Presentation given to the University of Edinburgh web publishers community in January 2018 on the use of Keyword research tools for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

1. Keyword research tools for SEO

2. What is SEO?
• SEO - “search engine optimization.”
– It is the process of setting up your content in order
to maximise traffic from the “free,” “organic,”
“editorial” or “natural” search engine results.
• The main points:
– www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/UWP/SEO+advice
– edin.ac/wpc-jul-16
– Effective Digital Content course

3. What is keyword research?
• In order to optimise, need to understand what terms
you are optimising for.
• ‘Keywords’ (for SEO) are the search terms your users
submit to find your product/service
• To determine these terms, you need to put yourself
in the place of your users

4. What can keyword research reveal?
• Keywords – what terms are your users currently (or
might in future) using to try to find you/your service?
How do they understand what you do?
• Frequency/recency – how often do your users use
these terms, and when?
• Relevance – are these terms that are actually relevant
to your business goals? Do/will they drive the right
kind of traffic to your site?
• Competition – how many others are trying to optimise
for the same keywords?

5. Keyword ‘idea storming’
• Get stakeholders together and ask:
• What services do you offer?
– What are (all?) the keywords of these services
• from user perspective
– Exact terms don’t matter too much at this stage
• Based on these words, investigate search volume
– Free tools: Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner,
Google analytics
– There are paid alternatives
• moz.com/explorer/keyword (20 free per month)

6. Google Keyword Planner
• https://adwords.google.com
– (requires adwords sign-up, but free)

7. Google Trends
• https://trends.google.com

8. Google Analytics
(best for internal users)
• analytics.google.com
• Behavior
– Site search
• Search terms
• Segment for
your users
• Secondary dimension
– for start page

9. Desired results
• Popular(ish) terms
– Group terms into topics (for content analysis)
• Low competition
• Very relevant to our business goals
– Descriptive keywords in less-common variations
are a rich source of traffic (and conversions)

10. Taking an example
• “Online learning”
– A very competitive market!
• Google, Lynda.com, University of Edinburgh, TedX, youtube….
– And not wholly clear what the searcher wants:
• What subject? What mode of study? Cost?
• Likely to be an iterative search (online course history, free course medicine, distance
learning course Scotland)…
• ‘iterative’ searches are a good target for content
optimisation:
– Less frequent
– Less competitive
– Very relevant
• And therefore a better target for ‘SEO’
– Existing pages and presences that perform well likely do not need
“SEO” in these terms

11. Keyword distribution –
content modelling
• Align content with target keywords
• List site pages (snapshot can do this: edin.ac/snapshot)
– Group content around audience understanding
(keywords) – not organisational expediency!
– Category – sub-category – deeper-sub-category
– Website Programme – EdWeb – Training ?
– Assign these categories to pages – one page per deeper
keyword
• What should contain keywords?
– Title, Summary, headings, URL, Links (internal to that
page), alt text
• So you should not repeat titles, summaries…
• Remove duplicate content and fix broken links

12. Evaluation 1
• How will we measure success? Depends on business goals:
– Increase in traffic acquired through search only?
– Conversions from this source: Leads, applications, enquiry
reduction
– Reduction in on site search refinements?
– ‘Better’ landing pages found – adheres to content model?
• Increase in search results ranking position
• run the search yourself - periodically
• Repeat exercise – iterative, not project
– Our google analytics will only show existing data – not
missed opportunities (external audiences)

13. Evaluation 2
• SiteBeam
– Automated
tester
• Has a shot at
looking at SEO
– Will find
duplicate
titles/long
summaries
• But use your
judgement…

14. Evaluation 3
• Funnelback – new search engine, March 2018
– Has a back-end that provides analytics on search,
including local SEO analysis
• ease of use/quality to be confirmed
– Once details confirmed, will return to community

15. Having said all this…
• “The end of keywords?”: Semantic and voice search
– Google trying to find meaning, not specific words
• So “holistically” assessing your site
– “Online learning history” vs “find me free online history courses”
– Project underway to understand impact of this on our
websites/content (www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/ltw007)
• Other factors
– Site speed – search prefers faster sites
– Mobile optimised sites
– Security (SSL – https://)
– Schema.org – meta tags in page code
• Help search process and understand content
• Allows rich results (the future!)

16. Rich results

17. Further resources
• www.lynda.com/learning-
paths/Marketing/become-an-seo-expert
• moz.com/learn/seo/what-are-keywords
– moz.com/learn/seo/on-page-factors
• searchenginewatch.com/2018/01/16/good-seo-habits-
turning-over-a-new-leaf-in-2018
• searchenginewatch.com/2017/11/08/the-ultimate-guide-
to-choosing-keywords-for-roi
• wordstream.com/adwords-keyword-grouping

18. Help with content and analytics
• Website support clinic- help with:
– Website objectives & appraisal
– Google Analytics
– We’re learning about search… more to come
• Book in advance: website.support@ed.ac.uk
– More info: edin.ac/support-clinics
• Interested in discussing more about SEO?
– Please get in touch: Duncan.MacGruer@ed.ac.uk