Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - a simple how to guide for web designer

1. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMISATION
The importance and power of SEO

2. What is SEO?
 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is used to
increase the visibility of your WebPages on
search engines.
 Approximately 5.2 billion web searches are
made every day, so it‟s important you capture
as many of these potential visitors to your site
as possible.
 88% of all Americans use a search engine!

3. Global Search Engine Market Share (July
2011)
 Figures for late
2012 are similar,
with Google and
Microsoft gaining
2% market share,
whilst Yahoo has
slipped 4%
 Figures specifically
for the UK has
Google capturing
almost 90% of the
search engine
market!

4. How do people search the
web?
 Most people use one of the following methods:
1. They hunt for a specific answer to a question
(e.g. “What‟s the weather in Madrid on
Monday?”)
2. They formulate a search query using simple
words or phrases (e.g. “Weather Madrid
Monday”)

5. Why is this important?
 Over 80% of web searches are
less than 5 words long!
 You ideally need to reach your
potential audience in no more
than four words.
 Therefore, you need to carefully
consider what key terms are
going to bring people to your
website.

6. Why being No.1 Helps!

7. Why being No.1 Helps!
Percentage of user clicks based on position & ranking in Google…

8. Why being No.1 Helps!
 85% of searchers click on natural results
rather than paid results.
 In terms of value, natural results could be
worth three times as much as paid results!

9. What terms to use?
 Some terms are more important than others;
web users naturally gravitate toward simple
words and natural phrases.
For example, you will receive more searches
for a phrase like „obscure movies‟ than
„esoteric talkies‟, even though they essentially
mean the same thing

10. What terms to use?
 It‟s very important, therefore, to research your
key terms before you publish your website!
 Even a single word or letter can make all
the difference!

11. What terms to use?
 http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
 Type in your keyterms and see how often its
being searched, along with other popular
suggestions

12. What terms to use?
 What does „Google Auto Suggest‟ think users
want?

13. Basic SEO Tips
 Use your key terms in your URL (web address).
For example, www.garden-tools.com will appear
as a relevant choice to Google, Bing, Yahoo and
other search engines when you look for „garden
tools‟
 Use a „keyword rich‟ title for your page.
For instance: “Gardening Tools | Spades, Rakes,
Forks”
 Search engines LOVE fresh, new content!
Websites updated regularly always do better
longer term.
 Older, established websites are generally given
priority over new, unknown quantities. Pre-aged

14. Simple SEO in Dreamweaver
CS5
 Optimise your titles in your title bar:

15. Simple SEO in Dreamweaver
CS5
 Adding META tags will give search engines
basic guidelines as to what your website is
about.

16. Simple SEO in Dreamweaver
CS5
 Search engines read the „alt‟ attribute from
your images and interpret the content to help
determine what the image is about.

17. Simple SEO in Dreamweaver
CS5
 Use your „Headings‟ correctly. Titles have
more impact on search engines than
paragraph text does…

18. Why Linking Matters
 Search engines use clever algorithms to guess
what‟s relevant. One tool they use to judge a
site‟s popularity is incoming links.
✔

19. How many links do you have?

20. Getting Inbound Links
 Email others for help
 It‟s quick, easy, cheap and personal
 However, it can take a long time, you won‟t
have a great response rate and it can involve a
lot of effort to get through every potential
lead…

21. Getting Inbound Links
 Keep your message simple and short. The
person you are contacting is receiving an email
that is unsolicited. They aren‟t going to read a
four-page essay!
 Clearly state your request. It‟s tricky getting
someone to read an email, and so it‟s critical your
pitch is clear.
 Clearly say why your site deserves a link.
Showcase your highlights like awards, industry
prestige, etc
 Give and you may receive. Always offer to
reciprocate when asking for a back link; you‟re
always better off, psychologically speaking, doing

22. Getting Inbound Links
 Social Networking sites are a really easy way
of spreading your message, plus the links
back to the website help immensely!

23. Getting Inbound Links
 Join directories like http://www.dmoz.org/

24. Getting Inbound Links
 Make your own; promoting your website
needn‟t mean putting your link wherever you
can – be pragmatic and think about relevant
places.

25. Getting Inbound Links
 The more respected a website is by a search
engine, the more it trusts the link. Getting one
high ranking website to link back to you is
often worth the power of ten poor performing
sites!

26. Things to AVOID!
 Malware hosted on the site - Search engines act fast when
penalizing sites that contain viruses and trojans.
 Cloaking - Search engines hate to be tricked as much as humans;
cloaked websites are given the thumbs down by everyone!
 Pages on the site that sell links – Google especially hates any kind
of „Backlinks for cash‟ exchange
 Sandboxing – taken from O Reilly, The Art of SEO 2nd Edition 2012:
“One technique that many people believe Google uses has become
known as the Google “sandbox.” The sandbox is thought to be a
filter where Google limits the rate of growth of the PageRank (or
rankings) of new domains. This approach could be useful in filtering
out spam domains because they often don’t stay around very long,
so the spammer works hard to get them ranking and producing
traffic as quickly as they can. The sandbox can potentially create a
scenario where the website is caught by improved algorithms or
manual review prior to becoming highly productive. At a minimum, it
would increase the cost of the spammer’s efforts.”

27. Improving Rankings
 What are people searching for when they are
coming to your website

28. Improving Ranking
 Use „related content‟ to find more potential
users you may not currently be targeting with
your keywords…

29. Improving Rankings
 Look at what your competitors are doing…
 Examine their META tags
 Who‟s linking to their website?
 What products/services are they offering on
their websites that‟s so enticing for users and
search engines?

30. Improving Rankings
 Get yourself on the map! If you are promoting
a local business, add yourself on Google
Maps. Don‟t forget to list addresses, telephone
numbers and other contact information like e-
mail

31. Improving Rankings
 Discover your competition…
 http://www.alexa.com/
 http://www.quantcast.com/
 http://www.compete.com/us/
 http://www.spyfu.com

32. Improving Rankings
You can sometimes jump the queue to the top spot using a video…

33. Improving Rankings
 Ditch the Flash files – Search engines find
multimedia like flash animations, music and
videos extremely difficult to decode!
 Don‟t overdo the linking – Google is said to
ignore any page with over 100 links on it; this
may sound like a lot, but you‟d be surprised!
 TASK: Go to Amazon.co.uk and count the
number of links are on the opening page

34. Improving Rankings
 Create a social networking
presence.
 Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and
Google+1, all help to drive traffic
toward your website.
 Regular „tweeters‟ and
„facebookers‟ can become a well-
respected driving force. A „thumbs
up‟ from a popular social-
networking guru can see thousands
of extra visitors!
 DEMONSTRATION: Embedding a
„like this‟ button for Facebook:
http://developers.facebook.com/doc
s/reference/plugins/like/

35. Picking the perfect domain
name
 Brainstorm four or five keywords. Try to consider your website‟s core
subject.
 Make the domain unique.. Avoid confusion with other popular sites.
 Choose only .com-available domains or the TLD for your country. Most
people simply don‟t trust anything but a „.com‟ or a „.co.uk‟
 Make it easy to type. Avoid tricky words to spell and embarrassingly simple
mistakes - avoiding names that use lots of the following letters: q, z, x, c, and
p.
 Make it easy to remember. Word of mouth relies on making your domain
simple to remember. Amazon.com is easy to recall, but
billsbookemporium.com isn‟t!
 Keep the name as short as possible. Short names are easy to type and
easy to remember, plus they‟re are a better fit on business cards and other
promotional tools.
 Don’t be obscure. People like things to do „what it says on the tin‟.
Gardeningsupplies.com says what it does, flyamo.com doesn‟t!

36. The darker side of SEO
 Paid Links – asking for links in exchange for
money
 Giveaways – encouraging people to link to you, or
follow your social media channels by offering up
an enticing prize
 Automatic back link generators – these tools
automatically submit your site to directories,
listings pages, etc by the thousands.
 Link brokers – companies that use their leverage
over other sites to buy back links for you; similar
to paid linking, but without the effort of doing it
yourself
 Sponsorship – back links in exchange for articles
or blog posts.

37. Where next?
 Blogs (e.g. http://www.seomoz.org/blog )
+ usually free
+ constantly updated
+ interactive (commenting)
- not always truthful
- old information
 Software (e.g. Market Samurai)
+ effective tools
+ easy to use
+ takes hard work out of SEO
- can be expensive
 Books (e.g. O Reilly, The Art of SEO)
+ learn wherever you want
+ requires no technical skill whatsoever
- dry style
- quickly outdated
 Videos (e.g. YouTube Tutorials)
+ engaging style
+ quick to learn
- poor production values
 SEO company
+ Guaranteed, professional results
- professional prices (£‟000s)