wordpress seo meetup helsinki - presentation by jonathan björkskog at genero

WordPress SEO

Hi I am Jonathan!Partner & Head of SEO

@ Genero Digital Agency

Swedish-speaking

SEOAs a hobby for 10 yearsFull time since 2010

Since 2009

SEO

TECHNOLOGY that makes SEO possible

CONTENT & ONPAGE

OPPORTUNITIES (Keywords)

OFFPAGE & TRUST (Links, brand signals, etc)

SEO

TECHNOLOGY that makes SEO possible

CONTENT & ONPAGE

OPPORTUNITIES (Keywords)

OFFPAGE & TRUST (Links, brand signals, etc)

= Making the search engine know what we want

A text- and link-based search engine

OPPORTUNITIES (Keywords)

● Use keyword planner to get sample words (https://adwords.google.fi/KeywordPlanner)

● Use spreadsheet to map them to existing site structure, or to make a new site structure based on the words.

● Generally we want “harder” words, with more monthly searches higher up in the hierarchy.

● Generally we want only one or a few keywords / phrases per url (as far as possible)

What keyword where?

1. Commercial evergreen keyword → Product category. “Asics running shoes”, “hotel Helsinki”.

2. Commercial specific keyword → Product / sales page. “Asics GT 1000”, “Scandic Marski”.

3. Wide topical non-commercial keyword → Post-category or page. “running technique”, “To do in Helsinki”.

4. Longtail topical non-commercial keyword → Post. “Barefoot running guide”, “Suomenlinna sightseeing”

Example site structure

Important about structure

1. Keywords mirrored in URL (for SEO & Analytics & segmenting)

2. All pages that we let Google index need unique title and content (Product categories & post categories as well)

....Which leads us to the TECHNOLOGY-part.

General settings1. Right country-domain or generic domain/language.2. Permalink structure setting using %postname%3. Allow Google-indexing.4. Show excerpt instead of full content on categories &

blog.5. Do not noindex taxonomies, instead make them

unique.6. Get fast hosting.7. Noindex filter-parameter-urls or use #8. Think about Canonical if you need the same content

published on several places.

Well optimized theme1. Allows content on categories. H1 and content (and

picture).2. No one-page bs.3. All important content visible in source (Keep the

angular and ajax fancy things on top of the content, not instead of it)

4. Markup still matter (a little). Which means I do not recommend the HTML5-way of having multiple H1’s per page (yet).

5. Use breadcrumbs (yoast)

Plugins1. SEO-plugin for the essentials, meta & sitemaps

(Yoast, all-in-one, etc)2. Redirection plugin (We want to get rid of duplicate

content)3. Related content-plugin (internal linking)4. Images for categories (taxonomy-images)5. Cache plugin for a fast site.6. Pods for custom post types & custom fields.7. Yoast analytics (for easy ecommerce tracking)8. WPML / Woocommerce when needed

Set up Yoast SEO

1. Set all content you do not make unique as noindex, follow. (author archives, media attachment pages, format archives, date-based archives, tags).

2. Make default titles for everything you want to index:“Buy %%term_title%% running shoes online”

3. Enable the sitemaps for the content that is unique. Disable the rest.

Example setup

Yoast SEO content box

Use Yoast SEO box

1. The keyword does not affect anything, it is just a base for all checkup (and can be changed to test the content against several keywords)

2. Keyword MUST be in title (main heading is generating title if you do not fill it in = OK). Make the title click-friendly.

3. Make a right-length description including the keyword. (Not important for SEO, but for CTR)

4. Save draft for box to be updated.5. The box is actually most a tool for teaching yourself.

Page analysis tab

Content structure

1. Main keyword in title and heading2. Picture on site, main keyword in alt-tag3. Main keyword in url4. Main keyword somewhere in content & sub-heading.5. Make the content rich. Is this the best content online

for this keyword?6. Text-content long enough

This applies for categories as well

Redirection plugin

For redirecting urls that should not exist (autogenerated)For redirecting old urls after content change or removalFor creating short marketing urls

SEO & localisation.You need content in the language you

want to be visible.

Right domain structureFinnish content: site.fi = Bestsite.com/fi/ = Second bestfi.site.com = OKsite.se/fi/ = Not OK

For same site on multiple domains: WPML or multisiteFor same site in subfolder: WPML or other language plugin.

Linking languages

● Link languages together page to page if possible● Use hreflang meta to tell Google that this post is

available on another language too.○ <link rel="alternate" hreflang="nl" href="http://nl.example.com/" />

● Use hreflang meta to tell Google the language of this post

● At least WPML takes care of this.

Offpage SEO

Nothing this far is hard

Anyone can have a well-optimized, fast, content-rich website with a great structure.

Luckily for Finland, this is often enough if you have a few links or if you are a brand.

But it will not take you to the top in a niche

with competition

That brings us to offpage

To links.

Google won because of links

Getting links?

● First have the best site for a keyword. ● Then, get strong, branded links to your site’s all

important pages.

● Being a brand● Hoping for links● PR● Being a resource in your niche● Blog cooperation● Exchanging links● Guest blogging● Advertorials● Buing old domains● Buing links● Link networks● Buing hacked links or hacked sites

Harder

More risky / illegal

Getting links?

CONTACT

Jonathan BjörkskogFounding partner

Head of SEO & Web tactics+358 (0)50 539 4288jonathan@genero.fihttp://www.genero.fi