Introduction to SEO

Search Engine Optimisation
A quick & dirty intro guide to playing tag with search engines
Barry Adams
Senior Digital Marketer for Search
Pierce Communications

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Barry Adams credentials
Who is this guy and why is he teaching SEO?
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)

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Agenda
What is SEO?
1
2
Why is SEO important?
How do you do SEO?
3

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What is SEO?
1

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Search Engine Optimisation
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.
Definition of SEO

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2
Why is SEO important?

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Search Engines

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UK Search Engine Market Shares
SE Market Share 2010
Google 92.03%
Bing 3.17%
Yahoo! 2.95%
AOL 0.91%
Ask 0.85%
Other 0.09%.

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Some Relevant Statistics
Worldwide Internet Usage
2 billion users online
Dec 2009: 131 billion searches (that’s more than 49,000 searches/second)
UK Internet Usage
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
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

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Google

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Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

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Organic (natural) Results

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Paid Advertising (PPC: Google Adwords)

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Google Instant & Google Suggest

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Verticals & Search Refinements

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Universal Search

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News Results

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Image Results

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Video Results

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Local Results (Google Maps)

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How do you do SEO?
3

Generic SEO Tools
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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/

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SEO is about two things:
Keywords
Links
Keywords match a search query to a webpage.
Links determine which webpage ranks highest.

The SEO process
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KeywordResearch
Find the right keywords to optimise for
On-Page Optimisation
Implement those keywords on the website
Make the website search-engine friendly
Linkbuilding
Build links to the website to increase its authority

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KeywordResearch
Find the right keywords to optimise for.

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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

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The Long Tail

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Keyword Research Tools
Google Adwords Keyword Tool – http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Advanced options: country & language settings

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Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Match Types: Broad / [Exact] / “Phrase”

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Wordtracker - http://wordtracker.com/

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Google Trends – google.com/trends

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Google Suggest

Keyword Research
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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
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Implement those keywords on the website
Make the website search-engine friendly

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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!

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Elements to be optimised:
Title tag
+
Meta Description tag
+
Headlines and paragraph structure
+
Body text
+
Image alt attribute
+
URLs
+
Internal links
+
Sitemap (HTML and XML)
+

<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)
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Title tag
+

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Headlines and paragraph structure
+
<H1> headline
<H2> subheader
<H3> subheaders
<p> paragraphs
Allows SEs to understand the content and its context

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Body text
+
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
Find the right balance

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?
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Image alt attribute
+
<imgsrc="http://digitalmarketinginstitute.ie/files/2008/11/ireland-map.jpg" alt="Ireland Map with pins">

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
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+
URLs

Link from top to bottom
Link sideways & diagonally
Use keywords in the linkWrong:To read more about wedding rings, click here.Right: Read more about wedding rings.
Use breadcrumb links
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+
Internal links

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+
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!

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Lies, Myths, and Disinformation:
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

On-Page Optimisation Tools
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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

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The SEO process
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Linkbuilding
Build links to the website to increase its authority

Linkbuilding
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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
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How to see if a link is valuable or not?
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

Linkbuilding
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Different types of links:
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!

Linkbuilding
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How to build links?
Directory Submissions
1
Press Releases
2
Article Marketing & Guest Blogging
3
Linkbait
4

How to build links?
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Directory Submissions
1
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

How to build links?
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Press Releases
2
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

How to build links?
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Article Marketing & Guest Blogging
3
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

How to build links?
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Linkbait
4
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

Linkbuilding Tools
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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
See some of the links that Google actually counts

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?
Questions?
?
?
Barry Adams
badams@piercecommunications.co.uk
http://twitter.com/badams

What’s next?
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Reading Material & Advanced SEO

Reading Material
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SEO is not static, so keeping up to date is crucial
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/

Advanced SEO
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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-learning.html

Advanced SEO
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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
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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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Introduction to SEO

by Barry Adams

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