Beginning SEO

Overview

• On Page optimisation guidelines• 3 Action points for Google+ - with casestudy

On Page Opimisation

• On-page optimisation begins:– with formatting your content properly so that

Google (search engines) can clearly identify what keyword that content is relevant to, and

– how strong that relevance is.

Title tag

• Use the Title tag properly (<title></title>) - This will be the main title of your content at the top of the page, make sure to include the content's main keyword within the first 60 characters of this tag, followed by an LSI keyword. No more than 6 or 7 words tops! – E.g. Incredible Fat-Burning Soup Recipe | Weight

Loss PlanBREAKDOWN: (Main Keyword is "fat-burning soup”LSI Keyword is"weight loss plan")

Articles/posts/reviews

• Articles/posts/reviews need to be 500+ words minimum - The longer the better – I’ve found - this is part of the way your site will ultimately be rewarded as a trusted authority destination

• Longer pieces can make your content/site accidentally rank for a ton of long-tail keywords that you never planned on, which is fantastic.

• Google wants you to invest time and effort in your site, luckily you can accomplish that with just 500 words.

Density – a myth?

• Well, yes – but if the keyword isn’t ‘on the page’ and in the right places then it won’t rank.

• SEOMoz says – “At least 3X in the body copy on the page (sometimes a few more times if there's a lot of text content).”

• So rather than be vague and say ‘a few more times’ - I use this as a way of explaining – “how many times should you use a keyword” - – Personally, I’ve found that writing naturally

I achieve between 2-4% • SEOPressor will indicate this for you (along with almost

everything else in this check list), but if you're not in a position to purchase it then use this utility to check the keyword density in your content:– SEO Book Keyword Density Tool.

Italics/Bold/Underline

• Italics/Bold/Underline your keyword at least once - This is another function that SEOPressor does for you,

• If you're not using SH Wordpress then manually make sure each article you write features the main keyword bolded, underlined, or italicised at least once within the content– using <b>keyword</b> or <strong>semantic

keyword</strong>

Meta keywords

• Use the Meta keywords tag properly - Within the code of your page you want to tell Google what you're attempting to rank using the following format: – <meta name="keywords" content="MAIN KEYWORD, LSI

KEYWORD">• This has very little power to help you rank in the

grand scheme of the system, but it's still worth doing.– EXAMPLE: <meta name="keywords" content="fat-burning

soup, weight loss plan ">

Meta Description

• Use the Meta Description tag properly - Google still pulls the text of how it describes your page to other people from this tag, use it to help draw the person you're hoping to land into clicking on your page when they're looking at Google's results by making it an irresistible offer: – <meta name="description" content="HYPE-HEAVY

SENTENCE WITH KEYWORD"> – E.g. <meta name="description" content="A fat-burning

soup recipe that's not only delicious and filling but is a great weight loss plan for when you need to drop inches quickly">

Headline tags

• Use the Headline tags properly - Similarly to the Title tag, these three headline tags within the body of the content (H1, H2, H3) show Google that the text within them is extremely important to BOTH the article's writer, and the intended audience.

• Rewrite the title of the article that you used in the title tags, again using the main keyword + LSI keyword, but do NOT re-use the exact title tag sentence (it's good to vary): – E.g. <H1>One Of My Favorite Fat-Burning Soup Recipes And

Incredible Weight Loss Plan</H1>

Image naming/alt tags

• Use the image naming/alt tags properly - Whenever you place an image within an article (and you ALWAYS should for SEO purposes), name it after a modified version of the article's main keyword.

• And then also use that same modified keyword as the Alt tag description: – E.g. <img src="../fat-burning-soup-guide.jpg"

alt="fat-burning soup guide" />

Image naming/alt tags – WHY?

• A few notes about why we're doing this exactly in this way: – Google has no idea what the picture's content

actually is, which is why we can help it figure it out by using our keyword as both the name of the picture file itself and the ALT tag description. This gives us more chances to rank for that keyword.

Image naming/alt tags – WHY?

• The reason we use modified keywords in our images is that it gives us a more natural pattern to the keyword placement and doesn't make us appear to be "keyword stuffing". – DEFINITION: Keyword stuffing is

the over usage of a single keyword for the purpose of trying to fool Google into ranking the content for it.

External anchor text link

• By placing a contextual anchor link within our content's main body that links out to a high-PR authority site like About.com or Wikipedia using our main keyword, we show Google that we're not trying to be greedy and keep the reader to ourselves.

External anchor text link – WHY?

• This is important because Google's algorithm knows that a non-sales-driven piece of content has no problem with external linking to information sources on the main subject, while people trying to SELL something to someone DO have a problem with that. – EXAMPLE: <a

href="http://www.answers.com/topic/cabbage-soup-diet">fat-burning soup</a>

External anchor text link – WHY?

• IMPORTANT: Do NOT be tempted to make this a "no follow" link. – Leave it as a regular link.

• Google knows when sites are being cute, and adding a no follow tag to the external authority site link is obvious to them as an act by someone trying to game their engine to "preserve link juice" (which is bullshit anyway).

Related Articles

• Improve your internal link power by using a "Related Articles Box" - Place a "related articles" section at the bottom of every new article with 2-3 links to other articles on your site that are for related content.

• Have ONE of the links use an anchor text link keyword from the originating article (in this case fat-burning soup), while the others use the proper anchor text link keyword of the articles you're linking to.

Sitemap

• Update your sitemap if not using Wordpress - Once the new content is posted on the site, create a new sitemap using utility at XML Sitemaps and upload it to the root directory of your site. Submit the new xml link file to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.

• This is only necessary if you're NOT using Wordpress for the core of your site's code.

3 key Google+ actions to implement immediately

1. Put your keyword(s) in profile links

• Show links page

• Show links page

• Not logged into Google

• No backlinks • Ranking

achieved using social signals and AuthorRank

2. AuthorRank Claim your content using - rel="author”

TIP: If you post content on G+ or Blogger.com this is taken care of for you

2. AuthorRank Claim your content

• 3 step process for content:– Write quality content on your site and on third

party sites that people want to share

– Allow Google+ users to share and validate content on your site by adding the +1 button to your site

– Use author markup (rel=”me” and rel=”author”) wherever you, to link your content and author page to your Google+ profile

Setting up AuthorRank

• Upload your photo – headshot• Verify the email address you’ll be

associating with your content using Google’s process - http://digf.la/xxE4yT • Add any blogs for which you’ve

written to the “Contributor To” section of your “About” page on G+

Setting up AuthorRank

• Then make sure each piece of content you write (no matter where) includes:– your name – a mailto link (“mailto: you@yourname.com”

Google then take care of the restNOTE: it may take some time to show in results

Creates the rel=“me”

Creates the link to ‘About author’ on my site

Verify what you’ve done

• http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Verify what you’ve done

Finally…

Increase the number of social signals linking back to your content

ASK !!!

Primary engagement only

• Total +1s = 39,17,25 = 81

• Total Comments = 145, 34, 33 = 212 • Total shares = 34, 12, 31 =

78

• These do not include secondary comments, +1s or reshares

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Qs ?