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SEO BASICS Chris Burgess @chrisburgess chrisburgess.com.au

WordPress SEO Basics - Melbourne WordPress Meetup

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SEO BASICSChris Burgess

@chrisburgesschrisburgess.com.au

What I’ll Cover…

• What Is SEO?

• What Are SERPs?

• Why Should I Care?

• Getting Found

• Onsite and Offsite

• Keyword Research

• Content

• Page Anatomy

• Essential Tools

• WordPress SEO by Yoast

• SERPs of Tomorrow

• Resources

What is SEO?

Can Anyone Do SEO?

What Is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization

Search is Everywhere

What Are Algorithms

• Search engines use a program called an algorithm (think of it like a

secret recipe) to determine what pages to suggest for a search

query by a user.

• Algorithms are constantly being updated which means that rankings

are constantly changing.

What Is SEO?

What are SERPs

Search Queries vs Keywords

WordPress plugins

WordPress SEO plugins

Yoast plugin

best plugins

how do I install a plugin

plugin

SEARCH QUERIES KEYWORD

Why Should I Care?

Because you get more visitors, leads, clients, customers to your website…

Getting Found

Getting It Right

Getting It Wrong

Put Your Visitors First

Write for Your Followers

Profile Your Visitors

• What gender?

• What age?

• What interests?

• What do they need?

• What is the purchase cycle like for them?

• What pain points can I alleviate?

• What competitor sites do they also visit?

• What can I provide that no other site does?

What do you want to be found for?

What are you main goals?

• More visitors?

• More leads?

• More customers?

• More online sales?

• To provide a superior onsite experience?

Onsite and Offsite

The Evolution of SEO

http://www.slideshare.net/randfish

Onsite SEO

• Optimise your pages content

• Titles, headings, images, text, meta descriptions

• Keywords and content strategy

• Site speed

• Site security

• XML sitemaps and Robots.txt

• Schema markup

• Overall site configuration

Aim for…

• Fast site speed (good theme, good hosting, site configuration - aim for load time 3-4 seconds)

• Focus on keeping visitors on your site and viewing multiple pages (use internal linking)

• Keep your bounce rate down if more than

Image: http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/normal-bounce-rate/

Offsite SEO

• Links (context, anchor text), citations, mentions

• You want links from high authority sites

• Links from low authority or low trust sites can be harmful

• Social media

• Blogs, forums, etc.

• Examples of good links: mainstream news site or blog, natural

• Example of bad links: spammy, unnatural

Your best strategy should be to encourage natural linking. Create stuff people like, people share stuff

they like

How do I get links?

• Inbound Marketing – create high quality and unique

content and lots of it!– Blog, news, articles, surveys, interviews

– Social media

– Podcasts

– Video

– eBooks

– Newsletters

– Infographics

– Whitepapers

– Apps

Keyword Research

Topic/Keyword Research

• Knowing your audience

• What they search for

• What keywords to focus on

• Competitor analysis

• Look for words that have high search volume and low competition, they will be easier to rank for

• Many tools and methods available

• Looking for keywords with:

– high traffic value

– low competition

– make great titles

– make great content

Google Keyword Planner

http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner

Google Trends – Keyword research

https://www.google.com.au/trends/

Content

Content Structure

• Heading Tags (e.g <h1> </h1>) in hierarchal order

<h1>Only 1 Heading 1(with target topic/keyword)<h1>

<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

<h4>Heading 4</h4>

<h4>Heading 4</h4>

<h5>Heading 5</h5>

<h6>Heading 6</h6>

<h6>Heading 6</h6>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

Content Structure

• Descriptive Filenames

• Image ALT Tags

Content Structure

• Page Titles – Unique Title Tag for each page combination of target keywords

• Page URLs – Try to use keyword with hyphens as separators

• Meta Description – Used in SERPs, try to include chosen keyword

Page URL

Meta Description

Page Title

Content Structure

Page Anatomy

H2

H2

H3

ExternalLinks

InternalLinks

Images

Essential Tools

Essential Tools

• Google Analytics

• Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

• Google Keyword Planner

• Excel/Google Docs

• WordPress ;)

I’d highly recommend starting off using these free tools.

Specialists will use a variety of tools, however the above are more than enough to get started.

Google ToolsGoogle Analytics

Google Search Console(formerly Webmaster Tools)

Google Keyword Planner

WordPress SEO By Yoast

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

The SERPs of Tomorrow

The Internet of Things (IoT)

Recommended Resources

• WordPress Native Help

• Beginners Guide to SEO - https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

• SEO Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/Melbourne-SEO/

• Search Engine Ranking Factors - http://moz.com/search-ranking-

factors

• Google Webmaster Resources - http

://www.google.com/webmasters/

Thanks!

Chris Burgess

@chrisburgesschrisburgess.com.au