SEO BASICSChris Burgess
@chrisburgesschrisburgess.com.au
What I’ll Cover…
• What Is SEO?
• What Are SERPs?
• Why Should I Care?
• Getting Found
• Onsite and Offsite
• Keyword Research
• Content
• Page Anatomy
• Essential Tools
• WordPress SEO by Yoast
• SERPs of Tomorrow
• Resources
What Are Algorithms
• Search engines use a program called an algorithm (think of it like a
secret recipe) to determine what pages to suggest for a search
query by a user.
• Algorithms are constantly being updated which means that rankings
are constantly changing.
Search Queries vs Keywords
WordPress plugins
WordPress SEO plugins
Yoast plugin
best plugins
how do I install a plugin
plugin
SEARCH QUERIES KEYWORD
Profile Your Visitors
• What gender?
• What age?
• What interests?
• What do they need?
• What is the purchase cycle like for them?
• What pain points can I alleviate?
• What competitor sites do they also visit?
• What can I provide that no other site does?
What are you main goals?
• More visitors?
• More leads?
• More customers?
• More online sales?
• To provide a superior onsite experience?
Onsite SEO
• Optimise your pages content
• Titles, headings, images, text, meta descriptions
• Keywords and content strategy
• Site speed
• Site security
• XML sitemaps and Robots.txt
• Schema markup
• Overall site configuration
Aim for…
• Fast site speed (good theme, good hosting, site configuration - aim for load time 3-4 seconds)
• Focus on keeping visitors on your site and viewing multiple pages (use internal linking)
• Keep your bounce rate down if more than
Image: http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/normal-bounce-rate/
Offsite SEO
• Links (context, anchor text), citations, mentions
• You want links from high authority sites
• Links from low authority or low trust sites can be harmful
• Social media
• Blogs, forums, etc.
• Examples of good links: mainstream news site or blog, natural
• Example of bad links: spammy, unnatural
Your best strategy should be to encourage natural linking. Create stuff people like, people share stuff
they like
How do I get links?
• Inbound Marketing – create high quality and unique
content and lots of it!– Blog, news, articles, surveys, interviews
– Social media
– Podcasts
– Video
– eBooks
– Newsletters
– Infographics
– Whitepapers
– Apps
Topic/Keyword Research
• Knowing your audience
• What they search for
• What keywords to focus on
• Competitor analysis
• Look for words that have high search volume and low competition, they will be easier to rank for
• Many tools and methods available
• Looking for keywords with:
– high traffic value
– low competition
– make great titles
– make great content
Content Structure
• Heading Tags (e.g <h1> </h1>) in hierarchal order
<h1>Only 1 Heading 1(with target topic/keyword)<h1>
<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
Content Structure
• Page Titles – Unique Title Tag for each page combination of target keywords
• Page URLs – Try to use keyword with hyphens as separators
• Meta Description – Used in SERPs, try to include chosen keyword
Page URL
Meta Description
Page Title
Essential Tools
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)
• Google Keyword Planner
• Excel/Google Docs
• WordPress ;)
I’d highly recommend starting off using these free tools.
Specialists will use a variety of tools, however the above are more than enough to get started.
Recommended Resources
• WordPress Native Help
• Beginners Guide to SEO - https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
• SEO Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/Melbourne-SEO/
• Search Engine Ranking Factors - http://moz.com/search-ranking-
factors
• Google Webmaster Resources - http
://www.google.com/webmasters/
Thanks!
Chris Burgess
@chrisburgesschrisburgess.com.au
Recommended