Understanding SEO Fundamentals

Understanding SEO
@JudithLewis

➡ Run DeCabbit Consultancy doing SEO, PPC, Social Media and
integrated marketing campaigns - working with bloggers for link building
➡ Got on the Internet in 1986 at my school lab
➡ Working online with search since 1996
➡ Worked in-house within e-Commerce, Publishing & High Tech
➡ Have worked with Google (SEO for product sites), Orange, COI,
NatWest/RBS, National Gallery, CIPD, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal,
Readers Digest, Bayer, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx, TotalJobs,
Virgin.com, Virgin Startup, Zopa, Inspire Malibu & more
➡ Chosen as a founding Modern Muse, contributed to book “Pimp My Site”,
judge of the UK, US & European Search Awards, one of the SEO Chicks,
blog on Huffington Post & run MostlyAboutChocolate.com food blog
AM I
WhoObligatory slide !
Judith Lewis
#BML16SEO @JudithLewis & @MostlyAboutChoc

BritMums #BML16SEO Session Agenda
How Google Works
Algorithm Updates & Penalties
Check Yourself for a Penalty
Keyword Research
Yoast
Tools

#BML16SEO @JudithLewis & @MostlyAboutChoc 4
@JudithLewis
@MostlyAboutChoc
If you feel lost please ask a
question & you will be rewarded
with chocolate (and an answer).
There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers

Crawling and Indexing
Spiders & the search engine databases
Spiders only make connections and pull data – they can
be inadvertently blocked and stopped from accessing
your site
The SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) deliver content
from the database only
Technical issues can cause significant duplicate content
as well as lost and missing content – use Yoast wisely!

What is & How Does A Spider Work
A spider is actually just a bit of code sitting on a
computer
The computer connects to other computers like
your bog
Takes the data of the page and renders it just like
someone visiting your page would see it
The Google spider cannot execute anything
Does not revisit often unless it has learned
through experience data is frequently updated

How the Search Engine Database works (Index)
Spider deposits collected data into database – at
this point data of page fixed
Contents of page analysed & categorised based
on predominant theme/keywords on page
Initial analysis of value of page and link value done
relative to the established theme/KWs
Searcher query relevance assessed
Search result delivered
Essential to remember: NOT REAL TIME

9
Google
Updates
Some new, some old, all
relevant to our blogs

Allow Google to Spider JS & CSS

Hummingbird
Whole new ‘engine’ to the search ‘car’
Maintains Penguin, Panda, Caffeine, et al
Conversational Search
Semantic relevancy
Even faster results
At same time as (not provided) results
increased but not part of algorithm

Panda
Originally not algorithmic, now
is
Content-based
Original content
No cheating or shortcuts
Designed to reduce rankings
for low quality sites

Penguin
Penalises link schemes & exact
match anchor text
Penalises cloaking, “sneaky”
redirects or “doorway” pages
Bad links devalued
Removed huge numbers of spammy
link farms, article syndication sites
and related poor quality link sites
Next “update” last before it becomes
‘rolling’

Pirate
“a new signal in our rankings: the
number of valid copyright removal
notices we receive for any given We
will now be using this data as a signal
in our search rankings”
Google announced that they would
penalise sites with repeat copyright
violations, probably via DMCA
takedown requests
Google then later launched another
update to combat software and
digital media piracy

Mobilegeddon Algorithm Update
More mobile-friendly
websites in mobile
search results
More relevant app
content in search results
Not a big impact
AMP now has dedicated
carousel results in mobile
results

mozcast.com
insigh
t
serps.com/tools/volatility
serpmetrics.com/flux/ www.accuranker.com/grump/
Check the Algorithm

Check Your Site

If You Still Think You Have a Penalty
Check for your blog in Google – if the home page is not indexed
you probably have a penalty or a bad technical issue
Just because you are not ranking top in Google does not mean
you have a penalty
Rankings could be supressed for a number of reasons
Bad links from other bloggers with a penalty
Exact match anchor text links
Technical issues with your blog preventing spidering – did you noindex
everything by accident?
Thin content – have you been writing image-heavy blog posts with little
visible text?
Do you have *any* links to your blog?
Is your blog down a lot?

Some Keyword Spinning Tools
http://grepwords.com/
http://keywordsnatcher.com/
https://www.visualthesaurus.com/
http://grepwords.com/
http://soovle.com/
http://tools.seochat.com/tools/suggest-tool/
http://www.longtailpro.com/
http://keywordsnatcher.com/
http://answerthepublic.com/
http://secockpit.com/
http://ubersuggest.org/
http://keywordtool.io/
https://kwfinder.com/
http://www.longtailpro.com/
https://www.hittail.com/
http://www.wordstream.com/keyword-
suggestion-tool
http://www.keywordeye.com/
http://www.wordtracker.com/
https://serpiq.com/

Google Adwords Tool/Planner
Your Content & User Keywords
Identifying Seed terms
Identify existing keywords on site
Locate new keywords from press/blogs
Do research
Refine newly enlarged list
Identify competition level
Refine list
Map
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

There are two ways in which to generate a list of
keywords:
Inputting a seed list of terms by just brainstorming and using your
most valuable tool – your brain ;-)
Inputting a URL from your site and letting the tool decide (I don’t
recommend it)
Many limitations exist particularly with inputting a URL
where page content may be sparse or image-led.

Important to Note
Values from Google are approximate
There is no context to the search
We have no depth of data (what are the searchers thinking or
desiring? Do they really want a recipe?)
Country targeting does not guarantee language targeting
Can’t see what converts to clicks

SEMRush
| 31

Designing
Title Tags &
Meta
Descriptions

It’s Your Advert – Make it Count

Optimising Title Tag
Implementing best practices for title tags:
Keep Length Controlled
Search engines will truncate titles in search results over 50-60 characters
Place Important Keywords Close to the Front of the Title Tag
The closer to the start of the title tag a keyword is, the more helpful it will be for
people in tabs, search results and search engines
Leverage Your Brand
You are the brand – stand out
Consider Impact
Creating a compelling title tag will pull in more visits from the search results

Optimising Meta Descriptions
Write Compelling Ad Copy
The meta description tag draws readers to a website from the SERP. Crafting a
readable, compelling description using important keywords can improve the click-
through rate.
Recommended Length
Meta descriptions generally truncate at 160 characters.
Not a Google Ranking Factor
Neither meta descriptions nor meta keywords are used by ranking algorithms.
Quotes Cut Off Descriptions
Any time quotes are used in a meta description, Google cuts off the description.
Remove all non-alphanumeric characters.
Sometimes it is Okay to Not Write Meta Descriptions
If the page is targeting between one and three heavily searched terms or phrases,
go with a meta description that hits those users performing that search.

Wordpress Blog - Use Yoast

@deCabbitDeCabbit Presentation 42
Tools

https://gtmetrix.com/wordpress-optimization-guide.html

Secure your Blog

47
If you found this useful, please consider
giving either my business
http://www.decabbit.com or my blog
http://MostlyAboutChocolate.com a link or
a recommendation. THANK YOU!

You Can Stalk Me Online
Twitter: @JudithLewis
@MostlyAboutChoc
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/judithlewis
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+JudithLewis
Web: http://www.decabbit.com
Blog: http://MostlyAboutChocolate.com
SEO Blog: http://www.SEO-Chicks.com
HuffPost: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/judith-lewis
...and the list goes on

Understanding SEO Fundamentals

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