Presentation on search engine optimisation by David Gilroy at the Digital Marketing Masterclass for law firms run by Conscious Solutions in November 2013.

1. Search Engine Optimisation

2. Google Algorithm – 2013 History
Oct-13 Penguin 2.1
Aug-13 Hummingbird
May-13 Penguin 2.0
Jun-13 Payday Loan/Porn
Originally Apr-12
Feb-11 Panda

3. SEO in late 2013
• Google Local is dominating localised keywords
• No more links in press releases!
• “Social signals” from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
etc are becoming vital
• Mobile search is becoming more important i.e.
people searching via smartphones
• As important as email marketing to existing clients
• Keyword research to develop “targeted” keyword
lists is even more important
• (not provided)
• Need to worry about “link” sites, not just your site

4. Penguin 2.0 & in general
• Well written sites
• Sites with little
advertising
• Proven niche “authority”
sites
• Keyword stuffing
• Poor link building
practices (both in &
out)
• Lots of exact-match
anchor texts (30% or
more of a link profile)
• Too many ads “above
the fold”

7. 3 Keys to SEO
1 Linkworthy - make it useful & compelling
– SEO is intertwined with web site design & content
– Tips booklets, news, content
– Bear in mind it’s the law we are talking about!
1 Keywords & Content - Site optimisation
– Theme optimization = keyword-focused content
– More content = higher PR
– Follow best practices, avoid worst
1 Link Popularity - Off-site optimisation
– Social signals
– Maximize high PR inbound links (backlinks)
– Keyphrase filled anchor text (example: “planning
solicitor” not “Kingsley Smith”

8. Domain authority

9. Page structure still important
Meta title
Page
name
H1 tag
H2 tag
Body copy

10. An example
Rank = No.2
Searches/month =
100
Visits = 5
Pages/View = 4.6
Time on Site = 2:17

11. Panda in general
• Well structured sites
• Well written sites
• Sites with little
advertising
• Sites that can be/are
being “socially shared”
• Low quality sites
• Low quality/short
content (aimed at
content farms)
• High advert/content
ratio
• Technically poor sites
• Duplicate meta
titles/descriptions

12. Duplicate page titles

13. Hummingbird
• Better semantic search
“apple & Apple”
• High quality content
• Enhanced user
experience
• Shareable content
• Press release links
should be “no follow”
• Guest blogging could be
penalised

14. Google Webmaster Tools

15. So what can be achieved – I ?

16. http://www.conscious.co.uk/presentations

18. So what’s it all about? This.

20. But what keywords?

21. Measurements

22. Link building
• Less is more now
• Getting less links from higher quality sites
(higher PR or Domain Authority)
• Guest blogging
• Use a keyword, not the name of the firm for
the “visible phrase”

23. Use of Site Maps
• Manual site maps
• Auto-generated sitemaps for Google upload

24. Tutorial (if we have time)
• Someone be brave, let’s do some work!
• Give me your website address
• What is the target phrase you think we
should look at?