An Intro to SEO deck for early stage startups looking for organic ways to get traction

1. SEO for Startups
What I learned doing SEO at Meddy
Haris Aghadi, Co-Founder at Meddy | @haghadi | haris@meddy.co

2. Agenda
What is SEO?
Why should you care about SEO?
How to do SEO to increase organic traffic?

3. What is SEO?

4. Effort to show up or increase rank of a
webpage organically in Search Engine
Results Page (SERP)

5. Lingo
CTR
SERP
SEM
SEO
Impressions
Meta Tags
Onpage

6. SERP

7. Organic vs Adwords

8. Organic vs Adwords

9. Why do SEO?

10. Helps people find your website

11. Traffic Share of SERP Results
Source:Chitika

12. Percentage of Google Traffic by Results Page
Source:Chitika

13. Percentage of Google Traffic by Results Page
Source:Huffingtonpost

14. One of the most cost-effective marketing
strategy

15. Source:SlideShare

16. How to do SEO?

17. Most people start SEO by discussing tactics
instead of strategy!

18. DO NOT! start SEO before answering these 5
questions:

19. #1 What does your organization create
that solve searcher’s problem?

20. #2 What is the unique value we provide that
no one else does?

21. #3 Who’s going to amplify our message, and
why will they do it?

22. #4 What is our process for turning visitors
from search into customers?

23. #5 How do we expose what we do that
provides value here in a way that engines
can easily crawl, index, understand, and
show off?

24. Further Reading on 5 Questions:
https://moz.com/blog/universal-seo-strategy-audit-in-5-steps-whiteboard-friday

25. How it works
Source:SlideShare

26. SEO use to be Easy
Source: Rand Fishkin

27. Not Anymore!
Source: Rand Fishkin

28. Keyword Research

29. - Almost all SEO campaigns start with keyword research
- Probably, the most important part of your SEO strategy
- Most time consuming and iterative activity
- Will either make or break your campaign
Keyword Research

30. - What your audience’s problems are?
- The language they use.
- Is the keyword relevant to your website content?
- Is your target audience likely to use those keywords?
- Will your target audience find what they are looking for on
your site when they search for those keywords?
Things to consider:

31. Long Tail
Source: Golden Gate Marketing

32. Long Tail
Source: Union Street Media

33. Further Reading on Long Tail Keyword
http://neilpatel.com/2015/05/07/a-step-by-step-guide-to-integrating-long-tail-
keywords-within-blog-posts/
https://moz.com/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail

34. Keyword Intent

35. Words:
- Buy
- Coupon
- Discount
- Deal Shipping
Type #1: Buy Now Keywords
keywords:
- Discount on indian restaurants Qatar
- Same day smartphone delivery
- buy 1 get 1 free coupon for starbucks
- Users already know what they want
- Looking for the cheapest place to buy
- Very high chance of CTR and conversion!!

36. Words:
- Reviews
- Best
- Top 10
- Specific Brand (“Nike)”
Type #2: Product Keywords
keywords:
- reviews for dentist Dr.Nizar Qatar
- best Burgers in town
- top 10 Shisha places in Doha
- cheapest place to buy Nike shoes
- Users almost decided what they want to do/buy
- Just making sure what they know is right
- High chance of conversion but not as much Buy Now

37. Words:
- How to
- Best way to
- Ways to
- I need to
Type #3: Informational Keywords
keywords:
- how to get a Business Visa in Qatar
- best way to learn Arabic
- ways to lose weight
- i need to enroll in a driving school
- User is very early in buying process
- Finding as much information as possible
- Unlikely to convert but a high CTR
- Very high search volume to be ignored. Tailor content to get traffic

38. Words:
- Free
- Torrent
- Download
- ...for free
Type #4: Tire Kicker Keywords
keywords:
- free yoga session at pearl qatar
- torrent G.O.T Season 3
- download Drake’s latest songs
- get a dental consultation for free
- Very Unlikely to convert but a high CTR
- Relatively high search volume to be ignored. Tailor content to get
traffic

39. Further Reading on Keyword Intent
http://backlinko.com/commercial-intent

40. How to find the right keywords?

41. - Build a customer persona
- Focus more on Long Tail keywords instead of head terms
- Google those keywords
- Buy a sample Adwords to see how they perform
- Use Keyword suggestions tools and tricks
Things to Do:

42. Trick #1: See related searches

43. Trick #1: See related searches

44. Trick #2: Use Google Suggest
these don’t even show up in Google
Keyword Planner

45. Trick #3: Use Wildcards in search query
Use _ at the start of the query

46. Trick #3: Use Wildcards in search query
Use _ between two words

47. Trick #3: Use Wildcards in search query
Use * at the beginning

48. Further Reading on Related Searches and Wildcards
http://backlinko.com/long-tail-keywords
https://moz.com/rand/google-suggest-has-wildcards-kw-planner-hides-data/

49. Trick #4: Use Forums and online news
- Lot of forums and online content websites.
- Forums tend to have a higher domain authority due to user
generated content.
- Chances are someone has asked those questions on those
forums.
- Great way to find different variations in keywords

50. Trick #4: Use Forums and online news

51. Trick #4: Use Forums and online news
Also, a great place to put links of your website
to seed referral traffic ;)
Although, will not help in Link Building due to
No Follow Tag.

52. Trick #4: Use Facebook groups
- Targeting expats in Qatar? Facebook would be a good choice.
- Chances are there is already a group that targets your niche
- People are frequently asking for different things in those groups.
- Great way to understand your customers and keywords they use.
- Another great place to share links to your website to seed social
referral traffic ;)

53. Tool #1: Google Keyword Planner

54. Tool #1: Google Keyword Planner

55. Tool #1: Google Keyword Planner
Keywords with high competition tend to have a higher CPC

56. Tool #2: keywordtool.io
Great tool for suggesting different keyword variations.

57. Tool #3: keywordshitter.com
love this tool!

58. - Qatar is a too small of a search market for tools to give lot of
variations and traffic estimates.
- Lot of different long tail keyword variations due to a very diverse
population.
- Use multiple tools and ways to get as many variations you can.
- Finding long tail keywords for your niche is hard!
- Always be researching and testing!

59. Page Rank
Source: Wikipedia

60. Page Rank
- Page rank is a score between 1-10
- Page rank is for every page not the domain!
- Inbound links from higher page rank domain

61. Source: topleftdesigns

63. Off Page SEO
Link Building
Social Shares
Outreach emails to your influencers in Industry

64. On Page SEO
Strategically placing keywords on your webpage

65. On Page SEO
Title Tags
Meta Descriptions
Heading Tags: h1, h2. h3
URL Structure
Sitemap
ALT Tags
Internal Linking
Canonicalization
Social Tags
Schema Markup

66. Page Title
Most important On-page SEO Element*

67. Page Title
<title>Dr. Nizar Kharma - Qatar Dentist - Meddy</title>

68. Page Title
Be Mindful of Length
50-60 Character of 512 px wide. Longer than that will show ellipsis “...”
Title Longer
than 55 char /
512 px

69. Page Title
Place Important Keywords Close to the Front of the Title Tag

70. Page Title
Leverage Branding
Put your company name at the end of the title tag, not at the beginning!

71. Page Title
Consider readability and emotional aspect
Should convey the most positive message possible
Have Unique Titles!
Do A/B Testing on your Page Titles
Keep iterating on the title until you find the one with highest CTR

72. Meta Description
Meta
Description
<meta property="description" content="Understand torn rotator cuff symptoms, shoulder surgery, and treatment for shoulder pain
from chronic and acute rotator cuff tears and shoulder tendonitis. Plus, learn about the tests used in diagnosis." /

73. Meta Description
Used as a snippet in SERP

74. Meta Description
Avoid Small Meta Descriptions
Recommended Length: 150-160 Characters
Include a compelling Call to Action
Start with an Action verb: “Discover why..” or “Read about the”
End with an Action verb: “Read more..” or “Find out now..”
Ask a question: “Ever wondered..?” or “What would you do if..”
Use Keywords
If words in user query matches words in your meta tag, these words will be highlighted

75. Meta Description
- Have unique meta descriptions on each
page.
- It’s OKAY to not have meta description
on some pages.
- It’s NOT OKAY! to have duplicates!

76. Headings: h1, h2, h3. Tags
Tells a user what the page is about
<h1> How to Structure a Perfect SEO
Optimized Page</h1>

77. Headings: h1, h2, h3. Tags
- Ideally, between 15-66 characters
- Write concise headlines to give a clear
idea about what the page is all about.
- Similar or identical to the Title of the page
- Avoid having h1 tag drastically different
from title.
- Will help reduce Bounce Rate.

78. URL
URL
www.shopping.com/bags/swissgear-bag/
Home page URL
Categories
Product

79. URL
Avoid having too long URLs
URLs ranked in the top 10 results on average contained 37 characters
Use Keywords
Keywords in your URL get highlighted in SERP if they match user query
Use Dashes (-) over Underscores (_)
.com/bags/green-bags/: Google sees that this URL is about “green bags”
.com/bags/green_bags/: Google sees that this urls is about “greenbags”

80. URL
Limit the number of extraneous characters and parameters
Make it as easy for humans to read it
Which one is easier to read?
www.shopping.com/product_id=12&category=luxruy&search_query=prada&results=1
www.shopping.com/luxury-items/prada
or

81. Tool: Snippet Optimizer

82. Internal Linking
Hyperlinks that point to pages in the same domain
Keyword rich anchor text
<a href="http://www.same-domain.com/">Cool Stuff</a>

83. Sitemap
- List of webpages accessible to crawlers or users
- Makes it easy for crawlers to crawl your website

84. ALT Tag or Attribute
ALT = “Golden Gate Bridge covered by Fog”
<img src=”http://www.quicksprout.com/foggygoldengatebridge.jpg” alt=”Golden Gate
Bridge covered by fog” />

85. ALT Tag or Attribute
- All images have an ALT tag
- Add a concise keyword rich description about the image.
- Think how would you briefly describe the image to
someone who can’t see the image.
- Avoid keyword stuffing

86. Mobile Friendly
- Responsive Design: Optimize your website for
mobile devices
- Google gives a higher rank to page on mobile
search that are mobile friendly.

87. Canonicalization
- Google doesn’t like duplicate content!
- One of the most common mistakes in E-Commerce websites
Problem
- http://www.example.com/
- http://www.example.com
- www.example.com/index.html
All 3 different pages!

88. Canonicalization
Solution 1
- Figure out which version do you like
- Have a 301 redirect to that version
Eg: Preferred version: www.example.com
- http://www.example.com/ → www.example.com
- example.com → www.example.com
Solution 2
- Have a canonical tag on each webpage telling google
which page to index
<link rel="canonical" href="www.example.com" />

89. Further Reading On-Page Elements
https://moz.com/learn/seo/on-page-factors
https://www.quicksprout.com/2014/11/21/how-to-structure-a-perfect-seo-
optimized-page/
http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/11/05/image-optimization-102-the-
advance-guide-to-seo-for-images/
https://www.quicksprout.com/2015/04/06/does-url-structure-even-matter-a-
data-driven-answer/

90. Other cool on-page stuff
Social Tags
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/03/25/social-media-meta-tags-how-to-use-open-
graph-and-cards/
Rich Snippets: Schema Markup
https://www.quicksprout.com/2015/09/11/how-to-skyrocket-your-rankings-
overnight-by-implementing-schema-markup/

91. Tools for website audit

92. Quicksprout
Content Analyzer
On-page elements grader

93. SEO Sitecheckup
Technical Audit
On-page elements grader

94. Google Pagespeed
Page speed insights
Mobile friendly test

95. Mozbar
Page Authority
On-page elements

96. Google Search Console

97. Google Search Console
- Old name: Google Webmaster Tools
- Must have tool if you’re serious about SEO
- Very easy to setup for your website. Link it with Google Analytics
- Keywords and their impressions and CTR
- HTML Improvements
- See crawl and index issues with pages on your website

98. See Indexed pages
site:yourdomain.com

99. - SEO was an afterthought
- Poor SEO strategy - didn’t answer 5 questions
- Didn’t properly test keywords with adwords
- Tried to rank for too competitive short keywords
- Lack of proper metrics to measure ROI
- Didn’t have a blog since the beginning
- Poor URL Structure
Mistakes at Meddy

100. SEO is a long term play
2445.7% increase in 7 months

101. Common Mistakes
- SEO as an afterthought
- Thinking SEO is a one time thing
- Not measure the ROI
- Isolated from product and marketing decisions
- Targeting head terms

102. Problems with SEO
- Keeps changing
- Lot of conflicting advice
- Easy to get it wrong
- Easy to get initial spike, difficult to maintain
- SEO is not a hard science

103. SEO Process
1. Answer 5 Questions
2. Do Website Audit using tools
3. Do Keyword Research
4. Figure out goals and metrics
5. Do on-page SEO
6. Measure and iterate

104. Final Thoughts
- Run your on-page SEO campaign ASAP!
- SEO is a long term game
- SEO is getting harder!
- Good content is still the King!
- Content marketing can drive lot of traffic!
- Make it mobile friendly
- Have a good information architecture
- Find a product that you look upto.
- Get press!

105. Questions?
Twitter: @haghadi
Email: haris@meddy.co