Search Engine Optimization/ Marketing

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Presentation by David Tuikong
Online Presence Management Trainig 2nd May
2014
SavvyAfrica Ltd
1

Agenda
! Preparing a website for Optimization !
2
• What is a Search Engine? (1/2)
• What is a Search Engine? (2/2)
• Why Search Engine Marketing?
• Major Search Engines (1/2)
• Major Search Engines (2/2)
• A Search Engine’s Goals &
Objectives
• Anatomy of a Search Engine
• How Do Search Engines Work?
• Ranking Factors
• What a Search Engine Sees
• So What is the Algorithm?
• What’s an SEO?
• What Does a (good) SEO Do?
• What SEO is NOT
• Farms, Black Hats & “Ethics”
• Pay Per Click SEM
• Pay Per Click vs. “Organic” SEO
• Basic Tips & Optimization
Techniques
• Resources

What is a Search Engine? (1/2)
 Def: An internet-based tool that searches an index of
documents for a particular term, phrase or text specified by
the user. Commonly used to refer to large web-based search
engines that search through billions of pages on the internet.
 Different than a Directory
 Common Characteristics:
 Spider, Indexer, Database, Algorithm
 Find matching documents and display them according
to relevance
 Frequent updates to documents searched and ranking
algorithm
 Strive to produce “better”, more relevant results than
competitors
3

Why Search Engine Marketing?
 85% of all traffic on the internet is referred from a search
engine
 90% of all users don’t look past the first 30 results (most
only view top 10)
 Many websites aren’t even indexed, most are poorly
optimized and get very little traffic from the search engines
 Cost-effective advertising
 Clear and measurable ROI
 Operates under this assumption:
More (relevant) traffic + Good Conv. Rate = More Sales/Leads
4

Major Search Engines
Desktop Search Engine Market Share
5

Major Search Engines
 Google, Yahoo & bing results account for 80-90%
of all search traffic (rough estimate)
6

A Search Engine’s Goals & Objectives
 Accumulate large index (database) of web
documents to search
 Provide highly-relevant results to users (better
than competitors)
 Generate revenue via paid advertising and
related business ventures that typically leverage
large amount of traffic
7

Anatomy of a Search Engine
Search box
Sponsored Listings
aka PPC
“Organic” Results
aka SERPs
8

How Do Search Engines Work?
 Spider “crawls” the web to find new documents (web
pages, other documents) typically by following hyperlinks
from websites already in the database
 Search engine indexes the content (text, code) in these
documents by adding it to their huge databases and
periodically updates this content
 Search engine searches its own database when user enters
in a search to find related documents (not searching web
pages in real-time)
 Search engine ranks resulting documents using an
algorithm (mathematical formula) that assigns various
weights to various ranking factors
9

Preparing a Website for Optimization
For Content Management Systems (Joomla
 Meta
 Keywords
 Articles
 Images – Naming Conventions
 Paragraphs – Words – Sentences – Characters
 Url Links – Cross Linking
 CSS / HTML For SEO
 Database –
 Server Side Scripting Languages
 Client Side Scripting Languages
10

Ranking Factors
 On-Page Factors (Code & Content)
 Title tags <title>
 Header tags <h1>
 ALT image tags
 Content, Content, Content (Body text) <body>
 Hyperlink text
 Keyword frequency & density
 Off-Page Factors
 Link Popularity (“votes” for your site) – adds credibility
 Anchor text
11

What a Search Engine Sees
 View > Source (HTML code)
 http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
(HTML text, no images and little formatting)
12

So What is the Algorithm?
 Top Secret! Only select employees of the actual search
engines know for certain
 Reverse engineering, research and experiments gives SEOs
(search engine optimization professionals) a “pretty good”
idea of major factors and approximate weight assignments
 Constantly changing, tweaking, updating is done to the
algorithm
 Websites and documents being searched are also
constantly changing
 Varies by Search Engine – some give more weight to on-
page factors, some to link popularity
13

What’s an SEO?
 SEO = Search Engine Optimization
 Refers to the process of “optimizing” both the on-page and off-page
ranking factors in order to achieve high search engine rankings for
targeted search terms.
 Refers to the “industry” that revolves around obtaining high rankings
in the search engines for desirable keyword search terms as a
means of increasing the relevant traffic to a given website.
 Refers to an individual or company that optimizes websites for its
clientele.
 Has a number of related meanings, and usually refers to an
individual/firm that focuses on optimizing for “organic” search
engine rankings
14

What Does a (good) SEO Do?
 Researches desirable keywords and search phrases
(WordTracker, Overture, Google AdWords)
 Identifies search phrases to target (should be relevant to
business/market, obtainable and profitable)
 “Cleans” and optimizes a website’s HTML code for appropriate
keyword density, title tag optimization, internal linking structure,
headings and subheadings, etc.
Helps in writing copy to appeal to both search engines and actual
website visitors
Studies competitors (competing websites) and search engines
 Implements a quality link building campaign
 Pushes for more content!
 Monitors rankings for targeted search terms
15

What SEO is NOT
 Search Engine Submission only
 “Submit your website to 5,000 search engines”
 An overnight process (typically takes 3-4 months
to show significant results)
 A one-time process (in many cases requires a
continual, long-term focus for best results)
 A $29.95 one-time fee!
16

Farms, Black Hats & “Ethics”
 Black Hat SEO – refers to various “tricks of the trade” that are often
questioned as “ethical” by some SEOs. Typically refers to a tactic
intended to misrepresent a website by displaying different information
to the search engine versus the user.
>> hidden text, redirects, etc.
 “Ethical SEO” – refers to methods used to improve rankings while still
presenting the same information to both users and search engines.
 Link Farms – sites/pages that may have thousands of links, often to
unrelated sites. Typically they provide these links in exchange for links
to their site in an attempt to improve their rankings. Reciprocal linking
is common and generally accepted when not excessive and an attempt
is made to provide value to the site visitor.
 Google Bombing – establishing links with certain anchor text in order to
achieve a high ranking for that term. Again, this becomes questionable
when an attempt is made to misrepresent the website. (Miserable
Failure example)
17

Pay Per Click SEM
 PPC ads appear as “sponsored listings”
 Companies bid on price they are willing to pay
“per click”
 Typically have very good tracking tools and
statistics
 Ability to control ad text
 Can set budgets and spending limits
 Google AdWords and Overture are the two
leaders
18

PPC vs. “Organic” SEO
Pay-Per-Click “Organic” SEO
• results in 1-2 days
• easier for a novice or one without much
knowledge of SEO
• ability to turn on and off at any moment
• generally more costly per visitor and per
conversion
• fewer impressions and exposure
• easy to compete in highly competitive market
space (but it will cost you)
• can generate exposure on related sites
(AdSense)
• ability to target “local” markets
• better for short-term and high-margin
campaigns
• results take 2 weeks to 4 months
• requires ongoing learning and experience to
reap results
• very difficult to control flow of traffic
• generally more cost-effective, doesn’t
penalize for more traffic
• SERPs are more popular than sponsored ads
• very difficult to compete in highly competitive
market space
• can generate exposure on related websites
and directories
• more difficult to target local markets
• better for long-term and lower margin
campaigns
19

Basic Tips & Optimization Techniques
 Research keywords related to your business
 Identify competitors, utilize benchmarking techniques and identify level of
competition
 Utilize descriptive title tags for each page
 Ensure that your text is HTML text and not image text
 Use text links when possible
 Use appropriate keywords in your content and internal hyperlinks (don’t
overdo!)
 Obtain inbound links from related websites
 Monitor your search engine rankings and more importantly your website
traffic statistics and sales/leads produced
 Educate yourself about search engine marketing or consult a search
engine optimization firm or SEO expert
20

Do’s AND Don’t’s
Do’s
 Keep Updating Website Content
 Delete / Archive / Trash Outdated Website Content
 Keep Researching for latest information on SEO
 Use templates when you can’t avoid
Don't’s
 Don’t copy paste website content !
 Don’t Install Black Listed CMS Modules
 Don’t Use Irrelevant Keywords / Meta
21

Resources
Statistics Provided By
 Search Engine Watch – www.searchenginewatch.com
 Neilsen//NetRatings - www.nielsen-netratings.com
 My own experience, opinion and bias 
For More Information
 Various SEO Forums & Resources online
 Workshops / Seminars / Open Forums
 Passive Software Technologies Ltd – www.softwares.co.ke
 Google (of course) – www.google.com
22

Questions
David Tuikong
SavvyAfrica
?
23

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