These slides were used for our "How to Improve your Internet Footprint" seminar in April. During the presentation we shared ways to improve a site's visibility in the search engines.

1. Web Page Basics
The importance of providing your site with the best
opportunity for growth

2. We’ll cover the following
• Is your web site visible?
• Is your web site accessible?
• Is your web site easy to navigate?
• Is your web site easy to find?
• Content – is it dynamic, have you got enough?
• Embracing social media

3. Is your web site visible?
Q. Can you be sure that your web site viewable in all web
browsers?
• There are many different browsers out there?
• Apple Safari, IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
• There are many more including the likes of: Omniweb,
Camino, Opera and quot;Flock“
•60% of all monitors are set at 1024x768 pixel (Jacob Nielsen
– Useit.com)
• So 40% use the 800x600 to 1280x1024
• Monitor sizes are increasing

4. Is your web site visible?
Q. Does your web site have clean code?
• Different technologies may struggle i.e. Mobile
phones do not have the resources to interpret a
quot;badquot; markup language
http://validator.w3.org/
Webmasters
Site owners help

5. Is your web site visible?
• There are different web languages however HTML
(Hyper Text Mark Up Language) or XHTML are the
popular languages that conform to W3C standards.
• XML (Extensible Mark Up Language) is designed to
describe data, and HTML is designed to display data.
• Therefore - by combining HTML and XML, and their
strengths, you have a markup language that is built for
the future - XHTML

6. Is your web site visible?
Make sure that your site doesn’t take an age to load!
‘50% of sites still have slow download times’ JN
Useit.com
• Lightweight XHTML code, CSS style sheets, server side
caching, external java scripts, images in style sheets,
and valid standards compliant code
• Small image file sizes 20-30KB (Total 100 KB per page)
• Browser Caching provides a great way of delivering
content faster to your visitors

7. Is your web site visible?
Is your site registered with all the Search Engines?
• There are thousands of search engines catering
for many different users and markets
• If you’re a historian – Librarians Internet Index
• Google is the biggest with over 77% market
share in the UK
• In 2008 YouTube! had more searches than
Yahoo! making it the 2nd biggest search engine
• Is your web site optimised for the wrong
market?

8. Is your web site accessible
Make your web site available to a wider audience;
• Is your web site A, AA or AAA
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Visually impaired users – (Sydney Olympics)
• Users on slow connections (20% of UK still without
broadband).
• Users with different devices (Blackberry, PDA’s,
smart phones, iphones, mini laptops)
• Users with different browsers

9. Is your website easy to navigate?
Q. Would you make it difficult for user to navigate your
site? No
• Make it as easy as possible for the search engines to
navigate your site and pull the relevant content
– Sitemap
– Clean code
– Targeted Keywords
– Robot text files
– Links
• How does Google see my site?

10. Is your web site easy to find?
On-page Optimisation
• Titles Tags
• Header Tags i.e. H1, H2 etc
• Friendly URL’s
• ALT Tags
• Clear and precise content
• Good navigation (site map)
• In-links i.e. anchor text back links
What have I missed?

11. On-page Optimisation
Keywords
• Every page has its own individual objective and this should
be represented within the content, the message and the call
to action.
‘In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The
rest search and go directly to the page on question’. BBC.co.uk
•How do we know which keywords to use?
• Often this area is too quickly decided
• Research your keywords
• KEI –Keyword Effectiveness Indicator
• There are many different keyword tools available

12. On-page Optimisation
Keywords
• You may know what your site is about and how
you would find it, but it's very difficult to
predict how a paying customer would find it
• Often people evaluate their site through a very
narrow lens
• As a result keywords relate to industry
jargon, not viable keywords

13. On-page Optimisation
Keywords
• Generic keywords - Knowing what your top
keywords are can often be of no value.
• We want targeted traffic!
I.e. Mechanics > Motor Mechanics > Motor Mechanics in
Newbury
• Long Tail - keyword phrase to include numerous combinations
and permutations of the keywords and their associated or
relevant phrases. Note . Don’t overlook geographic targeting
• 10-20 highly focused keywords (home page)
• 2-3 keywords (sub pages)

14. On-page Optimisation
Choosing the right keywords

15. On-page Optimisation
Keywords
It's important to keep monitoring your keywords and make
tweaks as necessary. Doing so will allow you to stay ahead of your
competition and keep moving forward.
• Keyword research should not be undertaken in an ad hoc
fashion
• It is the foundation all natural search engine optimisation
techniques
• The keywords selected should be included in all of your on-page
optimisation

16. On-page Optimisation
Keywords
• We typically recommend only going after two to
three related keywords/key phrases per page
• Don’t run the risk of diluting your page to the
point where you rank for nothing.
• Make sure to naturally work the keywords into
your content and avoid over-repetition that may
be interpreted as spamming.

17. Content
• How much content do you have?
• Do you know your keyword density?
• Is it dynamic?
• Are you displaying external content?
• Do you update your content regularly?
• Do you have a content strategy?
• Is it manageable?
• Do you have a publishing process?
• Do you have a blog?

18. Content
Keyword Density
• Keyword density generally refers to the number of
times a keyword has appeared in your content.
• There are many different opinions:
• 2-5% content density per keyword
• 8-15% engine density
• Content density or engine density?
• The content should be written naturally with the topic
or subject in mind and not the targeted keyword in mind.
www.seochat.com www.webjectives.com

19. Content
Dynamic Content
• Almost every web site offers some form of dynamic content i.e.
stock quotes, personal account information, football results or film
show times.
• Dynamic content can be exceptionally powerful
• The myth was that dynamic content is harder to optimise than
static content.
•Using a good CMS can expel that myth and drive dynamic content
through friendly URL’s and structured XML feeds

20. Content Strategy
Q. Do you have a strategy?

21. Content Strategy
• It’s not all about the quantity its the quality that counts
• It’s important to set realistic targets
• Make the process manageable
• Give people particular roles – creative V’s copy writing
• Have a content plan across all areas of your business
• Have regular brain storming sessions
• It’s important to have a publishing process
• Develop a full strategy with goals and dates

22. Embracing social media
Q. Does your site embrace social media?
• Social media doesn’t necessarily mean Face Book
• There are many business benefits to social media
• It’s important to understand what those benefits are to
your business and embrace it within the right areas of
your site

23. Summary
1. Make sure your web site visible?
2. Make sure your web site accessible?
3. Make sure your web site easy to navigate?
4. Make sure your web site easy to find?
5. Initiating a content strategy
6. Embracing social media