Copyright. All Rights Reserved Pierce Communications. 2013 Copyright. All Rights Reserved Pierce Communications. 2013

SEO Digital Breakfast Briefing 02 October 2013

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Agenda

1. What is SEO in 2013?

2. SEO Strategy:

a. Keyword Research & Competitive Analysis

b. On-site Optimisation

c. Content Strategy

d. Outreach Linkbuilding

3. Future-proofing your SEO

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SEO over the years

• Old-school SEO:

<meta name=“keywords” content=“diamonds,

diamond jewellery, diamond rings, diamond

engagement rings, diamond earrings, wedding

rings, diamond wedding rings, eternity rings,

platinum rings, ... ”>

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Google changed the game

Link graph

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Google Search is about two things:

1. Relevance;

The right keywords in the right places.

2. Authority;

Links as citations; the more the better.

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But things got messy…

• SEO spammers caught on

• Links got cheap

• Search results worsened

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Google’s monochrome animal updates

Google Panda

February 2011

Intended to fight low quality websites & thin content

Google Penguin

April 2012

Targeting over-optimisation & link spam

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As a result…

• SEO in 2013 is a lot of hard work;

No more shortcuts

‘Earned’ links

Quality content (and lots of it)

Technical SEO

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What does a SEO Strategy look like?

Keyword Research & Competitive Analysis

On-site Optimisation

Content Strategy

Outreach Linkbuilding

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Keyword Research & Competitive Analysis

1. What search terms do we want to rank for?

2. Who are ranking for these searches at the moment?

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Google Keyword Planner Keyword Global Monthly Searches UK Monthly Searches professional video camera 4400 720

corporate video 3600 720 film companies 1900 720

film equipment hire 320 110

camera equipment hire 140 110 video camera rental 880 73

corporate video companies 170 73 music video producers 170 46

camera crew hire 58 46 camera equipment rental 320 36

camera crews 91 36 hire camera equipment 58 36

film camera hire 46 36 video production belfast 36 36

broadcast camera hire 36 28

rent camera equipment 210 22 hire a camera crew 28 16

camera hire belfast 16 12 camera crews uk 12 12

eng crew 110 <5 rental camera equipment 28 <5

camera belfast 16 <5 hire camera crew 16 <5

epk crew 16 <5

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Competitive Analysis

Legend: • PR = PageRank, a metric Google uses to determine the value of a webpage. • DA = Domain Authority, a metric indicating the SEO value of the entire domain. • ExtBackLinks = total amount of links pointing to the webpage. • RefDomains = total amount of unique domains that feature one or more links to the webpage • CitationFlow = a measure of how often the site is linked to by other reputable online sources • TrustFlow = a measure of how trustworthy the site is depending on its distance from a seed set of trusted websites.

Competitor PR DA ExtBackLinks RefDomains CitationFlow TrustFlow

filmequipmenthire.com 4 35 1071 162 22 23

thirdsource.co.uk 3 22 1816 19 19 13

2000television.co.uk 2 22 150 17 21 15

acorntv.com 3 19 301 34 13 11

4x4post.com 2 18 581 23 11 21

belfastcameracrew.co.uk 1 12 42 10 13 1

ackproductions-ireland.co.uk 1 12 79 5 14 10

foundryfilms.co.uk 1 12 4 2 8 6

aelvideo.co.uk 1 10 16 6 12 7

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On-site Optimisation

1. Technical optimisation;

Ensuring your site can be fully crawled & indexed by Google’s spiders

2. Content optimisation;

Ensuring your site’s content and code is optimised for maximum relevance for your chosen keywords

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Content Strategy

“A content strategy for a website is a plan for the creation, publication, distribution, and management of content in various formats – text, video, images, interactive – that helps establish the online brand as a leader in its industry.”

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Content Strategy for SEO

• Optimised content will contain the right keywords in the right places, thus increasing the website’s relevance.

• Engaging content will be shared and linked to, thus increasing the website’s authority.

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Aspects of a Content Strategy

1. Set Objectives

2. Define Your Audience

3. Create a Content Calendar

4. Plan Your Content Promotion

5. Engage With Your Readers

6. Measure & Refine

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Linkbuilding

• Content alone is not enough to build authority.

• Approximately 60%-70% of Google’s ranking algorithms are link-based.

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But… Google doesn’t like linkbuilding

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”

Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

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So what’s a SEO to do?

• We have to tread carefully and ensure that we acquire only ‘natural’ links.

• That means we have to earn them.

• Earned links are (or appear to be) entirely valid recommendations from one website to another.

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Outreach Linkbuilding

‘Outreach’ is basically PR for SEO purposes;

1. Research link prospects

2. Approach them with a personalised message

3. Offer to write guest content for their website/blog

4. Include a link in that guest article

It’s a lot of manual effort - exactly what Google intends.

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Future-proofing your SEO

Or: how to make sure the next Google update (‘Zebra’?) doesn’t penalise your website.

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Keep up to date with Google’s guidelines

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en

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Watch Google’s Webmaster Help Videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp/videos

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Hire a reputable SEO agency

• Never respond to an unsolicited email from a SEO agency.

• Ask for an agency’s credentials.

• Get in touch with their existing clients.

• Enquire as to their methods & results.

• There are no guarantees in SEO – only best efforts.

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