SEO in an hour

SEO in an hour03.12.13

What we’ll cover

● How Google works

● What is SEO

● 5 ways to ‘SEO the copy’

● 3 keyword tools

● Q&A

Q. What is Google's mission?

A. To organise the world's information and

make it universally accessible and useful.

(And sell advertising.)

● 300 million users (91% of the market)

● 1 billion+ questions answered a day

● 1 million+ spam pages created each hour

Let’s ‘Google’ some stats...

How are Google results served up?Algorithm based on 200+ signals, eg:

● quantity/quality of sites linking to you

● quality of content

● ability to read/understand your content

● lower ranking for ‘bad’ SEO

(CC) Wikimedia Commons

Google is changing all the time...

media content

local business

'free' Wikipedia content

What are we trying to do?

Get to #1 on Google!

but "For every search query performed on Google, there are thousands, if not millions of web pages with helpful information." – Google.

What is SEO?

...the process of affecting the visibility of a

website or a web page in a search engine's

"natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.

[Wikipedia]

Let’s see how visibility changes depending on what users search for...

content marketing + UK

content marketing

How do we ‘do SEO’?

● Machines: We help Google read, understand

and index our content.

● Humans: We create high value content that

our target readers want to find, read, share.

Easy!

The practical stuff!

1. Headlines are really important

Exercise: Headlines that don't work

Spot the potential SEO issue in each headline.

Headline takeaways

● research and include main keywords

● keep it short or be cut-off (40-60 characters)

● puns don’t work – clarity over cleverness

● 'viral' heads do work – with certain brands

● beat the competition – must-click factor

● don't rely on images for context

The practical stuff!

1. Headlines are really important

2. Intros should be must-clicks

Exercise: Intros round

Put these heads/intros in the order of ranking on Google.

Intros advice

● offer a compelling reason to read on but...

● don't spin or over-promise

● include synonyms/alternative keywords

● intro often forms metadescription

● be concise (cut-off around 250 characters)

The practical stuff!

1. Headlines are really important

2. Intros should be must-clicks

3. Images need to be described in alt text

Alt text in the cms

Alt text

<img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/cartoons/2012/2/10/1328873046573/valentines-day-scene-007.jpg" width="460" height="276" alt="valentine's day scene" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage">

The practical stuff!

1. Headlines are really important

2. Intros should be must-clicks

3. Images need to be described in alt text

4. Videos need descriptions and keywords

YouTube

...is a search engine, too.

● Optimise your heads/intros

● Help Google index content: tags, link to transcripts, categories, etc

The practical stuff!

1. Headlines are really important

2. Intros should be must-clicks

3. Images need to be described in alt text

4. Videos need text support

5. Do SEO research before creating content

More practical stuff: three SEO tools

● Google Trends

(compares up to five terms)

● Google Autocomplete

(also differentiate from other search results)

● Google Keyword Planner

(requires Google AdWords login)

Google Keyword Planner: “outsourcing” - showing number of average monthly searches, level of competition, seasonal graph.

Example: general topic sourced from expert, angle honed via keyword research in analytics and SEO tools.

Google Autocomplete suggests ‘tax’ keyword

Adding ‘tax’ brings article to top position on Google

"Good enough sucks"

fff

Ultimate SEO tip: Research angle 1st

Make better choices before you start.

● What does your reader want to know?

● How best can you tell them?

● Why would anyone want to read/view this?

Resource list

● Google SEO Starter Guide – 32 pages of best practice● Moz (SEOmoz) guide - Beginners Guide to SEO● Content Marketing Institute blog● How I teach myself new digital content skills using cake!

– personal development/training● Bookmarks – SEO and content marketing● RSS feeds – find good sites and subscribe to them

Any questions?

@[email protected]