Introduction To SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - by Kobi Omenaka - Kobestarr Digital

Introduction to SEO
Make your website work for you
By Kobi Omenaka
Head of Digital at Kobestarr Digital

TODAY’S WORKSHOP
What is SEO
How SEO Affects your Business
Google and SEO
Keywords and the basis of SEO
Keyword Analysis and Research
Who is your “Online” Competition

TODAY’S WORKSHOP
SEO and Content
Content Planning Strategy
Measuring your SEO effectiveness
Local SEO
Mobile SEO

Who Am I?
Kobi Omenaka
Head of Digital at Kobestarr Digital
Inbound Marketing and Digital Media Agency
Oil and Gas (Process Engineering) background
Second Masters (MA) Degree in Social Media

Who Are You?
What is your name?
Where are you from?
What do you do?
What do you know about SEO?
What do you hope to get out of today?

Let’s Define S.E.O.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTMISATION
(SEO)
“The process of improving your website
so that it attracts more visitors from
search engines ”

Setting Expectations
There is no “Silver Bullet” or quick fix
It is an ongoing methodology, which if done well will
see the number of visitors coming to your site
Define the inputs not the outputs
Beware “guaranteed” SEO solutions
SEO Penalties and “Black Hat” vs “White Hat” SEO

Why is SEO important?
If you have goods and services to offer why wouldn’t you
optimise your website?
The way that people search on the internet is actually
quite sophisticated
The aim is to attract relevant visitors with searches
People search for to find answers to their questions, to
buy goods, holidays, news, restaurants etc
NOT just on a computer – mobile and tablet too!

Sophisticated? Relevant?
Content – both quality and amount
Use of relevant keywords
External and Internal Links
Mobile Friendly/ Responsive
Page load speeds
200+ more factors…

Content!
There are 200+ factors that can affect your ranking but it
generally comes down to content.
Search engines want to serve the most relevant pages
for their users. WHY?
They make money from advertising!

The Anatomy of a S.E.R.P
SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE
This is the page that is displayed once you have
entered a search term
This shows us:
Paid adverts
Number of hits
Organic results

The Anatomy of a S.E.R.P
It’s the organic results that really matter when it comes to
SEO
Adverts do count, but it’s as “simple” as paying for the
positioning
PS (paid advertising is not that simple – we can talk about
that another time over a hot chocolate!)

Is it just Google? Desktop/
Laptop

Is it just Google? – Mobile &
Tablet

Ever Changing Targets
Google Panda – February 2011, aim to show higher
quality sites higher in the search
Google Penguin – April 2012, aim was to reduce the
focus on un-natural back links
Google Hummingbird – September 2013, completely new
algorithm, aim was to better understand the natural
language people use when searching
Focus on content – “deliver the best content you can and
you’ll be fine”
“relegating” your site

An SEO Example
How to get High” went from #6 - #12 - #14 - #25 - #33
Why??
Checking his website statistics he found:
People that normally visit his site spend 2m 57s on average
“How to get high” visitors spent 1m 12s (less than half)
“How to get high” People weren’t liking that content and
Google realised that so they dropped his ranking. The
“High Quality Backlinks” visitors loved it and keep it at
number one.

Keywords vs Search Queries
It’s a search engines “Job” to match user search
“queries” to pages that match that topic
Short Tail Keyword – one word
“Shoes”, “Backlinks”
Long Tail Keyword – three words plus
“Women’s running shoes”, “High Quality Backlinks”
Search Queries – what people type into Google
“Where can I buy women’s running shoes”, “How do I get
high quality backlinks”, or “shoes”

What Are You Optimising For?
Before you can start you need to know what you are
optimising for!
We can use a structured approach to finding out that
keyword data
What Keywords/ search queries people are typing
How often are they searching them
How relevant are they to your business
How competitive those terms will be

Car?
If your company sells cars
Toys
Repair
Hire
Formula1
Used Volkswagen Golf Mark 3
Not typed in as much
Very relevant and low competition

Keyword Research Planning
“Forget” about your business - get in the mind of your
customer
1) Brainstorming
What services do you offer – be comprehensive
What words would customers use NOT company jargon
E.g. cheap train tickets vs low value fare
2) Search Volumes
Find out the demand for those keywords
Low search volumes are not necessarily a bad thing!

Keyword Research Planning
“Forget” about your business - get in the mind of your
customer
3) Collect groups of keywords
Tens, hundreds and thousands together to form a
“campaign”

Conducting the Keyword
Research

Keyword Attributes
Relevance
How accurately does the keyword represent the nature of
the products and services that you offer and clients you
want?
Put yourself “In their shoes”
The more relevant the search the more likely the visitor will
“convert” when they visit your site than generic terms

Keyword Attributes
Search Volume
Average number of times a keyword is searched per month
Seasonality can be determined using the bar chart or
Google Trends
Don’t be put off if the search volume is low!

Keyword Attributes
Competition
The number of websites of pages competing for a particular
search term?
How difficult would it be to “rank” based on that keyword?
Who is your competition?
Other competing businesses
News and current affairs sites
Reference sites such as Wikipedia
Google gives as “Low”, “Med” & “High”

Keyword Distribution
Align keywords to certain pages on your site and across
those pages
Helps you to focus your content and ensures that what
you have or are about to produce is relevant to the
keywords that you just found

Optimising for a Keyword
So you’ve done some research and you’re ready to write
content. How do you actually “optimise” content
URL(Uniform Resource Locator) i.e the weblink! – include
the keywords and keep it concise
www.myShoeSite/mens/marathon-running-shoes vs
www.myShoeSite/mens/hello/red/shoes-that-men-can-use-to-
run-a-marathon
Meta Title
Appears in the SERP – so make it interesting for readers
Meta Description
Helps people “glance” into what the content might be

Meta Title
URL Meta Description

So you’ve done some research and you’re ready to write
content. How do you actually “optimise” content
H1 tags – The first and Main headline on a page.
Be descriptive and include the keywords
Main body content
Optimise for people first and search engines second.
Write engaging content that includes the keywords 1 -3 times in
an 400-500 word piece of text - Use other relevant words too!
Images – modify the title and “Alt” text – be descriptive
Search engines cannot tell what is in an image!

What about “Non-Text” elements in your page? Search
engines cannot tell what is in an image!
Optimise the text that is surrounding the element – search
engines loot at the text near by
Images – modify the title and “Alt” text – be descriptive
Video – modify the title and include relevant tags if
embedding (your own video from YouTube)
Audio – title and description- maybe include the transcript

Grading your Site and Pages
Free Tools
Yoast SEO Plugin (Wordpress)
Google Webmaster Tools – (www.google.com/webmasters)
SEO Report Card- (app.upcity.com/free-tools/seo-report-
card)
HubSpot’s Website Grader (https://website.grader.com)
Paid Tools
Moz Pro (https://moz.com/products/pro)
HubSpot
(http://www.hubspot.com/pricing/marketing#?currency=GBP
)

Is your site set up for SEO?
Is Google actually allowed to crawl/index your site?
Page loading speeds
Location of server to your nearest clients
Small image sizes/ optimised image sizes
Embedding images from Flickr and Video from
YouTube/Vimeo
Enable Caching of Database driven sites
XML Sitemap and submit to Google Webmaster

Google Webmaster Tools
Google will with time find, crawl and index your site
But you can submit it via Webmaster Tools/ Search Console
(https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools)
Find out what Google knows and then tell it what it should
know!
“Verify” your website

Content is King
Now the site is ready, lets make the content
Having a content strategy is important for success
This is the planning, creation and management of useable
content
These need to align with your company goals
Monitor trends and keep up – what worked today may not
work tomorrow
Involve everyone in your company and have their full buy
in

Content? Who for?
Who is your target audience and what are their needs?
Don’t be in a rush to complete this step! Create content
for them.
What are their demographics and socio-economic
backgrounds?
Find them on social media/online
Where do they hang out?
What language do they use?
What questions are they asking?
What’s important for them?

Content? Who for?
Your Customers Social Technographics?
http://empowered.forrester.com/tool_consumer.html

Content? Who for?
Creators – publish a blog, make video and other content
The creators are the most active participants on the
Internet. They are constantly creating blog(post)s, websites,
videos, audio and / or other content.
Conversationalists – update status across social media
This group is also creates, but only to facilitate
communication and dialogues. They want to express
themselves through status updates. This relates to
recognition or trying to start a conversation or discussion
regarding a chosen topic.

Content? Who for?
Critics – post to forums, write reviews
Opposite of the conversationalists. Responds to status
updates, blogs, websites, news, forums, products and
services. essential one to maintain online interaction. There
is overlap in the creators, critics and conversationalist
Collectors – subscribe to blogs and podcasts via rss
Use online resources to absorb lots of information or
express their preferences as critics do. RSS feeds, Twitter
aggregators and other tools are important tools for this
group of Social Media users.

Content? Who for?
Joiners – Maintain and visit social media
On Social Media to maintain their profile and relationships
circle. Absorb info and knowledge to a lesser extent than
collectors do.
Spectators – read blogs & tweets, listen to audio, watch
video
Observe from a distance. Get information, but only for
increasing knowledge about topics, friends, products etc.
There is no active participation.
Inactives – None of the above
Not present on Social Media or are there but not doing
anything.

Content – start making it!
Create – you’re losing out on traffic to your site if you
don’t!
Create content to educate – NOT to sell
Add some personality as applicable
Quality is more important than quantity ~ 300 words is a
great.
The more quality the more you are “rewarded” by search
engines
Make sure it is on a regular basis

Content Management
Manage
Once created you need to know how to manage so you and
your team can know the in’s and out’s at all times
Easy to write, edit and post

Content… what exactly?
Getting ideas
Educational – “how to” or teach them something new
Statistic – take a statistic or some data and expand on it
Technical – get in depth for users that value insight
Procedural – step by step “how to” great on video!
Insight/informational – who are your employees?

FAQ – what questions do people always ask you or your
competitors
What are your competitors tweeting about
Ask your best clients – create a case study and or
testimonial/reviews. Make sure you ask!
Ask your team
Speak to your vendors ask them or others for guest/joint
blog

What is your angle
Find out what your competitors are writing about also what
are they NOT writing about
What questions are people asking on forums?
Quora
Reddit
Offer your unique perspective!
Make sure it has real value and is of value.

Not just web page content!
Slideshows on Slideshare
Video – Tutorials/reviews – host elsewhere and link back to
your site.
Ps YouTube videos show up on Google search!
Audio – podcasts - host elsewhere and link back to your site
Images – sharable with Instagram/ Pinterest
Infographics

Editorial Calendar
Create in Google Spreadsheets so one shareable version
Assign an owner
Pick regular dates for different types of content or
campaigns and stick to them
Include in each cell
Title, Author, Headline, Keywords, (Publishing channels,
Hashtags )
Schedule ahead if you can – write or create in “batches”
Schedule time to create as well!

Publishing Content
You’ve done research, planned content and created it.
What next?
Publish!
Some companies/people spend as much time publishing
as creating.
Success of a post is often down to visibility rather than
quality, don’t “expect people to find it”
Only Fools and Horses

Publishing Content
Social Media – get your content in front of more people,
attract links and shares
Make sure you have a presence on
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Google+
Consider
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube

Publishing Content
Social Media – get your content in front of more people, attract
links and shares
Include relevant hashtags where applicable for the social media
channel
Hashtags allow you to get your content in front of a specific group
of people
Follow influencers and see what they use
Follow industry trends
Include share buttons on your page in a “Call to Action” CTA
Respond to activity and messages
Rules change on each SMS and some even “die” – Friends United
anyone?

Content Performance
It can be straightforward and free to check your content
performance
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools/ Search Console
Can you work out what content does well and why?
Views, clicks, conversions
What type of content, what time was published, how was it
shared?
Where did your visitors come from?
Different Social Media platforms have different
characteristics

Content Performance
Three Key performance Metrics
The following give a better indication of user engagement
than numbers alone
Pages per visit – average number of pages each user visits
Average time on site
Bounce rate – how often a user comes to your page and
only visiting one page
The longer each of the visits to your websites is the more
“engaged” they are.

Links
Links are one of the most important aspects of SEO
Each backlink can be considered a “vote of confidence”
for your site. Not all votes are equal!
Sites carry different levels of kudos or authority. A link
from a high authority site may be worth several from a
low authority site.
Backlinks from high authority sites are “High Quality”
High quality links should also be from relevant sources
The more high quality links the more Google trusts your
site and raises it in search engine rankings.

Links
Easy to get backlinks
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram
The text on each link to your site matters. If a link to your
site is not descriptive then you should ask the site to
rename it.
“Click here” is not helpful
Timing consider these
A site that suddenly has 100 links to it (conspicuous)
A site that has links that are 5 years old without much
activity (stale)

Links
TRY NOT TO GAME THE SYSTEM
You can be dropped from the ranking
You can be dropped altogether!
Social Media shares
A key way for search engines to figure out what people
actually like
Internal Links are also important
Link within a site cross reference different pages for
relevancy.
Helps users and search engines

Getting Backlinks
How do you get external backlinks?
Can submit to business directories. But be selective! Some
are spammy.
Yahoo Directory
Entice other sites to link to you
Foster, outreach and leverage links from relevant sites
People in your industry
People in education
In different countries

Getting Backlinks
Link Building Opportunities
If a website is ranking well for keywords that you are
targeting, you can examine their backlinks!
Use Open Site Explorer
(https://moz.com/researchtools/ose)
Maybe some sites/ directories that you missed
Guest blogging opportunities?
Non-profit sites or NGO opportunities – help them out?

How to get backlinks
Can use Raven Tools to help foster these backlinks. This
is a paid service
(https://raventools.com/)
Easy to get backlinks
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram

Measuring the SEO
Performance
Analytics
Google Analytics (Free)
Monitor these and make sure that you stay away from vanity
metrics
What is the traffic doing when it gets to your site
Is the traffic converting when it gets to your site
Is it helping revenue
Organic Keyword Reports within Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools
Look for high impressions & low click through rate – what is
going wrong?

Social Shareability
Content from social media can appear in SERPs and can
generate backlinks
Use tool Social Crawlytics
(https://socialcrawlytics.com/)
Identify the most sharable content
Learn from the most shareable and the least shareable

Google Local / My Business
Relevancy relates to distance
Bricks and Mortar – Restaurants, hairdressers, dentist
Local presence – providing local services – personal trainer
If all things are equal distance matters to people, even for a
“Virtual” business
More sophisticated than restaurants in “London”
North vs South London
Kentish Town vs Camden
You can provide business info, photos get reviews and
statistics

Local Search Factors
Relevance
How well your listing matches a users search query
Distance
Based on where Google thinks your are or knows where you
are
Prominence
Measure about how well-known your business is across the
web

Register and Verify with GMB
This process takes around 3 weeks!!!
Go to www.Google/business (the same login as with all of
Google!)
Fill in the details – address has to be accurate
Wait until they send you a postcard
Go to google.com/verifymybusiness

Optimise Your Site for Local
Separate each page for each product or service and
optimise it
Business Name
Address
Phone Number
Include your keywords
Consider some contact details in the bottom right
(this is where people look for contact details on a apparently)
More keyword related text and social media in the contact
us page

Citations
Each mention of a business name, address, and phone
number of you in the internet is called a “Citation”
The more citations a business (from quality sources) gets
the more your business is trusted
These should be IDENTICAL Go to Moz.com/Local to check
“Check Listing”
Write down the Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP)
in a text file and copy/paste to ensure consistency
Write down your website and email in there too!
http.sitename.com vs sitename.com vs www.sitename.com

Citations
Each mention of a business name, address, and phone number of
you in the internet is called a “Citation”
The more citations a business (from quality sources) gets the
more your business is trusted
These should be IDENTICAL Go to Moz.com/Local to check
“Check Listing”
Go to “Category Listing” in Moz Local
(https://moz.com/local/categories)
Select your category and it suggests the best citation /listing
directories
More citation suggestions at Local Citation Finder
(https://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder)

Citations
No Phone Number! On
Foursquare

Reviews
Short Write Up based on an experience
Ask for them!
Testimonials can be included in your website – it’s common
to write a testimonial for someone and get them to approve
it
Yelp and other review sites
Google My Business

SEO on Mobile Platforms
This is key in General and when you think locally
Since 2014 more people use internet on their phones
than on a “fixed” device, and more often
People may be trying to find you on the go
Content has to be pleasurable to read on mobile and
tablet!
Same engagement metrics apply
Time on site,
Pages viewed
Bounce rate

SEO on Mobile Platforms
Make sure that the site is mobile enabled
Responsive
One site from the same URL
Different domain for when mobile screen sizes are detected
Dynamically serve different content for different screen sizes
Make the navigation of the pertinent information easy to
find and clear
Check the speed Google Page Speed Insights
(https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed)

So You Know SEO – What
Next?
Potential clients and customers came to your website as
a result of your SEO work
Make sure you keep people coming back!
Ask them to sign up to your blog newsletters
Produce more content
Make it easy to share your content
Produce eBooks, whitepapers, videos, audio or other large
content

Resources
Moz – (https://moz.com/)
SpyFu – (http://www.spyfu.com/)
SEM RUSH – (https://www.semrush.com/)
SimilarWeb - (http://www.similarweb.com/)
Backlinko - (http://backlinko.com/)

Resources
Google… ;-)
Webmaster academy
(pps://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001102?hl
=en)
Webmaster tools/ Search Console –
(https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools)
Google Keyword Tool –(
https://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlanner)
Matt Cutt’s Blog (Google Software Engineer)
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/type/googleseo/

About Kobestarr Digital
We are an Inbound and Digital Marketing Agency based in London, Sheffield and M
anchester in the UK.
We specialise in the strategic production of digital content to ensure that your lea
ds and potential sales find you and keep coming back to you until they first beco
me customers and then your brand advocates.
Inbound Marketing places your marketing at the core of your overall business
strategy. We use data and knowledge to clearly define your buyer persona or
target market. This then informs the content that is most relevant to you and
your client base.
We produce bespoke content across a number of channels including highly
targeted email marketing PR, SEO, Social Media content production,
distribution and analysis through to blogging, photography, animated
infographics and motion video

Contact Kobi & Kobestarr
Digital
kobi@kobestarr.io
www.kobestarr.io
@kobestarr
@kobestarrDigi
uk.linkedin.com/in/kobiomenaka
www.linkedin.com/company/kobestarr-digital
www.facebook.com/KobestarrDigital/

Introduction To SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - by Kobi Omenaka - Kobestarr Digital

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