This is a beginners guide to search engine optimisation (SEO) it covers the basic terms like keywords, content and meta data. It will be useful for anyone who is just getting started in SEO and wanting to learn the basics

1. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 1
Basic Search Engine
Optimisation
Blue Parsley – July 2013
www.blueparsley.co.uk

2. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 2
Search Engine Optimisation
• Keywords
• Title tag and meta description
• Headings
• Content
• URL
• Links
• Reporting

3. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 3
Search Engine Results
Only organic results are affected by SEO

4. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 4
Search Engine Optimisation
• SEO or just search marketing
• A broad range of activities performed to
drive targeted traffic to a website.
– Better results in search engines – higher
ranking
– People who will convert!
• SEO takes time – and needs to be done
constantly.

5. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 5
Search Engine Optimisation
Factors affecting SEO
• Keywords
• Title tag
• Quality content
• Heading tags
• URL - structure
• Links
– To and from websites
– Navigation
– Anchor text
• Images - descriptions

6. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 6
SEO - Keywords
• Terms that users type into search engines
• Keywords appear in title & description tags,
page content, urls and links
• Keyword research
– Practice of finding the actual search terms that users
enter into search engines.
• Keyword research is critical to the process of
SEO & getting visitors to your site.
• Done badly = efforts wasted = poor ranking

7. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 7
Keywords – the long tail
• Popular search terms account
for approx 30% of overall daily
searches– the remaining 70%
is known as ‘the long tail’
• Longer search terms that
generally include the target
keyword or are more specific
• The tail contains hundreds of
millions of unique searches
that might be conducted a few
times in any given day (or
even only once, ever!),
• Make up the majority of terms
searched for.

8. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 8
Keyword research
The process of keyword research involves several phases:
• Brainstorming – what are customers/potential visitors likely to type in to
find your site.
• Competitors websites – especially if the are ranking well- check page
titles, headings and urls to get an idea of words used.
• Customers – Understand the customer - what terms do they use in their
communication? - possibly gives an idea of what’s likely to get good traffic
and produce best conversion rates.
• Keyword research tools – make suggestions and find search volume.
• Site analytics and Webmaster tools – find actual terms site appeared for
• Term selection – Create a list of terms you believe are valuable and
compare traffic and the potential for each to convert.
• Refine – Use analytics to measure traffic and conversions and refine
selection further.

9. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 9
Keyword research tools
Keyword research tools
Google – Keyword planner- free - makes suggestions
& search volume for local and global search – Google
traffic only
Word Tracker – subscription – Uses own database of
many different search engines over a longer period
(approx 1000 days)

10. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 10
Title tag
• Title shows in search results, keywords appear
in bold (fig 1)
• If user clicks the search result and visits page,
the title appears at the top of the browser (fig 2)
Fig 1 Fig 2

11. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 11
Title tag
• One of most important
SEO components
• Unique and accurate for
each page
• Accurately describes
each pages content
• 65-75 characters
• Keyword ideally at
beginning – don’t repeat
keyword more than twice
– keyword stuffing
• Avoid using title that has
no relation to page
content or uses a default
like “untitled” or “New
Page 1”

12. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 12
Description tag
Description meta tag used as the snippet, appears
as a result – keywords appear in bold. Summary
of what page is about. Encourage searcher to
click through to read more

13. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 13
Description tag
• A good description of
what the page is about
• A sentence or two or
short paragraph.
• Approx 150 characters
seems average
• Google “might” use to
create snippets of the
page – depending on
search query – Google
may also use page text
• Adding a description tag
is good practice in case
Google can’t find good
text to use as a snippet
• Words in the snippet
appear in bold when they
are in users query – gives
user clue to whether
content matches what
they are looking for

14. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 14
Content
• Content is king! It’s what
drives people to your site.
• Good quality content that
provides value to the
reader
• Think about the keywords
you will use
• Must be readable and not
just stuffed with keywords
• Well formatted – short
paragraphs & lists work
well!
• Use relevant language –
think about words user
might search for to find
your content
• Add new content
frequently – keep visitors
coming back
• More content = search
engines finding more
content to index + more
sites wanting to link to it
and share it.

15. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 15
Headings
• Heading tags are used by some search
engines to identify words which are more
important than the rest of the page text.
• H1 to H6 - H1 most important, used once
per page, mainly for headline of each
page
• Ideally contain keyword or phrase
• H2 >H6 onwards used for sub heading
• All headings should use heading tags

16. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 16
URL
• Creating descriptive names for urls can
lead to better crawling from search
engines.
• URL that contains keyword or phrase
provides users and search engines with
more information about the page.
• Keywords in URL appear in bold in search
results
• Makes it easier to link to content

17. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 17
URL
Example of badly structured url – difficult for user
and search engines to decide what page is about
Example of well formatted url containing keyword

18. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 18
Links and link building
• Search engines and
especially Google use
links to determine a sites
reputation.
• Links from one site to
another act as a ‘vote’
which helps improve this
reputation.
– More links = bigger
reputation
• Both the quantity and,
more importantly, the
quality of links count
towards this reputation.
• Link Building... Process of
getting other websites to
link to you.
•

19. (c) www.blueparsley.co.uk 19
Measurement and Reporting
• Google Analytics
– Free to install and use
– Can measure lots of
different information
• Total number of visits
• Returning visits
• Keywords
• Traffic sources
• Time on site
• Pages viewed
– Run monthly reports to
measure SEO
• Other reports
– Check inbound links
– Analyse competitors sites
– Compare your site against
competitors sites
– Edit and optimise pages
– Check pages for errors –
broken links, grammar etc