SEO... WTF? (Search Engine Optimisation for PRs)

Post on 06-Aug-2015

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Transcript of SEO... WTF? (Search Engine Optimisation for PRs)

Charlotte Gunnell

Content and SEO nerd / Blogger

@cavatica_copy

www.cavatica.co.uk

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SEO… WTF?

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What is SEO?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation

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What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation

Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go...

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What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation

Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go...

Google (and YouTube)

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What is SEO?

Using great content and a user-friendly website to

help reach an audience searching for the answers to

questions.

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Answering questions like...

Who killed Lucy Beale?

How do I register to vote?

How do you make pancakes?

Do eyelashes grow back?

Why did he dump me?

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Why is SEO important?

Why is SEO important?

40,000 Google searches every second

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Why is SEO important?

40,000 Google searches every second

3 billion searches a day

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Why is SEO important?

40,000 Google searches every second

3 billion searches a day

1.1 trillion searches a year

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Why is SEO important?

Over 2.5 million blog posts and news

articles are published every day

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Why is SEO important?

Over 2.5 million blog posts and news

articles are published every day(That’s a lot of competition)

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How to ‘do’ SEO in 2015

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The past...

It was all about getting exact keyword

combinations into your content, wherever

they would fit

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The past...

And getting as many links as possible...

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The past...

...It didn’t really matter (for SEO) whether

your content was actually any good...

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The past...

...Or how you treated your customers.

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The past...

Now? Not so much...

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Now...

Google uses over 200 factors to rank

your page

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Now...

Google uses over 200 factors to rank

your page(and then some)

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Now...

These include…

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Now...

These include…(but are not limited to)

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Now...

● What language is used in the page (titles, body copy,

URL, categories, sub-categories, meta data, alt titles)

● How old your domain is (older sites are trusted more)

● Quality: links in / out, length of content

● Engagement (bounce rate, time on page, # shares)

● Technical factors: How fast is it; how modern is the

code; is it mobile friendly?

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Now...

All 200 ranking factors:

http://bit.ly/1fMtcPK

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Now...

But it all comes down to...

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Now...

Great content

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Now...

And a fast, user-friendly website

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Now...

Because it’s all about topics, not

keywords...

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Now...

...And giving users a website that’s a

joy to use

(quick and painless, basically)

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Your content

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Your content

● Identify your audience: who are they? Where do

they hang out online?

Use: Brand knowledge, Google Analytics,

competitive analysis (Moz)

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● Gather your data: what are your audience interested

in? What questions do they have that are currently

not being answered?

● What inspires them to share?

● Understand the context: think topics, not keywords.

Use: Reddit, BuzzSumo, forums, Keywordtool.io,

Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, YouTube

Trends, popular blogs

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Keywordtool.io

● Understand the competition: what already ranks for

those subjects? Content format, length, style, number

and style of images.

● Focus on specific ‘long tail’ questions

● Start thinking now about how you can raise the bar...

Use: Google search, keyword analysis tools (Moz)

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● Research, research, research: know your topic inside

out.

● Authenticity is essential: if necessary, use or interview an

expert.

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● Don’t ‘write for search’. Write for your audience. Use the

language they already use

● Make your audience want to stick around and share your

page rather than the competition’s.

● Answer people’s questions in an in-depth, interesting,

insightful and easy-to-digest way.

● Above all, remember that sharing counts too.

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General stuff:

● Spend more time on your headline than any other part

of your content: make it engaging, clickable and use

the same language as you see in your research

● Make your content easy to scan: use headings, sub-

headings, bullet points and exciting (original) images

● Consider using video, audio and other multimedia to

increase time on page and get your message across in

a more digestible way

● Make use of categories and sub-categories: Google

likes to know which parts of your content are most

important

● Don’t expect results straightaway

Your content

The benchmark...

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Your content

“10 times better than anything I can

find in the search results today”

Rand Fishkin, Moz.com

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A fast, user-friendly

website

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A fast, user-friendly website

‘User interaction signals are

Google’s 2015 weapon of choice’

John Limbocker

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What Google looks at

● Low bounce rate, high CTR, high # pages visited,

longer time on site, lots of return visitors

Use: Analytics software (Google Analytics,

Omniture)

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What Google looks at

● Mobile-friendly: quick to load on mobile, easy to

navigate, easy to read

Use: Google’s mobile-friendly checker, Google

Webmaster Tools, tech support

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What Google looks at

● A quality brand: high number of brand searches,

outstanding customer service, loyal readers and

customers, high conversion rate

Use: PR!!!

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What Google looks at

The main thing to remember…

Google looks at everything it can to rank your

website/page amongst the competition

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Real-time data: What are people

searching for right now?

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Useful tools:

● Google Trends

● Social media (trending, hashtags)

● Topsy.com

● News sites

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Social media

Topsy.com

The future of SEO:

trends to be aware of

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Trends to be aware of

● Even more emphasis on mobile-friendly

● Tweets now ranking in Google search results

● The Knowledge Graph: Google now understands how

entities are connected, meaning there will be less and

less focus on specific keywords and more on

becoming the most useful and/or interesting resource

for a topic@cavatica_copy

Case study: Protein Saker

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Thanks for listening!

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