INTELLIGENT SEO STRATEGYThe definitive guide to the philosophy of value based

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Follow @LukeSzLatest update 12.03.2015 - v2

WHY THIS PRESENTATION• SEO is still a relevant and valid traffic channel. But, only when

approached in the right way.

• The fundamental optimisation protocol hasn’t changed for more than 10 years.

• I have observed a degradation of the fundamental SEO skills, such as keyword analysis and understanding of searcher intent & behaviour.

• The approach is Inspired by Benjamin Graham’s philosophy of “value investing”

Shield yourself from substantial error, avoid distractions and develop long-term SEO strategies.

@LukeSz

INTELLIGENT SEO STRATEGYAGENDA

1. Keyword research

2. Keyword research - Visualisation

3. Keyword research - Fine tuning

4. Keyword mapping

5. Content gap analysis

6. Optimisation of existing content

7. Technical audit

8. Measurement and Rankings

9. Recommended Tools

@LukeSz

1. KEYWORD RESEARCH• The aim of the keyword research is to gain a solid understand of how

people search for your products, services, brand etc.

• The most fundamental step of SEO and it’s often ignored.

• Create a keyword research brief with all the information you know about your services, products, positioning, target market, audience and competitors.

• Study your website and your competitor websites - first make a list of all pages on paper, then in a spreadsheet start collecting keyword ideas, brainstorm ideas - there is no right or wrong at this stage.

• Sources of information: own website, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, Google AdWords, imagination and common sense.

@LukeSz

2. VISUALISE YOUR RESEARCH

• Create a mind map to visualise your research, it helps to clearly see the content groups (AKA content hubs) that are important.

• Take potential traffic estimates from AdWords - your research will be more powerful if you can quantify the impact.

• Start with your dream target search phrase and put it in the middle. • The branches of your mind map should be connected and organised into

logical groups. Use common sense and avoid overthinking. @LukeSz

3. KEYWORD RESEARCHFINE TUNING

• Take another look at your keyword research and run some searches on Google (or Google AdPreview to learn about visibility in your target locations). Add missing keywords.

• Study your competitors and see if you have most of the keyword stems covered.

• Think about the user intent for each search phrase (e.g. buy/lead/research), feel free to add the intent information to your data.

• Cross reference your research with the keyword research brief.@LukeSz

4. KEYWORD MAPPING• The aim is to select and decide on the primary & secondary target search phrases for

each page.

• Only one primary keyword per page and between up to two secondary keywords. If you have more you risk loosing focus and your pages will have less chances to rank for the target phrase.

• Use a spreadsheet, this will form your on-site optimisation plan. Start with the most important existing content.

• Keyword mapping will keep you laser focused on your SEO goals. It is a great tool to collaborate with your content editors.

• Keywords should be challenging and the primary keyword for the home page represents your number one dream search phrase - the one you put in the middle of your mind map.

@LukeSzADVANCED STEP - take AdWords data to calculate traffic figures for each

URL i.e. start with a certain CTR for Page1.

5. CONTENT GAP ANALYSIS• You understand that one page (i.e. URL / web address) can normally

rank well for only a couple of generic search phrases. Therefore you probably end up with more target keywords than pages on your site.

• It’s time to identify new content that should be created to target search phrases that don’t match your existing content.

• Use the same Keyword Mapping template and this will be your Content Development Plan or as some people call it Content Strategy.

@LukeSz

6. OPTIMISATION OF EXISTING CONTENT

• At this stage it’s important that you understand the importance of basic on-site optimisation (i.e. Title, Meta description, Headings, Content, Internal linking). If you do then you can proceed to content optimisation. It’s the time to improve / reposition you website content based on the keyword mapping table you prepared earlier.

• Start with your most important content. Go through each page and write page titles, meta description, headings and optimise the on-page text. I’m assuming you know the SEO rules for each of these elements.

• Don’t worry if not all of the pages are perfectly optimised from day one, concentrate on the home page and your most important pages.

• The combination of primary keyword and secondary keywords help you when deciding on the link (i.e. anchor) text for internal and external linking.

• Ruthless consistency - is more important than depth of the optimisation, therefore implement the keyword mapping consistently across the entire site.

@LukeSz

7. TECHNICAL AUDIT• Make sure your website is in Google’s index (type in site:www.example.com to see

the list of pages indexed). If your website isn’t indexed or the number of indexed pages is significantly lower than the number of actual pages on your site that would indicate indexation issues. For new sites make sure it complies with the best practice from Google (see link below).

• For smaller sites you can avoid investing too much time in the technical part of SEO. Fixing technical issues won’t get you anywhere if your content isn’t optimised.

• If you have a complex website (e.g. large content site with multiple sub-domains, languages) I strongly recommend conducting a technical audit.

• For more information Read Webmaster Guidelines https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en

@LukeSz

8. MEASUREMENT AND RANKINGS

• Once you have optimised your content it’s time to measure progress in Google Webmaster Tools. You should see some movement in your average rankings a few days after you made content changes.

• Primary and secondary keywords should start appearing/improving in the reports. At first your pages will see impressions, and then you will start receiving clicks.

• If your website rankings are still low - try adding more content in the areas that are underperforming. Don’t forget to update your keyword strategy when creating new pages.

• Focus on the areas that are important to your business by increasing the depth of the optimisation, adding new content to the most important content hubs.

@LukeSz

9. RECOMMENDED TOOLS• Google Webmaster Tools - https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

• Keyword Tool - http://keywordtool.io/

• Mergewords - http://mergewords.com/

• AdWords - I’ve always recommended running a trial AdWords campaign to learn about searcher behaviour, discover new keywords using Search Query Report and test keywords before you include them in your organic search strategy.

@LukeSz

WHAT ABOUT LINK BUILDING?

• If you have an established website you should see some improvement in your rankings without any additional link building activity. I recommend link building in three cases: 1) Brand new websites2) You did everything described earlier and the rankings are still too low3) You are impatient and you want to see the results quicker

• Think about link building only if you are confident that you won’t achieve your goals by the means of on-page optimisation.

@LukeSz

FINAL NOTES

• In this high-level presentation I didn’t cover areas such as internal & external linking, template optimisation and many more other important parts of SEO.

• I hope you found my approach useful and I’m interested in your feedback - Please connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

@LukeSz