The slides from my lecture on digital marketing at Bath Spa Uni

1. ©Noisy Little Monkey | 2017
Bath Spa University
SEO Training
March 2017

3. Natasha Jon
Ste
Claire
Creative Director Technical Director
SEO Manager
Marketing
Josh Natalie
Inbound Manager Account Executive
Nicola
Lucy
Managing Director
Account Manager
Holly
Account Executive
Mr Dog
VP of Shaking
Gertie
DM Executive
James
DM Executive
Clare
Ops Manager

4. The company we keep
4

5. Trusted by5

6. Agenda
Training Overview
1
Technical aspects of your site,
such as the server stability,
server configuration, error
handling and redirects.
2
Technical
Aspects of your website’s
content and structure, such as
URLs, Page titles and headers.
On-site

7. 3 Words, pictures, videos, audio
4
Copy
Your website’s footprint on the
rest of the internet; citations,
linking domains and social
signals.
Off-site
5
?
Questions

8. THE BASICS

9. How Does Google View Itself?9
We all hate this video…

10. 10
Guiding principles
What Google Wants?
Google wants to:
• Serve the best result for the query
• What is the intent behind this search query?
• What is the best resource for visitors with this kind of intent?
• Of these; which sites do people historically seem to click on?
• Of these; which sites are talked about a lot on the rest of the
internet?
• Does the resource display properly on the visitors device?
• Is the resource geographically relevant?
• Is the resource trustworthy?
• Is the resource compromised with a virus?

11. 11
Guiding principles
What Google Wants?
• Has this resource tried really really hard to optimise their site?
• The most informative, best resource on a topic might be written by a wheezy old professor
who isn’t a great web developer…

12. 12
Understanding the relationships between things
Google Wants To Be A Knowledge Engine

13. 13
Quick wins.
Reporting
• Google Analytics installed
and set up
• Filter office visits
• Goals set up
• Filter spammers
• Search Console verified
and set up
• Geographic targets
set up
• Sitemaps submitted
• Crawl errors and
warnings heeded

14. TECHNICAL

15. 15
Technical SEO
Anything to do with your server, host, databases, etc, that has an implication for Search Engines.
Improving your technical configuration won’t add value to your site – but technical issues can and
will subtract value.
Very often, these are problems that you cannot see or are not immediately obvious. Often pedantic.
In general, following web development best practices and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines as far as
it is feasible for you to do so is sufficient.

16. 16
Technical SEO
Anything to do with your server, host, databases, etc, that has an implication for Search Engines.
Improving your technical configuration won’t add value to your site – but technical issues can and
will subtract value.
Very often, these are problems that you cannot see or are not immediately obvious. Often pedantic.
In general, following web development best practices and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines as far as
it is feasible for you to do so is sufficient.SPEED

17. 17
Speed
Technical SEO
TTFB = Time To First Byte
• This is a ‘ranking factor’
• We believe it should be around
0.3s
Full Page Load
• This is NOT a ranking factor
(some developers delight in
explaining this)
• HOWEVER it is closely linked
with user experience and
conversion rate.
https://moz.com/blog/improving-
search-rank-by-optimizing-your-time-
to-first-byte

18. 18
Speed
Technical SEO
Tools for measuring speed:
• webpagetest.org
• pingdom.com
• gtmetrix.com
• developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

19. 19
Speed
Technical SEO

20. 20
Mobile
Technical SEO
• Google doesn’t want to
serve mobile unfriendly
content to mobile users
• Even if your site actually
IS mobile friendly, you
should check that
Google agrees
• There are technical
issues which can occur
which may interfere with
this judgement.
https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

21. Check For
Yourself

22. 22

23. Redirects & Crawl Errors23
404 302 301
Status Codes
• Broken links are a sign of a poor user experience
• Search Engines won’t bother ranking your new page if you use a temporary redirect

24. 24
Status Codes
Technical SEO

25. 25
Status Codes
Technical SEO

26. 26
Error Handling
Technical SEO
Let’s try to stop your website from breaking, but if it does, make sure we’ve got it configured.
Make sure that visiting a non-existent page gives a useful 404 page that salvages the user
experience.
Make sure that the 404 page actually sends a 404 status code

27. 27
Fixing Crawl Errors
Technical SEO
302 301
Temporary Permanent

28. 28
Search Console
Technical SEO
• Search console will also report on crawl issues

29. Sitemaps29
Sitemaps sound
familiar…?

30. XML Sitemaps30

31. XML Sitemaps31

32. 32
For Tech SEO stuff
WIDER READING
• Getting your website into “best practice” shape can be complicated.
• Google knows that not everyone is a computer whizz. That’s fine. Trying to
grapple with this may not be a solid ROI.
• However, if you want to learn more, here are some starting points:
• https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015
• https://moz.com/blog/seo-cheat-sheet
• https://www.distilled.net/resources/technical-audit-checklist-for-human-beings/
• Worth getting for WordPress
• https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ (the free version is fine, and better
than any other SEO plug in)

33. ON-SITE SEO

34. 34
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO

35. 35
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO

36. 36
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL

37. 37
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain

38. 38
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug

39. 39
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title

40. 40
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title
• H1

41. 41
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title
• H1
• Image alt text

42. 42
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title
• H1
• Image alt text
• The actual content

43. 43
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title
• H1
• Image alt text
• The actual content
• “Meta description”

44. 44
How does Google
determine relevance?
ON PAGE SEO
• URL
• Domain
• Slug
• Page Title
• H1
• Image alt text
• The actual content
• “Meta description”

45. 45
Relics that no longer matter
ON PAGE SEO
• “Meta keywords”
• “Meta tags”
• “Keyword Density”

46. 46
More than just a Keyword Match
ON PAGE SEO
Implicit search signals (context) are also taken into account
• Location
• Device
• Search history

47. Content

48. 48
Getting the Terminology Right
ON PAGE SEO

49. 49
Getting the Terminology Right
ON PAGE SEO

50. 50
Getting the Terminology Right
ON PAGE SEO
• Use the language your customers will be using
• Don’t use the language your office uses internally
• The language your customers use will be the language they will be searching with
• How can you be sure which terms your customers use the most?

51. 51
Google Trends
ON PAGE SEO

52. 52
bit.ly/nlmpersona

53. 53
Getting in front of Marketing Manager Michael
ON PAGE SEO – Identifying Keywords

54. 54
bit.ly/nlmpersona

55. 55
More Is Not (Always) Better
ON PAGE SEO
Volume
Intent Competition

56. 56
As Queries Become More Specific, Volume Goes Down
ON PAGE SEO
• Yet these rare searches make up 70% of all searches.
*Long tail = highly
specific 4-6 word
phrases
*

57. 57
A Time And A Place
ON PAGE SEO
BOF
MOF
TOF
Awareness
Generic searches
Experiencing a problem, issue or need.
Prospect is trying to define the problem.
“Sales/conversions are down, why?”
Consideration
Problem has been diagnosed.
Prospect is learning and researching possible fixes.
“Site traffic is down, how do I get more visits? ^ Rankings or
social engagement?”
Decision
Specific searches
Solution found, weighing up options and offerings.
“Average Social Media Management Costs UK, SEO
Agency’s near me”

58. 58
Disclaimer
ON PAGE SEO
• Optimising for search can shore up weaknesses on your site and rectify
problems.
• Got a strong resource that should be ranking but isn’t – optimising will
help.
• Optimising pages isn’t a magic bullet that will allow you to ‘beat the system’
• Don’t forget to check the actual search results page for interesting
keywords to get an idea of context! You may be surprised!

59. 59
Trust Signals
ON PAGE SEO
• It is important to Search Engines that they serve quality results
• They have refined their algorithms to validate against spam and malicious websites
• Does the website have a real address?
• Real phone number?
• Listed elsewhere online?
• Reviews?
• Entry on Companies House?
• Authored by real people with real social profiles?

60. 60
Reviews
ON PAGE SEO
• Having reviews is a fantastic signal to search
engines, if appropriate.
• There are many providers such as:
• reviews.co.uk
• trustpilot.com
• Google My Business
• Inviting customers or visitors to review as part of
your after-sales process is a great way to ensure
that this signal is not neglected

61. 61
Schema
ON PAGE SEO
• Schema is a type of markup that can be incorporated into
your website’s html code.
• It is also known as “structured data” because it allows you
to specify what different pieces of text represent on the
page – saving the search engines from having to guess.
• This is a phone number
• This is our address
• This is our opening times
• This is a product name

62. 62
Schema
ON PAGE SEO
• Schema isn’t something that is ‘standard’ at the moment
• It can sometimes be tricky to implement
• We highly encourage you to use it if you can, as search engines are actively
embracing this kind of technology.

63. 63
Freshness
ON PAGE SEO
• Google values “freshness” for certain queries that are time sensitive.
• This is called QDF – Query Deserves Freshness
• Timely coverage of notable events and developments is more likely to enjoy visibility.

64. 64
Content Strategy
ON PAGE SEO
• When you have optimised your static content to your satisfaction, it is important to
continue to reinforce your status as a web resource.
• Identifying common questions and problems and producing content targeted at
resolving these issues.
• Have Personas and write with them in mind.
• Be respectful of where the problem sits in the ‘funnel’
• If people are just trying to learn more about a problem, educate them, don’t
push a product.
• Becoming “the Wikipedia” of your field is a good direction to aim in, even if you
ultimately full short.

65. OFF-SITE SEO

66. 66
Links & Citations
OFF-SITE SEO
www.site1.com
bbc.co.uk
www.site2.com
auntmaviscookeryblog.co.uk
• Suppose you have two website identical in every way. How do you rank one above
the other?

67. 67
Why Have I Heard So Much Bad Stuff About Links?
OFF-SITE SEO
Google
measures
signal
Businesses
spoof signal for
profit
Google evolves

68. 68
Links & Citations
OFF-SITE SEO
www.site1.com
bbc.co.uk
www.site2.com
auntmaviscookeryblog.co.uk
• Quality > Quantity

69. 69
Links & Citations
OFF-SITE SEO
www.recipes.com/best-roasts
bbc.co.uk/news/politics/e
www.recipes.com/best-roasts
auntmaviscookeryblog.co.uk
• Relevance

70. 70
mysite.co.uk
Links & Citations
OFF-SITE SEO
• A diverse, relevant and growing set of linking websites is best
BBC
Local
blog
Business
partner
Local
press
Trade
magazine
Local Chamber of
Commerce
Business
partner

71. 71
Links & Citations
OFF-SITE SEO
#WTF??
Is this reflected
on news sites,
social media,
search
volumes?

72. 72
It’s all relative…
OFF-SITE SEO
Two explorers are walking through the
jungle.
Suddenly they hear a tiger roar.
One explorer sits down and takes a pair of
running shoes out of his backpack.
‘You’re crazy, you’ll never out-run a tiger,’
says the other explorer.
‘I don’t have to out-run the tiger,’ he replies.
‘I just have to out-run you.’
- Dave Trott

73. 73
Competitor Analysis Tools
OFF-SITE SEO
• Majestic.com
• Look at your own inbound linking metrics
• Look at your competitors and get an idea of the scales we’re dealing with
• SEMRush.com
• Get some indication of what terms you and/or your competitors rank well for
and who the competition is based on those terms.

74. 74
How Do I Acquire Links?
OFF-SITE SEO
This is the big question.
• We have enviable link acquisition, which we achieve through:
• Attending lots of industry events
• We run our own events – trying to do all of the things we like about other
events and none of the things we hate.
• Speaking engagements at industry events
• Training sessions (sometimes for free) for colleges and government schemes.
• Writing lots of blog posts about topics we find people struggling with
• Sharing those blogs around the social networks we maintain

75. 75
How Do I Acquire Links?
OFF-SITE SEO
• Links are not the explicit goal of these activities – that would leave us often frustrated and
disappointed
• Links are the natural consequence of being a pro-active and visible presence in your industry.
• Good marketing combined with knowledge about search allows you to avoid missing
opportunities.

76. Any Questıons?

77. Unlocking Potential Online