am workshop workbook - digital...
TRANSCRIPT
Jake Finkelstein | CEO, Method Savvy
AM WORKSHOP WORKBOOK
THE PATH TO POSITION #1:
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION IN A USER-FIRST WORLD
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Redefining SEO for a User-First World
Adapting User-Centered Design to Supercharge SEO Performance
The Search Engine Landscape
Recent Search Algorithm Updates
Exercise #1 - Building Better Personas Through Nailing the What and the Why
Potential Data Sources
Tools
Mastering the Persona Process
Audience Data
Audience Story
Example Personas
Exercise #2 – Mastering Keyword Research
Mapping Customer Understanding
Competitive Keyword Research
Create a Seed Keyword List
Create a List Of Related Terms
Prioritize Keywords and Themes
Keyword Research Tools
Exercise #3 – Creating Strategic and Comprehensive Content
Checklist Questions
Content Tools
Exercise #4 – Mastering User Experience for Improved SEO Performance
User Experience Audit Checklist
User Experience Analysis Tools
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Exercise #5 – Winning Smarter Brand Citations
Audit Brand Mentions & Reputation
Audit Backlink Portfolio
Create the Strategy to Grow Your Brand Mentions
Exercise #6 – Tackling the Technical
Tools
Getting a Lay of the Land
Technical Audit
Uncovering On-Page Issues
About Jake Finkelstein
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INTRODUCTION
nline customers' expectations have changed dramatically over the years and with it so too have search Oengines' approach to fulling their needs. As customers become ever more sophisticated in how they search –
from natural language queries and voice search to greater smartphone usage and less patience – search
engines have deployed hundreds of algorithm updates to reward brands that put their users first; and demote
those that don't.
This SEO workbook will provide you with the strategies, tactics, tools and processes you need to boost your
online visibility and increase customer loyalty. Throughout the sections, you will also find exercises that you
can use to customize the approach to your specific business needs and competitive environment.
44© Conversion Sciences LLC. Used with permission.
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REDEFINING SEO FOR A USER-FIRST WORLD
Search engines exist for a simple purpose: to quickly connect people with relevant information so that they can fulfill
their desired intent. While Google's famous mission statement is “to organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful;” fundamentally what search engines seek to achieve is the same as all businesses –
to deliver an experience so outstanding that customers return for more time and again. By helping search engines
achieve this goal, you can rocket to the top of the rankings.
Unfortunately, too many marketers continue to view SEO as primarily an exercise in content development, technical
optimization and citation building. While these are certainly valuable components of a search engine optimization
program, the best performing companies break out of the SEO silo to deploy an integrated framework of processes
that put their customers at the heart of their strategy.
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User-Centered Design is a multidisciplinary methodology that focuses on explicitly understanding users, their intent
and the environment in which they are interacting in order to dramatically improve outcomes. Codified under the
standard ISO 9241-210, when correctly deployed user-centered design reduces customer frustration, increases
delight and builds brand loyalty. Whatever the allocation of resources and roles applied to the process, the user-
centered approach follows six core principles:
1. The experience to be created is based upon an explicit understanding of users, their intended tasks and the
environment in which they are interacting.
2. Users are involved throughout the design and creation process.
3. The experience is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation.
4. The process is iterative.
5. The whole user experience is addressed.
6. Multidisciplinary skills and perspectives are utilized.
As applied to search engine optimization, being user-centered requires that you deeply understand the whole
customer. Not only what they are searching for and why, but also how their journey to fulfilling their intent is shaped
and felt as they interact with your competitors, your company and your content. When these lessons are
appropriately applied to your search engine optimization program, your rankings improve because there becomes
clear alignment between the needs of the user, the search engine and your business.
ADAPTING USER-CENTERED DESIGN TO SUPERCHARGE SEO PERFORMANCE
REDEFINING SEO FOR A USER-FIRST WORLD
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THE SEARCH ENGINE LANDSCAPE
Google is the 800lbs gorilla of the search engine industry. Commanding more than 60% of the search engine market
share in the United States, Google sets the bar for the industry – and one that other search engines follow. Like a
casino in Las Vegas, Google has the power to set the rules of the game. Closely examining the algorithm updates
Google has and continues to deploy will provide you with insight into their understanding of how users utilize their
search engine and how you can align your site to their perception of best practices.
While Google regularly makes over 500 algorithm updates per year, in the last decade there have been eight
changes that have had major impact on rankings. More information on these updates is available at
https://www.link-assistant.com/news/google-algorithm-updates.html.
#1 – Panda (February 24, 2011)
Focused on demoting plagiarized, duplicate or “thin” content, the Panda update created a stronger incentive for
webmasters to publish high quality, substantive and original information. As of January 2016 Panda was officially
incorporated into the core search algorithm, rather than remaining a filter, allowing for more frequent updates,
penalties and recoveries.
Opportunity: regularly check the site for content duplication, thin content and keyword stuffing.
#2 – Penguin (April 24, 2012)
The Penguin update targeted and demoted websites whose inbound links appeared spammy, irrelevant or featured
over-optimized anchor text. Incorporated into Google's core algorithm as of late-2016, Penguin works in real-time
to punish sites with an unnatural backlink portfolio.
Opportunity: actively monitor your website's backlink portfolio and audit links for toxicity.
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THE SEARCH ENGINE LANDSCAPE
#3 – Hummingbird (August 22, 2013)
Hummingbird enables Google to improve their understanding and interpretation of search queries to deliver results
that better match the searcher's intent. This is particularly impactful in the interpretation of a user's natural language
and long-tail queries as it relies less on the individual terms within the query itself.
Opportunity: expand your approach to keyword research to focus on concepts and topics instead of specific
keywords. In particular, research related searches, synonyms and co-occurring terms.
#4 - Pigeon (July 24, 2014)
The Pigeon update impacts location-based searches both on the SERP and within Google Maps. It punishes websites
with poor on and off page optimization and rewards sites with clear location signals and close proximity to the
searcher.
Opportunity: optimize website and directory listings with consistent location information (e.g. address, phone
number, etc.) and attach them to a strong and authoritative domain with high quality content.
#5 – Mobile (April 21, 2015)
The update demoted or removed from mobile SERPs entirely websites that had poor mobile usability or no
responsive website.
Opportunity: deploy a responsible user experience for your website that focuses on speed and mobile usability.
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THE SEARCH ENGINE LANDSCAPE
#6 – RankBrain (October 26, 2015)
RankBrain is a machine learning system that enables Google to better understand the meaning behind search
queries and deliver to users better matching results.
Opportunity: optimize content for relevance and comprehensiveness to a topic.
#7 – Possum (September 1, 2016)
The Possum update improved matching of local SERP results to a searcher's physical location. Meaning, the closer
you are to the location of a business address, the more likely you are to see it listed in local search results.
Opportunity: expand your keyword list, update location citations and signals as well as monitor location-specific
rank tracking.
#8 – Fred (March 8, 2017)
The jokingly named “Fred” update targets websites that violate Google's webmaster guidelines. In particular,
websites that feature low quality content but are optimized for advertising revenue were most affected.
Opportunity: align your on-site practices to the Google Search Quality Guidelines
(https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqu
alityevaluatorguidelines.pdf), remove low quality content and invest in publishing comprehensive and deep content
that is valuable to your target audience.
While not all algorithm updates will have a substantial impact on your website, staying abreast of changes will help
you shape your SEO strategy and website experience for optimal results. For a full and updated list of algorithm
updates, please visit: https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change.
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THE SEARCH ENGINE LANDSCAPE
OTHER RECENT GOOGLE ALGORITHM UPDATES
January 10, 2017 – Intrusive Interstitial Penalty
Algorithm update that punishes aggressive pop-ups and interstitials that potentially damage the mobile user
experience. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-intrusive-interstitials-mobile-penalty-now-rolling-out-
23237.html
October 17, 2017 – Chrome HTTPS Warnings
For users of Chrome 62 and above, Google has begun warning visitors to websites with unsecured forms. While not
technically an algorithm update, this is a continuation in Google's move toward HTTPS and may materially impact
onsite behavior. https://searchengineland.com/google-emails-warnings-webmasters-chrome-will-mark-http-
pages-forms-not-secure-280907
October 27, 2017 – Featured Snippet Drop
Google substantially reduces the use of Featured Snippets but increases the use of Knowledge Panels.
https://moz.com/blog/knowledge-graph-eats-featured-snippets
November 30, 2017 – Snippet Length Increase
Google officially increases snippet length in search, allowing for meta descriptions up to 300 characters including
spaces. https://searchengineland.com/google-officially-increases-length-snippets-search-results-287596
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
First and foremost, search engine optimization is about people. It doesn't matter how good you are at technical
optimizations and link building; if you don't deliver a delightful and engaging experience to your users you'll never
rise to the top of the search engine rankings.
Yet before you can help your users achieve their goals, you first need to understand what makes them… well… them.
The demographics, behaviors, attitudes and motivations that drive them forward in their search. Through the
codification as a persona – that is a detailed portrait of their characteristics, needs and intents – you will have a firm
grasp of the audience segments that are important to your business as well as the what and the why behind their
actions.
One critical note: personas can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. The more in-depth the fuller your
understanding of the audience. However even at their most robust, personas are only hypotheses; that is a proposed
explanation rather than fact; that will be tested and shaped over time.
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
POTENTIAL DATA SOURCES
Ÿ Customer Data: Transaction data or historical relationship with company.
Ÿ Company (Internal) Data: Customer service interactions, sales team engagement.
Ÿ Website Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics or similar platforms.
Ÿ Product Usage Data: Pendo.io, Kissmetrics or similar platforms.
Ÿ Customer Interviews: Customer development conversations, focus groups or camera studies.
Ÿ Desktop Research: Third party data sources that provide aggregate information on audiences or industries.
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
TOOLS
Ÿ DataUSA.io: A website that allows you to search, map and compare data related to geography, industries and
job functions.
Ÿ Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, DemographicsPro.com.
Ÿ Third Party Databases & Reports: Licensed databases such as eMarketer (emarketer.com), Mintel Reports
( ) and Forrester Research http://www.mintel.com/mintel-reports
( )https://www.forrester.com/search?N=10001&range=504005&sort=3&searchRefinement=reports
Ÿ Customer Insights: conduct in-person focus groups, phone-based customer interviews or use a web-based
tool like User Testing ( ) to conduct virtual camera studies.https://www.usertesting.com/
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
MASTERING THE PERSONA PROCESS
1. Gather data on how your customers and prospects behave when interacting with your company. This can include,
but is not limited to: product usage, how buyers behave prior to and after purchase, the way in which prospects
engage with your marketing communications and how your customers communicate with customer support or the
sales departments at your organization.
2. Gather demographic, psychographic and survey data.
3. Break your prospects and customers into cohorts; that is groups with common attributes; to segment high value
from low value customers.
4. Craft an Audience Story and associated persona to codify your hypothesis of your audience segments.
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
AUDIENCE DATA
Demographics
Gender
Age
Education
Occupation
Annual Household Income
Marital Status
Family Status (Has Children?)
Religion
Psychographics
Areas of Interest
Expressed Values
Habits
Opinions
Activities or Hobbies
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
AUDIENCE DATA
Observed Behavior
Frequency of Interaction
Recency of Interaction
Average Time On-Site
Frequency of Purchase
Recency of Purchase
Average Transaction Value
Lifetime as Customer
Lifetime Value
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
AUDIENCE STORY
Observed Behavior
Person Describe who the customer is in a few sentences.
Their Purpose What are their goals?
How do they define themselves?
What are they trying to accomplish professionally, personally or socially?
Objective of Interaction What are they trying to achieve by dealing with your company?
What does success look like in the interaction for them and for your company?
Customer Journey Describe the customer journey. What steps are they taking, what distractions do they encounter, on their way to fulfilling their intended goal?
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Starting Point What is their current understanding of, or sophistication about, their problem and/or intended goal?
EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
AUDIENCE STORY
Observed Behavior
Audience Rationale Describe how the person is thinking at each step of their journey.
Emotional Struggles and Frustrations What are the emotional dynamics? Ex: strongly felt needs, pressure from others, trust. What are they frustrated by in their journey?
Key Decisions Outline the key decisions that a customer has to make in order to complete their quest.
Anti-Goals What concerns or anxieties does the audience have? What pains or outcomes are they trying to avoid?
Alternative Options What alternatives does the customer have? What would an experience with a competitor look and feel like?
Constraints Any additional constraints or limitations that the customer has to consider?
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
EXAMPLE PERSONAS
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
EXAMPLE PERSONAS
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EXERCISE #1 - BUILDING BETTER PERSONAS THROUGH NAILING THE WHAT AND THE WHY
EXAMPLE PERSONAS
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EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Successful keyword research requires empathy. That you to put yourself into the shoes of your audience and to think
like they think. By deeply exploring their current understanding of their problems, based on where they are in their
journey to their intended destination, you can better identify the topics and answers that will prove meaningful in
response to their search query.
As a seasoned SEO you likely already have an understanding of many of the tools and processes of the keyword
research trade. While technology is undoubtedly an important part of keyword research, it should not be the place
that we start. Rather, below is a proposed roadmap that if followed will lead you to more meaningful and effective
keyword research.
Begin by interviewing or reflecting on your conversations with your sales team, customer service representatives and
other customer-facing departments.
MAPPING CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING
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EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
MAPPING CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING
How does your company introduce itself to an individual that hasn't heard of you before?
What are the questions that your sales and/or customer service team most commonly receive when speaking with prospects/customers?
Who do your customers view as competitors to your company?
What do you wish a prospect knew or understood before engaging with your company?
What are the most common challenges or complaints your company receives from customers?
What do you believe makes a customer a “poor fit” for your company?
What do you believe makes a customer a “good fit” for your company?
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Using a software tools such as Spyfu.com and SEMRush.com, research the keywords and phrases for which your
competitors highly rank.
COMPETITIVE KEYWORD RESEARCH
EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Ranking Keyword Estimated Search VolumeCompetitor
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Take a moment and think of all the words you or a customer could use to describe your product or company. As you
brainstorm on the common language assign the keywords a theme to help categorize the terms based on
commonalities such as informational, navigational, brand or transactional. Hint: if you're struggling to identify seed
keywords visit https://www.seedkeywords.com/ as a starting point.
CREATE A SEED KEYWORD LIST
EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keyword Theme
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Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a mathematical method used to determine the relationship between terms and
concepts in content. An increasingly significant influence on search rankings, LSI keywords help to indicate natural
language through the use of synonyms and helps to expand keyword visibility through keyword variation. Building
on the competitive research and seed keyword list, visit to research LSI variants. Additional https://lsigraph.com/
ideas for variants are available at https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/.
CREATE A LIST OF RELATED TERMS
EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Root Keyword Variants
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Based on your keyword research, gather search volume and competitiveness data so that you can prioritize the
themes that will have the most impact for your search engine optimization goals. You may utilize the free tool
https://searchvolume.io/ https://ahrefs.com/keywords-explorer, or a paid platform such as
https://www.semrush.com/ https://www.spyfu.com/. or
PRIORITIZE KEYWORDS AND THEMES
EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Root Keyword Variants
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Ÿ https://www.seedkeywords.com/
Ÿ https://www.semrush.com/
Ÿ https://www.spyfu.com/
Ÿ https://ahrefs.com/keywords-explorer
Ÿ https://lsigraph.com/
Ÿ https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/
KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
EXERCISE #2 - MASTERING KEYWORD RESEARCH
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EXERCISE #3 - CREATING STRATEGIC AND COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT
Checklist Question Yes / No
Search engines reward websites with higher rankings when they feature valuable content that is comprehensive to a
topic and is relevant to the intended audience. Too often marketers wait until the end of the content creation
process to take into consideration SEO factors. By following the below checklist, you can both evaluate the SEO
value of your website's content as well as set a strategic path forward for your content creation efforts.
Is your content based on an understanding of your audience, their interests, needs and intent?
Is the content written to meet the intended audience where they are in their journey? Does it avoid using industry jargon or overly simple language?
Does your content use audience language; rather than company-focused language; as well as LSI variants?
Is the content significantly differentiated in type, scope and detail that other content serving the same user intent?
Does the content solve a problem, answer a question or create an emotional response?
Is the content remarkable in that it provides comprehensive, accurate or exceptional information?
Is the on-page content long format (1,000+ words) and oriented to helping the user complete one specific task?
Does the page feature a clear and concise call-to-action or obvious next step in the user path?
Is the content so compelling that it is shareable? Do you make it easy on the page for your audience to share the content using social sharing buttons?
Can the content be scanned easily? Does it use features like short paragraphs, bold text, bullet points, quotes and/or numbered lists to make it easy for readers to consume the on-page content?
Target URL:
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Checklist Question Yes / No
Does the content utilize clear formatting such as H1 tags or strong titles for at-a-glance reading?
Compared to other page 1 SERP ranking pages for the topic, does the on-page content feature more useful, more in-depth or easier to consume information?
Is the content free of spelling, grammatical and formatting errors?
Is the content accurate and free of factual errors?
Does the content link out to useful and reputable sources?
Does the page avoid over-optimization of language, such as keyword stuffing, and instead features natural language usage and term variation?
Is the on-page content organized into thematic sections based on primary related keywords; that is words and phrases that related to the main keyword phrase of the page?
Do on-page images feature image titles, alt text and captions that naturally use the target keyword and variants?
Does the page use the target keyword or related variant in the URL?
EXERCISE #3 - CREATING STRATEGIC AND COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT
Ÿ https://www.link-assistant.com/news/tf-idf-tool.html
Ÿ https://lsigraph.com/
Ÿ https://www.grammarly.com/
CONTENT TOOLS
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
Great user experience is about more than beautiful design. It is about helping audiences quickly and easily
understand their surroundings, find what they're looking for and take appropriate action once they do. Every click
should take the user closer to their goal while eliminating as much of the non-destination as possible.
As applied to ranking on search engines, whose core purpose is quickly connect people with relevant content so that
they can complete their indented task, a delightful user experience isn't an option, it is a requirement. While user
experience design and human-centered design are enormously deep topics, there are four core principles that when
applied to a website improve the on-page experience and support SEO performance.
1. Be contextual – when opening a book to any given page, you are met with the title, the chapter name, page number
and words. These pieces of information share important context to the reader to help her understand her surroundings
and the point at which she is joining the story. Like the reader of the book, when a user visits your page she is taking a
step forward in her search. Ensure that there are appropriate signals that allow her to be contextually aware of where
she is within her journey.
2. Be human – human interaction needs to always trump machine-like interactions. By designing the page to be
approachable, authentic, trustworthy and transparent your user can quickly learn your website's interaction models and
more easily move forward toward their goal.
3. Be easy – reduce the user's cognitive workload by reducing choice and on-page busyness. Be consistent and clear in
your visual hierarchy.
4. Be simple – avoid distractions, jargon and long loading times. Make the on-page experience delightful by creating
moments of surprise or wonder.
While wide-ranging in concept, there is a three-step process that you can use to audit your website's user
experience.
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
Begin the exercise by reviewing Google Analytics and priority pages for user experience signals. You may also use
the free Pagezii UX Grader Tool ( ) to guide your analysis.https://pagezii.com/snapshot/ux
USER EXPERIENCE AUDIT CHECKLIST
Metric Findings
Visitor Engagement
Bounce Rate
Average Across Website
Page Outliers
Time On-Page
Average Across Website
Page Outliers
Average Pages Per User Session
Common User Flow / Paths
Most Popular Landing Pages
Most Popular Exit Pages
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
USER EXPERIENCE AUDIT CHECKLIST
Metric Findings
Communication Style
Ease of Reading
Content Complexity
Page Content Length
Human readable Title Tag
Human readable Meta Description
Meaningful Header
Clear Calls-to-Action
Natural Language / Text
Navigation
Link to Home Easily Identifiable
Internal Linking / Content Discovery
Clear Navigational Elements
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
USER EXPERIENCE AUDIT CHECKLIST
Metric Findings
Usability
Digestible Content
Concise Points
Visual breaks
Image Descriptions
Video Usage
Lead Capture Form
Modal Boxes / Pop Ups
Responsible Design
Page Load Speed
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
USER EXPERIENCE AUDIT CHECKLIST
Metric Findings
Credibility
Secure, HTTPs Connection
Social Profiles
Brand Building Language
On-page Trust Signals
Privacy Text
Copyright
Bonus Tips
Ÿ Install inspectlet.com (free up to 100 visitors per month), Hotjar.com or a similar user experience analysis tool
to record user sessions, uncover click behavior and scrolling depth.
Ÿ Conduct customer / user interviews or camera studies (UserTesting.com) to hear directly from users their
perspectives on the website, their though process and decision-making process.
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EXERCISE #4 - MASTERING USER EXPERIENCE FOR IMPROVED SEO PERFORMANCE
USER EXPERIENCE ANALYSIS TOOLS
Ÿ Pagezii UX Grader Tool: https://pagezii.com/snapshot/ux
Ÿ Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com
Ÿ User Testing: https://www.usertesting.com/
Ÿ Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/
Ÿ Inspectlet: https://www.inspectlet.com/
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EXERCISE #5 - WINNING SMARTER BRAND CITATIONS
Since Google first established itself as the preeminent player in the search engine industry links have been the trust
signal for SERPs. As a result, SEOs have spent countless hours optimizing links in the pursuit of top rankings,
sometimes even pushing to manipulate them. In response, Google and other search engines have sought methods
to penalize the misuse or over-optimization of links and have expanded their algorithms to also look to unlinked
mentions as well as online reputation as a signal of relevance and value.
In order to be successful at increasing the SERP rankings for your website you need high quality links coupled with a
comprehensive approach that attracts trust signals through reputation management and brand citations. Below is a
methodology to audit your current status and identify opportunities for improvement.
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EXERCISE #5 - WINNING SMARTER BRAND CITATIONS
Brand Mention Note
Ex: www.company.com/reviews Ex: features customer service complaint that has not yet been addressed by our team. Flag for follow up.
AUDIT BRAND MENTIONS & REPUTATION
Ÿ Visit and sign up for the 14-day free trial.https://awario.com/signup
Ÿ Create alerts for your brand name and website URL.
Ÿ Evaluate mentions and positive/negative sentiment.
Ÿ Note reputation management or customer service issues that need response.
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EXERCISE #5 - WINNING SMARTER BRAND CITATIONS
AUDIT BACKLINK PORTFOLIO
Ÿ Visit SEMRush.com and sign up for a free account or log into your paid account.
Ÿ Create a “project” for your domain.
Ÿ Run an automated “backlink audit” for your domain.
Ÿ Connect Google Search Console to SEMRush for improved backlink audit results.
Ÿ Review audit report, identifying toxicity of links based on domain authority, page authority, the quality of the
content and design on the linking page as well as diversity of anchor text.
Ÿ Create a prioritized list of links to request removal from the site’s webmasters or of which to request a link
disavowal from Google
Link Toxicity Score
Ex: http://add-page.org/the_worlds_most_visited_web_pages_52.html 88
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EXERCISE #5 - WINNING SMARTER BRAND CITATIONS
CREATE THE STRATEGY TO GROW YOUR BRAND MENTIONS
Ÿ Reviews: monitor customer reviews and respond to customer service inquires.
Ÿ Social Media: consistently share high value content and engagement with your online community on the
social networks frequented by your audience.
Ÿ Competitor monitoring: set up brand name tracking on Awario or a similar tool to track brand citations for
your key competitors. Learn from watching where they succeed and struggle as well as identify common
influencers.
Ÿ Create Astounding Content: review the page one rankings for your priority keywords. Note what content ranks
and identify creative ways to build content that not only deserves to ranking #1 but is so astoundingly good
that your audience will love it. Keep in mind that when deploying the content on-page to include images as
well as easy social sharing capabilities.
Keyword Top Ranking Content Astounding Ideas
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
As an experienced SEO you already understand the critical technical factors that influence SERP. With that said,
nothing will inhibit the impact of a great user experience and superior content faster than technical issues that make
it difficult, if not impossible, for a search engine to correctly index your website.
To ensure that your website doesn't miss a beat use the following tool and audit checklist to identify website issues
that need attention.
TOOLS
Ÿ Bing Webmaster Tools: https://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
Ÿ Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
Ÿ Google Mobile Testing Tool: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Ÿ Screaming Frog SEO Spider: (or your preferred crawler)https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/
Ÿ Siteliner: http://www.siteliner.com/
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
Using Screaming Frog SEO Spider, select Configuration from the main menu followed by Custom >> Search. You
may then add the following parameters:
1. Add “analytics\.js” (without the quotes) to the blank field of your next available filter and change the
dropdown to “Does Not Contain” to check for missing Google Analytics code.
2. Add “<iframe src-“//www.googletagmanager.com/” (without the quotes) to the blank field of your next
available filter and change the dropdown to “Does Not Contain” to check for missing Google Tag Manager
code.
3. Add “itemtype= (without the quotes) to the blank field of your next available filter and http://schema.\.org/
change the dropdown to “Contains” to check for missing schema markup.
GETTING A LAY OF THE LAND
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
GETTING A LAY OF THE LAND
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
GETTING A LAY OF THE LAND
Next, log into Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools in your browser and check the following:
1. Are there any new messages regarding the health of your website?
2. Check the Index Status in Search Console and look for any sharp or sudden changes in the number of pages
indexed. Also compare the number of indexed pages reported in Search Console to what Screaming Frog SEO
Spider or your preferred crawl tool reports.
3. Confirm that you have specified a Preferred domain under Site Settings in Search Console.
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
TECHNICAL AUDIT
SSL Usage
Using Screaming Frog SEO Spider, migrate to the “Protocol” tab to view and change the Filter to HTTP is show all of
the insecure pages on the website. You can also export the list of pages by selecting “Reports” from the dropdown
menu and then “Insecure Content”
Sitemaps
Confirm that your website has a properly formatted XML sitemap to help search engines understand how your
website is organized.
1. Check that sitemaps have been submitted via the Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools as well
as the last crawl date.
2. Compare how many URLs were submitted to how many were indexed, then look for any warnings.
3. If the sitemap is incorrect, generate a new one using Screaming Frog SEO Spider and submit it to Google
Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
TECHNICAL AUDIT
Robots.txt
Review the robots.txt file for your site by visit yourcompany.com/robots.txt. Confirm that:
Website Load Speed
Using Google's web speed tool ( ) and Pingdom https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
( ) benchmark overall site speed and the load speed of critical pages on the site. Any page https://tools.pingdom.com/
that takes longer than 3 seconds on average to load requires optimizations for improvement.
Mobile-Friendliness
Utilize Google's mobile friendly test tool ( ) to audit key pages on your https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
website for their appearance and usability on mobile devices.
1. The robots.txt file is all lowercase (as some user-agents only recognize lowercase filenames).
2. The file is placed in the main directory of your website or subdomain.
3. The file properly uses the disallow directive to hide or block the following types of pages: pages with
duplicate content, pagination pages, admin pages, shopping carts, chats and/or thank you pages.
4. The file includes a link to your XML sitemap.
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
TECHNICAL AUDIT
Crawl Errors
Using Screaming Frog SEO Spider identify all of the pages on the website that exhibit crawl errors.
Fix Incorrectly Set Up Redirects
Using Screaming Frog SEO Spider, navigate to “Reports” in the main menu and then select “Redirect Chains” to reveal
URLs that feature more than one 301 or 302 Redirect or have a redirect loop.
1. Select Bulk Export>>Response Codes from the main menu to export reports for both Client Error (4xx)
Inlinks and Server Error (5xx) Inlinks.
2. Sort by status code with a particular focus on 4XX and 5XX server errors.
3. Work with your development team to identify the cause of the errors and correct.
4. If any of the pages with error codes were intentionally removed from the website, set up 301 permanent
redirects to a live corresponding page with applicable content.
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
UNCOVERING ON-PAGE ISSUES
Duplicate Content
Use Siteliner ( ) to crawl your website and identify instances of internal duplicate or http://www.siteliner.com/
substantially similar content. Audit resulting pages and identify if the pages with duplicate content should be
deindexed in the robots.txt file, use a rel=”canonical” link tag or updated with original content.
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EXERCISE #6 - TACKLING THE TECHNICAL
UNCOVERING ON-PAGE ISSUES
Content Length
While not a complete measure of quality, there is data to indicate that pages with more than 1,500 words are more
frequently featured on page 1 SERP results than shorter pages. You can use Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify
pages for further review.
1. Select the Internal tab from the main Screaming Frog panel. Change the Filter to HTML, and then export the
report as a CSV file.
2. Open the file in Excel and hide or delete any rows with a non-200 response code as well as pages using the
noindex directive.
3. Sort the file using the Word Count column.
4. Flag any pages with word counts lower than 500. These pages should be reviewed to evaluate if the on-
page content has enough depth and, if not, if there are opportunities for expansion.
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ABOUT JAKE FINKELSTEIN
Jake Finkelstein is the CEO of Method Savvy, a full-service marketing agency based in
Durham, NC. As an integrated marketer Jake as worked with world-class brands such
as Olympus, US Cellular, Starwood Hotels, Dollar Tree, Virgin and Avalara to build and
deploy evidence-based marketing programs that deliver scalable revenue growth.
Jake began his career in the music industry, most notably at Sony Music
Entertainment, where he helped to launch and expand the careers of such artists as
Incubus, Modest Mouse, System of a Down and Ben Folds Five. Prior to founding
Method Savvy, Jake spent 8 years as the Vice President of Strategy for the Manhattan-
based experiential and digital marketing firm Universal Buzz Intelligence where he led
campaigns for such well-known artists as The White Stripes, Switchfoot, Iggy Pop and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
and brands such as Disney, MTV, Diageo and Starbucks.
More information on Jake Finkelstein and Method Savvy is available at and www.methodsavvy.com
www.linkedin.com/in/JakeFinkelstein.
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