seo workshop for cardiff metropolitan uni

SEO WorkshopThursday 14th April 2016

Steve Morgan

morganonlinemarketing.co.uk

@steviephil SEOno.co.uk

About Me

• Full-time in SEO for 7+ years:• Liberty Marketing (SEO agency)

• Confused.com (no intro needed!)

• Box UK (web dev agency)

• Full-time self-employed for 3 years

• Organiser of Cardiff SEO Meet

• Blogger at SEOno (my blog) &State of Digital (European digitalmarketing blog)


About You!

• Who blogs?

• Who manages a website?

• Who knows about SEO already?


What is SEO?

• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

• Increasing your rankingsin search engines


The Importance of SEO


(Fun) Facts

• Google owns 90%+ of searchengine market share in UK

• Searchers are more likely toclick on organic resultscompared to ads


(Fun) Facts

• PPC (Pay Per Click)a.k.a. Google AdWordsc. 25% of clicks

• SEOorganic/natural resultsc. 75% of clicks


Pros & Cons of SEO & PPC

• PPC (Pay Per Click)

• Pros:• Instant

• More controllable

• More ‘buying’ mentality

• Cons:• Fewer clicks

• Pay for every click/visit

• SEO

• Pros:• More clicks

• The clicks are free

• Cons:• It takes time…

• Less control / unpredictable

• More ‘informational’ mentality


SEO vs. Other Channels


More (Fun) Facts

• c. 95% of searchers do not gobeyond page 1 of the search results

• If they haven’t found what they’relooking for, they’ll revise their search(…or give up)

• [Comic source: http://xkcd.com/1334/]

http://xkcd.com/1334/


• Higher rankings

=

more clicks

=

more traffic!

[Source: http://moz.com/blog/a-tale-of-two-studies-google-vs-

bing-clickthrough-rate]

(Fun) Facts

http://moz.com/blog/a-tale-of-two-studies-google-vs-bing-clickthrough-rate


First (important) step?

• Keyword Research!

• No point ranking #1 for a keyword that nobody searches for!

• Search volume data obtainable via theGoogle AdWords Keyword Planner tool

• https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home(You need a Google AdWords account)

https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home


Interactive Exercise 1 – Keyword Research

• Use the Keyword Planner to see keyword search volumes

• Think about:oYour business idea…?

o Is it more popular / less popular than you thought?

oSet your country of preference: UK or Global?

oTry variations, synonyms, singular vs. plural, etc.

o Its specificity: e.g. "shoes" vs. "buy blue trainers online"

oBe careful of words with double meanings:e.g. trainers (type of shoes) vs. trainers (people who provide training)



• Logging in…

1. Google "google keyword planner" & click the 1st result

2. Click ‘Sign in to AdWords’

3. Username: [REMOVED]

4. Password: [REMOVED]

5. Expand ‘► Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category’

6. Type in some keywords in the 1st field and select ‘Get ideas’

7. Click the ‘Keyword ideas’ tab

8. Try different keywords, settings, etc.


The Main Factors of SEO

• When Google evaluates a website:

o Is it relevant?

o Is it authoritative?

o Is it trustworthy?

• How does it determine these things?


SEO – the code of a website


SEO – the website’s text


SEO – link building

Your-Site.com

PR

Social media

Guest blogging

Business directories

Industry-specific

directories

Blog commenting

Forums Infographics


Interactive Exercise 2 – Link Analysis

• Use Open Site Explorer to see the links pointing to a website

• https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

• Check one of the following:oYour own website? The website your business idea aspires to be?

oA friend or family member’s website? A website you like?

oThe site of a competitor / a business you aspire to be like

ocastlebikes.co.uk (Steve’s website!)

https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

http://www.castlebikes.co.uk/



• Logging in…

1. No login required!

2. Google "ose" & click the 1st result

3. Type in the site & click ‘Search’

4. Review the results

5. (You may want to change ‘Target’ to ‘this root domain’)


SEO – local SEO


SEO – image & video SEO


White-hat SEO vs. Black-hat SEO


SEO is like… Personal Training

[Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stoermchen/9117238961/]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stoermchen/9117238961/


SEO resources

• Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEOhttp://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo


SEO resources

• Technical SEO Checklist forDevelopers & Testers(with Infographic / Cheat Sheet)

https://t.co/IaJeV9dQja

by me!

https://t.co/IaJeV9dQja


SEO resources

• On-site/technical SEO tools:oScreaming Frog – http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/


SEO resources

• On-site/technical SEO tools:oGoogle Search Console – https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/


SEO resources

• Web traffic analysis:oGoogle Analytics– https://www.google.co.uk/analytics/

https://www.google.co.uk/analytics/


SEO resources

• Backlink analysis tools:oMoz’s Open Site Explorer – https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ (pictured)

oMajestic – https://majestic.com/

https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

https://majestic.com/


SEO resources

• Moz blog (& Whiteboard Friday)http://moz.com/blog

• Search Engine Landhttp://searchengineland.com/

• DistilledUhttps://www.distilled.net/u/($40 per month BUT free demo)

http://moz.com/blog

http://searchengineland.com/

http://distilled.net/u?r=steviephil


Q&A?

• …Any questions?


Thank you!

My blog: SEOno.co.uk

Twitter: @steviephil

morganonlinemarketing.co.uk

http://seono.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/steviephil

http://morganonlinemarketing.co.uk/