SEO for Voice Search

January 25, 2018 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Do you need to worry about optimizing for voice search queries?
I think every future focused marketer does. Below I’ll cover the rapid growth of people using voice search and walk through how you can get started with your own strategy for capturing people searching via using their voice.

Here’s a quick history of voice search’s growth and impact:
Just four short years ago, the state of voice search indicated that 55% of teenagers and 45% of adults used voice search daily. This was in a study from 2014 before the advent of Alexa and Google Home became the go-to holiday gift for the tech-adoring American family. These percentages have certainly gone up.

Today, according to a Consumer Electronics Report published on January 9, 2018, over half of those who own a voice assistant use it every single day. Moreover, 22% of users surveyed said they make purchases with voice commands.

What was the future prediction for voice search in 2016?
Mary Meeker predicted that by 2020, 50% of all searches would be made by voice. It appears that she was onto something.

Her hypothesis was that with an error rate (at the time) of only 8%, humans speak at a rate of 150 words per minute vs. an average typing speed of 40 words per minute, search was going to get better, be more efficient, and start to understand variances in human speech (like accent, dialect, and post-dental anesthetic mumblings).

Based on the TV ad spend over the holidays for home devices with voice recognition built in I think Mary Meeker undershot her prediction by guessing only half by 2020.

What is the reality today?
Mary Meeker was closer than she thought, and it happened faster than she suspected. As of December 2017, the Pew Research Center concluded that 46% of US adults use apps that interact vocally with smartphones and other devices. That’s nearly two years ahead of Meeker’s predictions.

With data collected just prior to the holiday rush (June-November 2017), Comscore reported 49% of households in the United States owned a smart speaker.

Canalys estimates and forecasts, Smart Speaker Analysis, December 2017

And then came the 2017 holiday season and impressive sales for the products:

Smart speakers such as Alexa and Echo Dot are becoming major players in the voice search landscape Tulsaworld.com reported that sales of these speakers in the United States have leaped three-fold just this year.

25 million voice search speakers were sold in 2017.
This trend is obviously not going away. As people become more accustomed to asking a Google or Alexa to help with tasks and search, the rules of the SEO game will most certainly evolve to keep up.

Voice Search Adoption is driven by ease of use and increased accuracy of results
Here are the top reasons your audience uses voice search:

43% say it’s quicker than using a website/app
42% use voice because they can use it while driving
38% say it’s more fun than using other search methods
38% suggest it’s easier than using a website or app
28% prefer it because it seems like a more accurate way of searching
21% don’t like typing on their phone
1% said simply, “other.”

And from a marketing perspective, it’s more personal to the user.
Voice search results sound like a radio ad being read to your customer

In the latest version of the Google Search App for iOS and Android, the search ap can speak your answer right back to you. Google Home, one of the bigger players in the voice search and home assistant game will read featured snippets to the users if the query triggers one. It’s like Google endorsing your business. So if that doesn’t influence you to up your SEO game and earn a featured snippet, I’m not sure what will!

Users speak their queries differently

The queries are longer and have more questions. They are usually more transparent about their intent.Image Credit: Purna Virji, citing Bing data

When typing a search manually on a desktop, we are more likely to type “weather Paris” (spelling intentional). However, with voice search, we are more likely to ask, “What’s the weather like in Paris?”

Fast Company looked at exactly this discrepancy in search in an article published on January 5th, 2018. They posit based on new data released by Google this week that 41% of more than 1600 voice assistant users admitted that taking to these systems feel like they are talking to a friend, or at the very least, another human being.

“People are engaging with their voice-activated speakers as if they were human,” Google wrote in a blog post about the research. “They’re saying ‘please,’ ‘thank-you,’ and even ‘sorry.’ People perceive the devices as more than just an electronic toy, they’re more akin to another person or friend.

They are more likely to be focused on locally driven actions

Search Engine Land: SMX Voice Search Presentation Data

Some keywords are used more on mobile devices (and often are voice search queries). Like…

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data-gallery/detail/near-me-search-trends-by-device/ — Trends by Device by ThinkWithGoogle.com

if you run a business with local offices and you haven’t yet claimed your Google My Business listing yet, you should. Most local queries are top heavy with Google map results, which are drivenbym Google My business listings. Here’s a great guide to Claiming and optimizing Google My Business

I know some of you are going to ask:

Can I just pay to have a voice search assistant/phone just read my ad?

Unfortunately, no. Ads are currently *not* being served for voice queries. However, Google is thinking about it.

Here’s more from Google:

“I think it can range from being purely transactional meaning we make it convenient for you to fulfill a transaction with this assistance or it can involve promotion” but that his team “are keeping an open mind about the kind of monetization opportunity that there is going to be.”
-Google’s SVP of advertising and commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy

So here’s how you should get started modifying your SEO strategy to capture users searching via voice:

First, you should ask yourself these questions:

Is your website ready? Does it load fast?
Is it mobile friendly?
Do you have structured data in place?
Have you selected keywords that are good candidates for voice search?
Are you up to speed on how to structure your content to be considered for a Featured Snippet? (If not, there’s a great guide here).

If your website is fast loading, mobile friendly, and you can easily add structured data markup then you’re ready to come up with a content plan.

Here’s how to start with a voice search content plan:

Brainstorm keyword topics.
Listen to Google’s rece nt advice from a Webmaster Hangout about how to optimize for voice search snippets.

Here are a few questions to guide your research:

“Is there anything about my brand that someone might be interested in while on the go?”
Do I currently have content that is ranking as a Featured Snippet (or could?). 80% of Google voice “answers” are Featured Snippets (though not the ones with tables). New to featured snippets? Check out the great guide here.
Am I currently seeing voice search queries?
- Look for voice search queries in your keyword research. Question words at the beginning of the keyword phrase are clear signs (who, what, when, where and how).
- Do some research with Answer the Public.
  Queries from AnswerthePublic.com
- Look for signs of voice queries in your GSC search query reports. While voice search queries are not separate from desktop and mobile queries in your Search Analytics reports, you can often find signs like this to indicate that they are voice search driven:
- Though Google is aware that SEOs want more visibility into voice search queries driving traffic to their sites – and want that data surfaced in Google Search Console.

Evaluate your current content:

Have you mapped which content is already appearing in rich snippets? Ahrefs has the following feature to help you determine where you are already appearing:
For the areas where you have voice search opportunity but are not already ranking, do have content you could leverage to answer those questions?
Do you have an FAQ section of your website that you could easily leverage and optimize for voice search?

Start editing pages that could potentially capture a voice search query.
When you’ve selected a specific page to improve, ask yourself these questions:

What questions should this particular page answer for visitors?
Is it currently answering those questions? Not sure if the content you have matches the query? Does it make sense to do a quick review of how the Google Raters are being trained to assess the quality of the speech drive search results?
Does it offer complete information? In other words, would someone return to the search results after checking this page?
In what contexts do people search for a page like this?
Is the page ready for mobile search?
Is the content approachable and easy to read? What will it sound like if the content was read back to the user?

Add schema markup to the page
If you’re a local business, take a look at marking up your data with actions as well – allowing your searchers to order or reserve via Google search.

Make sure that your markup and associated page meets Google’s markup requirements and that the markup is accurate by testing it with the Structured Data Testing Tool.

It seems like quite a bit of work, but I always encourage my clients to try to future proof their online marketing strategies, and based on your industry, that means you need to start planning for capturing voice search queries today.

Tackling Local SEO: An Approach and Checklist

January 10, 2018 by katherine ong 1 Comment

Are you looking to get into doing local SEO for a client? Here’s a comprehensive overview of how to tackle that type of SEO challenge. All of the quality aspects of brand SEO applies, but then you have to think about and optimize a bunch of other stuff to send the correct signals to Google.

This is a long post, so if you’d like a .pdf of this checklist to download later, grab a copy in my free resource library.

But first, can you take advantage of local SEO?

To qualify for a local business listing, MOZ Local states your business must meet the following four criteria:

Have a business name or DBA
Have a local phone number that matches your city of location
Have a dedicated physical street address
Make face-to-face contact with customers

Let’s orient to how local SEO is different.

Here are the ranking factors for local SEO:

2017 Moz Local Pack and Local Organic Ranking Factors

Here are the ranking factors from Moz’s recent research:

Specific local SEO steps = local pack rankings

Implementing local SEO best-practices may be just as important than traditional or broader SEO approaches for ranking in geographically local queries (or in some cases, even more important). For example, have a look at the image below which highlights results from a study that captured eye-tracking data to determine that end users gravitate towards Google Places listings over organic listings:

To rank in the below types of Google map listings:

Google Map listings

You will need to rely less on the traditional SEO factors and more on:

Below we’ll go into the best practices for each of the above tactics.

Google My Business Signals

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to claim your Google My Business page. Here are instructions.

Once you’ve set it up, you should include the following:

A long, unique description that’s formatted correctly and includes links.
The correct categories for your business.
As many photos as possible.
A local phone number to your listing.
Your business address that’s consistent with that on your website and local directories.
A high-resolution profile image and cover photo.
Your opening times/days (if relevant).
Real reviews from customers on your GMB listing

Citations are one of the foundation or cornerstone pieces of any effective local SEO campaign. It’s important to keep in mind that NAP needs to be consistent across the web and across the site.

Here’s a list of places you can get offsite NAP citations:

1) Local Search Engines

2) The Big 4 (Data Aggregators)

I will tell you from experience that claiming these by hand are a pain and time consuming and paying for a service like BrightLocal, Moz Local, or WhiteSpark (affiliate link), would be worth the money.

3) Social Media & Local Blogs

Make sure to have your NAP listed on all your social profiles. (Pro Tip: use the service Knowem to snag your name for all major social networks and web services)
To find the top blogs in your local region, go to Google and search for “[your city] blog” to get the best candidates, as since they show up at the top of the SERP, they’ll be well-indexed by search engines

4) Local Directories & Newspapers

Search for either “[your city] + business listings” or “[your city] + directory” to get results, and be sure to get on your city’s Chamber of Commerce website.

Finding the Best Local Citations for You or Your Client

To help you better understand what the best local citation is for your business by category and city, Moz Local teamed up with Whitespark (a citation search tool) to come up with an impressive number of resources with helping you be on target. Here’s the list.

If you need to build citations internationally, Bright Local has some great lists to get you started. For example, here’s their list for citation sites in Canada.

Local Reviews

Local reviews have a direct impact on local search rankings, and therefore it’s important to develop a review acquisition process.

Here’s an outline of how to develop a review process:

1. Determine which review sites will work best for your client.

To determine that, simply start by going to Google and doing the following search, “[Industry] + reviews” and see which sites pop-up on the first page.

Or you can mouse over the leading search results and you’ll see two arrows pop-up which enables you to open up what Google refers to as the “Knowledge Panel” for that business and look at the sites listed under “more reviews.”
Keep in mind that some review sites syndicate them to other sites. You can see that relationship here.

2. Understand the review guidelines for some of the most critical review platforms:

3. Create handouts for your client’s customers

The handout will provide clear-cut instructions on how they could leave you a review on Google, by using this “Review Handout Generator” by Whitespark and Phil Rozek.

4. Create print materials that list all the different sites customers can review you

5. Train staff (and yourself) on how to ask for reviews.

If you’re new to this, read Constant Contact’s short guide on asking for referrals.

6. Request a “Find Us on Yelp Sticker,” if you haven’t gotten their “People Love Us On Yelp” sticker.

7. Getting in touch with your existing customer base and see if they’d be interested in leaving you a review. You could incentivize them for their time (maybe a discount, etc.).

8. Create a page on your website that gives instructions to your customers on exactly how they can review your business (i.e. yourwebsite.com/review-us/).

9. Put links to review sites In your email signatures.

10. Set up Google Alerts and a client process related to how to handle negative reviews.

Local link building:

To be ranked for a local search query, it’s important to have geographically local inbound links to your website. They don’t need to be the highest links (related to Domain Authority), it’s more important that they are relevant and from other local websites and sources.

Here’s a list of ideas about how to generate those local links:

Go to Meetup.com and search for a list of local events relevant to your industry. Find those that have websites and contact them about sponsorship (most of the time you’ll only need to put on a lunch for them). If they accept, you’ll get a link from their website (local to you) and their Meetup.com page (highly authoritative, local link). Here’s an example.
Create a local resource from public data (here’s 30 different data sources) and reach out to local press to get coverage. That’s exactly what Krystian Szastok did and he got some amazing results (you really should read this case study).
Run your own local meetup or event and bring links from the local event page.
Sign up to press request services or sign up for HARO to get quoted in local publications (huge potential for high authority, local links).
Run an AMA on Reddit (within a relevant subreddit to your industry) and within other local communities.
Line up interviews and columns within relevant online publications.
Give a discount to local organizations for your products/services in exchange for a linked mention on their website.
Enter local awards (or start your own if there aren’t any!).
Spend time dedicated to local PR outreach to get online and offline coverage in local news.
Run regular competitive link research and capitalize on any new opportunities that your competitors have gained.
Offer scholarships (you get links from local universities) or offer jobs to students (you can get links from their careers pages).
Get links from resources pages for your relevant content
Set up use If This Then That (IFTTT) to send me an SMS when an email comes through from HARO/ResponseSource that mentions any of the keywords I’ve specified. This is perfect for quick responses.

Local link building by increasing local press mentions

This strategy focused around developing a contact at your client’s business that could be seen as a thought leader for local publications. This could be due to their experience, knowledge around a specific topic, existing reputation, etc.

Once you have identified someone who is willing to fill that role, here’s how you optimize their visibility for locally driven links:

Optimize their LinkedIn profile to reflect the image/messaging for how they should be perceived as a thought leader. This could involve tweaking their job title, descriptions, projects they’ve worked on, gathering recommendations, updating their profile image (if it isn’t professional enough), publishing on LinkedIn, and helping them build up their connections.
Develop guidelines on social sharing and ( if approved) full social media management across their accounts (this depends on the preference of the individual). This allows you to ensure that they are engaging with the right people and sharing the right content to reflect their new thought leadership role.
Build out their personal profile on the client’s website and create some content on the blog (if present) under their name that can be used as content references for editors.
If you feel that it warrants it, set up a personal blog for them in order to build their name in the industry.
Generate press mentions around the individual that mention some of the work they have been involved in, etc. This is particularly important within B2B industries.
Draft up some content pitch ideas that will relate to a few of the different target sites/media outlets that you’ve identified. You’ll want to work with the individual around these ideas to make sure that they’re the right fit for the industry.
Get in touch with your press targets with some pitch ideas under the email of the individual and ask about the possibility of becoming a columnist. Don’t mention links or the word guest blog at all, and don’t rush into making contact with your targets. Make sure that you’ve got everything ready and in place first because you may only have one shot at this.

On-Site/On-Page Factors

Here are the on-page or on-site ranking factors that are specific to local SEO:

One URL/landing page per office or local geo content. That page should include your business hours, local staff bios, NAP and other useful information to the searcher (services offered, parking/metro, etc).
City, state in landing page title. You will want to ensure you clearly indicate the service, location, and brand in the page titles. Here’s an example of a perfectly optimized local landing page.
Click-through rate from search results. This highlights the importance of relevance and a well-optimized title + meta description.
Topical keyword relevance of domain content.
Embedded Google map
Product/service keyword in landing page title. This is a no-brainer, and the page should be titled for the big terms we want to rank for.
Page authority of landing page URL. Some authority will be inherited from the site, but often it takes some direct link-building to this page to help move the dial — so the better the page, the easier it is to build those links.
City, state in landing page H1/H2 tags.
HTML name, address and phone number (NAP) on every page matching location NAP. Marked up with local business schema, there’s a great tool here.
Load time of landing page. Ideally less than 2 seconds. You can check that here.
Link to your review profiles on your website
Geographic (city/neighborhood) keyword relevance of domain content.
Specific elements to illustrate credibility: testimonials, accreditations and external reviews

And finally, here are some up-to-date resources on local SEO ranking factors:

http://www.slideshare.net/DistilledSEO/searchlove-boston-2016-mary-bowling-local-search-experience-optimization
http://www.slideshare.net/DistilledSEO/searchlove-boston-2016-greg-gifford-x-marks-the-spot (Starting on slide 51)
http://www.localseoguide.com/guides/2016-local-seo-ranking-factors/

So how are you feeling? Are you ready to tackle local SEO for your site or clients? Drop me a note in the comments below.

Tracking your Featured Snippet Visibility

December 14, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

So you’ve decided that you want to start working on getting a Google featured snippet for your client or site as they are ranking in the top 4 for a particular keyword, and you think that they are well positioned to earn those rankings. How do you actually track and report on that work?

It turns out that some of the rank trackers will report (in general) if the SERP for that keyword is generating a rich snippet, but won’t actually track YOUR client or site is ranking for those terms.

Here are the tools that I found that can help you with this issue.

Moz

Not surprisingly Moz has the ability to track your appearance in featured snippets (especially considering their advocacy to the SEO world that we think beyond the top 10 blue links, and work to rank #0).

Once you set up your campaign, you can find that under “SERP Features” in the Ranking section:

Ahrefs

If you set up your rank tracking in Ahrefs, they also display whether or not your site appears in ranking #0 for your target keywords, though it’s easiest to see in an export of your data:

GetStat

Get stat tracks “Rank” where #0 is actually tracked as #1, and also a “base rank” where 1 is the top organic listing. It will also pull through the type of featured snippet you’ve claimed (list, paragraph, etc). More about their tracking is here. Their data is also exportable.

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me! I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
3.) Follow me for future posts

New SEO training and nonprofit focus for the month

November 20, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Wow! The month has just flown by!

I’ve been deep in keyword research and SEO audits for clients and have trained folks this month in how to execute on technical SEO.

If that wasn’t enough, I also beta launched my SEO Bootcamp class. You can actually register today to learn how to create a rock solid SEO strategy.

Students in the class will soon have online access to my technical SEO training materials (which will help you communicate with Google on its own terms) and will you learn how to ensure that your site has the basics in place to make it easy for Google to highlight your content.

While it’s been extremely hectic businesswise, I have been focused on giving back to a nonprofit once a month. As a business and a family, I feel it’s critical to give back help others in a tangible way. We might be busy, but it’s important to find time to help others.

So without further ado – the #GiveBack Nonprofit for the Month – Greater DC Diaper Bank

As I had mentioned last month, I have over ten years of nonprofit work experience and really value volunteering. Both of my parents were Presidential Volunteer Service Award recipients. So monthly I give back to a nonprofit either through donated SEO services or through direct volunteer service. This month my family and I volunteered at the DC Diaper Bank.

DC Diaper Bank Volunteering — The Ong kids packaging diapers at the DC Diaper Bank.

While our littlest one was in a Byron, the toddler actually helped us package diapers to be distributed to families who need them. It was a perfect opportunity to get the kids engaged in volunteering around an issue they could understand. I’m sure the families who receive them will find it cute that the package was signed by someone still learning to sign her name.

If you’re looking for a way to give back this season, the Greater DC Diaper Bank always needs donations. They provide diapers and other items like baby gear and food. These items are really important and can go a long way to help a family in need.

Or as an alternative, my hometown food pantry (which my mom runs) is always looking for donations and you can donate here.

Or if you want to use your SEO skills, ping me and I can help you get “matched” with a nonprofit who could use your assistance.

And if you have a nonprofit that you think I should volunteer for in the months ahead, drop me a note.

OK. Back to those technical audits and SEO recommendations…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Katherine

Want to conduct your first SEO Audit?

October 30, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Then my upcoming workshop in November is for you! And today is the last day for early bird pricing, so you should register today.

During the workshop we will walk through how to access site based on Google’s best practices, it’s target audience and competitors, and create a plan for SEO improvement and growth.

If you’re confused about how to check your site’s:

Page speed
Mobile friendliness
Crawlability
Percentage of pages indexed
Whether high-quality pages are indexed
If you’ve been hit by a Google algorithm update
If you have a thin content problem
How to determine if duplicate content is an issue

You should register.

Here’s a little secret:

I LOVE conducting SEO audits.

I did a live, quick SEO audit of NIRS.org’s site at the DC/MD/VA Search Marketing Meetup this month as a part of my #giveback for the month, and you can view the slide deck here:

NIRS.org SEO Audit from WO Strategies

And I want to share that passion with you!

If you missed last month’s free workshop or if you want to go more in-depth and learn more about how I found the issues, what tools I used etc, then this workshop is for you!

We will cover those issues and much more. There will be plenty of time for questions.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

Nonprofit SEO Site Audit at the next DC Search Marketing Meetup

October 12, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Are you a nonprofit wondering if SEO is for you? Or wondering how and if you can increase the amount of free Google traffic your website is getting?

Then you should come out to our next DC/MD/VA Search Marketing Meetup on October 19th. At that Meetup, I will focus on giving back to a local nonprofit, the Nuclear Information and Research Service.

You might not know, but I spent a decade in the nonprofit sector, and have created nonprofit SEO strategies for Environmental Working Group, the Points of Light Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and others.

At that Meetup, I’ll be conducting a live SEO site audit for nirs.org and my colleague, Emily Patterson (BeeMeasure.com), will be giving them user research tips as well.

If you’re in the area and want to learn more about nonprofit SEO, or how to conduct an SEO audit of a site or see a live digital marketing consult, you should join us!

Here are the details:
Date: Thursday, October 19th, 2017
Time: 6-9pm
Location: Canvas 1203 19th Street, NW Washington, DC.

Free! Just RSVP here: https://www.meetup.com/seo-72/

Of course, there will also be a chance to network with other nonprofit digital marketers, learn about nonprofit SEO, and get your SEO and data analysis questions answered.

If you can’t make this free event or you are interested in a much deeper look at how to implement a full SEO audit for your site (or a client’s site), check out my Technical SEO Training in November! Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/technical-seo-training-tickets-38114098294

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

Why you can’t use Google Keyword Planner for SEO

September 27, 2017 by katherine ong 1 Comment

I know. Everyone wants to use a keyword tool for free, but the Google Adwords Tool is SO unreliable you can’t use it for SEO anymore, and here’s why:

It was never built for organic search, so it will limit the data you see.
Some words/phrases will not show initially because the tool is for paid advertising. If you’re running discovery-focused searches in AdWords you will not see all of the valuable/high-volume keyword phrases connected to a word/phrase.
Some words/phrases are grouped together (though Google won’t tell you which).
All metrics are broad match (So your search volume number for “pools” might include searches for things such as “swimming pools,””pool tables,” and “car pools”).
This means that the broad match volume numbers will include: Misspelled terms, acronyms, singular and plural versions, and synonyms. Additionally, Google may look at auction records to see what queries have been returned based upon keywords that people have bid upon and will include those queries as well if they think they will fit the broad match of a particular keyword.
If you’re not running a large ad campaign it now only shows you HUGE ranges.
A full list of limitations is here: https://moz.com/blog/google-keyword-planner-dirty-secrets

So what are your options if you don’t want to purchase a tool like Ahrefs or Moz?

Here are your options:

Your Google Search Console data

You can see what terms are currently driving traffic to your own site and how well you’re ranking and performing.

Bing’s Keyword Tool

Bing has a keyword tool that only pulls keyword data from Bing, but they’ve been clear that it was built for SEO. I’ve noticed that it’s been having issues working recently.

Using Google’s “searches related to” feature

Any keyword that Google provides at the bottom of the search engine result pages are keywords with *some* volume. The trick is you don’t know how much.

Wordstream’s Free Keyword Tool

It’s from a company that runs PPC and runs off of Adwords, so I would take the data with a grain of salt, but it might be worth checking out: http://www.wordstream.com/free-keyword-tools

Keywords Everywhere Chrome Plugin.

You can get the Chrome plugin here. As you use the Google search box, it will show volume for the keywords that you are using.

It will also show Google Adwords data (via API) as an overlay on a host of other sites, and in Google Analytics reports.

Where does it get its data?

From the Google Keyword Planner API.

Keywords Everywhere Bulk Upload Feature

More from them about how this tool works:

“Recently, Google Keyword Planner only showcases ranges for the search volume and not exact value. Well unless you have an active campaign with a high daily spend, you would be able to access such data.

With Keywords Everywhere’s Bulk Upload Tool (which is free) you can now get the same data for an unlimited number of keywords by using the “Bulk upload keywords” tool. Up to 10,000 keywords can be uploaded at once for as many times as you like.”

AWESOME!

Here’s how to use the tool:

Hopefully, these tools are enough to get you started on your keyword research journey even if you don’t have the budget for a keyword tool (yet).

But keep in mind that you still need to judge (manually) the organic opportunity for each keyword phrase, and check the searcher’s intent to make sure the keyword makes sense for you to add to your optimization list.

Want to learn more about how to do keyword research and implement a keyword research process at your workplace?

Confused about how to start conducting keyword research? Sign up for my SEO Bootcamp class where I’ll walk you through the process of finding the perfect keyword for you.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

Come join me and learn SEO

September 14, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

12/11/2017: Quick update:

It was great to see everyone at the Meetup! You can find my slides in my free member library: https://wostrategies.com/library/.
If you enjoyed the presentation or are excited to tackle SEO as your New Years Resolution, you can join my SEO Bootcamp Course at any time!
I also mentioned the following resources in the Meetup in November:

Top 11 Ways to Learn SEO

July 19, 2017 by katherine ong 1 Comment

Interested in learning SEO and want to know where to start online?

The online marketing industry writes copious posts about tactics, tools, and the latest algorithm updates, but there is also a lot of misinformation out there.

Also, Google makes around five algorithm changes per day to its algorithm, so often what you’re reading is out of date.

With that reality in mind, I decided to pull together the top 11 different ways you can learn SEO and know that you’re picking up solid, accurate information.

(If you prefer hands-on learning, you can check out my Technical SEO Training class).

[Disclosure: Please note that links to books mentioned within this post might be using an affiliate link which means that – at zero cost to you – I might earn a commission if you buy something through that affiliate link. That said, I the books below I personally used to learn about SEO and now sit on my bookshelf as reference.]

1. Learn about the history of search engines and SEO

Read this book: How Google Works, or this one: The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization

Or, watch the new SEO Movie.

2. Read information from the search engines

I always recommend that my US students and mentees start with a history of how search engines evolved and then review the current “rules” provided by the search engines themselves.

Below are the “rules” directly from the search engines.

Google’s SEO resources

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Google’s steps to a Google-friendly site
Google’s Webmaster Central Blog
Google’s Webmaster Central office hours (and if you can’t attend them live, Deepcrawl always summarizes the top takeaways from each, or you can watch the recordings on their YouTube channel.
Google’s Webmasters social channels and help forum
How to speed up your site. The Critical Rendering Path free course

Bing’s SEO Resources

While not the biggest search engine in the US, make sure to check out these resources from Bing:

3. Read the beginner SEO guides

Additionally, there are some solid industry leaders that produce great resources as well that will introduce you to the basic SEO concepts including:

Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Search Engine Land’s Guide to SEO
I also taught a class on SEO at Georgetown University
Local SEO overview

4. Follow Industry Publications

Finally, there are some industry standard publications and online events that will help you stay on top of the changes in the algorithms and industry. Those include:

5. Listen to Industry Podcasts

6. Track the most recent industry studies

Most of these studies are created by vendors, but in particular, I’m fascinated by the research being conducted by:

Search Metrics (their yearly ranking studies)
Ahrefs
Buzzstream
Hubspot
SEMRush

7. Follow the industry experts

There are few folks that have been in the industry since the beginning and are great about giving a solid perspective around Google updates based on their experience watching search changes throughout the years. The big ones are:

Rand Fishkin

Rand Fiskin, Founder of Moz, SEO expert — Photo @randfish

@randfish on Twitter / https://moz.com/rand/

Wil Reynolds

Photo: @wilreynolds Twitter

@wilreynolds / http://www.seerinteractive.com/about/team/wil-reynolds/

Greg Gifford (local SEO genius)

Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social at DealerOn — Photo: @greggifford Search Engine Land

Mike King, technical SEO wiz

Mike King, CEO of iPullRank — Photo: @iPullRank Twitter

@iPullRank / http://ipullrank.com/author/ipullrank/

Bill Slawski

Bill Slawkski, Director of SEO Research, Go Fish Digital — Photo: @bill_slawski Twitter http://www.seobythesea.com/

8. Understand how humans interact with the search results

Check out the free User Experience for the Web (WebUX) course.

9. Learn Google Analytics so that you can measure your strategy

Google offers free courses online via their Analytics Academy. They are:

Digital Analytics Fundamentals
E-commerce Analytics
Google Analytics Platform Principles
Google Tag Manager Fundamentals
Mobile App Analytics Fundamentals

There’s also an associated Google + Community focused on Google Analytics and one just focused on the Google Analytics Academy

Or when I got started using and understanding Google Analytics, I read these books:

10. Join online communities so that you can get support as you’re learning

These are the ones that I frequent and post questions when I’m stuck:

Inbound.org
Moz’s Community
If you’re in DC, our DMV Search Marketing Meetup Google+ Group
#SEMRushChat on Twitter (every Wednesday)
Online Genesis
Technical SEO Google+ Group

11. Find a coach or mentor

Here’s where I wanted to share with you how I got my start in SEO.

I built my first website in 1994 on a whim (Hampshire College offered a course), and I put my rainforest preservation curriculum on it (I created a nonprofit when I was 16. More on that here). I also built my first email newsletter that same year.

I did light web editing and web page creation for various jobs when I landed in DC post graduation, (at National 4-H Council, and Barquin International), but I really got my deep dive into SEO when I was working at the Points of Light Foundation as the Director of Sales and Marketing for 1-800-Volunteer.org.

My job was primarily focused on selling the volunteer management solution behind 1-800-Volunteer.org, as a true startup, I didn’t have the capacity to stay on top of ALL of the marketing of the site by myself.

Then one day the CFO came into my office and asked me why he couldn’t find our site in Google. At that time, my SEO experience did not include dynamically driven, complex, homegrown CMS system sites (like 1-800-Volunteer.org) so I told him that he needed to send me to SES Chicago where I would ask other SEOs to determine why our site had fallen off of Google.

So there I am at SES Chicago in an SEO audit session with about 200 other people. When they asked for volunteers, I was the first to raise my hands. After explaining that the developers had blocked Googlebot in the robot.txt file, I realized I was in for quite a lesson in enterprise SEO as they listed off issue after issue that I had to address in order to the site back into the Google index.

I left the session and called my development team to explain all the issues the audit session found with our site, and I spent the rest of the week at SES going to sessions, asking questions, and working every evening from my hotel room to build a full online marketing plan for the site, and an online marketing training plan so that all our the customers that used the site to recruit for volunteers could optimize their own volunteer postings.

Quite a few of the individuals who bought the 1-800-Volunteer.org volunteer management product were older women close to retirement age (or came out of retirement to run the Volunteer Center) and those were my first online marketing students. It was a great experience because I can now train anyone on SEO/online marketing regardless of their technical skill. Oh…and I got the site back in Google.

This is all to say that you can jump start your SEO knowledge by finding yourself a mentor or by having your site looked at by someone in the industry who could hold your hand through your site’s SEO challenges.

And that’s the type of SEO coaching that I provide to my students – quality SEO education that includes one-on-one coaching to ensure that you truly understand how SEO works and how to craft the best solution for your business and your particular online marketing challenge.

I coach and mentor a limited number of students each quarter and if you’re interested in joining the next group of students, drop me a note.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

Searcher’s Intent Tutorial

July 3, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Most of the content online related to searcher’s intent is catered to managers of e-commerce sites.

But that’s not you.

Maybe you’re a nonprofit, a government agency, an association or a news site.

So, how do you structure your keyword research so that it’s keywords that make sense for you and your audience and keywords are grouped in a way in which you can move forward with tracking hundreds or thousands of rankings and can spot optimization opportunities?

With a huge number of potential keywords, how do you organize your keyword list and make sure that your keywords are the PERFECT keywords?

Why is getting the INTENT right so important?

Today’s search engine result pages are personalized to the end user – based on location, IP, search history, Gmail activity, online reading behavior, context, etc.

This kind of environment makes it even more essential for a marketer to reverse engineer the intent of the searcher for every keyword phrase to make sure that one is targeting terms where your answer (and URL) are the absolute best answer to the implicit question contained in that keyword phrase. Otherwise, you’ll get traffic that will bounce (which is a negative search ranking signal).

Also, make the most of your time by creating content that has the best chance of being shown in a Google search.

Let’s look at an example.

Say you are running the site www.cancer.gov and you want to see if you can rank for term “why quit smoking”. Here’s what that search engine result looks like:

Based on those results you can see that the target users are looking for the following:

All the reasons to quit smoking
How long it might take to quit smoking and what the process involves
How soon they would see the benefits from quitting smoking

Based on the searcher’s intent, they really are not (with that keyword phrase) directly looking for how lung cancer is driven by smoking.

But let’s look at a keyword phrase that is a better fit: “cancers from smoking”:

And now Google is showing www.cancer.gov content.

Still not convinced?

Google doesn’t show your page if you don’t match the searcher’s INTENT.

In case you’re still not convinced about searcher’s intent, I think you’ll find this data finding from Wordstream’s March 27, 2017, post compelling.

“Google has confirmed a recent core algorithm update, and surprisingly, some of the biggest losers were high-authority magazine domains like the Atlantic and the New Yorker. However, it’s not so surprising when you look at where they lost rankings – on older content that was ranking for third-party brand searches:”

“In this image from Searchmetrics (apologies for the grainy image), you can see that the Atlantic had pages ranking for keywords like “Netflix” and “pizza hut.” Guess what! It’s highly unlikely that people searching for “pizza hut” want to read an old think piece about it; they probably just want to find the nearest store or the number to order a pizza. By booting these results out of the rankings, Google is recognizing that intent is more important than domain authority.”

You need to be the PERFECT answer for your target audience and the question that they had in their heads when they typed (or spoke) a keyword phrase into Google.

In 2017 you need to understand:

What was the searcher’s specific GOAL based on their keyword phrase?

Each search query is not just empty words. It has a user’s hope and desire behind those phrases – a burning question.

Smart SEOs go after keyword phrases where the searcher’s intent COMPLETELY matches the content being optimized so that they attract visitors to their site that stay and don’t bounce back to the search engine result pages (SERPs). Bouncing back to the SERPs is called pogo sticking in the industry, and is a NEGATIVE signal to Google.

Targeting high volume keywords is not how to do SEO.

Targeting keyword phrases where the searcher’s INTENT is perfect for what your content provides is.

How do you figure out searcher’s intent?

Here is the reverse engineering into the intent behind each search query (Or “searcher’s intent” as it’s called in the industry).

1. Look at the non-personalized SERPs by your keyword.

Particularly the “People also ask” box and related searches. These queries are presented because of what Google knows about the intent behind each keyword and they also give you some sense about how Google links topics together.

Let’s look at an example.

I searched for “pet food articles” using Chrome’s Incognito and here’s what that result looks like:

Once you get past all of the ads (this is clearly a low organic opportunity SERP), you can see that the searcher intent is the following:

“I am a pet owner and am looking for information about what is in my pet’s food, and whether I should switch pet foods to keep my pet healthy.”

2. Brainstorm the major and minor intents you see.

Ask yourself these questions:

Why does someone land on your page?
What were they searching for right before they arrived?
Based on the other pages ranking (and related searches), what type of answers are they hoping they will find for that keyword phrase?

Most non-personalized search results show more than one intent. Record as many intents as possible.

3. Understanding your searcher’s “micro-moment”

Micro-moments are instances where your target audience is looking for information on the fly often on their phone – and they want instant answers. In fact, 91% of users check their phones for information while performing some other task.

Google, in their 2017 human rater guidelines, breaks out these micro-moments intent into four categories:

Know query, some of which are Know Simple queries
Website query, where the user is looking for a particular website or webpage

Do query, some of which are Device Action queries. (Some examples of this would be: download, buy, obtain, to be entertained by, or to interact with a website).
Visit-in-person query, some of which is looking for a specific business or organization or category of business.

Here’s how to make micro-moments actionable:

As you look at the non-personalized SERPs for your keyword, record the micro-moment of your user – is that query a “know query” or a “do query”? The content that you provide to them should match their desired action as well as their desired question.

4. Use your Personas

Ask yourself these questions:

Is this content you’re working on associated with a specific persona?
If so, what do you know about that persona’s background that would influence what type of results they would like to see

5. Use your internal search data

Do you have users searching for this keyword phrase using your site search? If so, what results do they click and stay on? What does that data tell you about what type of content best satisfies the question behind their query?

6. Where are they in the customer journey?

Even for an information based query, your target audience could be either in the beginning stages of research or have moved on to a comparison or consideration phase.

Where does this content fall along the customer journey?

Record that data as well in your tracking sheet.

7. Use a keyword research tools to spot related terms.

Yoast has a great Google Suggest Expander and there is also Ubersuggest. If you’re a Moz user, you can use the Keyword Explorer tool.

Head on over to Keyword Explorer and drop in your primary keyword like “cancer from smoking” and choose “related to keywords with similar result pages” and sort by “Relevancy”.

Moz Keyword Tool - cancers from smoking query

How do those related terms help you confirm their intent?

8. Deliver on active and passive intent

Every user has a singular answer that they are looking for when searching for something by keyword phrase. Additionally, they will find your site useful if you deliver on supportive information that they didn’t explicitly ask for but is useful to their original query.

Active intent is explicitly described by the query itself. You must satisfy active intent immediately on the landing page because if the user doesn’t see their keyword phrase, they will bounce back to the search results.

Passive intent is hinted at by the query or keyword phrase. For instance, a search for “potty training” is implicitly looking for books, videos, tips and charts/reward systems to help with the overall process of potty training.

You should deliver on the active intent with the content on the page, and the passive intent by linking to supportive content that answers the passive intent query.

9. Dive into your own Google Search Console data

If you have a site with a decent amount of traffic, you can spot the intent of your users by looking at the queries that are currently being driven to your site.

Go to Search Traffic > Search Queries and filter by a particular query. You will often see a pattern emerging and you should be able to build a hypothesis around what your searchers are looking for. You can then click “Pages” to see what page is receiving that keyword traffic.

Feel free to grab the other keywords that you see in the Google Search Console report and add them to your landing page copy. There is no need to go overboard with keyword stuffing, though. Focus on making the copy readable to the end user.

There you go. The nine step process for figuring out your searcher’s intent by keyword. Evaluate your data, and collect it in the SEO Writing Template. Use the terms and create content that is the PERFECT answer to your user’s burning question – if you’re the best answer to that user’s question, you are one step closer to having Google reward you with better rankings and traffic.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

But first, can you take advantage of local SEO?

Let’s orient to how local SEO is different.

2017 Moz Local Pack and Local Organic Ranking Factors

Specific local SEO steps = local pack rankings

Google My Business Signals

Finding the Best Local Citations for You or Your Client

Local Reviews

Local link building:

Local link building by increasing local press mentions

On-Site/On-Page Factors

And finally, here are some up-to-date resources on local SEO ranking factors:

Why is getting the INTENT right so important?

How do you figure out searcher’s intent?

1. Look at the non-personalized SERPs by your keyword.

2. Brainstorm the major and minor intents you see.

3. Understanding your searcher’s “micro-moment”

4. Use your Personas

5. Use your internal search data

6. Where are they in the customer journey?

7. Use a keyword research tools to spot related terms.

8. Deliver on active and passive intent

9. Dive into your own Google Search Console data

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