Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a marketing discipline, not a technical one

My Mantra is “93.4% of potential product purchase research is done online (anonymously). Nearly 2 of 3 buyers begin product research using a search engine. Buyers have little interest in sales calls unless and until they (the buyers) initiate the interaction.”

SEO Analyst:

ZulualphaKilo (Agency)
TBWA (Agency)
The Dan Network (worldwide) (Agency)
Disney
Universal Orlando Resort
The Digiblender

Extensive knowledge of SEO, including implement an SEO plan for many successful campaigns – for both desktop and Mobile, this included Facebook and Google advertising landing page optimization, and optimization for local search (mobile).
A web development background and site architecture knowledge gives me a unique understanding of SEO and SEM, including sitemap creation and tracking metrics, title page optimization, keyword optimization including: referrals, link popularity, rankings, and saturation.
Advise all stakeholders, web developers, designers and copywriters, in the production of all Campaigns conducive to producing high search engine rankings.
Responsible for all aspects of SEM including SEO, PPCs that improve clients’ visibility with search engines as well as meet their Return on Investment goals.
Daily research of search engine algorithms and provide analyses for clients and/or internal team members utilizing industry software to monitor clients’ search engine rankings, and perform keyword research using tools such as Keyword Explorer from Moz, Ahrefs, Raven, SpyFu, WordTracker, Keyword Max and Web Position Gold.

Very Comfortable presenting to clients, serving as the day-to-day client contact, educating stakeholders about SEM strategies and efforts.
I stay abreast of trends in SEM, PPC, SEO (post Panda & Penguin) and consistently seek new opportunities and ways to enhance/improve SEM results.
Advised all groups within Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online, including Disneyworld, Disneyland, Disney Weddings, Disney Meetings, Disney Cruise Line and The Disney Institute to improve their brand objectives and ROI through improved conversation rates, higher amplification rates and greater growth across all channels. Building on what they have and growing brand presence in the digital space including emerging digital platforms and technologies like Google Plus and Mobile Optimization.
Using Disney’s website management platform analyzed key data and metrics from Omniture, Analytics, Google’s Web Master Tools and YouTube and Facebook Insights to improve marketing performance, channel growth and to recognize trends and or issues facing all aspects for their Digital footprint.
Worked with the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online team to run a test of Google’s web authoring tools and Google Plus to see if adding authorship to the Bloggers using the platform would improve post Click through rates and website engagement rates. Based on historic data analysis, ongoing site optimization, and weekly monitoring of all site metrics and Internet marketing projects the test was a great success and showed significant improvement in the CTR of all the Bloggers that participated in the test.
The results of the Authorship and google Plus addition were shared with other departments within Disney.
Worked with Disney Gift Card to grow their presence in the digital space. From website optimization, Blogging, increasing Social Engagement Rates and working on their Mobile presence.
Ran weekly meetings with The Disney Institute, Disney Meetings and Disney Weddings to help plan, execute and analyze all optimization results with ongoing weekly reports. Work with developers, project managers and cross-discipline team members to implement Digital Marketing and SEO best practices on all projects going forward.
Represented Digital Marketing findings to all stakeholders in cross-company and cross-departmental meetings and work sessions

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Technical SEO

Technical SEO initiatives helps ensure that a website is positioned well for crawlers and site visitors alike.

When working on Technical SEO, I attended to such areas as site architecture/structure, page/folder (URL) naming convention, navigation elements, CMS setup, page template layout and coding, indexing and Geo targeting.

Google will only look up to you once you have gained everyone’s respect and there is no better way to get respect than through effective communication, useful information and high quality backlinks. If you write something fantastic that the world should know …Google doesn’t care. No one hears your tree falling. All SEO gives your tree is some volume. Optimizing a website used to involve “editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines” – today you need to have a fast loading, socially connected, keyword optimized (H1’s, titles etc), mobile enabled page which has content that others find compelling. I like the phrase SEO-cial.

Competitive Keyword Analysis and Page Optimization

I have BrightEdge SEO Platform, Raven SEO Tools, Ahrefs.com and Seomoz.org do all the heavy lifting.
Look at where the page errors are.
Looking for duplicate tags and titles.
Which Keywords are not being utilized.
What Page meta descriptions are not inline with the brand or information on the page.
Which Keywords are out competition beating us with and why?
Look at Geographic metrics and cross reference with Analytics to make sure we are utilizing the right Keywords for the the right geographic areas.

then what do I do with the information…

Focus on desired outcomes, vision, goals and objective metrics.
Incorporating knowledge of the brand and development of the brand personality and voice.
Identifying micro-segments of the audience, customers, users or constituents.
Identifying the communities that those micro-segments belong to—how people behave in those communities and identifying the influencers.
Creating an action plan for the project including an in-depth assessment of the existing website, gauge how it is currently ranking with the major search engines and define a search engine optimization action plan to implement.
Executing, measuring and reinventing of social media activities and programs. Building brand awareness and increasing traffic.
Monitor, track, and report on paid search metrics, including trend analysis, sales and conversions for Visa.ca, Nissan.ca and all local companies

Work with senior management and stakeholder to educate them on the importance of even basic SEO
QA creative to assist in Keyword discovery and expansion to help all clients reach a larger demographic based on a variety of keywords.
Research and strategic planning for paid and natural search campaigns
Internal link optimization
META tag optimization
Produce positive brand association and maintaining and improving pageviews, return visitor numbers and reducing bounce rates.
Have a thorough knowledge of search ranking factors and critical updates
QA SEO Copywriting for all clients

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Sites I’ve Worked On

Walt Disney World Resort
Nissan Virtual Showroom
Visa Merchant Resources
KPMG Law
Venter Plumbers
Universal Spinners
Dr Mousa

Site Evaluation

I have done site evaluations for all sites in my portfolio including Visa.ca, visainfinite.ca, Nissan showroom. The site evaluations are based on three criteria – (1) Site infrastructure, including Code and Keywords, plus tracking what works and what works better (2) The backlink strategy (3) Influencers such as social commitment and mobile commitment.

Site infrastructure:

CODE:

Evaluated site infrastructure for complete optimization including load times. With my background in development my first evaluation is via firebug or Chrome developer tools. I check for Page titles, menu items, image alt tags and page semantics (including the use of HTML5 tags like “nav”, “article”, “footer” and most importantly the use of hCard tags).
Check Google favorites like “Page Titles”, “H1-h3”, “Meta descriptions”, “internal and external link tags”.
I check all available tools like Googles webmaster tools for a list of all errors the site may be having. Page load times and if the page is optimized to load as quickly as possible.
I check to make sure the code is not trying to load assets that do not exist (legacy images etc)

Site infrastructure: KEYWORDS:

Keyword Market Research on targeted markets – searching daily using the Google Insights API looking for search habits targeting relevant searches based on location looking at rising searches in the API. These reports are emailed to me every morning at 8am – reviewed and if necessary changes made to the scheme.
Using Google’s webmaster tools I evaluate all keywords and phrases being used to find the site and how those words and phrases are implemented site-wide.
Review and update of websites content to reflect specific marketing & keyword goals.

Site Evaluation: TRACKING:

Create database of existing data from Google Analytics, Google’s webmaster tools and the Google Insights API. Create statistical analysis to project future behaviors and goals.
Use Analytics with the ultimate goal of delivering a positive ROI via conversions, leads, and sales.

SEO Implementation:

Re-designed existing sites by incorporating programming standards, utilizing layers (div) vs. tables, and ‘honest’ Search Engine Optimization practices to produce a ’state of the art’ web site for Search Engine traffic.
The use of a flat directory structure and create XML site maps with text links.
Promotion plan using high quality new content to generate links from social media, industry insiders and article marketing
File-names, directory names and page titles include targeted keywords.
Contextually accurate sufficient and keyword-rich permanent body copy with proper density and attributes (H1 header tags, bold, strong, etc.)

Use CSS image replacement in graphical navigation on the site.
Graphics used in the site have descriptive, keyword-rich alternative attributes that are useful for visitors (alt and title tag optimization)
Sites listed in Open Directory and other trusted, human-reviewed online directories.
Create a custom error page.
All sites avoid using pop-ups.
Use the exact same content visible to both users and search engine spiders.
Keyword mapping exercises with the use of keyword tools such as Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker.
The use of online Tools to find out how users search for things related to the content on the sites, or plan to have, on the sites. Map your navigation and pages based on the results of this exercise.
Use of a “bread crumb” bar (like the “Duvet Cover > print > Acanthe).
Google Webmasters, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Center setup and configuration including website XML Sitemap submission
Outbound link optimization
Google Analytics setup and configuration (including Goals and Funnels)

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