Ever wonder how a company gets to the top of Google search results? Know that successful search engine optimization (SEO) means more customers, but don’t know where to start? You’re in luck. Simone Watson, iContact’s resident SEO expert and Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal/Co-Founder of Foundation Digital have teamed up to help you get started with your SEO aspirations. You can view the recording here: https://icontact-videos.wistia.com/medias/98kel4ad6s Simone and Loren cover: • How to set up your online analytics • How to use mobile to your advantage • How to write winning on-page meta descriptions • Why building quality links matters, and how to get started • Several useful tools to help automate and track progress

1. Blueprint to SEARCH
ENGINE SUCCESS
Simone Watson
Digital Marketing Manager, iContact
Loren Baker
Search Engine Journal, Founder
Foundation Digital, Co-Founder
MARCH 8, 2017

2. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.2
BEFORE WE BEGIN…
AUDIO ISSUES?
Let us know by typing a message into the question box.
QUESTIONS?
Questions will be addressed during Q&A in the order received.
WANT THE RECORDING?
We’ll send a link to your email address within 2-3 business days.

3. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.3
PRESENTED BY:
Simone Watson, Digital Marketing Manager, iContact
She manages the company's SEO, SEM campaigns, and affiliate
marketing program. Before coming to iContact, Simone worked with an
agency and managed SEO for numerous clients. Simone is a contributor
to Search Engine Journal, and guest lecturer at Wake Forest University.
Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal
Loren is founder of Search Engine Journal a leading SEO industry
publication and the co-founder of Foundation Digital, a digital marketing
agency. He's worked with companies such as ESPN, iContact, Disney
and HSN as well as many small to medium sized businesses to improve
their SEO.

4. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.4
• Why SEO matters
• Set up your analytics
• Writing meta for success
• Combining email & SEO
• Link building how-to’s
• Using mobile optimization to improve SEO
• Recommended SEO tools
• Q&A
AGENDA

5. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.5
NOTE: STAR RANK TO GAUGE
DIFFICULTY
Moderate difficulty, can
be done with
a little time
** Technical knowledge
required, developer
recommended
****Easy, no technical
knowledge needed

6. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
WHY SEO MATTERS
6
Best way to capture large amounts of high-converting traffic
Users from search engines usually convert at a higher rate than other channels
Connect high-value prospects to valuable content
Analyzing ranking results can let you know what your target customers care about.
Helps you land a prime spot in the purchase decision cycle
Because search engines provide opinions & reviews, your site can be considered
early in the purchase cycle if you rank high
No media cost = high ROI
Good SEO works for almost all search engines
If you optimize for Google, you’re also optimizing for Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, etc.

7. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.7
SET UP YOUR
ANALYTICS
Google Analytics
Measure behavior on your website
THESE REPORTING PLATFORMS ALLOW YOU TO:
1
Google Search Console
Google’s search engine to crawl your website
Google My Business
Optimize essential business info for searchers

8. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS*
8 © 2016 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
HIGH importance to small-
to-medium size businesses
• The easiest way to get your organization
hours, phone number,
and location listed on Google Search
and Maps
• The information above influences the
“local pack” and the “knowledge graph”
shown so searchers can find you
• Google Reviews are key for your
organization to show up in local pack
Example of Knowledge Graph
Example of Local Pack

9. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
How to Set Up
GOOGLE MY
BUSINESS*
9
• Sign up at
https://www.google.com/business/
• Enter your business name, address,
phone number, and hours of operation
• Need support? Shoot a quick tweet to
@GoogleMyBiz
• Don’t forget Bing! Sign up at
https://www.bingplaces.com/

10. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE**
10 © 2016 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Use this tool to:
• See Google search results data
• Analyze crawling errors at a page-level (i.e., 404 pages)
• Submit sitemaps & crawl requests
• See pictures of how Google views your site (using Fetch & Render)
Note: Only place to
disavow links
Tip: Make sure to set up
properties based on HTTP

11. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS***
11 © 2016 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Analyze data by traffic
channel and compare
periods of time
Apply data filters
to ensure accuracy
(i.e., filter out your office
IP address)
Important metrics
include: sessions,
new users, bounce rate,
avg. time on page,
conversions

12. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.12
WRITING META
FOR SUCCESS**
2
Writing meta is the easiest way to tell a search engine
what your page is about, so it can get ranked faster.
Resist the urge to keyword-stuff
Write a compelling meta title
and description
Yoast SEO (FREE version available!)
simplifies meta
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/
Available for Wordpress & Drupal

13. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
KEYWORDS & GOOGLE
13
Keywords
The words or phrases used to describe your products
or services.
High-quality, relevant keywords can help you reach
more people likely to be interested in you.
BUT: Google has moved to machine-learning (RankBrain)
and away from counting keywords in a piece of content.
What does this mean for SEO?

14. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
NO MORE KEYWORD-STUFFING!
14
Repetitive keyword use is
an outdated technique
• The bad news: it makes SEO harder
• The good news: brands can focus
on fresh, non-repetitive content
Your content should serve
the goals of the searcher
• Deliver the experience they need
and the answers they want.
• If a user is searching for “metal roofing
benefits,” then provide content that
thoroughly answers the query.
• Minimum word count is 500.
The best-performing content has 1,000-
1,500 words

15. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
EXAMPLE OF YOAST SEO FOR META
15
Meta title = title of the web page
• The bad news: it makes SEO harder
• Should capture the user’s attention
& directly answer the query
• Should be no longer than 60 characters
Image Credit: support4WP.com
Meta descriptions = concise
explanations of the page
• Serves as ad copy on search
engine result
• Should be no longer than
160 characters

16. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.16
QUALITY
EXAMPLES
OF META
BY SMBS
Query: Roofing Company Raleigh, NC
Query: Hair Salon Raleigh, NC
Query: Home Automation Raleigh, NC

17. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.17
COMBINING
EMAIL & SEO*
Email alone can’t help you rank, but email
that stimulates page traffic and sharing of
content (like blog and social posts) Will give
Google what it likes to see: engagement.
With RankBrain, Google’s machine-learning artificial intelligence system,
on-page engagement metrics became highly important for SEO.
Metrics include Bounce Rate, Pages per Visit & Avg Time on Page.
3
The more users engage with your content,
the better that page performs in rankings.
Read Larry Kim’s study here: www.searchenginejournal.com/11-
ridiculously-effective-ways-boost-organic-ctr/177253/

18. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
COMBINING EMAIL AND SEO
18
What other ways can you use email to help boost SEO?
• Use targeted email campaigns to send traffic to important
pages you want to rank higher.
• Remember, your own audience is your best brand advocate:
ask your newsletter subscribers to follow your social channels
and engage!
• Share blog posts via email and encourage readers to comment
on the blog.
• Use email to encourage subscribers to connect via RSS (if you
have one), so you can keep them coming back to your content.

19. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.19
DO LINK
BUILDING,
NOT BUYING***
Necessary since 2012, when Google
began to penalize websites that were
buying links or engaging in link schemes
(Penguin Update)
4
Investing time in a link building (or link earning) campaign delivers high-
quality links back to your website, which sends trust signals back to the
search engines. This helps push your website higher in the rankings.
So, what’s link building?
• Create intriguing content which influencers and
publishers will want to link to.
• Make sure that content is relevant to your overall
SEO goals.
• Outreach to high-quality websites that may find your
content relevant and timely.
• Do not concentrate on anchor text, concentrate on
topical relevance.

20. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
STEPS TO BUILDING QUALITY LINKS
20
Reach out to 3 target groups of targeted writers:
• Bloggers
• Influencers (Social media influencers are important)
• Journalists (Industry publications, local journalists, etc.)
Introduce yourself, your organization & offer
specific content relevant to their site.
• Get started building a relationship
• Explain why your content is a great fit
• Content is more than blog posts. Try white-papers and infographics too!
Use a tool like Buzzstream.com to manage your link building outreach

21. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LOCAL CITATIONS & LOCAL LINKS
21
Embarking on a local listings campaign can differentiate
your site from your competition
• links from Local Business Directories
• local Yellow Pages
• local Classifieds
• Other Local Businesses or Chambers of Commerce
Listings in Local Social Media
• Yelp, Facebook, Swarm and other business profiles rank in Google
• Siri loves Yelp results (great way to optimize for mobile searchers)

22. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.22
MOBILE
OPTIMIZATION
TO INFLUENCE
SEO***
5
Over 70% of Google’s search
requests now occur on mobile
A site’s rankings will be judged by
mobile standards, not desktop
Google will soon implement a
“mobile-first” index
Avoid pop-up ads
They’re usually annoying and Google has
started to penalize for them
3 key elements
• Mobile responsive: website automatically
resizes to fit different screens
• Page speed: target 2-3 seconds
load times
• Prioritize the mobile experience: design
or edit a web page with mobile users in mind

23. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES (AMP)
23
Used to help with page load speed:
AMP is a Google feature that builds a lightweight version of your webpage
AMP pages load in less than 2 seconds!
• Hosted on Google’s servers
• Strip out a lot of weighty HTML and CSS
• Currently incompatible with Javascript
How do you get AMP?
• If you have a developer, send them here: https://www.ampproject.org/learn/about-amp/
• If you don’t have a developer or have Wordpress, set up using Yoast:
https://yoast.com/setting-up-wordpress-for-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages/

24. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
FREE TOOLS TO CHECK
MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
24
What’s loading per page & how fast?
https://www.webpagetest.org/
Specific instructions on how to improve speed?
https://gtmetrix.com/
Does my website have mobile usability issues?
Google Search Console’s “Mobile Usability Report” (find in your account)
Does Google think I’m mobile friendly?
Google’s Mobile Friendly test: https://search.google.com/search-console/
mobile-friendly

25. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
RECOMMENDED SEO TOOLS
25
FREE - Google Analytics & Google Search Console
Find target keywords & spy on competitor rankings with SEMRush
https://www.semrush.com/
Find relevant content ideas with Buzzsumo
http://buzzsumo.com/
Manage your disavow links with Ahref’s link manager
https://ahrefs.com/
Start a link building campaign with Buzzstream
http://www.buzzstream.com/
How do I generate new, relevant keywords?
http://lsigraph.com/ FREE

26. © 2017 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Q&A

27. THANK YOU!
© 2016 iContact LLC. All Rights Reserved.27