SEO is the process of optimizing a website to increase its visibility in search engine results. The document provides an overview of on-site SEO techniques including keywords, website architecture, metadata, headers, content, structured data, sitemaps and speed. It also discusses off-site SEO such as link building, becoming an authority site, creating linkable assets, outreach and prospecting. The goal is to understand keywords, fine-tune the website for search engines and users, create engaging content, attract links, and promote content.

1. SEO: A Beginners Guide
The University of Nottingham
#Ingenuity16
17th March 2016

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Adam Vowles
Head of SEO
SUSO Digital
Susodigital.com
Adamvowles.co.uk
@atvowles

3. What is SEO?

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What is SEO?

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What is SEO?

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What is SEO?

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SEO is HARD

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Example Website
https://www.lianmask.co.uk/

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ON SITE SEO
(Technical)
OFF SITE SEO
(Creative)
What is SEO?
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10. Collecting Data

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Keyword Tracking
Serp Lab
Cost: FREE
https://www.serplab.co.uk/
Wincher
Cost: FREE
https://www.wincher.com/

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Google Analytics
https://analytics.google.com

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Google Search Console
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

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Brand Mentions
Google Alerts
• Free
• https://www.google.com/alerts
Talk Walker
• Free
• http://www.talkwalker.com/alerts

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Brand Mentions
Brand Terms:
• https://www.lianmask.co.uk/
• www.lianmask.co.uk
• lianmask.co.uk
• lianmask
• Lian mask
Keywords:
• serum mask
• Innisfree
• Mediheal
• Face mask
• facemask

16. On Site SEO

17. Keywords

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Keywords are the
foundation of online
marketing

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Long Tail Keywords
• Three and four
keyword phrases
• Very specific
• Further along the
Buying process

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How Do I Find Keywords?

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SEMRush
https://www.semrush.com/

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Auto Complete

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Related Searches

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UberSuggest
https://ubersuggest.io/
• Keyword: “skincare”
• Results: 250 keywords

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Google Keyword Planner
https://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlanner

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Google Trends
https://www.google.co.uk/trends/

27. Architecture

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Website Architecture
Creating a search friendly website that can easily be indexed
and crawled.
Best site architecture is flat, clean and simple with all pages
organised in a logical order.

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Website Architecture
Craft clean and descriptive URL structure:
Homepage: http://ao.com/
Main Category Pages: http://ao.com/fridges-freezers/
Sub Category Pages: http://ao.com/fridge-freezers/fridge-
freezers.aspx

30. Meta Data

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Meta Tags

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Meta Tags

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Meta Tag Audits
Screaming Frog
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
Crawl Up To 500 URLs For Free

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Meta Tag Audits
Screaming Frog
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
Crawl Up To 500 URLs For Free

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16 Title Tags over 65 characters
Lianmask.co.uk Analysis

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40 below 30 characters
Lianmask.co.uk Analysis

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Need to include page keyword
Lianmask.co.uk Analysis

38. Header Tags

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Header Tags

40. Content

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Love Fresh
Unique Text
Content
Hate Thin,
Copied or
Duplicated
Content

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Website Content
With all other
things being
equal pages
with more in
depth content
ranks better.

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No Content on homepage
Lianmask.co.uk Analysis
No Content on category pages
30 – 50 words on product pages
192 words on blog posts

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Check what is indexed

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Website Content
 Run a site search to see how many pages are indexed
 Compare to how many pages are on your site

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Website Content
 Home page should appear as the first result

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Website Content
• Foreign Language page indexed in UK search results
• Use HREF LANG to specify language and location based pages.

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Website Content
• www. HTTPS confliction
• Redirects needed

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Website Content
• Admin and search pages should not be indexed

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Website Content
• Dynamic URLs Indexed

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Site Liner
http://www.siteliner.com

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Copy Scape
http://www.copyscape.com/

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Fixing Duplicate Content
• Rewriting the content
• Canonical Tag
• NOINDEX Tag
• Redirects
• Robots.txt
• Use Plugins (Yoast WordPress Plugin)

54. Structured Data

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Structured Data

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Structured Data Testing Tool
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

57. Sitemaps

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Sitemap.xml
 A sitemap is a list of url’s contained on your site and can be used
to tell search engines about the contents of your site.
 Your CMS may auto generate your xml sitemap for your site.
 Visit http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

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Sitemap.xml

60. Speed

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Website Speed
Having a fast site is vital for both usability and search
rankings.
Site speed has become an increasingly important ranking
factor.
Google measures time to first byte (TTFB) as a ranking factor.
Ideally all your pages should load within 1 second.

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Gtmetrix
https://gtmetrix.com
Aim for 85%. Use CMS plugins to improve your score

63. Off Site SEO

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Creativity

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Link Building
A link is a vote
Not all links are equal
Why would someone link to you?
Metrics to measure links
See http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

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Majestic.com
Majestic Trusty Flow 15+
Trust Flow and Citation Flow as close as possible
Ratio should not be higher than 1.4

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Ahrefs.com

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Provide VALUE

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Become a AUTHORITY

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Linkable Assets
Evergreen content
Topical Content
Top of the funnel content
Buying Guides
Industry Resources
Research
Articles
Guides
Infographics
Videos
Slideshows
eBooks
White papers/case studies
Industry surveys
Free apps/tools

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BuzzSumo

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Solve Problems
Forums
Yahoo Answers
Quora
How To’s
Site Search
Customer Questions
Social Media
Competitor Analysis

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If we build it they will come
(well NO)

74. Prospecting

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Google Search
Google Search
Keyword/Keyphrase + “become a contributor”
industryName + intitle:interview –job
Keyword/Keyphrase + ”top resources”
http://firecask.com/resources/search-operators-guide/

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The Press
Create a database of journalists
HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
• http://www.helpareporter.com/
Source Bottle
• http://www.sourcebottle.com/
Press Quest
• https://www.journalism.co.uk/get-enquiries-from-
journalists/s235/
#JournoRequest
#PRrequest

77. Outreach

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Link Outreach
Keep a spreadsheet of your progress
Engaging subject lines are vital
Short emails work well
Follow up if you do not hear anything
Use Social Media

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SEO Summary
Understand the keywords your customers use
Never under estimate the importance of on site SEO
Fine tune your website for search engines and users
Create engaging content that users love
Create content designed to attract links
Tell people about it

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Thank You
Slide deck can be downloaded here:
Any Questions?