learn search engine optimisation
DESCRIPTION
Many businesses think that once they have a website up and running, all they have to do is sit back and wait for the business to roll in. In reality, once a website is live, that's when the real work should begin!Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a detailed and involved process requiring both on-page and off-page tactics to increase the online visibility of your website.It is very important for potential clients to be able to find you when they search words online which relate to what your business offers. It also helps existing customers to quickly and easily locate you online, even if they don't know your web address.If people cannot find your website you could be giving away leads and sales to your competitors every day.These slides were prepared by The Creative Collective on behalf of the Queensland Government to deliver a one hour basic level one hour webinar on search engine optimization. Check them out and learn:• what is search engine optimisation?• how to find out how your website is currently ranked and for what key words• how to find out how your competitors are ranked and for what words• the ideal number of keywords and key phrases to target for different search engines• how to conduct keyword research• how to select keywords and craft together effective meta data combinations• suggested off page SEO tactics• other factors which contribute to the optimisation of a website• tips when engaging an SEO contractor• how soon you should expect to see results• plus much moreTRANSCRIPT
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Search engine optimisation (SEO)Twitter hashtag: #qldbiz
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Dep
artm
ent o
f Tou
rism
, Maj
or E
vent
s, S
mal
l Bus
ines
s an
d th
e Co
mm
onw
ealth
Gam
es
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
• Intro & orientation (5 mins)• Key points - (45 mins)• Questions - (10 mins)
Agenda
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
• Google Ad Words & SEO Specialist for The Creative Collective• Accredited Google Ad Words Professional • Yahoo Search Ambassador • Working in the Online Marketing space since 2007.
Introduction – Karen Wiskin
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Search engine optimisation is…Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
Search engine optimisation is an integral part of a successful website and should be given great consideration at the very initial stage of building your website.
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
SEO Explained VisuallySearch term
PPC (pay per click)
Places
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Important note on algorithms…The way Google renders results is constantly changing.
These days it depends who you are, what you are looking for (and
how you look for it), where you are, who you are with and what you
are doing as to what results are
displayed for any given keyword
combination.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The number of
words in searches is
increasing…
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
• Domain Age: the older your domain, the better• Page Rank: download toolbar.google.com and analyse pages (though PageRank has been
downgraded in importance with Google Panda)• Domain Backlinks: the ‘weight’ of the back links• .edu/.gov backlinks: these are great!• DMOZ Directory: get yourself listed – www.dmoz.org• Yahoo Directory: get yourself listed – www.yahoo.com • Keyword in Title: optimise by page• Keyword in URL: make it search engine friendly • Keyword in Description:• Keyword in Header Tab• Browser history of searcher• Location of searcher• Social graph of searcher• Social authority of pages• Up to the second news/trends
There are over 200 factors determining how you rank
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Suggested approachSTEP 1: Research and benchmark – your current status, competitor
status, keywords you could go for
STEP 2: Strategise plan of attack – select keywords, decide on how/where you will optimise (and who will do it!)
STEP 3: Internal optimisation (on page) - page title, header tags, meta
description, alt tags on images and links, keyword density
STEP 4: External optimisation (off page)
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Get your SEO tool kit…
FREE• A website you can optimise
(more in a moment)•
www.adwords.google.com/keywordtool
• www.google.com/webmaster • www.google.com/analytics• http://marketing.grader.com• http://www.google.com/insights
/search/• http://www.google.com/trends
PAID
• http://www.wordtracker.com • http://www.marketsamurai.com/ • http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ • http://www.keywordspy.com• http://www.goodkeywords.com
Although many have free trials. Try before you buy!
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
An optimisable website will allow you to:
Operate web-based and doesn’t require to be installed on each computer
Not only change but add/remove text, images, videos
Create redirects to pages using the 301 standard
Edit the “Alt” tags of the images. Since search engines cannot read the content of the images, it is crucial they have access to the image’s description (the “Alt” tag). You need to be able to edit this description every time you upload or change an image
Create/delete new sections and pages on your website
Edit the page titles, descriptions (meta tags) and URLs (address of the page)
Change the text of your navigation bar
May have a blog inbuilt
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
www.adwords.google.com/keywordtool
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Careful keyword selectionThe average number of keywords people are typing into search engines to search
for products and services is increasing. So avoid:• Single-word terms • Terms that are way too broad, and not focused to what you offer • Terms that are too specialized, which nobody searches for • Terms which are unpopular • Highly-competitive terms which you can't hope to rank well for
Number of Google Matches Term
11,600,000 writer
1,200,000 real estate writer
48,000 freelance real estate writer
9,000 freelance real estate writer los angeles
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Optimise on page, on a page by page basis• H1 & H2 tag• Page title – appears
in the top ‘blue’ strip of any given website
• Keywords – 3-7 keywords you want this page to be optimised for
• Description – The description which will display on search engines
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Also optimise the keyword density• Aim for 3-4% keyword density on any given page.• To work out the keyword ratio use www.textalyser.net (it’s free)! • Here we analyse www.cityfertility.com.au....
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Don’t forget alt tags!
<A HREF="http://www.seekshare.com.au/"><IMG SRC="seek.gif" WIDTH="250" HEIGHT="80" BORDER="0" ALT="Seek and Share B&B"> </A>
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Now optimise ‘off page’- options to build incoming links include:
PR newswires
Forums
Article directories
Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube
Blogs
Strategic alliances
Paid directories e.g. Homeimprovementpages.com.au or
Free directories e.g. Hotfrog.com.auList on dmoz.org (free)
List on yahoo directory (paid)
Get a google profile
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Publish everything & everywhere, but publish unique & quality content…
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Monitor your website performance through Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools
//google.com/analytics
//google.com/webmasters
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
• Google Panda is a change to the Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. Google Panda v3.2 was released January 14th, 2012 and v3.3 was released in February 29th, 2012.
• Google Plus - +1 counts towards rankings • Good article for more:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28763/Everything-Marketers-Need-to-Know-About-Google-s-Panda-Updates.aspx
Trends/changes to be aware of
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
SEO Summary Analyse your websites current performance – see workbook for exercises
Analyse your competitors – see workbook for methods
Do keyword research and choose a selection of keywords to apply to key pages of your website
Perform on page optimisation
Perform off page optimisation
Create content – everywhere!
Monitor your website’s performance
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
QUESTIONS? ?
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
• Considering a Business – Monday 21 May
• Staying Safe Online – Thursday 17 May
• Cost for all: FREE!
REGISTER AT www.business.qld.gov.auUnder ‘Events’ - > Business Webinars
Next webinars – all at 12:30pm
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
www.business.qld.gov.au
Business hotline - 13 25 23
www.facebook.com/businessqldgov
www.twitter.com/businessqldgov
Help is available…
#QLDBiz @BusinessQLDGov
Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
Please complete the evaluation survey on it’s way to you now
We need your feedback!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/seo170512