Google Search Engine Optimization Boot Camp

Learn how to get your business noticed by improving your SEO strategy for increased visibility in Google, Bing, and other search engines.

Understanding the purpose of SEO means that you can concentrate of producing a great site, with great content. Not understanding the fundamentals means you worry about how to show up in the search results, and likely spend time chasing the wrong strategies.

Search engine optimization is not a trick or a one time process; it's a way of life for the most successful sites on the web and it has moved far beyond how many times the keywords appear on the page, or how many links you can build. When done properly, search engine optimization seamlessly tracks alongside all the other marketing initiatives within your organization in much the same way "good writing" or "compelling graphics" is a standard.

Ignoring SEO has the same impact as ignoring any other crucial part of your marketing plan. If you want to grow the traffic to your website, you must focus on making your website fundamentally sound for the search engines and balancing that effort with providing a great experience for your visitors. 

Importance of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization has been an important part of online marketing since the late 1990's. In the last five years its importance has skyrocketed.

Appearing on the first page of Google is now the goal of millions of companies and thousands of marketing managers. Getting there is in some ways harder than ever, yet in other ways, it's never been easier if you have a legitimate brand/business and know the fundamentals.

For brands trying to manipulate Google's ranking signals to trick them into ranking them higher than they normally would, the hill is inhumanly steep. For brands who put their resources into helping their community, making their customers smarter and offering help in a transparent way, the doors are wide open.

This is the time to pivot your old online marketing ideas to align with the new reality of search engine optimization.

With the following information, you will be prepared to begin a career as an SEO, to be able to confidently manage and direct the efforts of any SEO vendors for your organizations while monitoring for bad practices, to be able to coordinate initiatives across your organization that will improve your search exposure.

*Please note, there is a $500 fee to claim your St. Louis University Certification upon completion of the requirements.

In this course, you will learn:

1. The History of Search Engines
2. What search engine optimization is, what it isn't and where it's headed
3. How to perform an SEO Site Audit (This knowledge is worth $1,000's alone!)
4. Tools that you can rely on for information, how, and why
5. How to put together a timeline for estimated results
6. How to pick the right keywords for your business and industry
7. How to attract high quality and authoritative backlinks
8. The importance of becoming an industry thought-leader
9. How to see what your competition is doing online
10. What tools and services will make your life easier

Pre-Requisites:
This class requires a basic understanding of online marketing and very basic html. If words like "website" and "hyperlink" do not scare you, your knowledge level is adequate.

Who Should Attend:

• Interactive Directors
• Marketing Managers and Specialists
• CMOs, VPs and Directors
• Brand Managers
• Product Managers
• Account Executives
• Creative Directors
• Art Directors
• Copywriters
• Web Designers
• Web Developers
• Programmers
• Small Business Owners

Course Outline:

1. What is SEO

• History of SEO
• Google vs. everyone else

2. Current Situation

• Where is your site today
• Assessing what's working and what's not

Activity - Looking at the tools that can help you access what your current situation is. Each participant will have their site put into a different tool so the entire group can see how they work.

3. Setting Goals

Activity - Deciding what are good key performance indicators. Starting with poor assumptions can lead to faulty goals.

Activity - Ranking with and without personalization. With personalization now "always on" we'll go over how to spread they way you influence personalized search.

• Choosing KPI's
• Traffic
• Ranking
• Reputation
• Buzz

4. Competitive Analysis

• Who are your real life competitors vs. Online competitors
• What to compare
• When to attack and when to stay put

Activity - How to find your online competitors. Anyone can be an online competitor, even Wikipedia.

5. Visitors

• Rent vs. Own
• Attracting the right kind of traffic
• Head vs. long tail traffic
• Viral Traffic

Activity - Figuring out what your traffic strategy is.

6. Keywords

• How Google views keywords
• Estimating traffic
• Estimating competitiveness
• Choosing keywords
• Short term vs. Long term keywords
• Keyword strategy

Activity - How to pick the right keywords. With keyword data going away, it's crucial that you understand what pages are for what keywords on your site.

7. Content Audit

• Every page a King
• Evergreen content
• Content lifecycle

8. Analytics

• Data based decisions
• Why "Visitors" isn't a KPI
• Conversion Funnel
• Tracking events

Activity - Finding the right analytics. A base install of Google Analytics is almost useless. We'll go over how to build a funnel and how to track it.

9. Search & Social

• Social signals
• Engagement as a signal
• Google+

Activity - Stop choosing your social strategy by platform, choose your social strategy by the outcome you desire and the people you hope to influence.

10. Online Reputation Management

• Perception is reality
• Your employees are your business
• Staying in control of the SERPs
• Crisis plan

Activity - Google yourself, your brand and the executives. You are in control of your online reputation more than you imagine. You must learn to leave behind a trail.