SEO Essentials - The Basics Explained

Preparing To LaunchGetting The Basics Right

SEO Essentials

CIARAN REGAN March 2011

SEO Essentials

• What are the benefits

• What Search Engine Optimisation techniques should you use

• Where do you start

• Getting the basics right

• The results of your efforts.

What we will talk about today

SEO Essentials

• Do you require increased brand visibility online.

• Do you require long term visibility in search engine results.

• Do you require targeted relevant visitors to your website

• Do you want web users to easily find and interact with you

• (And Most Importantly) Do you require higher sales and a higher

ROI on your (digital) marketing budget.

The BENEFITS: A quick Q & A to get us started

SEO Essentials What Search Engine Optimisation Techniques should you use

Two Types of Optimisation

On Site – Concerns techniques that you can apply to elements on your website itself . ( pages, content, images, video etc).

Off Site – Concerns activities such as building links to you website from

other sites and additional content creation for publishing on external website. (covered in a later presentation)

SEO Essentials What Search Engine Optimisation Techniques should I use

The SEO recommendations we will outline are the first steps to establishing a stable position on a search engine result page (serp) for natural / unpaid search results.

Setting Target

First DEFINE A SEARCH GOAL.(Realistically, you will not be on the first page of Google overnight).

A sample long term objective would be to increase overall brand recognition online, drive quality traffic to the your website and establish and maintain a high, stable search engine ranking.

SEO Essentials What Search Engine Optimisation Techniques should I use

A search engine result page with natural / unpaid search resultshighlighted

SEO Essentials Where do you start

• Keywords and phrases to find and locate products and services

• You need to compile a list of keywords and key phrases

• Describe your product and service in your industry or market.

We start with high level competitor analysis

Search based research:

• Identify what keywords and key phrases will attract qualified traffic

• SEO Tools like Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool or Alexa Search Tool


• This will produce a list of keywords relevant to your website content

• The number of search queries these keywords receive each month.

• Broader phrases may potentially attract more traffic, but….

• Identify and focus on more specific and local terms relevant to you

( For example digital marketing agency and digital marketing agency in dublin ).


Alexa provide a comprehensive tool to aid in keyword research and competitor analysis.


Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool provide a comprehensive tool to aid in keyword research and competitor analysis.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics rightAn advanced phase of research is competitor analysis.

This involves reviewing the main competitor websites.

Shows what they are doing correctly and incorrectly

Provide us with areas to take advantage of.

We use our own SEO Review Score Card to rate how successfully optimised a competitor website is, based on a list of basic criteria.

Fully utilising our newly complied list of keywords and phrases

SEO Essentials Getting the basics rightOptimising the actual website :

• Correctly optimised website

• Attractive to Search Engines

• We don’t want Google or Yahoo to run into any issues.

• Quickly and easily identify the overall theme of your website

• The following are some of the easiest elements to get right.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right

• SEO should be part of the web development process from the very start.

• These techniques can be applied to an existing website also.

• Making your website relevant and the more relevant Google thinks your site is the higher up the rankings it will display.


1. Page Titles

• I consider this one of the most important ranking factors for Google.• Ensure each page has a different and unique title.• Make it short, but descriptive and include your keywords and phrases.• Keep keywords towards the start of the description• Ensure it is an accurate summary of the page.• Make sure it reads correctly and it not just a list of words.• Make it no more that 70 characters


Showing The TITLE tag in the browser window | In the search results page | In the source code


E.g. www.fourcorners.ie/the-beers/brooklyn_lager

2. Readable, Descriptive URLS.

• Naming the directories or folders that hold your website files.

• Ensure the directory name and page name identifies the section or page

• Give them a suitably descriptive name with your keywords.

• Avoid URLS and page names with numbers, like category id’s etc.

E.g. www.directbrand.ie/digital_marketing_agency/social_media/

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right3. Meta Data

• Meta data and meta keywords no longer hold much weight as they once did.

• This is entered in the source code underneath the title of the page.

• It won’t improve your ranking.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right4. Header Tags• Surround your paragraph headers in Header Tags.

They look like so, H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6

• Again be as specific as possible with your header text.• H1 given the greatest importance.

<h1>Directbrand, the digitally driven marketing agency</h1> Some text<h2>Our Digital Web Services</h2> Some text<h3>Combining Strategic Thinking, Creative Conversation and Technology Innovation</h3> Some text

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right5. Page Content

• It’s all about the content.

• Each page on your website should have several hundred words of text.

• Your keywords and key phrases should be included high up in the page

• Have a substantial amount of well written content on your pages .

• But make sure it reads well and is not overly stuffed with your keywords.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right6. Navigation Links and Internal Page Links

• For your main navigation and internal website links use text at all times.

• Use keywords in the text/name of the link, known as Anchor Text.

Above the text View Our Digital Web Services is a text based descriptive keyword rich internal link

• Search engines have a good idea of the content of the page being linked to

• Use keywords in the text/name of the link, known as Anchor Text

• Add a title that provides additional information

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right7. Images

• Make sure all your images are stored in a descriptive folder/directory.

• All images on your website should contain a descriptive ALT element tag.

How the Search Engines see your Images

How the visitors to your website see your Images

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right8. Site Maps – HTML Site Maps

• Acts as a directory of the all, pages, sections and categories on your website.

• Each page listed in the site map is linked to that page in your site.

• A search engine can reach every page within your website quickly and easily.

• Relevant and descriptive Anchor Text and Title tags.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right9. Site Maps – XML Site Maps

• Tells tells the search engines how you would like it to crawl and index your website

• XML sitemaps are key to instructing search engines the page structure of your site

• Use one of the many sitemap generator and then make your own changes to it.

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right9. Site Maps

A sample of a HTML site map that sits on your site A sample of an XML site map that you submit to the search engines

SEO Essentials Getting the basics right10. Robots.txt

Pages or folders you do not want returned in a search result for your websitee.g. An administration section, a test or temporary page on the live server

11. 404 error pagesIf pages on your site have moved or been renamed or users incorrectly type a link If possible place a search box on this page to assist users.

SEO Essentials

Sample 404 error page.

Getting the basics right

An example of a styled 404 error page with SEARCH facility

SEO Essentials Next Time

13. Google PlacesAn increased number of Google searches are related to location.

14. Flash OptimisationFlash still plays a vital part in bringing interactivity to the web.Best practises for SEO

15. Video Optimisation We discuss where the opportunities exist in Google’s love of video content

Contact MeTHANK YOU

CIARAN REGAN: [email protected]

SEO Essentials - The Basics Explained

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