SEO Like I'm 5: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization

242 Pages·2014·4.22 MB·English

SEO Like I’m 5
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Search
Engine Optimization

Matthew Capala
Copyright 2014, 2015

No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the written
consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

All Rights Reserved | Zeit Media LLC | “Like I’m 5” is a Registered Trademark

Revised and Updated on March 26, 2015
Praise for ‘SEO Like I’m 5’

There are a multitude of resources available to inform marketers and business
owners of how to stay up to date with marketing, but one that’s well worth
reading is ‘SEO Like I’m 5’ by Matthew Capala.

Brian Honigman on THE HUFFINGTON POST

In this book – a much-needed deviation from the typical, jargon-heavy SEO
guides available on the market – Matthew Capala provides something different
and necessary: an overview of the essentials suitable for any reader, even those
without a strong technical background. Anyone can pick this book up and leave
with a comprehensive understanding of the essentials of SEO. He uses the same
clear explanatory style he's obviously honed as an NYU Professor to bring a
complex subject very much within reach.

Dorie Clark, Author of “Reinvent Yourself” (HBR Press) and “Stand Out”
(Portfolio/Penguin)

Matthew's book got me to act, and if you read it, you will certainly start acting.
For example, after reading just a few pages I used Fiverr.com to create a
customized image for an important blogpost that took me a long time to create...
I knew about Fiverr but reading Matthew had me using it... It was one of those
"duh" moments... I know “SEO Like I’m 5” is one of those I will be reading
daily, a page here, another page there.

Claudia Azula Altucher, WSJ Bestselling Author of “The Power of No,”
Author of “Become an Idea Machine”

Top 10 Best Marketing Books to Give as a Gift.

SmallBussinessTrends.com

‘SEO Like I'm 5’ is written in a way that is accessible to anyone who is curious
about how SEO really works without spending a lot of time on theory. The book
is perfect for beginners who are interested in quickly learning best practices and
want to understand what they need to do next to get the most out of their
website.

Linda Gharib, SVP, Digital Marketing at Citigroup, Adj. Professor at
Baruch College, Internet Marketing I've known Matt Capala for years. If you
ever have an opportunity to meet him in a professional capacity, you'll find that
Matt has a way of energizing people to believe they can succeed at otherwise
complicated marketing activities.

With ‘SEO Like I'm 5’ he's distilled the whirlwind of insights that float around
the Web unfettered and made them actionable for everyone. Chock full of tools,
best practices and action items that help get the reader started, Matt's done a
great job of taking everything he's learned throughout his career and giving it to
the reader in an easy-to-digest capsule. While SEO has gotten harder than ever,
Matt explains it in a way that will help you get in the game with a winning
playbook.

Michael King, Featured Author of ‘Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insights
from the Moz Blog,’ Founder, iPullRank

A refreshing look at SEO. In his recent book, ‘SEO Like I’m 5,’ Matthew Capala
emphasizes the need to learn and practice SEO...like it’s 2015. He explains
effective SEO strategies in a way that doesn't require the advanced technical
knowledge that can become a barrier for those that generally need it the most.

Jonathan Cho, Managing Director, Head of Search and Social at Mindshare

Having been in the industry for many years and having read many books on
marketing and SEO, I was skeptical to read yet another book that claims it will
change my business for the better. Matthew Capala's ‘SEO Like I'm 5’ is
practical, actionable, and clear. The book does two things well. It's instructive in
case I decide to do SEO myself, but perhaps its even bigger value is if I decide to
hire someone else to do it for me. I highly recommend this book to any
solopreneur.

Dino Dogan, Founder and CEO of Triberr, Co-Author of ‘Engagement from
Scratch’

I've had a chance to interview a number of SEO spammers in my career as a
journalist. Sadly, they all share an obsession with fast money, contempt for the
searchers tricked into consuming their low-quality content, and the strangely
irrational belief that they'll always be able to operate outside the reach of the law.

Today, however, as Matt Capala points out in ‘SEO Like I’m 5,’ the "Wild West
Era of SEO" is over, a new sheriff is in town, and civilization is about to arrive
on the search frontier. The good news is that marketers using Matt's approach
will actually profit much more over time than those using the crude, risky
optimization tactics of the past.

Stephen C. Baldwin, Author of ‘Net Slaves: True Tales of Working the
Web,’ (McGraw-Hill), Editor-in-Chief at Didit

Matt Capala wrote ‘SEO Like I’m 5’ for people – regular people like you and me
– not doctoral research fellows studying Semiotics, Semantics, or Information
Theory. While it addresses the important mechanics of how search engines work,
how they understand Web content, and the optimization tasks required for better
visibility, its main focus is empowering you, using an accessible workshop style,
with the SEO tools you'll need to build real influence on the Internet.

Kevin Lee, CEO at Didit, Author of ‘The Eyes Have It,’ Founding Board
Member of SEMPO

Having known Matthew Capala for a number of years, he has taught me a great
deal about SEO. In his new book, ‘SEO Like I’m 5’ he imparts this depth and
understanding in a simplified and straight-forward way that one can understand
just by reading the material on how to improve their SEO...and therefore, their
revenue and profits.

Kathleen Murray, Angel Investor, Chair of Executive Forum Angels,
President of HBS Women’s Association “SEO Like I'm 5” was completely
dog-eared within a couple weeks. I actually spent a lot of time looking up and
trying some of the tools and resources you mentioned, that I hadn't heard of.

Ivana Taylor, Book Editor at SmallBusinessTrends.com, Publisher at
DIYMarketer.com

There's something about SEO that makes people say "This is WAY too much
information. I'm going to ignore it." Unfortunately, those people are also missing
out on 50% of the web's traffic. Unlike most SEO books, Matthew's book doesn't
attempt to cover every aspect of SEO. Just what you need to get started and start
to see results. For that reason, this is the first book anyone looking to get into
SEO should read. That's not to say there aren't any advanced strategies in the
book. There are. But the value comes from the work Matthew has put into
simplifying this often daunting topic into something a 5-year old (or 50-year old)
could understand.

Brain Dean, Founder of Backlinko, Internationally recognized SEO and
Link Building Expert

Time is of the essence to most people and to learn and retain new things takes
time. Matthew Capala is someone who certainly recognizes this and has done an
outstanding job in shortening the learning curve on mastering the basics of SEO
in his book, “SEO Like I’m 5”.

Jeff Sheehan, Author of “HIRED! Paths to Employment In The Social
Media Era”
Contents

Preface
About the Author
Foreword
Introduction
Marketing Like It’s 2015
The 5 Cs of SEO Success
Before You Begin
Part 1: CONTENT
The Magic of Content Marketing
Winning Content Marketing Tools and Strategies
Creating a Killer Content Strategy
Blogging Like a Pro
Writing Magnetic Headlines
Attracting Global Traffic with your Content
Part 2: CODE
Seeing the Web Through the Eyes of Google
Mining Golden Nugget Keywords
Keyword Funnel and Mapping
Optimizing Your Site
Becoming Fast Like a Cheetah
Technical Audit for Non-Techies
Feeding the Hummingbird
Part 3: CREDIBILITY
Measuring Your Credibility
Link Building Game Plan
Earning High-Quality Backlinks
Guest Blogging Done Right
Link Building Tools & Tricks
Part 4: CONNECTIONS
Winning on Social Media
Building Your Tribe
Brand Yourself on SlideShare
Social Media Hacks from the Trenches
5: CASH
5 Website Monetization Models
Making Money With Your Blog
The New Rules of Content Monetization
SEO Like It’s 2015
BONUS C: COMANDO
Preface

In a world where 80% of consumers search for a product or service on Google
before purchasing it, invisibility is a fate much worse than failure.

Yet showing up in Google became the Labors of Hercules far many business
owners. Each year, Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times.
Each year there are more changes than a year ago.

2015 has already been a rollercoaster for businesses and marketers who are
trying to keep up with Google, and we can expect much more yet to come!

While Google is evolving at light speed, many are lost fighting for survival.
Worst of all, many marketers are still using the obsolete SEO tactics of the past
that today may put you in Google’s penalty box pronto. You will not do well in
SEO by chasing the algorithm; you need to get in front of it…

But when it comes to SEO, you can spend all your time studying the roots, or
nd
you can just learn to pick the fruit. With the 2 edition of “SEO Like I’m 5,” our
approach lets you focus on picking up the fruit, not studying the tree.

“SEO Like I’m 5” is for businesses, marketers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs who
need to get results NOW and don’t have the time to wait months to start selling
on Google. The end product is an actionable roadmap for a total makeover of
your online business visibility.

Happy reading, Matthew Capala
Notes from the Editor

nd
Welcome to the 2 edition of “SEO Like I’m 5!”

First and foremost, I’m not Stephen Baldwin the actor.

I’m “the other Stephen Baldwin” the editor, who lives in Brooklyn, runs
BrooklynParrots.com, and works in digital marketing.

I have been involved in, and writing about, SEO before Google was born, since
it was not actually the first search engine.

My first two books, Netslaves (McGraw-Hill, 1999) and Netslaves II (Allworth
Press, 2003), were about the emerging culture of digital work. Today, many
“netslaves” who survived the 2000-2 “dotbomb” crash work in SEO and Internet
Marketing (including myself).

I first met Matt Capala in 2014 when he asked me to edit his book. He and I
shared the belief that SEO had gotten way too complicated for regular people to
understand, and that the SEO industry had little incentive to make things better.

In fact, quite often the "SEO gurus" had exactly the opposite motivation: to keep
secret what they knew or make it convoluted enough to keep their consultation
rates as high as possible.

Instead of actually empowering the regular people, these guys and gals often just
made things murkier.

Something had to change, and Matt’s bold idea – to take a complex technical
subject and make it simple enough “for a five year old to understand” appealed
to me. Nobody else was doing it, so I was happy to pitch in.

Fast-forward six months to late 2014. The 1st edition was out, and Matt was
giving a lecture at the NY General Assembly teaching entrepreneurs about SEO.