2.

Google SEO Fundamentals

Week 1: Introduction to On-page SEO
Key Areas of SEO
Meta Data and Meta Tags
Title Tags 101
Meta Descriptions Help Too!
A Note About Meta Keywords
URL Optimization
Correct
How to Use Heading Tags
Creating and Optimizing Unique Content
Correct
Analyzing a Website Using a Web Crawler
Correct
Week 2: Introduction to Off-page SEO
Off-site SEO Elements
Question
Correct
Who is Linking to Your Content?
Social Media: Help or Hinder?
Correct
Correct
Week 3: Introduction to Technical SEO
Laying the Structural Foundation With Technical SEO
HTML Sitemap vs. XML Sitemap
Correct
The robots.txt File Protocol

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 1

 Correct
Correct
Overcoming Pesky Error Codes
Redirects 101
Correct
Correct
404 Pages Best Practices
Correct
Correct
Week 4: Keyword Theory & Research Introduction
Choosing the Right Keywords
Correct
Stages of Search
Correct
Correct
Heads, Tails, and Long Tail Keywords
Correct
Correct
The Science of How Users Conduct Searches
Correct
Correct

Week 1: Introduction to On-page SEO

Key Areas of SEO

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 2

 We call this on-page because we focus on various elements within a page or the
code of a page. This refers to the content on the page, keyword choice for the page,
and optimizing the pages metadata.

With a technical SEO strategy, we will look at and make recommendations to

improve the code used within the site, the structure of the site, and more. Technical
SEO is important because while you can make the best on-page improvements to
your site, it won't make a difference if search engines cannot find or understand the
improvements that you made.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 3

 Off-site SEO or off-page SEO refers to what actions you can take outside of your
website to improve optimization of your website. This is where SEO gets very similar
to public relations because it can be very focused on developing good relationships
with other webmasters. Off-site SEO has historically referred to acquiring links from
other websites, putting to your website. But this area is quickly growing to
encompass social media and other off-site elements as well.

On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page

On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide, Backlinko, 2021

A guide to getting on-page SEO right, looking at the basics as well as the other
essentials you need to ensure are in place if you want to outrank your competitors:
https://backlinko.com/on-page-seo

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 4

 Meta Data and Meta Tags

Let's discuss the Anatomy of a Search Result. When you perform a search in a
search engine, you will get a page of results that look like this. This is a single result
from the page. In this search result, I have colored each individual area so you can
better spot what areas I'm referring to. As I speak, each of the areas you see here
are related to SEO and our areas. We focus on in our on page optimization process.
When referring to all of these areas together, they are known as the sites Meta Data,
but each individual area has its own name. The term meta data basically means data

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 5

 that describes other data. Each page of a website contains an area of Meta Data.
This area is made up of individual Meta Tags. These individual meta tags are small
snippets of text that helps search engines identify important information about the
page, such as what the page is about or whether or not search engine robots should
ignore the page.
This information is contained within the source code of a page, which means it is not
publicly viewable unless you specifically view the code that makes up the page. In
the source code, each page has a head element, which is a container for meta data
and is located at the top of the page.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 6

 Title Tags 101

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 7

 The first way is looking at the top of your browser and finding the text within this
area. If you hover your mouse over this area, you'll get a pop-up and the text
displayed here is the page's title tag.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 8

 You can also locate the title tag by right-clicking anywhere on the page and choosing
the option View Source. This will pop up another page showing the page's source
code. You'll find an area here that says title and an area here that has a forward
slash and title. This means that the text in between these two tags is the title tag.
You can see the title tag here, which I've highlighted.

Another way of viewing the title tag is through browser add-ons. For this example, I'll
use the MozBar. If you're using the MozBar, simply click on the magnifying glass,
click on Page Elements, and find the page title here. The MozBar will also show you
the number of characters within the title tag.

The title tag has long been regarded as one of the most important on-page elements
to optimize. The most important on-page element is actually the content of your page
but the title tag holds high importance as well.

From an SEO standpoint, Google places more importance on the words at the
beginning of the title tag than at the end. Many tests have shown that placing
keywords closer to the start of your title tag, gives a better boost to rankings.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 9

 You can also use individual keywords rather than a descriptive phrase. For example,
if you owned a site, let's just say Widget Mart, and wanted to optimize your page
which sold blue widgets, you could use individual keywords instead. In this case, you
should separate your keywords with hyphens.

I recommend making sure each title tag is no longer than 60 characters in length. In
fact, it's best to try to keep title tags around 55 characters just to be safe.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 10

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 11
 Meta Descriptions Help Too!

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 Sometimes websites will not contain them at a meta description. And if this is the
case, the page may still include a meta description tag but no content will exist within
the tag. Sometimes they won't include a meta description tag at all.
The next way we can locate the meta description is by using a browser add-on. In
this example, I'm going to use the mouse bar. To locate the meta description, click on
the magnifying glass and choose Page Elements. You'll be able to locate the meta
description here and then see the content within the meta description. You can also
see the number of characters that exist within the meta description content.
Moz ...

You may notice that this meta description does not match the meta description
we just read in search results.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 13

 If Google believes this area is not well optimized for example, maybe it's not relevant
to a curry, or maybe it's too long.
Google may choose their own meta description to show users.

You should now be able to locate the meta description within search results in the
source code of a website, or by using a browser add-on. Unlike the title tag,
keywords within the meta description will not help a site rank better for those
keywords. Due to this, some people are under the misconception that optimizing
this area is not helpful to there SEO strategy. However, while search engines will not
look for keywords within them at a description for ranking purposes, the meta
description does help support your SEO strategy.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 14

 In this case, it may be best to highlight exactly what you want to share about the
program right away. By writing your own meta description, instead of letting search
engines decide you are in control of the constant displayed and have the opportunity
to describe your page the way you want to. Since you know more about your content
than search engines do, you will be able to provide a better description of the page
than search engines can.

A Note About Meta Keywords

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 15

 Blame the Meta Keywords Tag, Duane Forrester, Microsoft Bing Blogs, 2014
https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2014/10/03/blame-the-meta-keyword-tag/

URL Optimization

Keywords in the URL used to play a large role in SEO. But this has been over-
optimized to a point where Google has changed the importance of URL keywords
when determining where a site should rank. Keywords within the URL are still useful,

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 16

 they just do not play as large of a roles they use to. However, URLs should also be
considered from an off-page SEO perspective.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 17

 These are called parameters, and where possible, it's best to leave these out of your
URL's. Parameters not only make your URL's excessively long, but oftentimes the
parameter can change based on a variety of factors. This particular parameter is a
session ID, which means it changes based on the user. If you were to Google how to
make wine, and you found the site and clicked on the result your URL would be
slightly different than the one I have here. This can create problems with duplicate
content as a URL has changed, but the content has remained the same.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 18

 Unless we as SEOs, have been brought in during the design stages of a web site,
which is unfortunately a rare occurrence. We have little to say and how URLs are
displayed and what subdirectories are created. You can always change the URL
after the fact, but remember, that page is likely already ranking under the existing
URL. Changing it later will mean it would lose some of the history and authority it has
built up, after the URL is changed it is best to ensure it is redirected using a 301 or
permanent redirect. Once that occurs, it would take time for Google to remove the
old URL from the index and index the new one. Due to this changing URLs for the
sake of SEO is not always the best option. Recommendations to do so can be very
situational. Oftentimes, it is better to optimize the page and other on-page elements
to the best of your ability and leave the URL as it is.

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 💡 Why shouldn't you change a URL for SEO?

Important keywords are not at the beginning of a URL.

It needs less parameters in the URL.

The keywords and subdirectories are not as accurate as they should be.
The webpage may lose the history and authority it has already built up.

Correct
While you can always change the URL after the fact, remember, that page is likely
already ranking under the existing URL. Changing it later would mean it would lose
some of the history and authority it has built up.

How to Use Heading Tags

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 20

 Heading tags not only help to stylistically break up the content on the page but are
also useful for SEO.

Search engines will look at the heading tags on a page to better determine what the
page is about and the pages structure. From an SEO standpoint, the H1 tag is the
most important of the heading tags, and then H2 tags are somewhat important in the
grand scheme of things. These are both small signals, but it never hurts to have the
heading tags optimized with keywords as long as it sounds natural and not written
for robots. If you are unable to naturally incorporate keywords that reinforce the title
tag of the page and the page is theme, it's best to leave it out.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 21

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 22
 Inspect element

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 23

 A window showing the source code of the page will pop up. This isn't a very popular
method, as there is a lot of information within the source code, which can make it
difficult to find what you want to look for. To find heading tags. You can always just
perform a search for the type of heading you're looking for.
For this example, I'll press control Fs and some on a PC and then type in H1.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 24

 If we go to the page itself and look at code behind the second heading here learn the
science behind the art of winemaking. We can inspect this and we will see that this is
an H2 tag as well. This H2 is much more optimal.
If we were to inspect these additional heading tags, such as about the program
estimated cost how to apply, we would see that each of these areas are all H2s.

Creating and Optimizing Unique Content

This lesson will clarify the importance of quality content, as well as how to maximize
that content. We'll discuss integrating keywords and unique content and how to use
links effectively. You'll learn the best practices for content optimization and how to
avoid duplicating content. By the end of this lesson, you'll know how to develop a
clear content strategy for a client. Without content, your page will be hard pressed to
rank well. Your page needs quality content around the topic or theme of your page.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 25

 Ideally, this content will include the focus keyword of the page and related keywords.
However, it is important to focus on quality content where keywords fit naturally into
the copy rather than force the keywords into the copy, which can sound unnatural.
Recommendations for improving content is situational as all sites are different

For example, if you had a site about movie reviews, you wouldn't want to just place
all movie reviews in the same area. It would be best to organize these in some way,
such as by genre. This way, users looking for reviews about dramas or comedies
can easily discover what they are looking for.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 26

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 27
 For example, if you want a plumbing site and use service to multiple cities and
wanted to make sure you had a page targeting each of those locations, make sure
the content on each of those pages is unique. It would be a bad idea to copy the
content to a new page and then just change the location name thinking this would
differentiate the content. If a page on your site is a duplicate of another page of your
site, these two pages will compete with one another in search and cannibalize your
efforts.

For example, you might want to include a video, a series of images, or other material
to make your content stand out and offer more value to the reader than similar
articles would.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 28

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 29
 💡 Reusing a keyword too much in your content can lead to an over-
optimization penalty.

True.
False.

Correct
Instead of using the same word, try to think of synonyms that can expand the
keywords for your results.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 30

 Analyzing a Website Using a Web Crawler

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 31

 💡 A crawler is the best way to get a large scale view of the meta-data for on-
page SEO.

True.
False.

Correct
Crawling a website allows you to get all of the elements without being too time-
consuming in your SEO.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 32

 Stop the crawl thi moi export duoc

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 33

 The Basics of Search Engine Friendly Design & Development, Arvin Tampus,
Coffeebot Solutions, 2019

https://caffeinerobot.com/the-basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-devolpment/

Week 2: Introduction to Off-page SEO

Off-site SEO Elements

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 34

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 35
 While the usage of the term PageRank has declined, you will still hear references to
it from other SEOs or clients. We now don't track the authority of a site by its
PageRank. But the concept of gaining authority through off-site SEO efforts is
similar. T

Question

💡 PageRank is currently used to determine a page’s authority.

False.

True.

Correct
Correct. PageRank used to be used to determine a page’s authority, but it may only
be one of many factors now in a search engine’s algorithm for authority. However,
this history is useful in determining off-site SEO.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 36

 Each time a website links to another website, this link is counted as a vote. If
Website A link to Website B, this would count as Website A endorsing Website B is
usefulness and importance. The more votes or links a site has, the better PageRank
it has, which could influence its rankings in search engines. Each page was
assigned a PageRank value based on the number and quality of links pointing to that
page.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 37

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 38
2. Google SEO Fundamentals 39
 Who is Linking to Your Content?

The idea now is to earn links that appear as natural and non manipulative as
possible. One of the ways to do this is catering to your user base by providing an
excellent user experience a

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 40

 Meaning, are your links from other sites which are considered authoritative or are the
majority of your links from new or potentially spammy sites with low authority. The
relevance of the link, meaning how relevant is the site linking to your site? For
example, if you had a site about coffee and a site that sold coffee cups linked to you,
this would be considered highly relevant. However, if you had a site about coffee and
a site about flower arranging linked to you, this would seem suspect. Another factor
Google looks at is the placement of the link. This refers to where the link is located
on the site. For example, links in the footer area or sidebar areas are generally less
valuable and are also known as sitewide links which can sometimes be seen as
spammy.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 41

 Another example is how web design companies would oftentimes designed free
templates and place a link back to their site in the footer of the template. This
resulted in a large amount of links pointing back to them from irrelevant sites. Before
determining whether or not the link may be spammy, it is likely they will look at your
link profile as a whole as well as your link history. The best type of link to acquire is a
link in content surrounded by words relevant to your site, so if we had a site about
coffee and a site about coffee cups mentioned us within a blog post talking about
drinking coffee, that would be considered a great link. The anchor text of the link is
also important. The anchor text is known as the clickable text of a link. For example,
sometimes you will see click here as a link. Ideally, you want to have good keywords
in your anchor text, so a coffee site might want anchor text like coffee beans or fair-
trade coffee as their anchor text. However, too much keyword rich anchor text can be
considered unnatural. Unnatural link profile is likely to have some anchor text mixed
in with anchor text containing the brand name, words like click here or visit site,
straight URL links so something like www.example.com or just example. Image links
and Google will also look at things like reciprocal links to determine if you are linking
back to them. As this can appear to be a link exchange, making both links invalid.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 42

 However, it's recommended you try and remove those links yourself before using this
tool to ensure you maintain a back link profile that appears natural, you want to edit
your back links regularly. It's also important to regularly acquire new back links from
authoritative sites. We have more detailed tips on creating effective offsite SEO
strategies in the UCDAVIS SEO Certification Program.

Link Building & Establishing Authority: The Beginner's Guide to SEO, Britney
Muller, Moz.com, 2021

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

Social Media: Help or Hinder?

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 43

 When looking at studies like this, it's important to note that correlation never means
causation. However, the link between social media usage and drinking's could mean
there is an indirect influence on SEO through growing and engaging your online user
base.

💡 Social media usage seems to cause higher rankings for site authority.

True.

False.

Correct
Correct. While there seems to be a correlation between these two factors, there is
not evidence of causation.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 44

 Link and tweets in social profiles are all considered no follow links, which means
they pass no authority from one site to the next. So Wally's may appear in your back
link profile. They are not counted as links that will boost your side authority. However,
tweets are crawled and indexed. So the more people who tweet about you or your
brand, the more opportunities a reference to your brand with a link to your site has of
showing up in search results. This can increase referrals from social channels and
build better brand recognition

💡 How can Twitter help your site authority?

Google has an algorithm accounting for followers and engagement

No follow links can also help boost your site’s authority

Tweets are crawled and indexed.

Correct
Correct. Tweets are crawled and indexed so the more people who tweet about you
or your brand, the more opportunities a reference to your brand with a link to your
site has of showing up in search results.

It's advisable to make social media in early part of your overall promotion strategy.
It's also a good idea to optimize your social media profiles and properties effectively
so they can be easily discovered in search.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 45

 here have been many times where I am researching a specific subject, only to find a
Pinterest board ranking in the top five results on page one of Google. This can offer
a lot of value to your business if used effectively. For example, I searched for
decorating ideas for small living rooms. This is a great long tail keyword and a
Pinterest board is my fifth result. Pinterest can rank really well for long tail niche
keywords. Optimizing pinches boards effectively can really help to draw visitors to
your site with well placed pins and useful descriptions.

How Social Media Helps SEO, Ron Dod, Search Engine Journal, 2017

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-seo/196185/

Week 3: Introduction to Technical SEO

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 46

 Laying the Structural Foundation With Technical SEO

While on-page optimization and content are extremely important to SEO, technical
SEO helps set the proper foundation for all of your SEO efforts. Being able to
determine technical issues within a site is important when working with clients,
building new sites, going through redesigns or as a technical audit before moving on
to content-related recommendations.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 47

 Technical SEO looks at many different things but some common technical concerns
that we will be discussing include XML sitemaps, robots.txt files, site errors, 404
page best practices, and using redirects appropriately.

HTML Sitemap vs. XML Sitemap

The main difference between the two versions are that HTML sitemaps are easily
read and understood by users while XML sitemaps are created for search engines.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 48

 An XML sitemap is a file intended to be read by search engine robots. This file
includes a lot of behind the scenes activity of a webpage. This can include unique
information about each URL, which will provide search engines with additional data
about that page. For example, you can include information such as when the page
was last updated, how often the page changes, and how important the pages in
relation to other pages on your site. This information allows search engine robots to
analyze the content on your site in a more logical and intelligent manner.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 49

 An HTML sitemap is a simple page that contains links to important pages within the
site that a user should concern themselves with and can be considered a general
overview. For example, if you were looking for a particular page within a website and
clicked onto their sitemap, you will likely be able to find the page you are looking for
there. Smaller sites will generally have an HTML sitemap that is one page. Larger
sites will generally split up their HTML sitemap content into different categories. This
is done to better organize the content within their sight. Ideally, a website should
have both an HTML and an XML sitemap available. For the purposes of this lesson
however, we will discuss creating XML sitemaps as these are more specific to SEO
and search engines.

💡 It is sufficient to have only an HTML Sitemap since search engine bots can
read and access this file.

True.
False.

Correct
Correct. It is preferable to include XML Sitemaps in addition to HTML Sitemaps since
they provide behind-the-scenes activity and additional page data that is not found on
the HTML Sitemap.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 50

 One option is through site called XML sitemaps.com.

Seaming Frog will also only crawl 500 pages with their free version. This is fine for
learning how to create a sitemap in this course. Eventually, you will want to consider
purchasing the full version. It's a very useful tool for analyzing a website.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 51

 The tool will show you the address of the page, the type of content the page is, such
as whether or not it's an HTML file, an image, or codes such as JavaScript, status
codes, error codes, title tags and more.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 52

 Screaming Frog will give you a variety of options that you generally want to leave as
default. However, there are additional options here should you need something
specific? For example, you can choose to include pages you would not like indexed.
You can also choose to include canonicalized versions of pages. This option will
allow you to include pages in the series, such as Page 1,2,3 and so forth. You can
also choose whether or not you would like PDF files included if the content in your
PDF files are unique and it may not be a bad idea to allow search engines to
discover and crawl these so these can be included in the index.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 53

 The last-modified tab allows you to tell search engines when the page was last
modified

The priority tab allows you to set the priority of specific pages within your site.

You can also change the frequency and show how often a page is updated, such as
daily, weekly, monthly, or something different and you can choose whether or not to
include images.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 54

 and you can choose whether or not to include images. Generally, this is pretty
unnecessary as Google will discover important images related to the content on your
site as they crawl the page. Once you have this information selected, we can go
ahead and create the sitemap file by clicking next.
Once you've selected the area, you want to save it to. Just name the sitemap file and
click save. I'm just going to keep it named as default sitemap name for now.
Once it has been saved, you can provide this to your web admins so they can
upload it to the server, or if you want go in and upload it to yourself.

The robots.txt File Protocol

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 55

 The robots.txt file is a protocol that was created in the early days of the Internet to
prevent robots from crawling areas of the Web they were not supposed to access

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 56

 It's important to note that while robots.txt files provide search engine bots with your
preferences for what should or should not be crawled, robots can choose to ignore
information in this file. Search engines like Google or [inaudible] tend to respect this
file. But people create robots for many reasons and these reasons can sometimes
be malicious. Some robots are created to scan the web for vulnerabilities so people
can hack into a person's website.

💡 The robots.txt file provides a binding set of rules for all bots. Bots visiting
your site must comply with exclusions and preferences outlined in the
robots.txt
file.

False.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 57

 True.

Correct
Correct. Though most search engine bots, like those from Google or Bing, respect
this file, malicious bots can ignore the requests outlined in the robots.txt.

If you take a look at their file, you will see a couple different areas that provide key
information to search engine crawlers. First is the introductory text that explains what
the robots.txt file is. This information isn't necessary, but many website content
management systems include this information by default. You will also see here that
the file points out that these instructions will be ignored unless it is placed at the root
of your host. This means that you always access a site's robots.txt file at the

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 58

 example.com/robots.txt. If it is placed anywhere else in the site such as
example.com/site/robots.txt it will be ignored.

Under that area, you will see specific instructions. For example, User-agent specifies
what user agents should crawl website content. For example, you can set up specific
instructions for Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Most of the time, however, there is no real
reason to do so.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 59

 The asterisk works as a wildcard and means that all robots should follow the below
instructions. The crawl delay sets how many seconds a robot should take before
accessing a new page on your site. This can help prevent overload of server
resources which may crash your website. The pound symbol or hashtag is used to
make a note. This is for humans to read and is not read by robots. In this example,
it's a note by the webmaster to remind himself or other webmasters that the below
items are specific directories of the site. The disallow directive instructs robots not to
crawl the content it is referencing. For example, do not crawl the directory/ includes.

💡 The robots.txt file can be used to inform bots of pages that should not be
crawled and can specify the speed at which the bots access the pages.

False.

True.

Correct
That is correct. “Disallow:” followed by a content path will inform bots of pages that
should not be crawled. A crawl-delay identifying the number of seconds a bot should
take before accessing a new page.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 60

 Overcoming Pesky Error Codes

Each error has a specific status code attached to it. This helps search engines and
developers understand what went wrong when attempting to load a page. These
status codes are referred to as HTTP or Hypertext Transfer Protocol response status

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 61

 codes. These codes are returned when a search engine or a user requests to view a
particular page on a web server. If the web server is unable to return that page, it will
return a three digit code in response.

There are two main groups of codes, those starting with four, followed by two
numbers, and those starting with five followed by two numbers.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 62

 This means okay or success, which means the page loaded properly. The 404 status
code is likely a code you are familiar with. This code is returned when a page cannot
be found. This means that the page is removed from the server and no longer exists,
so returns a 404 in its place. 404 pages are a common occurrence.

However, a common technical issue to watch out for are with 404 pages that are
mishandled, also known as soft 404s. This means that the page no longer exists, but
is still returning a status code of 200 or, okay. This could create a variety of problems
with your site. Especially, if your site has a large number of soft 404s, as these are
seen as live pages.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 63

 This can happen when the content of the page was removed but the page was
locked in place. You see issues like this a lot in e-commerce sites when the product
no longer exists, or in real estate sites where the listing is no longer available, and in
a variety of other circumstances. This type of problem is very bad for SEO as search
engines are now seeing a page with no information on it, or a simple error message
such as this product is no longer available. In this case, for each product no longer
available, the site would contain a number of pages with the same error message.
Since these are all returning a status code of okay, instead of a 404 error, search
engines will view these as duplicate content which can harm your site. Even if the
message is varied slightly, the content on the page is considered very thin and not
helpful to the site or users at all.

One way to recognize these error codes is through Google Search Console, which
will inform you of any pages it recognizes as potentially being a soft 404 page. If
you're working on a site that has a lot of potential for soft 404, such as real estate or
e-commerce sites, it's a good idea to ask the site owners what they do to pages such
as products that are no longer in stock. You can also view a list of pages that are
returning 404 error codes in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

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 Another common status code is 500, which means server error. This is more of a
generic error that occurs when something went wrong when trying to return a page.
But the server cannot be more specific about what exactly is causing the error. Many
times, these errors are temporary and will resolve themselves. You will see a list of
these errors in Google Search Console, and when you check, they may have
already been corrected. In this case, simply mark corrected and move on. If this
error continues, the web developer may need to look at server logs to try to
determine what is going on and correct the issue

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 A 503 error code means that the service is unavailable. This is the code that should
be presented when the server is down, you're performing maintenance or the server
is temporarily overloaded. This lets search engines know there is a problem, but it is
temporary, and they should revisit later. When taking a server down for any reason,
it's important to ensure that a 503 code is returned and not a 500.

Redirects 101

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 At times, a webmaster may decide to remove a page from their website or replace
that page within a newer more updated page. When this occurs, it's a good idea to
send users who land on the old removed page to the new updated page. One way to
easily do this is through a redirect, which will automatically transfer the visitor to the
new page.
Most of the time, users don't even notice a redirect occurred. However, when a page
is redirected in HTTP status code is presented. This code provides search engines
with instructions on how they should handle that page going forward.

Let's take a moment to discuss the main types of redirects SEO should be familiar
with. The first type is a permanent redirect or a 301 HTTP status code. The next is a
temporary redirect or a 302 HTTP status code. The newer version of the 302 is a
307 redirect, but you will still usually see 302s or 301s.

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 In most cases, you want to use a permanent redirect, as this tells search engines
that the page no longer exists in the page it is redirecting to is now it's permanent
substitute. This means that search engines will eventually credit the new page, but
the trust the old page had built up. This can help the newer page rank as well as the
older page did in search results.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 68

 Temporary redirects on the other hand, tell search engines that the redirect is only in
place for a limited time and to not transfer any trust to the redirected version. In
some cases, a temporary redirect is best and these cases are when the pages only
temporarily redirected to a different page. This may happen if you are performing site
maintenance.

💡 The temporary redirect is preferable in most cases to the permanent

redirect
because it does not transfer any trust to the redirected page.

True.

False.

Correct
Correct. Permanent redirects are preferable in most cases precisely because the
new page is credited with the trust that the old page had built up. The majority of
authority is passed from the old to the new page.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 69

 Unlike the previous types of redirects, no HTTP status code is presented with a meta
refresh. This is because the redirect is executed at the page level rather than by the
server itself. These redirects are usually slower and users are more likely to notice
they've been redirected. When this occurs, you will often see a message like if you
are not redirected within five seconds, click here. Meta refreshes are not generally
recommended because they do not provide clear signals to search engines about
what happened to the previous page. Additionally, these types of redirects can
create a poor user experience.

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2. Google SEO Fundamentals 71
 A temporary or 302 redirect on the other hand, passes little to no authority and this
keeps the old page in the index. This is one of the reasons why 302 redirects are not
a good idea for SEO. Due to potential loss of authority when redirecting, you'll also
want to be careful of chaining redirects. This is when you may have redirected page
A to page B in the past at one point, and then decided later that page B is no longer
valid and decided to redirect page B to page C. In instances like this, it is best to
redirect page A to page C and page B to page C, rather than having redirects in the
middle.

Because some of the authority is lost with the redirect, you'll be able to retain more
authority if the redirects are not chained. This can happen a lot with old sites that
have gone through multiple redesigns and is something to look out for when auditing
a site. When redirecting older pages to new pages, it's a good idea to redirect the old

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 72

 page to a page that best matches the previous content and theme of the old page.
Many people tend to simply redirect all old pages to their homepage. This is not
semantically relevant from a search engine perspective. Additionally, this leads to a
poor user experience as the user expected to land on a page about a certain topic,
but was instead sent to the homepage without any hints or what to do next.
Redirecting to the homepage is only advised if there is not a better page to redirect
the original content to.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 73

 For example, let's say we had a site about gift baskets, and one of the products we
had available was a get well soon teddy bear with flowers. This product is no longer
offered. The ideal way to redirect to this page would be to first look at another similar
product, such as a get well soon teddy bear with a balloon. If no products match to
that, then the next best option would be to redirect the page to the get well soon gifts
category. If, for example, the site was totally removing all get well soon gifts and no
longer had a category page about that subject, then the next best choice might be
the homepage.

💡 Of the following statements about redirects, which option is false?

Meta refresh is the most preferred type of redirect because it creates the best
user experience.

A temporary redirect passes less authority to the new page than a permanent
redirect.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 74

 Chaining redirects is not recommended since some authority is lost with each
redirect.

It is preferable to redirect to a specific page rather than a category page or site

home.

Correct
Correct. Meta refresh should be used sparingly to ensure a better user experience.

404 Pages Best Practices

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 75

 💡 404 pages that have significant authority should be redirected to an
appropriate page.

True.

False.

Correct
Correct. By redirecting these pages, you preserve most of the authority of the 404
page.

r. If you recall from our last lessons, a 404 page is an error page that is presented
when a page is not found. 404 's are one of the most common error pages within a

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 76

 website. Because they are so common, it's a good idea to be aware of some best
practices for handling 404 's. A common question is whether or not you should
redirect error pages like 404 pages to new pages. There is a misconception that all
404 error pages are bad. For the most part, search engines know what a 404 page is
and can handle that page appropriately. This becomes more of an issue if your site
has a lot of soft 404's or is producing a lot of 404 pages from expired products.
Ideally, you want to work with the site owner to minimize the amount of 404 pages
the site produces. In some cases, however, a 404 page may be the best option. If
you have 404 pages that contain a significant number of backlinks and authority, or
pages that received a high amount of traffic, it's a good idea to preserve the authority
of these pages by redirecting them to a more appropriate page by following the best
practices we just discussed in our previous lesson on redirects. When a user lands
on a 404 page, they can often experience confusion about where to go next or how
to get to the content they were trying to access. It's a good idea to alleviate this
confusion by presenting a friendly 404 page that will help avoid the user immediately
leaving your site. When a visitor arrives on a 404 page, it's a good idea to provide
them with some navigational items they can use to visit other pages on your site.

This is also a good best practice from an SEO standpoint. This way, if a search
engine robot want to follow a link to your site and land on a 404 page, it would be
able to find its way out of that page to call other content on your website. Often,
maintaining your overall site theme while presenting an error page is a good best
practice to follow. This helps when users know they landed on the correct site while
also providing them with options of where to go next. It's also important that you
display an error message that lets the user know why the page is not available. This

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 77

 can be something as simple as letting them know the page was not found or
something more elaborate. In general, the more helpful you're content on this page,
the more likely a user is to stick around. I

It can be helpful to include a call to action that lets them know what step they can
take next. A link back to the homepage so they can start their search again and a
search box so they can easily search for other related pages in your site.

💡 Which of the following IS NOT a best practice in 404 page design?

Provide site navigation.

Redirect all 404 pages to the home page of your site.

Include an error message that explains why the page is not available.

Include a call to action that lets users know what step to take.

Maintain your site theme on error pages.

Correct
Correct. As was discussed in a previous lesson, redirecting to the home page can be
quite frustrating to users since this redirect offers no guidance on how to resolve
their inquiry.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 78

 Google Search Console, previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, will provide
you with a report of all 404 pages it discovers. This report can be downloaded. You
can review the individual URLs or spot patterns. You can also crawl your site with a
tool like Screaming Frog or a similar tool like Xenu. These tools provide detailed
reports on broken links. There are also browser extensions. One for Google Chrome
is called Check My Links and this helps to spot internal links that are broken and
leading to 404 pages

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 79

 8 Technical SEO Tools You Should Be Using Today, Nicole Rende, HubSpot,
2020

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-beginners-guide-to-technical-seo-7-
resources-you-should-use

If you haven't already purchased the book The Art of SEO: Mastering Search
Engine Optimization, I highly recommend you do so. For this week, I recommend
you read the section on Using Advanced Search Techniques within that book.

ISBN-13: 978-1491948965

ISBN-10: 1491948965

(This is an optional purchase and not a requirement of this course.)

Week 4: Keyword Theory & Research

Introduction
Choosing the Right Keywords

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 80

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 81
 💡 For a site that sells surfboards and surfing products, which of the following
is likely the best keyword choice:

Best surfboards to buy

Surfing
How to surf

Top surfers of all time

Correct
Correct. Because the subject of surfing is far too broad of a keyword. Your target
audience is looking to buy surfboards. Although they may also be interested in how
to surf and who the top surfers of all time are, these are not what they are interested
in when they are entering queries to help them find a surfboard to buy.

Stages of Search
1. Awareness

2. Evaluation

2. Preference

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 82

 Let's use an example user to illustrate the search process. We'll call this user Tom,
Tom decides he needs a computer, but he doesn't know what kind. So he turns to his
preferred search engine, probably Google and types best computers to buy. This is
the awareness stage in this stage, Tom quickly discovers that this search is very
broad, and in order to get the best results he will need to refine his preferences, he
will now need to evaluate the specific types of computers he wants to buy. Tom
decides he would like a laptop and not a desktop computer, so he refines his search
to best laptop to buy his results, then show him a variety of different laptops. And he
realizes he needs to further narrow down his choices, there are different laptops for
different uses, such as school graphic design or gaming. In this example, Tom
decides he wants a gaming laptop, so he looks up gaming laptop reviews to help
decide on a specific choice.

4. Purchase

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 83

 💡 Which of the following best matches the typical search path a buyer takes
when making a purchase?

Organic search -> Evaluation -> Narrowing -> Purchase

Organic Search -> Narrowing -> Evaluation -> Purchase

Evaluation -> Narrowing -> General Awareness -> Purchase

Correct
Correct. Usually buyers have a general interest, so they perform an organic search
or awareness. They then begin to evaluate their options and then narrow to a
category or brand and eventually to a specific item, at which time they purchase.

Having an organic presence is useful in all stages of the cycle but is more useful.
The closer you get to the actual purchase phase, you generally don't need a lot of

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 84

 visibility during the initial stage of awareness, though it can be beneficial to have
brand presence here, so the user recognizes your brand or site later. It can be
helpful to have organic visibility in both the evaluation and preference intent phase,
because the user may decide to convert and remember your site.

The purchase phase can be very beneficial to SEO visibility because this is where
the user is actively looking to buy a product or perform a specific action. Their query
means they do not have a specific site in mind for their purchase If your site has
visibility during this stage, you have a greater chance of attracting and converting
users.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 85

 The first type of query is known as a navigational query. In this case, the user has a
specific website in mind. Perhaps they have spent some time on a specific website
in the past, and I've enjoyed that site's content in this type of query the search for the
website or brand name directly and visit the brand result for that page. Let's use
Amazon for an example since these are very brand focused, they require little
optimization. The high brand focus means that users are looking for your brand in
particular and will be more engaged with your site, often resulting in better
conversions. One thing you should be aware of, however, our potential news results
that contain your brand name as these will also show when someone searches for
your brand. A negative story about your brand may influence their decision to visit
your site or convert.

You should also note that brand searches can pull up your Twitter account and your
latest tweets. It's important to ensure that your Social media team always maintains
brand focus on social channels.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 86

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 87
 💡 Which of the following incorrectly pairs a type of query with its purpose?

A transactional query is done once the purchase item is selected and is

geared toward finding the right site from which to purchase.

An informational query is one where a user is looking for general content on a

topic.

A navigational query is a search where you are looking for recommendations

for how to make a decision about a product.

Correct
Correct. A navigational query is performed when a searcher already knows what
they want to find, but they need the search engine’s help to find it. For example, they
know they want the Amazon website, but don’t know its URL, so they type Amazon
in the search engine.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 88

 Heads, Tails, and Long Tail Keywords

However, the majority of your traffic will naturally come from these longer tail
phrases. These phrases are often more specific.

Because of their specificity, they have a higher probability of conversion due to being
later in the stages of the buying funnel and search cycle. In addition, because these
keywords are so specific, there are a lot less competitive, making it easier for you to
rank highly and attract more traffic. For example, ranking for the keyword laptops
might seem like a great idea. But popular search terms like this actually make up
less than 30 percent of the overall searches performed online. The remaining 70
percent of queries are what are known as long-tail keywords or keywords that are
longer and more specific. This chart from Mors does a great job at showing how

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 89

 many searches come from long tail keywords. Your website's own traffic will closely
follow this chart. You can view this chart on their website at the link provided in your
study materials.

💡 Which of the following IS NOT a characteristic of a great keyword:

The word has low competition

It is aligned with buyer intent.

It is general in order to cast a wide net

It captures a longer tail phrase related to your website’s topic

Correct
Correct. General keywords do cast a wide net, but also increase your competition. If
your site is about laptop repair, “laptop” is not an ideal keyword. There is far too
much competition to appear in search results for that keyword.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 90

 💡 You should avoid head terms when selecting keywords because they are
very competitive, have large search volume, and are broader.

False.
True.

Correct
Correct. Long tail keywords are ideal because, unlike head terms, they are more
acutely focused on the needs and interests of your ideal visitors.

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 91

 For example, let's take a look at search volume for the keywords we just discussed.
We can see that textbooks has a very high number of monthly searches. It's easy for
clients to get distracted by this and demand to rank number one for textbooks or
even textbook rentals. But if your main focus is online textbooks, rather than
operating a physical store front, this may not be the best choice for you. You can get
even more targeted by choosing more appropriate keywords. In this scenario, the
customer is still in the information gathering phase of their purchase. The keyword
online textbook rentals has lower volume but is more specific. User is now at the
stage where they have a better idea of what they are looking for. The same goes for
online college textbook rental. This is even more specific. Now, you may be looking
at the keyword, "Online college textbook rental" and thinking, "There's a big
difference in search volume between online textbook rentals and online college
textbook rental." But when you think about it, you're able to target four very targeted
keywords with this one long tail phrase. You can target textbook rentals, online
textbook rentals, college textbook rentals and the full phrase, online college textbook
rental. By keeping this full phrase in mind and writing great content for these pages,
you're slowly building authority for the topic textbooks, which can eventually help
your site rank higher for more competitive phrases.

The Science of How Users Conduct Searches

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 92

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 93
 💡 About 50% of users search using fragments while the other 50% search
with specific phrases.

False.

True.

Correct
Correct. Blue Nile Research conducted a study that showed a 50/50 split on how
users formulate their queries with 50% searching with fragments, such as “repair
smartphone screen,” and the remaining 50% searching with specific phrases, such
as “Who are the top rated smartphone screen repair companies?”

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 94

 💡 Which of the following IS NOT an example of a company adjusting for the
seasonality of searches?

A lip balm company increases web advertising during the winter months.

A car company posts blog posts about the safety ratings of their new cars
during the fall months when the new cars come out.

A tuxedo rental company includes web content geared toward a female

audience since they know their research shows that women planning
weddings are the majority of their site visitors.

Correct
Correct. The tuxedo rental company is wisely adjusting their content based on an
audience analysis, but this is not an example of seasonality.
If you haven't already purchased the book The Art of SEO: Mastering Search
Engine Optimization, I highly recommend you do so. For this week, I recommend
you read Chapter 1: Subsection, How People Search and Chapter 3: Segmenting
Your Site's Audience.

ISBN-13: 978-1491948965

ISBN-10: 1491948965

(This is an optional purchase and not a requirement of this course.)

2. Google SEO Fundamentals 95