Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Free Guide
Introduction
With search engine optimisation there are no guarantees you will rank at the top of the search engines. Anyone who tells you they can guarantee this is misleading you.
For the purpose of this guide we will look at what can work in Google as Google is the main search engine. What works well in Google also works well in the other search engines such as Bing.
Google has complex algorithm (mathematical formula) to determine which pages should rank and in which order. The exact algorithm is a tightly held secret. Google’s goal is to make sure that whichever page is most relevant to a users search comes up first.
With your SEO work you should be aiming to produce information that is the most useful and relevant for a given user’s search. You should not be trying to trick or deceive the search engines (Black Hat) to rank you above other pages using loopholes or deceptive tactics. Google’s algorithm is constantly changing to improve the search results they display and any loopholes (not that there are many left) will eventually be removed and your site at best will lose its rankings and at worst be banned from Google.
With this in mind throughout any SEO work you are doing keep in mind that you are trying to provide useful and relevant content for users. So you are producing information that reads well to humans and provides information on what they are looking for. You also need to flag to the search engines what the information on the page is about. You page needs to be easily read and understood by the search engines so they can list it and rank it appropriately.
When looking at Search Engine Optimisation the main areas to consider are:
- User Experience (UX)
- On Site SEO
- Links and Authority
- Local listings
- Optimising For Local Search
- Google My Business
- Reviews and Ratings
- Social Channels
These are explained in more detail later of in this SEO report.
Analytics
Before you do any search engine optimisation work you need to install an analytics package on your website. Our preferred analytics package is Google Analytics. It provides a lot of data about your websites visitors including which pages people are visiting, which pages visitors are leaving your website from, where websites visitors have come from, how many visitors have come to your website, how long they have staid on your website and a whole lot more. It is also free and relatively easy to install. You just need to insert a small piece of code onto your website.
Another very useful tool that we recommend people install on their websites is Google’s Search Console. This enables you to see which search terms visitors have used to find your website as well as checking that there are no problems with the Google indexing and listing your website. This is installed in a very similar was to Google Analytics and is also free.
If you would like help setting up Google Analytics or Google Search Console please feel free to contact us:
In the guide I have outlined what you need to do to make sure your site is being picked up by Google and you are telling Google what your site is about as well as some techniques to help your search engine rankings.
If you would like to test your website to see how it stands on these key SEO elements and how it compares with your competitors we offer a free SEO audit
Generate your Free SEO Audit here:
You will need to enter some very basic information about your business so we can pick up and check the relevant details for you business. Once you have filled this information in we will email your report automatically to you within minutes.
If you would like some help interpreting this report or some advice on how you can improve your rankings we also offer a free no commitment ½ consultation.
Please contact us here for a free ½ hour consultation:
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User Experience
Your website should be designed so that it is easy for users to find the information they want and to contact you. Your telephone number should be large and bright at the top right hand corner of each page (this is were people tend to look the most when viewing a webpage).
There should be clear links to the contact us page on every page. This should be clearly visible were ever you are on the page.
There should be clear information on your home page clearly describing what your business is about. Don’t make it too complicated and confuse people.
You should have your most important information “above the fold” (top half of the page). Most users will not scroll down beyond the first half of the page. You need to get their interest in the first half of the page. If not you will lose them and they will go elsewhere and leave your website.
You can track your users journey through your website, see the pages they visit, the links they click on and how far down the pages they go and a lot more by using heat maps.
The data from heat maps can be very useful in optimising your website for conversions by improving the customer journey through your website and getting rid of any unknown blockages. It can often be surprising what people click on and why.
There are a number of different heat map providers out there. One we particularly like is Hot Jar
2) On Site SEO
On site SEO is one of the most technical aspects of SEO. This is fundamentally making sure your website can be read by the search engines and they can read what the site and individual pages are about.
Below I have outlined the basics of onsite SEO. This is a very technical but vitally important area of search engine optimisation. If you are technically minded you may want to do this yourself. If not your time might be better spent doing what you are good at doing and running your business and using an expert to do this for you.
For the more technically minded I have put more detail information in Appendix 1 – Details On site Optimisation. Below I have outlined some of the basics.
In our free SEO audit we will look at your onsite SEO (and other elements) and how you compare with your competitors:
2.1) Keywords
Use keywords that are relevant to the topic on the landing page. It is worth doing some research to find keywords that are relevant to your services and have a reasonable search volume and are not too competitive. There are a number of different tools you can use but a good one to start with is a free tool called Google Keyword Planner. To access the Google Keyword tool you will need to first set up a Google AdWords account. Once you have chosen suitable keywords that relate to your business use the keyword 3 to 5 times but do not over use. Ideally near the beginning of the content in the middle and near the end. Use other keywords that are similar or related to your main keywords. If you use your keywords to many times in an way that is obvious to game the search engines Google will penalise you.
2.2) Length of content
Google prefers pages that are not too short. All your pages should be over 500 words each.
2.3) Tags
To help Google determine what your page is about make sure you use tags (like labels for search engines) such as the tittle, description, image and header tags these need to be relevant to the page’s content and include your keywords. They also need to read well for humans.
2.4) Flash
Avoid using flash (type of coding) because search engines cannot read this and it can hinder of prevent them from reading and indexing the site.
2.5) Internal Links
You should have a good number of internal links on your site. This helps search engines navigate your site and see how the pages are related. Make sure you have no broken links or error pages. Too many and the search engines will penalise you.
2.6) Page Load Speed
You site should load quickly if not Google will penalise you.
2.7) Responsiveness
Your site should look good on all devices including mobiles if it does not the user experience will be bad and they will not stay on your site. Google will also penalise you for providing a bad user experience.
2.8) Data Security
Google prefers websites that use SSL certificates. This shows that you are handling and processing data correctly and securely.
2.9) Robot Text
The coding on your website should not be preventing the search engines crawling and indexing your page (Robots.txt).
2.10) Site Maps
All websites should include a site map. This is like a contents table for the search engines and helps them understand the structure and hierarch of your website (XML Site Map).
For more detailed technical information on on-site SEO please refer to the Appendix 1 – Details On Site SEO
3) Links and Domain Authority
Google likes websites that demonstrate authority in their area of expertise. It also likes websites that have relevant links from authority sites. These are like “votes” in the Google’s algorithm. However Google does not like to many links coming from one website. When establishing a websites authority it will use a combination of these factors as well as the age of the domain. The older the domain the more perceived value by Google (provided it has all the other factors Google is looking for). Google will give preference to websites that have more relevant pages listed in Google.
If your onsite SEO is being done correctly one of the best ways of improving your search rankings is to get links from authority sites.
To do this you need to write really good content that people will want to share. If your content is very good then sharing will happen organically and virally.
You can also offer to write guest blogs for websites and blogs that are related to your business and link back from your blog post to your website.
Measures for Link and Domain Authority
Below are a number of different measures for your website’s link and domain authority. If you use our free automated SEO audit we will measure these on your website and compare it with your competitors to see how you are doing compared to your competitors.
3.1) Google Index Count
This is the number of pages Google has indexed for your site. This is useful to compare with your competitors.
3.2) Link Count
This is an important factor in ranking in the search engines. The more links you have from relevant authority sites the better you chances of ranking more higher in the search engines such as Google. You want to have more links that Google trusts than your competitors to try and outrank them.
3.3) Linking Domains
This is the number of domains that are linking to your site. It best to have as many different sites that are relevant to your business and site and are authority sites. You don’t want too many links coming from the same websites.
You want to have more linking domains than your competitors.
3.4) Majestic C-Flow
This is measure devised by Majestic.com to measure the number of inbound links. You should have a higher C-Flow than your competitors.
3.5) Domain Authority
This a measure devised by moz.com like Google’s Page Rank that looks at over 150 SEO indicators. The higher your domain authority the better your search engine rankings in the search engines will be. You want to have a higher domain authority than your competitors. As you do more work on your SEO you should see your Domain Authority gradually increase.
3.6) Website Age
Search engines trust older domains more than newer domains.
4) Local Listings – Citations
Getting listed in directories is vitally important for local businesses but is also a great way for all businesses to get links form high authority websites whether they service a local geographic market or not.
These are often called citations. These are references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP) online. A lot of these citations are directories.
These work well for two reasons. Your increased presence in these listings means your potential customers are more likely find you. The search engines give weighting to lots of mentions of your business even if there is no link back to your website but just a lots of mentions of your NAP. A lot of these sites also have high domain authority, which Google likes.
It is important that on all these sites the format of your NAP is exactly the same as on your website as it is in all the citations. If you find you have some citations where the format is different these should be changed. There are at least 75 citation sites you should be manually listed in.
5) Optimising For Local Search
There are three different ways a user can be searching for a local business. If your business serves a local geographic market you should always optimise for all three searches. According to Google 30% of mobile searches are related to a location.
- Non – Geo Modified Search
For example if you search “pubs” when you are in London the search engines would pick up your location as being in London and show you the nearest pubs to where you are.
- Geo – Modified Searches
This would be a search such as “London Pubs”. The user may or may not be in the location (they maybe planning on going to that location but not in that location yet).
- “Near Me” Searches
This would be a search such as “Pubs near me”. This is being used less but used to be a popular way of searching and is still used by some user.
6) Google My Business (GMB)
If you are a local business or have geographic based market than it is vital you have a Google My Business page (GMB) that is fully optimised.
GMB is a free Google listing which can rank at the top of or highly on a page and can take up a large area of the search results.
You can sign up for your free Google My Business page here:
If you would like help setting this up please feel free to contact us:
GMB appear in organic search results as well as on maps on both mobile and desktop.
Having a well-optimised GMB page is vital to securing new local customers.
To optimise GMB you need a good description with relevant local keywords.
Good images of your business. You want your best images to rank at the top of the images and as your header image.
Google ranks GMB with good Google reviews more highly than those with poor reviews and low numbers of reviews. As mentioned in the section on reviews and reputation you should have active review or reputation management strategy and be asking your customers for reviews.
Google also likes GMB listings that are active. Your listing can be judged active if you are getting regular reviews and making weekly posts. GMB posts only last for a week. You can use the GMB posts to communicate company news or particular offers of coupon codes. This will help your rankings and help you acquire more customers.
7) Reviews And Ratings
Online reviews are more and more important. Many potential customers will be searching review sites online before making a purchase. Having good reviews will help you win more business but will also help your search engine rankings. Google sees prominence i.e. how well you are known online as an important trust factor in its rankings.
You should have strategy of asking your customers to leave reviews as well as monitoring and responding quickly to reviews online especially any bad ones. Although bad reviews are not good to get if you respond to them in a positive proactive way it can show you in a positive light.
Review sites that should be monitored include: Google, Facebook, Yelp, Four Square and Yell. You should also make sure you are listed in these using consistent formats for business names, addresses, telephone numbers and other contact information (NAP).
8) Social Channels
It is important to have a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and others. The best sites to focus on will depend on the nature of your business and were your customers hang out.
On social media you need to be part of the conversation with your customers and potential customers. You should be monitoring this and interacting with them. You should also be responding in appropriate ways to any negative comments about your services of brand.
Social media can be a great way to promote your brand and services. It should not be all about selling your services although that can be a part of it.
Some of the best social media strategies give out free useful information related to the services they provide in the broadest sense. These businesses then start to be seen as the authorities and experts in their fields. They then seen as the “go to” business for these products or services.
Summary
In the guide I have outlined what you need to do to make sure your site is being picked up by Google and to make sure you are telling Google what your site is about as well as some techniques to help your search engine rankings.
If you would like to test your website to see how it stands on these key SEO elements and how it compares with your competitors we offer a free SEO audit
Generate your Free SEO Audit here:
You will need to enter some very basic information about your business so we can pick up and check the relevant details for you business. Once you have filled this information in we will email your report automatically to you within minutes.
If you like some help interpreting this report or some advice on how you can improve your rankings we also offer a free no commitment ½ consultation.
Please contact us here for a free ½ hour consultation:
Search Engine Optimisation work can take several months to see positive results and should be a continuing on going process to maintain and improve your rankings.
Provided your site is converting well and has good on-site optimisation if you want leads and more sales faster in the short term or whilst you are waiting for the SEO work to start showing results you could consider paid traffic sources such as Google Adwords PPC, Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads.
More information can be found here:
Please feel free to take us up on our free ½ hour consultation if you have any questions and would like to know more.
Appendix 1 – Details On Site SEO
If you have a word press website there is a very good free (there is also a paid version but the free plugin should have all you need) plug in by Yoast that will help check and analysis a lot of the key elements below:
Tags
Page Titles – Title Tags
Your site should use the title tags to show your main keywords for the page to tell users and search engines what the page is about. Each page should have a unique title tag.
Page Descriptions – Meta Tags
This is the description that appears in search engines. Google does not rank based on Meta Tags but search terms will appear in bold. It is also what the user will see and before clicking on your page. You should use your pages main keywords but also text that encourages people doing a relevant search to click through to your page rather than your competitors. Each page should have a different meta tag.
Keywords
Your keywords used should be relevant to what the user is searching for. Google will promote sites in its rankings that provide the user with the best experience at finding the answer to their query. Keywords should not be over used and used 3 to 5 times on the page. Over use of keywords or keyword stuffing could cause your sit to get banned from Google. Don’t over use your keywords.
Use LSI keywords. These are keywords that are semantically related to each other and increase the relevance in Google of your page and rankings.
Long tail keywords are important. A high number of search queries are long tail (longer phrases with lower search volume). According to Hubspot 50% of search queries are four words or longer. These keywords tend to convert better as they are more specific and descriptive. These also help add context to your page, which helps with your search engine rankings.
Open Graph Tags
This allows user to control what content is displayed when sharing on Facebook.
Twitter Card Tags
This allows websites to share more than just 140 characters permissible on twitter including images, video and download links.
Image ALT Tags
Search engines cannot read images so this alternative text tells the search engines what the image is about. This helps reinforce what the web page is about and will help in your search engine rankings.
H Tags – Header Tags
This is code in the page that marks out the headings breaking up content on the page telling the search engines what the content is about. The most important H tag is the H1 tag. You should only have one H1 tag. The next most important H tag is the H2 tag and so on.
Word Count
Google prefers pages, which have over 500 words.
Flash
Avoid using flash because Google cannot read flash and it can prevent your pages being read properly by the search engines. Best practice is to use HTML 5.
Mobile
More and more people are visiting websites via their mobiles so it is very important your site can be viewed well from mobile devices. If not Google will penalise you and you will lose customers who are trying to use your website from a mobile device.
Responsiveness
A responsive website will change the height and width of the page depending on the screen size they are being viewed on. Google will penalise websites that are not responsive.
Mobile Friendly
This is how your website layout adapts to mobile users. Does the layout change and text size change (become larger) to make it easier for mobile users to interact and read.
Mobile load speeds
This is the time your website takes to load on a mobile device. Slow loading websites can be penalised by Google and provide a bad user experience for mobile users.
Content
Physical Address
This should appear on all pages including the contact us page. This is particularly important for local search rankings.
Phone Number
This should appear on all pages including the content page. This is particularly important for local search rankings.
Schema.org Mark Up
Schema.org provides common tags that are easily identifiable by search engines. Having information such as business name, address and telephone in Schema can help search engine rankings.
Technical Website SEO
Page Load Speed
This is the speed your website pages loads.
Google will penalise slow loading pages.
Robots.txt
This is a file on your website that tells the search engines which pages to index and which not. You need to make sure your robots.txt file is allowing the search engines to index all of the pages you want indexed. If not these pages will not turn up in the search results.
This will be located at www.yourwebsite.com/robots.text
XML Sitemap
XML site map is a map or contents of your website structure that shows the search engines the structure of your website and which pages are most important in the hierarchy of your website.
404 Errors
These are produced when a webpage is missing or a link is broken. Search engines do not like these error pages and will penalise your website if you have to many of them.
Internal Links
It is good for the search engines to have lots of internal links between the pages in your website. To many broken links can cause problems for the search engines and prevents pages from being crawled by the search engines.
URLs
Canonical URLs prevent URL duplication in the search engines and tell them which page to index.
Avoid dynamic URL these are URL e.g. http://www.yourwebsite.com/ser/thread.php?threadid=67756&sort=date. Use words that show users and search engines what your pages are about.
SSL
An SSL certificate makes a website safer for handling and transferring data. Search engines will give SSL sites priority in their search listings due to the added data security.