Download Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Ebook

SEO STARTER GUIDE FOR
YOUR BUSINESS
Schalch Marketing
Table of Contents
Search Engine Optimisation Defined p. 3
Why People Use Search Engine p. 4
Understanding the Search Process
p. 5
Why Websites Need to be Optimised p. 6
Keyword p. 7
Keyword Research Strategies p. 7
On­page Optimisation
p. 9 Optimising your Content p. 13
Off­Page Optimisation
p. 15
Link Building Strategies
p. 15
Social Media and SEO
p. 16
Social Media Tips to Boost your SEO
p. 17
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
DEFINED
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of
amplifying your website and other related digital channels
and online content to improve your brand's visibility and
ranking on search engines. Unlike PPC (Pay Per Click)
marketing technique, SEO targets organic search, where
customers use search engines like Google, Yahoo and
Bing to search information about products and services.
When you optimise your website, you increase the
chance of people visiting your website by positioning your
web pages higher in the search engine results. WHY PEOPLE USE SEARCH ENGINE
1. Research ­ Most people use a search engine for research
purposes based on their needs, desires or problem. They are
generally looking for answers, or at least for data with which to
make a sound decision. They're looking to find a website to
fulfill a specific purpose.
Tip: Gear your site content toward things that would be of
interest to a researcher. In­depth how­to articles, product
comparisons and reviews, and free information are all things
that attract researchers to your site.
2. Shop ­ After the research cycle is over, search queries
change to terms that reflect a buying mindset. Phrases like
''discounts" , "sale" and "best price" signal a searcher in need
of a point of purchase.
Tip: Optimising your web page to meet the needs of that type
of visitor results in higher conversions for your site. Global
search engines such as Google tend to reward research­
oriented sites, so your web pages have to strike a balance
between sales­oriented terms and research­oriented terms.
UNDERSTANDING THE SEARCH
PROCESS
Customer has needs and desires.
Customer turns his needs and
desires into a search query.
Customer types his search query
in the search engine,
Customer view search results.
Customer clicks a specific
search result.
WHY WEBSITES NEED TO BE
OPTIMISED : THE BENEFITS OF SEO
• Gets your website in front of your targeted audience • Drives traffic or visits to your website
• Helps your customers during their research/buying process
• Results in higher customer conversions • Contributes to sales growth
• Increases your profit and ROI for less marketing costs KEYWORD
A keyword is a specific word or phrase a search engine looks
for in its index (the list of websites it looks at during a search),
based on what the user typed as the search query.
Keywords are the most important part of search engine
optimization. Search engine 'spiders' and look for keywords
that match or closely relate to the search query. KEYWORD RESEARCH STRATEGIES
1. Discover your site theme. Figure out the purpose of your
website based on the products and services you are offering. 2. Brainstorm for keywords. Look for word based natural
search, what your customers are using and jargon terms
related to your industry.
3. Research your competition and industry.
4. Evaluate your researched keywords using popular
keyword tools and software like Google Keyword Planner.
5. Consider semantic research. Check thesaurus and look
for words that are closely related or synonymous to your
main keywords. Consider 'the searches related to' terms
found at the bottom search engine results page generated
by search engines when you query your search terms.
6. Use long tail keywords. They have less competition than
specific keywords and the bounce rate is very low because
the terms you used are closely related to the search query.
It adds up to web traffic in the long run. ON­ PAGE OPTIMISATION
On page optimisation
refers to developing your
web content with the
appropriate keywords that
are used by your targeted
audience when they search
online.
On­page optimisation
enables search engines to
easily crawl and index your
website:
Title Tag informs users and search engines the subject of the
web page. It is located within the <head> tag of the HTML
document. Search engines crawl and index the title tag and
display it in the search results. To view the website's title tag,
open the website in the web browser and from the top of the
browser or tab, the title tag appears:
<head>
<title>Keyword Phrase 1 and Keyword Phrase 2 – Company
Name</title>
</head>
Tips for Optimising your Title Tag
• Create short but descriptive titles. Use words that quickly
identifies your web content.
• Create a unique title for each page on your website. This
helps the search engines to distinguish the different web
pages on your website.
Meta Description Tag gives search engines a brief
summary of web page content. It is placed within the <head>
tag of the HTML document. Search engines use this tag to
get details about the web page and display it on search
results: <head>
<title>Keyword Phrase 1 and Keyword Phrase 2 – Company
Name</title>
<meta name=”description" content=”Here is a description of
Company Name that
offers Keyword Phrase 1 and Keyword Phrase 2.”>
</head>
Tips for Optimising your Meta Description Tag
• Provide an accurate summary of your web page content.
Use relevant words to accurately describe your web content
• Use unique descriptions for each web page. Having
different meta description tag for each web page helps
your viewers and search engines, especially if you have
multiple pages on your websites. Alt Tag is text descriptions of each image used on your
web page. While search engines don't tag images, they
can crawl the image tag (<img>) in the HTML code. The
alt attribute is an image tag value that describes the image
for the search engine:
<img src=”http://www.yourdomain.com/images/keyword­
phrase.png"alt=”Keyword Phrase” />
Tips for Optimising your Alt Tag
• Use brief, but descriptive filenames and text
• Supply alt text when using images as links URL Structure of your website should include keywords
to help optimize each web page for a particular keyword. .
Your website's URL is displayed as part of the search
results for a search engine, below the document's title and
snippet. Properly optimized URLs help bot and people to
identify the topic of your web page:
http://www.yourdomain.com/keyword­phrase­for­page/
Properly
Tips for Optimising your URL Structure
• Use words relevant to your site content when you create
your URLs
• Create a simple directory structure to make it easy for
your visitors to know where they are on your site.
Optimising your Content • Create new and unique content. Produce fresh content
regularly to attract new visits and encourage repeat views.
• Write content that is easy to understand. Edit and
proofread your text to ensure there are no grammar errors.
Accompany your text messages with interesting visuals or
images that accurately depicts your written content.
• Always think of your target audience. Prioritize your
readers as they are responsible for increasing your ranking
and visibility on search engines through multiple visits.
Avoid stuffing keywords to your content just to increase
your ranking. This can turn off your readers which result to
high bounce rate which significantly decreases your web
pages visibility. • Stay organized on your topic. Observe cohesiveness in
your text messages. Classifying your web content into
logical groups can help your readers find the information
they desired quickly.
• Optimise content loading time. Fast loading web pages
allow users to access your content easily and decrease
their wait time. In addition, search engines will be able to
crawl and index your web pages faster.
OFF­PAGE OPTIMISATION Off page optimisation refers to SEO techniques that help
increase your website's visibility, ranking, and traffic in the
search engines. The method uses third party tools or
websites to help create inbound links pointing to your
website. Link ­building is a popular off­page technique to
increase incoming traffic to your website Link Building Strategies
• Create blogs
• Create presence on popular social media channels for
your niche
• Get listed on online directories
• Syndicate online content
• Guest blog on relevant sites
• Comment on popular blogs and online forums
• Submit PR and online articles
SOCIAL MEDIA AND SEO
Search engines have begun incorporating social
context into their search results. Google, Bing, and
Yahoo are displaying results of your post on
Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Youtube and
other popular social networks high on search engine
results page. Hence, boosting your social media
marketing can also amplify your search engine
optimisation. Social Media Tips to Boost your SEO
Choose social media channels based on your
purpose and target audience. Select social networks
frequented by your ideal customer e.g. Linked In for B2B
clients and Instagram for B2C customers.
Create content relevant to your target users. Attract
your audience by providing informative and entertaining
content that will make them want to share with their
friends and colleagues on their personal social networks.
Post regularly to keep your audience engaged. Plan an engagement strategy. Create social media
campaigns and promotions that encourage audience
participation.
Optimise your social media profiles. Use targeted
keywords on your company description. Don't forget to
include your company website and other social media
links. Enable social sharing. Make sure you have the social
media widgets enabled on your blogs, infographics and
online articles to help increase spread of your content. For more information,please contact us :
Schalch Marketing
1800 229 736
[email protected]