This easy to follow presentation walks you step-by-step through the process of creating an effective SEO strategy for your website. Make sure you don't miss important steps or ignore valuable parts of the SEO process, including social media, on-page optimisation and competitor analysis.
I have also included useful resources to help you get the most out of your SEO, including information on Google updates and useful SEO tools.
2. Contents
Why You Need An SEO Strategy
Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid
Understanding Google’s Algorithm Updates
Backlink Analysis
Reconsideration Requests
Backlink Analysis Tools
Competitor Analysis
Content Marketing
Meta
Social Media
Responsive Web Design
Customer Reviews
More Useful SEO Tools
Why Is SEO Long Term?
Contact Me
References & Image Sources
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
3. Why You Need An SEO Strategy
Drive relevant traffic to your site
Increase brand reach
Extend the exposure of your products and services
Rank highly for page one domination: 75% of users
[*1] do not scroll past the first page of Google results
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
4. Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid
SEO is always evolving and
many tactics of the past could
now negatively affect your
site’s search engine rankings.
Here are just a few examples
of what to avoid…
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
5. Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid
Purchasing links
Overusing keywords within your content and link
anchor text. Read my blog post on keyword
optimisation
Spammy, irrelevant or meaningless comments
Low quality and/or thin content
Duplicate content, either on your site or externally.
Learn more about getting rid of duplicate content
Listing on generic link directories
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
6. Understanding Google’s
Algorithm Updates
To tackle these sorts of ‘black hat’ SEO techniques,
Google regularly updates its search engine algorithm
to improve the relevancy and quality of its search
results.
The Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithm
updates are the two most well known and high-
impact updates of recent years…
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
7. Google Panda (2011)
Google devalued websites with thin, low quality
content and a high concentration of on-page
advertising.
The update also targeted sites with duplicate
content issues and other types of spam later that
year.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
8. Google Penguin (2012)
Launched to combat unnatural link profiles.
Penguin penalises sites with links from poor quality
sites that have been set up to manipulate search
rankings rather than benefit users.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
9. A new search algorithm which improved the way
Google understands conversational and long-tail
search queries.
Hummingbird uses aspects of the old search
algorithm which worked well, including the Penguin
and Panda updates, but includes new aspects
Google Hummingbird (2013)
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
10. Backlink Analysis
The process of reviewing websites that are currently
linking to yours and judging them on their quality and
relevance to your business.
Useful for monitoring competitor backlinks and
identifying strong links for your own site.
An essential process if a site has suffered a manual
spam penalty for unnatural links
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
11. Low Quality Links
Low quality links often result in a penalty to your site,
particularly if they don’t comply with Google’s
recent algorithm updates.
When undertaking backlink analysis, watch out for
these low quality links including links that are paid for,
are unrelated or are not from a genuine or reliable
source that points to your site.
Read more about finding and eliminating bad links
here
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
12. Building Good Quality Links
Building a rigid link profile is vital to a successful SEO
campaign and ranking higher in Google’s search
results.
Having high-quality websites linking to you promotes
your site as a solid and reputable source of
information over your competitors.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
13. Building Good Quality Links
High-quality links should:
Be non-reciprocal (not based on an exchange)
Drive relevant referral traffic back to your site
Not necessarily be easy to obtain – links that are
difficult to obtain are normally the most valuable
Come from a site with other good quality links.
Beware that too many links on a page can indicate
suspicious activity to Google
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
14. Reconsideration Requests
To overturn a Google penalty, you need to submit a
successful Reconsideration Request to Google.
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15. Reconsideration Requests
When applying for reconsideration, be sure to make
the strongest case by including:
Steps taken to remove and disavow unnatural links
Any past unethical techniques used to generate
links
Confirmation that you now understand and fully
adhere to Google’s best practice guidelines
Records of any corrections made or issues that need
to be rectified in a spreadsheet sent along with your
request
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
16. Backlink Analysis Tools
There are a large number of powerful Backlink Analysis
Tools available, including:
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
17. Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is a great
tool for compiling details
of a site’s referring
backlinks.
It is particularly useful for
analysing sites to remove,
nofollow or disavow.
Majestic SEO can also be
used to analyse the links
of your competitors.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
18. LinkRisk
LinkRisk is a paid
service that colour
codes and scores
backlinks by their
health and risk.
It helps highlight
particularly unnatural
links in need of
removal.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
19. Competitor Analysis
In order to better understand the
online strategies of your
competitors, analyse the
following activities:
Monitor their social media
presence – do they have an
active following and are they
engaging with their audience?
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
20. Competitor Analysis
Review their backlinks – who is linking to them? Are
there opportunities for you?
Is their content regularly updated and of good
quantity, quality, variety and usability?
Are they effectively targeting keywords using ethical
practices? Or are they still using poor tactics that will
cost them later on?
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
21. Content Marketing
Content marketing is essential for successful link
building and to keep your site refreshed with new
information on a regular basis.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
22. Content Marketing
Some of the types of content to consider include:
High quality and informative blog posts
Guest posting on strong and relevant sites
Press releases
Infographics
Industry/subject whitepapers
Case studies
Video
Here’s how to make your content marketing strategy
more effective
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
23. Meta
As well as building valuable links, you need to make
sure your site is up to scratch.
This includes both on-page and technical aspects of
your website.
An important starting point is to look at your page
titles, Meta descriptions and H1 header tags to make
sure they are accurately describing the content of
your page.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
24. Meta Descriptions
These are short paragraphs
that appear in SERPs that
describe the nature of your
site and content.
Descriptions should be no
more than 155 characters, including spaces, and
should effectively describe the content of the page.
If a page does not have its own unique Meta
description, the search engines do it for you. This is
rarely a good description of your actual site or page.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
25. Social media is a great resource for promoting your
content and directing traffic back to your website.
Key channels include:
Social Media
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
26. Responsive Web Design
Google recommends the use of responsive design
which enables your site to adapt to any device
(computer, smartphone or tablet).
The performance of a website on mobile and tablet
devices now contributes to search engine rankings.
Read more about Responsive Design here.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
27. Customer Reviews
Add your site to some of the main listing sites for
customer reviews and set up a localised Google+
page.
This way you can gather insight on what people are
saying about your brand.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
28. Customer Reviews
Here are some of the sites to sign up to:
Read more about reviews and listing sites here.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
29. More Useful SEO Tools
Google Analytics
Generate reports on website traffic and popular
content/pages –build on this by setting new goals to
increase conversions.
Google Webmaster Tools
Upload your sitemap to check its compliance with
modern day SEO practices.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
30. More Useful SEO Tools
Screaming Frog
Free for 500 pages software that analyses your site’s
SEO efforts and highlights areas for development.
Google Keyword Planner
Useful tool to use when carrying out keyword
research; provides a list of strong keyword around a
topic and their average number of monthly
searches.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
31. So Why Is SEO Long Term?
SEO is not a one-time fix; it is an ongoing process to
ensure that your website ranks above your
competition and that you are always discoverable
to customers and potential customers alike.
Google regularly updates its algorithm, so you need
to ensure you are abiding by the rules to continue
ranking well.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
32. Contact Me
Find out more about Ben Norman today.
Telephone: 0845 485 1291
Connect with Ben:
Preparing Your SEO Strategy