What is SEO (in 2019), what are the challenges for the team organisation, the priorities to consider, the risks, the tools, the opportunities? This training covers a wide range of topics about Search Engine Optimization.

1. SEO Basic Training
ì Paolo Margari | paolomargari.eu

2. ì SEO core concepts and skills
ì Search Engines: algorithms and ranking factors
ì Rank penalisations: causes and solutions
ì Tools
ì Link building
ì Authority / Speed / Performance
ì Resources
ì Practical examples
ì Q&A
Index

3. ì

4. Core definitions
SEO is a fundamental part of a larger digital marketing strategy:
• SEO = organic search (not only websites but also apps)
• SEM/SEA = paid search (ie Adwords to be renamed Google Ads)
• SMM = free/paid social media content
• Content Marketing = writing content for blog, newsletter, etc
• Digital PR / Influencer Marketing = build relationship & promote content online
Main SEO specializations
• Local SEO
• Technical SEO
• Copywriting / Content
SEO tactics
White hat / Grey hat / Black hat (to avoid)

5. SEO core tasks
• Planning: before launching a website, bringing SEO in the project
• Training: tell the rest of the team involved what and embed SEO in
their work
• Recommendation: optimise when there is a need (ie a new service)
• Reporting: monitor performance in relation to the goals established
in the planning phase and the new needs (ranking, authority, traffic,
conversions, etc.)
• Ideas: follow up new trends in the search marketing industry
(algorithm updates, tools, etc.)

6. 1. Have clear objective
2. Collaborative team
3. Knowledge of the
core tools in mind
4. Process in place
4 successful ingredients for SEO

7. • Scientific mindset and logical approach
• Curious problem solver
• Detail oriented
• Ready for long term results and indirect initiatives
• SEO is cause and effect, not immediate correlation:
too many factors working together at the same time
Skills are mostly linked to technical SEO

8. • content & localisation = relevance (is the content
relevant to a user?)
• linking & social = importance (is the website
important, well-known by other relevant
websites?)
• technical & site architecture = trust & crawlability
(is the website safe, well-made, professional?)
What counts most to a search engine

9. ì

10. SERP: Search Engine Result Page
More than 65% of world search traffic on avg. is generated by Google Search.
Adding Google Images & Youtube it means that about 90% of total search traffic can be
attributed to Alpabeth Inc. – Local SE: Yandex=Russia, KZ, Naver=S. Korea, Baidu=China.

11. Organic Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
• Ranking higher
mean way more
traffic
• Assure that the
website is
optimized in
order to keep
ranking and
traffic
• Optimise for the
right keywords:
not all have the
same value
(More traffic ≠
More Money)
The organic CTR is
affected also by title/
description, rich
snippets (eg reviews)
and sitelinks

12. 1st on Google?
SERP = Searh Engine Result Page
More than 70% of organic traffic
come from Google first page,
but today…
2018
2008

13. Rich snippets

14. schema.org
An initiative launched in 2011 by Bing, Google and Yahoo!
to ”create and support a common set of schemas
for structured data markup on web pages”.

15. Local search
Ads
Local
Organic

16. What determines Google ranking?
Old days: PageRank
Google used to be a kind of popularity context where links were affecting authority & ranking
The famous original PageRank formula (1999): ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422

17. Google ranking factors today
After many Google algorithms updates like Florida, Austin, Brandy, Vince, Caffeine,
Panda (content), Penguin (links), Hummingbird (semantic), Pigeon (local), Mobile…

18. MozCast
MozCast is a
weather report
showing
turbulence in the
Google algorithm
over the previous
day.
The hotter and
stormier the
weather, the
more Google's
rankings changed.
Alternative:
Sensor by
SEMRush

19. SEMRush Sensor
France

20. Ranking advice by Google
SEO Starter Guide by Google
1) Provide high-quality content for the user, in particular in the home
page à holistic approach, relevant terms more than repetitions
2) Get backlinks relevant and natural (and add also outbound links)
3) Make sure that the website is clearly visible to the search engine the
same way it is to the user (no cloaking = penalisation) and tell what
shouldn’t be crawled (using robots.txt)
4) Make sure that your website has a clear hierarchy (either via HTML or
CMS structure)
5) Make sure that the website has a great user experience (avoid
abusing tools that make it difficult and/or slower)
6) Optimize the images and make the website mobile-friendly & https
Not least… Do not over optimize! è penalisation

21. How to classify ranking factors?

22. SEO Periodic Table

23. Penalties
They can occur after Google algorithm updates, even multiple penalisations at a time.
Not all updates are public.

24. How to spot a penalty?
ì Much lower organic traffic (Google Analytics)
ì Important change in keyword ranking history
(SEO tools)
ì Possible messages on Google Search Console
ì Check for relevant updates (Google Blog), volatility
(MozCast or SEMRush Sensor), social media
ì Spot possible toxic backlinks, duplicate content,
errors (SEO tools)

25. ì Duplicate content (on your website or from others)
ì Auto-generated content
ì Squeeze pages
ì Doorway pages (e.g. meta refresh)
ì Bad guest posts
ì A lot of advertising, a very high keyword density
ì Poor navigation
ì Toxic backlinks, bad anchor text, spammy comments,
paid links, schemes, etc. (Google Penguin)
What will cause a penalty?

26. ì Find all problems (previous slide)
ì Solve all problems (yes, everything can be solved!)
ì (if the case) disavow toxic links to be spotted
through a good SEO tool and removed via Google
Search Console
ì Send a Consideration Request via Google Search
Console (even multiple times if needed)
ì Monitor the effects, it might take weeks or months
to recover and sometimes it never gets to the
previous level of traffic
How to remove a penalty?

27. Successful penalty removal

28. ì Compelling title tags and meta descriptions, within limits
ì Long pages (min 500 words) answering top questions and good
quality
ì Focus on topics rather than keywords
ì Site speed do count – use cache and CDN
ì Schema markup where possible
ì Images optimised
ì Solve any error (404, wrong redirects, hreflang)
ì Remove toxic links and ducplicated content
ì Submit the sitemap.xml and solve possible penalisations
ì https
ì Mobile-friendly: be mobile-first
Quick SEO check-list

29. ì

30. SEO Tools
Main features of a SEO tool:
ì Keyword research
ì SERP visibility monitoring
ì Technical SEO & accessibility
ì Link analysis
ì Authority, Social & Analytics
Brian Dean’s (quite) comprehensive list: backlinko.com/seo-tools

31. Website performance
• Google Search Console
• Submit content or crawling
• Monitor content that is most engaging for search
• Stay away from malware or spam
• Link to Google Analytics and other SEO Tools for deeper analysis
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• Yandex Webmaster Tools
• SEO Power Suite
• Detect penalties (and many other functions)
• Screaming Frog (software)
• Sitemap with many details
• BrowSEO: visualize a website in pure HTML
• Woorank

32. How to evaluate keyword relevancy?
• Volume: popularity = how many searches
• Avg CPC: how much does a click costs? (Many factors involved in the bid)
• Competition: how many competitors are bidding for it
• Length: usually the longer (long-tail) the better = precise intention
• Trends: seasonality or temporary popularity
• Keyword difficulty: an index summarizing the above

33. Keyword research tools
Free
• Google Keyword Planner (free, accessible via Google Adwords)
• Ubersuggest (free)
• …
Paid
• MOZ Keyword Difficulty Tool
• Secockpit
• LongTailPro
• KeywordTool.io
• …
Enterprise SEO platforms
• SEMRush
• Search Metrics
• SEO Power Suite
• …

34. Website authority
Most relevant for link building
• Majestic
• MOZ Open Site Explorer
Other metrics
• Pagerankchecker (still relevant PageRank?)
• SimilarWeb (traffic estimator, similar service partly available also on SEMRush)
Chrome plugins
• SEO Site Tools
• SEO Quake (Chrome extension that provides general domain info)
• Ghostery (useful to spy which cookies/platforms are using competitors)

35. Link building
• There are many agencies selling links on websites with relevant DA & PA for low prices.
• Mind the risk of a penalisation – Google can spot patterns when many clients use the
same websites

36. Link building tools

37. Monitor site speed: GTMetrix
It includes
Google PageSpeed Score
Select the closest test server

38. CMS: Tools for Wordpress
To increase site speed and security:
• W3 Cache
• Fast Minify
• EWWW (image optimizer)
• Cloudflare (CDN)
• Optimize Database (performance)
Multilanguage:
• WPML
SEO:
• Yoast
Obviously a fast and reliable hosting too

39. Links: stay up-to-date!
• Ahrefs Blog: ahrefs.com/blog
• Backlinko by Brian Dean: backlinko.com/blog
• Google Webmaster Central Blog: webmasters.googleblog.com
• MOZ Blog (founded by Rand Fishkin): moz.com/blog
• Search Engine Journal (SEJ): searchenginejournal.com
• Search Engine Land: searchengineland.com
• Search Engine Watch: searchenginewatch.com
• SEO by the Sea by Bill Slaski: www.seobythesea.com
• Stone Temple by Eric Enge: www.stonetemple.com/blog
• Yoast: yoast.com/seo-blog
• Twitter List on SEO: twitter.com/@PaoloMargari/lists/seo
Beyond SEO...
• Simo Ahava Blog (Google Tag Manager): www.simoahava.com
• Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik (Analytics): www.kaushik.net/avinash
• nn/Group Articles (UX): nngroup.com/articles

40. Google Keyword Planner
Google Search Console
Bing Webmaster Tools
Google Analytics
Ubersuggest
SEMRush

41. Paolo Margari
Digital Marketing Specialist
Brussels
@paolomargari
paolomargari.eu
oltredigital.com