The Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is all about ranking at the top of Google or Yahoo for terms relating to your products and services. It is the epitome of inbound marketing. 

Google has to improve the user experience, to ensure that the search results are always the most relevant results are returned.

The Benefits of SEO

Targeted traffic

The people that SEO connects you with are those that are actively hunting out your products and services. 

Free

The Search Engine Results Page (SERPs*). 

Credibility

It’s the online equivalent to having a big shiny shop in the centre of a busy high street.

Developing an asset

SEO does not stop when you stop. The website retains its organic value and your business can continue to reap the benefits for years to come.

SEO has its rules, competition, uncertainty, winners, and losers. It can be divided into two halves, Relevance and Authority.

SEO = Relevance + Authority

Relevance

The relevance has to be built across the website, not just the home page. By adding the right content to each landing page, you can ensure your website is in with a fighting chance of ranking the front page for all relevant terms.

Authority

Google intends to give the user the best result, not your result. So, you need to make Google believe they are the same thing. It is achieved through developing authority for your landing pages. 

The Google Keyword tool

‘Local Monthly Searches’ are the number of searches made each month within the country you have listed. Monthly searches can be misleading, the monthly search volumes are calculated by Google based on a 12-month average.

Facebook Estimated Reach (http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ )

Search Trends (http://www.google.com/trends)

SEO Quake ( http://www.seoquake.com/ )

PageRank

PageRank is the number that Google places on any given webpage to roughly indicate how authoritative that page is. PageRank has a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being the least authoritative and 10 being the highest. The higher the PageRank the more value that the website has in Google’s eyes. 

Number of pages indexed by Google

A website that continually pushes out large numbers of high-quality pages is going to get significantly more traffic than one that does not.

Mozbar (http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar)

Page Authority

This is Seomoz’s analysis of the authority of a page based on a wide range of measurements. It will give you a good indication of how easily that page will rank for any term that it targets.

Domain Authority

The analysis of the authority of the domain as a whole will give you a better picture of the overall strength of a website and how quickly new pages will rank.

Domain

The search engines attach great value to the name of your domain, so if you own www.pinkfluffyslippers.com, you are going to be at a massive advantage for ranking for the term “pink fluffy slippers”. 

However, long ugly domains that match an important search term like www.cheap-widescreen-tv’s-for-sale.org. the UK is slowly being eroded by Google so these exact match domains.

URL structure

Just don’t make it too long as it ends up looking spammy, impossible for users to type, and gets fewer clicks in the SERPs.

Keyword density

Just write naturally and use lots of synonyms as this will provide a much nicer read for the user but still help build relevance for the target terms.

Tags

These are the things that the search engines read to interpret information on the page. Ensure to match the titles to what you believe people are searching for when you add content to your site. This is why FAQ sections can be so powerful for generating traffic because it just like asking Google questions.

Link building

The on-page stuff is really useful to help Google understand what your website is all about but for Google to decide where you deserve to rank.

In 2011, Google made some huge changes to the algorithm that were aimed at devaluing the manipulative links. 

Tips for link building

Guest blogging

Find blogs relating to your market that has a “Guest blogging” section which allows you to include a link back to your site if you write a really good quality post for them. 

Leveraging relationships

To offer our help to charities free of charge in return for a nice link.

Linkbait

Link baiting is achieved by creating unique content that people just have to share through their own sites and blogs.

Internal linking

Through linking intelligently within their site itself. Google treats these links in just the same way as external links. Identify your primary landing pages and link to them from all other relevant pages. But, don’t overdo links that have no SEO value.

Linking outwards to other content

A good website SHOULD link outwards. 

Social Media

Twitter links have been incorporated into Google's algorithm, and you can probably expect other social signals to follow suit very shortly. 

Google Places ＆Map

For any small business that is looking for local custom, location is ALWAYS a factor, and therefore Google Places is a seriously big deal. 

SEO Action

The basics

With the very basics of SEO (relevance and authority).

Market research

How many people are searching for your products and services?

Delivery

Decide who is going to be delivering the campaign. If you work with an agency or a freelancer then prepare some tough questions. If they come unstuck then move on.

Develop an asset and future-proofing

Ensure whoever takes the reins is aware of both short term and long term goals. You should see some positive movement in traffic and rankings within 1-3 months but also signs that they are enhancing the quality of the site in a way that will set you apart from the competition in years to come.

Reference

Pateman, N. & Holt, D. (2011). Inbound Marketing. Bookboon.