Search Engine Optimization, (SEO) is the techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (Webopedia, 2016). The higher a website ranks in the organic results of a search on search engines like Google or Yahoo, the greater chances the site will be visited by users. In this Innovation Session, Shashika Gunasena from the Software Team delved into the topic of SEO and how it plays a major role in helping users and organizations in making web browsing easier.

1. Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)
By Shashika Gunasena

2. • On-site SEO
-Direct involve with website
• Off-site SEO
-Indirectly submit

3. Motivation

4. Top Search Engines (01-Jun-2016)
0 500,000,000 1,000,000,000 1,500,000,000 2,000,000,000
Google
Bing
Yahoo! Search
Ask
AOL search
Estimated Monthly Visitors
Estimated Monthly Visitors

5. How Search Engines Work?
• Basically search engines have the automated programs called
SPIDERS.
• SPIDERS crawl the internet by following links from a page to
another.
• As they go, they gather data as in what the page is about and more
other factors and index and rank them according to unique
algorithms.
• When a user searches about something, search engine will present
SERPs based on the ranking they’ve made.

6. SPIDERS Use…

7. Evolution of SEO

8. Evolution of SEO
• First Signs Of Life (1991 – 2002)
-Data indexing and delivery
• The Early Days (2003 – 2005)
-Links & keywords
• The Middle Ages (2006 – 2009)
-Google start leading the market by Google Trends, Google
Analytics + Google Suggest was introduced
• The Enlightenment (2010 – 2012)
-Content is the King
• The Modern Ages (2013 – Present)
-Social Media, Mobile optimization

9. Evolution of SEO

10. Stakeholders and Their Share

11. Stakeholders and Their Share

12. Copywrite and Marketing Team
• Keep the simplicity of content with relevance to the subject
-Simple English
• Keyword analysis and usage
-use analytical tools to improve keyword density
• Images and videos usage
-use unique images and videos
• Update content frequently
• Use high social media engagement

13. UI/UX & Front End Engineers
• Structure of the webpage
-Clean and clear flow of content (text, images, videos)
• Content Presentation
-images and videos should surround by related content
-Keep users on the page longer and attract more users
• Proper usage of HTML elements and attributes
• Mobile Optimized web pages
• Performance of the page
-Loading time
• No broken links
• Properly handled error pages

14. Should Get Rid Of
• Over density of keywords
• Broken links
• Clickbacks
• Irrelevant content
• Higher loading time pages

15. SEO Deployment Checklist
On-site
Page titles exist and are correct
H1s exist and are correct
Meta descriptions exist and are correct
Alt text is targeted
Content exists and is correct
Correct version of site is being shown to search engines (if you do
that sort of thing)
Accessibility
Meta Robots are correct
Robots.txt file is correct

16. SEO Deployment Checklist
Tracking
Analytics code is correct on every page (type)
Ecommerce tracking is properly set up
Technical
Canonical tag is correct
Internal links are followed (unless otherwise stated)
301 redirects are in place
Site is canonicalling properly
URLs are absolute (or there are no problems with relative URLs)
http:// / https:// are correct
Response codes are correct
Other
Sharing functionality exists

17. Future of SEO
• Social Content Will Gain Prominence
• Videos Will Still Rule
• Mobile Optimization will become crucial
• Voice Search Function is a Must
• Content Aggregation will get Bigger & Better
• The Craze of Mobile Apps Will Grow
• Local SEO to Become Even More Important

18. Q & A

19. Thank You!