Top 10 Actionable Tips to SEO Your Site Like a Pro

Judith Lewis

➡ Run DeCabbit Consultancy doing SEO, PPC, Social Media and integrated marketing campaigns - working with bloggers for link building

➡ Got on the Internet in 1986 at my school lab➡ Working online with search since 1996➡ Worked in-house within e-Commerce, Publishing & High Tech➡ Have worked with Google (SEO for product sites), Orange, COI,

NatWest/RBS, National Gallery, CIPD, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal, Readers Digest, Bayer, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx, TotalJobs, Virgin.com, Virgin Startup, Zopa, Inspire Malibu & more

➡ Chosen as a founding Modern Muse, contributed to book “Pimp My Site”, judge of the UK, US & European Search Awards, one of the SEO Chicks, blog on Huffington Post & run MostlyAboutChocolate.com food blog

AM IWhoObligatory slide !

Judith Lewis

@JudithLewis@MostlyAboutChoc

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If you have a question please and you will be rewarded with chocolate

(and an answer).There are no stupid questions, only stupid

answers

AgendaKeyword Research for Your VerticalDesigning Title Tags & Meta DescriptionsContent Secret of SuccessBenchmarkingHow to Win Links and Influence PeopleOutreach Do’s and Don’tsGoogle Search ConsoleCompetitive AuditTechnical SEO Like a ProYour New Best Friend Toolkit

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Keyword Research

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Designing Title Tags &

Meta Description

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It’s Your Advert – Make it Count

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Optimising Title TagImplementing best practices for title tags:

Be Careful With LengthSearch engines will truncate titles in search results over 50-60 characters, or 512 pixels wide. Get you message in concisely

Place Important Keywords Close to the Front of the Title TagThe closer to the start of the title tag a keyword is, the more helpful it will be for ranking

Leverage Your BrandIf a brand is well-known enough, the brand name should be first. If the brand is less known or relevant than the keyword, the keyword should be first.

Consider ImpactCreating a compelling title tag will pull in more visits from the search results. It's vital to think about the entire user experience when you're creating your title tags.

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Optimising Meta DescriptionsWrite Compelling Ad Copy

The meta description tag draws readers to a website from the SERP. Crafting a readable, compelling description using important keywords can improve the click-through rate.

Recommended LengthMeta descriptions generally truncate at 160 characters.

Avoid Duplicate Meta Description TagsIt is important that meta descriptions on each page be unique or left blank.

Not a Google Ranking FactorNeither meta descriptions nor meta keywords are used by ranking algorithms.

Quotes Cut Off DescriptionsAny time quotes are used in a meta description, Google cuts off the description. Remove all non-alphanumeric characters.

Sometimes it is Okay to Not Write Meta DescriptionsIf the page is targeting between one and three heavily searched terms or phrases, go with a meta description that hits those users performing that search.

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Content Secret of Success

10 Tips for Content SuccessUnderstand your audienceThink big (data)Create engaging contentMap your sales cycle (or use an editorial calendar)Write powerful/engaging titlesEvergreen content rewards in constant trafficFocus on emotional, controversial or useful original contentSimplicity and clarity in articles wins readersSocially promote all content (don’t expect it to work alone)Measure results

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Benchmarking

KPIs & BenchmarkingRankings of keywords can be a KPI but what is the value of that keyword ranking? Is that the right KPI? What about just traffic from organic search?CTR can be checked in Google Search ConsoleCheck impressions for search variance – is there seasonality in search volume?Keyword rankings can be tracked in Google Search Console

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What Are You Tracking?

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How to Win Links and Influence

People

Easy LinkbuildingOff-Site Link Placement

Industry bodiesGovernment partnersCharities that your company supportsRSS Feed for a blog (with caveats)Traditional press activitiesArticles for trade press/be an expertGuest articles

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Content Designed to Attract Links

White papersExpert research papersNewsjackingListsInterviews/EgobaitSurveys

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Outreach Do’s & Don’ts

DO: Research Your Targets

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DON’T: Exact Match Anchor Text

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DON’T: Exact Match Anchor Text

Link Anchor Text

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Google Search Console &

Bing Webmaster Tools

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Competitive Audit

SEMRush

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Competitor Insights for Any Domain

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Technical SEO

Screaming FrogSite Diagnosis

This tool checks multiple technical points:URI file type (CSS, JS, HTML, IMG, etc)Page Status (404, 200, 301, 302, 307, etc)Meta data such as title, descriptionLinks out from a pageImage alt textetc

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EssentialsEnsure you do not have duplicate content (could be from www to non-www redirects or case sensitivity)Ensure critical pages have bespoke titles and descriptions (you can see that on main console as well as within an export of HTML pages)Check that 404 pages have links to them removed (Bulk Export > Response Code > 4xx)Remove redirect chainsCheck server response time

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Tools

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR T IME37