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The SEOs Guide to Making a Website

Michael Jones has over 12 years of experience in search engine marketing, specializing in SEO among other areas, and manages a network of travel websites. The document outlines the process of building a website, highlighting steps like defining goals, conducting keyword research, selecting a domain, and integrating SEO best practices. It also emphasizes the importance of content quality and user experience in website development.

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Michael Jones - Holidaypoint.com.au
About Me
12 years of search engine marketing experience, worked with many large organisations in Australia (both in-house and agency side), in a broad range of industries including: shopping, classifieds and service websites. Specialising in SEO, but have experience in: - SEM - Analytics - Social - Local - Reputation Management - Email Marketing Senior SEO Account Manager A network of 9 travel websites; managing everything from: - Search Engine Optimisation - Social Media Marketing - Video & Image Creation - Content Editing - Web Programming - Website Building - Affiliate Marketing - AdSense - Web Analytics - Keyword Research
So what goes into building a website?
What I will Cover Define Goals / Objectives Research What You Need • • • • Domain Names Content Management Systems Themes Web Hosting Building the Website • • • • Content / Graphics Bringing it Together Apply the SEO! Other Things Post Launch • Maintenance tasks • Social Media • Promotion Resources
So why are you doing this? How are you going to get there?
Define Objectives / Requirements 1. What are your goals? Sales, leads, signups, social followers 2. How will you achieve this via your website? Quoting Engine, Shopping Cart, AdSense, Signup Form 3. Where will you source traffic? Organic search traffic, SEM, social media, referral traffic, email 4. What is your target audience (demographic). B2C? B2B? State, Age, occupation? 5. Research your competition and their websites Check to see how they acquire leads and what contain they have on their website
Do your (keyword) research!
Research – Build Seed Keywords Check different sources for ideas of keywords relevant to your industry Printed Material (Brochures, Catalogues, Books) Online (Competitors, Wikis, Resources)
Research – Expand Keyword Sets Use the seed keywords and Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to create a larger list of related keyword phrases
Research – Export Keyword Ideas Export results from the Keyword Planner to Excel. Ad group Seed Keywords Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword gold coast gold coast weather gold coast bulletin gold coast accommodation gold coast airport weather gold coast gold coast marathon accommodation gold coast qt gold coast tv guide gold coast harbour town gold coast q1 gold coast gold coast titans gold coast tv guide gold coast weather forecast gold coast library gold coast arts centre jobs gold coast gold coast hospital Currency Avg. monthly searches Competition Suggested bid AUD 49500 0.34 1.86 AUD 90500 0 1.22 AUD 60500 0.02 1.45 AUD 22200 1 3.32 AUD 22200 0.18 2.9 AUD 22200 0 2.25 AUD 14800 0.02 3.78 AUD 12100 0.97 3.26 AUD 12100 0.34 0.89 AUD 12100 0 3.04 AUD 9900 0.01 0.58 AUD 8100 0.33 2.36 AUD 8100 0.01 5.34 AUD 8100 0 1.64 AUD 8100 0.01 0.75 AUD 8100 0.01 0.18 AUD 6600 0 3.36 AUD 6600 0.61 0.49 AUD 6600 0.02 6.38
Research – Filter & Create Sitemap Filter Keywords to remove any unrelated terms. Keyword singapore singapore hotels universal studios singapore singapore weather singapore zoo singapore accommodation hotels in singapore singapore map singapore tourism hotels singapore flights to singapore singapore flyer accommodation singapore weather singapore singapore turf club singapore attractions map of singapore singapore holidays weather in singapore singapore hotel Global Monthly Searches Local Monthly Searches (Australia) 673000 33100 33100 6600 74000 6600 40500 5400 33100 2900 3600 2400 27100 2400 49500 1900 22200 1600 6600 1300 8100 1300 27100 1300 1900 1300 12100 1300 27100 1000 6600 1000 14800 1000 6600 1000 8100 1000 14800 1000 Start categorising keywords into groups to assist with building the website sitemap / IA. melbourne attractions 3600 melbourne accommodation backpackers melbourne boutique hotels melbourne family accommodation melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hostels melbourne melbourne airport accommodation melbourne airport hotels melbourne apartments melbourne city accommodation melbourne city hotels melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hotels melbourne motels serviced apartments melbourne student accommodation melbourne 9900 2400 1000 720 480 1000 1300 1600 2400 720 720 480 9900 720 3600 1300 main suburbs collingwood st kilda carlton richmond southbank 33100 14800 9900 8100 8100 melbourne day trips mt buller Bendigo great ocean road phillip island ballarat geelong daylesford mornington peninsula puffing billy yarra valley mt baw baw Grampians Werribee dandenong ranges gipplsand Castlemaine macedon ranges Bellarine Peninsula Echuca Moama melbourne tours bike tours melbourne brewery tours melbourne bus tours melbourne 480 27100 27100 18100 18100 14800 14800 12100 12100 9900 6600 5400 5400 5400 3600 3600 3600 1300 1000 390 1300 36 73 110 information weather melbourne melbourne airport essendon airport car hire melbourne melbourne airport parking melbourne airport transfers airport bus melbourne campervan hire melbourne flights to melbourne avalon airport city circle tram moorabin airport Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle 110000 74000 880 6600 9900 1000 1300 1000 5400 5400 1000 110 170 whats on melbourne AFL Grand Final Anzac Day Australia Day Australian Grand Prix Australian International Motor Show Australian Open Boxing Day Test Carols by Candlelight Chinese New Year Celebration 3600 4400 27100 40500 2900 590 110000 720 1600 73
Research – Finished Product Using the most popular / searched terms, you should be able to now create a full sitemap to plan the needs & requirements of the website. melbourne attractions 3600 melbourne tourist attractions 1600 melbourne accommodation backpackers melbourne boutique hotels melbourne family accommodation melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hostels melbourne melbourne airport accommodation melbourne airport hotels melbourne apartments melbourne city accommodation melbourne city hotels melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hotels melbourne motels serviced apartments melbourne student accommodation melbourne 9900 2400 1000 720 480 1000 1300 1600 2400 720 720 480 9900 720 3600 1300 art galleries melbourne melbourne bars melbourne beaches churches in melbourne kids activities melbourne melbourne museums melbourne parks / gardens melbourne pubs restaurants melbourne melbourne rivers melbourne shopping melbourne theatres melbourne venues 480 art galleries 2400 bars 720 beaches 260 churches 590 kids 260 museums 320 parks 1300 pubs 6600 restaurants 36 rivers 2400 shopping 2400 theatre 590 venues main suburbs collingwood st kilda carlton richmond southbank docklands north melbourne williamstown port melbourne albert park fitzroy south yarra south melbourne toorak east melbourne west melbourne victoria harbour newquay melbourne 33100 14800 9900 8100 8100 6600 5400 3600 3600 2900 2400 2400 1900 1900 1000 590 320 320 74000 34 dfo melbourne museum melbourne zoo chadstone luna park crown casino mcg melbourne aquarium highpoint etihad stadium harbour town imax melbourne melbourne central rod laver arena werribee zoo moonee valley racecourse queen victoria market Southbank southland state library of victoria northland scienceworks south melbourne market aami park Astor Theatre Capitol Theatre 33100 Shopping 33100 attractions, kids, museums 33100 attractions, kids 27100 Shopping 27100 attractions, kids 22200 attractions, resturants, Shopping, Resturants, Bars, Pubs, venues 18100 attractions, venues, kids 18100 attractions, kids 14800 Shopping 12100 venues 12100 Shopping 12100 attractions, kids 12100 shopping, Resturants, Bars, Pubs, attractions 9900 venues 9900 attractions, kids 8800 venues 8100 Shopping, attractions 8100 Resturants, Bars, Pubs, shopping 8100 Shopping 8100 attractions 6600 Shopping 6600 attractions, museums, kids 6600 Shopping 5400 venues 5400 theatre, venues 5400 venues, theatre melbourne day trips mt buller Bendigo great ocean road phillip island ballarat geelong daylesford mornington peninsula puffing billy yarra valley mt baw baw Grampians Werribee dandenong ranges gipplsand Castlemaine macedon ranges Bellarine Peninsula Echuca Moama 480 27100 27100 18100 18100 14800 14800 12100 12100 9900 6600 5400 5400 5400 3600 3600 3600 1300 1000 390 melbourne tours bike tours melbourne brewery tours melbourne bus tours melbourne food tours melbourne ghost tours melbourne melbourne crime tours melbourne day tours melbourne shopping tours melbourne walking tours photography tours melbourne wine tours melbourne 1300 36 73 110 73 390 91 590 480 210 36 320 melbourne activities day spa melbourne fishing charters melbourne go karting melbourne helicopter rides melbourne high tea melbourne horse riding melbourne melbourne cruises 590 2400 1300 1600 320 2900 1300 320 information weather melbourne melbourne airport essendon airport car hire melbourne melbourne airport parking melbourne airport transfers airport bus melbourne campervan hire melbourne flights to melbourne avalon airport city circle tram moorabin airport Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle 110000 74000 880 6600 9900 1000 1300 1000 5400 5400 1000 110 170 whats on melbourne AFL Grand Final Anzac Day Australia Day Australian Grand Prix Australian International Motor Show Australian Open Boxing Day Test Carols by Candlelight Chinese New Year Celebration CityLink Run for the Kids Fed Square Live Go Festival Good Food & Wine Festival Latin Summer Festival Melbourne Awards Melbourne Bride Wedding Expo Melbourne Cup Melbourne Fashion Festival Melbourne Festival Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Melbourne Fringe Festival Melbourne Home Show Melbourne International Arts Festival Melbourne International Comedy Festival Melbourne International Film Festival Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 3600 4400 27100 40500 2900 590 110000 720 1600 73 12 58 110 0 0 91 16 49500 210 2900 3600 880 720 210 2400 1600 390
So what do you need to make a website?
What You Need - Domain Names Most of the time (and what I recommend) is you use a domain that is just your business name, like exampleseo.com. Other times you may want to have a domain name that simply revolves around the highly searched keywords in your industry (An EMD – Exact match Domain), such as seoservices.com. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of domain names for SEO (they used to have a weighting in Google’s Algorithm and they were also a loophole to getting exact match links from web directories), but unless the domain name has some kind of brand-ability, they really haven’t got any value these days in the world of SEO. If you do manage to buy a good EMD these days (odds are most are taken, so you will need to buy it off someone or use a domain auction website), you need to weigh up exactly how much the domain name / brand is worth – since the SEO value is close to nil.
What You Need - Content Management Systems A Content Management System (CMS) is a Web application that uses a database (usually MySQL) or other methods to create, edit, and store HTML content in a manageable way. According to W3Techs, the three most popular content management systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and collectively own 74% of the CMS market (with WordPress accounting for over 60%) When choosing a CMS, refer back to your original Objectives and Requirements, as many of these CMS may already have the solutions right out of the box (reducing development costs)
What You Need - Content Management System Although I fully recommend Wordpress for anyone with a basic website (due to its ease of use, out of the box functionality, huge range of themes, plugin support and SEO functions), you might find that another CMS might better suit your needs. Do a lot of research before selecting a CMS, as you might find that the SEO functionality is limited and you will have to pay your developer huge fees to eliminate roadblocks and take advantage of new technologies.
What You Need - Themes If you go down the Wordpress route (or another CMS that uses themes), check out premium theme websites like Elegant Themes and GabFire and try to find an already created theme that has the main layouts and functionalities that your website needs. This will help you save time and money on the finished product and will offer support and free upgrades in the future. Try to stay away from free themes or torrenting a paid theme – there might be hidden links in the templates or security issues.
What You Need – Web Hosting Now that you have a domain name, CMS and theme, now you need a place to put it. To make your website visible to the world, it has to be hosted on a Web server (i.e. with a web hosting company). There are infinite options when picking a company, so do your research and make sure it has all the features you need. PRICE STORAGE SPACE MONTHLY DATA TRANSER EMAIL ACCOUNTS DATABASES ADD-ON DOMAINS FEATURES COUPON CODES
Now it’s time to bring it all together…
Building the Website - Content / Graphics Now that you have your keywords and sitemap, CMS, domain name and web hosting sorted, the next step you need to do is get your website assets created. These include things such as website header images, content and accompanying images for your many pages. The discussed rule of thumb is to ensure that each page of your site has at least 300 words of unique content on it that can’t be found elsewhere on your site (or anywhere else on the Web), but really this is going to depend on the layout of your website and you need to think about the UX implications of long slabs of text. Using your sitemap as a guide, you need to get content written around the targeted keywords of each page. Unlike the olden days, you need to focus on the user - not the search engine, and always have readability in mind; using proper grammar and avoid keyword stuffing content.
Building the Website - Content / Graphics Additional to the SEO content, it is recommended you steer away from the hard sell all the time, and talk about other related topics that will interest your audience; giving them a reason to come back to your site and hopefully converting at some point in the future. Also, you should look further than just text and images; create things like videos, infographics, slideshows, case studies, PDF downloads, etc.
Building the Website – Bringing it Together Now that you have everything ready to go, you need to piece it all together. Here is the majority of steps you will need to complete (slightly skewed towards an Apache and Wordpress install): • Delegate your domain name to point to your web host, and configure your domain name (effectively creating a FTP account in the process) • Install your CMS (usually can be done easily within your web hosting control panel)
Building the Website – Bringing it Together • Start installing & configure plugins / functionality around the following: - SEO Plugin - Security - Broken Link Checker - Social Bookmarking - XML Sitemap - HTML sitemap - Open Graph / Twitter Cards - Minify / Caching • Start creating pages, and uploading the relevant content, images and functionality to each page; setting headings and applying formatting
Building the Website – Bringing it Together • Create all required emails accounts within your web hosting control panel • Configure and test contact forms, quoting engines and other website functionality • Go through and configure all the different Wordpress, Theme & Plugin Settings
Building the Website – Bringing it Together • Configure site-wide assets; such as menus, footers and widgets • Implement .htaccess codes and page speed tweaks • Go through the website with a fine tooth comb and make a list of everything that you would like changed. Now use a tool like firebug, to start making small tweaks and apply the fixes to either the website templates or CSS files.
Building the Website – Apply the SEO! With a lot of the website up and functioning, now it is a matter of applying SEO best practice to the website, specifically around the keyword research in the beginning. Using the earlier keyword research / mapping practices Ad group Seed Keywords Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword gold coast gold coast weather gold coast bulletin gold coast accommodation gold coast airport weather gold coast gold coast marathon accommodation gold coast qt gold coast tv guide gold coast harbour town gold coast q1 gold coast gold coast titans gold coast tv guide gold coast weather forecast gold coast library gold coast arts centre jobs gold coast gold coast hospital Currency Avg. monthly searches Competition Suggested bid AUD 49500 0.34 1.86 AUD 90500 0 1.22 AUD 60500 0.02 1.45 AUD 22200 1 3.32 AUD 22200 0.18 2.9 AUD 22200 0 2.25 AUD 14800 0.02 3.78 AUD 12100 0.97 3.26 AUD 12100 0.34 0.89 AUD 12100 0 3.04 AUD 9900 0.01 0.58 AUD 8100 0.33 2.36 AUD 8100 0.01 5.34 AUD 8100 0 1.64 AUD 8100 0.01 0.75 AUD 8100 0.01 0.18 AUD 6600 0 3.36 AUD 6600 0.61 0.49 AUD 6600 0.02 6.38 And combining this with auto-suggestion data from the Google search box (if there is insufficient keyword data and you simply need to expand your title tags)
Building the Website – Apply the SEO! You need to go from page to page and implement the following on page tweaks: Page URLs: Make sure the site's URLs are clean, and try to utilise the keywords that the page is trying to target within the file name. Use hyphens as separators and don’t keyword stuff – more than1-2 keywords will start looking spammy. http://www.wotif.com/hotels/landmarks/australia/warner-bros-movie-world-hotels.html Page Titles: Write a unique title tag for each page, using a combination of the target keywords you’ve assigned to that page. Make sure the tag reads well, entices customers to click on it and try to include your business name at the end. Keep the entire title tag under 69 characters. Descriptions: Write a unique meta description tag for each webpage, trying to keep the tag under 155 characters. Because meta descriptions are commonly used on search engine result pages (SERPs) to display preview snippets for a given page, it is recommended that you try include your chosen keywords, whilst creating 1-2 sentences that is attractive for a user to want to click on. Title Description
Building the Website – Apply the SEO! Header Tags: Check that each page has one (and only one) h1 tag, preferably including the main targeted keyword of the page – not assigned to the top logo image or simply used as formatting. Additional header tags (h2 – h6), if applicable, should appear in hierarchal order, lower on the page. Image Alt-tags: Make sure all of your images utilise ALT tags (a tag that lets you set text to be shown if an image can’t be displayed). Without keyword stuffing these tags (like the old days), simply write a few words that describe what the image is about. Also, try and choose a descriptive image file name instead of random words and numbers.
Building the Website - Other Things • Implement Google Analytics on every page of your website (made easy by copying the code into your header file. Remember to define goals and use event tracking so you can easily track conversions / your main website KPIs. • Set up and implement Google & Bing Webmaster Tools. These give you a window into how the search engines view your website, as well as being able to apply different settings and resulting in a more efficient website crawl.
Building the Website - Other Things • Create a sitemap.xml file (a file that contains a list of every page of your website and other useful info) and upload it to the root directory of your site (or enable this feature from within your CMS, if available). Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools for indexing. • Create a robots.txt file and upload it to the root directory of your site. Reference your XML sitemap for other smaller search engines to use. • Enable Google Authorship on your website by linking to your personal Google+ profile and listing the website within Google+ as a website you contribute to. Although apparently it doesn’t have a ranking boost at this point in time (it surely will be), it can definitely result in higher CTRs.
Building the Website - Other Things • Check your onsite SEO implementation by using a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and harvest all of your different tags. Looking for things like broken links, and also long, short or duplicate title and description tags. • Create a Google Places for Business listing. Additional to regular SEO and competing for organic search listings, Places for Business allows you to compete in for when map listings are displayed in the SERPs - and costs nothing.
Now how do I win the internet?
Post Launch – Maintenance Tasks Now that your website is up and running, you need to ensure that you keep an eye on things to make sure nothing breaks and things keep going in the right direction. Analytics: In order to determine how your website is performing and measuring how they are getting there, you need to regularly check your website analytics. Things to check are your conversions, event tracking, acquisition sources, user behaviour, etc. Ranking Reports: Additional to the above, I recommend you keep an eye on how your website is ranking within search engines for your targeted keyword list. This will usually show movement before you see anything major in your analytics, you can track your competitors success, as well as being able to establish traffic fluctuations. Webmaster Tools: Make sure you check your webmaster tools accounts for such things as broken links, duplicate tag issues, links pointing towards your website, crawl stats, security issues and search queries you are showing for. Link Check: Additional to checking the above, I recommend that you check all of the links on your website with either a stand-alone tool or a plugin. You’ll find that other websites may have changed their URLs, resulting in 404 errors.
Post Launch – Maintenance Tasks Testing Functions – To ensure that nothing is broken and you aren’t losing money, be sure to check if your contact forms & shopping carts are working. From time to time there might be issues with old plugins or coding issues. Software / Plugin Updates – Be sure to update your core CMS and plugin files when they become available. A lot of the time these newer versions fix bugs & security issues, but they also come with new functions / technology. Backing Up Your Website – To make sure you don’t risk losing any part of your website if something happens to your web host or if your website is hacked, I highly recommend backing up your files and database to a cloud based storage solution (e.g. Dropbox). Monitor Website Outages – Use one of the many website monitoring services (Pingdom) to keep an eye on the uptime of your website. A lot of the time you’ll get an email if things go down, and you can promptly follow up with your hosting company. Email Marketing – Even though social media has taken a lot of the attention away from email marketing, it is still a cheap way to communicate with a large audience. Give subscribers value and a reason to not hit unsubscribe.
Post Launch – Maintenance Tasks Website Speed – Use Webpagetest.org, the various browser extensions and Google Analytics to monitor just how long different pages of your website are taking to load. The longer a page takes to load, the higher chance you have of losing customers – check the recommendations and try make your site load as quickly as possible. Reputation Management – Not really a SEO thing, but setup Google Alerts and randomly do some searches on Google for your branded terms to see how the internet community views your brand. A lot of the time you can deal directly with your customers and put out any fires before they spread (people love complaining online) Moderate comments – If you have a blog, you need to moderate comments; responding and engaging with genuine comments from users… and filtering all that spam! Never set your website to auto-approve comments! Website Content – In order to forever grow the keyword scope of your website and to give existing customers a reason to come back, you need to create fresh content. Now don’t be creating content blindly: Either create it based on keyword research so it ranks in Google, or create content that is engaging and will likely attraction a lot of social media love.
Post Launch - Promotion With the way search engines are heading (i.e. looking to move away from using link metric data and start looking at social signals), it is imperative that you have a social media presence. The following are an absolute must: Social media is a whole discipline in itself, but the thing to remember is you need to give users a reason to want to follow you and you also need to share content that they find engaging and want to share with others (i.e. not just your own, share other people’s content). Also make sure that you respond to users comments in a timely manner and I encourage you to engage with other people and companies (you’ll be surprised what you can get out of it).
Post Launch – Why do I need to promote?
Post Launch - Promotion Because links have and will always be an important part of Google’s ranking Algorithm, it is important that you seek to build links towards your website. These days it isn’t a numbers game, so the focus should always be on quality over quantity, and also seek to get links from relevant websites. This again is a whole different area in itself, but some ideas of how you can obtain links and not get hit manually or algorithmically by the search engines are (there is a lot of info to sift through): • • • • • • • • • • • • Content marketing Online profiles (make sure you claim them) Fix broken links Brand / logo / asset reclamation Competitor research Run a competition Run specials / promo codes Infographic creation Interviews Product reviews Surveys Sponsorship
Considerations / Take Aways (it’s nearly over)
Considerations / Take Aways • Make sure you define goals, objectives and KPIs • Do your keyword research before you start building anything! • Choose the right CMS to suit your needs • Make sure your website contains unique and quality content • Apply SEO best practice throughout your website & eliminate technical roadblocks • Take advantage of any new SEO technologies / features • Monitor your website performance • Make sure everything is working and up to date • Use social media, share quality and engage with your audience • Build links – Natural, relevant and quality
Thank You – Any Questions?
Follow Me • • • • • • https://www.facebook.com/HolidayPointAU https://twitter.com/HolidayPointAU https://plus.google.com/+HolidaypointAu http://www.flickr.com/photos/holidaypointau/ http://pinterest.com/holidaypointau/ http://www.youtube.com/user/HolidayPoint/ http://www.holidaypoint.com.au/
Tools / Resources Keyword Research Google Keyword Planner - https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home (Google Account Required) Domain names Crazy Domains - http://www.crazydomains.com.au/ ($9.95/year for a .com.au domain) CMS Wordpress - http://wordpress.org/ Joomla - http://www.joomla.org/ Drupal - https://drupal.org/ Themes Elegant Themes - http://www.elegantthemes.com/ (acess to 86 themes for only $39) Gabfire - http://www.gabfirethemes.com/ ($57 per theme or 4 themes for $179) Woo Themes - http://www.woothemes.com/ ($99 per theme) Hosting VentraIP - https://ventraip.com.au/web-hosting/ (Economy Hosting starts at $7.95 Per Month, or $95.40 per year) Use the code “VIP50” when placing an order and you will get 50% off your first invoice. The longer you pay upfront, the more you will save.
Tools / Resources Content Writing Textbroker - http://www.textbroker.com/ Elance - https://www.elance.com/ Desktop Tools Screaming frog - http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Firebug - http://getfirebug.com/ Yslow - http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/ Pagespeed Tools - https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights_extensions Htaccess codes for Pagespeed http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/code/htaccess/yslow-&-google-page-speedhtaccess-code-how-to-speed-up-your-website.php Analytics Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/ Webmaster Tools Google Webmaster Tools - http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ Bing Webmaster Tools - http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
Tools / Resources Authorship Google Authorship - https://plus.google.com/authorship Local Google Places for Business - http://www.google.com.au/business/placesforbusiness/ Bing Places For Business - https://www.bingplaces.com/ Ranking Reports Advanced Web Ranking - http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ Website Monitoring Pingdom - https://www.pingdom.com/ Social Platforms Google Plus - https://plus.google.com/ Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/ Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/
Tools / Resources Social Media Management Tools Buffer - http://bufferapp.com/ Hootsuite - https://hootsuite.com/ Resources A [Poorly] Illustrated Guide to Google's Algorithm http://moz.com/blog/a-poorly-illustrated-guide-to-googles-algorithm Weighting the Clusters of Ranking Factors in Google's Algorithm http://moz.com/blog/weighting-the-clusters-of-ranking-factors-in-google-analyticswhiteboard-friday
Tools / Resources Wordpress Plugins All In One SEO Pack - http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog Better WP Security - http://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/ Helps protect your Wordpress installation from attackers. Hardens standard Wordpress security by hiding vital areas of your site, protecting access to important files via htaccess, preventing brute-force login attempts, detecting attack attempts, and more. Broken Link Checker - http://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/ Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. CommentLuv - http://wordpress.org/plugins/commentluv/ Protects you from spam, encourages twitter followers, adds keywords to names and increases traffic and community! GetSocial - http://wordpress.org/plugins/getsocial/ GetSocial adds an intelligent, lightweight, quick to setup floating social media sharing box on your blog posts. Google XML Sitemaps - http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/ Generates a XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
Tools / Resources Wordpress Plugins NGFB Open Graph+ Pro - http://surniaulula.com/extend/plugins/nextgen-facebook/ NGFB Open Graph+ adds HTML tags (Open Graph, Rich Pins, Twitter Cards) to the head section of webpages for improved Google Search results, and sharing on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Tumblr and many more - an essential plugin for every WordPress website! Social Media Widget - http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/ Adds links to all of your social media and sharing site profiles. WP Htaccess Editor - http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-htaccess-editor/ Simple editor htaccess file without using FTP client. WP Minify - http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-minify/ This plugin uses the Minify engine to combine and compress JS and CSS files to improve page load time.

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The SEOs Guide to Making a Website

  • 1.
    Michael Jones -Holidaypoint.com.au
  • 2.
  • 3.
    12 years ofsearch engine marketing experience, worked with many large organisations in Australia (both in-house and agency side), in a broad range of industries including: shopping, classifieds and service websites. Specialising in SEO, but have experience in: - SEM - Analytics - Social - Local - Reputation Management - Email Marketing Senior SEO Account Manager A network of 9 travel websites; managing everything from: - Search Engine Optimisation - Social Media Marketing - Video & Image Creation - Content Editing - Web Programming - Website Building - Affiliate Marketing - AdSense - Web Analytics - Keyword Research
  • 4.
    So what goesinto building a website?
  • 5.
    What I willCover Define Goals / Objectives Research What You Need • • • • Domain Names Content Management Systems Themes Web Hosting Building the Website • • • • Content / Graphics Bringing it Together Apply the SEO! Other Things Post Launch • Maintenance tasks • Social Media • Promotion Resources
  • 6.
    So why areyou doing this? How are you going to get there?
  • 7.
    Define Objectives /Requirements 1. What are your goals? Sales, leads, signups, social followers 2. How will you achieve this via your website? Quoting Engine, Shopping Cart, AdSense, Signup Form 3. Where will you source traffic? Organic search traffic, SEM, social media, referral traffic, email 4. What is your target audience (demographic). B2C? B2B? State, Age, occupation? 5. Research your competition and their websites Check to see how they acquire leads and what contain they have on their website
  • 8.
  • 9.
    Research – BuildSeed Keywords Check different sources for ideas of keywords relevant to your industry Printed Material (Brochures, Catalogues, Books) Online (Competitors, Wikis, Resources)
  • 10.
    Research – ExpandKeyword Sets Use the seed keywords and Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to create a larger list of related keyword phrases
  • 11.
    Research – ExportKeyword Ideas Export results from the Keyword Planner to Excel. Ad group Seed Keywords Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword gold coast gold coast weather gold coast bulletin gold coast accommodation gold coast airport weather gold coast gold coast marathon accommodation gold coast qt gold coast tv guide gold coast harbour town gold coast q1 gold coast gold coast titans gold coast tv guide gold coast weather forecast gold coast library gold coast arts centre jobs gold coast gold coast hospital Currency Avg. monthly searches Competition Suggested bid AUD 49500 0.34 1.86 AUD 90500 0 1.22 AUD 60500 0.02 1.45 AUD 22200 1 3.32 AUD 22200 0.18 2.9 AUD 22200 0 2.25 AUD 14800 0.02 3.78 AUD 12100 0.97 3.26 AUD 12100 0.34 0.89 AUD 12100 0 3.04 AUD 9900 0.01 0.58 AUD 8100 0.33 2.36 AUD 8100 0.01 5.34 AUD 8100 0 1.64 AUD 8100 0.01 0.75 AUD 8100 0.01 0.18 AUD 6600 0 3.36 AUD 6600 0.61 0.49 AUD 6600 0.02 6.38
  • 12.
    Research – Filter& Create Sitemap Filter Keywords to remove any unrelated terms. Keyword singapore singapore hotels universal studios singapore singapore weather singapore zoo singapore accommodation hotels in singapore singapore map singapore tourism hotels singapore flights to singapore singapore flyer accommodation singapore weather singapore singapore turf club singapore attractions map of singapore singapore holidays weather in singapore singapore hotel Global Monthly Searches Local Monthly Searches (Australia) 673000 33100 33100 6600 74000 6600 40500 5400 33100 2900 3600 2400 27100 2400 49500 1900 22200 1600 6600 1300 8100 1300 27100 1300 1900 1300 12100 1300 27100 1000 6600 1000 14800 1000 6600 1000 8100 1000 14800 1000 Start categorising keywords into groups to assist with building the website sitemap / IA. melbourne attractions 3600 melbourne accommodation backpackers melbourne boutique hotels melbourne family accommodation melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hostels melbourne melbourne airport accommodation melbourne airport hotels melbourne apartments melbourne city accommodation melbourne city hotels melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hotels melbourne motels serviced apartments melbourne student accommodation melbourne 9900 2400 1000 720 480 1000 1300 1600 2400 720 720 480 9900 720 3600 1300 main suburbs collingwood st kilda carlton richmond southbank 33100 14800 9900 8100 8100 melbourne day trips mt buller Bendigo great ocean road phillip island ballarat geelong daylesford mornington peninsula puffing billy yarra valley mt baw baw Grampians Werribee dandenong ranges gipplsand Castlemaine macedon ranges Bellarine Peninsula Echuca Moama melbourne tours bike tours melbourne brewery tours melbourne bus tours melbourne 480 27100 27100 18100 18100 14800 14800 12100 12100 9900 6600 5400 5400 5400 3600 3600 3600 1300 1000 390 1300 36 73 110 information weather melbourne melbourne airport essendon airport car hire melbourne melbourne airport parking melbourne airport transfers airport bus melbourne campervan hire melbourne flights to melbourne avalon airport city circle tram moorabin airport Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle 110000 74000 880 6600 9900 1000 1300 1000 5400 5400 1000 110 170 whats on melbourne AFL Grand Final Anzac Day Australia Day Australian Grand Prix Australian International Motor Show Australian Open Boxing Day Test Carols by Candlelight Chinese New Year Celebration 3600 4400 27100 40500 2900 590 110000 720 1600 73
  • 13.
    Research – FinishedProduct Using the most popular / searched terms, you should be able to now create a full sitemap to plan the needs & requirements of the website. melbourne attractions 3600 melbourne tourist attractions 1600 melbourne accommodation backpackers melbourne boutique hotels melbourne family accommodation melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hostels melbourne melbourne airport accommodation melbourne airport hotels melbourne apartments melbourne city accommodation melbourne city hotels melbourne holiday apartments melbourne hotels melbourne motels serviced apartments melbourne student accommodation melbourne 9900 2400 1000 720 480 1000 1300 1600 2400 720 720 480 9900 720 3600 1300 art galleries melbourne melbourne bars melbourne beaches churches in melbourne kids activities melbourne melbourne museums melbourne parks / gardens melbourne pubs restaurants melbourne melbourne rivers melbourne shopping melbourne theatres melbourne venues 480 art galleries 2400 bars 720 beaches 260 churches 590 kids 260 museums 320 parks 1300 pubs 6600 restaurants 36 rivers 2400 shopping 2400 theatre 590 venues main suburbs collingwood st kilda carlton richmond southbank docklands north melbourne williamstown port melbourne albert park fitzroy south yarra south melbourne toorak east melbourne west melbourne victoria harbour newquay melbourne 33100 14800 9900 8100 8100 6600 5400 3600 3600 2900 2400 2400 1900 1900 1000 590 320 320 74000 34 dfo melbourne museum melbourne zoo chadstone luna park crown casino mcg melbourne aquarium highpoint etihad stadium harbour town imax melbourne melbourne central rod laver arena werribee zoo moonee valley racecourse queen victoria market Southbank southland state library of victoria northland scienceworks south melbourne market aami park Astor Theatre Capitol Theatre 33100 Shopping 33100 attractions, kids, museums 33100 attractions, kids 27100 Shopping 27100 attractions, kids 22200 attractions, resturants, Shopping, Resturants, Bars, Pubs, venues 18100 attractions, venues, kids 18100 attractions, kids 14800 Shopping 12100 venues 12100 Shopping 12100 attractions, kids 12100 shopping, Resturants, Bars, Pubs, attractions 9900 venues 9900 attractions, kids 8800 venues 8100 Shopping, attractions 8100 Resturants, Bars, Pubs, shopping 8100 Shopping 8100 attractions 6600 Shopping 6600 attractions, museums, kids 6600 Shopping 5400 venues 5400 theatre, venues 5400 venues, theatre melbourne day trips mt buller Bendigo great ocean road phillip island ballarat geelong daylesford mornington peninsula puffing billy yarra valley mt baw baw Grampians Werribee dandenong ranges gipplsand Castlemaine macedon ranges Bellarine Peninsula Echuca Moama 480 27100 27100 18100 18100 14800 14800 12100 12100 9900 6600 5400 5400 5400 3600 3600 3600 1300 1000 390 melbourne tours bike tours melbourne brewery tours melbourne bus tours melbourne food tours melbourne ghost tours melbourne melbourne crime tours melbourne day tours melbourne shopping tours melbourne walking tours photography tours melbourne wine tours melbourne 1300 36 73 110 73 390 91 590 480 210 36 320 melbourne activities day spa melbourne fishing charters melbourne go karting melbourne helicopter rides melbourne high tea melbourne horse riding melbourne melbourne cruises 590 2400 1300 1600 320 2900 1300 320 information weather melbourne melbourne airport essendon airport car hire melbourne melbourne airport parking melbourne airport transfers airport bus melbourne campervan hire melbourne flights to melbourne avalon airport city circle tram moorabin airport Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle 110000 74000 880 6600 9900 1000 1300 1000 5400 5400 1000 110 170 whats on melbourne AFL Grand Final Anzac Day Australia Day Australian Grand Prix Australian International Motor Show Australian Open Boxing Day Test Carols by Candlelight Chinese New Year Celebration CityLink Run for the Kids Fed Square Live Go Festival Good Food & Wine Festival Latin Summer Festival Melbourne Awards Melbourne Bride Wedding Expo Melbourne Cup Melbourne Fashion Festival Melbourne Festival Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Melbourne Fringe Festival Melbourne Home Show Melbourne International Arts Festival Melbourne International Comedy Festival Melbourne International Film Festival Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 3600 4400 27100 40500 2900 590 110000 720 1600 73 12 58 110 0 0 91 16 49500 210 2900 3600 880 720 210 2400 1600 390
  • 14.
    So what doyou need to make a website?
  • 15.
    What You Need- Domain Names Most of the time (and what I recommend) is you use a domain that is just your business name, like exampleseo.com. Other times you may want to have a domain name that simply revolves around the highly searched keywords in your industry (An EMD – Exact match Domain), such as seoservices.com. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of domain names for SEO (they used to have a weighting in Google’s Algorithm and they were also a loophole to getting exact match links from web directories), but unless the domain name has some kind of brand-ability, they really haven’t got any value these days in the world of SEO. If you do manage to buy a good EMD these days (odds are most are taken, so you will need to buy it off someone or use a domain auction website), you need to weigh up exactly how much the domain name / brand is worth – since the SEO value is close to nil.
  • 16.
    What You Need- Content Management Systems A Content Management System (CMS) is a Web application that uses a database (usually MySQL) or other methods to create, edit, and store HTML content in a manageable way. According to W3Techs, the three most popular content management systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and collectively own 74% of the CMS market (with WordPress accounting for over 60%) When choosing a CMS, refer back to your original Objectives and Requirements, as many of these CMS may already have the solutions right out of the box (reducing development costs)
  • 17.
    What You Need- Content Management System Although I fully recommend Wordpress for anyone with a basic website (due to its ease of use, out of the box functionality, huge range of themes, plugin support and SEO functions), you might find that another CMS might better suit your needs. Do a lot of research before selecting a CMS, as you might find that the SEO functionality is limited and you will have to pay your developer huge fees to eliminate roadblocks and take advantage of new technologies.
  • 18.
    What You Need- Themes If you go down the Wordpress route (or another CMS that uses themes), check out premium theme websites like Elegant Themes and GabFire and try to find an already created theme that has the main layouts and functionalities that your website needs. This will help you save time and money on the finished product and will offer support and free upgrades in the future. Try to stay away from free themes or torrenting a paid theme – there might be hidden links in the templates or security issues.
  • 19.
    What You Need– Web Hosting Now that you have a domain name, CMS and theme, now you need a place to put it. To make your website visible to the world, it has to be hosted on a Web server (i.e. with a web hosting company). There are infinite options when picking a company, so do your research and make sure it has all the features you need. PRICE STORAGE SPACE MONTHLY DATA TRANSER EMAIL ACCOUNTS DATABASES ADD-ON DOMAINS FEATURES COUPON CODES
  • 20.
    Now it’s timeto bring it all together…
  • 21.
    Building the Website- Content / Graphics Now that you have your keywords and sitemap, CMS, domain name and web hosting sorted, the next step you need to do is get your website assets created. These include things such as website header images, content and accompanying images for your many pages. The discussed rule of thumb is to ensure that each page of your site has at least 300 words of unique content on it that can’t be found elsewhere on your site (or anywhere else on the Web), but really this is going to depend on the layout of your website and you need to think about the UX implications of long slabs of text. Using your sitemap as a guide, you need to get content written around the targeted keywords of each page. Unlike the olden days, you need to focus on the user - not the search engine, and always have readability in mind; using proper grammar and avoid keyword stuffing content.
  • 22.
    Building the Website- Content / Graphics Additional to the SEO content, it is recommended you steer away from the hard sell all the time, and talk about other related topics that will interest your audience; giving them a reason to come back to your site and hopefully converting at some point in the future. Also, you should look further than just text and images; create things like videos, infographics, slideshows, case studies, PDF downloads, etc.
  • 23.
    Building the Website– Bringing it Together Now that you have everything ready to go, you need to piece it all together. Here is the majority of steps you will need to complete (slightly skewed towards an Apache and Wordpress install): • Delegate your domain name to point to your web host, and configure your domain name (effectively creating a FTP account in the process) • Install your CMS (usually can be done easily within your web hosting control panel)
  • 24.
    Building the Website– Bringing it Together • Start installing & configure plugins / functionality around the following: - SEO Plugin - Security - Broken Link Checker - Social Bookmarking - XML Sitemap - HTML sitemap - Open Graph / Twitter Cards - Minify / Caching • Start creating pages, and uploading the relevant content, images and functionality to each page; setting headings and applying formatting
  • 25.
    Building the Website– Bringing it Together • Create all required emails accounts within your web hosting control panel • Configure and test contact forms, quoting engines and other website functionality • Go through and configure all the different Wordpress, Theme & Plugin Settings
  • 26.
    Building the Website– Bringing it Together • Configure site-wide assets; such as menus, footers and widgets • Implement .htaccess codes and page speed tweaks • Go through the website with a fine tooth comb and make a list of everything that you would like changed. Now use a tool like firebug, to start making small tweaks and apply the fixes to either the website templates or CSS files.
  • 27.
    Building the Website– Apply the SEO! With a lot of the website up and functioning, now it is a matter of applying SEO best practice to the website, specifically around the keyword research in the beginning. Using the earlier keyword research / mapping practices Ad group Seed Keywords Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword Ideas Keyword gold coast gold coast weather gold coast bulletin gold coast accommodation gold coast airport weather gold coast gold coast marathon accommodation gold coast qt gold coast tv guide gold coast harbour town gold coast q1 gold coast gold coast titans gold coast tv guide gold coast weather forecast gold coast library gold coast arts centre jobs gold coast gold coast hospital Currency Avg. monthly searches Competition Suggested bid AUD 49500 0.34 1.86 AUD 90500 0 1.22 AUD 60500 0.02 1.45 AUD 22200 1 3.32 AUD 22200 0.18 2.9 AUD 22200 0 2.25 AUD 14800 0.02 3.78 AUD 12100 0.97 3.26 AUD 12100 0.34 0.89 AUD 12100 0 3.04 AUD 9900 0.01 0.58 AUD 8100 0.33 2.36 AUD 8100 0.01 5.34 AUD 8100 0 1.64 AUD 8100 0.01 0.75 AUD 8100 0.01 0.18 AUD 6600 0 3.36 AUD 6600 0.61 0.49 AUD 6600 0.02 6.38 And combining this with auto-suggestion data from the Google search box (if there is insufficient keyword data and you simply need to expand your title tags)
  • 28.
    Building the Website– Apply the SEO! You need to go from page to page and implement the following on page tweaks: Page URLs: Make sure the site's URLs are clean, and try to utilise the keywords that the page is trying to target within the file name. Use hyphens as separators and don’t keyword stuff – more than1-2 keywords will start looking spammy. http://www.wotif.com/hotels/landmarks/australia/warner-bros-movie-world-hotels.html Page Titles: Write a unique title tag for each page, using a combination of the target keywords you’ve assigned to that page. Make sure the tag reads well, entices customers to click on it and try to include your business name at the end. Keep the entire title tag under 69 characters. Descriptions: Write a unique meta description tag for each webpage, trying to keep the tag under 155 characters. Because meta descriptions are commonly used on search engine result pages (SERPs) to display preview snippets for a given page, it is recommended that you try include your chosen keywords, whilst creating 1-2 sentences that is attractive for a user to want to click on. Title Description
  • 29.
    Building the Website– Apply the SEO! Header Tags: Check that each page has one (and only one) h1 tag, preferably including the main targeted keyword of the page – not assigned to the top logo image or simply used as formatting. Additional header tags (h2 – h6), if applicable, should appear in hierarchal order, lower on the page. Image Alt-tags: Make sure all of your images utilise ALT tags (a tag that lets you set text to be shown if an image can’t be displayed). Without keyword stuffing these tags (like the old days), simply write a few words that describe what the image is about. Also, try and choose a descriptive image file name instead of random words and numbers.
  • 30.
    Building the Website- Other Things • Implement Google Analytics on every page of your website (made easy by copying the code into your header file. Remember to define goals and use event tracking so you can easily track conversions / your main website KPIs. • Set up and implement Google & Bing Webmaster Tools. These give you a window into how the search engines view your website, as well as being able to apply different settings and resulting in a more efficient website crawl.
  • 31.
    Building the Website- Other Things • Create a sitemap.xml file (a file that contains a list of every page of your website and other useful info) and upload it to the root directory of your site (or enable this feature from within your CMS, if available). Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools for indexing. • Create a robots.txt file and upload it to the root directory of your site. Reference your XML sitemap for other smaller search engines to use. • Enable Google Authorship on your website by linking to your personal Google+ profile and listing the website within Google+ as a website you contribute to. Although apparently it doesn’t have a ranking boost at this point in time (it surely will be), it can definitely result in higher CTRs.
  • 32.
    Building the Website- Other Things • Check your onsite SEO implementation by using a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and harvest all of your different tags. Looking for things like broken links, and also long, short or duplicate title and description tags. • Create a Google Places for Business listing. Additional to regular SEO and competing for organic search listings, Places for Business allows you to compete in for when map listings are displayed in the SERPs - and costs nothing.
  • 33.
    Now how doI win the internet?
  • 34.
    Post Launch –Maintenance Tasks Now that your website is up and running, you need to ensure that you keep an eye on things to make sure nothing breaks and things keep going in the right direction. Analytics: In order to determine how your website is performing and measuring how they are getting there, you need to regularly check your website analytics. Things to check are your conversions, event tracking, acquisition sources, user behaviour, etc. Ranking Reports: Additional to the above, I recommend you keep an eye on how your website is ranking within search engines for your targeted keyword list. This will usually show movement before you see anything major in your analytics, you can track your competitors success, as well as being able to establish traffic fluctuations. Webmaster Tools: Make sure you check your webmaster tools accounts for such things as broken links, duplicate tag issues, links pointing towards your website, crawl stats, security issues and search queries you are showing for. Link Check: Additional to checking the above, I recommend that you check all of the links on your website with either a stand-alone tool or a plugin. You’ll find that other websites may have changed their URLs, resulting in 404 errors.
  • 35.
    Post Launch –Maintenance Tasks Testing Functions – To ensure that nothing is broken and you aren’t losing money, be sure to check if your contact forms & shopping carts are working. From time to time there might be issues with old plugins or coding issues. Software / Plugin Updates – Be sure to update your core CMS and plugin files when they become available. A lot of the time these newer versions fix bugs & security issues, but they also come with new functions / technology. Backing Up Your Website – To make sure you don’t risk losing any part of your website if something happens to your web host or if your website is hacked, I highly recommend backing up your files and database to a cloud based storage solution (e.g. Dropbox). Monitor Website Outages – Use one of the many website monitoring services (Pingdom) to keep an eye on the uptime of your website. A lot of the time you’ll get an email if things go down, and you can promptly follow up with your hosting company. Email Marketing – Even though social media has taken a lot of the attention away from email marketing, it is still a cheap way to communicate with a large audience. Give subscribers value and a reason to not hit unsubscribe.
  • 36.
    Post Launch –Maintenance Tasks Website Speed – Use Webpagetest.org, the various browser extensions and Google Analytics to monitor just how long different pages of your website are taking to load. The longer a page takes to load, the higher chance you have of losing customers – check the recommendations and try make your site load as quickly as possible. Reputation Management – Not really a SEO thing, but setup Google Alerts and randomly do some searches on Google for your branded terms to see how the internet community views your brand. A lot of the time you can deal directly with your customers and put out any fires before they spread (people love complaining online) Moderate comments – If you have a blog, you need to moderate comments; responding and engaging with genuine comments from users… and filtering all that spam! Never set your website to auto-approve comments! Website Content – In order to forever grow the keyword scope of your website and to give existing customers a reason to come back, you need to create fresh content. Now don’t be creating content blindly: Either create it based on keyword research so it ranks in Google, or create content that is engaging and will likely attraction a lot of social media love.
  • 37.
    Post Launch -Promotion With the way search engines are heading (i.e. looking to move away from using link metric data and start looking at social signals), it is imperative that you have a social media presence. The following are an absolute must: Social media is a whole discipline in itself, but the thing to remember is you need to give users a reason to want to follow you and you also need to share content that they find engaging and want to share with others (i.e. not just your own, share other people’s content). Also make sure that you respond to users comments in a timely manner and I encourage you to engage with other people and companies (you’ll be surprised what you can get out of it).
  • 38.
    Post Launch –Why do I need to promote?
  • 39.
    Post Launch -Promotion Because links have and will always be an important part of Google’s ranking Algorithm, it is important that you seek to build links towards your website. These days it isn’t a numbers game, so the focus should always be on quality over quantity, and also seek to get links from relevant websites. This again is a whole different area in itself, but some ideas of how you can obtain links and not get hit manually or algorithmically by the search engines are (there is a lot of info to sift through): • • • • • • • • • • • • Content marketing Online profiles (make sure you claim them) Fix broken links Brand / logo / asset reclamation Competitor research Run a competition Run specials / promo codes Infographic creation Interviews Product reviews Surveys Sponsorship
  • 40.
    Considerations / TakeAways (it’s nearly over)
  • 41.
    Considerations / TakeAways • Make sure you define goals, objectives and KPIs • Do your keyword research before you start building anything! • Choose the right CMS to suit your needs • Make sure your website contains unique and quality content • Apply SEO best practice throughout your website & eliminate technical roadblocks • Take advantage of any new SEO technologies / features • Monitor your website performance • Make sure everything is working and up to date • Use social media, share quality and engage with your audience • Build links – Natural, relevant and quality
  • 42.
    Thank You –Any Questions?
  • 43.
  • 44.
    Tools / Resources KeywordResearch Google Keyword Planner - https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home (Google Account Required) Domain names Crazy Domains - http://www.crazydomains.com.au/ ($9.95/year for a .com.au domain) CMS Wordpress - http://wordpress.org/ Joomla - http://www.joomla.org/ Drupal - https://drupal.org/ Themes Elegant Themes - http://www.elegantthemes.com/ (acess to 86 themes for only $39) Gabfire - http://www.gabfirethemes.com/ ($57 per theme or 4 themes for $179) Woo Themes - http://www.woothemes.com/ ($99 per theme) Hosting VentraIP - https://ventraip.com.au/web-hosting/ (Economy Hosting starts at $7.95 Per Month, or $95.40 per year) Use the code “VIP50” when placing an order and you will get 50% off your first invoice. The longer you pay upfront, the more you will save.
  • 45.
    Tools / Resources ContentWriting Textbroker - http://www.textbroker.com/ Elance - https://www.elance.com/ Desktop Tools Screaming frog - http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Firebug - http://getfirebug.com/ Yslow - http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/ Pagespeed Tools - https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights_extensions Htaccess codes for Pagespeed http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/code/htaccess/yslow-&-google-page-speedhtaccess-code-how-to-speed-up-your-website.php Analytics Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/ Webmaster Tools Google Webmaster Tools - http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ Bing Webmaster Tools - http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
  • 46.
    Tools / Resources Authorship GoogleAuthorship - https://plus.google.com/authorship Local Google Places for Business - http://www.google.com.au/business/placesforbusiness/ Bing Places For Business - https://www.bingplaces.com/ Ranking Reports Advanced Web Ranking - http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ Website Monitoring Pingdom - https://www.pingdom.com/ Social Platforms Google Plus - https://plus.google.com/ Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/ Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/
  • 47.
    Tools / Resources SocialMedia Management Tools Buffer - http://bufferapp.com/ Hootsuite - https://hootsuite.com/ Resources A [Poorly] Illustrated Guide to Google's Algorithm http://moz.com/blog/a-poorly-illustrated-guide-to-googles-algorithm Weighting the Clusters of Ranking Factors in Google's Algorithm http://moz.com/blog/weighting-the-clusters-of-ranking-factors-in-google-analyticswhiteboard-friday
  • 48.
    Tools / Resources WordpressPlugins All In One SEO Pack - http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog Better WP Security - http://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/ Helps protect your Wordpress installation from attackers. Hardens standard Wordpress security by hiding vital areas of your site, protecting access to important files via htaccess, preventing brute-force login attempts, detecting attack attempts, and more. Broken Link Checker - http://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/ Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. CommentLuv - http://wordpress.org/plugins/commentluv/ Protects you from spam, encourages twitter followers, adds keywords to names and increases traffic and community! GetSocial - http://wordpress.org/plugins/getsocial/ GetSocial adds an intelligent, lightweight, quick to setup floating social media sharing box on your blog posts. Google XML Sitemaps - http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/ Generates a XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
  • 49.
    Tools / Resources WordpressPlugins NGFB Open Graph+ Pro - http://surniaulula.com/extend/plugins/nextgen-facebook/ NGFB Open Graph+ adds HTML tags (Open Graph, Rich Pins, Twitter Cards) to the head section of webpages for improved Google Search results, and sharing on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Tumblr and many more - an essential plugin for every WordPress website! Social Media Widget - http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/ Adds links to all of your social media and sharing site profiles. WP Htaccess Editor - http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-htaccess-editor/ Simple editor htaccess file without using FTP client. WP Minify - http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-minify/ This plugin uses the Minify engine to combine and compress JS and CSS files to improve page load time.

Editor's Notes

  • #2 http://www.universityoffarmers.com/
  • #44 http://www.universityoffarmers.com/