(SEO)Sarah Diffley

Sarah.Diffley@lyit.ie

SEO

Optimising website pages Keyword research Link building Directories

Why SEO?80% of people will click top organic sites.

Organic V Paid searches.

Chances likely to fall to 0% of click-through if not on first page of search results.

What is SEO?Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

involves the process of altering or “optimising” a website so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines.

Landing pages should be highly optimised.

What is SEO?Search Engine Marketing (SEM):

SEM is the process of marketing a website via search engines, both organic listings, paid listings or both.

SEO and SEM are interlinked.Goal: high ranking of website pages in search

engines.SEO takes time – remember 80% click on

organic sites.

What is SEO?http://www.google.com/webmaste

rs/http://www.webmasterworld.com/http://www.highrankings.comhttp://www.bruceclay.comhttp://www.hubspot.com/http://searchenginewatch.com/http://www.seomoz.org/article/be

ginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization

Why SEO?

Search Engineshttp://computer.howstuffworks.com/sear

ch-engine.htmWeb spiders look for links, go through

pages and build a list of words and notes where they were found.

Index built on own system of weighting.Web spiders encode date to save space,

compressing the information. Data is then stored for users to access.

Why SEO?Spiders take Web pages content and create

key search words that enable online users to find the pages they are looking for.

Ranking involves comparison of your web pages to others and looks for keywords. After this comparison, they are ranked.

Links are also important to a site.Spiders cannot get into flash and so a

website needs spider friendly pages too.

Why SEO?Ranking involves comparison of your web

pages to others and looks for keywords. After this comparison, they are ranked.................................but how do we compare ourselves to others.

Always keep you competition in mind!Browser search tool bars:

E.G: google search bar. Page rank.SEO is a continuous process.

Why SEO?

Optimising Website PagesWebsite code:

HTML/XHTMLSpiders cannot get into flash and

Javascript and so a website needs spider friendly pages too.

Search-friendly domain names:www.aplus.net – available domain namesUsing keywords in URL will help it stand

out. Consider company name and what it does in the URL

Optimising Website PagesSearch-friendly page titles:

This is where search engines put the most weight.

Important to have a distinct title.Beginning of title most important.

Search-friendly meta keywords and descriptions:Keep meta-tags by title.Search engine will read beginning first in

description. Keywords must reflect description. Search engines can create snippets of description. May also take a combination of meta-description tag and combine it with body text.

Meta-data important for ranking.

Optimising Website PagesSearch-friendly body text:

Use keywords in the body of the text.The closer search term phrases are in

the text, the more searchable they are.Most keywords should be earlier in the

text.Headings and specialised text:

Use bold statementsBold text for important words

Optimising Website Pages

Market Leap tools: (www.marketleap.com)Free and paid search engine marketing tools

Search engine saturation

Web Site CEO (http://www.websiteceo.com/web_site_ranking.htm):Page optimisationSite promotionSite analysisSite maintenance

Optimising Website Pages

We build pages (www.webuildpages.com/tools):Header checker toolSpider viewer

Search friendly website:E.g: Contact us – Contact LYITAbout us – About LYITThink about keywords constantly in set-

up

Keyword Research

Control : We have control over our website, we do not have control over what people type in to search engines – KEYWORDS.

How people search:Broad to narrowBroad search – more competitionNarrow search – fewer search results(importance of choosing correct keywords).

Keyword ResearchSee your site through the searchers eyes:

http://www.enquiroresearch.com/

How do you know what words are throwaway words??allintitle:(Word) – words in title of

browser.

Know your customers – what are the search terms they would use?

Keyword ResearchSEO tools:

Google suggest – suggests what you may be looking for.

Google Adwords Keyword tool. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (Different to Adwords - paid, this is free).

Search based keyword tool: http://www.google.com/sktool/

Google Adwords (paid)Google Analytics

Keyword ResearchKeyword Research:

Dictionary, for example, www.reference.comEncyclopaedia, www.wikipedia.org Thesaurus, http://thesaurus.reference.com/

Market Leap tools: (www.marketleap.com)Free and paid search engine marketing tools

Keyword verification

We build pages (www.webuildpages.com/tools):Search combination toolKeyword density analysis

Keyword ResearchWebsite analytics tools: google

analyticsMeasures traffic and hits.

Competitor keywords:Domain namesPage titlesMeta description and keywordsBody textallintitle: (word)allinurl: (word)

Keyword ResearchKeyword research:

Keyword is used by a web search, search engine and SEO to match most relevant information.

Use tools to determine keywords, for example, we build pages search combination tool.

Keyword type:Company and brand nameGeneric namesNB: use generic as well as brand to improve

rank.Keywords and descriptions should reflect one

another – if you are saying something in your description, it should be reflected in keywords

Keyword ResearchStop words:

Search engine may not record extremely common words to save space and speed up search.

http://www.lextek.com/manuals/onix/stopwords1.html

Landing pages:Do not dilute the homepage with too many

keywords.Different pages will have specific keywords.Traffic does not have to go to homepage all

the time.Long tail principle:

Do not go too broad – if we optimise for a niche we will have more keywords for more pages, e.g: travel nurse – travel nurse jobs letterkenny.

Keyword ResearchKeep in mind –

“Choosing the right keywords is often the difference between getting found in search and not getting found. As a result, keyword research is the foundation of an effective online marketing strategy.”

Keyword ResearchThe first phase of creating the initial

Keyword Opportunity List involves brainstorming as many keyword ideas as possible. a. Listing root brands and product/service

names (e.g. lawyer) b. Brainstorming variations of product and

brand related keywords c. Talking to clients to determine what

terms they use in search d. Studying competitors’ sites

Keyword Research

Link Building• Backward links – shows the inbound links

to the website. Inbound links represent those links that you think are relevant.

Market leap – link popularity check.Also looks at competitorsAim to get links from sites with a high page

rankText inbound to you is important as

spiders put page rank energy on inbound links to you.

www.webuildpages.comGoogle, e.g.: link:www.lyit.ie

Link BuildingIt is important to know what people are saying

about you. Can also use backlinks on google toolbar.

Market Leap tools: (www.marketleap.com)Free and paid search engine marketing

toolsLink popularity check

Researching competitor links can also be valuable, particularly in identifying link opportunities or niches that could also be useful to your link building campaign.

Link BuildingLink building tactics can be divided

into those that are: Completely manual A combination of manual input and

editorial decisions Completely editorial

Link Building Completely manual tactics

Comments sections in other websitesLinks on social networking sitesOnline press releases – adding links to

websiteA combination of manual input and

editorial decisions tacticsRelationship building with sites and

others that may link to your websiteContacting site editors to tell them

about your website content

Link Building

• Completely editorial tactics― Unprompted Links to your website due

to the quality of content onsite

Link BuildingTechniques

Ensure quality content. Content that others want to link to. Create a blog as a means of continually adding

quality content to your website.

Directories – general and nicheMake contact with those who can link to

you Website owners Bloggers Companies

Link Building Magazines Press Releases

Contact satisfied customers

DirectoriesThis involves people indexing websites. It is

edited by people and not bought or paid for. Directories do not supply as much information about a website. They supply a link to the site and a small description.

Company should attempt to get in all directories. Google, Yahoo and MSN are main directories – all related to one another.http://www.google.com/addurl/?

continue=/addurlhttp://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

submit

DirectoriesAbout.com lists numerous search engines:

http://websearch.about.com/library/tableofcontents/blsearchenginetableofcontents.htm

This includes niche search engines.Company’s can also be added to local

search results, such as:www.superpages.comwww.yellowpages.comhttp://yp.yahoo.com/www.truelocal.com

Monitoring ProgressExcel or word can be used to track

keywords and log submissions.Track changes over time and make

notes.Check for indexing of pages.

Type in site in search engine & references will show.

Submitting to search engines:Yahoo, MSN, Google – all connected,

main are enough.

Monitoring ProgressSubmitting to directories:

www.dmoz.org – feeds most directories.Monitor pages:

Use tools, market leap, search engine saturation.

Continually monitor your website against that of competitors Hubspot free website grader too – also takes

social media into account – Remember that social media also impacts SEO.

http://websitegrader.com/