SEO training workshop 2013 update

Consultant/Director – ThinkSearch

Account Director – Bloom Social Business

Search Specialist – Fortune Cookie

Operations & Account Director – No Pork Pies

Director of Strategy – Cubeworks

Director of Strategy & Communications – Fresh Egg

Social Media Analyst – iCrossing

Knowledge Manager – iCrossing

Account Director – Spannerworks

Web Designer - Spannerworks

Bar Manager – Browns Restaurant

Training: Econsultancy, Turner Media, Virgin Atlantic, Admiral, BAA, Lands End, Mars Drinks, Escape Studios

Clients: HBOS, GCAP, P&O, Sanctuary Spa, iwantoneofthose.com, Just Eat, Liberty of London

Knowledge Management: Social Intranet, workshop programs, lunch ‘n’ learn, PDP, Strategic planning Group

Other: Climbed & summitted Kilimanjaro, have a 7 yr old son and 1 yr old daughter

Interests: Social Media, Home Cinema, Gilles Peterson, Gardening Find me online:

Website: www.thinksearch.co.uk My blog: www.aldissandmore.com

My hobby site: www.loftsites.co.uk On Twitter: www.twitter.com/timaldiss

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/timaldiss Facebook: www.facebook.com/timaldiss

Agenda

•  Introduction to SEO and PPC •  Keyword and Market Research •  Keyword Strategy •  Content Matrix •  Content creation •  Content Optimisation •  Creating Meta Data •  Link Building •  SEO performance Monitoring

Introduction to SEO and PPC

Definitions

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from

search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an advertisement to

visit the advertisers' website. Wikipedia

How Google shows it’s results

9

How Google lists your web pages for SEO:

How Google lists your web pages for Paid:

3

url url url

url url url

url

1 2 Search spiders follow links Software compiles pages Pages stored in database

3 1 2 User searches Algorithm manages auction Results rendered live


10



3

url url url

url url url

url


3 1 2 User searches Algorithm manages auction Results rendered live

User query Documents retrieved

Order by reputation

Display results


11



3

url url url

url url url

url


3 1 2 User searches Algorithm manages auction Results rendered live Ad Rank = Maximum Cost Per Click bid x Quality Score

User query Documents retrieved

Order by reputation

Display results

Benefits of SEO

• Unlimited Traffic

• Targeted visitors

• High converting referrals

• Brand awareness

• Web site exposure

• Fixed limited costs

Benefits of PPC

• Immediate Results

• Highly targeted visitors

• High converting clients

• Brand awareness

• Web site exposure

• Virtually unlimited costs

Inside Google’s Algorithm

2012: 20 updates and counting! Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012 Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012 May 39-Pack — June 7, 2012 Penguin 1.1 — May 25, 2012 Knowledge Graph — May 16, 2012 April 52-Pack — May 4, 2012 Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012 Penguin — April 24, 2012 Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012 Parked Domain Bug — April 16, 2012 March 50-Pack — April 3, 2012 Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012 Search Quality Video — March 12, 2012 Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012 February 40-Pack (2) — February 27, 2012 Venice — February 27, 2012 February 17-Pack — February 3, 2012 Ads Above The Fold — January 19, 2012 Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012 Search + Your World — January 10, 2012

2012: 20 updates and counting! Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012 Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012 May 39-Pack — June 7, 2012 Penguin 1.1 — May 25, 2012 Knowledge Graph — May 16, 2012 April 52-Pack — May 4, 2012 Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012 Penguin — April 24, 2012 Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012 Parked Domain Bug — April 16, 2012 March 50-Pack — April 3, 2012 Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012 Search Quality Video — March 12, 2012 Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012 February 40-Pack (2) — February 27, 2012 Venice — February 27, 2012 February 17-Pack — February 3, 2012 Ads Above The Fold — January 19, 2012 Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012 Search + Your World — January 10, 2012

Panda = content Penguin = links

Behind the scenes at Google (these days)

link

The 2011 Algorithm

What is SEO made up of?

Optimized Titles

Optimized Descriptions

Optimized Linking

Optimized Content

580,000,000 results for

“business knowledge”

•  Web pages must be accessible to the search engine crawlers (spiders) •  Web pages should include unique optimized titles and meta-data •  Content should be optimized to support target keywords and keyword phrases •  Offsite optimization must be used to promote site

How do we increase your visibility?

What is natural search made up of

Page Titles Headings/sub headings Meta Description Meta Keywords Body Content inc. bold text Hyperlinks Image ‘alt text’

Editorial/advertorial content Social Media 3rd Party links

On-site factors

Off-site factors

What is natural search made up of

Page Titles Headings/sub headings Meta Description Meta Keywords Body Content inc. bold text Hyperlinks Image ‘alt text’

Editorial/advertorial content Social Media 3rd Party links

Informa.com - Investor Relations

bringing knowledge to life

Businesses, professionals and academics worldwide turn to Informa for unparalleled knowledge, up-to-the minute information and highly specialist skills and services

none

On-site factors

Off-site factors

Exercise – on page factors

Bold text Image alt tags Meta description

Hyperlinks Body copy Page title

Headings/sub headings Meta keywords

Exercise – on page factors source code

(only seen by search engines)

on page (seen by users and

search engines)

<'tle> Page Title

<meta keywords> Meta Keywords

<meta descrip'on> Meta Descrip'on

<h1> Heading

<body> Body copy

<h2> Sub heading

<b> Bold text

<a href=“link”> Hyperlink

<img alt=“describe”> Image alt text

1st

9th

6th

2nd

3rd

4th

8th

5th

7th

Natural Search best practices

Page Titles What is it? The Page Title, is the title of the web page that appears at the top of a browser window. The Page Title also appears prominently in search results. Why it’s important: Search engines weight the <title> tag heavily. To be effective, page titles must be unique to each page and must contain the most appropriate keywords in relation to the theme of the web page.

Best Practice:

  Limit the page title to 70 characters.   Include brand first and test in association

with targeted key phrases first   Copy should be written with users in mind

(title copy appears in search results)

  This is the main Call-To-Action in a SERP page

  Title should display a compelling marketing message

Headings/Sub headings What is it? The heading is the focus for the page for the eye as well as the search engine. The heading should include obvious descriptive words for the content of the page. If you can’t describe in brief all of the content of the page in the heading consider rewriting, possibly adding an additional page. Why it’s important: Keyword choice, frequency, placement and spacing are all attributes that search algorithms may include in their ranking calculations. Even minor content modifications can have a major impact on keyword rankings. H1 H2 Best Practice:

•  Every page should have one H1 tag

•  Other headings should use H2 or H3 tags

•  Don’t wrap heading tags around links

•  Write copy geared towards users and readability

•  Using relevant keywords and phrases within the page will improve relevancy

•  Do not repeat tags as this will dilute value of your main keywords

H3’s

Body Content What is it? Body content includes the copy, images and other assets

that appear within the HTML <body> tags of a web page. This includes all content visible to a user in the browser window.

Why it’s important: Keyword choice, frequency, placement, and spacing are all

factors that impact on positional rankings. Even minor content modifications can have an impact. Good copy is as important to the effectiveness and credibility of your website as it is to search engines.

Best Practice:


•  Using relevant keywords and phrases within the page will improve relevancy

•  Focus on no more than 3-4 keywords per page

•  Break long paragraphs into shorter, more concise informational blurbs

•  Avoid repeating keywords unnecessarily (keyword stuffing)

•  Aim for 3-6% keyword density e.g. a page of 100 words would have 3 to 6 mentions of a single word or key phrase

•  Headings and links are included within this word count, but linking words or phrases optimises the destination page not the page where the link sits

•  Use derivatives and definitions of terms e.g. carbon offset/green, car/motor

•  200 words is optimal

Hyperlinks What is it? Hyperlinks describe the content of the page that the link points to. Including the correct text in the hyperlink can benefit the visibility of the page that you are linking to. Why it’s important: Search engines weight hyperlnks. To be effective the link should not be a non-specific ‘click to read more’ but rather a phrase indicative of what the user should expect on the linked to page.

Best Practice:

•  Not too many links between one page and others


•  Use text descriptive of the page linked to

•  Use contextual links to relevant internal content

•  Using relevant keywords and phrases within the page will improve relevancy of the linked to page

•  Focus on one keyword

•  Keep the link concise

•  Example: “get an instant home insurance quote”

Meta Descriptions What is it? The Meta Description is an HTML tag used to describe a page to users and search engines.

Why it’s important: The Meta Description tag is evaluated by search engines to determine relevancy. Additionally, the Meta Description is commonly included in search engine results.

Best Practice:

  Limit descriptions to 156 characters

  Include all targeted key phrases

  Copy should be written with users in mind (description copy appears in search results)

  Create a unique meta description for every page

  Should describe overall theme of the page and entice users to click-through

<meta name="description" content="Businesses, professionals and academics worldwide turn to Informa for unparalleled knowledge, up-to-the minute information and highly specialist skills and services" />

Image alt. text What is it? The ‘alternative text’ option that is used by screen reader software for the short sighted is also read by search engines. Image alt.text plays a big part in image search results.

Why it’s important: Adhere to the Disabilities and Discriminations Act (DDA) and is W3C recommended.

Best Practice:

•  Describe the banner by using keywords related to the page that the banner is placed on

•  Use descriptive image names if possible

•  Use captions around the image to aid relevancy

Paid Search best practices

What is Paid Search Advertising?

•  Paid Search or “Pay Per Click (PPC)” Advertising model in which advertisers pay search engines to display text, image and video ads on their website. Ads are served based on keywords or phrases.

•  There are many search engines and companies that provide this form of advertising model:

Budget What is it?

Having enough budget is a crucial factor for running an effective campaign. Planning is critical to achieving targets. Knowing how much you have to spend will help you determine CPC, CPA & ROI and forecast effectively.

Why is it important? It can be easy to waste money by not considering keywords, copy & landing pages in addition to budget planning. A campaign can be ineffective without enough budget e.g. Not enough visibility and therefore less traffic.

Ultimately a tipping point will be reached when spending more will have no further benefit, this is managed by implementing a test and learn strategy based on spend

Caps are put in place to control spend and ensure optimum visibility these can be daily/weekly etc

Budgets need to be split between Search Engines in order to gain maximum reach or users

Best Practices

•  Budgets can be reapportioned seasonally e.g. tax year end and tactically e.g. to integrate with other media

•  Review budgets on a regular basis (not annually), best practice is setting a month budget as this can be adjusted to reflect the current market

Keywords What is it?

PPC is an auction-based environment is open for all. Auctions are based on keywords or sets of keywords – called campaigns or Ad Groups.

Why is it important?

While it’s important to cover both branded and generic keywords there are cost and complexity implications. Generic terms will cost more but will also drive more traffic; Branded keywords will convert better. It’s better to have a separate advert for each keyword group

Best Practices

•  Monitor brand keyword bidding by competitors to ensure relevancy and coverage

•  Group keywords together to form ad groups

•  Use negative keywords to filter unwanted impressions e.g. ‘private Ryan’

•  Test competitive keywords on broad, phrase & exact match

•  Continually revise keywords

Halifax Savings Accounts Pick Your Perfect Savings Account With The UK’s No 1 For Savings Halifax.co.uk/Savings

Halifax Savings Accounts Pick Your Perfect Savings Account With The UK’s No 1 For Savings

Copy What is it?

Copy is the call to action, short and concise and designed to induce the user to click through. The copy is most likely to work well when it, promote offers, deal & rates, and be written as clearly as possible.

Why is it important? Poorly written copy will deter possible customers, reduce click through rates and therefore conversions. The message must be relevant to the page and product linked to.

Best Practices

•  Use the brand in the heading Be cconcise

•  Make the message action orientated

•  Describe the product or service

•  Test different creative

•  Optimise creative

Additional Practices

•  Dynamic keyword insertion - Keyword appears in ad title and makes ad appear more relevant

•  Test various different call to actions



Title •  25 characters including spaces •  The actual search query can be used as the header

(called dynamic keyword insertion) to increase relevancy and click-through rate for the ad

Copy What is it?



Best Practices











Description line 1 & 2 •  Character limits apply but vary from engine to engine.

(Google = 2 lines, both 35 characters. Yahoo & Bing= 1 line, 70 characters)

•  Start the sentence with a verb to call out the call-to-action

Copy What is it?



Best Practices











Display URL •  Use an URL that tells users who you are •  Has to be the actual domain for the landing

page

Copy What is it?



Best Practices









Landing Page What is it? The landing page is the entry point for new customers; it has to respond to the user query; has to be easy to use and well laid out; must not impede the user journey or disrupt the user experience. Why is it important? Search engine algorithms evaluate the landing page to calculate Quality Score, which can impact on cost and ranking position.

Best Practices

•  Target adverts to specific keyword/product

•  Send to a relevant landing page and keywords are relevant to the search query

How natural and paid search work together

Consumer behaviour Eye Scan Study:

Marketing Sherpa and Eve-tools performed a study to understand how searchers interact with search results

According to the study, the majority of attention is given to the first 5 listings on the top left

Lower positioned paid results on page one can also receive significant traffic on high impression keywords

Source:

MarketingSherpa and Eyetools Link Study, August 2005

Enquiro Search Engine Results : 2010 white paper August 2007

Eye Scan Study:

Marketing Sherpa and Eve-tools performed a study to understand how searchers interact with search results

According to the study, the majority of attention is given to the first 5 listings on the top left

Lower positioned paid results on page one can also receive significant traffic on high impression keywords

Source:

MarketingSherpa and Eyetools Link Study, August 2005

Enquiro Search Engine Results : 2010 white paper August 2007

Consumer behaviour

How paid and natural search work well together Google has commissioned a number of studies in partnership with Enquiro (a market research company) that shows brand recall and purchase consideration is greater when appearing in the top paid and natural search results for generic queries. It is not surprising that recall is higher, when the brand displayed twice upon the page.

In the right hand graph, Google study shows that for a branded query purchase consideration increases by 7% if you appear in both paid and natural.

Non brand searches Brand searches

Paid & Natural integration

paid search

natural search

number of words in search query

How to save money by integrating paid and natural search tactics

1.  Analytics - Use the click stream data from Assisted Conversions to make sure all terms are on exact match and thus lower CPC. Use Site Intelligence data to refine mis-spells and lower CPC

2.  Search Terms - Test a broad range of search terms in Paid Search and incorporate the good converters into Natural Search

3.  Creative message – Test different creative in Paid Search and deploy the most successful and relevant as the meta description of the appropriate page for natural search

4.  Quality Score – improve bid prices and positional visibility by optimising your landing pages to make them more relevant and conversion indusive

5.  Budget - Priorities Natural Search strategies for certain search terms, to offset costs in competitive Paid Search markets. Alternatively, we can reinforce brand messages across both channels, or improve visibility in ‘hard to reach’ natural markets with tactical paid search activity

Processes

SEO Processes •  SEO Audit •  Technical consultancy

•  Search Term Research •  Forecast •  Page Allocation

•  Meta Data Inventory •  Content Strategy •  Site-wide Optimisation

•  Initial submissions •  Link building •  Reporting

SEO Auditing

•  SEO Audit •  Technical consultancy




SEO Audit > Process Public access:

•  Xenu Link Sleuth – broken links

•  Screaming Frog – titles and meta’s

•  SEO for Firefox SEO Book browser plug in

•  Google Chrome – SEO Site Tools & SEO for Chrome

Paid for public access:

•  SEO Moz Open Site Explorer – back link profile

•  Majestic SEO – back link profile

•  Distilled, Raven Tools, Linkdex, Etc, etc

Access-based:

•  Google Webmaster Tools – keywords, positions & links

•  Pages indexed by your Sitemap –  Pages indexed in Yahoo –  Pages indexed in Bing –  Pages crawled in Google

•  Page load time (ms) •  Robots.txt •  Custom 404 page •  Information architecture

–  URL Structure –  HTML sitemap –  XML sitemap –  Video Sitemap

•  Duplicate content –  Canonical Linking –  Deleting old pages –  301 redirect

•  302 Redirects •  IP location – DNS server

–  GEO location –  Shared server

•  Page layout •  Main Navigation •  Footer links •  Main Menu layout •  Redundant links •  Outbound links

•  Image Optimisation •  Alt Tags •  Text in Images

•  General house keeping •  Frames •  Content inside unreadable web applications

•  Multiple Domains •  Sub Domains •  International Domains •  SEO Domains •  Old Domains

•  Duplicate Content? •  Cross linking?

•  Check source code for: •  W3C compliance •  heavy amounts of code •  Multiple H1 tags or lack of H1’s

•  Install Webmaster tools for; Google, Yahoo, Alexa and Bing.

SEO Audit > Technical Optimisation

Redirects Factor: Redirection facilitates movement of a visitor from one page or website to another. Redirects are often used in conjunction with domain name changes, moving or removing content, introducing new content, or directing users based on profiling. Redirects can happen at the web server (301, 302 Redirects) or at the page-level (Meta-Refresh)

Implications: The nature of a redirect communicates important information to a search engine. 302 redirects also indicate to the search engines that the content is temporary and will be changed in the near future. Popularity attained by the previous site or page may not be passed on to the new site.

Best practice/Action required: Server-side redirects are recommended in nearly all cases. 301 Permanent Redirects should be used when the change is long-term or permanent, which allows pagerank and link popularity to transfer.

Alternative practices: NA

Javascript Navigation Factor: Navigational elements are executed using Javascript technology.

Implications: Search engine spiders are unable to follow Javascript navigation and are therefore unable to find pages accessible only through Javascript. Additionally, human visitors without Javascript-enabled browsers will not be able to navigate the site

Best Practices/Action Required: Use CSS or HTML based navigation.

Alternative practices: Supplement Javascript navigation with on-page HTML-based navigation located in the page footer. Include a HTML link to a sitemap with static links to key pages within the website.

Naviga&on is removed with Javascript disabled.

Websites in Flash Factor: Valuable website content is implemented using Flash technology. For reference, see plugintomarriott.com

Implications: Search engine spiders cannot read content or follow links implemented in Flash.

Best Practices/Action Required: - Implement a static HTML, low-bandwidth version of the website that mirrors the content within your Flash files

- Implement user-agent detection to deliver the HTML site to spiders and the Flash version to human visitors.

Alternative Practices: Break up the Flash movies into smaller components and lay the SWF files into optimized, linked HTML pages with unique URL’s Disclaimer: Google is able to index flash sites. HTML content is still a preferred method of crawlable content for any bot. Please see iCrossing’s POV on Flash crawlability (http://greatfinds.icrossing.com/?p=374).

Content Produced in AJAX Factor: AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique used to load content from a server without changing pages. AJAX relies heavily on JavaScript to display and swap content.

Implications: Search engine spiders generally cannot read AJAX content.

Best Practices/Action Required: Use AJAX selectively, primarily for supplemental content associated with low search volumes.

Alternative Practices: Create a static, spider friendly version of your site that includes content from within your Javascript

Robots.txt Files Factor:

A robots.txt file is a human configured file that resides in the web server’s root directory and contains directional information for search engine spiders.

Implications:

Many search engines, including Google, will refer to the robots.txt file to understand which directories or files to exclude from crawling.

Best Practices/Action Required:

All web servers should include a robots.txt file configured to exclude non-relevant folders and files, such as support files, CSS files, sensitive information.

Validate each robots.txt file using analysis tool available in Google Sitemaps, or contact iCrossing for assistance.

Alternative Practices:

NA

Insert client or domain specific

example

Cloaking Factor: Presenting one version of web content to human users and a different version to search engines is known as cloaking. This process commonly occurs through IP detection or user-agent detection.

Implications: Search engines are continually improving their ability to identify cloaking and often harshly penalize offenders, including banning the domain from their index.

Best Practices/Action Required: Cloaking is a practice that should never be used.

Alternative Practices: NA

URL Structure (session IDs) Factor:

A web server assigns a unique session ID variable within the URL for each visit for tracking purposes.

Implications:

Search engine spiders revisiting a URL will be assigned a different session ID each visit, which will result in each visit to a page appearing as a unique URL and causing indexing inconsistencies, and possibly duplicate content penalties.

Best practice/Action required:

Implement user-agent detection to remove the session ID’s for search engine visits.


NA


example

URL Structure (folder structure) Factor:

Valuable content associated with highly competitive keywords is organized many folders deep within a web site.

Implications:

Search engines generally associate the importance (read: relevancy) of content based on its placement within a site hierarchy, so that less importance/relevancy is associated with content deep within a folder structure.


Web sites should be as flat as possible, with content relating to highly competitive keywords implemented on pages high on the hierarchy.


Implement a URL rewrite on the server to flatten the folder structure to visitors and search engines.

URL Structure (name value pairs) Factor: Name-value pairs are used within URL’s to provide information necessary to produce dynamic content. Name-value pairs generally follow the “?” symbol in the URL.

Implications: The primary challenge with name-value pairs is that they create lengthy URL’s and therefore risk scrutiny by search engines. Additionally, name-value pairs often do not contain valuable keywords, thereby reducing relevancy.

Best practice/Action required: Rewrite dynamic URLs on the server with mod_rewrite or similar program. This will shorten and simplify the URL and allow valuable keywords to be used in the URL.

Alternative practices: Use valuable keywords in the name-value pairs whenever possible and keep the quantity of pairs to no more than three.

http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/application/prodDisplay/?

namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=8U-220418&page=1&cgnam

e=OSSHUDSSZZZ&rfnbr=4782

Canonicalization Issues Factor:

Canonicalization is the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices, usually referring to the homepage of a website.

Implications:

Search Engines may not pick the client-preferred URL, rather the one they determine to be most relevant.


There are a few ways to ensure that the proper URL is indexed:

  Consistent linking:

•  When linking to www.bankofamerica.com on other pages within the site, always use this method

•  When requesting links from other sites, always point to www.domain.com if using this method from the example above

  Use 301 Permanent redirects on the web server

•  Redirect the non-www homepage to the www version of the homepage

Alternative practices:

NA


example

Viewed as the same by most search engines:

http://www.bankofamerica.com http://www.bankofamerica.com/index.cfm

Duplicate Content Factor:

Duplicate content exists when two or more pages within a website, or on different domains, share identical content. Different domain names do not create distinct content.

Implications:

Major search engines consider duplicate content to be spam and are continually improving their spam filtering process to penalize and remove offenders.


Avoid duplicate content issues by using unique copy and other content on each page of a website, to include streamlining the content management system to associate the correct content with the intended domain.


NA


example

Internal Link Optimization Factor:

Internal linking between pages within a web site, such as navigational elements or a site map, plays an important role in how search engines perceive the relevancy and theme of both web pages.

Implications:

Proper intra-site linking will help facilitate effective spidering, in addition to increasing relevancy of pages and keywords used in the anchor text.


  Use static, crawlable text links

  Optimized anchor text should be used

  Keep the number of links on a sitemap to less than 100

  Sitemaps should be linked directly from homepage and other major pages throughout the web site

  Use only core, 200-level URLs.


Refrain from using images, Flash, or non-static text when possible for linking

Splash Pages Factor: A splash page can consist of either a large graphic image or a Flash animation and serves as the primary user entry point to a website by using the root domain name as its URL.

Implications: Generally, splash pages replace the true home page in a search engine index and are detrimental to SEO practices. Splash page can also prevent spiders from accessing the inner pages of the site, resulting in inner pages not getting indexed and ranked. Additionally, the temporary nature of splash pages creates a challenge for linking and relevancy purposes.

Best Practices/Action required: Do not use splash pages.

Alternative practices: For promotional or attention-getting content, use a popup window on the home page or unique pages prominently linked from the home page.

Home Page: www.saturn.com/saturn/Saturnindex.jsp

Document Accessibility Factor: Pages or content that is moved, removed, or changed can result in errors, such as a 404 Page Not Found.

Implications: Missing content and broken links signal to search engines that the website is not properly maintained. The effect is reduced rankings and also user frustration when bad links are followed

Best practice/Action required: - Repair all broken links as soon as possible - Use 301 Permanent redirects to direct users and search engine spiders to the new location, as applicable - Implement custom 404 page on the website with helpful navigation for users. - Keep 301 redirects in place for 60-90 days before removing from the site

Alternative practices: n/a

Excessive On-page Scripting Factor: Search engine spiders index a limited amount of web page code, approximately 100K, when crawling or spidering a web page.

Implications: Excessive use of on-page scripting or CSS, especially at the top of a web page, limits the amount of content search engines will see.

Best Practices/Action Required: Place any Javascript code and CSS that is longer than three lines into an external .js or .css file. Use an external file increases flexibility of code and easy way to update for maintenance.

Alternative practices: Move on-page scripting to the bottom of the page.

SEO Moz Introduction to SEO

link





Search Term Research

Domain Level Keyword Usage

Search Term Research > 5 Essential Questions

•  What are your root keywords? •  What are people actually searching for? •  What is the size of your search market? •  How competitive is each keyword? •  What is the potential ROI for each keyword?

Search Term Research > Process 1.  Open the Search Term Research Template file and save a client version 2.  Conduct a Google keyword tool site scrape 3.  Review site for current tags and copy for initial search term list 4.  Add in Google Webmaster Tools data 5.  Conduct competitor research based on list from client 6.  Conduct desk research on core products to expand list 7.  Add in best performing search terms from analytics (traffic & conversions) 8.  Discard terms that are ranking well but not converting 9.  Add in any suggested search terms from the client 10.  Add in best performing search terms from PPC data 11.  Conduct a synonym search using thesaurus.com 12.  Add in related search term results from a Google search 13.  Use Google Insights to add in high breakout and rising terms (UK, last 2 years... see link). Export CSV and paste line charts in to main report for each

search term 14.  Run list through the Google keyword tool using UK exact match to expand the list, retrieve CSV, keep search volume and competition data 15.  Use Google Traffic Estimator if you need to to generate figures for the whole list as you can paste in more than 100 terms and it still gives you

seasonality data. 16.  Run a ranking report in Trackpal to check current visibility 17.  Compile all data into spreadsheet and look for terms that meet the following criteria:

1.  Have high traffic volume but aren't overly competitive 2.  Have visibility but could rank higher 3.  Are delivering traffic or conversions but could rank higher 4.  Are not already ranking highly and are delivering no conversions

Forecasting





What is Forecasting?

•  Predicting the anticipated additional revenue from Search Engine Optimisation

How? •  By applying logic and experience to the current competitive landscape to

determine where positional improvements will take us onto page one •  Apply accepted industry click through rates •  Apply typical on-site conversion rates •  Apply typical conversion value or profit

Forecasting – how?

Forecasting – Click Through Rates





Page Allocation

What is Page Allocation?

•  It’s a form of Gap Analysis •  It targets search terms to their logical destination

/desired ranking page •  It identifies requirements for additional pages •  It pairs down search terms •  It benchmarks which pages are currently ranking

and identifies those that should rank

Page Allocation





Meta Data Inventory

What is Meta Data Inventory?

•  A list of optimised page titles and meta descriptions by page for easy implementation via the website Content Management System

Meta Data Inventory





Content Strategy

What is Content Strategy?

•  A written plan for winning at SEO by deploying great content

Includes: •  Rationale •  Competitor review •  Formats •  Distribution •  Scheduling

Exercise

Exercise - build your own page

Set up your own page based on these keywords:

-  ‘holidays’

-  ‘villa holidays’

-  ‘villa holidays in Tuscany’

Your page in it’s hierarchical context

Home

Category Category

Sub category

Sub category

Sub-‐sub Sub-‐sub

Product

Holidays

Category Holidays in Europe

Sub category Holidays in Spain

Sub-‐sub Holidays in Majorca

Villa Holidays in Santa Pollensa

Page Rank

Page Rank

Theme

Theme

What is a Content Brief?

•  A clear instructional document for copy writers.

•  Contains:

–  General SEO content writing guidelines

–  Instructions for writing new pages for the site

–  Instructions for writing extra content for existing pages

–  Detailed ideas of content and page sturcture





Site-wide Optimisation

What is a Technical Brief?

•  A clear instructional document for the technical team.

•  Contains:

–  Detailed instructions for fixing or adding elements to the website required for search engines to easily crawl the site.

Optimisation Guidelines





Initial submissions

Are directories worthwhile?

•  Review current back link profile •  Review competitor back link profile •  Study latest guides (published by resources like SEOMoz)

•  Look for verticals •  Assess cost vs impact against other tactics





Link Building

What is Link building

•  Web site and web page popularity •  Quality relevant websites •  Relevant anchor text

Domain Level Link Authority Features — Correlated Data

Page Level Link Authority

Safe link building techniques •  Partner links and client links •  Reputable Directories – DMOZ, Yahoo, AOL, Etc. •  Social Bookmarking and Social network tags •  Local directories, Classified ads, Craigslist, Gumtree, Etc. •  Affiliate programs •  Yahoo answers/Quora/other Q&A sites •  Wikipedia •  LinkedIn •  Leave reviews on review sites •  Create an authority blog

Safe link building techniques

Techniques to avoid •  Building links too fast •  Linking to banned or untrustworthy websites •  Link exchanges •  Using the wrong anchor text in links •  Article Spinning •  Using “Independent back link networks” •  Site scraping and content repackaging •  Phishing •  Forum Spam •  Blog Spam

Social Media

•  Focus on creating content that gets shared •  Don’t waste your time building social media profiles if it’s not a great fit •  If you do do it keep it fun, but don’t do marketing here •  Making it as easy to share content as possible is key •  Audit your content and see what gets shared most and when





Reporting

5 Things Website Owners would love to know

•  Is it working? •  Is SEO really making a difference? •  How many sales are we getting? •  How much traffic are we getting? •  Where are we ranked per keyword?

That’s all folks… …over to you!

Make it Happen SEO Reporting doesn’t happen by accident.

1.  Choose your keywords 2.  Set your targets 3.  Keep going until you succeed. 4.  Then make your listings BETTER.

What have we learned?

1. Nail those on-page factors at template level to force best practice...What were they?

2. Google’s algo is heavily link based so spend a proportionate amount of time here... What %?

3. Focus on a mix of keywords (+ve & -ve), creative, and budget to make PPC work and provide data for SEO strategy

4. Research keywords with a pinch of salt but fine tune based on analytics

5. Optimise content but write for the user first – don’t over optimise

6. Meta descriptions are important but aren’t a ranking factor

7. Resolving technical issues is a big part of the battle

8. Benchmark your keyword rankings and focus on improving them

9. Monitor analytics to make sure your assumptions are correct

Tim Aldiss Consultant/Director ThinkSearch [email protected]

www.thinksearch.co.uk

Thank you

SEO training workshop 2013 update

Technology

Transcript of SEO training workshop 2013 update