practiceweb seo workshop
TRANSCRIPT
SEO Workshop With James Scanlan and Collette Easton
What is Search Engine Optimisation?
Active Practice of improving quality & volume of traffic from search engines
Making content & structure more relevant for key search engine terms
What is the potential?
Add credibility to a website due to the editorial nature of search engine results
Reduce non-relevant visits Create a measurable campaign
What can’t SEO guarantee?
That your website will rank at the top for every search engine, for every search phrase
Knock competitors sites off SERPs Results if implemented as a one-off project
How Search Engines Work
Crawling, Indexing, Search Queries, Ranking Complex software using algorithms to identify & collect
information from web pages Users query an index not the live internet Results returned by matching search query The most relevant pages sit at the top
Getting to the top of Google?
Relevance Popularity
Managing the SEO Project
I do, we do, you do
Let’s get started: Step 1: Business objectives & Search Goals Step 2: Keyword research Step 3: Benchmarking Step 4: On page optimisation Step 5: Link Building Ongoing: Reporting
Marketing your Practice
Step 1: Business objectives
Step 1: Business objectives
Important step – don’t create an aimless campaign Business objectives should form the basis of the SEO
goals, which should translate into revenue’ SEO goals are essential to realise the business objectives
Step 1: Business objectives
Increase online brand awareness Increase revenue generated from website Get ahead of competitors X, Y & Z Launch new service Improve existing services visibility Drive down marketing & advertising costs How results are measured
Step1: Search Goals
Without identifying a set of specific to-do’s the project cannot take shape and task responsibility cannot be assigned
SEO initiatives should not focus on hundreds of web pages, when only a handful of important landing pages turn visits into prospects
Step1: Search Goal Examples
Reporting KPIs understood Get to top of Google for local listings Complete on page optimisation for all important pages
Enquiry form What are examples of important pages?
Identify competitor SEO strategy Generate subject specific & relevant back links
Blogs Directories
Step 2: Keyword Research
Step 2: Keyword Research
Identifying the keywords users specifically search on is crucial
Step 2: Keyword Research (broken image)
Step 3: Benchmarking Activity
Step 3: Benchmarking Activity
Business objectives and search goals should of identified the KPIs to be used for reporting Pages Indexed Keyword positions Back link analysis Analytics
Traffic Goals
Alexa Rank
Step 3: Pages Indexed (broken image) Ask Google how many of your sites pages have been
indexed
Step 3: Keyword Positions• Conduct keyword searches on your chosen engines to
identify rises & falls in positioning
www.accountantA.co.uk Date Google Bing Date Google Bing
Accountant Edinburgh 18/4 3 5 11/4 4 4
Edinburgh Accountants 18/4 3 4 11/4 4 4
Tax Assistance Scotland 18/4 17 22 11/4 17 22
www.accountantB.co.uk
Accountant Edinburgh 18/4 1 3 11/4 2 2
Edinburgh Accountants 18/4 2 5 11/4 3 3
Tax Assistance Scotland 18/4 12 19 11/4 12 19
Step 3: Back link analysis
Step 3: Site Analytics
Visits Length of time on page Bounce rate Goals
Step 3: Alexa Ranking • What ‘number’ is your site in the UK?
Step 3: On page optimisation
Page titles Page meta descriptions Better anchor text Image ALT tags & filenames http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/09/
seo-starter-guide-updated.html Use Google Webmaster Tools content analysis section to
confirm correct length and duplication issues
Step 4: On page optimisation
Step 4: Page titles
Step 4: Unique meta descriptions
Step 4: Better anchor text
Step 4: Optimise Images
Step 4: Sitemaps
Sitemap for users XML Sitemap for Google
Step 5: Link Building
Step 5: Link Building
Discovered how many sites link to your site How many are trusted & authoritative?
Specialize in your business area Has Page Rank to transfer Has the keyword somewhere in the link anchor or the page is about
the keyword What can you bring to the party?
Brains, Money or Hard work
Step 5: How to Build Links
Get relevant curated resources to include you Get news articles to reference you Get suppliers & customers to link to you Get websites to use your widgets & badges Get writer with blogs to mention you Get individuals in forums & social media sites talking Submit relevant useful comments with links in signatures Submit to quality directories Submit PR & articles
Ongoing
The Long Haul
Plan for 12 months, set realistic expectations Plan when & how you will review progress Ensure that tasks are journalled Create actionable items for the coming months Assign responsibility for different reporting areas Internal responsibility with no external help needs at least
4 hours per week dedicated