Deck on SEO fundamentals which I presented at the recent Mumsnet BlogFest 2012.

1. An intermediate/advanced guide to
Search Engine Optimisation
Mumsnet

2. Agenda
01 Who are MEC?
02 How do we see SEO?
03 How do search engines rank websites?
04 What should you consider when building a blog or site?
05 What should you consider when creating new content?
06 Why are links pointing to your website important?
07 Conclusion

3. Who are MEC?

4. MEC are a GroupM/WPP Company…
The world’s leading media agency organisation
$91 billion of buying leverage: 30% market share
Unmatched digital & data capabilities
Leaders in research, analytics content and entertainment

5. We have more than 1,200 digital
specialists globally
ACTIVATION AND DISPLAY
46%
SEARCH (SEM AND SEO) AND AFFILIATES
21% DATA AND TECHNOLOGY
13%
STRATEGY AND EMERGING PLATFORMS/MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA
14% 6%

6. Our international search clients span
every major vertical

7. How do we see
SEO?

8. What SEO is not…
Search Engine Optimisation is
not based on chance or magic!

9. What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation is
simply understanding how
search engines rank content,
and using this understanding
to ensure a website or any
digital assets ranks well.

10. Why is SEO important?
Who do we really address when we talk about SEO?
Google.co.uk
(85.58%)
Google.com
(5.11%)
Bing.com
(3.84%)
Yahoo UK
(2.29%)
Ask UK (1.78%)
Source: Hitwise UK, Search engines ranked by Volume of Searches for the 4 weeks ending 16/06/2012

11. Why is SEO important?
Organic versus paid search rankings…
Paid Search
Approx 25%
of clicks.
Organic
Results /
SEO
Approx 75%
of clicks.

12. The higher your position, the more clicks you get
Organic positions
and clicks:
1st = 42%
2nd = 12%
3rd = 8%
70% - 90% click on a
search result on the
1st page of search
results.

13. Why is SEO important?
The impact of better rankings on visitor volume
Volume of Visitors from Organic Search
Organic Search Rankings
6,000 0
2
5,000
4
4,000
6
Ranking
Traffic
3,000 8
10
2,000
12
1,000
14
0 16
Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

14. How do search
engines rank
websites?

15. What do search engines do?
Simply put, search engines
crawl the web to understand
what web-pages are about, in
order to serve relevant lists of
pages to people searching the
web

16. What do search engines do?
a) Understand what the user is looking for
Italian restaurants in Southbank London
• Keywords used
• IP address (location)
• Device searched on
• Previous search query
• Recommended content from friends

17. What do search engines do?
b) Understand what all the web pages on the
internet are about!
1. Crawl the entire public web
via cross domain links
2. Read all the content they are
permitted access to
3. Place a copy of those pages
in their large indexes
But how do they actually rank that content?

18. SEO is an art built on science
What are the ranking factors?
Ranking
Factor 3
Ranking
Factor 2
Ranking
Factor 1
We know what most of the ranking factors are, but
not how they all work together.

19. What activities drive SEO performance?
Reporting, Analysis and Insight
20% 20% 60%
(exponential)
Site specific Page specific Off-site factors
• Site architecture • Semantic usage of keywords • Link authority
• Site navigation in body text • Link anchor text
• Internal linking • Depth of content • Link relevancy
• Categorisation • Content freshness • Link velocity
• Site-wide use of code • Keyword used in Title tag • Social signals

20. What activities drive SEO performance?
Reporting, Analysis and Insight
20% 20% 60%
(exponential)
Site specific Page specific Off-site factors
• Site architecture • Semantic usage of keywords • Link authority
• Site navigation in body text • Link anchor text
• Internal linking • Depth of content • Link relevancy
• Categorisation • Content freshness • Link velocity
• Site-wide use of code On-site factors
• Keyword used in Title tag Off-site factors
• Social signals

21. What should you
consider when
building a blog or
site?

22. What activities drive SEO performance?
Reporting, Analysis and Insight
20% 20% 60%
(exponential)
Site specific Page specific Off-site factors
• Site architecture • Semantic usage of keywords • Link authority
• Site navigation in body text • Link anchor text
• Internal linking • Depth of content • Link relevancy
• Categorisation • Content freshness • Link velocity
• Site-wide use of code • Keyword used in Title tag • Social signals

23. What should I consider when building my blog?
1. Build a website which the search engines can easily read
- Self-hosted WordPress is a great solution
2. Structure your website wisely
- Make use of categories
3. Show Google you can be trusted
- Buy a domain name that relates to what your blogging about
- Enable Google Plus authorship: https://plus.google.com/authorship

24. What should you
consider when
creating new
content?

25. What activities drive SEO performance?
Reporting, Analysis and Insight
20% 20% 60%
(exponential)
Site specific Page specific Off-site factors
• Site architecture • Semantic usage of • Link authority
• Site navigation keywords in body text • Link anchor text
• Internal linking • Depth of content • Link relevancy
• Categorisation • Content freshness • Link velocity
• Site-wide use of code • Keyword used in Title • Social signals
tag

26. Firstly we need to think like a search engine engines work in a
Search
textual word!

27. What should I consider when writing my blog posts?
1. Do you want people to find the content via search?
2. What keywords would people use to find your content?
3. Use these keywords naturally in the key areas

28. What should I consider when writing my blog posts?
Think about relevant keywords to target
What is the most searched for term below in the UK?
• Current account • Student accounts
Free tools show
• Current accounts • Basic bank account
how much search
• Bank account • Basic bank accounts
volume there is and
• Bank accounts • Open a bank account online
around keywords
• Internet banking • Best bank account
• Online bank • Best bank accounts
• Online bank account • Join bank accounts
• Student bank accounts • Best current accounts

29. What should I consider when writing my blog posts?
Think about relevant keywords to target
Short-Tail
Large volumes of
searches across few Long-Tail
terms – highly Small volumes of
competitive searches across many
terms – less
competitive
e.g. Bank account
~ 30-50% of demand
(depends on brand
volume) ~ 50-70% of
e.g. Best demand
bank account e.g. savings account for new born in London

30. What should I consider when writing my blog posts?
Think about relevant keywords to target
Short-Tail
Large volumes of
searches across few Long-Tail
terms – highly Small volumes of
What percentage of searches have
competitive searches across many
terms – less
never been made before? competitive
e.g. Bank account
~ 30-50% of demand
(depends on brand
volume) ~ 50-70% of
e.g. Best demand
bank account e.g. savings account for new born in London

31. What should I consider when writing my blog posts?
Think about relevant keywords to target
Short-Tail
What percentage of searches have
Large volumes of
Long-Tail
searches across few
Small volumes of
never been made before?less many
terms – highly
searches across
competitive
terms –
competitive
15%
e.g. Bank account
~ 30-50% of demand
(depends on brand
volume) ~ 50-70% of
e.g. Best demand
bank account e.g. savings account for new born in London

32. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
Use these keywords naturally in the most important areas
Should I use keywords
Should keywords be in meta descriptions?
in italics?
Do keywords need to
How many times be in ALT tags?
should keywords be
on the page?

33. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
Use these keywords naturally in the most important areas
In order of importance:
Title tag
Domain name
Menu structure
Headings
Textual content
Images

34. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
Use these keywords naturally in the most important areas
In order of importance:
Title tag
Domain name
Menu structure
Headings
Textual content
Images

35. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
What does an optimised web page look like?
• Optimised Title tag
• Semantically structured
headings
• Relevant Text
• Optimised images
• Video content

36. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
What does an optimised web page look like?
Optimising a web-page is not about
keyword stuffing, it should simply
• Optimised Title tag
involve ensuring the key meaning
• Semantically structured
headings
of the page is easily understood by
• Relevant Text
search engines.
• Optimised images
• Video content

37. Two very basic on-
page elements are
often neglected…
1. Title tags
2. Meta
descriptions

38. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
Write your Title tags and Meta descriptions

39. What should I consider when writing my blog posts
Write your Title tags and Meta descriptions

40. What does a well optimised title and
meta description look like?

41. Why are links pointing to
your website important?

42. What activities drive SEO performance?
Reporting, Analysis and Insight
20% 20% 60%
(exponential)
Site specific Page specific Off-site factors
• Site architecture • Semantic usage of keywords • Link authority
• Site navigation in body text • Link anchor text
• Internal linking • Depth of content • Link relevancy
• Categorisation • Content freshness • Link velocity
• Site-wide use of code • Keyword used in Title tag • Social signals

43. A website is part of an online ecosystem
• The internet is a mass of websites
as part of an international
ecosystem.
• Each website has an ecosystem
created by one page on a website
linking to another.
• Search engines use this link
ecosystem to understand what
websites are about and which
are the most important websites
on the web

44. Understanding links: Link analogies
Links as votes Links as citations
Search engines see links as votes of This voting principle comes from the
confidence from one website to citation method used in scientific and
another academic papers
The better your links, the better your rankings!

45. Factors search engines consider when
assessing links?
Page specific factors Site specific
• Words used in the anchor text of • Number of links point to the web-site
external links
• Quality of links pointing to the web-
• Words used on the linking page site
• Quality of links pointing to the web- • Quality and quantity of content
page
• Number of links pointing to the web-
page
• Diversity of link sources
• Relevance of link sources

46. Factors search engines consider
when assessing links?
Example
The scenario: A mobile phone accessories
retailer wants to improve its organic ranking on
the keyword “angry birds speaker”.
What is a good example of a link to get?

47. Factors search engines consider
when assessing links?
Example

48. Some methods of acquiring links
Link-baiting Link-building
Developing assets to draw links Going out and getting links
• Press releases around hot news • Directory submissions
• Infographics • Guest blog posts
• Great media content (video, images) • Advertorials
• Tools/Calculators • Article syndication
• App development • SEO-banner placement
• Widget placement
• Press release syndication
• Buzz monitoring

49. Some methods of acquiring links
Link-baiting: A recent example
Infographics
Visual representations of relevant
information, data or knowledge
Earn natural
links

50. Conclusion

51. So SEO is quite
simple really!

52. 5 golden tips to get make your blogging
search engine friendly
1. Buy your own domain name (.com or .co.uk)
2. Build your website with self-hosted WordPress
(and install the plugin WordPress SEO by Yoast)
3. Think about keywords before writing your content
4. Get links when you can
5. Keep adding more content!

53. And remember: Google is your friend
 Use Google Analytics to understand your visitors
 Use Google Plus to setup Google Authorship for your profile
picture to be in the search results
 Use Google Webmaster Tools to find out about any problems
Google has accessing your website

54. ?