Transcript Document

Search Engine Optimisation
eMarketing: The Essential Guide to
Online Marketing
www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook
The process of getting a web site to
achieve top rankings for a chosen key
phase on the organic SERPs
SEO is not an event. It is not a magic
wand. It is a continuous process
It’s a way of thinking about your
web site
A way of thinking about how search
engines see your web site
And how users use search engines
to find your web site
It’s about Search Psychology
Back in the day, meta data were
used to index and rank web sites
But this left the search
engines open to abuse
Search engines have developed
other ways of indexing and ranking
web sites
Google and PageRank
QuickTimeª and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• BackRub is the
precursor to
Google
• Developed by
Larry Page and
Sergey Brin
• Based on
PageRank
PageRank
• Based on citation analysis: the
more a paper is cited, the more
relevant it is likely to be
• Probability distribution:
likelihood of a web surfer randomly
clicking through to visit a web
page
PageRank enabled Google to avoid
manipulation of meta data
Ranking now based on…
On-page factors
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Give context
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Meta data
keywords
 descriptions
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Off-page factors
• Give relevance and authority
• Links to web site
Two types of SEO
White hat
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Works within search engine
guidelines
User’s needs are relevant
Aims for long-lasting success
QuickTimeª and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
image:
www.nodelaysachiever.nhs.uk
Black hat
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Manipulate search engine
algorithms
Aims for massive, short term
traffic
Can be penalised by search
engines
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decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
image: blackhatseo.com
Search engines need to help users
find what they’re looking for
Search engines look for signals of …
Relevance
Importance
Popularity
Trust
Authority
SEO aims to
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Achieve high rankings
for selected and relevant key
phrases
using the guidelines given by the
search engines
5 main areas of SEO
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Search engine friendly web site
Well researched key phrases
Optimised content targeting key
phrases
Link popularity
Usage data
1. Search engine friendly web site
structure
SEO friendly web sites allow search
engines to crawl and index pages
efficiently and effectively.
If spiders can’t find your web site, then
users won’t find it via search engines.
This means that:
To ensure that search engines can
access your content, you must remove
technical barriers
And those who wish to achieve the
best results must follow the best
practices
Search engine friendly design =
usability and accessibility friendly
design
Provide direct, HTML links to
every page you want the
search engine spiders to index
Barriers to visibility
Flash
Frames based design
No XML site map
AJAX
Video
Dynamic URLs
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2. Well researched list of key
phrases
Key phrases are the foundation of
search
Keywords or key phrases are the words
people use to find what they’re looking
for
Successful web sites contain content
and are structured around keywords
likely to be used by their target
audience
Searchers are using these phrases to
find things; so we must make sure our
web site is relevant to these terms
Put together the right mix of
keywords to target:
What makes a good keyword?
There are four things to consider when
choosing a keyword:
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Search Volume
•
Competition
•
Propensity to convert
•
Value per lead
1. Search volume
How many searchers are using that phrase to find
what they want?
For example:
Hotel - over 3 million searches per month
Cape Town Waterfront Hotel - a few hundred
searches per month
2. Competition
How many other websites out there are targeting
that same phrase?
For Example:
Google finds 1,040,000,000 results for “hotel”
but only 194,00 for “cape town waterfront
hotel”
3. Propensity to convert
What’s the likelihood that the searcher
using that key phrase is going to
convert on your site?
A conversion is a desired action taken
by a visitor to your web site.
3. Propensity to convert
For Example:
The typical conversion on a hotel
web site would be an online
booking.
If you’ve got a hotel at the Waterfront
in Cape Town, which of the two terms
“hotel” and “cape town waterfront
hotel” do you think will lead more
conversions?
4. Value per lead
What’s the average value per prospect
attracted by the keyword?
Consider these two terms:
“Luxury London hotel”
“Budget London hotel”
Which term will bring leads with a
higher value?
Now that we know what makes a good
keyword, we must build a list of words
to target.
Getting started:
Seeding our list
The first step to building our
list is brainstorming
What kind of phrases would you like to
be associated with?
What is your core business?
What words do customers use to
find your business?
What words do customers use to
find your business?
Consider misspellings and
synonyms
Keyword tools
There are a variety of keyword tools
on the market. Most of them perform
multiple functions and each has its
own strengths.
Keyword tools
• Keyword suggestion tools
• Keyword volume tools
• Keyword competition tools
SEO Book
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
KW Discovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Digital Point
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion
Word Tracker
http://www.wordtracker.com/
Overture
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
Adwords
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Getting the keyword mix right
When we build our keyword list, we
must find the right mix of the four
factors mentioned earlier
Getting the mix right
Low Volume, Low Competition
vs
High Volume, High Competition
3. Content optimised to target key
phrases
Now that we have our list, we need to
create relevant content to target
these keywords.
Content Optimisation
Content already has several roles to
play on your site:
• It provides information to visitors
• It must engage with them
• It must convince them to do what you
want
Content Optimisation
But it must also send signals of
relevance to search engines.
How do we send signals of relevance
with content?
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On the web page itself
Establish and reinforce them
throughout the web site
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Guidelines for using keywords in the
content
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Title tag: use the key phrase in
the title
Header tags: use in H1 tag, and
in other H tags (H2, H3 etc)
Body content: use three times,
more if it makes sense! About
350 words of content.
Guidelines
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Bold: use <strong> tags around
keyword
Alt tag for image: use at least
once to describe an image
URL: use a URL rewrite so it
appears in the URL
Meta description: Use at least
once
Guidelines
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•
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Meta tags: use in the keywords
to provide context
Link anchor text: use when
linking to the page, never from
the page
Domain name: if possible, use
the key phrase in the domain
name
Limit your focus to three key phrases
per page:
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Primary
Seconday
Tertiary
If you have LOTS of copy, you can
target up to five.
But you’re better off with adding more
pages.
Where do the key phrases appear?
They’re in the code…
You can see them on the page
Title
H1
<strong>
And they show up in the SERPs
Title
Meta
Description
Optimising images
QuickTimeª and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
image credit: http://flickr.com/photos/nattu/
A picture may be worth a thousand
words
But they’re worth nothing to a
search engine.
Images are used to make your web
site appealing (and influence
conversions)
But ensure the web site makes
sense without images
Correctly labelling images means
that search engines can use these
descriptions
Optimising images for search
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Use descriptive file names
Use specific ALT tags and Title
attributes
Supply meta information in image
file
Use descriptive captions
Use relevant images
Image
Disabled image
showing ALT tag
4. Link popularity
Links are a vital part of how the internet
works
The purpose of a link is to allow a web
user to go from one web page to
another
Web pages link to other web pages
that link to other pages and so on and
so on…
Links are what users follow when they
navigate on the web
Links are also followed by search
engine spiders
Besides allowing search engine spiders
to find websites, links are also a way of
validating relevance and indicating
importance.
Links send signals of importance and
trust
Links are like votes for a site, or
a ‘vouch from a 3rd party’
The more votes a web site receives,
the more trusted it becomes, the
more important it is deemed, and the
better it will rank on search engines.
Not all links are equal
Some sites are more
trusted than others
Validating relevance
The content on the page sends a signal
of relevance; the link simply validates
that signal
A link with the text “Canary Wharf
hotel” sends the message, “You can
trust the destination site is relevant to
the term ‘Canary Wharf Hotel”
What does a link look like?
<a href=http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm>Anchor Text</a>
http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm
- the page that the link leads to
Anchor Text
- the text that forms the link
Additional information can be
included
<a
href=http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm
rel=“nofollow”>Anchor Text</a>
rel=“nofollow”
- tells the search engine that the target URL is
not vouched for
How does a web site get more links?
Write content that others want to
read
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If you are useful, people will link to
you
Focus on being the best in your
niche
Find your target audience and
satisfy their needs
Create tools and documents that
others want to use
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Interview experts in your field and
host interviews on site
Develop calculators or applications
that others want to use
Games
• Create and host a game that
others want to play
• If it’s popular, people will link to
you!
Software and widgets
• Create useful applications that
others want to use
• Toolbars, browser extensions, etc
WebPR
• Relevant articles can generate links
to your web site
• News releases can be optimised for
search
Competitor analysis
• Who is linking to your competitors?
• Maybe they can link to you too
• Yahoo Site Explorer can help you
find those linking to your
competitors
(http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.c
om/)
5. Usage data
Search engines want
their results to be highly
relevant to users
How do they determine
relevancy?
Usage data - how users
use web sites!
Cookies maintain history of search
activity
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Keywords used
Web sites visited from search engine
Click-through rate of results
Bounce rate of results
How else may search
engines gather data?
Consider Google, for
example
This data can be used to
determine how users
interact with search
results.
And can then be used to
serve better results.
What does this mean for SEO?
Web sites must

Be able to attract links and visitors
naturally
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Retain visitors so that they return
to the web site
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Convert visitors
Practical things you can do to improve
your SEO
• Continually add fresh, optimised
content (start a blog)
• Try add features, content, tools that
will naturally attract links
• WebPR
Some slightly technical things…
• Use keywords in the URL
• Place keywords closer to the
beginning of the file code
• Limit HTML file size (create clean,
valid code)
• KW’s in link anchor text - but don’t
overdo it!
• Use internal text links instead of
image links
Some slightly more technical things…
• Avoid duplicate content
• Ensure correct application of the
robots.txt file
• Follow proper site redirect architecture
• Don’t use tables when coding - use
CSS
• Have an XML site map
What not to do
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Avoid hidden text or links
No cloaking or sneak redirects
No irrelevant keywords
No malicious behaviour
No doorway pages
In a nutshell
QuickTimeª
and a
decompressor
are needed to see this pi
Create content that users want,
and make sure that both search
engines and users can access
that content easily.
Further readings?
For further readings and case studies :
www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook