Introduction to SEO
- 1. Introduction to SEO Dan Taylor @DanTaylorSEO www.seowned.co.uk
- 2. About Me • 7 years experience in Internet Marketing • 4 years as an SEO • Worked at Click Consult, Just Search and MoneySupermarket as well as my own agency SEOwned • Have 3 lovely children and follow Everton (for my sins) 2
- 3. Contents • What is SEO? • What is the Value of SEO • How Do You Do SEO? – Keyword Research – Onpage Optimisation – Link Building • Wrap Up 3
- 4. What is SEO
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- 7. Wikipedia Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In English Getting more relevant traffic via search engines organic listings. 7
- 8. What is the Value of SEO?
- 9. Why is SEO Important? Worldwide Internet Usage • 2 billion users online • Over 1 billion daily searches in Google UK • Over 82% of population are online • UK Internet economy worth over £100m = 7.2% of GDP Search Engine Usage • 89% of all online purchases start with a search • 92% of searches made in Google • Organic results receive over 75% of clicks • 91% of searchers never go past the first page 9
- 10. and here is where is all begins… 10
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- 12. Organic results 12
- 13. Paid results 13
- 14. Shopping results 14
- 15. Google suggest 15
- 16. Click through rates Source: 16
- 17. How Do You Do SEO?
- 18. SEO is About Two Things 18
- 19. SEO is About Two Things 19
- 20. SEO is About Two Things 20
- 21. The SEO Process Keyword • Find the right keywords to optimise for Research • Implement those keywords on the website On-Page • Make the website search-engine friendly Optimisation • Build links to the website to increase its Linkbuilding authority 21
- 22. Keyword Research
- 23. Keyword Research • Start with a basic set of keywords related to the website and the industry it operates in – Engagement Ring, Diamond Engagement Ring, Gold Engagement Ring • Use a keyword tool to expand the list and research competitive info – Wedding Ring, Wedding Band, Platinum Bands, White Gold Engagement Rings, … • Refine the list to set of targeted words – Diamond Engagement Rings, Celtic Wedding Rings, Gold Wedding Rings, Platinum Wedding Bands, White Gold Engagement Rings 23
- 24. Short & Long Tail Higher Competition Lower Competition Lower Conversion Rate Higher Conversion Rate Research Phase (e.g TVs) Action Phase (e.g Buy Samsung E3454 32” LCD TV) 24
- 25. Keyword Research Tools 25
- 26. Keyword Research Tools 26
- 27. Keyword Research Tools 27
- 28. Keyword Research Tools 28
- 29. Keyword Research Tools 29
- 30. Keyword Research Tips & Advice • Make sure your target keywords are relevant to the websites business. • Go for keywords that you can actually rank for (i.e. a new website will not be able to rank for ‘car insurance’) • Try to mix generic keywords (wedding ring) with long-tail keywords (white gold engagement ring) • Remember that keyword tool data is not 100% accurate • Monitor your SEO results to find out which keywords perform the best and focus your efforts there • Remember: keyword research is one of the most important aspects of SEO and it is an ongoing process. 30
- 32. On Page Optimisation • Search Engines rank web pages – not websites • Build your pages around one theme and stick with it: – One page about wedding rings – One page about engagement rings • One subpage about white gold engagement rings • Don’t stuff a webpage full of keywords – moderation is the key • Optimise for your users and the search engines will love it. 32
- 33. On Page Optimisation Elements to be optimised Title tag Meta description tag Headline & paragraph structure Body text Image alt attribute URLs Internal links Sitemaps (HTML & XML) 33
- 34. On Page Optimisation Title Tag <title>SEO For Small Business - SEOwned Limited</title> • Start with your focus keyword, end with your brand name. • Keep it short – 65-70 characters (including spaces) • Use a unique title for every page on your site • Usually shown in the SERPs (but not always) 34
- 35. On Page Optimisation Meta Description <meta name="description" content="Small Business? SEOwn It! Choose an SEO Agency that delivers on Return on Investment not just Rankings! Click Here Now to Find Out How We Can Help You!"/> • Not a ranking factor – but a very important click through factor. • SERPS only show 150 characters, and there is no guarentee they will choose your description. • Try to include focus keyword ones (it gets bolded) • Try and include a CTA (phone number, click here) 35
- 36. On Page Optimisation Body Copy H1 Tag H2 Tags Paragraph text 36
- 37. On Page Optimisation Body Copy • Write for users not search engines • More content = great for search engines Find the balance • Less content = better for users • Minimum amount of 200 words (typically 500+ is ideal) • Include your focus keywords and synonyms • Write naturally and make it readable • Spell and grammar check your content (get someone else to read it) • Don’t stuff your content with keywords. 37
- 38. On Page Optimisation Image alt attribute <img src=“http://digitalmarketinginstitute.ie/files/2008/11/ireland-map.jpg” alt=“Ireland Map with pins” /> • Make images relevant to content • Include a relevant alt tag – preferably containing the focus keyword (but don’t shoehorn irrelevant keywords in) 38
- 39. On Page Optimisation URLs • Bad URL http://domain.com/index.php?p=457&attr=37687&cat=hdj... • Good URL http://domain.com/wedding-rings/gold -wedding-ring/ • Keep URLs technology agnostic (i.e. remove file extensions such as .html, .php, … • Don’t overdo the use of keywords • Use a logical hierarchical structure that makes sense to humans 39
- 40. On Page Optimisation Internal links • Link from top to bottom • Link sideways and diagonally • Use keywords in the link Wrong: To read more about wedding rings click here Right: Read more about wedding rings • Use breadcrumb links 40
- 41. On Page Optimisation Sitemaps (HTML & XML) • HTML Sitemap – Webpage listing all pages on the website – Allows users to quickly find the page they’re looking for – Allows search engines to index all pages on your site – Should be linked to from the footer of every page • XML Sitemap – XML file containing all webpages on a website that you want to get indexed. – Can also include images and videos – Gives more info to search engines: update frequency, importance, date of last change. – Should be linked from the robots.txt file and added to Webmaster Tools 41
- 42. On Page Optimisation HTML Sitemap 42
- 43. On Page Optimisation XML Sitemap 43
- 44. On Page Optimisation Tips • Hidden text (white text on white background) – Don’t use it, easily detectable and will get you penalised • Meta keywords tag – Useless from an SEO perspective and can give away your target keywords to your competitors • Keyword stuffing – Doesn’t work and may get you penalised • Flash content – Mostly invisible to search engines so don’t use for content. Video and animation is fine • JavaScript – Mostly invisible to search engines so don’t use for main content of site or navigation 44
- 45. On Page Optimisation Tools • XENU Link Sleuth - http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html – Indexes all pages of a website, data exportable to Excel – Use to create XML sitemaps and find duplicate titles, duplicate descriptions, internal inking and indexation issues. • Firebug – http://getfirebug.com/ – Use to diagnose header tags, alt images – Use to find hidden text • Google Webmaster Tools – http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools – See how Google sees your site – Pay attention to warnings – Great data straight from Google 45
- 46. Link Building
- 47. Link Building • Links determine the authority of a page • Higher authority = higher rankings • More links = higher authority • Not all links are equal – 1 valuable link from the BBC will be more powerful that over 100 links from low authority sites. • Link (anchor) text is very important – Branded link: Salford University – Brand + Keyword: Salford University SEO Course – Keyword rich link: SEO Course • A website needs all of these types of link 47
- 48. Link Building How to spot a valuable link • PageRank – A measure of how authoritative Google thinks the page is – Only updated sporadically but gives a general idea – 0 is bad (a new site or penalised sitemay have this), 10 is awesome (Facebook is a PR 10) • mozRank – Developed by SEOmoz and it a little more accurate than PageRank and updated more often • Not ‘nofollowed’ – If a link has a rel=“nofollow” attribute then search engines will not pass any value from that link to the page • Common sense – Spammy sites = low quality – Popular site = high quality link – Relevant site = valuable link 48
- 49. Link Building Different types of link • Reciprocal links – Site A links to site B, and site B links back to site A – Try not to link to the same page i.e if they link from their homepage don’t link to their homepage – Not very valuable • Link wheel – Site A links to site B, site B links to site C, site C links to site A – A spam signal, avoid if you can • One-way link – Site A links to site B – Most valuable type of link, get as many of these as you can from relevant or powerful sites. 49
- 50. Link Building How to build links 1. Directory submissions 2. Press releases 3. Article marketing & guest blogging 4. Link bait 50
- 51. Link Building 1. Directory Submissions • Business Directories such as: – Dmoz.org – Business.com – Best of the web (botw.org.uk) • The best directories are usually paid • Always check if a directory link is valuable – What is the PageRank of the page where your link will end up? – Is that page indexed by Google? – Is the link nofollowed? • Good for building foundational brand links • Try and find relevant directories to an industry 51
- 52. Link Building 2. Press Releases • Great way to build valuable links • Make sure your press release… – Is newsworthy, relevant and interesting enough to be read – Contains a links back to your site (preferably with a keyword rich link text) • Use professional PR distributers – PR Web: £40 to £200 per press release – PR Newswire UK: pricing per article – BusinessWire: pricing per article – MyNewsDesk: £0 to £590 per month • There is no guarantee it will be picked up by news outlets – The more money and time spent on the press release generally leads to more and better links 52
- 53. Link Building 3. Article Marketing & Guest Blogging • Write relevant articles/blog posts • Links in article & in author bio • Use pseudonyms to create more authors • Article sites: – Ezinearticles.com – Goarticles.com – Articledashboard.com – Articlecity.com – Articlesbase.com • Guest Blogging – Approach blogs and websites directly and offer content – Only link when relevant, link to other sites too – Myblogguest.com is a popular place to find blogs and bloggers 53
- 54. Link Building 4. Linkbait • Linkbait is: – Content published on your website that is so interesting/funny/newsworthy/shocking that people will link to it withoutr being asked • Type of linkbait: – Great articles with valuable insight – Infographics – Breaking news stories – Top n lists • Spread via social media – Share on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Stumbleupon, … – Submit to social news sites such as Reddit 54
- 55. Link Building Tools • SearchStatus Firefox Plugin – http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/ – Shows a webpages PageRank and mozRank and highlights nofollowed links • SEOMoz Open Site Explorer – http://www.opensiteexplorer.org – Analyse your competitors links and see if you can get some of them as well – Don’t just copy be inspired • Google Webmaster Tools – See some of the links that Google counts for your website and strive to get more of the same 55
- 56. Questions? Dan Taylor dan@seowned.co.uk http://twitter.com/DanTaylorSEO View deck at: http://slidesha.re/zQxp1G http://www.seowned.co.uk
Editor's Notes
- #37: Allow SE to understand the content and its contextDon’t use more than one h1 per pageH2 only under h1 etc