During this presentation, search marketing expert Lee Benning guides you through what you need to know about SEO. You'll get an overview how search engines work, how organisations can choose and select the right keywords as well as identify any technical issues. You'll also find out how businesses can attract links, providing a checklist for content publishing.

1. The bare minimum you need
to know about SEO
Presented by Lee Benning – May 2017
@leebenning
www.leebenning.com

2. Why would you want to
listen to me?
• Working in digital marketing for 10+ years
• Experimenting in digital marketing for 10 years prior
• Learning always!!
• Getting great results
• Full Member of Chartered Institute of Marketing
• CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing
• Google Partners Certified: Analytics & Adwords
• Degree in Business with E-commerce
• Digital marketing consultant (brands, agencies, SME)

3. Brands I have worked with
+ more…. (Top Secret!
Protected by NDA) J

4. What is SEO?
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5. SEO vs PPC
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Paid Search results
(prefixed with “Ad”):
PPC affects this
Organic Search results:
SEO affects this
PPC = Pay Per Click > The higher you bid and/or
more relevant you are to the search query,
more likely you are to appear. You will pay for
each click to your website.
SEO = Search Engine Optimisation > You
optimise your website to convince search
engines that you are the most relevant
resource for the search query. Click-throughs to
your website are free.

6. How do search engines work?
• Crawling
• Search engine spiders crawl web pages
• Read the source code of the web page
• Follow text and image links
• Indexing
• Decides what the page is about
• Determines relevancy for keywords/phrases
• Indexes this information into database
• Ranking
• User enters search term into search engine
• Search engine matches query to its database
• Position in search results (“ranking”) determined by over 200 factors (for Google)
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7. How can we use SEO to affect search ranking?
• Technical optimisation
• Make sure page can be found and indexed by search engines!
• Loads fast (< 3 seconds)
• Works on all devices
• No broken links
• On-page optimisation
• Use relevant words on the page
• Don’t target the same keyword/search term for all pages
• Avoid duplicate and ‘thin’ content
• Off-page optimisation
• Be a trusted resource (reputation)
• Other trusted sites linking to us
• Other related sites linking to us
• Social media activity
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8. Why is it important?
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9. Statistics
• Google has 86% share of UK search market (2017,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/280269/market-share-
held-by-search-engines-in-the-united-kingdom/)
• 67% of clicks go to the top 3 search results (2017,
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/)
• For searches with commercial intent, 70% of clicks go to the
top 10 search results (2017,
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/)
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10. Algorithm updates
• Algorithm updates change ranking criteria
• Penguin – affects ‘over-optimised’ sites (webspam)
• Mobile update – preference for mobile friendly sites in mobile search results
• Panda – affects thin content sites
• Pigeon – shows relevant local search results
• Important to keep up-to-date with changes
• General rule = follow best-practice, remain a trusted resource,
nothing bad will happen (most of the time)
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11. Web spam
• Web spam / black-hat = cheating the system (e.g. buying links)
• Reduces trust in website
• Google has dedicated web spam team
• Bad practice = ban from Google index
• Important to follow Google guidelines
• www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-
guide.pdf
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12. Where are you now?
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13. Benchmark current position
• Check Google Search Console for KW rankings (Sign up for free at:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en)
• Get number of visits and top landing pages from website analytics
(recommend Google Analytics). Segment by organic traffic only
• Get number of conversions from website analytics (leads/enquiries
generated, brochures downloaded, e-commerce sales/conversion
rate)
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14. How will you improve?
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15. The process: Technical optimisation
• Fix crawl errors
• Redirect broken links
• Check Security Issues
• Make recommended
HTML improvements
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Check Google Search Console monthly…

16. The process: On-page optimisation (1/3)
• Find most appropriate keywords for page
• What are you already ranking for (check Google Search Console)
• Brainstorm
• Look at competitor pages
• Get search volume from Google (Keyword Planner Tool in Google Adwords)
• Searcher intent
• Commercial keywords contain: buy, purchase, cheap, pricing, etc.
• Informational keywords contain: what, when, where, how, restaurant, hotel, flight, news, etc.
• Location intent keywords contain: near, nearby, from, directions, airport, route, maps, etc.
• Create a spreadsheet keyword map with columns for:
• URL
• Target keyword(s)
• Current ranking
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17. The process: On-page optimisation (2/3)
• Do you have web pages
already indexed for
desires search term?
• Use ‘site:’ search operator
plus your keyword(s)
• Example:
• Is the page appropriate?
• Find another page
• Suggest new page/edit
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18. The process: On-page optimisation (3/3)
• Make sure your target keyword(s) appear in:
• Page Title (most important)
• Meta description
• URL
• Page heading (should be an <H1> tag - check with web developer)
• In the main body copy of your page
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19. The process: Off-page optimisation
• Promote content
• Outreach to industry publications and key influencers
• Try outreach via social media and email
• Purpose: get links!
• Tip: Easier to get links to articles/resources rather than product pages
• Contribute content
• Guest blog
• Expert opinions
• Request link back to your site
• Business Listings
• Register with key directory/map sites: Google My Business, Yell, Hot Frog, Thompson Local etc.
• Important: Make sure Business Name, Address and Phone Number are consistent
• Social media
• Link to homepage from all social media profiles
• Post regularly, share content from own site and others’
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20. Monitoring performance
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21. Recommended method
KPIs:
• Google Analytics – organic search traffic, top landing pages, conversions
• Google Search Console – number of broken links, crawl errors + keyword
rankings (average)
• Accuranker - (paid) more accurate keyword ranking
Controls:
• Monthly SEO report – feeds discussion with web team and content team
** Continuous improvement (technical/content) **
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22. Questions?
?s 22