SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is evolving all the time, becoming more and more complex with each passing year.
Although SEO is more complex than ever, it is still hands-down one of the most effective digital marketing tactics. Search engines, unlike any other digital marketing channel, bring "high-intent-to-buy" users to your website. These users are specifically searching for your company's products and services, because they want or need them now or soon!
Since SEO has such high conversion potential, it is crucial for all in-house marketers to incorporate SEO into their digital marketing strategies, and to ensure that their brands are keeping up with the latest SEO trends.
In this presentation, I will:
-Review the basic optimizations that still very much matter in modern-day SEO
-Discuss the latest trends and new SEO requirements that go far beyond keywords and meta tags
-Give simple, actionable steps that can be taken to modernize your SEO strategy
SEO in 2019: The Latest Trends and Changes in Search Engine Optimization
1. SEO in 2019: The Latest Trends and Changes
in Search Engine Optimization
April 2019
Presenter: Pam Ann Aungst
@PamAnnMarketing
2. sales@pamannmarketing.com 973-664-7775 2 PamAnnMarketing.com/Slides @PamAnnMarketing
Agenda
1. What is SEO?
2. Why is SEO So
Important?
3. How Search Engines
Work
4. Basic (Traditional) SEO
Tactics
5. SEO Trends for 2019:
How to Modernize Your
SEO Strategy
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Hold Questions
To ensure that we get
through all of the
material, please hold
questions until the
end.
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About Me/Us
• Coding since 6 years old
• Creating websites since 1997
• Driving traffic to websites
professionally since 2005
• Marketing MBA
• Nationwide Conference Speaker
• Guest-Lecturer at universities such
as NYU and Centenary University
• In business 8 years
• Provide services & training for SEO,
PPC, and Google Analytics
• Google-Certified Partner Agency
• Won several awards
• Recently launched private-label
division (Stealth™ Search and
Analytics) for reselling our services
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What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) is the art
and science of
influencing search
engines to rank your
content high in search
results.
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Why is SEO So
Important?
Search engines, unlike
any other digital
marketing channel, bring
"high-intent-to-buy"
users to your website.
These users are
specifically searching for
your company's
products and services,
because they want or
need them now or soon!
9. sales@pamannmarketing.com 973-664-7775 9 PamAnnMarketing.com/Slides @PamAnnMarketing
How Search Engines Work
Google, today's most popular search engine, says that their mission is
“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and
useful” and that "the relentless search for better answers continues to be at the
core of everything we do."
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Founders of Google, in the garage where they started the company in the late 90s
From the Garage to the Googleplex
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How Search Engines Work
Search engines have one very simple objective:
Present users the information they are seeking.
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How Search Engines Work
Image credit and quote source: Search Engine Land
Although the mission of search engines is simple, executing on
that mission is not easy.
As of Google’s latest estimation, there were over 130 trillion
individual pages on the web. And that was over 2 years ago, so
there’s many more now!
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How Search Engines Work
Therefore, search engines need
to use very complex
technology to analyze trillions
of web pages and decide which
ones provide the most
accurate and trustworthy
information for each search.
Although this technology is
complex, we can break it down
into 3 basic concepts.
Image credit: US Patent #6,285,999
A diagram depicting relationships between
web pages, from Google’s first patent,
“Method for Node Ranking in a Linked
Database.”
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How Search Engines Work
Search engines need to perform
3 basic tasks in order to produce
search results.
1. First, they need to discover
web pages.
2. Then, they need to collect
the content from the web
pages.
3. Lastly, they need to sort the
web pages by relevance to a
search query.
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How Search Engines Work
The more technical terms for
these steps are:
1. Discover = “Crawl”
2. Collect = “Index”
3. Sort = “Rank”
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SEO Objectives
At a high level, SEO has
two basic objectives:
1. Make your site easily
crawlable, so that
your content gets
indexed
2. Convince search
engines that your
content is worthy of
ranking high
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Basic (Traditional) SEO Optimizations
Basic Technical Optimizations to Make Your Site Easily
Crawlable
1. Use a good Content Management System (CMS), like
WordPress, that creates SEO-friendly pages and URLs
2. Implement SEO “helper” files, such as XML sitemaps and
robots.txt files
3. Use meta and header tags, like title tags, meta
descriptions, H1 tags, and img alt tags
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Basic (Traditional) SEO Optimizations
Basic Content Optimizations to Encourage High Ranking
1. Use the same keywords your target audience is
searching with
2. Organize your content logically, and link similar pages to
each other (internal linking)
3. Add fresh (new) content on a regular basis
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Basic (Traditional) SEO Optimizations
Basic Off-Page Optimizations to Encourage High Ranking
1. Get reputable and relevant websites to link to your site
2. Build up social media “signals” on your content
3. (For local businesses) Create accurate local listings in
“online phone book” sites
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Modern SEO Optimizations
Modern Technical (Mobile)
Optimizations to Make Your Site
Easily Crawlable
1. Implement responsive design
2. Optimize for speed, especially
on mobile
3. Implement AMP (Accelerated
Mobile Pages)
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Modern SEO Optimizations
Modern Technical (AI) Optimizations to Make Your Site Easily
Crawlable
1. Implement
Schema
Markup
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Modern SEO Optimizations
1. Create whole “chapters in
your book” about your topics
(many different pages
covering many different
aspects of a single topic)
2. On each page, incorporate
related keywords, instead of
just focusing on a single
keyword.
Modern Content Optimizations to Encourage High Ranking
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Modern SEO Optimizations
1. Demonstrate “EAT”
(Expertise, Authority,
Trustworthiness) in your
content and your branding
2. Indicate who the author of
your content is, and link to a
robust and credible bio of
that person
Modern Content Optimizations to
Encourage High Ranking
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Modern SEO Optimizations
1. STOP building links manually
2. EARN links instead, through:
a) Good Content Marketing
b) Strong Social Media
c) Public Relations
d) Real-World Relationships
Modern Off-Page Optimizations
to Encourage High Ranking
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The
Traditional
Basics Still
Matter
“Traditional” basic SEO techniques still very
much matter, and are the foundational
building blocks of a modern SEO strategy.
Robots.txt Sitemap.xml
Internal Linking Keywords Title Tags
Meta Descriptions Img Alt Tags Inbound Links
H1 TagsURLs
Fresh Content Social Signals
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However, modern approaches MUST be
layered onto the basics in order to succeed
in SEO in 2019.
But You MUST
Also Layer on
Modern Tactics
Responsive Mobile Design
AMP
Speed
Schema for AI
SSL (https)
Security
Content Chapters
Related Keywords
“EAT” Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness
Link “Earning”