SEOs, both new and seasoned, need to understand the fundamentals of website optimization to have an effective SEO campaign. This session will cover basic site optimization techniques and the Google algorithm updates we all need to understand.

1. Pubcon Las Vegas 2015
SEO Fundamentals

2. 2015 SEO Basics -

3. 2015 SEO Basics - Overview
About Me
• Senior SEO Strategist, Globe Runner
• Brand Ambassador, Majestic.com
• Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com
• Practicing Organic/Natural SEO since 1996

4. 2015 SEO Basics - Overview
Overview
• Current Ranking Factors
• On Page SEO Factors
• Off Page SEO Factors
• Social Media and SEO Factors
• Latest Google Algorithm Changes
• Future SEO Ranking Factors

5. 2015 SEO Basics – Current SEO Ranking Factors
Current Ranking Factors
• Over 200 search engine ranking factor today, maybe more.
• Latest list of ranking factors: https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors
• Important ranking factors:
- Page Authority, Domain Authority
- Keyword and Content
- Engagement and Traffic/Query Data
- Brand Metrics

6. Page Authority
Social Signals
Anchor Text of Links
Schema.org, Structured Data
External Links, Keywords, Exact Match Domains
2015 SEO Basics – SEO Ranking Factors
Google Algorithm Break-Down
• The important factors according to the Moz survey.

7. 2015 SEO Basics – On Page Factors
On Page Factors
Several basic page elements are important:
• Proper Title Tags (keyword usage towards beginning of tag)
• Meta Description Tag (keyword usage in tag)
• Headings (One H1 tag per page, multiple H2, H3 okay)
• Image Alt Attributes (keywords describe each image)
• Local Biz? Schema.org markup for NAP data, Reviews

8. 2015 SEO Basics – On Site Factors
On Site Factors
Several on site factors are still important in 2015:
• Good site structure
• Internal linking (text within sentences as well as navigation)
• Minimal amount of footer links to other pages
• Content Readability / Usability / Site Design
• Google Panda Algorithm Issues
• Google Page Layout Algorithm Issues

9. 2015 SEO Basics – Social Media and SEO Factors
Social Media and SEO Factors
• Social Posts and Shares count
• Engagement counts
Think of social pages, shares, and profiles as web pages.
• Get links from those pages.
• How to get good links? Network socially with influencers.
• SEO “credit” passed from social profile to social profile to site.

10. 2015 SEO Basics – Latest Google Algorithm Changes
Latest Google Algorithm Changes
• Recent Major Google Updates
- Phantom Update, Panda, Penguin, EMD, Page Layout
• Google Knowledge Graph
• Manual Actions
• Sample Manual Actions - Revoked
• Future Google Algorithm Updates.

11. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda
What is Google Panda?
• Ranking factor added to the Google algorithm
• Filter designed to identify ‘low quality pages’.
• Provides better rankings for high-quality sites
• Panda supposedly integrated into algorithm, but maybe not?
• Named after Google engineer Navneet Panda

12. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda
Google Panda History
• Rolled Out to US sites on February 24, 2011
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html
• Rolled out Globally to English language users on April 11, 2011
• Also began to roll out data from sites that users block
• Last Manual Panda Update — July 17, 2015
- Panda reported on rolling update schedule, but not sure?

13. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda
Google Panda Update History
• Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011
• Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011
• Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011
• Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011
• Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011
• Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12, 2011
• Panda 2.5 — September 28, 2011
• Panda "Flux" — October 5, 2011
• Panda 3.1 — November 18, 2011
• Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012
• Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012
• Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012
• Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012
• Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012
• Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012
• Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012
• Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012
• Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012
• Panda #20 — September 27, 2012
• Panda #21 — November 5, 2012
• Panda #22 — November 21, 2012
• Panda #23 — December 21, 2012
• Panda #24 — January 23, 2013
• Panda #24 — March 14, 2013
• Panda Dance — June 11, 2013
• Panda Recovery — July 18, 2013
• Panda Update — September, 2014
• Panda Update – July 17, 2015
See the Google Algorithm Change History:
http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

14. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda
Were You Hit by Panda?
• Look at your web analytics
• Sites affected had traffic loss starting in February, 2011.
• Google Analytics for your site (Web Trends, Omniture, etc.)
• SEM Rush for most sites (SEMRush.com)

15. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda
Recovering from Google Panda
• Make sure all content on site is “high quality”
• Review Google’s List:
23 Questions to assess quality
http://bit.ly/1gHZzQb
• Identify and remove least-visited pages
• Take out the trash, so to speak.
• Prevent Pogosticking from SERPs.
• Wait until next Panda update to see recovery

16. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Panda vs. Google Penguin
Panda vs. Penguin
• Panda focuses on sites providing a bad user experience
- Sites with low quality content
• Penguin focuses on spamdexing and link bombing.

17. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Penguin
What is Google Penguin?
Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.”
http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html
Goal is to “decrease rankings for sites that violate Google’s
Quality Guidelines”. (Mainly organic link issues.)
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#3

18. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Penguin
Google Penguin Update History
• First reported April 24, 2012
• Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012
• Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012 (0.3 percent of queries)
• Penguin 2.0 (#4) — May 22, 2013
• Penguin 2.1 (#5) — October 4, 2013

19. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Penguin
Were You Hit by Google Penguin?
• Look at Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, review dates
of Google Updates.

20. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Penguin
Recovering from Google Penguin
• Perform a full SEO Audit of web site
• Review Google Webmaster Tools for messages, suggestions
• Perform full link analysis of site
• Disavow Links to Site
• Link Research Tools’ Link Detox Boost claims quick recovery
• Work on Authority, trust of site
• Wait until next Penguin update to see recovery

21. 2015 SEO Basics – Exact Match Domain Update
EMD Update
• Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012
Google targeted “commercial phrases” with this update.
• Valuable Domain Names include Keywords (commercial phrases)
• Not all keyword rich domains affected
• Sites without keyword rich domains were affected

22. 2015 SEO Basics – Page Layout Update
Google Page Layout Update
• Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012
• Targets pages with too many ads “above the fold”
• Algo proof: content above fold, minimal ads above fold.
• Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014 http://selnd.com/1qNV6DE

23. 2015 SEO Basics – Knowledge Graph Update
Knowledge Graph Update
• Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012
• Get your site, business into the Knowledge Graph.
• TIP: get listed in Wikipedia, Wiki Data.

24. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Manual Actions
Manual Actions in Webmaster Tools
• Partial Match – affects certain pages
• Full Match – affects whole site
• Unnatural links – both require link cleanup, review

25. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Manual Actions
Manual Actions – Unrelated to Penguin
• Unnatural link warnings are not related to Google Penguin
• Sites affected by Penguin should clean up links
• Manual actions more severe, require reconsideration request

26. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Manual Actions
Getting Manual Actions Revoked
Unnatural Links? Clean up links, document everything.
• Identify all links to site
• Combine GWT, Majestic, Ahrefs, OSE links
• Manually review links (Link Research Tools can help)
• Identify links to remove
• Contact site owners, document emails, contact dates, etc.
• 3 attempts to contact site owners
• Disavow links not removed
Request Review: include letter, spreadsheet with data proof

27. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Manual Actions
Sample Manual Action Revoked
• 52,252 Total Links to Site
• 217 referring root domains
• 693 Healthy Links
• 709 Inorganic Links
• 569 “live” inorganic links to get removed (including nofollow links).
After three attempts over 3 weeks to contact site owners via email:
• 296 site owners responded
• 12 sites refused to remove the links
• 257 links were successfully removed based on our email requests
• 27 links – site owners requested payment to remove the links
• 2 links – we were unable to contact site owners
• 274 links – site owners were completely unresponsive after 3 contacts
• 256 links were removed as a result of our link removal efforts

28. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Manual Actions
Sample Manual Action Revoked
• Kept track of all URLs, Status of URL, Dates, and emails
• Added all data into spreadsheet
• Uploaded spreadsheet to Google Docs
• Wrote letter explaining process, linked to Google Docs spreadsheet

29. 2015 SEO Basics – Google Future Updates
Google Future Updates
• Google Panda Updates were monthly, may be continual.
• Penguin Updates “maybe” 6 months, may be ongoing?
• Manual Actions - Severity of infraction can affect length of time
a site will be penalized
• Manual Actions – Average site is looking at 6-12 months to
recover from a penalty even after cleaning it up
• If you get hit by Panda or Penguin you HAVE to wait to for data
refresh of that filter

30. 2015 SEO Basics – Thank You
THANK YOU
Contact Me
Bill Hartzer
Senior SEO Strategist
Globe Runner
Email: Bill@GlobeRunnerSEO.com
Mobile: (214) 236-4378
Office: (972) 538-0260
Web: https://globerunner.com
Blog: https://www.billhartzer.com
Twitter: @bhartzer