Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners

This is a recent lecture entitled “Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners” that I delivered as part of the Web Development module on the Creative Multimedia course in LIT Tipperary. You can also view the presentation on slideshare.net.

A full transcript appears below the presentation.

Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners from Mark O'Leary
Search Engine Optimisation from Mark O’Leary

Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners – Presentation Transcript

  1. Search Engine Optimisation – www.irishwebhq.com
  2. What is SEO?
    Search Engine Optimisation is an ongoing process to get a top SERPs listing for your web page for your chosen keyword.
    SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages
    – Google
    – Yahoo
    – Bing
    – Others
  3. How does Google Work?
    Google attempts to give the user the most appropriate search results based on their query
    Google bases its search results on the text contained in web pages
    Established websites with
    – updated content
    – lots of inbound links
    – Good social network
    rank highlyGoogle blacklists websites that try to trick it
  4. Main Areas to Focus On
    – Choose your keywords and key-phrases
    – Page Setup
    – HTML
    – Content
    – External Applications and Techniques
  5. Choose your keywords and key-phrases
    – Focus on one at a time
    – Reduce competition by targeting location
    – Keyword should at all times be considered by
    – Developer
    – Programmer
    – Graphic Designer
    – Content Writer/Author/Blogger
  6. How to choose keywords
    Keywords
    Many web users begin browsing with a Google search
    The terms they enter in Google search are called keywords
    In order to appear in the search results for these keywords your site must be optimised for these keywords
  7. Page Setup
    Based on the keywords that suit your business
    – Choose a relevant domain name
    – Choose relevant html page names
    – Choose relevant image namesDomain Trust
    – Age of domain considered important
    – Future registration period considered important
  8. Keywords in Domain
    Keywords in URLs help a lot
    Chosen key-phase in this example: “seo services”

    Even better: https://www.seoservices.com
    Better again: you dont have the keywords in other parts of the document, don’t rely on having them in the URL.

  9. HTML
    – Head Section
    – Title Tag
    – Description meta tag
    – Keywords meta tag
    – Body Section
    – Keywords in important areas
    – Headings
    – Links
    – Bold text
    – Image alt tags
  10. HTML
    – Good code organisation
    – Valid Code
  11. HTML
    We should optimise our HTML for best search engine results
    Most of these techniques involve using relevant keywords within appropriate tags
  12. Keywords in <title> tag
    This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what is written inside the <title> tag shows in search results as your page title.
    The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning.
  13. Where to put meta tags?
    <head>
    <title>your descriptive keywords title goes here</title>
    <meta name=”description” content=”your keyword rich marketing sales-pitch meta description goes here”>
    <meta name=”keywords” content=”your keywords,go here,separated by a comma,but not a space”>
    </head>
  14. Keyword density in document text
    Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keywords is best, 1-2 for minor.
    Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.
    Use plenty of text on your website – Incorporate a blog and update it frequently.
  15. Keywords in anchor text
    Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular.
  16. Keywords in headings(<H1>, <H2>, etc. tags)
    One more place where keywords count a lot.
    But be sure that your page has actual text about the particular keyword.
  17. Keywords in the beginning of a document
    Also counts, though not as much as anchor text, title tag or headings.
    However, have in mind that the beginning of a document does not necessarily mean the first paragraph – for instance if you use tables, the first paragraph of text might be in the second half of the table.
  18. Keywords in <alt> tags
    Spiders dont read images but they do read their textual descriptions in the alt attribute, so if you have images on your page, fill in the alt attributewith some keywords about them.
    Adding keywords to the title attribute in images, buttons and links can also help.
  19. Content
    Content towards the top is most relevant
    Update content regularly (blog?)
    Share your content
    Write interesting articles that others will want to share
    Keyword rich content (about 7%)
    Easy to understand language
  20. Content
    Crosslinking
    External Links (Trusted Sites)
    Inbound Links (Google Page Rank)
  21. External Applications
    Google Webmaster Tools
    Google Analytics
    Hubspot Marketing Grader
    Browser Add-ons
    Social Media
  22. SEM
    Search Engine Marketing
    Pay Per Click
    – Google
    – Yahoo
    – Facebook
    – Linked In
    – Others
  23. Avoid!!!
    Tables
    Frames
    Trying to trick the search engines (Black Hat)
    Link Farms

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