Search Engine Optimisation - Equinet Academy › wp-content › uploads › ... · WSQ Search...

WSQ Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Learner Guide

1

Search Engine Optimisation Learner’s Guide

How to Rank Your Website on Page #1 of Google


2

Version Control Record

Version Effective Date Details Author 1.0 8 Feb 2018 - Equinet Academy


3

WSQ Technical Skills and Competencies (TSC) WSQ Framework: Infocomm Technology (SF) TSC Category: Sales and Marketing TSC: Integrated Marketing TSC Code: ICT-SNM-3006-1.1 Competency Descriptor: Assess and propose suitable marketing channels and platforms, developing a marketing plan for specific channels. Knowledge A competent individual needs to know and understand:

1. Organisation's marketing strategy and target customers 2. Features, pros and cons of various marketing channels and platforms 3. Types of content on different marketing channels 4. Types of marketing communications tactics 5. Elements of marketing campaigns 6. Methods to optimise effectiveness of marketing on a specific channel

Abilities A competent individual must be able to perform the following:

1. Assess advantages and disadvantages of different marketing channel options 2. Propose suitable platforms and marketing activities to address intended objectives and target customer 3. Develop a marketing plan for specific channels 4. Implement marketing activities and campaigns in alignment with an overall marketing plan 5. Curate relevant content to reinforce the organisation's competitive advantage, key messages and brand 6. Manage timely release and maintenance of marketing content and activities on specific channels 7. Evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns through a specific channel 8. Determine the factors that optimise marketing effectiveness


4

Table of Contents Version Control Record .......................................................................................................................................................................... 2 WSQ Technical Skills and Competencies (TSC) ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction to SEO ............................................................................................................................................................................... 8

What is SEO? ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 On-page SEO vs Off-page SEO ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 White-hat vs Black-hat SEO ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 Google Algorithm Changes ............................................................................................................................................................ 9

Pros, and Cons of SEO ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Benefits of SEO ............................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Constraints of SEO ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10

The 4 Pillars of an SEO Team ........................................................................................................................................................... 12 Technical SEO (On-Page SEO) ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 Content Strategist/Manager ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 Link Builder (Off-Page SEO) .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Analyst ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Assess Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO................................................................................................................................. 14 The 4-Step SEO Process ................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Keyword Research ............................................................................................................................................................................... 17 What is Keyword Research? ............................................................................................................................................................ 17 Why is Keyword Research Important? ............................................................................................................................................. 17 How to Conduct Keyword Research? .............................................................................................................................................. 17

Step 1: Brainstorm ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Step 2: Build ................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Step 3: Organise ........................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Step 4: Prioritise........................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Summary of Keyword Research ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 On-Page SEO ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 23

What is On-Page SEO and Why is it Important? .............................................................................................................................. 23 Implementing On-Page SEO ............................................................................................................................................................. 23

1. Title Tags (Best Practices) ........................................................................................................................................................ 23 2. Domain Name and URL (Best Practices) .................................................................................................................................. 24 3. Meta Description (Best Practices) ............................................................................................................................................ 25 4. Images (Best Practices) ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 5. Content (Best Practices) .......................................................................................................................................................... 26 6. Design and User Experience .................................................................................................................................................... 27 7. Site Architecture ...................................................................................................................................................................... 28 8. Accessibility for Search Engine Spiders .................................................................................................................................... 29 Conducting an SEO Audit on a Website ....................................................................................................................................... 33

Summary of On-Page SEO ................................................................................................................................................................ 34 Local SEO and International SEO ......................................................................................................................................................... 36

Local SEO ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 36 Optimising your Google MyBusiness listing ................................................................................................................................. 36 Optimising your website for local keywords ................................................................................................................................ 37 Getting listed on online directories and citations ........................................................................................................................ 37 Building backlinks from local websites ........................................................................................................................................ 37 Using local schema markup (structured data markup) ................................................................................................................ 37

International SEO ............................................................................................................................................................................. 38 Using different ccTLDs for different countries ............................................................................................................................. 39 Including the rel alternate hreflang code across international website domains........................................................................ 39 Optimising international websites with the local language (on-page SEO) ................................................................................. 40 Building backlinks from local websites within the target countries (off-page SEO)..................................................................... 40

Link Building (Off-Page SEO) ................................................................................................................................................................ 42 What is Link Building and Why is it Important? ............................................................................................................................... 42

It’s really about providing value ................................................................................................................................................... 42 The Anatomy of a Quality Backlink .................................................................................................................................................. 43


5

High Domain Authority ................................................................................................................................................................ 43 High PageRank ............................................................................................................................................................................. 43 TrustRank ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Relevant Co-citations ................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Relevant Page Title ...................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Relevant Content Topic ............................................................................................................................................................... 45 Target Keywords in Anchor Text .................................................................................................................................................. 45 Placed in Main Content Area ....................................................................................................................................................... 46 Age of Page and Backlink ............................................................................................................................................................. 46 Dofollow Link ............................................................................................................................................................................... 46

Developing a Link Building Plan ....................................................................................................................................................... 46 Analyse......................................................................................................................................................................................... 46 Define .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 48 Develop ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 49

SEO Analytics ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 54 What Should You Be Tracking and How to Set Up Tracking?........................................................................................................... 54

Keyword rankings ........................................................................................................................................................................ 54 Crawl Errors ................................................................................................................................................................................. 55 Crawl Stats ................................................................................................................................................................................... 55 Index Status ................................................................................................................................................................................. 56 Click Through Rate of Search Queries .......................................................................................................................................... 56 Website Traffic Volume from Search Engines.............................................................................................................................. 57 Average Time Spent on Page ....................................................................................................................................................... 58 Bounce Rate ................................................................................................................................................................................. 58 Pages Per Session......................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Return Visits ................................................................................................................................................................................. 59 Referral Traffic Volume, Engagement, and Conversions from Backlinks ..................................................................................... 59 Traffic, Behaviour, and Conversions by Device ............................................................................................................................ 60 Assisted/Direct Conversions ........................................................................................................................................................ 61 Paid Vs. Organic Search Report in Google AdWords ................................................................................................................... 62 Competitive Metrics .................................................................................................................................................................... 63 Summary of SEO Analytics ........................................................................................................................................................... 63

Develop an SEO Plan ............................................................................................................................................................................ 65 Objectives ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 65 Target customers ............................................................................................................................................................................. 65 Target search engine(s) ................................................................................................................................................................... 65 Keyword research tool(s) ................................................................................................................................................................. 66 Keyword research list ...................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Priority pages that require keyword optimisation ........................................................................................................................... 66 Content that needs to be developed ............................................................................................................................................... 66 Technical on-page SEO tools ............................................................................................................................................................ 66 Technical on-page SEO issues to be resolved .................................................................................................................................. 66 Pages within your website that require backlinks and internal links ............................................................................................... 67 Link building methods ...................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Backlink checker tool(s) ................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Keyword rank tracking tool(s) .......................................................................................................................................................... 67 Keywords that can be further improved in search engine rankings ................................................................................................ 67 Keyword rankings improvement plan .............................................................................................................................................. 67 SEO metrics to measure .................................................................................................................................................................. 67 Optimisation plan ............................................................................................................................................................................ 68

SEO Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 69 References ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 70


6

Introduction

Welcome to the Search Engine Optimisation Learner’s Guide. This guide takes you through the process of ranking a website on

top of Google and provides you with a holistic framework of managing and implementing an SEO campaign. It also covers the essential technical aspects of SEO including on-page and off-page SEO best practices, measurement and analytics. If you’re unfamiliar of any SEO terminology throughout this guide, you may refer to the SEO glossary. By the end of this course, you should be able to:

Assess advantages, and disadvantages of SEO based on an organisation’s marketing strategy and target customers

Conduct extensive and effective keyword research to curate relevant content to reinforce an organisation’s competitive advantage, key messages and brand, and implement on-page SEO

Develop a link building plan to manage off-page SEO activities

Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of SEO campaigns and determine factors to improve keyword rankings

Develop an SEO marketing plan, which includes proposing SEO activities and suitable digital marketing platforms based on an organisation’s intended objectives and target customers

Assessment Requirements Candidates will undertake a 90-minute assessment at the end of the course. The assessment documents include an SEO assessment checklist and an SEO planning template which candidates will need to complete and submit within stipulated timeframe. To be deemed competent, candidates will be required to meet to following assessment requirements:

• Complete the SEO assessment checklist based on a company chosen by the candidate and provide resolutions for any disadvantages observed

• Complete the SEO planning template which includes the following components: 1. Objective (at least one) 2. Target customers (at least one) 3. Target search engines (at least one) 4. Recommend keyword research tools (at least two) 5. Keyword research list – conduct keyword research and complete the keyword research list for at least one set of keyword

theme on the Google Sheets template provided 6. Recommend at least two priority pages that require keyword optimisation and propose a deadline for each 7. Propose at least three content titles based on keyword research conducted and deadlines for each 8. Recommend at least one on-page SEO audit tool 9. Run a website SEO audit using the above indicated SEO auditing tool and recommend at least three on-page SEO issues

that need to be resolved 10. Indicate at least two pages with the highest priorities that require backlinks and internal links 11. Select at least two methods to acquire backlinks to the high priority pages 12. Recommend at least one backlink checker tool 13. Recommend at least one keyword rank tracking tool 14. Run a keyword ranking report on Semrush and select at least three keywords that can be further improved in search

engine rankings 15. Propose methods to improve the above keyword rankings 16. Select at least two SEO metrics to measure 17. Determine factors/methods that optimize the effectiveness of the above-mentioned SEO metrics

Without further ado, let’s get started!

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/


7

LO1 – Assess advantages, and disadvantages of SEO based on organisation’s marketing strategy and target customers


8

Introduction to SEO Knowledge & Abilities A1. Assess advantages and disadvantages of different marketing channel options K1. Organisation’s marketing strategy and target customers K2. Features, pros and cons of various marketing channels and platforms

What is SEO? SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising a website to rank highly on the search engine results pages for a set of target search queries or keywords. It involves applying both on-page and off-page SEO techniques to influence the website’s search engine rankings.

On-page SEO vs Off-page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimising the internal aspects of a website which includes, but not limited to:

• Developing highly unique and remarkable content which answers the searcher’s intent and creates a great user experience

• Optimising the technical aspects of the website such as site loading time, image sizes, HTML code to resolve duplicate content issues (rel=canonical code), applying 301 redirects, structured snippets, etc.

• Inserting target keywords into essential page elements such as in a page’s title tags, an image’s alternative text, subheadings, the text of a hyperlink (anchor text), and in the URL. (Target keywords are influenced by keyword research, a marketing activity to research and select keywords of high relevance to a business’s customer shopping behaviour and purchase intent)

• Multi-device optimisation e.g. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for articles, dynamic/responsive design for mobile websites

Off-page SEO involves marketing communication techniques to acquire brand mentions and possibly backlinks (links from third party websites influence rankings, provided they are not tagged with the “rel=nofollow” attribute) including, but not limited to:

• Outreach techniques (both online and offline)

• Content marketing


9

• Social media marketing

• Online PR • Improving the customer brand experience

On-page and off-page SEO optimisation techniques will be discussed in further detail in the later part of this guide.

White-hat vs Black-hat SEO Google’s search engine algorithms have evolved to combat black hat techniques, and take a very serious note on black hat SEO activities. Some black hat SEO techniques include:

• Keyword stuffing

• Duplicating internal pages on a mass scale • Sneaky redirects

• Displaying different results to users and search engines.

• Over-optimised keyword-rich anchor text on inbound links, especially on low quality sites Flouting the guidelines can result in a search engine penalty on your website. i.e. Deliberate de-ranking of your website or total removal of your website from the search engine results. View the official Google Webmaster Guidelines for more information on activities that may result in penalties.

Google Algorithm Changes Google updates its search algorithms around 500 - 600 times each year - that’s 1 - 2 times on average each day. Some algorithm updates have tremendous results on the search rankings. If your website sees a sudden drop or rise in rankings, it could be due to a recent Google algorithm update or an algorithmic or manual penalty. Below is a list of major algorithmic updates in recent years (the first two are aimed at filtering spammy websites):

• Panda

• Penguin

• Hummingbird

• Pigeon Update • Mobile Update

• RankBrain To keep up to date with the latest Google algorithm updates, visit the following links:

1. https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change 2. http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-algorithm-updates

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

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-algorithm-updates


10

Pros, and Cons of SEO Why is SEO such an important channel in a digital marketing strategy? Here are some eye-popping statistics.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/

Benefits of SEO How can SEO benefit your business? SEO can:

• Increase brand credibility and boost brand awareness

• Drive relevant website traffic and increase revenue Increase brand credibility and boost brand awareness Ranking highly on the search results for multiple search terms can instil brand credibility and boost brand awareness. Imagine you’re a consumer looking to invest in real estate. Upon searching for “best real estate investment opportunities”, “how to invest in real estate”, “buy property in Singapore”, you see the same real estate portal repeatedly ranking on the top of the search engine results pages. You’ll be more likely to trust the website more than the others. Drive relevant website traffic and increase revenue Increasing traffic to your website increases your chances of converting visitors into customers. Studies have shown that SEO leads have a much higher closing rate compared to other marketing channels.

Constraints of SEO

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/


11

Unfortunately, SEO may not be for every business. There are several constraints that may discourage businesses from embarking on SEO campaigns:

• Cost constraints

• Competitiveness

• Delayed results Cost constraints SEO can get really costly especially for competitive niches. This is mainly due to the fact that backlinks (a major ranking factor) are hard to acquire and require a lot of time to create buzz, build relationships (online PR), and credibility through a solid content strategy. Competitiveness It is generally competitive to rank for short-tail keywords (< 3 keywords) due to the low barriers to entry - no cost to add keywords to a page (on-page SEO). Delayed results It can take months or even years to rank on the first page for ultra-competitive keywords. If speed is essential, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or paid search advertising would be recommended in the initial stages.


12

The 4 Pillars of an SEO Team There are 4 pillars in an SEO team. You should have a good understanding of the roles of these 4 pillars to effectively oversee, manage, or execute an SEO campaign. The various roles below can be assigned to different individuals, although it is also entirely manageable by an individual (i.e. SEO Specialist).

1. Technical SEO (On-Page SEO) 2. Content Strategist/Manager 3. Link Builder (Off-Page SEO) 4. Analyst

Technical SEO (On-Page SEO) The Technical SEO is the person who understands the entire architecture and essential components of the website. He builds the website from scratch or works with a web development agency to develop the website. He understands how search engines work, what is required to rank a website on top of the search engine results pages, and where and how to make tweaks to the technical aspects of the website in order to increase a website’s search engine rankings. Scope of work includes:

• Conducting keyword research • Optimising web content for search (e.g. keyword optimisation)

• Running a complete website audit to fix any SEO issues (e.g. mobile optimisation, page loading time, resolving duplicate content)

Content Strategist/Manager The Content Strategist develops and leads the organisation’s content strategy, creates a content roadmap based on the customer journey (incorporating keyword research during the content ideas generation phase), constructs and maintains a content governance document, and develops a content marketing plan. Scope of work includes:

• Developing a content strategy document (based on customer personas, customer buying cycle, organisational structure, business goals)

• Creating an editorial calendar (incorporating keyword research during the process)


13

• Constructing and maintaining a content governance document (blogpost, landing page designs, language, tonality, etc.)

• Developing a content marketing plan (organically earns backlinks)

Link Builder (Off-Page SEO) The Link Builder actively scouts for opportunities to acquire mentions or links to a product or brand. She does this by establishing relationships with influencers, resource editors, bloggers, and customers, influencing them to mention or link to the product or brand. Scope of work includes:

• Setting up alert tools to receive alerts of any brand mentions or potential link opportunities

• Launching online/offline events or contests to build buzz and backlinks

• Building relationships with influencers, bloggers, customers, and resource editors to acquire future potential backlinks

• Guest blogging and distributing press releases

• Submitting links to niche directories and resource pages

Analyst The Analyst measures SEO metrics, evaluates the results, and develops an optimisation plan. Scope of work includes:

• Setting up measurement/analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Semrush, and Ahrefs to track keyword rankings, search traffic behaviour, and conversions

• Developing an optimisation plan to improve essential metrics


14

Assess Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO Should an organisation adopt SEO in their marketing mix? We are all clear about the benefits of SEO – Increased traffic, increased brand visibility, increased credibility, increased sales and leads. But is Search even a relevant channel for the organisation, and does the organisation even have the capabilities (e.g. budget, manpower, experience) to execute an SEO campaign? To determine whether an organisation should adopt SEO in their marketing mix, we can conduct a simple assessment using the following checklist:

SEO Assessment Checklist

Situational Analysis

Indicate with “X”

If no was indicated, suggest what can be done

to resolve this disadvantage

Yes No

Does the organisation have sufficient manpower and the required expertise to implement SEO effectively? (Refer to the 4 pillars of an SEO team)

X

Organisation can outsource SEO work to an SEO agency, hire an external SEO consultant, or hire an in-house SEO Specialist.

Are target customers using search engines to discover the organization’s products and services?

X

Organisation can launch publicity campaigns to create awareness and buzz around new keywords to increase the search trends for a set of target keywords.

Can the organisation wait 6 months or longer to start seeing results?

X

Organisation can implement search engine marketing (paid search ads) in the meantime, while organic rankings slowly climb.

Does the organisation understand that SEO is a long-term investment that can greatly improve brand credibility and ROI, as well as complement other digital marketing channels e.g. content marketing, display advertising?

X

The key stakeholders of the organisation need to be reassured on the potential returns from SEO.

Does the organisation have sufficient budget to invest heavily in this channel?

X

The organisation needs to reallocate some of its budget from other channels into SEO if it can contribute significantly more to ROI.

Conclusion:


15

If the answer is yes for all situations, then SEO would be an appropriate channel for an organisation to invest in. If the answer is no for any situation, SEO would be disadvantageous. The organisation should then have a resolution for the disadvantage, otherwise SEO might not be a viable channel.

The 4-Step SEO Process

If you don’t know where to begin, start with keyword research first. It can provide insight on your on-page keyword optimisation activities, especially on restructuring your site architecture and creating more content to rank for more keywords. Once you’ve fixed your on-page SEO, build links to high priority pages of your site. Finally, measure all of your SEO activities and create detailed reports for analysis and further optimisation. We’ll go more into detail in each phase later in the guide. With that, let’s dive into keyword research.


16

LO2: Conduct extensive and effective keyword research to curate relevant content to reinforce the organisation’s competitive advantage, key messages and brand, and implement on-page SEO


17

Keyword Research In this section, we will cover what is keyword research, how to conduct it, and how to develop a keyword research document to inform your content strategy and website architecture.

What is Keyword Research? Keyword research is finding out what search terms your potential customers are using on search engines, so that you can optimise your website better with the data. It is usually conducted using keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Keywordtool.io, and Semrush.

Why is Keyword Research Important? Keyword research is an essential part of the SEO process. It provides you with insight on what problems your customers could be facing and what solutions they could be looking for. This can help you to:

• Curate useful content that hasn’t yet existed on your website: By conducting keyword research, you’ll discover exactly what questions your consumers are asking. The next step would be to understand the searchers’ intents and create relevant content that will provide the best answers/solution to each question/query.

• Keyword-optimise existing content: Knowing what keywords your potential customers are using can help you better optimise your content for them and for the search engines (e.g. by including the keywords in your title tags, URL, meta description, copy, and image alt tags.)

• Restructure your website architecture: Prior to keyword research, you may have grouped too many unrelated keywords on one page, confusing search engines about the main topic of the page, resulting in subpar rankings. Keyword research can help you group the right keywords into relevant silos i.e. create new pages for new groups of keywords. This enables search engines to understand the main topic of your page better and results in higher rankings.

How to Conduct Keyword Research? Here’s a 4-step keyword research process we can adopt to conduct keyword research. By the end of this process, you will be able to produce a keyword research document on Google Sheets.

The four steps in the above process are:

1. Brainstorm 2. Build 3. Organise 4. Prioritise

Step 1: Brainstorm First step, identify your personas by:

• Brainstorming with your team: Setting up a meeting with your team to brainstorm and list down all possible personas.

• Conducting keyword research: Using keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner to identify personas.

• Analysing existing customer enquiries & profiles: Looking through your past customer enquiries and existing customer profiles to help you identify personas.

• Conducting market survey: Investing in paid market research data, conducting surveys with 3rd party and existing customers, visiting forums and attending community events where your potential customers hang out.


18

Then, pen down any keywords you think your customers may search with on Google. It can be as simple as this example, e.g. a car rental company.

Persona Seed Keywords Tourists visiting Singapore • Car rental company singapore

• Cheap cars for rent in singapore

• Cars rental airport

• Where to rent a car in Singapore Once you have a substantive list of seed keywords, you can build on/expand your list of keywords in step 2.

Step 2: Build To expand/build on your keyword list, dump your seed keywords into at least two of the following keyword research tools:

• Google Keyword Planner

• Keywordtool.io

• Answerthepublic

• Semrush

• Ahrefs Keywordtool.io does a great job on building on keyword ideas:

Using the car rental company example, you may have gathered groups of keywords that don’t fit on a single webpage. For example, your list may look a little messy initially, like this:

• car rental Singapore

• car rental company singapore

• cheap car rental Singapore

• cheap car rental

• luxury car rental

• daily car rental

• monthly car rental

• car leasing

https://adwords.google.com/intl/en_sg/home/tools/keyword-planner/

https://adwords.google.com/intl/en_sg/home/tools/keyword-planner/

https://keywordtool.io/google

https://keywordtool.io/google

https://answerthepublic.com/

https://answerthepublic.com/

https://www.semrush.com/


https://ahrefs.com/

https://ahrefs.com/


19

• car leasing Singapore

• lease a car in Singapore • where to rent a car in Singapore

• how much does it cost to rent a car in Singapore

• car rental costs in Singapore

• car rental requirements

• what are the requirements to rent a car in Singapore Putting all of the above keywords on the same page can kill your rankings for specific search queries i.e. long tail keywords such as “where to rent a car in Singapore”, as Google may get confused about the topical relevancy of your page in relation to your target search queries. You may however get to rank that page for more generic keywords such as “car rental Singapore”. Therefore, if you want to rank for a higher volume of keywords, you need to organise your keywords and pages into silos in step 3.

Step 3: Organise Again, with the car rental company example, we can organise the above keywords with relevant webpages and determine an SEO title for each set of keywords. The SEO title is the text that appears in the headlines of Google’s search engine results.

In the keywords column on the above below, we’ve grouped the keywords in relevancy to the SEO titles. In simple terms, the keywords column represents the questions (search intent), and the SEO Titles column represents the answer (web page). The key is to rank a page for as many relevant keywords as possible.

Keywords SEO Titles Car rental Singapore Car rental company Singapore

Allstar Cars | #1 Car Rental Company in Singapore

Cheap car rental Singapore Cheap car rental

Cheap Cars Rental Category | Allstar Cars

Daily car rental Monthly car rental

Cars for Daily and Monthly Rentals | Allstar Cars

How much does it cost to rent a car in Singapore Car rental costs in Singapore

How Much Will It Cost You to Rent a Car in Singapore | Allstar Cars

In the first row, both keywords have the same intent, in that the consumer wants to find a list of car rental companies. It is still pretty unclear what his exact intentions are as they are still pretty generic. Therefore, the homepage would be a good starting point. In the second row, the consumer’s main concern is the affordability of the car rentals. Therefore, Allstar Cars has curated a list of its cheapest cars into a category page. In the third row, it would be too much of a hassle to create two different pages (i.e. one for daily car rental and one for monthly car rental), especially since the daily and monthly rental rates are also easier for a visitor to view on a single page. Therefore, ranking the same page for both keywords not only reduces time and cost, but also provides a good user experience. In the last row, the intent of the question is to find out or calculate the total cost of renting a car in Singapore. A consumer may be looking for details such as road toll charges, parking costs, insurance, etc. He may not be ready to rent a car yet. Therefore, an informative article (i.e. How much will it cost you to rent a car in Singapore) would be a better search result.

Step 4: Prioritise


20

Now that we have an organised keyword list with each keyword group mapped to related content, which keywords should we prioritise ranking for? To make a decision on which keywords to prioritise rankings first, we need to look at the following factors:

• Searcher intent: How likely is the searcher to make a purchase based on his or her search query

• Keyword difficulty: How competitive a keyword is (i.e. how hard is it to rank a given keyword)

• Search volume: How many people are searching for a given keyword (i.e. how “popular” a keyword is) Searcher Intent Different keywords have different intent. Not all keywords have buying intent. It is important to segment the keywords based on the searcher intent. Here are a few common intents:

• I want to go (e.g. Search term: Car rental companies in City Hall)

• I want to buy (e.g. Search term: Rent a car in Singapore)

• I want to know (e.g. Search term: What are the costs of renting a car in Singapore) For the search term “Rent a car in Singapore”, the intent to purchase is relatively high. And we can select transactional or product-focused content to rank for keywords like these. For the search term “What are the costs of renting a car in Singapore”, a searcher may not be interested to rent a car yet, and is looking for information on renting a car before making a decision. Therefore, an informative article would be a better page to rank for this keyword.

If we had to prioritise which keywords to rank first, we would focus our SEO efforts (i.e. link building and off-page SEO activities) on high purchase intent keywords. Keyword Difficulty It can take months or even years to rank for highly competitive keywords. Therefore, keyword difficulty can be a factor of consideration as to whether you should prioritise ranking a given keyword. There isn’t a full-proof way of calculating exactly how difficult it is to rank for a given keyword (if there was, it wouldn’t be 100% accurate anyway since Google wouldn’t divulge exactly how their ranking algorithms are developed). We can therefore only rely on estimates calculated using tools such as Ahref’s Keyword Difficulty Tool. Though it’s a paid tool, you can conveniently derive a keyword difficulty score, providing you with insight on how difficult it might be to rank for a particular keyword.


21

Other ways to determine keyword difficulty would be to examine whether the competition have thoroughly optimised their pages for a given set of keywords. If you discovered a long tail keyword that no one has optimised for, it shouldn’t be too difficu lt to rank for it. A straightforward example would be brand names e.g. Allstar Cars. In the following example, the keywords “car rental Singapore aljunied” has no competitors optimising their SEO title for the keywords:

Although the search volume is less than 10 every month, it can still drive high quality traffic and conversions. Search Volume If the above two factors are equal, then search volume would be the deciding factor which keywords should have priority in ranking. We can check the search volume of a keyword on Google with Google Keyword Planner.


22

As you can see, car rental Singapore has a higher search volume than cheap car rental singapore. If cheap car rental singapore were as competitive as car rental Singapore, we would then prioritise ranking for the higher search volume keyword which would be car rental Singapore.

Summary of Keyword Research Keyword research can be a tedious process and take weeks or even months to execute. But it creates a strong foundation for your on-page SEO activities and can provide insights on customer intent and behaviour. The 4-step keyword research process streamlines your keyword research activity and enables you to perform effective and efficient keyword research. Here’s a sample template you can use to build your keyword list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YVFBik9qaB-90xyHGTI10BVIHMmKtodf3FlONFvtrHU/edit#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YVFBik9qaB-90xyHGTI10BVIHMmKtodf3FlONFvtrHU/edit#gid=0


23

On-Page SEO In this section, we will go through how to keyword-optimise your webpages using data from earlier keyword research (e.g. inserting keywords into a page’s title tags). Following that, we will dive into technical SEO to ensure the entire website is search engine friendly (e.g. making sure the website is accessible to search engines). Once we have sorted out any on-page issues and adopted on-page SEO best practices, ranking a website on top of Google will be a much easier feat.

What is On-Page SEO and Why is it Important? Search engines look for cues (e.g. keywords in the title and URL) on a webpage to determine whether it is relevant enough to rank for a set of search terms. There are also other factors that search engines take into account such as site load time, accessibility of a page’s content, and the overall user experience. On-Page SEO is understanding these ranking factors and fixing any issues to make your site friendlier to the search engines. Without fixing your on-page SEO issues, it can be difficult to rank well even with brilliant off-page SEO strategies.

Implementing On-Page SEO Keyword optimisation comes after you have conducted keyword research and built your list of target keywords. Here’s a sample keyword research list in excel format:

What we’re essentially doing here is taking these keywords and placing them into key areas of your website. They are:

1. Title Tags 2. Domain Name and URL 3. Meta Description 4. Images 5. Content

1. Title Tags (Best Practices) Title Tags <title>Example Title</title> tell search engines what your page is about. Search engines may then use your title tags to display your page title on the search results snippets.

If your website is on WordPress.org, install the Yoast SEO plugin to enable the Title Tag field to fill in your title tags. If you’re on other content management systems, there should be a built-in SEO title box/field or an extension to enter your title tags.

Here are some SEO best practices for your Title Tags:

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#title-tag

https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/


24

✓ Place the keyword closer to the front of the title. Moz tested and concluded that this increases the likelihood of a user clicking on the search result and also helps in search engine rankings.

✓ Ensure your title is unique, outstanding, and appealing. Cross check with competitor sites and your own internal page titles. Consider the searcher intent and make your title appeal to their emotions. The more appealing the title, the higher the click-through-rate. Search engines also place importance in the uniqueness of your title.

✓ Keep the length of your title between 50 – 60 characters / 512 pixels wide. If the title is too long, search engines will truncate the titles and show an ellipsis.

✓ Include your brand name in the title tag. It is good practice to place your brand name in front on the title tag for the homepage and at the back for internal pages of your site. This increases brand exposure and the likelihood of a user (who has repeated seen the brand’s name) clicking on a particular brand’s search result.

✓ Optimise for multiple keywords. Optimising for multiple keywords increases the chances of ranking for more than one keyword. For example, business cards and name cards share similar meaning and can both be included in the title tags if there is sufficient space (512 pixels max).

Further reading: https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization

2. Domain Name and URL (Best Practices) The domain name and URL appears in the search results snippets as well.

Exact match domain names (EMD) like classroomforrent.com no longer have significant direct impact on rankings after Google turned the knob down on EMDs in the recent years.

However having an EMD can indirectly impact rankings when external sites include a naked hyperlink (e.g. <a href=“http://classroom-rental.com>classroom-rental.com</a>) to your site, since keywords in the anchor text are considerably an important ranking factor.

Here are some SEO best practices for your domain name and URLs:

✓ Keep all sections of your site in one domain or subdomain. It is recommended to keep your important webpages in sub directories (e.g. example.com/blog/post/ as opposed to blog.example.com/post/) as search engines use different ranking metrics for domains and subdomains.

✓ Avoid nesting folders into deep layers e.g. www.example.com/folder1/folder2/folder3/example-content as search engine spiders may have trouble crawling deeper into your site. Search engines also tend not to crawl deeper into your site if you have a low domain authority.

✓ Include your keywords in your URLs. e.g. https://www.example.com/classroom-for-rent/ ✓ Keep your domain name and URLs short and easy to understand (< 100 characters) and use lower case

letters. This makes it easier for users to remember and type into the browser. Some users may not be exactly sure whether they have gotten the correct spelling of the domain name. Thus, they would search for the domain name on Google instead of typing the full address.

✓ Consider removing “stop words” such as and, or, but, a, etc. Shorter URLs allow users to easily remember and type the full URL.

✓ Avoid rewriting dynamic URLs into static URLs e.g. (www.example.com/index.php?page=icdl-module&id=31). Though it is advisable to use static URLs as much as possible, in cases when you have dynamic content, it is recommended not to remove information (hiding parameters) to make them look static. To check whether Google has problems crawling your dynamic URLs, you can check for any issues/alerts in your GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) account.

✓ Use hyphens and underscores as word separators but avoid hyphens on domain names. Using hyphens and underscores (hyphens preferred) on your URLs is recommended. It helps indicate to search engines the number of keywords used in the URL. E.g. example.com/rentalounge/ should be written as example.com/rent-a-lounge/. On the other hand, domain names should avoid using hyphens as this is common practice among spammy websites. (e.g. class-room-rental-for-rent.com)

https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag

https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#domain-authority

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home


25

✓ Get HTTPS. Google has confirmed the use of HTTPS as a ranking signal. However, it is now only a very lightweight signal compared to other signals such as high-quality content. It is still good practice to adopt HTTPS on your websites as Google may decide to strengthen this signal over time.

Further reading: Keep a simple URL structure | Google Search Console Help 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs | Moz

3. Meta Description (Best Practices) The meta description isn’t a ranking factor as stated by Google in 2007. It’s worth noting however, that meta descriptions can improve clickthrough (driving user traffic to your website).

Here are some SEO best practices for your meta description:

✓ Keep your meta description between 150 to 160 characters. If your meta description is too long, Google will truncate it.

✓ Include your target keywords in your meta description. This will make it more compelling for users to click when they see words that are relevant to their search query.

✓ Make your meta description is unique, outstanding, and persuasive. Treat the meta description as your ad text. Be sure to browse through the search results (both paid and organic results) and ensure yours is the most outstanding and has the most compelling value proposition.

✓ Ensure it is wrapped around the meta tags. <meta name=”description” content=“Example meta description content that will often show up in the search results snippets.”> and placed in the <head></head> section. For WordPress sites, use the Yoast SEO plugin to easily add a meta description.

✓ Use only alphanumeric characters in your meta description. If wrapped in quotes “ ”, Google won’t display it. ✓ Use structured data markup if it is appropriate to the content. (Use a WordPress rich snippets plugin if you are

using WordPress. Use schema-creator.org/ if you wish to create your own snippets.)

4. Images (Best Practices) Using images can help make your content livelier and also convey credibility (trust is an important factor for conversions). Avoid using overly-used stock photos. If you’re selling a product, include close-up photos of them. If you’re renting out a room, include professionally-taken photos of your rooms.

Here are some SEO best practices for your images:

✓ Use a descriptive image file name i.e. (car-showroom.jpg instead of DM9902.jpg). This will help Google understand your image better and help it rank better on Google Image Search.

https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.sg/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html


https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/09/improve-snippets-with-meta-description.html

https://www.equinetacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/Meta-description-example.jpg

https://www.equinetacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/Meta-description-example.jpg

https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/

https://developers.google.com/structured-data/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-schemaorg-rich-snippets/

http://schema-creator.org/


26

✓ Make your alt tags descriptive of the image and include your target keywords when possible (do not stuff keywords). <img src=“http://example.com/uploads/car-showroom.jpg alt=“car showroom”>. This is a ranking factor and will help in your rankings.

✓ Reduce your image file sizes and use the right image file type (e.g. JPEG is preferred over PNG / GIF). Slow loading times can negatively impact your rankings.

✓ Use unique, high quality, custom graphics/photos where possible to increase chances of people embedding/citing your images. This will help in your link building efforts.

✓ Include your images into your sitemap and submit your sitemap to search engines. It will help search engines to crawl and index your images better.

Further reading: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-optimization?hl=en https://www.shopify.com/blog/7412852-10-must-know-image-optimization-tips https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016

5. Content (Best Practices)

Creating the best and most relevant answer for your target search queries is one of the best principles to stick by. Think of the search query as a question (also known as the searcher intent), and your content as the answer to the question, and you’ll be on the right track.

If someone were searching for “currency converter tool”, what would be the best thing to show up in front of her?

Yup, you got it. An online currency converter software like www.xe.com.

Content can come in many forms, including some of the following:

✓ Blogpost – Copy that’s a couple of hundred (or thousands of) words long and may include images, written in a friendly, second-person point of view style.

✓ Article – Online news reports, magazine, or a shortened form of a white paper are all examples of articles, written in a more serious tone as compared to a blogpost.

✓ Video – If someone were searching for “how to bake a cake tutorial”, a blogpost with a detailed step-by-step video detailing how to bake a cake from scratch would be a great answer.

✓ Product Page – A page zooming in on a product’s specific details on an e-commerce website. ✓ Listicles – Think of search terms like “best restaurants in my area”. What would be the most appropriate results? –

Most probably content publishing sites like www.thesmartlocal.com featuring a blogpost titled, “21 Best Local Restaurants in Singapore”.

The list goes on and on…

Here are some SEO best practices for your content:

✓ Ensure your main content (MC) and supplementary content (SC) is relevant to your target keywords and provides the best answer to the searcher intent. This helps to minimise “pogo-sticking” (where a visitor bounces back to the search results pages right after clicking on a search result), as visitors expect to see a relevant and useful content after clicking on a search result.

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-optimization?hl=en

https://www.shopify.com/blog/7412852-10-must-know-image-optimization-tips

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#main-content

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#supplementary-content

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#pogo-sticking


27

✓ Mention your primary and secondary keywords early on in your copy. It is good SEO practice to mention your primary and secondary keywords in the first paragraph of your copy. This signals to search engines that your content is relevant to your target keywords mentioned in your title.

✓ Primary and secondary keywords should be included in subheadings and distributed evenly throughout your copy. On the other hand, stuffing your target keywords on every paragraph of your copy can be a signal of spam and get your pages penalised by search engines.

✓ Ensure your content is unique and has E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Write like you’re the subject matter expert and worry about keyword optimisation later. These are indicators which Google uses to access the quality of your content and are used in their ranking algorithms.

✓ Link out to relevant internal pages of your website or relevant external websites where appropriate. To improve your pages’ relevancy score and help search engines understand the topic of your pages and index them better, link each page back to its category or subcategory pages, related internal pages of your site, and external relevant and reputable sources.

✓ Conduct in-depth keyword research prior to keyword optimization. In order not to miss out placing any important keywords in your title, URL, meta description, images, and content.

✓ Always be relevant when choosing keywords to optimise for. You don’t want to confuse users by showing them keywords that aren’t relevant to their search queries. For this, you need to really understand the intent of the search queries (searcher intent).

✓ Do not spam or stuff keywords. Instead, develop your content naturally first and get a subject matter to craft your content. Worry about placing your target keywords in your copy later.

There’s a fine line between optimising your pages for search engines and catering to humans. If you optimise your content too heavily, you risk speaking only to search engines where you should be writing in natural spoken language. But if you completely ignore how search engines rank your content, you’ll also lose out on rankings.

6. Design and User Experience Though Google isn’t particularly particular about how great your site design is, they do care whether your site is able to deliver a good user experience. Therefore, ensure:

✓ Text is readable, images and multimedia are high quality. Font-family, text colour, and font size should be clear and easy to scan through. Images and multimedia such as videos should be of high quality and optimised for speed.

✓ No excessive placement of ads above the page fold. Ads are not to be disguised as content or be intrusive to users. Don’t use ads that pop/slide out and block the page’s content when the user’s mouse hovers over it, or text ads that trick the user into thinking it is part of the page’s written content.

✓ No interstitials block majority of a mobile device’s screen. Interstitials such as subscribe boxes that pop out and block most of the user’s mobile screen can receive a Google penalty.

✓ Main content elements stand out while supplementary content are displayed in a subtler manner, making page easy to scan through.

✓ Use breadcrumbs, submenus, navigational menus to provide users a better user experience when navigating through your site.

✓ Page layout is designed with the enduser in mind. Google knows when users click on a search result and immediately bounces back to the search results pages a.k.a. pogo sticking, and not fixing this issue can affect your rankings. Always put yourself in the position of the enduser, then design your pages.

✓ Page renders fast (optimal loading time < 3 seconds). Page loads from server and renders fast with an optimal server response time of < 0.5 seconds and a completely loaded page of < 3 seconds. You may check for any issues hindering your page speed with a free tool provided by Google - Pagespeed Insights.

✓ Consider creating AMP content. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an open source initiative that makes it easy for publishers to create mobile-friendly content once and have it load instantly everywhere. Consider creating AMP content for your blog/new articles to rank in the AMP featured snippets of Google for mobile searches.

✓ Page is browser and device responsive. Following the Google Mobile Friendly Update a.k.a. Mobilegeddon since April 2015, pages that aren’t mobile friendly may not rank as well on mobile searches, though this issue does not affect desktop searches. Note: This only affects pages on an individual basis. Meaning that if a site has certain pages that aren’t mobile friendly, it will not affect the overall rankings of mobile friendly pages. To test whether your page is mobile friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool.

Choosing Configuration Options for the Mobile Version of Your Website Google recommends responsive or dynamic serving, but does not favour any particular URL format as long as all pages are assessable to all Googlebot user-agents. - Google Developers

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/#e-a-t

https://www.equinetacademy.com/pro-keyword-research-analysis-tips/

https://www.ampproject.org/

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/#select-config


28

The three options are Responsive Design, Dynamic Serving, and Separate Mobile Site. For cost-effectiveness, many webmasters choose to go with the responsive design configuration. A visual example below highlights the difference between the two different configurations:

7. Site Architecture Site architecture plays an important role in delivering a good site user experience. Ensure the following:

✓ Related pages are well interlinked with appropriate anchor texts. ✓ Main navigation menu is well organised, with the most important pages placed there. (Users can easily understand the

theme of the site just by browsing through the main menu.) ✓ Site is well organised into main categories and subcategories. (Proper URL structure is recommended. E.g.

example.com/parent-category/child-category/post) ✓ Target keywords are well organised and optimised on individual pages in order to avoid keyword cannibalisation. ✓ Indicate paginated content with rel=”next” and rel=”prev”. ✓ Use breadcrumbs.

Observe the diagram below. Camera store, photography tips, and camera reviews are separate categories that deliver different content, therefore, they are separated into different pages in a hierarchical structure.



29

Since there are many subcategories for each main category, a new page is created for every subcategory, followed by individual pages with specific content focused on a particular topic. This is a good example on how webpages can be organised within a website.

8. Accessibility for Search Engine Spiders You can do everything from the beginning of this guide until here and still not be able to rank well on Google if your website isn’t accessible to search engine spiders. Before we go into the how-tos, let’s first understand how search engines work.

Search engines use algorithms to determine the importance, usefulness, and relevance of a webpage to a given search query. In order for these algorithms to process any data, search engines send out spiders or robots to crawl the web mainly via hyperlinks. Once the data is processed, the algorithms determine whether a website or webpage should be stored in its indexes (in huge servers) and ranked accordingly (after taking into account hundreds of ranking factors). Important Note: If your webpage isn’t crawlable i.e. cannot be accessed by search engines, it will be very tough to rank well as search engines may not be able to view the content and understand the context of the webpage. In order to maintain accessibility, ensure the following:

✓ Robots.txt file not blocking crawlers. ✓ Meta robots tags allows crawling and indexing. ✓ Redirects from older versions use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary) and not more than 2 hops.


30

✓ Page content loads in page’s HTML. ✓ Implement canonicalisation where necessary. ✓ XML Sitemap is submitted to Webmaster Tools. ✓ Is not password protected or requires login.

Robots.txt file not blocking crawlers A robots.txt file is used by web masters to give instructions to web robots not to visit specified pages or sections of a website. One of the main reasons why robots.txt files are used is to conserve the crawl budget. Google has an undefined crawl budget for every website. If a website has 5000 webpages for example, Google may not allocate enough resources to crawl the entire website, thus leaving a portion of the website un-crawled or undetected. This can affect your rankings as Google has to know a page exists before it is able to index it. A robots.txt can be easily generated via a text file and placed in the top-level directory of your web server. Note that it is entirely up to the robots whether or not they wish to obey your robots.txt commands. In general, popular search engines Google, Bing/Yahoo obey your robots.txt commands.

The above is an example input in a text file named robots.txt. More technical information on how to create robots.txt files and guidelines at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062596?hl=en Meta robots tags allows crawling and indexing Meta robots tags on the other hand informs robots not to index the content of a page and/or not to scan it for links to follow. It is placed in a page’s <head></head> section.

Redirects from older versions use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary) and not more than 2 hops A 301 redirect is recommended over a 302 redirect. 301 or permanent redirects tells search engines and browsers that a page has moved permanently. This passes 100% of PageRank or link equity to the newly specified page. A 302 or temporary redirect indicates that a page has “moved temporarily” and 100% PageRank or link juice will be passed to the newly specified page. It is also recommended not to redirect more than 2 hops (e.g. from page A to page B to page C and finally to page D) as search engines bots might stop following the redirects after a few hops.



31

Further reading: https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php http://searchengineland.com/google-no-pagerank-dilution-using-301-302-30x-redirects-anymore-254608 Page content loads in page’s HTML It is imperative that the content you’re optimising your keywords for loads in HTML. If search engines are unable to detect text on your page, they’re not able to relate your content to the keywords you’re targeting and your rankings will be greatly affected.

Though it is not advisable to load your keywords in Javascript or Flash, Google can still pick up your keywords in these languages in some cases. Implement canonicalisation where necessary What is canonicalisation? Canonicalisation is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls: www.example.com example.com/ www.example.com/index.html

https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

http://searchengineland.com/google-no-pagerank-dilution-using-301-302-30x-redirects-anymore-254608


32

example.com/home.asp In cases where you require similar content on 2 or more different URLs (e.g. an A/B split testing experiment), implement the rel=canonical tag on the duplicate pages. This passes the same amount of link equity as a 301 redirect. Note: Rel canonical can also be implemented on duplicate pages across multiple websites. It should only be used when there are duplicate or near duplicate pages.

In the above example, let’s say the Main Page is a news article on examplenewsite.com. The same article is being distributed across other websites, Duplicate A and Duplicate B which are owned by the same news company. Google would now have a tough time deciding which page should rank. It may rank either Duplicate A or Duplicate B by taking into account factors such as link equity. However, if the news site wanted the Main Page on its main site to rank instead of the duplicate pages, it should appy the rel=canonical tag on Duplicate A and Duplicate B, with the tag pointing to the Main Page. This way, Google does not have to decide which page will rank. Only one page will be able rank and that will be the Main Page. Note: In case you have many URL versions for the same page, you can also include the rel=canonical tag pointing to the same page itself to let Google know which is the main URL version. For example, if your page has many different URL parameters (e.g. www.example.com/page?courses=course1 and www.example.com/page?courses=course1&date-selected=mar-1), you can include this tag on the page – <link href=”http://www.example.com/page” rel=”canonical”> XML Sitemap is submitted to Webmaster Tools According to Google, a sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site. Also, your sitemap can provide valuable metadata associated with the pages you list in that sitemap: Metadata is information about a webpage, such as when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and the importance of the page relative to other URLs in the site.



33

You can use a sitemap to provide Google with metadata about specific types of content on your pages, including video and image content. For example, you can give Google the information about video and image content:

• A sitemap video entry can specify the video running time, category, and age appropriateness rating.

• A sitemap image entry can include the image subject matter, type, and license. Submitting an XML sitemap to Google Search Console can help Google better crawl and index your website. It is also recommended to include a HTML sitemap on your website for users to access, especially if your site is huge and split into many main categories and subcategories.

Is not password protected or requires login Password protected pages prevent search engine bots from accessing the page assets, resulting in subpar rankings. If it is necessary to include gated pages (e.g. the backend of your CMS), it is good practice to block search engines from crawling these pages via your robots.txt file. This will save server resources and bandwidth.

Conducting an SEO Audit on a Website There are many commercial software that enable you to run an SEO audit on your website to diagnose SEO issues so you can address them accordingly. Popular tools include:

• Semrush

• Ahrefs

• Screaming Frog

• Link Research Tools An example SEO audit tool by Semrush:


34

Though tools can shortcut your on-page optimisation process, it is still advisable to manually diagnose SEO issues on top of using tools. For example, an SEO audit tool may be able to identify problems with your pages such as missing title tags or target keywords omitted from your title tag. However, it will not show you how to create outstanding titles that drive clicks away from your competitors in the search engine results pages.

Summary of On-Page SEO On-page SEO can be a long and tedious process that can take weeks or even months depending on how large or complicated a website is. Sometimes, a site may have issues with the URL setup and requires redirects to be setup after changing the entire URL structure of all affected pages. This can take weeks. Other times, a few quick and simple fixes is all that is needed. For example, resolving HTTP to HTTPS and redirecting www. to non www. and vice versa (canonicalization) can be solved by a few lines of code. Keyword research is essential to on-page SEO and should be conducted extensively before embarking on on-page keyword optimisation and site architecting. You should use an SEO audit tool to quickly identify any technical SEO issues and resolve them as soon as possible. Failing to resolve important SEO issues can negatively impact your site’s rankings as a whole. We’ve come to the end of this section on on-page SEO. Here’s a bonus cheat sheet you can use as reference when executing your on-page SEO activities.


35


36

Local SEO and International SEO If you’re ranking your website better across multiple Google country domain search results (e.g. google.com.my in Malays ia and google.co.jp in Japan), you need to have multiple websites of various countries to implement international SEO. But if you just intend to rank your website more prominently on your local Google search engine (e.g. google.com.sg), then you only need a single country version of a website to implement local SEO. In this section, we will go through how to expand your search presence across local and international search results on Google.

Local SEO If your business is based in one country e.g. Singapore, you can increase local search traffic to your website by optimising it in a couple of ways:

1. Optimising your Google MyBusiness listing 2. Optimising your website with local keywords 3. Getting listed on online directories and citations 4. Building backlinks from local websites 5. Using local schema markup (structured data markup)

Optimising your Google MyBusiness listing The first step would be to sign up for a free listing at https://www.google.com/business/. Fill in the required fields such as industry category, business hours, and add your physical address. Google will then send you a postcard to verify your listing. Once your listing is verified, get your customers to review your business to improve your local ranking results. Below is an example of some local ranking results when a location-based keyword such as “restaurants near me” is used.

Ensure you enter complete data of your business with accurate and updated information. Google determines your local rankings by relevance, distance, and prominence.

https://www.google.com/business/

https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en


37

Optimising your website for local keywords Include your country keyword into your page’s title tags where relevant. Your pages will rank better when users search with country-specific keywords e.g. “digital marketing short courses Singapore”.

Getting listed on online directories and citations It is essential to list your website on popular and authoritative online directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and other niche directories such as e27.co for startups. Take note that your business name, address, and phone number (citation) should be included on both your website and the directory listings without misspellings, abbreviations, and mistakes in order for Google to display correct information in the search results.

Building backlinks from local websites Google takes into account which websites link to you in order to determine the relevancy of your website to your target search terms. Getting backlinks from local websites will signal to Google that your business presence in the given country is strong. This will help you to rank better in the local search results.

Using local schema markup (structured data markup) Using structured data markup helps Google understand your site content better. An example of a local schema markup: <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Restaurant", "image": [ "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg", "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg", "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg" ], "@id": "http://davessteakhouse.example.com", "name": "Dave's Steak House", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "148 W 51st St", "addressLocality": "New York",

"addressRegion": "NY", "postalCode": "10019", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 40.761293, "longitude": -73.982294 }, "url": "http://www.example.com/restaurant-locations/manhattan", "telephone": "+12122459600", "openingHoursSpecification": [ { "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": [ "Monday", "Tuesday" ], "opens": "11:30", "closes": "22:00" }, {


38

"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": [ "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday" ], "opens": "11:30", "closes": "23:00" }, { "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Saturday", "opens": "16:00", "closes": "23:00" }, { "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Sunday", "opens": "16:00", "closes": "22:00" } ], "menu": "http://www.example.com/menu", "acceptsReservations": "True" } </script>

When Google users query for a type of business, such as a restaurant, they may see a carousel of listings hosted by restaurant listing providers. To check whether your structured data markup code is free of errors, you may use the Structured Data Testing Tool.

International SEO International SEO is the practice of optimising a website to rank in the chosen countries and target languages. TripAdvisor does a great job on international SEO and they rank very well across international travel search terms. Let’s have a look. TripAdvisor ranks it’s Singapore website www.tripadvisor.com.sg on Google.com.sg when a user searchers for tripadvisor.

https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/


39

TripAdvisor ranks it’s Japanese website www.tripadvisor.jp instead of any other countries e.g. Singapore on Google.co.jp. when a

user searches for TripAdvisor in Japanese ”トリップアドバイザー ”. This is due to a number of factors:

1. Using different ccTLDs for different countries 2. Including the rel alternate hreflang code across international website domains 3. Optimising international websites with the local language (on-page SEO) 4. Building backlinks from local websites within the target countries (off-page SEO)

Using different ccTLDs for different countries Building multiple country-specific websites on different country code top level domains (e.g. .sg, .my, .ca, .com.au) is a common option for many internationals brands. It costs more than other options such as international subdomains (e.g. sg.example.com) and subdirectories (e.g. example.com/sg). However, it is more convenient as you don’t have to indicate the country targeting option in Google Search Console for your international subdomains and subdirectories in order for Google to recognise the country you’re targeting and rank your websites according to the targeted countries.

Including the rel alternate hreflang code across international website domains TripAdvisor has dozens of websites across various international domains. Each website includes a rel alternate href lang code pointing to the various international domains and back. Meaning, www.tripadvisor.com.sg includes the code <link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://www.tripadvisor.jp/" /> in its header and www.tripadvisor.jp includes a return link <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-SG" href="https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/" />. This helps Google consolidate all the international domains and index them appropriately. The example source code below is found on tripadvisor.jp’s <head> section.


40

Optimising international websites with the local language (on-page SEO) Start with keyword research in the target language to inform your on-page SEO activities. TripAdvisor’s title tags are in Japanese language on their Japanese website.

Building backlinks from local websites within the target countries (off-page SEO) As you can see in the Ahref’s backlink checker tool report below, TripAdvisor’s Japanese website has a lot of backlinks from other Japanese websites:


41

LO3: Develop link building plan to manage off-page SEO activities


42

Link Building (Off-Page SEO)

What is Link Building and Why is it Important?

In SEO terms, a link/backlink/inbound link is a hyperlink from one website to another. Link building refers to the effort of acquiring these links to improve a website’s rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

There’s no question that links are crucial in improving a website’s rank on the SERPs. A search ranking factors correlation study conducted by Moz and a new Google ranking study concluded that links are among the more influential factors for search engine rankings.

Getting links isn’t tough; getting quality links is. So before you go about sending random link requests and submitting to every A-Z directory, ask yourself these questions:

• Do your links offer any value to the user?

• Are your link destinations contextually relevant?

• Are your links self-promotional in nature?

If the answers are yes, yes, and no, you’re on the right track.

Remember that links with the nofollow attribute aren’t considered a Google ranking factor. The kind of links that will get you on the first page of Google are editorial links. That is, links that are placed in the content body of a blogpost, article, or whitepaper.

Let’s look at two examples of editorial links from two separate articles.

Example A: According to a study <= (link) conducted in 2012, 80% of people love sushi. Example B: Today, selling insurance policies <= (link) is even more challenging than it was 10 years ago.

In example A, clicking on the anchor text “a study” would take you to a research paper to back its claims. In example B, the anchor text “insurance policies” would take you to the author’s insurance policy sales page.

Which do you think offers more value? Which do you think is more contextually relevant and not self-promotional? – Example A is the clear winner.

It’s really about providing value

If you want to acquire high quality links (and we’re talking about links that really move the needle in rankings), you have to keep one key thing in mind – Can you provide value in exchange for the link?

Let’s say you’re reaching out to a popular food blog to write about your newly opened restaurant, what incentive could you give the blog to feature you?

You’d probably have to offer something like a $100 dine-in voucher. If we’re talking about well-known blogs, they would charge you a handsome fee for their review.

Similarly, if you were pitching a guest article to a popular blog in your industry, you’d have to make sure your content prov ides great value to their audience.

One of the best advices from Rand Fishkin is to give before you receive. Reach out to your community’s top influencers, friends, colleagues, and associates and ask them whether there’s anything they would like you to promote to your network out of good will.

Quoting Rand, “This is not a direct reciprocation, like, “Well, I did this for you, so now you do this for me.” This is just seeding the

pot. You are creating a positive impression with these folks. Trust me, a lot of the time, even if you don’t have something to



http://searchengineland.com/new-google-ranking-study-shows-links-incredibly-important-ranking-algorithm-254188

https://moz.com/blog/my-favorite-way-to-get-links-and-social-shares-whiteboard-friday


43

promote, if you do this for people in your network and people in your world, just try and make their lives better and promote their

stuff, they will automatically be incented for the next few months to do something nice for you. If they can think of anything, they

will try and do it for you. They will be more likely to help you out. If you do ask for a share, you’ll be more likely to get it.”

The Anatomy of a Quality Backlink A good backlink that can move the needle in your search engine ranks have either one or all of the following qualities:

• High domain authority

• High PageRank

• High TrustRank

• Relevant co-citations

• Relevant page title

• Relevant content topic

• Target keywords in anchor text • Placed in main content area

• Age of page

• Age of backlink

• Dofollow link

High Domain Authority

All inbound links pointing to a website’s main domain (www.example.com) as well as its internal pages contribute to the domain authority. Getting a backlink from a high domain authority site is always valuable. Sometimes, that is all you need in order to get on the 1st page of Google for a target keyphrase.

High PageRank PageRank is only one of over 200 ranking factors which Google uses to calculate and decide which page should rank over another. Inbound links pointing specifically to an internal page of a particular website contributes to the PageRank of the specific page. However, if a page of say PageRank 6 has two outgoing links, the outgoing PageRank is diluted into half (PageRank 3 each). With everything else equal (i.e. Relevant page title, equal number of backlinks, etc.), a site with a higher PageRank will rank above the site with a lower PageRank.


44

TrustRank

Sites that receive a lot of quality relevant inbound links are more trusted than sites that receive lots of inbound links from low-quality, spammy sites. Getting a link directly from a very trusted site such as Entrepreneur.com will increase your site’s TrustRank tremendously. Obtaining a second-tier, third-tier, or fourth-tier link will also increase your site’s TrustRank but the value starts to drop the further it goes. Let’s have a look at the following scenario: Your website provides financial consultation and you are not able to get a link directly from Entrepreneur.com. However, you’re able to obtain a third-tier link from one of the websites that Entrepreneur.com links to. Entrepreneur.com => Financesite.com => Bizservices.com => Yourfinancialsite.com 100% TrustRank => 50% TrustRank => 25% TrustRank => 12.5% TrustRank The above figures are made up and only used to demonstrate the point.

Relevant Co-citations


45

If you are getting inbound links from an external page (Page A) and it is linking to Page B and Page C which are both relevant to your site’s content topic, this is a strong signal to search engines that your site is relevant to that particular topic.

Relevant Page Title The page title should summarize the page’s content topic. Or rather, the main content topic should reflect the title of the page. Search engines use the page title as an important ranking factor when it comes to displaying relevant search results to the user.

Relevant Content Topic Similar to the above Relevant Page Title ranking factor, an inbound link from a page with relevant content topic to your site will increase your relevancy score.

Target Keywords in Anchor Text

The anchor text of a link is another ranking signal that search engines use. The wide-spread belief before the 2012 Google Penguin Update was that a keyword rich anchor text was a strong ranking factor.

As a result, many webmasters started over-optimizing their inbound anchor texts by stuffing their target keywords in (exact match), in attempt to manipulate their rankings. Majority of the sites with over-optimized keyword-rich anchor texts who were hit by the update saw a big drop in rankings.

Post-Penguin, anchor texts should not be over-optimized. i.e. If you want to rank for “financial consultation”, your anchor texts shouldn’t all be “financial consultation”. There should be a good mix of different types of anchor text. It should sound natural as if someone were to mention your brand name in a conversion.

Here are a few examples of the different types of anchor texts a property/real estate website should have a good mix of:

Exact match – “Properties for sale”

Broad match – “List of properties for sale” or “Properties for sale in [country]”

Synonyms and related search terms – “Condos for sale” or “Private property for sale”

Brand mentions – “Realtoria Property Investment Firm”

Non-related – “visit this page” or “click here”

It’s good to have a couple of inbound links with exact match anchor text from high domain authority sites. Just make sure it looks natural and doesn’t make up the majority of your backlink profile.


46

Placed in Main Content Area

The location of the backlink is also an important factor. A footer link isn’t worth as much as a sidebar link, and a sidebar link isn’t worth as much as an editorial link in the main content section.

Age of Page and Backlink How long a page has been in Google’s index is also a ranking factor. Creating a website is getting much simpler. There has been an increasing number of fly-by-night sites and many webpages come and go frequently. Therefore, the older the page, the more trustworthy it is (provided it is frequently updated). Similarly, the older the backlink, the more TrustRank it gets.

Dofollow Link

Dofollow links are regular links without the rel=“nofollow” attribute in the HTML code and they allow PageRank or Link Juice to be passed on to the linked page.

Example of a regular dofollow link (allows PageRank to be passed on):

<a href=“http://example.com/”>anchor text</a>

Example of a nofollow link (doesn’t allow PageRank to be passed on):

<a href=“http://example.com/” rel=“nofollow”>anchor text</a>

While you’re in the process of acquiring dofollow links, you also want to obtain nofollow links.

Although you won’t get any PageRank from a nofollow link, the main reason you also want to include nofollow links in your link profile is that search engines are able crawl a nofollow link and read its anchor text.

Even though you don’t get any PageRank flow, you’d still be awarded points for relevancy. Not to mention a link profile with thousands of dofollow inbound links and without a single nofollow backlink looks a little fishy.

Developing a Link Building Plan Link building is an on-going process. You don’t just build links overnight and expect to rank on top forever. There’s always going to be competition. It also takes a while for search engines to pick up your links and work out your rankings. So be consistent i f you intend to stay on top. A method of approaching link building

It starts from analyzing the landscape, defining your linkable assets and target audience, developing and executing your strategy, and finally measuring your success so you can optimize better for the next campaign. You may use this link building methodology template when executing your link building campaigns.

Analyse

Imagine you’re planning to launch a roundup and your goal is to acquire backlinks to it. Where do you start?

You could start by analyzing the results of similar roundups that have been published in the past. Using tools like Buzzsumo and Ahrefs, find out the quantity of social shares and backlinks these articles earned.

Go to Buzzsumo.com and enter a keyword that you’d use in your title and analyze the buzz effects of similar content out there on the web:

https://www.equinetacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Link-Building-Workbook.pdf

https://www.equinetacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Link-Building-Workbook.pdf

http://buzzsumo.com/


47

Next, pick out a couple of them and check out their backlinks with Ahrefs:

If you’re not seeing the success (lots of social shares and links) that you’re hoping to achieve, it may be a better idea to try a different content idea or you might end up in the same boat. Read this post by David McSweeney on 8 Actionable Ways to Get Backlinks By Spying On Your Competitors. We once did a roundup titled 40 web design trends in 2015. This article was picked up by the Slideshare team and featured on their homepage.

With this credential, we reached out to 40 different people mentioned in our blogpost and got a response rate of 20% – some invited us to guest write for their blog and others told us they loved it and would share it on their social networks.

However even with all that effort and buzz, we only managed to secure one link. Quite a letdown, considering the buzz and enthusiasm it generated.

Had we analyzed the results of similar articles beforehand, we’d have discovered articles like these do well in acquiring social shares but weren’t very “linkable” so to speak.

How then would you go about analyzing the landscape if you’re a startup and your website is newly launched?

If your site is new and you don’t have any idea where to start, a good way would be to Google your top 5 competitors and analyze their link profiles. This may help you to spot some link opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of.

https://ahrefs.com/blog/get-backlinks/

https://www.equinetacademy.com/latest-web-design-trends/


48

Here’s what we did with one of our websites (in the training room rental niche). Upon analyzing the backlinks of our competitors with Ahrefs, we found that customers were linking to their “how to get there” page from their event landing pages. This made a lot of sense given how detailed the directions to the training centre were.

With this new insight, we replicated that strategy and suggested to every new customer that they could link to our “how to get there” page from their event landing pages so their attendees wouldn’t lose their way.

You can see how detailed our directions to our training rooms are (it’s really about providing value).

In the next section, we’ll go through what you need to define in order to devise effective link building strategies.

Define

There are three main things you need to define before executing any link building technique:

• What are your objectives (how many links do you intend to earn)?

• What are your linkable assets (your content, products, how-to guides, resource pages)?

• Who are your target linkeratis (people who will link to you)? What are your objectives?

Your objectives shouldn’t just be limited to earning links. They should also aim to drive brand awareness, build relationships, and increase your social presence.

If your only objective for guest posting were to earn links, you wouldn’t really care where your article went as long as you acquired the links. You’d submit your blogpost to random article directories, low quality blogs, etc.

Say if your objectives were to increase brand awareness and drive traffic back to your site, you’d be looking at very different avenues (popular blogs with lots of user comments and domain authority).

What are your linkable assets?

Before you decide whether a piece of content, resource, or product is link-worthy (something people will not hesitate to link to), put yourself in the shoes of people who might link to you.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Would you link to your own piece of linkable asset and why? (Would you link to that case study you’ve just written?) 2. Would it provide any value to the target audience? 3. Is it contextually relevant? 4. Is it self-promotional by any nature?

There are a ton of spam guest contribution requests out there. If you’re outsourcing a 500-word guest article for $5 and linking heavily to your product-centered content, your pitch will probably get deleted.

Who are your target linkeratis? Your target linkeratis are people who might link to you. They range from bloggers, forum users, to content creators and resource editors.

An example of a resource editor would be a government official managing a “useful links” resource page. In this case if you have something useful to contribute to that page, ensure your outreach formally written. No slangs and informal abbreviations.

On the other hand, if you’re reaching out to an industry blogger to submit a guest post, you can add a little personal touch to your outreach email (e.g. telling them how much you like their content).

The key is to connect your linkable assets to your target linkeratis and view your pitch through their eyes. You should always ask yourself the aforementioned questions:

1. Why would I link to this? 2. Would it provide any value to my target audience? 3. Is it contextually relevant? 4. Is it self-promotional?

https://www.venuesquare.com/directions/

https://moz.com/blog/identifying-the-linkerati


49

Develop

Once you have defined your objectives, linkable assets, and target audience, it’s time to develop and execute a strategic approach to acquiring those links.

Let’s look at a couple of link building examples that still work well today, provided you take good precaution not to “piss search engines off” (Like spinning your articles to make them unique and submitting them to dozens of low quality article directories):

• Creating evergreen content

• Guest posting

• Relationship building • Directory/resource submission

Creating everygreen content

If you don’t have any existing linkable assets, you can start by creating evergreen content (content that never becomes outdated).

It could be a case study with comprehensive and conclusive research data, a definitive guide, a huge list post, a glossary of industry terms, and anything that is impossible to create for five bucks. This can help you to attract links naturally and also allow you to link back to them in your guest posts.

Browse popular articles with lots of social shares through Buzzsumo. Do keyword research on industry search terms and create 10x content (content that’s 10 times better than any other similar content).

When your content is ready, publish it on your blog and promote it. If you’re new in your industry, your newly created content will be like a tree on a remote island. You have to get the word out if you want to earn links and social shares.

Send outreach emails to people who might be interested in it, share it across all your social channels, and link to it from existing blogposts (both on-site and off-site).

Guest posting

If you’re intending to submit a guest article to a popular blog in your industry, make sure your topic is relevant to the blog’s audience and your content is unique and highly useful. Otherwise your pitch will most likely get rejected.

Use advanced search operators to find blogs that accept guest posts. An example would be typing intitle:”write for us” your industry to yield search results of blogs in relevant industries that accept guest contributions.

There are a few key things to note for a successful guest posting campaign:

https://moz.com/blog/how-to-create-10x-content-whiteboard-friday

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en


50

• The pitch

• The author’s profile • The submitted content

The pitch is important especially if a site does not openly invite guest contributions. For that, I suggest you check out outreach letters for link building by Peter Attia. If a site already has guest posting guidelines set in black and white, be sure to read them very thoroughly before you decide whether or not to contribute. There may be cases where you realize your content idea may not be what the site is interested in.

The author’s profile is also an important deciding factor. We get a ton of spam emails requesting to guest post for our site. Here’s a recent one we received:

Hello, I’m [name], constant and avid follower of your blog posts and I’ve liked most of the blog posts written here. I noticed that you’re accepting guest authors on https://www.equinetacademy.com/become-contributor-write-us/. I also realized you’ve already published some great guest posts from different authors with distinct styles and I’d be privileged if I were provided with an opportunity to delight your blog followers with some informative blog posts. I’m a content expert and I’ve contributed some sensible and informative articles to surplus niche-specific blogs. I realize the value of content and its part in helping out numerous people out there in the space. The blogs offered by me are absolutely free of cost for your website. As a reward, I would like to earn dofollow backlinks from your end. I think I’m crisp & clear. If you have any confusion for the aforementioned points, you can freely revert me. Looking for a positive response! Unless you want to piss Matt Cutts off, don’t ever mention you would like to earn dofollow backlinks in return. Just… no. The above email pitch doesn’t tell us much about the author or their writing style, except that they’re pretty much hungry for backlinks.

It would be good to reference your previous guest contributions (the chances of approval would be higher if you have posted before on authority blogs) and suggest one or two topics you’re willing to touch on. Here’s a good example (keep it short and sweet and right to the point):

Hi, Do you accept guest contributions to [site name]? I have previously published for a variety of online publications on marketing topics and was wondering if I could possibly guest write for you too? My most recent article published to date here: [reference your recent post on an authority site], but I have also published for [authority site 1], [authority site 2], and many others. I publish quite a bit on [topic] and could write about anything you have a content gap. Looking forward to your response.

Through referencing your previous guest contributions, one can see your writing style and profile. If you want to maximize your approval rate, I suggest writing for the top blogs in your industry first.

Last but definitely not least (if you’ve already made it far enough and have gotten a response), don’t disappoint with thin and low quality content. Write something that offers a unique perspective on a trending topic, be detailed with examples, free it from grammatical errors, and basically try to follow everything outlined here and here. Relationship building

https://moz.com/blog/outreach-letters-for-link-building-real-examples-14902

https://moz.com/blog/outreach-letters-for-link-building-real-examples-14902

https://moz.com/blog/inside-youmoz-how-to-guest-blog-for-moz

https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/

https://moz.com/blog/inside-youmoz-how-to-guest-blog-for-moz

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing-guest-blogging-guidelines


51

Search for popular bloggers in your niche using tools like Followerwonk.com, Alltop.com, Buzzsumo.com, and just browsing through social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Make it a commitment to comment daily on at least 3 to 5 blogposts/social media posts/forum threads of your target linkeratis to build rapport.

Once you’ve built rapport and gained their trust, they will be more willing to look into your link requests and accede to them.

As mentioned above, one of the best relationship building advice by Rand is to give before you receive. Send an outreach message to them, tell them that you love their content, and ask if there is anything they’d like you to share with your audience.

Through building your online presence, you may have earned some name/brand mentions from loyal customers or industry associates. These mentions could be anything from recommended partners (like the one below) to testimonials.

Recommended partners page example:

Browse through the blogs of your contacts on a regular basis and spot any opportunities for link requests, or use a tool like Google Alerts to alert you of any name/brand mentions (both yours and your competitors’) found across the web.

For Google Alerts, make sure you wrap your brand name in double quotations to avoid any irrelevant notifications. So, for example if your name is Dylan Sun, make sure you set the alert as “Dylan Sun”. Otherwise you might receive content that include phrases like “Bob Dylan” and his soundtrack “House of the Rising Sun”. If you do manage to find any mentions from close friends, business associates, and past happy customers, all you have to do is ask them to convert the mention into a link. Directory/Resource Submission

http://followerwonk.com/

http://alltop.com/

http://buzzsumo.com/

https://moz.com/blog/my-favorite-way-to-get-links-and-social-shares-whiteboard-friday


52

Ensure your site is free of viruses and looks trustworthy (no broken image links and 404 pages) before submitting to any directory. Use advanced search operators to find directories and resource pages (e.g. intitle:”business directory” intext:”your niche”).

Generally, you’re looking for directories and resource pages that have human reviewers manually approving submissions. You want to make sure you fulfill the stated requirements of a directory, especially if you’re submitting product-centered content (e.g. a course outline) to a course directory, otherwise the chances of getting approved are slim.

Early this year in Singapore, the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) launched a national movement known as SkillsFuture which provides SGD$500 in credits to every Singaporean above the age of 25 to apply for approved courses.

Our company was one of the first to submit our courses to be eligible for the funding, which got approved under one of the directory’s category listings, earning us a good dofollow link.

In order to obtain a high approval rate, your website design also needs to look trustworthy (i.e. not too many ads above the fold of the page, no broken images and links, etc.) and your content has to offer value. Of course, our WordPress course curriculum had to be really comprehensive and structured as you can see. This example is one of the more common and acceptable instances where product-centered content can earn links, as it is generally more difficult to acquire links to product-centered content than to free, helpful resources (e.g. how-to guides, glossary of industry terms, etc). Measure Basically, you want to measure these two metrics: 1. Your rankings after acquiring the links. Monitor your rankings after acquiring the links through a tool like Firefox Rank Checker or Moz Rank Tracker. Note that it takes 10 weeks on average to see one rank jump. 2. Your link acquisition success rate in terms of percentage. If you sent out link requests to 10 linkeratis and received 1 link, it’s a 10% conversion rate, which is pretty decent. But if you’re sending 100 guest post requests and only getting 1 or 2 replies, you may need to refine your pitch.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en


53

LO4: Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of SEO campaigns and determine factors to improve keyword rankings


54

SEO Analytics If you don’t track and measure your results, you won’t have very much to work with when you try to make improvements to your SEO campaigns. The most common metric you should be tracking would be your page/keyword ranking positions in the SERPs. But then, ranking number one doesn’t mean you’re getting quality traffic. We also have to observe how users from search traffic behave on your website. Ultimately, you need to track and optimise all the important metrics within your SEO campaigns in order to achieve your business goals. In this section, we will go through what you should be tracking and how to set up the tracking in place. We will also go through how to evaluate the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns so you can make improvements to them.

What Should You Be Tracking and How to Set Up Tracking? The following are essential SEO metrics you should be tracking:

1. Keyword rankings 2. Crawl errors 3. Crawl stats 4. Index status 5. Click through rate of search terms 6. Website traffic volume from search engines 7. Average time spent on page 8. Bounce rate 9. Pages/session 10. Return visits 11. Referral traffic volume, engagement, and conversions from backlinks 12. Traffic, behaviour, and conversions by device 13. Assisted and direct conversions 14. Paid vs organic search traffic reports in Google AdWords 15. Competitive metrics

Keyword rankings Keyword rankings allow you to measure the direct result of your on-page and off-page SEO efforts. It’s always great if you can rank no.1, but no one can guarantee no.1 rankings. Therefore, if you can rank a webpage on the top 3 rankings for dozens of relevant keywords with moderate search volume, you should receive a fair amount of quality traffic. If you’re not ranking on the 1st page of Google i.e. top 10 search results, here are some optimisation techniques:

• Optimise your title tags for less competitive keywords

• Create new and more relevant webpages to target more specific keywords

• Revise your content to make it more useful and relevant than the top 10 search results for your target keywords

• Increase the number of internal links from relevant and high authority webpages within your website

• Increase the number of backlinks from high authority and relevant webpages Here are some tools to set up keyword rank tracking:

• Ahrefs (paid)

• Semrush (paid)

• Serplab (free)

https://www.ahrefs.com/


https://www.serplab.co.uk/


55

Crawl Errors Tracking your crawl errors allows you spot any problems Google spiders may have when crawling your website. If Google spiders are unable to crawl your URLs, they won’t be able to understand your content. As a result, your pages may not get indexed or rank well. The Search Console => Crawl Errors tool can help you diagnose any crawl errors.

Crawl Stats Crawl Stats in Search Console report how many pages and times on average Google crawls your website. The more navigable your website is (i.e. pages are adequately hyperlinked to one another), the more pages Google is able to crawl and the easier it is to rank all your pages.


56

How to improve your crawlability (i.e. crawl rate and crawl depth)? Here are a couple of things you can do to improve the frequency of Google spiders crawling your website and how deep into your website they crawl:

• Frequently update your website to prompt Google to return to your site more often • Interlink your pages adequately with relevant anchor text links

• Ensure top pages are easily navigated to (e.g. by placing them in the main navigation menu and footer links)

Index Status Check your Index Status report in Search Console and ensure that your pages are not under indexed (i.e. if you have 100 pages you want to rank in total but only 50 pages are indexed).

If your pages aren’t indexed, they won’t rank.

Click Through Rate of Search Queries


57

The Search Queries report in Search Console => Search Analytics shows the actual search queries users queried and the percentage of them who clicked through your search result. Going through this report can help you discover high impression keywords and identify search queries that deserve more attention in terms of improving CTR and ranking positions.

Tip: Link Google Search Console with Google Analytics to view your Search Terms report within Google Analytics.

Website Traffic Volume from Search Engines Traffic can be a metric to measure brand awareness, not forgetting organic search traffic is free. It can be useful to measure how much traffic Google is driving to your website every month. A steady growth in traffic is a signal of steady organic growth and an indicator that your SEO efforts are progressing well. Below is a Google Analytics acquisition report displaying traffic stats.


58

To increase your traffic volume from search, you can:

• Build more backlinks to improve the rankings of your pages. The higher your pages rank, the higher the click through rates

• Create more keyword-optimised content to rank more pages for more keywords

Average Time Spent on Page Average time spent on page is a good indicator on whether your content matched the searchers’ intent. There are many possibilities why the average time spent on page may vary from low to high. But in general, if users don’t find what they’re looking for, chances are they won’t stay very long on the page. That means, they either click through quickly to other pages of your site, or they leave your site immediately. You can view your page’s average time on page metric in Google Analytics => Behaviour reports. Be sure to indicate in the secondary dimensions => Acqusition => Source/Medium to display the second column and filter by traffic coming from Google / organic.

To improve your average time on page metrics, ensure your landing pages are user-friendly, well-designed and presentable, and useful and relevant to the searcher’s intent.

Bounce Rate A high bounce rate can mean that your page did not answer the searcher’s query or that they found the answer to what they were looking for and leave without clicking through any links. To improve your bounce rate, ensure your landing pages are user-friendly, well-designed and presentable, and useful and relevant to the searcher’s intent.

Pages Per Session The more pages your visitors browse per session, the more likely they are to take an action or convert (e.g. fill in a lead form, contact form, call you). To improve this metric:

• Include more internal hyperlinks between pages of your site

• Ensure your navigation menu is easy to understand and links to important pages of your site


59

Return Visits A high number of returning traffic from the organic search signifies brand familiarity and brand credibility. This means users trust your site enough to revisit it during a later search session. To view the following report, navigate to Audience => Overview => Click on +Add segment in the second box up top => Select Organic Traffic

To keep your organic search return visits high:

• Ensure your content is relevant and useful so that users trust your site enough to revisit it

• Expand your target keywords to rank for more search queries

Referral Traffic Volume, Engagement, and Conversions from Backlinks You can use a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to monitor your backlink profile (websites that hyperlink to yours).


60

This can inform you which websites drive higher quality traffic. You can decide to focus either on earning more links from the same website, or on acquiring links from similar websites.

Then crosscheck in Google Analytics => Acquisition => Referrals report on:

• Conversions achieved • Bounce rate

• Pages/session

• Average session duration

Traffic, Behaviour, and Conversions by Device


61

You can compare traffic, behaviour, and conversions by device category and observe which devices drive better results ultimately. For example, if mobile searches drive more high quality results, you may want to consider improving the mobile experience on the mobile version of your website. To view search engine traffic segmented by device category, navigate to => Acquisition => Source/Medium => Select secondary dimension Device Category.

Assisted/Direct Conversions You can track how well your organic search channel is performing in terms of driving conversions/goal completions for your business. Conversions can include any important action from filling in an enquiry form, making an online purchase, spending a defined amount of time on your website, or visiting any key pages of your website. To learn how to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics, visit this article. To view the number of conversions Google/Organic directly contributed (i.e. last click attribution model), navigate to Conversions => Overview => Source/Medium in Google Analytics. To understand more about assisted and direct conversions or attribution models, read this article.

We can see that Google/Organic search contributed 12,549 last click conversions. But how many conversions did it not directly contribute i.e. assist? To view assisted conversions report, navigate to Conversions => Assisted Conversions => and select Secondary dimension: Source / Medium

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032415?hl=en

https://www.equinetacademy.com/multi-channel-attribution-models-explained/


62

We can see that Google assisted in 4,709 conversions, concluding Google Organic Search as a viable and important channel to invest your marketing budget in.

Paid Vs. Organic Search Report in Google AdWords If you’re also running SEM campaigns or Google AdWords campaigns, your website will receive traffic from Google Search. The paid vs organic search report can provide you with insights on how often your paid ads and organic results are driving clicks when they’re shown alone or both shown for the same query. To navigate to this report in Google AdWords, navigate to All Campaigns => Dimensions => and select View: Paid & organic

We can clearly see that the keyword wordpress course singapore only drives clicks when both organic and ads are shown together. This indicates that although you’re spending more advertising on Google AdWords, you can drive an incremental increase in clicks to your website when both organic and paid search campaigns are implemented together.


63

Competitive Metrics You can also benchmark yourself against your competitors by exploring common keywords you and your competitors are ranking for as well as your ranking positions. Using Semrush, you can navigate to Domain Analytics => Organic Research => Competitors, identify organic search competitors, explore common keywords both you and them are ranking for, and keywords they’re already ranking for, in order to retrieve new keyword ideas as part of your keyword research process.

Summary of SEO Analytics These are the 15 metrics you should focus your attention on whenever you’re analysing your reports. We recommend performing SEO analytics at least once a month to keep your SEO campaigns in check and stay competitive.


64

LO5: Develop an SEO plan to address intended objectives and target customers


65

Develop an SEO Plan There are 17 elements in this SEO planning template:

1. Objectives 2. Target customers 3. Target search engine(s) 4. Keyword research tool(s) 5. Keyword research list 6. Priority pages that require keyword optimisation 7. Content that needs to be developed 8. Technical on-page SEO tools 9. Technical on-page SEO issues to be resolved 10. Pages within your website that require backlinks and internal links 11. Link building methods 12. Backlink checker tool(s) 13. Keyword rank tracking tool(s) 14. Keywords that can be further improved in search engine rankings 15. Keyword rankings improvement plan 16. SEO metrics to measure 17. Optimisation plan

Objectives What are the objectives of your SEO campaign? What do you hope to achieve with Search Engine Optimisation? Objectives may include:

• Increase brand awareness

• Increase website traffic

• Increase leads

• Increase sales

• Increase rankings

Target customers Who are your potential customers? Who would be searching for information related to your products and services on Google? Target customers may include:

• People interested in [industry]

• People who need solutions to [problem]

• People who want to buy [product]

• People looking for information on [topic] Profiling your customers can give you seed keywords ideas (search queries) for your keyword research activities and help you tailor your content better to them.

Target search engine(s) Which search engine(s) will you be focusing on? Different search engines have different ranking algorithm and ranking factors. Search engines may include:

• Google

• Bing

• Yahoo!

• Baidu


66

• Naver

• Yandex

Keyword research tool(s) Which keyword research tool(s) will you be using to conduct keyword research? Keyword research tools may include:

• Google Keyword Planner

• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

• Semrush Keyword Analytics

• Keywordtool.io

• Answerthepublic

Keyword research list Use the 4-step keyword research process to produce this keyword research document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YVFBik9qaB-90xyHGTI10BVIHMmKtodf3FlONFvtrHU/edit#gid=0

Technical on-page SEO tools What are some tools you can use to conduct a technical SEO audit? SEO audit tools include:

• Semrush

• Ahrefs

• Screaming Frog

• Website Auditor by SEO PowerSuite

Technical on-page SEO issues to be resolved Technical on-page SEO issues can hinder your rankings if they are not resolved. They may include:

• Slow page loading times

• Pages that aren’t mobile-friendly

• Duplicate content

• Duplicate title tags across multiple pages

• 404 pages

• Broken links

• Search engine spider accessibility issues e.g. blocked resources, preventing search engine spiders from crawling Javascript files, which prevents search engines from rendering your content properly

The above and a host of other issues can be diagnosed with an SEO audit tool.

Backlink checker tool(s) What are some backlink checker tools to spy on your competitor’s link building activities? Backlink checker tools may include:

• Ahrefs

• Moz

• Semrush

• Link Research Tools

• SEO Spyglass

Link building methods

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YVFBik9qaB-90xyHGTI10BVIHMmKtodf3FlONFvtrHU/edit#gid=0


67

What are some link building methods to acquire backlinks to those pages or your any page within your website, including the homepage? Link building methods may include:

• Outreach strategies

• Relationship building

• Press releases

• Guest blogging

• Online PR

• Content marketing

• Submission-based

Keyword rank tracking tool(s) What are some keyword rank tracking tools to monitor your keyword rankings? Keyword rank tracking tools may include:

• Ahrefs (paid)

• Semrush (paid)

• Serplab (free)

Keywords that can be further improved in search engine rankings Identify high priority keywords that are close to ranking on the first page or top few positions on the SERPs and require a further push.

Keyword rankings improvement plan What are some SEO techniques you can apply to boost the rankings of these keywords? SEO techniques may include:

• Restructuring target keywords into more specific pages (i.e. pages more focused on a specific topic)

• Increasing the number of backlinks and internal links to target pages

• Focusing on optimising for keywords that are less competitive to rank (e.g. optimising title tags for less competitive keywords)

• Revising and improving the content of the page to beat the top 5 search results in terms of relevance and usefulness

SEO metrics to measure What are the essential metrics you should be tracking and measuring to improve your SEO campaigns? SEO metrics include:

1. Keyword rankings 2. Crawl errors 3. Crawl stats 4. Index status 5. Click through rate of search terms 6. Website traffic volume from search engines 7. Average time spent on page 8. Bounce rate 9. Pages/session 10. Return visits 11. Referral traffic volume, engagement, and conversions from backlinks 12. Traffic, behaviour, and conversions by device 13. Assisted and direct conversions 14. Paid vs organic search traffic reports in Google AdWords 15. Competitive metrics

https://www.ahrefs.com/


https://www.serplab.co.uk/


68

Optimisation plan How would you optimise the above metrics? Optimisation methods may include:

• Improving the landing page experience to reduce bounce rate and increase average time spent on page

• Updating a website more frequently to increase the frequency of Google crawling the website

• Improve internal linking within the website to allow deep pages to be crawled and indexed

• Increase traffic and conversions by optimising and ranking for more keywords


69

SEO Glossary A-Z SEO Glossary of terms and definitions: https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/

https://www.equinetacademy.com/seo-glossary/


70

References https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329?hl=en https://moz.com/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.sg/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-optimization?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016 http://searchengineland.com/rank-position-0-3-simple-steps-featured-snippets-primer-275941 https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/responsive-design https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/dynamic-serving https://www.ampproject.org/docs/get_started/about-amp.html https://www.ampproject.org/docs/get_started/technical_overview.html https://moz.com/blog/site-architecture-for-seo https://moz.com/blog/information-architecture-for-seo-whiteboard-friday https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php http://searchengineland.com/google-no-pagerank-dilution-using-301-302-30x-redirects-anymore-254608 https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/ https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-international-seo https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en http://searchengineland.com/what-is-google-pagerank-a-guide-for-searchers-webmasters-11068 http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/what-is-pagerank/ http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies https://www.quicksprout.com/2015/07/20/quantify-your-results-the-14-most-important-seo-metrics/

Search Engine Optimisation - Equinet Academy › wp-content › uploads › ... · WSQ Search...

Documents

Transcript of Search Engine Optimisation - Equinet Academy › wp-content › uploads › ... · WSQ Search...