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SPEAKER: Search Engine Optimization, SEO,
is simply creating or adjusting your website
so that a search Engine like Google
can find it easily and understand
its content accurately.
Let's take a step back to understand
how Google Search works.
Google and other search engines compiles
information about the trillions of web pages
available to the public.
It does this with software called a bot, crawler,
or spider.
For Google, this is often called Googlebot.
Googlebot crawls the web looking for pages
of new and updated content.
All of that information is then stored in an index.
You can think of an index as a gigantic filing cabinet,
organizing and categorizing all the content Googlebot can find.
When you type in a search, called a search query,
Google goes to that index to find the right matches.
Google sorts through all the possible page
matches, ranks them for relevance to the search query,
and presents web pages full of results.
When people say, I want to be first on Google, it typically
means they want their website to rank first,
to be listed at the top of the Search Results page
when a searcher types in a word or a phrase.
That brings us to Google's Search Engine Results
page, or SER, the place where you
want your website to show up.
This slide illustrates a typical search results page
on a desktop computer.
The section highlighted in the center of the page
shows where Google's search results can appear,
where SEO can make a difference.
These results include the information that Googlebot
can find and index.
They are not ads, and you cannot pay to show up or show up
in a prominent position.
These results are determined only by their relevance
to the search query.
SEO is a long game.
It can take time to see the impact of SEO improvements.
If you think of it in terms of growing your business,
you might compare SEO to getting good word-of-mouth
versus running a radio or television ad.
Advertising can get your message out quickly
and be a worthwhile investment.
But you still want to have reach and credibility that
comes with building a good reputation.
When you set up your website, you probably
put a good deal of thought into the content
you wanted customers to see, from product descriptions
to company philosophy to answering frequently
asked questions.
Content SEO is simply looking for ways
to ensure that Google understands
the content you publish so that it can deliver relevant search
results.
This is where keywords become important for SEO.
Again, keywords are the phrases or words that people
type in when they search.
The technical term for the search keyword
is a search query.
If a searcher's query includes keywords
that are prominent in your website content,
you have a better chance of appearing in search results.
Your first step is to cast a critical eye
on the current content on your site.
You may find the copy straightforward.
But remember, you may be more knowledgeable about this topic
than some of your searchers.
You probably know more about the business and the brand.
So it's possible that the phrases and words
you use to write the website may not match
with the searcher's query.
Try to think like your customer you
want to reach, a person who may be
unfamiliar with your products, services, or brand.
What are they searching for?
Is it as broad as cashmere sweater
or more detailed, like "women's kimono cashmere sweater"?
Are they looking for eco-friendly fashion,
cashmere wraps, plus size?
Assess each page of your website.
If someone is searching for kimono-style sweaters,
you may want to help Google find and surface the page
for the Chelsea kimono sweater.
Keep in mind, the more generic a keyword is, the more difficult
it will be for your page to appear
in high positions in search results.
There are many keyword research tools available.
In this workshop, we'll show you Google Keyword Planner.
This is a tool within Google Ads,
and it does require that you create a Google Ads account.
Google Ads will ask you to enter your credit card
when you set up the account.
But there is no fee to open the account,
and you do not need to advertise.
You can simply set up the account
and use it to access the Google Keyword Planner tool.
Keyword Planner can suggest keywords
related to your business, plus show you
how often these keywords show up in Google Search results.
You can use this tool to research keywords.
Ideally, you want to identify keywords
with relatively high search volume that
are specific to your web pages.
But don't automatically dismiss ideas that don't rate
at the top.
Mer-Sea might use Google Keyword Planner to find keywords
related to "kimono."
Using the tool, they could see keyword ideas
like "boho," "kimono," "kimono duster," and "modern kimono."
Reminder, these are just ideas.
Not every suggestion will apply to your web page.
Here's another tool--
Google Trends.
Trends can help you research keyword themes
and compare the relative popularity
of different searches on Google over time.
The data is presented in a graph on a scale from 0 to 100,
with 100 representing peak search volume.
If it has enough data, trends can
show related popular searches and rising searches,
searches experiencing significant growth.
You can use it to compare the popularity of different words
and phrases to find patterns of seasonality
and to see where searches happen geographically.
For example, a business called Tea Drops
used Google Trends to research how people in the US search
for bubble tea.
Using Google Trends, they learned that,
on the West Coast, more people search for the word "boba"
more frequently than on the East Coast.
On the East Coast, more people search for the term "bubble
tea."
That information can really be useful
as you publish content on your site.
After making your list of keywords,
think about how to apply each page of your site
and how to map them.
Mer-Sea's products are promoted as being great for travelers.
So the keyword "travel sweater" might
be a good fit to map to Mer-Sea's Sweater and Tees
product page.
A more specific keyword like "kimono travel sweater"
might be a good keyword to map to Chelsea Kimono product page.
Try to identify and map three unique keywords for each page
and prioritize them.
Which is the primary term that you
believe will bring customers to your web page, second,
and third?
If you identify an important keyword related
to your business, but your site doesn't
have a web page that maps to it, make it a new web page.
It could be a blog post or an About page.
But if it's a priority keyword, it
needs a solid place to exist on your website.
Your website has a number of different spots
where incorporating keywords can help with your SEO efforts.
First, we'll look at page titles.
As you click through the pages of a website,
you'll see the page title in the tab at the top of the web
browser window.
It's above the actual web page, part
of the frame around the page.
Page titles may show up in the words that
link to the page in Google Search results,
as shown in the example on the slide,
"Chelsea Kimono, Mer-Sea."
Every web page should have a unique title
reflecting what visitors will find when they get there.
Keep titles short and to the point.
This is not the page to use flowery language or hilarious
puns.
You're looking to inform, not entertain.
Your content management system, WordPress, or Shopify
are some great examples.
And they automatically generate page titles
when web pages are created.
But most content management systems allow you to edit them.
One SEO myth is that repeating keywords in your copy
can help with SEO.
That's called keyword stuffing, and it leads to a sentence
like, "Our travel sweaters are the travel sweaters
that people who love trouble sweaters
turn to when they need a travel sweater."
Don't do that.
It won't help, and it's more likely to hurt.
However, you do want to include your keywords in your content.
Write naturally for human visitors.
Visitors often skim the content to find
what they're looking for.
So make your content easy to digest with useful information
in various formats.
Make sure the on-page title fits the theme of the web page
and, better yet, includes an important keyword.
This example for Mer-Sea is titled Chelsea Kimono.
It vividly describes the sweater, how it feels,
how it looks, how it can be worn.
It includes photos from various angles that can be enlarged.
The web page includes customer reviews,
a star rating, and related products, too.
And the final step-- implementation.
After reviewing your content, researching,
and choosing keywords, revising body copy, page titles,
and metadescriptions, send your work live.
If you use a content management system,
you may be able to do this yourself.
Otherwise, your web development team can help you.
But remember, especially when it comes to SEO,
a website should not remain static.
And you'll want to review and create
new content on a regular basis.
Technical SEO refers to the ways you can adjust your website
code and configuration to help Google find, understand,
display, and improve your web pages.
Even if you don't deal with the technical side of your site,
having a deeper understanding of how technical
SEO works can lead to more productive discussions
with your web development team and, potentially,
better ranking in search results.
At the start of this workshop, I talked
about how Googlebot crawls, indexes,
and ranks your website content.
Technical SEO is a way to help Google in those efforts
by improving efficiency, quality, and speed.
It's a bit like upgrading to a new computer.
You get a better, faster response to your commands.
Here's how technical SEO helps.
It makes it easier for Google to find your content
when it crawls the web.
It allows Google to interpret the content of your web pages
better.
It ensures that your pages are getting
in front of the people who are searching for your content.
And it improves the user experience
for your website visitors.
Googlebot finds new pages on a website the same way
most people do.
It follows the links from one page to the next.
You can think of it like Hansel in the fairy tale leaving
a trail of white pebbles.
This trail of links, not pebbles,
helps Google find more web pages.
So it's a good idea to include those internal links where
you can, wherever it makes sense on your website.
The Mer-Sea page shown here features new winter arrivals,
with links to product pages for each individual sweater.
Here we've pulled out and highlighted the link labeled
"Shop The Catalina Sweater."
This internal link could assist Google finding and indexing
the web page.
Once you've created and added a site map to your website,
the next step is for Googlebot to find that site map
and use it when next crawling your web pages.
There's a tool that can help you kickstart the process, Google
Search Console.
Search Console, once known as Webmaster Tools,
is a tool that includes a number of features that help with SEO,
including the ability to submit a sitemap so that Google
knows it's there and ready.
You can create a free Search Console account
at g.co/searchconsole.
An important note-- you don't have
to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search
results.
And having this tool would not improve
the likelihood of your pages ranking higher in Search.
You know how your trusty yellow highlighter
lets you get straight to the important points
in a dense paper?
Structured data works the same way for website code,
helping Google understand content efficiently.
Adding structured data can help your site stand out
in search results by helping Google
highlight important content.
When you searched last, you may have
noticed pieces of information that were pulled out or layered
on top of typical information in the results, the title, link,
and description.
These extra details are called "rich results,"
or also called "rich snippets."
Rich results are basically enhanced versions
of standard text search results.
You can see details like an image, a price,
average customer rating, and more.
For example, the structured data picture on this slide
highlights the product's price and whether or not
it is in stock.
This is the HTML code that Google will see.
The next slide shows what a human could see.
And here's an example of how that structured data could
look in the search results.
This extra info helps searchers get more valuable information
at a glance so they can make a more informed decision
about which results to click on.
Bottom line-- incorporating structured data
can improve SEO by helping your website stand out
on a search results page and encouraging more click-through.
Remember how we constructed simple and straightforward page
titles in the content SEO section?
That same philosophy applies to URL structure
for technical SEO.
The URL structure shows Google how
a user can navigate your site.
Let's say they start with Mer-Sea's home page,
www.mersea.com.
From there, they may scroll down the page
and click on the Chelsea kimono.
The URL is www.mersea.com/products/the
chelsea kimono.
The name of the page helps Google understand its content
and how it fits into the website as a whole.
Most content management systems offer an option
to edit web page URLs.
Here's a few best practices to help you
optimize your URL structure.
Follow the site's folder structure, which
serves as a navigation map.
Separate words with hyphens rather than running them
together as one word.
That can avoid confusion.
For instance, thechelseakimono as one word
is not as clear as the-chelsea-kimono.
Place short words like "and," "the," or "a" with hyphens.
Use lowercase letters, and avoid special characters.
Merely describe what the web page contains.
Helping Google better understand your site in this way
can help improve its ranking in search results.
You probably had the experience of clicking
on a page that interests you only to abandon it
because it loads too slowly.
Images are often the culprit here.
Here are some tips that can speed up
the time it takes to load images on your page.
First, compress images.
That means you're reducing the file size, the amount of space
it takes to store an image.
Second, use lazy loading.
That means delaying loading the image until it is needed.
For example, if a user won't see an image until they scroll down
a page, the image won't load until the user scrolls down
to that spot.
Third, properly sizing your image--
that is, the actual dimensions of the image.
If you use HTML to make a gigantic image file appear
smaller to fit the page, it will take the web page
longer to load because it's still a large file squeezed
into a small spot.
And finally, caching-- this is a way
to store images so that they are retrieved quickly when your web
pages load.
Speeding up the load time of your site
improves the user experience, which
can lead to more visits and longer visits.
Thanks again for joining Grow with Google today.
See you next time.
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