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Creating a SEO strategy

(with Google Webmaster Tools!)

Maile Ohye

Developer Programs Tech Lead

Google

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Target audience level

  • Beginner SEOs or online strategists

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  • Familiarity with Search and industry tools
    • Google Webmaster Tools
    • Web anaytics, like Google Analytics

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Agenda

  • Using Webmaster Central as mock company

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  • Building an SEO and online strategy

1. Understand searcher persona workflow

2. Determine company and website goals

3. Audit your site to best reach your audience

4. Execute and make improvements

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  • Overcoming obstacles

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Pretend company: Google Webmaster Central

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Pretend SEO for Webmaster Central Blog

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Google Webmaster Central Blog

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Webmaster Tools

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Webmaster Forum

Monitored in 12 languages

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Webmaster Help Center

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20 languages

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Google Webmasters YouTube Channel

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Pretend SEO for Webmaster Central Blog

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Your situation may look different

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Creating a SEO strategy

1. Understand searcher persona workflow

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2. Determine company and website goals

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3. Audit your site to best reach your audience

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4. Execute and make improvements

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Searcher persona workflow*

Vanessa Fox. "Marketing in the Age of Google" (Wiley, 2010).

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Capture workflow for various searcher personas

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How Webmaster Tools helps

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Business department responsibilties

Roles whether a big company or a one-person shop

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Seamless searcher experience

Departments work together :)

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Care about the big picture

Think beyond individual roles or responsibilities

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Create seamless searcher workflow

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Verify components are seamlessly integrated

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Creating a SEO strategy

1. Understand searcher persona workflow, users’ needs, and creating a seamless experience

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2. Determine company and website goals

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3. Audit your site to best reach your audience

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4. Execute and make improvements

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Cohesive company goals

  • What's our business goal?

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  • What can our product/service do that no one else can?

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  • What does success look like?

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Similar checklist from Vanessa Fox. "Marketing in the Age of Google" (Wiley, 2010).

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Cohesive company goals (cont.)

  • What components are involved?

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  • How does our website play a part in this success?

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Similar checklist from Vanessa Fox. "Marketing in the Age of Google" (Wiley, 2010).

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Company goals

  • What's our business goal?
    • Help all site owners.
  • What can our product/service do that no one else can?
    • Act as the official Google source of information.
  • What does success look like?
    • Increased webmaster community and higher participation in products/services.

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Company goals (cont.)

  • What components are involved?

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  • How does your website play a part in this success?
    • WMC Blog: Provide webmasters the latest information and announcements

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Competitors

  • What do our online competitors do well?

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  • What are they missing?

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  • Is there a market need for the things we could do better than our competitors?

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With goals, define metrics

Webmaster Central company goal #1: Increase webmaster community

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Metrics for WMC Blog

  • Unique users with pageviews
    • From Search
    • From referrals (links/shares)
      • External sites and YouTube channel

or Help Center

    • From direct traffic
  • Subscribers

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Below is a pretend situation.

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Creating a SEO strategy

1. Understand searcher persona workflow

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2. Determine company and website goals

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3. Audit your site to best reach your audience

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4. Execute and make improvements

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Audit site for audience-focused content

  • What groups are you targeting?
    • Where are they located?
    • What devices are they using?

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Webmaster Tools’ Search Queries > Filters feature shows a large audience for the blog from Canada and New Zealand.

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Audit site for audience-focused content (cont.)

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  • What are their objectives?

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  • Do any/some of their objectives match why your company is special?

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  • Do their query terms match your content?

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Audit: Check that content matches your audience’s queries

Our blog often uses the term "search friendly." Unfortunately, it’s not a query we’ve ranked for in the last three months.

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Audit: Check if content matches queries

We write "search-friendly." Unfortunately people search for [seo].

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Creating a SEO strategy

1. Understand searcher persona workflow

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2. Determine company and website goals

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3. Audit your site to best reach your audience

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4. Execute and make improvements

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Monitor and optimize with Webmaster Tools

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Track every stage of the search-engine pipeline

1. Crawling

2. Indexing

3. Search results

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Increasing conversions/business

Better marketing can lead to more searchers

Good content can upsell

Great experience and remarketing can bring repeat customers

Not just about improving ranking -- improve all steps in the searcher persona workflow.

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Obstacles in creating an SEO or online strategy

  • But I'm not the person responsible for all of this. I just run department X.

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Obstacles in creating an SEO or online strategy

  • But I'm not the person responsible for all of this. I just run department X.
  • I need to know the keywords my competitor is targeting.

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Obstacles in creating an SEO or online strategy

  • But I'm not the person responsible for all of this. I just run department X.
  • I need to know the keywords my competitor is targeting.
  • I need to know what sites are linking to my competitor before I know who to target.

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Obstacles in creating an SEO or online strategy

  • But I'm not the person responsible for all of this. I just run department X.
  • I need to know the keywords my competitor is targeting.
  • I need to know what sites are linking to my competitor before I know who to target.
  • Is my competition planning to have a social media presence?

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Obstacles in creating an SEO or online strategy

  • But I'm not the person responsible for all of this. I just run department X.
  • I need to know the keywords my competitor is targeting.
  • I need to know what sites are linking to my competitor before I know who to target.
  • Is my competition planning to have a social media presence?
  • Search engine algorithms change so much I can’t keep up.

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Go for it!

  • Understand the searcher persona workflow and create an integrated strategy inclusive of all components

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Go for it!

  • Understand the searcher persona workflow and create an integrated strategy inclusive of all components

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  • Determine goals, define metrics

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Go for it!

  • Understand the searcher persona workflow and create an integrated strategy inclusive of all components

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  • Determine goals, define metrics

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  • Audit your site to best reach your audience. Maximize existing search traffic by optimizing the crawl, index, and search results pipeline.

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Go for it!

  • Understand the searcher persona workflow and create an integrated strategy inclusive of all components

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  • Determine goals, define metrics

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  • Audit your site to best reach your audience. Maximize existing search traffic by optimizing the crawl, index, and search results pipeline.

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  • Work with the entire team when improving your online business. Success is much more than ranking.

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Thanks for your time!

As you’re well aware, more information can be found at www.google.com/webmasters