Blick Academy: SEO Workshopwith Barry Connolly on 29th June 2015

www.searchscientist.co.uk

Today’s Training Agenda

1 What is SEO?

2 On Page Optimisation

3 Technical SEO

4 Content Writing & Blogging

5 Link Building

6 Social Media

First thing’s first…

What is SEO?

What is SEO?

Identifying the phrases that potential visitors are using to find your site and manipulating how your

site is found on those search terms

Goals of SEO

● Increase & Maintain your Search Engine Rankings

● Increase your Organic Search Engine Presence● Increase the number of visitors to your website

through Organic traffic

What can be gained from SEO?

● Brand Awareness● Promotion & Advertising● Drive traffic to your website● Conversions● Leads● Sales

Let’s take a look at Google Search Results

Paid Listings (Google AdWords)

Organic Listings

SEO Key Points

● Website Audit● Keyword Research● On-page Optimisation● Content Writing● External Optimisation

AuditA great insight to your website’s performance

Why is an Audit useful?

● Check the health of your website● Identify technical issues● What’s performing and what’s not performing?● Carry out Competitor Analysis

Research Keywords to Rank onOne of the most important things to do is…

Relevance to Search Query is Essential.

Give the user what they’re searching for.

Search Query Should Match Title Tag & Meta Description

& Lead through to appropriate page.

Google rewards relevance & good user behaviour stats (low

bounce rate, high page view, time on site etc)

The Core Parts of SEO

1. On Page Optimisation (Tags)

2. Technical & Usability (URLs, Sitemaps, Mobile)

3. Links (Internal Links & Links from Other Sites)

On-Page Optimisation

Keywords – One or two per page, use them in:

- Title Tags

- Meta Descriptions

- Header Tags (H1, H2, H3)

- Text & other Content

Where it’s natural to do so. Don’t stuff. Write for visitor.

On-Page Content

Text & Image Content on Page:

- Descriptive File Names & ALT Tags for all images

- Clear Theme for each page

- Don’t Duplicate Content

Technical SEO

● Descriptive, Unique URL for each page

● Page Load Time

● Sitemaps

● Avoid Flash (especially Flash menus)

● Fix any Webmaster Tools Errors/Warnings

● Canonical Link Tags for Duplicate Pages

● Optimise for Conversions & User Experience

Duplicate Content● Ensure that all content is unique.● Google does not like websites with duplicate content.● Use Copyscape http://www.copyscape.com/ to check for duplicate

content.

Image Optimisation

Be sure to optimise your images by reducing their file size to increase their upload speed.

Large image files can significantly slow down the speed of your website.

Image Software like Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks have useful tools for this.

Photoshop - Save for Web...

You can increase or reduce the quality of the image accordingly on the right. You can also see the new file size of the image on the bottom left.

Infuse your website with quality…

Content Writing

Writing Tips● Use an appropriate title that relates to the keyword that you are targeting.● Try to make sure that the target keyword in the title is closer to the start

rather than the end as it is seen as more relevant.● Generally use the keyword about 3-4 times per article. A good rule of

thumb is once per 100 keywords.● Ideally you should link the article to the category/product page that you

are targeting, but not primarily.● Try not to overuse hyperlinks that use anchor text. Try not to highlight the

same text multiple times as this can lead to over-optimisation. Use variations of the phrase (4 or 5 words is fine as long as the keyword is present).

Writing Tips● Use subheadings to highlight keywords – this also helps break up content

and increases readability.● Use H2 tags for sub headings.● Highlight keyword at least once in bold (this can have a small impact but

use it at your discretion because it can sometimes look spammy)● Be sure to use 'alt' tags for images to ensure that they are properly

labelled. They should be labelled in relation to the keyword that you are targeting if applicable.

● Ensure that images have been reduced in file size without losing quality.

BloggingBlogging is a great way to create new content

● Your news page can help you rank for other keywordsi.e. Long tail keywords.● Google favours fresh unique content that is of a high standard.● It is important to keep your best content ‘on-site’ and not to publish

it in multiple locations.

Now let’s take a look at…

External Optimisation

Link Building

Links act as referrals. Recommendations from other sites.

● Quality over Quantity

● Don’t Buy Links

● We’ll look at how to get links

Link Building is Changing

Years ago, people got away with getting links from:

● Link exchanges with other sites

● They wrote articles for Squidoo, Ezinearticles etc

● They paid for links from sites / ‘link farms’

● They built keyword rich domains and linked them to their site, and

so on.

This doesn’t work any more. You’ll be penalised & lose rank!

Link Building Now…is Closer to real life ‘Word of Mouth’

Get Links by:

- Partnerships/Sponsorships

- Finding sites that mention you, ask for link

- Writing Blog posts

- Writing Guest Posts for other sites (do not overuse)

- Spreading Shareworthy Content

Internal Links

● Internal links are important, they help to create a hierarchy

● Link from one page of your site to another related page

within the text and navigation i.e. related categories.

If writing text on a page that’s related to another page, hyperlink

text

Types of Links

Branded vs Anchor Text

A branded link uses the domain namehttp://www.searchscientist.co.uk/

Anchor Text uses the KeywordSearch Scientist

How to generate a link<a href=”http://www.searchscientist.co.uk”/>http://www.searchscientist.co.uk</a>

<a href=”http://www.searchscientist.co.uk”/>Search Scientist</a>

Best Linking Practices

Anchor text links are more powerful than branded links but over-optimisation can lead to a penalty.

Ensure that there is a balance of keywords targeted per page.

Social Media

● Social media helps build a community● It helps build awareness● It is a fast way of distributing news● You can use it to engage directly with your

audience

How to Increase Social Following

● Update pages frequently with useful content● Engage directly with users● Carry out competitions● Ask people directly to follow you● Include social icons in your email signatures

summaryLet’s sum up the main points covered today

Recap of Today’s Training

- Choose Keywords for Each Core Page

- Unique URLs, Content & Tags for Each Page

- Technical Site Changes

- Get Links from Sites already mentioning you

- Blog Posts & Add Shareability

- Build Social Networks & Share Content

- Know your Audience and what they are searching for.

Any Questions?

Resources

•Email barry@searchscientist.co.uk for free SEO

health check.

•Follow Search Scientist for the Latest Online

Marketing Tips & Updates:

Competitor Analysis Tools(There are many other analysis tools but these are two that I like to use. Be sure to use their free trial)

● https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/● https://majestic.com/

Social Media Management Tool● https://hootsuite.com/

Google Page Speed Test● https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Duplicate Content● http://www.copyscape.com/

Some useful Links