Top Tools in Your SEO Tool Kit
Denise Cowan, Digital Marketing Manager & Lea Glover, Digital Marketing Executive
The Web Bureau Ltd
www.thewebbureau.com | [email protected]
@thewebbureau
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linkedin.com/in/thewebbureau Who We Are The Web Bureau is an award winning digital agency
We specialise in...
• Engaging Website Design • Effective Ecommerce Delivery • Customised Content Management Systems • Creative Digital Marketing Strategies • Interactive Digital Training and Mentoring What is SEO? Why Is SEO So Important?
• You are targeting a mass market that is actively searching for YOUR Products & Services Why Is SEO So Important? Background to SEO • People use search engines: 2.7 billion visits to Search Engines in December 2012 by UK internet users
• Most people use Google: 9 out of 10 searches in the UK are conducted on Google
• Search & Buy: 1 in 5 searches ends up on a retail website
• Searchers don’t look far: Only 7% of Internet users look past the first three pages of search results
• Social Media is part of everyday life now: Most searched for term in the UK is.... ‘Facebook’ SEO Tools Google Webmasters
• Free Service for Website managers • Verify your site ownership • Monitor the health of your website • Submit and check sitemap • Identify internal, external & broken site links • View keywords people used to find your site • Identify crawl errors & check site speed • ‘Fetch as Google’ ‐ allows you to see a page as Google sees it • Manage geographic targeting
Resources: http://support.google.com/webmasters/
Google Analytics • Measure website performance • Detailed Statistics about website traffic and sources help to identify where to focus your SEO efforts • Create customised reports Identify keywords driving traffic to your site Identify most engaging content, popular pages ‐ number of visits, average visit duration, bounce rate, percentage of new visits Audience demographic s ‐ country, language, browser behaviour Segment visitors from search engines, direct visits, social network referrals & other referring sites Conversion tracking shows goal completion ‐ track newsletter sign‐ups, enquires on a contact page, sales & drop off points on e‐commerce websites
Resources: http://support.google.com/analytics/
Google Keyword Tool
• Used for organic and paid search research • Removes the guess work ‐ no point ranking for words people don’t search for • Helps eliminate over‐use of internal or industry jargon • Provides valuable insights into how users search online • Indicates popularity and competitiveness of keywords that are relevant to your business • Provides additional suggestions you may not have considered • Identifies related keywords • Filter list by category, country, language and devices
Resources: https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool Google Keyword Tool Dashboard Google Trends
• Formerly Google Insights & Trends were separate, now amalgamated into one • Tool for performing keyword research – complements Google Keyword Tool • Identifies hot topics, searches and emerging trends • Related keywords based on popularity • Great for SEO content creation –identify topical themes for blog posts • Basing your content on what people are searching for will boost rankings! • Can help define advertising messages • Regional and seasonal insights • Help define new markets Resources: www.google.com/trends/ SEOMoz Open Site Explorer • The search engine for links • Search engines look at links to determine a website’s popularity and authority • Higher authority = higher rankings & traffic • Identifies links pointing to your website • Highlights broken links • compare competitor links • Filter information by top pages, linking domains and anchor text • CSV export reports • New feature called ‘just discovered’ shows new links as fast as 4 minutes old! • *Limited access as guest user Resources: www.opensiteexplorer.org Microsoft IIS SEO Toolkit
• Make your website more search engine friendly! • Large site crawl • Discover common website issues • Canonical errors ‐ duplicate content • Title Tags – missing, too short/long • Meta Descriptions – missing, too short/long • H1 tags missing • Alt tags on images ‐ missing • Coding errors – invalid mark‐up • Unnecessary redirects • Enables you to take action and optimise it better • Provides recommendations and guidance Resources: www.iis.net Link Assistant Rank Checker • Reports can be set up to check your search engine rankings • Shows if your site moved up or down in search results • Suggests other relevant keywords • Supports 341 different search engines • Competitor tracking –Compares up to 5 websites at once • Saves time!
Resources: www.link‐assistant.com/rank‐tracker/ Google Alerts Tracking • Your articles • Competitors articles • Competing websites • Keywords • Product reviews • FAQs
Resources: www.google.co.uk/alerts Social Optimisation Tools
• Google + • YouTube • Pinterest • Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn
2010: Matt Cutt's announced that Google definitely uses social signs in calculating rankings.
2012: The Year That SEO and Social Media Got Married
Social search ultimately relies on people and not algorithms Content Distribution Channels
Content Marketing
• Fresh content on website blog. Very Important! • Guest Blogging • Article Submission Sites • Online PR Submission • Industry News Sites • PDF Document Sharing • PowerPoint Presentation Sharing • Email Marketing Visual Content Marketing to Grow in 2013 Signal Signals on Open Site Explorer Further Reading Online Books • Matt Cutts (Google Blogger) www.mattcutts.com McDonald, Jason (2012), SEO Fitness Workbook, • Search Engine Land Your Step-by-step Guide to http://searchengineland.com Dominating Google and Bing • SEO Moz www.seomoz.org/blog • SEO Book Enge, Eric et al. (2012), www.seobook.com/blog The Art of SEO, Second Edition • SE Round Table (Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, www.seroundtable.com Jessie Stricchiola & Rand Fishkin) • State of Search www.stateofsearch.com • Smart Insights www.smartinsights.com/blog • E‐Consultancy http://econsultancy.com/uk Top Tools in Your SEO Tool Kit
Denise Cowan, Digital Marketing Manager & Lea Glover, Digital Marketing Executive
The Web Bureau Ltd
www.thewebbureau.com | [email protected]
@thewebbureau
facebook.com/thewebbureau
linkedin.com/in/thewebbureau