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This easy to follow presentation walks you step-by-step through the process of creating an effective SEO strategy for your website. Make sure you don't miss important steps or ignore valuable parts of the SEO process, including social media, on-page optimisation and competitor analysis. I have also included useful resources to help you get the most out of your SEO, including information on Google updates and useful SEO tools.
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Preparing Your SEO Strategy
A step-by-step guide by
leading SEO Consultant
Ben Norman
Contents Why You Need An SEO Strategy Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid Understanding Google’s Algorithm Updates Backlink Analysis Reconsideration Requests Backlink Analysis Tools Competitor Analysis Content Marketing Meta Social Media Responsive Web Design Customer Reviews More Useful SEO Tools Why Is SEO Long Term? Contact Me References & Image Sources
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Why You Need An SEO Strategy Drive relevant traffic to your site
Increase brand reach
Extend the exposure of your products and services
Rank highly for page one domination: 75% of users [*1] do not scroll past the first page of Google results
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid SEO is always evolving and
many tactics of the past could now negatively affect your site’s search engine rankings.
Here are just a few examples of what to avoid…
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Yesterday’s SEO Tactics To Avoid Purchasing links
Overusing keywords within your content and link anchor text. Read my blog post on keyword optimisation
Spammy, irrelevant or meaningless comments
Low quality and/or thin content
Duplicate content, either on your site or externally. Learn more about getting rid of duplicate content
Listing on generic link directories
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Understanding Google’s Algorithm Updates
To tackle these sorts of ‘black hat’ SEO techniques, Google regularly updates its search engine algorithm to improve the relevancy and quality of its search results.
The Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithm updates are the two most well known and high-impact updates of recent years…
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Google Panda (2011) Google devalued websites with thin, low quality
content and a high concentration of on-page advertising.
The update also targeted sites with duplicate content issues and other types of spam later that year.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Google Penguin (2012) Launched to combat unnatural link profiles.
Penguin penalises sites with links from poor quality sites that have been set up to manipulate search rankings rather than benefit users.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
A new search algorithm which improved the way Google understands conversational and long-tail search queries.
Hummingbird uses aspects of the old search algorithm which worked well, including the Penguin and Panda updates, but includes new aspects
Google Hummingbird (2013)
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Backlink Analysis The process of reviewing websites that are
currently linking to yours and judging them on their quality and relevance to your business.
Useful for monitoring competitor backlinks and identifying strong links for your own site.
An essential process if a site has suffered a manual spam penalty for unnatural links
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Low Quality Links Low quality links often result in a penalty to your
site, particularly if they don’t comply with Google’s recent algorithm updates.
When undertaking backlink analysis, watch out for these low quality links including links that are paid for, are unrelated or are not from a genuine or reliable source that points to your site.
Read more about finding and eliminating bad links here
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Building Good Quality Links Building a rigid link profile is vital to a successful
SEO campaign and ranking higher in Google’s search results.
Having high-quality websites linking to you promotes your site as a solid and reputable source of information over your competitors.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Building Good Quality Links
High-quality links should:
Be non-reciprocal (not based on an exchange)
Drive relevant referral traffic back to your site
Not necessarily be easy to obtain – links that are difficult to obtain are normally the most valuable
Come from a site with other good quality links. Beware that too many links on a page can indicate suspicious activity to Google
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Reconsideration Requests To overturn a Google penalty, you need to submit
a successful Reconsideration Request to Google.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Reconsideration Requests When applying for reconsideration, be sure to
make the strongest case by including:
Steps taken to remove and disavow unnatural links
Any past unethical techniques used to generate links
Confirmation that you now understand and fully adhere to Google’s best practice guidelines
Records of any corrections made or issues that need to be rectified in a spreadsheet sent along with your request
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Backlink Analysis Tools
There are a large number of powerful Backlink Analysis Tools available, including:
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Majestic SEO Majestic SEO is a great
tool for compiling details of a site’s referring backlinks.
It is particularly useful for analysing sites to remove, nofollow or disavow.
Majestic SEO can also be used to analyse the links of your competitors.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
LinkRisk LinkRisk is a paid
service that colour codes and scores backlinks by their health and risk.
It helps highlight particularly unnatural links in need of removal.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Competitor Analysis In order to better understand
the online strategies of your competitors, analyse the following activities:
Monitor their social media presence – do they have an active following and are they engaging with their audience?
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Competitor Analysis Review their backlinks – who is linking to them?
Are there opportunities for you?
Is their content regularly updated and of good quantity, quality, variety and usability?
Are they effectively targeting keywords using ethical practices? Or are they still using poor tactics that will cost them later on?
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Content Marketing Content marketing is essential for successful link
building and to keep your site refreshed with new information on a regular basis.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Content MarketingSome of the types of content to consider include:
High quality and informative blog postsGuest posting on strong and relevant sitesPress releasesInfographicsIndustry/subject whitepapers Case studies Video
Here’s how to make your content marketing strategy more effective
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Meta As well as building valuable links, you need to
make sure your site is up to scratch.
This includes both on-page and technical aspects of your website.
An important starting point is to look at your page titles, Meta descriptions and H1 header tags to make sure they are accurately describing the content of your page.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Meta Descriptions These are short paragraphs
that appear in SERPs thatdescribe the nature of yoursite and content.
Descriptions should be nomore than 155 characters, including spaces, and should effectively describe the content of the page.
If a page does not have its own unique Meta description, the search engines do it for you. This is rarely a good description of your actual site or page.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Social media is a great resource for promoting your content and directing traffic back to your website.
Key channels include:
Social Media
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Responsive Web Design Google recommends the use of responsive design
which enables your site to adapt to any device (computer, smartphone or tablet).
The performance of a website on mobile and tablet devices now contributes to search engine rankings.
Read more about Responsive Design here.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Customer Reviews Add your site to some of the main listing sites for
customer reviews and set up a localised Google+ page.
This way you can gather insight on what people are saying about your brand.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Customer Reviews Here are some of the sites to sign up to:
Read more about reviews and listing sites here.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
More Useful SEO Tools Google Analytics
Generate reports on website traffic and popular content/pages –build on this by setting new goals to increase conversions.
Google Webmaster ToolsUpload your sitemap to check its compliance with modern day SEO practices.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
More Useful SEO Tools Screaming Frog
Free for 500 pages software that analyses your site’s SEO efforts and highlights areas for development.
Google Keyword Planner Useful tool to use when carrying out keyword research; provides a list of strong keyword around a topic and their average number of monthly searches.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
So Why Is SEO Long Term? SEO is not a one-time fix; it is an ongoing process
to ensure that your website ranks above your competition and that you are always discoverable to customers and potential customers alike.
Google regularly updates its algorithm, so you need to ensure you are abiding by the rules to continue ranking well.
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Contact Me Find out more about Ben Norman today.
Telephone: 0845 485 1291
Connect with Ben:
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
References 1. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Mark
eting-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
Preparing Your SEO Strategy
Image Sources Do Not logo courtesy of Bigstock Hummingbird image courtesy of Bigstock Magnifying Glass image courtesy of Bigstock Panda image courtesy of Bigstock Penguin image courtesy of Bigstock Search Engine Marketing image courtesy of Bigstock Star Rating image courtesy of Bigstock