From a one-hour guide to SEO workshop held at Seven content marketing agency, London (July 2013).

1. SEO in an hour

2. Q. What is Google's mission?

3. Q. What is Google's mission?
A. To organise the world's information and
make it universally accessible and useful.

4. (And sell advertising.)

5. ● 1 billion+ questions answered a day
● 181 countries and 146 languages
● 15% of the searches are brand new
● 300 million users – 91% of connected users
● 1 million+ spam pages created each hour
Stats

6. (CC) Wikimedia Commons

7. How are Google results served up?
● 200+ unique signals
● partly link-based (PageRank)
● known markers of value - high quality,
original content
● ability to understand your content
● lower rank for keyword stuffing, link
schemes, deliberate duplicate content

8. What are search engines trying to do?
● offer a free, quality search experience to
attract a loyal audience
● adapt to those who game the system
● NEW: provide content not just links

12. media content
local business
'free' Wikipedia
content

13. What are we trying to do?
Get to #1 on Google!
but
"For every search query performed on Google,
there are thousands, if not millions of web
pages with helpful information." – Google.

14. What is SEO?
...the process of affecting the visibility of a
website or a web page in a search engine's
"natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.
[Wikipedia]

15. So, how is Seven doing?

18. content marketing + UK

19. content marketing

20. SEO helps us improve our rankings
● By helping Google read, understand and
index our content.
● By creating high value content that our target
readers want to find, read and link to.

21. Easy!

22. Everything I know about SEO...
1. Headlines are really important

26. Headlines that don't work...
Exercise:
Spot the potential problem with each headline.

27. Headline help
● research and include main keywords
● keep it short or be cut-off (40-60 characters)
● puns don’t work – clarity over cleverness
● 'viral' heads do work – with certain brands
● beat the competition – must-click factor
● don't rely on images for context

28. Everything I know about SEO...
1. Headlines are really important
2. Intros should be must-clicks

29. Intros round
Exercise: Put these heads/intros in order of
ranking on Google.

30. Intros help
● offer a compelling reason to read on but...
● don't spin or over-promise
● include synonyms
● intro often forms metadescription
● be concise (cut-off around 250 characters)

31. Everything I know about SEO...
1. Headlines are really important
2. Intros should be must-clicks
3. Images need to be described in alt text

32. Alt text in the cms

33. Alt text
<img src="http://static.guim.
co.uk/sys-
images/Guardian/Pix/cartoon
s/2012/2/10/1328873046573
/valentines-day-scene-007.
jpg" width="460" height="
276" alt="valentine's day
scene" itemprop="contentUrl
representativeOfPage">

34. Everything I know about SEO...
1. Headlines are really important
2. Intros should be must-clicks
3. Images need to be described in alt text
4. Videos need descriptions and keywords

35. YouTube
...is a search
engine, too.
● Optimise your
heads/intros
● Help Google
index content:
tags, link to
transcripts,
categories,
etc

36. Everything I know about SEO...
1. Headlines are really important
2. Intros should be must-clicks
3. Images need to be described in alt text
4. Videos need text support
5. Do SEO research before commissioning

37. Everyone is a publisher
"For every search query performed on Google,
there are thousands, if not millions of web pages
with helpful information." – Google.
● Web has levelled the field.
● You are competing like washing powders.
● How will you stand out?

38. "Good enough sucks"
fff

39. Ultimate SEO tip: Research angle 1st
Part of SEO is making the right content choices
at the editorial meeting or when briefing a
subject matter expert or writer.
● What does your target reader want to know?
● What does your brand want to tell them?
● Why would anyone want to read/view this?

40. Three tools to help you
● Google Trends
● Google Autocomplete / search results
● Google Keyword tool

41. Resource list
● Google SEO Starter Guide – 32 pages of best practice
● Moz (SEOmoz) guide - Beginners Guide to SEO
● SEO for food bloggers – slideshow
● Content Marketing Institute blog
● How I teach myself new digital content skills using cake!
– personal development/training
● Bookmarks – SEO and content marketing
● RSS feeds – find good sites and subscribe to them

42. Any questions?
@fionacullinan
fiona.cullinan@seven.co.uk
fionacullinan.com