follow best practices you will put yourself in a place to make a nice living from your website and build momentum over time to become an authority website where people frequent to buy your products. We wish you the best of luck and go out there and make it happen!
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