seo course textbook preview - equinet academy

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO) TRAINING COURSE

How to Rank Your Website on Page #1 of Google

AcademyEquinet

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training CourseAcademyEquinet

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Topics Covered

12345

Introduction

Keyword Research

On-Page SEO

Link Building

Local & International SEO & Miscellaneous


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Introduction to SEO

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SEO Fundamentals

Why SEO is So Important?to 80% ignore paid ads on the right side of the SERPs70%

of links clicked on by search engine users are organic results70%

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/

close rate for SEO leads on average compared to 1.7% close rate for outbound leads (print or direct mail)

14.6%

of internet users use search82.6%

illion global searches conducted each month on average100 B

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/


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How Can SEO Benefit Your Business

Increased Brand Visibility Increased Traffic Increased Profits

If your group of friends and you were looking for a quick bite in the middle of the night and a friend asked you, “What’s a good 24-hour fast-food restaurant to get a quick bite?” What would be the first restaurant that comes into your mind? !Your answer would most likely be MacDonalds. !Why is that so? Because you literally see MacDonalds everywhere.

With increased visibility in the SERPs, you’ll draw more clicks to your landing pages. That’s also provided your search snippets (title and meta description) are attractive and relevant to the search terms. !With increased traffic, you can work on increasing your profits and conversions by optimising your landing pages and value proposition.


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How Do Search Engines Work?

Algorithms!To calculate authority and relevancy of a webpage to a given search query.

Crawling!Search engine spiders crawl the web through following links

Indexing!Search engines store the information it collects into its index.

Ranking!A score is given to each of webpage after taking into account hundreds of ranking factors.

Search Results


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What is PageRank?

“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm used by Google to help determine the relative importance of a website. Every website is given a Google PageRank score between 0 and 10 on an exponential scale.” - Bruceclay !Each link from one website to another is interpreted by Google as a vote. Depending on the number of outbound links a page has, the PageRank is split equally. !PageRank is not…!the ranking position of a page in the search results. PageRank is only one of the many ranking factors and it does not guarantee #1 position in the search results.

Site APR 8

Site BPR 3

Site CPR 0

PR4

PR4

Site DPR 2

PR3

Recommended reading: • http://searchengineland.com/what-is-google-pagerank-a-guide-for-searchers-

webmasters-11068 • http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/what-is-pagerank/

http://searchengineland.com/what-is-google-pagerank-a-guide-for-searchers-webmasters-11068

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/what-is-pagerank/


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White Hat Vs Black Hat SEOGoogle’s search engine algorithms have evolved to combat black hat techniques, and take a very serious note on black hat link building. !Some black hat SEO techniques include: !•Keyword stuffing •Duplicating internal pages on a mass scale •Sneaky redirects •Displaying different results to users and search engines. •Keyword-rich anchor text on inbound links, especially on

low quality sites

Keyword Stuffing Example:!This cake decorating tutorial will show you a cake

decorating tutorial on how to decorate a cake. The first part of this cake decorating tutorial is on how to decorate

a cake. Here’s how to decorate a cake in this cake decorating tutorial.


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Google Major Algorithm ChangesGoogle changes its search algorithm around 500 - 600 times each year. That’s 1 - 2 times on average each day. Some algorithm updates have tremendous results on the search rankings. Below is a list of major algorithmic updates in recent years: !•Panda •Penguin •Hummingbird •Pigeon Update •Mobile Update

Panda Update (2011)

Penguin Update (2012)

Hummingbird Update (2013)

Lower the rankings of low-quality sites.

Decrease rankings of sites that engage in shady link building.

Relevancy and Knowledge graph update (Semantic Search).

Pigeon Update (2014)Improves distance and location ranking parameters for local search results.

Mobile-Friendly Update (2015)Impacts mobile search rankings of non-mobile-friendly pages.

Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change • http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-algorithm-updates

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-algorithm-updates


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How to Rank Page #1 on Google

On-Page SEO Off-Page SEO

• Keywords found on content!

• Exceptional and unique content!

• Fast page loading time

• Optimized for mobile

• Proper URL structures

• Good site architecture

• Optimized internal links

• Acquiring inbound links from reputable, relevant webpages through Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Outreach, etc.

• Local citations

• Search engine submission


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ReportingOff-Page SEOOn-Page SEO

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The 4-Step SEO Process

Step 1: Conduct keyword research!!The first step of any SEO campaign is to conduct keyword research. Doing SEO without knowing what keywords your site should rank for is like firing at a target without first taking aim. !Detailed keyword research and analysis sets your SEO campaign up for success in the long run.

Keyword Research

Step 2: Make your site search engine friendly!!Once you have gathered a targeted list of keywords, the next step would be to input those keywords into your existing content. You can also use your keyword list to give you new content ideas. !Other on-page SEO factors include site speed, mobile optimisation, site architecture, and internal linking.

Step 3: Link building and local citation building!!After taking care of your on-page SEO, here comes the hard part. !Off-page SEO activities include link building and building local citations.

Step 4: Reporting and analysis!!Your SEO campaign doesn’t stop here. Check your keyword ranking reports, regularly monitor your site health through 3rd party tools such as Google Webmaster Tools, check your backlink reports, and identify potential areas for improvement.


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Keyword Research

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How to conduct keyword research

like a pro

What is Keyword Research?Keyword research is finding out what search terms your potential customers are using, so that you can

optimise your site better with the data.

Your job is to know what those keywords are and optimise your

website for them.

Your customers use keywords/search terms to search for your

business.


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Why is Keyword Research Important?

To provide the best answer to a question, you first need to understand the intention of the question, also commonly referred to as the searcher intent. Keyword research can help you to identify buyer personas based on the questions (search terms) they ask.

By conducting keyword research, you’ll discover exactly what questions your consumers are asking. The next step would be to understand the searchers’ intents and create content that will provide the best answers to each question.

Knowing what keywords your potential customers are using can help you better optimise your content for them and for the search engines (e.g. by including the keywords in your title tags, URL, meta description, copy, and image alt tags.)

Discover Buyer Personas

Create Useful Content

Optimize Your Content

123


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Why is it important to identify your buyer personas?Knowing who your buyers are will give you a broader idea of search terms to conduct keyword research on. !From a keyword researcher’s perspective, different buyer personas key in different search terms. !For example, a marketing director looking to hold a conference with partnering companies would key in “conference room rental”, whereas a business consultant looking to hold a meeting with his client would key in “meeting room rental”. !Researching your buyer personas and understanding what keywords they are most likely to enter is the first step to effective keyword research.

What would you key in to Google if you were:

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Identifying Buyer Personas

1 Brainstorm with your team!Set up a meeting with your team to brainstorm and list down all possible buyer personas.

2

3

4Conduct market survey!Invest in paid market research data, conduct surveys with 3rd party and existing customers, visit forums and attend community events where your potential customers hang out.

Conduct keyword research!Use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner to identify buyer personas.

Analyse existing customer enquiries & profiles!Looking through your past customer enquiries and existing customer profiles can help you identify buyer personas.

Refer to buyer persona worksheet

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Thinking Like a BuyerGoing into the personas of your buyers!!Our earlier example (“conference room rental” & “meeting room rental”) where different buyer personas keying in different keyword variations that essentially mean the same thing shows that it is important to go into your customer’s minds in order to optimise for as many possible keyword variations. !If one of your buyer personas are event planners, think about what words they would search for in order to find your products and services. !What content do they digest? Where do they hang out on the web? What sites do they frequent?

Asking these questions will help you to discover even broader (awareness) keywords. !For example if your customers are mainly event planners looking to rent function rooms for their clients’ birthday parties, they’d probably use search terms such as “function room rental”. !You can also create “awareness” articles such as “20 Amazing Birthday Ideas to Celebrate Your 21st” to increase brand awareness. !Conduct keyword research with that title in mind and you will probably discover keywords such as “birthday party ideas.

What would you key in to Google if you were:

• a business consultant looking to hold a meeting with your client

• an event planner looking run a birthday party for a customer

• a speaker looking to run a seminar to showcase your products

• a tuition teacher looking to hold a class for your students

• a training provider looking to hold a corporate training workshop

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Some examples of keywords in various buying stages:!!“Awareness” keywords: •how to organise a seminar •how to promote an event !“Interest” keywords: •meeting rooms facilities •seminar rooms singapore !“Desire” keywords: •training room rental rates •training room rental in bugis !“Action” keywords: •rent a training room in singapore •rent a meeting room singaporeImage Courtesy of

Hubspot

Types of Keywords You Should Target

AIDA Funnel

}}

InformationalContent

Product-CenteredContent

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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34158/How-Inbound-Marketing-Aligns-With-the-New-Purchase-Loop.aspx


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Short Tail, Long Tail, Location Based Keywords !There are short tail (generic), long tail (specific), and location based keywords to consider when choosing your target keywords. !Long tail (specific) and location based keywords tend to perform better than short tail (generic) keywords. !The example on the left showcases a training room rental company based in Singapore and the keywords gathered through keyword research.

Short tail Long tail Location based

• room rental

• rent rooms

• rooms for rent

• training rooms

• training room rental

• long term training room rental

• cheap training room rental

• training room rental rates

• training room rental in bugis

• rent a training room in singapore

• training room rental singapore

• singapore training rooms for rent

A consumer searching for “room rental” could be looking for an apartment to stay in, not specifically a training room to conduct business activities.

The above keywords are more targeted to a specific audience. A consumer searching for “training room rental rates” has a high probability in enquiring on rental fees.

Location based keywords are high potential keywords and tend to convert very well. A consumer searching for “training room rental in bugis” most likely only wants to rent a training room in that specific area.

Types of Keywords You Should Target

Refer to: www.alstarrental.com

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http://www.alstarrental.com


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Types of Keywords You Should TargetWhat is a good search volume? !Is there a minimum search volume I should use as a guideline? - It depends on the type of keywords and the buyer intent. !Through our Google AdWords reports, we have noticed conversions on long tail keywords with a local search volume as low as 40 monthly average searches. !Typically for long tail, actionable keywords, and location based keywords, you shouldn’t worry about a minimum search volume.

Take note of the search trends. The average monthly searches is 170,

however in certain months there are

less than 170 searches.

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How to use Google Keyword Planner!!Step 1: Sign into Google AdWords with your Gmail account.

Conducting Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner)C

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Step 2: Set up your AdWords account if you have signed in to AdWords for the first time. Once done, navigate to Tools => Keyword Planner.


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Step 3: Click on “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category”.


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Step 4: Enter a seed keyword (e.g. “training room rental”) and click “Get ideas”.


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Step 5: Explore the “Ad group ideas” and “Keyword ideas” tab and start building your keyword list.

Other keyword research tools!!Here are some other keyword research tools, both paid and free, to consider: !•Google Suggest •Ubersuggest •Wordtracker •semrush !Once you have gathered additional keywords from the other KW research tools, plug them back into Google Keyword Planner to estimate the average monthly search volume of each search term.

Conducting Keyword Research

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https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230?hl=en

http://ubersuggest.org/

http://www.wordtracker.com/

http://www.semrush.com/features/keyword-research/


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Using more than one keyword research tool for keyword research!!There are many great tools to conduct keyword research. However, like most other softwares out there in the market, there is no one size fits all. !Using only the Google Keyword Planner for example, you can gather a decent keyword list. However there will be long tail search queries that Google Keyword Planner will miss. Using Google Suggest and other keyword tools will help you pick up any missed long tail keywords.

Keyword research data is rather limited using just Google Keyword Planner

Using Google Suggest provides extended keyword data

Conducting Keyword ResearchC

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Refer to keyword research worksheet


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How to Evaluate Keyword CompetitivenessAnalysing AdWords CPC range and keyword competition level!!Looking at the suggested bid and competition at the keyword level, we can assume that since advertisers are bidding heavily on paid search ads, they are likely investing on SEO as well, thus increasing the competitiveness of a group of keywords in the organic search ranking results.C

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There are many third party softwares that can automatically analyse the keyword difficulty level (how difficult is it to rank a keyword on Google) such as: • Moz keyword difficulty tool• Spyfu keyword research tool• SEMrush keyword difficulty tool!To evaluate how competitive a keyword is without the use of tools, you need to look a range of on-page and off-page ranking factors in order to understand what caused a webpage to rank on the top 5 positions of Google such as: • Keywords in Title tags, H1 tags, URL• How useful and relevant is the content to the

search result• Quality and quantity of backlinks to the page• Overall domain authority

How to Evaluate Keyword CompetitivenessTitle Tags

URL

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https://moz.com/tools/keyword-difficulty

http://www.spyfu.com/keyword

http://www.semrush.com/features/keyword-difficulty/


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Keywords found on page!!In the example on the right, Regus appears to be optimised for multiple related keywords (conference room and meeting rooms are used interchangeably). !As a result, Regus outranks We Are Spaces for the search term “conference room rental” very likely due to the fact that it has optimised its title to include “conference room rental”.

Search results for term: !

meeting room rental

Search results for term: !

conference room rental

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness

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How to Evaluate Keyword CompetitivenessQuality and Usefulness of Content!!Can you beat your competitors’ content in terms of quality and usefulness? !The key to achieving high rankings on Google is to create high quality pages that achieve their purpose. !As stated in Google’s official Search Quality Rating Guidelines,

“High quality pages are satisfying and achieve their purpose well. High quality pages exist for almost any purpose, from giving information to making you laugh.”

What makes a High quality page? A High quality rating requires at least one of the following high quality characteristics: !•A satisfying amount of high quality MC (Main Content). •The page and website are expert, authoritative, and trustworthy for the

topic of the page. •The website has a good reputation for the topic of the page. !In addition, the page and website should have most of the following:!•A satisfying amount of website information, for example, About Us

information, Contact or Customer Service information, etc. •SC (Supplementary Content) which contributes to a satisfying user

experience on the page and website. •Functional page design which allows users to easily focus on MC and use

SC as desired. •A website which is well cared for and maintained.

Source: Search Quality Rating Guidelines

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http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf


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1How relevant are those links?!!It is also important to look at the quality of the backlinks. A camera blog linking to another website’s article on camera tips has more link relevancy than a general business directory linking to a camera blog.

2Uniqueness of backlinks!!How many unique websites a.k.a referring domains are linking to a particular website. According to a survey and correlation data report by Moz, a higher number of unique IPs linking to a domain correlated to higher rankings.

Number of back links and quality of backlinks!!A study on the importance of backlinks published by Cyrus Shepard from Moz highlighted that more backlinks correlated to higher rankings.

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness

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https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-google-study


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How to Evaluate Keyword CompetitivenessDomain Authority / Page Authority!!High domain authority (DA) and page authority (PA) also correlate to higher rankings. !The actual algorithms and metrics used to calculate a site’s DA is unknown. However there are many 3rd party tools that can estimate the DA of a site. !The Mozbar browser extension is one such tool. Once installed, go to the webpage and the DA/PA will show up on your browser toolbar.

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https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mozbar/eakacpaijcpapndcfffdgphdiccmpknp?hl=en


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What insights can you get from your search terms report?!!The search terms report in AdWords shows you the exact search queries that users searched for on Google and clicked through your search results. It also shows you which keywords result in a higher ROI and which keywords do not convert as much. !This data is very important in determining which keywords you should focus more of your SEO/SEM efforts on. !For example, reducing your spend on poorly performing keywords will decrease your costs per acquisitions (CPA), resulting in an increase in your overall profit.

Advanced Keyword ResearchC

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Drawing search term reports from your internal search engine.!!Having an internal search engine installed on your site for users to search for what they want is a great way to gain insight into what people are looking for. !If you’re using WordPress, you can draw your search terms reports from your internal search engine with Yoast’s Google Analytics for WordPress plugin or set up site search manually with the help of this guide. !Once you’re done collating your reports, add these search terms to your keyword list.

Advanced Keyword ResearchC

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https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/#analytics

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1012264?hl=en


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On-Page SEO

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How to fix internal site issues and optimise your pages to boost rankings.

What is On-Page SEO / Why is it Important?

1 Search engines look for cues (i.e. keywords in the title and URL) on a webpage to determine whether it is relevant enough to rank for a set of search terms.

There are also other factors that search engines take into account such as site load time, crawlability, and click-thru-rate.

On-Page SEO is understanding these ranking factors and fixing any issues to make your site more friendly to the search engines.

234 Without fixing your on-page SEO issues, it

can be difficult to rank well even with good off-page SEO.


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EOUrl: www.webdesign.com/ecommerce-web-design/1) Keywords

in URL

<title>E-commerce Web Design Service</title>

<h1>E-commerce Web Design Service</h1>

We provide the best custom e-commerce web design services

Image Keyword

inserted into Title and/or

Alt Text

<h3>Why We Provide The Best Website Design Package</h3>

Designing a site requires…

Website creation process…

View our other web design packages ->

<head><meta name=“description” content=“We provide the best and most affordable commerce web design packages in the market.”></head>

5) LSI Keywords in Content Area

6) Quality & Uniqueness of

Content

2) Keywords in Meta Description

3) Keywords in Title Tags

4) Keywords in Subheadings

7) Keywords in Image Title & Alt Tags

9) Interlink articles with relevant anchor text

(Site architecture)

8) Link out to relevant sources

if possible }10) Design

& UX

11) Mobile-friendly

12) Page Loads Fast

13) Page is crawlable/indexable

14) Include social sharing

buttons

15) Https Secure

On-

Page

SEO

Che

at S

heet

Refer to on-page SEO audit checklist

End of SEO Course Preview

WordPress Website Creation Training CourseAcademyEquinet

Thank you for previewing our SEO course. !

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