%20(8).png)
%20(3).png){kind=small}
SEO (search engine optimization): the process of optimizing a page, site, image, or listing for search engines.
Good SEO is a hot commodity and since the industry is riddled with snakeoil, it’s hard for some CEO’s and business owners to know if an agency or freelancer is the real deal.
This article is updated regularly since Google’s core algorithm is updated typically at least once per quarter with smaller updates along the way.
The of SEO goal is to get meaningful traffic to a page on your site that converts easily. Many marketers confuse KPI’s (key progress indicators) with goals.
SEO Basics Every Marketer Needs To Know
Each individual page is associated with its own list of keywords, the process of getting "listed" for those keywords is called "indexing." Once a page is indexed for a keyword, you can work on increasing your ranking (or position) by further optimizing the page. But like I said, the GOAL is to get meaningful traffic that converts easily. So in that sense, not all keywords are created equal.
Let's dive in.
The foundation for SEO: what your site needs
First of all, let's chat about what you need to have in place in order to have a great keyword strategy - this is where the money comes from.
Your pages are indexed individually for each keyword. The easiest way to understand this is to put yourself into the shoes of the user. When you Google something, you see a list of a results on a page (SERP: search engine result page), those individual results consist of a single page from a larger site. Your whole domain (or website) isn't listed, it's just one page.
So, each individual URL on your site has the ability to rank for a limitless number of keywords. Google decides which keywords to rank each page for by "crawling" a variety of things: text on the page, technical elements like title tags and meta descriptions, how deep the page is in your website, how fast it loads, and whether you've adhered to best practices for all of those things. All of this "ensures" that each page is indexed for keywords that make sense for each page. This way, when someone Googles "Cat toys" they're not given a page full of Catwoman action figures.
However! (get used to that phrase), your overall domain DOES play a role in reinforcing relevance for individual pages. Google wants to push the best results for the user to top & most visible positions. So, if I have an entire website of thousands and thousands Cat Toys and hundreds of categories of them, and a few hundred Dog Toys, the fact that I have SO MANY PAGES of cat toys helps my overall domain relevancy. This reinforces my website as an authority on cat toys. This is how you have categorical winners like wayfair, or pottery barn, west elm, overstock, or target as the go-to for home furnishings and decor. They just have SO MUCH that it's impossible to ignore.
User Experience Matters - In All Forms!
This brings us to the next point. Having "SO MUCH" is also great for the user. When you land on a page after you've Googled something, you most likely have some level of subjectivity in your search. We'll talk about search intent a little further down the page, but when you search for something vague and it's more of a category (like "cat toys") you're probably looking for a whole page of cat toys so you can browse and eventually buy. Having a competitive number of products in a certain category is imperative to being relevant enough to live among the top results for your category. If you can't compete with the other results on page 1, don't worry. We'll drill down into a conversion worthy strategy for you in a second.
On top of needing to cater to a variety of buyers, you also need to compete with the more traditional form of User Experience. Is your site easy to browse and find key pages on your site? Is it easy for users to narrow down your products into something super specific? Does your nav bar take up too much of the screen for laptops? Does your site look like it was made this century, or does it look like a DIY project from the 90's in comparison to what's on page 1 of the search results?
This stuff matters because it can contribute to a poor bounce rate, poor time on page, poor depth of page. All of these metrics are what google uses to quantify whether users actually like your site. Give your users a great experience, see rewards.
Now we can talk about Keyword Strategy
So now that we understand the role your site & pages play in SEO, we can dig deeper into what a good Keyword Strategy entails.
- Search Intent - what does a user mean when they google something? what stage in the sales funnel are they?
- Page Content VS SERP Competition - are users looking for information, a blog post, a recipe, a category page or a product?
- On-page Relevance - how closely does your page match the search intent and SERP competition that's already on page 1.
- Technical Relevance - do your title tags, meta descriptions, and header hierarchy relate to the keyword?
- User experience Vs SERP Competition - is your site easier or as easy to use and as aesthetically pleasing as the other companies on page 1?
Search Intent is how you make money, or don't.
To understand search intent for a keyword, you need to answer two questions:
- what does the user really mean when they're googling this phrase?
- what stage of the sales funnel are they in?
If you're hoping to rank for a keyword, search intent is key (no pun intended). The only way to truly figure out what a user means is to google the same phrase and look at the 1st SERP. Let's go back to our "cat toys" example and put ourselves back into the shoes of our user because that's the ONLY WAY to understand search intent.
If I Google "Cat Toys", the first page of search results is as follows:
Then, I see SERP features (a different topic for a different time). And below the fold we have
If you take the time to click those links, you'll see that most of those pages are very general category pages full of a vast array of cat toys. There are a few that are blog articles that compare "the best" cat toys to help shoppers make an educated decision. Why do we see both kinds of results and what does that mean for search intent?
This kind of user is clearly looking for a cat toy, rather than a toy cat for kids, or cat woman action figures, etc. However, the mix of results and the general category pages that are ranking tell me that the user is still in the research phase of the sales funnel. In other words, they're shopping around and still figuring out what they want to buy.
Most broad keywords like "cat toys" that relate to a huge category with vast amounts of subjectivity are going to be dominated by large retailers with massive amounts of products related to the keyword. If you can compete with these pages and have enough products to be a resource where someone can browse your site for a while to figure out what they want, then you can include something as broad as "cat toys" in your keyword strategy.
However, most niche or dtc companies can't quite compete on this level, or even if you can, it's not always a sound investment because broad keywords have a lower conversion rate and are often more expensive to optimize (they require more off-page optimization than most). And that's okay.
Align your Technical Elements
To rank well for a keyword or group of keywords the page's content and technical elements need to literally be about those keywords; this is what we refer to as "relevance." Ranking for relevant keywords is a KPI (key progress indicator) but shouldn't be confused with the goal. To receive high quality recurring traffic that easily converts your site architecture, page content, technical elements and keyword strategy all have to align. It’s not magic, it’s methodology.
The process is multifaceted, and deals with a plethora of on- and off-page factors and metrics. To boot, there’s an absolute ton of snake oil and outdated tactics plaguing SEO, and it’s sometimes hard for my clients to know what’s relevant. On top of that, Industry leaders like moz.com have a tendency to regurgitate and justify best practices set by Google. While best practices should be followed, it usually leaves marketers in the dark as far as outlining a comprehensive, low hanging fruit, revenue driving strategy. So here’s what matters:
Once your pages meet these criteria & standards, your pages have the ability to rank for keywords that can drive revenue. Then, you have to decide if it’s worth it:
- Difficulty VS ((Search Volume * ≈20%)*conversion rate by page type) * $AOV
Difficulty of any given keyword is determined by how well your competition executes the list above, how long their domain and pages have been active, and how many Backlinks from credible sites they have to the pages that rank, and/or keyword-relevant Backlinks to the domain as a whole. Backlinks are a popularity indicator. The more you have from quality sites (frequently visited + technically optimized) the more it indicates to google that the general public thinks your pages are worthy of top rankings.
Additionally, Google wants to know that your site is an authority on the topic. This is more of an on-page or on-site factor (ie: write a bunch of blog posts about a topic that’s super helpful for users and get good on-page metrics. These expand the size of your site with good topically-relevant content and decent long tail keywords. Then Google considers your site as a whole relevant and “knowledgeable” for a topic; Backlinks and social shares are relevant for this). The more pages on your site that cover a topic and cover it well, the more the general public will like it, use it, consume it, etc... and the more authoritative Google views.
.jpeg)
