Search Engine Optimisation A quick & dirty intro guide to playing tag with search engines Barry Adams Senior Digital Marketer for Search Pierce Communications
Introduction to SEO
Sep 18, 2014
Slides for my 3 hour lecture on the basics of SEO for the DMI Digital Marketing Bootcamp in February 2011 in Belfast.
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Search Engine Optimisation
A quick & dirty intro guide to playing tag with search engines
Barry AdamsSenior Digital Marketer for SearchPierce Communications
Slide 2
Barry Adams credentials
Senior Digital Marketer for Search at Pierce Communications
Previous:SEO & PPC consultant for the Independent News & Media
(Belfast Telegraph, nijobfinder, nicarfinder, Property News)Web Consultant to SMEs in the Netherlands In-house webmaster and digital marketer for Honeywell &
Philips
Search blogger on State of Search (www.stateofsearch.com) and Search News Central (www.searchnewscentral.com)
Prolific twitterer (@badams)
Who is this guy and why is he teaching SEO?
Slide 3
Agenda
What is SEO?
How do you do SEO?
1
2
3
Why is SEO important?
Slide 4
What is SEO?1
Slide 5
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.
Getting more relevant traffic to websites via search engines' organic results.
Search Engine Optimisation
Definition of SEO
Slide 6
2 Why is SEO important?
Slide 7
Search Engines
Slide 8
UK Search Engine Market Shares
Google Bing Yahoo! AOL Ask Other
SE Market Share 2010
Google 92.03% Bing 3.17%
Yahoo! 2.95% AOL 0.91% Ask 0.85% Other 0.09%.
Slide 9
Some Relevant Statistics
Search Engine Usage 89% of all online purchases in the UK begin with a search 92% of all UK Internet users choose Google as their preferred search engine Organic search results receive over 75% of all clicks 91% of users do not look past the first page of search results
Worldwide Internet Usage 2 billion users online Dec 2009: 131 billion searches (that’s more than 49,000 searches/second)
51.4 milion users (82.5% of the population) In April 2010, Google received 4.1 billion search page views in the UK The UK internet economy is worth £100 billion = 7.2% of UK gross domestic
product
UK Internet Usage
Slide 10
Slide 11
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Slide 12
Organic (natural) Results
Slide 13
Paid Advertising (PPC: Google Adwords)
Slide 14
Google Instant & Google Suggest
Slide 15
Verticals & Search Refinements
Slide 16
Universal Search
Slide 17
News Results
Slide 18
Image Results
Slide 19
Video Results
Slide 20
Local Results (Google Maps)
Slide 21
How do you do SEO?3
Generic SEO Tools
Slide 22
Google Analytics- Free world-class web analytics- Know what is happening on your website- SEO purposes: discover which keywords drive the most traffic & sales- Will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses- http://google.com/analytics/
Rankchecker (Firefox plugin)- Free tool to check where your website ranks in Google for a given set of
keywords- Not 100% accurate: rankings are fluid (personalised results, local results, etc.)- http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/
Slide 23
SEO is about two things:
Keywords Links Keywords match a search query to
a webpage. Links determine which webpage
ranks highest.
The SEO process
Slide 24
KeywordResearch
On-Page Optimisation
Linkbuilding
Find the right keywords to optimise for
Implement those keywords on the website Make the website search-engine friendly
Build links to the website to increase its authority
Slide 25
KeywordResearch
Find the right keywords to optimise for.
Slide 26
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,
cheap engagement rings, custom engagement rings, hand-made wedding rings, design your own wedding ring, celtic wedding rings, ...
Refine the list to a set of target keywords- diamond engagement rings, celtic wedding rings, gold wedding rings, platinum
wedding bands, white gold engagement rings
Slide 27
The Long Tail
Slide 28
Keyword Research ToolsGoogle Adwords Keyword Tool – http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Slide 29
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Advanced options: country & language settings
Slide 30
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Match Types: Broad / [Exact] / “Phrase”
Slide 32
Keyword Research Tools
Google Trends – google.com/trends
Slide 33
Keyword Research Tools
Google Suggest
Keyword Research
Slide 34
Tips and advice:
Make sure your target keywords are relevant to the website’s business
Go for keywords that you can actually rank for (hint: ‘car insurance’ is probably out of your league)
Try to mix generic keywords (‘wedding ring’) with long-tail keywords (‘white gold engagement ring’)
Don‘t rely too much on keyword tools, their data isn‘t 100% accurate – use common sense
Monitor your SEO results to find out which keywords perform the best, and focus your efforts there
Re-do your keyword research for ongoing clients regularly
The SEO process
Slide 35
On-Page Optimisation
Implement those keywords on the website Make the website search-engine friendly
On-Page Optimisation
Slide 36
Search Engines rank webpages – not websites
Build a page around a theme and stick with it:
One page about wedding rings
One page about engagement rings
One sub-page about white gold engagement rings
Don’t stuff a webpage full of keywords – moderation is key
Always keep the end user in mind – don’t write for search engines, write for users!
Slide 37
On-Page Optimisation
Title tag
Meta Description tag
Headlines and paragraph structure
Body text
Image alt attribute
+++++
URLs
Internal links
Sitemap (HTML and XML)
+++
Elements to be optimised:
On-Page Optimisation
<title>Digital Marketing Training Courses from the Digital Marketing Institute</title>
Start with your focus keyword, end with your brand name (you can use separators like – and | )
Keep it short – 65-70 characters Unique title for every page on your website Usually shown on SERPs (but not always)
Slide 38
Title tag+
On-Page Optimisation
<meta name=‘description’ content=‘The Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) provides online marketing training courses on a range of digital marketing throughout Ireland: Dublin, Cork and’>
Not a ranking factor – but a very important click-through factor SERPs only show 150 characters – but no guarantee they’ll actually
show your description. Try to include the focus keyword once
Slide 39
Meta Description tag+
On-Page Optimisation
Slide 40
Headlines and paragraph structure+
<H1> headline
<H2> subheader
<H3> subheaders
<p> paragraphs
Allows SEs to understand the content and its context
On-Page Optimisation
Write for users, not for search engines More content = better for search engines Less content = better for users Minimum 200 words (rough guideline) Include your focus keyword(s) and synonyms Write naturally and make it readable Don’t stuff it full of keywords
Slide 41
Body text+
Find the right balance
On-Page Optimisation
Make images relevant to the content Include a relevant alt attribute – preferably containing (part of) the
focus keyword Can you think of a better alt attribute than the one above?
Slide 42
Image alt attribute+
<img src="http://digitalmarketinginstitute.ie/files/2008/11/ireland-map.jpg" alt="Ireland Map with pins">
On-Page Optimisation
Bad URL:http://domain.com/default.aspx?p=43351&s=abx&ref=ps-2301-g&…
Good URL: http:// domain.com/wedding-rings/platinum-wedding-band.html
Don’t overdo it – no keyword stuffing Use a logical structure that makes sense to humans
Slide 43
URLs+
On-Page Optimisation
Link from top to bottom Link sideways & diagonally Use keywords in the link
Wrong:To read more about wedding rings, click here.
Right: Read more about wedding rings.
Use breadcrumb links
Slide 44
Internal links+
On-Page Optimisation
Slide 45
Sitemap (HTML and XML)+ HTML Sitemap:
- Webpage listing all (relevant) pages on the website- Allows users to quickly find the page they’re looking for- Allows search engines to index all pages on your website
XML Sitemap:- XML file containing all webpages on a website that you want to get indexed- Can also include images and videos- Gives more information to search engines: update frequency, importance,
preferred URL, date of last change.- Never a replacement for a good indexable website!
On-Page Optimisation
Slide 46
Hidden text (white text on a white background)- don’t use it, it doesn’t work and may get you penalised.
Meta Keywords tag- mostly useless but for completion’s sake you can fill it in.
Keyword Stuffing- doesn’t work and may get you penalised.
Shockwave Flash- invisible to search engines so don’t use it if you don’t have to
JavaScript- mostly invisible so be careful when using it
Lies, Myths, and Disinformation:
On-Page Optimisation Tools
Slide 47
XENU Link Sleuth- http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html- Indexes all pages of a website - data is exportable to Excel- Use to create XML sitemap & diagnose title tags, meta descriptions, internal
linking, and indexation issues
Firebug (Firefox plugin)- http://getfirebug.com/- Use to diagnose header tags, image alt attributes
Google Webmaster Tools- http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/- Representation of how Google sees your website- Great data!- Pay attention to the warnings
Google Webmaster Tools
Slide 48
The SEO process
Slide 49
Linkbuilding Build links to the website to increase its authority
Linkbuilding
Slide 50
Links determine a page’s authority Higher authority = higher ranking on SERPs More links = higher authority Not all links are equal
- 1 valuable link from a high authority website > 100 links from low-quality sites
Link text is very important- Branded link: Pierce Communications- Keyword-rich link: Web Design Belfast a website needs both
Linkbuilding
Slide 51
PageRank- A measure of how important Google believes the page is- Not an accurate measure but gives a general idea- 0 = bad, 10 = awesome
mozRank- Developed by SEOmoz and a little bit more accurate than PageRank
Not ‘nofollowed’- rel=nofollow attribute means a link will not pass any value
Common Sense- Spammy websites = low quality link- Popular site = high quality link- Relevant site = valuable link
How to see if a link is valuable or not?
Linkbuilding
Slide 52
Reciprocal links- Site A links to site B, and site B links back to site A- Not very valuable – avoid if you can
Link wheel- Site A links to site B, site B links to site C, site C links to site A- Not very valuable and a spam signal – avoid if you can
One-way link- Site A links to site B. The end.- Most valuable type of link – get lots of these!
Different types of links:
Linkbuilding
Slide 53
How to build links?
Directory Submissions
Press Releases
Article Marketing & Guest Blogging
Linkbait
1234
How to build links?
Slide 54
Online (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 where your link will end up?- Is that page/category even indexed by Google?- Is the link nofollowed?
Usually good for building a base of branded links Try to find vertical directories relevant to your industry
Directory Submissions1
How to build links?
Slide 55
Great way to build valuable links Make sure your press release…:
- Is newsworthy, relevant, and interesting enough to be worth reading- Contains a link back to your site (preferably with a keyword-rich link text)
Use professional PR distributors- PR Web: £40 to £200 per press release- PR Newswire UK: pricing per article- BusinessWire: pricing per article- MyNewsDesk: £0 to £590 per month
No guarantee it will be picked up by news outlets- But generally more money spent translates to more & better links
Press Releases2
How to build links?
Slide 56
Write relevant articles / blog posts (or hire a copywriter) Links in article & in author bio Article sites:
- www.ezinearticles.com- www.goarticles.com- www.articledashboard.com- www.articlecity.com- www.articlesbase.com
Guest blogging:- www.myblogguest.com- www.bloggerlinkup.com
Approach blogs & websites directly and offer content
Article Marketing & Guest Blogging3
How to build links?
Slide 57
Linkbait is:- Content (published on your website) that is so interesting / funny / newsworthy /
controversial that people will link to it without having to be asked
Types of linkbait:- Great articles with valuable insights- Infographics- Breaking news stories- Top 10 lists
Spread via social media- Share on Twitter & Facebook- Submit to social news sites such as Reddit
Linkbait4
Linkbuilding Tools
Slide 58
SearchStatus Firefox plugin- http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/- Shows a webpage’s PageRank & mozRank and highlights nofollowed links
SEOmoz Open Site Explorer- http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/- Free version shows you a good overview of links pointing to a site- Analyse your competitor’s links and see if you can get some of them as well- Don’t just copy, but let yourself be inspired
Google Webmaster Tools- See some of the links that Google actually counts
What’s next?
Slide 60
Reading Material & Advanced SEO
Reading Material
Slide 61
Search Engine Land- http://www.searchengineland.com/
SEOmoz- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/
State of Search- http://www.stateofsearch.com/
Search News Central- http://www.searchnewscentral.com/
Search Engine Journal- http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
SEO is not static, so keeping up to date is crucial
Advanced SEO
Slide 62
Search Intent- Informational / Navigational / Transactional queries- Matching user intent to your SEO goals- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/segmenting-search-intent
Search Patents & Research Papers- Insight in to how search engines operate- Technically challenging so leave the interpretations to the experts!- http://www.seobythesea.com- http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Algorithm-Matters/SEO-Higher-learnin
g.html
Advanced SEO
Slide 63
Information Retrieval (IR)- A discipline of Computer Science- IR is what search engines do: retrieve information from the web with the highest
possible levels of precision and recall- http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/information-retrieval-book.html
Information Architecture (IA)- Making information accessible to humans- Websites built using good IA are nearly always SEO-friendly - http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596527341
Advanced SEO
Slide 64
Microformats / Microdata / RDFa- Also known as ‘structured data’- Meta information – information about information- http://microformats.org/
HTML5- Next-generation HTML code containing new markup- Very SEO-proof, makes life for search engines much easier- http://diveintohtml5.org/
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