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Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation

● History of search engines

● Evolution of Google search results

● How Google works

● What is SEO?

● Tips to improving your search visibility

○ Google Search Console

○ Analytics

○ Keyword research

○ Technical

○ Content

○ Building Authority

History of search

PageRank represents the likelihood that a person randomly clicking on links will arrive at a particular page.

Minimal interface

Better quality search results

Advertising model

Evolution of Google

BackRub

Advertising

Tidying up

Universal

Local

Rich Snippets

Featured snippets

Advertising

Knowledge Graph

How Google Works

Crawl

Index

Algorithms

Ranking

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is providing the answers

your target users need from their search queries.

Getting started

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site's presence in Google Search results.

● Verify via Domain Name Provider if possible to avoid loss of verification in future

● Set up alerts to your email● Check regularly● Understand the data and how filtering can affect accuracy

Use GWC to understand:● Who is linking to you● What search queries people are using to find you● How Google is crawling and indexing your site

Google Search Console

Analytics

An analytics package will track metrics which allow you to analyse the traffic you receive.

● Google Analytics basic is free and easy to use● Set up goals / conversions● Set up tracking of your internal search● Set up an alert to monitor 404 pages● Keep good annotations of changes, these will save

time later● When analysing, segment by device

Analytics

Keyword Research

Understanding what your users want will help you create the content they need.

● Put yourself in the shoes of the user● Think about how people might search for each topic● Gather evidence about how they actually search● Visit the SERP to see what types of page, content

and site Google is returning● Use Google Trends to understand change in your

market

Keyword research

Technical

The aim of technical SEO is to help robots crawl and understand the meaning of your content.

● Crawl the site to get an overview of how a search engine will crawl your site

● It will also scrape lots of useful information● Are all your pages possible to crawl?● What level are the most important pages?● Is there anything stopping them from being crawled or

indexed?● Using robots.txt and XML Sitemaps?

Technical

Content

SEO content has two main aims - engagement and answering search queries.

● Have a page for each topic● There is no correct number of words or keyword density● The content should quickly answer the user’s query● Is your page better than all competing pages in a search?● Is it high quality and useful?● Does it contain no factual, spelling or grammatical errors?● Is the title enticing and short enough? (approx 55 chars)● Is description enticing and short enough? (approx 160

characters)

Content

Building Authority

Search engine algorithms are still rely heavily on inbound links. To rank well in competitive areas, you need to attract other sites to link to you.

● Content which is informational, interesting and useful attracts most links

● Good aesthetics and user experience also helps● As does being newsworthy or topical● You can tell people about your content via social media

and by forming relationships● Other links come from business partnerships, PR, your

other assets

Building authority

Thank You