seo: what and why?

Internet Marketing Workshop

OBSID

Micha Wacquier, Co-founder, Biggestleafhttp://za.linkedin.com/in/michawacquier

13th August 2011

Outline

1. How Search Engines operate

2. How people interact with Search Engines

3. Why SEO is necessary

4. How to determine demand

5. The perfect page

6. Promoting your site

7. Q&A

How Search Engines operate

How Google Works

4 Functions

1. Crawling

2. Indexing

3. Calculating relevancy

4. Show results

Organic search results

Paid results

Tips from Google

• Make pages for users, not search engines• Make a site with clear navigation and links• Write pages with useful, informative and

accurate content

How people interact with Search Engines

Some Stats

• 5 million South African internet users in 2010

• 76% use Search Engines to find info!

> 3.8 million South Africans

Google is the King of Search

Why SEO is necessary

What is SEO?

• Search Engine Optimization• Making a page easily consumable for

humans and search engines• Goal: satisfy both

Limitations of Search Technology

1. Crawling and indexing

2. Content to search matching

3. “If a tree falls in a forest” effect (no-gauge)

This is why SEO is necessary

How to determine demand

Searches

• Keywords• Search intents:

– Navigational searches (Obz Cafe)– Informational searches (directions)– Commercial investigation (seo consultants)– Transactional searches (mexican restaurant

cape town)

How to determine keywords

Google Keyword Tool• https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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How to value keywords

The Perfect Page

1. Page URL

2. Content

3. Headings

4. Title

5. META description

6. Image

7. Layout

Promoting your site

Growing your popularity and links

• Very important to Google• Local/Topic-Specific Popularity• 3 types of links:

1. Editorial

2. Manual

3. Self-created

Who to ask?

• Friends/family• Business partners/customers• Neighbouring businesses• Non-competitors online• Associations• Bloggers• Etc.

What to ask?

• Link to a specific page• Link with descriptive terms

Examples

• Community • Directories• (Guest) blogging• Signature • Reviews! • Buying links?

Q&A

Questions?