Search Engine Optimisation

Google Algorithm – 2013 History

Oct-13 Penguin 2.1

Aug-13 Hummingbird

May-13 Penguin 2.0

Jun-13 Payday Loan/Porn

Originally Apr-12

Feb-11 Panda

SEO in late 2013

• Google Local is dominating localised keywords• No more links in press releases!• “Social signals” from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc

are becoming vital• Mobile search is becoming more important i.e. people

searching via smartphones• As important as email marketing to existing clients• Keyword research to develop “targeted” keyword lists

is even more important• (not provided)• Need to worry about “link” sites, not just your site

Penguin 2.0 & in general

• Well written sites• Sites with little

advertising• Proven niche

“authority” sites

• Keyword stuffing• Poor link building

practices (both in & out)

• Lots of exact-match anchor texts (30% or more of a link profile)

• Too many ads “above the fold”

3 Keys to SEO

1 Linkworthy - make it useful & compelling– SEO is intertwined with web site design & content– Tips booklets, news, content– Bear in mind it’s the law we are talking about!

2 Keywords & Content - Site optimisation– Theme optimization = keyword-focused content– More content = higher PR– Follow best practices, avoid worst

3 Link Popularity - Off-site optimisation– Social signals– Maximize high PR inbound links (backlinks)– Keyphrase filled anchor text (example: “planning solicitor”

not “Kingsley Smith”

Domain authority

Page structure still important

Meta title

Page name

H1 tagH2 tag

Body copy

An example

Rank = No.2Searches/month = 100Visits = 5Pages/View = 4.6Time on Site = 2:17

Panda in general

• Well structured sites• Well written sites• Sites with little

advertising• Sites that can be/are

being “socially shared”

• Low quality sites• Low quality/short

content (aimed at content farms)

• High advert/content ratio

• Technically poor sites• Duplicate meta

titles/descriptions

Duplicate page titles

Hummingbird

• Better semantic search “apple & Apple”

• High quality content• Enhanced user

experience• Shareable content

• Press release links should be “no follow”

• Guest blogging could be penalised

Google Webmaster Tools

So what can be achieved – I ?

http://www.conscious.co.uk/presentations

So what’s it all about? This.

But what keywords?

Measurements

Link building

• Less is more now• Getting less links from higher quality sites

(higher PR or Domain Authority)• Guest blogging• Use a keyword, not the name of the firm for

the “visible phrase”

Use of Site Maps

• Manual site maps• Auto-generated sitemaps for Google upload

Tutorial (if we have time)

• Someone be brave, let’s do some work!• Give me your website address• What is the target phrase you think we

should look at?