An Introduction to Successful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Where robotsmeet humans

Paul Raybouldpaul.raybould@planonsoftware.comwww.planonsoftware.com 04 December 2013

(Images courtesy of www.explodingdog.com)

This intro session will cover:• What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?• Why is it important?• How to choose key words/phrases• Techniques for SEO success• Link building – essential for high ranking• Technical tips• Barriers to successful SEO• SEO do-not’s• Coming soon… (and how you can help)

Apologies if I am ‘teaching grandma to suck eggs’ (follow the link for an explanation of this bizarre English idiom.)

2

What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?

SEO = understanding search engines and their robots, to make a website rank high in search engine results pages.

100s of factors influence rank, but in short:Great User Friendly Content + Quality Links to you = Search Engine Success

3

Why is SEO important?

• High source of traffic.• Capture prospects in key

stages of buying cycle.• Low cost per lead.

• 18.2% of organic clicks go to the #1 position

• 10.1% of organic clicks go to the #2 position and

• 7.2% of organic clicks go to the #3 position

4

How to choose keywords/phrases

• Use tools like Google Analytics (NB anonymised search from Sep 13), Marketo reports (leads by search phrase) and Google’s keyword planner.

• Quality over quantity – choose keyphrases likely to convert rather than just high volume.

• Search phrases signalling intent - ‘buy’, ‘choose’, ‘reviewed’ can capture prospects in later stages of a buying cycle.

• Paid advertising can be a quick way to test which keyphrases drive traffic that converts to leads.

5

Techniques for SEO success

• Content – create keyword rich content that users love and share.

• Links – build quality links to your website – anchor text links and links from high domain websites work best (more on this later.)

• Usability – make pages easy for users to navigate as well as search engines.

6

Techinques for SEO success continued…

• Meta titles and descriptions - help users and robots understand your content.

• Search engine friendly URLs.

• Internal linking.• Keyword position and

emphasis.• Regular flow of new

content.

7

Link building – essential for high rankings

• Not all links are equal!• A link from a popular

person or website improves your search engine ranking.

• A link from a low quality website (e.g. low traffic or a high quantity of links) lowers your search engine ranking.

8

Link building continued…

Effective links come from pages that have:

• Domain authority/ TrustRank

• Cover similar topics to you• Anchor text• Fresh links• Social influence• Few links per page• High referral traffic

9

Technical tips• XML sitemaps – help spiders crawl sites

easily.• RSS – automatically updates when new

content is added.• Text files – robots like text.• Robots.txt – provides instructions to help

web crawlers know which parts of your site you want them to navigate.

• Meta robot tags – help web crawlers know which of your pages to index and follow links from.

• Absolute links – ensure you keep links when people copy your content.

• Canonical links – helps search engines know the original source when duplicate content exists online.

• Rich snippets – helps search engines easily know the type of your content e.g. video, book etc.

10

Barriers to successful SEO

• Search engines do not openly share their ranking factors.

• All companies/sites want to rank well so it’s highly competitive.

• Search engines like Google change their algorithms which can have a huge impact (Panda update 2011, Penguin update 2012, anonymised search and Hummingbird 2013.)

11

SEO do-not’s

The following practices reduce your impact in search rankings. Do not:

• Submit your site to “submission” URLs.• Keyword stuff – repeating your chosen

search phrases too often on pages.• Pay for submission – any links that search

engines believe have been paid for to boost your rankings will count against you.

• Extensive recipricol linking or link farms – used to boost links to your site but search engines can detect these.

• Cloaking – showing different content to users and search engine robots.

• Produce low quality content – high bounce rates lower your search engine ranking.

12

Coming soon… (and how you can help)

• Choosing key words/phrases (requires help from field for local languages.)

• Creation of optimised landing pages for chosen key phrases.

• A link building strategy – how this links to social and PR.

• A monthly report of SEO activity and results.

13

Thanks

Any questions?

T: +31 (0) 24 6413135M: +31 (0) 61 0027782paul.raybould@planonsoftware.com www.planonsoftware.com

14