A Short Guide to

Search Engine OptimisationPart II – Off Page Factors

Question:

“What use is a great website if nobody can find it?”

Seminar Guide

Here’s what to expect from this session:

1. Brief recap of key concepts from Part I

2. Off Page Factors – what affects your ranking in Google?

3. Getting listed in “local” search results and other business directories

4. Some useful tools for managing your web presence / SEO

5. Thoughts, tips and suggestions for getting inbound links

6. Measuring the effectiveness of SEO work

Recap: Effective SEO

Effective SEO Considers:

1. How search engines work

2. The actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines

3. Usability and experience -> from Google search to mission accomplished

Effective SEO Achieves:

4. More website visitors

5. Better quality of visitors (more likely to buy / enquire)

6. Convert more visitors to buyers

7. Generate more enquiries

Recap: Key Concepts

1. What is the difference between Paid / Organic / Local search results?

2. What is the difference between long / short tail keywords?

3. Metatags – what are they?

4. What does Google’s “algorithm” refer to?

5. Do you know the difference between On Page and Off Page factors?

Recap: On vs Off Page Factors

SEO consultants typically split their work into 2 distinct areas:

On Page Factors

• Editing website content and HTML to increase it’s relevance to specific keywords.

• Primarily affects WHAT search terms your website appears for.

Off Page Factors

• Website structure, promoting and marketing your site to increase the number and quality of “inbound links”

(when other websites contain links to your website) .

• Primarily affects HOW WELL you’re ranked for the terms above.

A successful SEO strategy will consider both of these and ensure they work harmoniously together.

Recap: On Page Factors

For each page on your website, your keyword should be included in these 3 places:

1. The Page’s URLEach page on your website has a unique “address”, called a URL.

2. The Page’s MetatagsMetatags are invisible to users, but provide information to search engines.

3. The Page’s ContentThe page’s content is what the end user actually sees and the HTML underlying that page - headings, paragraphs of text, images, etc.

These issues were covered in Part 1 of our SEO guide

Today: Off Page Factors

1. Inbound Links and Anchor TextEach link to your website from another website counts as a “vote”.

2. Regular Fresh ContentNew content demonstrates an actively managed site, targets long tail keywords and gives Google plenty of text to sink it’s teeth into

3. Age of Domain/Website, Site Metrics and “Expert Sites”Other factors that can influence how your website is ranked

4. Business Directories and Social MediaAll demonstrate an actively managed site, encourage human interaction and inbound links

Now let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Inbound Links

Inbound links are links FROM other websites INTO your website.

1. THE most important factor in your website ranking – each link counts as a “vote”

2. How fast is the number of inbound links to your site growing? “Hot Topic” or “Permanent Source of Info”

3. The originating site is very important - links from "expert" sites such as The BBC or Wikipedia are very

valuable, while links from “spammy” / low quality sites can actually damage your reputation

Beware of SEO experts selling or promising “XXX links per month for just... £XXX” – go for quality not volume

4. WARNING: Getting inbound links from quality sites is actually very hard – it takes dedication, persistence and

hard work. This is something spam website owners will never be able provide. Suggestions to follow later.

Anchor Text

The “anchor text” in a link are the words that are clicked on.

E.g. Click here to see our full range of services. The anchor text in this link are the words “Click here”.

When other websites link to your website, the anchor text is important. We’ll demonstrate this on the next slide.

Ideally, your keywords should make up the “anchor text” of your link. You’ll see many web designers put something

like the below on their clients’ websites:

Visible on Page: website by: web design nottingham

HTML Code for Link: website by <a href=“http://www.web-design-nottingham.com”>web design nottingham</a>

Anchor Text Experiment

Try this “famous” experiment to demonstrate the importance of anchor text in SEO.

1. Search for “Click here” in Google (top result is Adobe’s PDF Reader download) – then click on the link

2. When you’re on the page, press Ctrl + F on your keyboard - this opens the “find” tool in your browser

3. Search for “click me” (it doesn’t appear once)

Regular Fresh Content

• Regular new website content is a sign of a real person / team behind a well maintained site

• Very powerful when combined with a steadily growing number of inbound links

Targeting Short Tail Keywords

If your blog/news section has different categories, use your short tail keywords as category titles..

Targeting Long Tail Keywords

Updatable areas on your website such as product catalogues, blogs and news sections are perfect for targeting

niche phrases and long tail keywords.

This can happen intentionally or accidently through sheer volume of text on website!

Age, Site Metrics and “Expert Sites”

Age

• Age of your website shows a certain amount of stability

• Some suggest the length of time a domain name is renewed for also has an effect – Coca Cola renew for 10

years and spammy domains typically registered for just 1

Site Metrics

How many visitors? Time spent on page / on website? Bookmarked Page? Liked it on Facebook? etc.

“Expert” Sites

• Large sized sites with regular fresh content following a clear structure

• Inbound links from other quality websites (BBC / Wikipedia)

• Many visitors, spending a long time on individual pages and the domain in general

Directory & Website Listings

Search Engine “Local” Listings Google Places / Yahoo Local

Google Places / Yahoo Local – these are local business services provided for free by search engines (though

“premium” options and Pay Per Click advertising are also on offer)

“Classic” Business Directories

Yell, Thomson, Etc. Digital versions of the classic paper directories haven’t transferred well to web.

Go for free listing options and avoid paid “premium” listings.

Free, Local & Niche Business Directories

These are the best ones to go for. Some local and niche directories may even be worth paying for.

Try: freeindex.co.uk / inottinghamshire.co.uk / nottingham.yalwa.co.uk

For the juiciest directories to join, try Google’s top results for: “free business directories {niche/location}”

Google Places / Local Business Listings

Google Places profile is “crucial for any

company with a physical location as

Google gives a great emphasis on verified

and custom local information”.

You can personalise your business profile,

add special offer vouchers and include a

phone number.

Easy for customers to find directions to

your business using Google Maps.

Yahoo Local Directory (Infoserve)

Infoserve is the official advertising sales

partner for Yahoo Local.

They offer free local listings like Google,

but the signup page is harder to find.

Premium option available, but benefits

are limited and most are available on

Google for free.

Impact of Social Media on SEO

Any Benefits from Social Media Accounts Linked to the Website?

Both Google and Bing have admitted that they use ‘social signals’ to help rank search results. Evidence as to

exactly how is mixed.

However, social interactivity tends to generate traditional SEO benefits such as more inbound links, more links

from “expert” sites, more visitors, good anchor text, etc.

NOTE: Most Facebook / Twitter apps for your

website load their content via ajax, so it’s not

visible to search engines.

Useful Tools: Alexa

Alexa

A quick and easy monitor of

inbound links to your website.

This page is hard to find via their

website. We recommend typing

in the URL by hand:

Useful Tools: Market Samurai

Market Samurai

In depth analysis software

allowing you to track your

ranking for various keywords

across various search engines.

Also provides detailed keyword

research tool and in depth

analysis of links in.

10 day free trial available...

We recommend that you watch

the free training videos BEFORE.

Google Tools

Google Analytics

Will show you the most popular pages on your site, how long visitors spent on each page, which search terms

were used to find your website, and much more.

Google Webmaster Tools

Help to highlight problems with “crawling” (how Google “sees” your site), metatags and other technical issues.

Both of these are invaluable tools and are easy for yourself or a web professional to install on your website.

Inbound Links: Being Link Friendly

Think of your site in terms of “link friendliness” :

1. Make your website content easy to read and understand

a) ensure good contrast between text and background

b) Split longer paragraphs up into shorter ones

c) Use more interesting visual devices such as sub-headings and bullet points

d) Use a clean writing style and cut out unnecessary jargon where possible

2. Make sure your website content is professional and authoritative – no spelling errors or bad punctuation

3. Make your content look appealing – use good photography to accompany your text, place importance on an attractive website design

Inbound Links: Content to Encourage Them

1. Be “link friendly” – easy to read, quality content with photos and no spelling errors.

2. Publish articles / guides on your website:Top 10 Myths About ...10 Easy Tips to Help You ...The Ultimate Wedding Checklist

3. Create a list of gurus / experts in your field. Tell them you’ve done it. Befriend them.

4. Interview above gurus + publish on website

5. Create a quality free E-book

6. Post frequent news and updates on your website / Facebook / Twitter

7. Freebies + giveaways / run a competition

8. Promote your online stuff everywhere, not just on the internet.

9. Joint promotions with carefully selected partners (cut costs and vastly increase reach)

10. Cultivate media contacts - send out press releases, results of surveys, industry news

11. Make an original / entertaining comment about somebody or something topical.

12. Participate on other websites. Comment on blogs. Post positive reviews. Email questions to experts.

13. Be nice. Speak well of others. Meet as many new people as possible. Never be afraid to (briefly) talk about your business + USPs.

Inbound Links: Promoting / Marketing Your Content

Suggestions for getting the “word out”:

1. Identify 10 or 20 other website owners who can help you market your content. Contact at least 1 every week, then build up a relationship with them - comment on their blogs, ask them questions, etc

2. Use Eventbrite, Facebook and Twitter to promote your latest events / news / promotions

3. Submit your page to bookmarking tools and “aggregator sites” such as delicious.com / newsvine.com

4. Make it easy for others to promote your website pages

• Free “share” toolbar from addthis.com

• Add a Facebook Like button to your website pages (get code from the Facebook website)

• Add a Google +1 button to your website pages

• We no longer recommend “email to a friend” features because of spam (unless under a secure members section or similar)

Last But Not Least: Measuring the Effectiveness of SEO

Is your hard marketing work getting you results?

1. If you don’t already have Google Analytics installed on your website, do it right away. It gives you key information such as the number of website visitors and where they came from (called the “referring site”)

2. Use alexa to monitor your inbound links. Go to: www.alexa.com/site/linksin/yourwebsitehere.com

3. Use a more complex tool such as Market Samurai to monitor:

• Your / competitors position in search engines for various keywords• Number of inbound links to your website / competitors’ websites

4. ...or just keep a Excel sheet, Word document or notebook to monitor your web performance consistently:

• Where you are in relation to competitors for key search terms• Number and source of inbound links (if possible include anchor text and Page Rank of referring site)

About Us

Who We Are

Established in 1999, F&P is dedicated to helping

your company fulfil its potential online. Our

complete service includes web consultancy,

website development, online marketing, technical

training and tuition / support.

What We Do

We work with smaller clients developing their

websites and perfecting their presence online. Our

work with larger companies includes staff

training, micro sites, intranets and portal

development. Case studies can be found on our

website: fresherandprosper.com.

How We Do It

We listen carefully to our clients' requirements,

objectives and priorities. Then we contribute our

experience and technical expertise to developing

successful online strategies that drive their

business forward.

(0115) 841 71 02

service@fresherandprosper.com

fresherandprosper.com