4 Pillars for SEO and Online Discoverability in 2014

Editor's Notes

• #6: The first pillar we’ll cover today is the one that is the most often overlooked by marketers and that’s the architecture of your website.
• #7: Marketers devote energy and budget to designing a website that looks good, just like we want our homes to look good. But, there is more to a home than curb appeal, and likewise there is more to a website than meets the eye.
• #8: In a home, it's imperative that the plumbing and wiring infrastructure work well. If it doesn't, there can be big problems that are very costly.
• #9: It may seem like a silly analogy, but a website is exactly the same. When we speak of a website's "plumbing and wiring" we are generally referring to many factors that are not visible to the human eye. But, they are very important. To explain this concept, let's just call it "clutter." A new website is free of clutter. 
• #10: But, over time as the website is maintained, we generally make changes to it. We add new content, we edit content. We might move the location of content from one area to another. And, we might delete content. All of these changes can result in website clutter usually in the form of code bloat and also out of date URLs, just to name a few of the clutter details.
• #11: Let's look at how this can impact your website. In this one year chart you can see the blue line represents growth in website traffic. That's good right? But, the orange line shows how this clutter affect also grows in time. The real damage is in the loss in traffic represented by the red bars. Notice how the clutter grows, the loss of traffic also grows. This is because the website loses authority with search engines and loses rankings. This is exactly what we all want to avoid.
• #12: So, in order to monitor this issue, we need to look at the factors Google cares about. There are more than 80 factors to monitor in your website. I know this can seem a little overwhelming. But, the reality of website marketing, or online marketing, or if you prefer search engine optimization, has not gotten simpler. The reality is that it has gotten more complex. We prefer to say it has become more scientific. After today’s webinar, we’ll email you a link to download an e-book that covers more than 80 factors marketers need to know to improve website performance.
• #13: Another factor that you must pay close attention to is the URL structure in your website. This is often a common problem depending on how your website was developed. If you follow this seo friendly URL path, you'll be fine. You'll get a copy of these slides, so don't worry about capturing these details right now. 
• #14: So, just to recap, just like you do your spring cleaning each year, you should schedule a website audit once per year. No website is immune from the clutter that can build up and cause negative affects to your search engine discoverability. Also, sweat the URL structure because search engines want easy to find content on your website. And, lastly although I didn't mention it in the previous slides in the interest of time, but the load speed of your website also matters. A slow load speed can negatively impact your search engine optimization results.
• #15: And, now I'll turn it over to Christine to cover pillar #2, original, quality, optimized content. 
• #45: Social sharing has been increasingly on the rise as one of the signals used by search engines. Let's look at this closer.
• #46: In 2013 Google re-engineered their entire search algorithm. It is known as Hummingbird. At Pubcon, considered one of the biggest conference in the U.S. for search marketers, Matt Cutts, the face of Google for search marketing said that Google is not currently using social signals extensively, but they intend to use them in the future. Frankly, Google has been saying this for two years now. So, our advice is to be ready today. Don't wait for Google to announce they are using social signals more extensively.
• #47: Creating social signals is actually very simple. It's simply a matter of sharing your content through social channels such as a status update in your LinkedIn account either from your profile, or from your LinkedIn company page as shown here.
• #48: Or, sharing content through Google+ which is of course a Google property and widelybelieved to be influential in search signals. Even sharing content through Facebook, although Facebook content is not currently indexed by Google. But, maybe that will change too, so I wouldn't exclude it at least for the possibility of your content reaching the audience you want to reach. 
• #49: Be sure to have social media sharing options on your website or blog to make it easy for people to share your content through social media. 
• #50: So, to recap today's webinar. The key take away's Christine and I covered today are:1. The architecture of your website is too often overlooked. It matters. If it's not audited and maintained it can negatively impact your search marketing results.2. The quality of your content is huge. Not only can it help you get discovered in search engines, but it can also be amplified across other digital channels to be discovered by your target audience.3. Inbound links remain an important element in organic seo, but instead of thinking how you can build links, think about ways you can earn links. Christine covered several great ideas on this topic.4. And, last but not least the social signals are an important factor. Search engines are improving their ability to measure how others vote up your content by sharing it across digital channels.Together, these 4 factors make up the 4 pillars of online discoverability in 2014.
• #51: Before I turn it back to Michelle to open it up for Q&A I want to invite you to visit my YouTube channel the Social Business Engine where you can get subscribe and inspired by the interviews I conduct with companies enjoying success on their social business journey.