Owning a website without making it search engine friendly is like winking at a girl in the dark.

You know what you’re doing, but nobody else

does!

A Few Facts on Internet Growth

Jun 2008 Internet audience: 1,463,632,360

(Use Growth 2000-2008 + 305.5%)

• Europe: 384,633,765 (+ 266% on 2000)• UK: 41,817,847 (+172% on 2000)• UK 66% penetration

Why SEM is Important

At least 80% of people use search engines to find what they are looking for• You need to think how you would search for information to guide you in marketing your own product or service

UK Market Share

75% of searches are done on Google4% on Yahoo & 3% on MSN

3.9 billion searches conducted in the

UK in June 2008

Google Facts

• In June their index of pages passed one trillion for the first time

39%

23%

19%

10%

9%

First Page Only

A Few Results Only

First Two Pages

More than three pages

First Three Pages

Number of search results that Web surferstypically scan before selecting one

Source: Jupiter Research

Pay Per Click Advertising

Advantages• Rapid route to traffic

• Easy budget management

• Easy to see ROI

Disadvantages• Can be expensive

• Bidding can be very competitive

• Can become a full-time job

• Click fraud

Search Engine Optimisation

Advantages• Potentially more clicks than PPC

• Once right - usually stays right

• Better long-term ROI

Disadvantages• No guarantees

- at the whim of the algorithms

• Can be a full-time job!

• Can take time to see results

SEO Tip!

• Don’t let your web-designers railroad your SEO

• Don’t let SEO mess up your web design

Planning New Websites

• Structure• Hot Spot• Navigation• Keyword density• Links• List building

Meta Tags

• What are they?• Are they still important?• How to find meta tag information

Title Tag

•Use keywords in your page title tag.

•Try to make the page title tag appealing to both the reader and search engines.

•3 to 15 words is good, with as many keywords as you can with it still sounding legible.

•Use the most important keywords as early as possible in the title.

•Do not repeat the same word in the page title 5 or 6 times.

•Most search engines support the first 60 characters - so write to fit.

Meta Description Tag

•Usually the first lines of your page.

•Write to about 160 characters - a marketing message that people will click to visit your page.

•Use keywords but don’t repeat the words too often,

•Try to use multiple syntaxes of your key words, e.g. conservatory, conservatories.

More on Meta Tags

You should add Meta Tags to as many pages as possible, but at least these pages:•.index page (Home)•Site Map•Product or Services description pages•About Us or Contact Us•Links page, etc.

Google & Page Ranking

• What is it?• Checks content & consistency• Link popularity• Keyword density• Dynamic site• Size• Age of pages

More On Keywords

• Use Key Phrases• Avoid keyword stuffing

• Repeat important words in different phrases

How To Pick Keywords

• Check your competitors• Brainstorm• Online Tools

SEO Tip!

Where To Put Keywords

• page title• inbound link text• headings - one <H1>

tag per page• subheadings - use

<H2> or <H3> tags to break up the page copy

• meta description• navigation• outbound links when

possible

Improving Density• bold or italic on

some keywords• bulleted lists with

keywords• descriptive keywords

in image alt tags

SEO Tip!Some people cannot read the screen and have voice readers. But the voice reader can describe an image if you give it some help.

So let them know what your images are by using img ALT tags, e.g.

<img src=”xyz.jpg" alt=”Ian Dewar picture.">

The full stop after “picture” lets the user know the image has been passed and tells the text reader to pause.

Keyword Density Analysis

• % of occurrence of your keywords within each page

• But make it readable

• Keyword Density Checker

SEO Tip!“And I’ll let you in on a little algo secret. There is no single magic number. People who say, ‘The guaranteed optimal keyword density is x% would ideally meet the same fate as an angry English teacher. Or Googler or Webmaster.”

Adam Lasnik, Google, Jan 2007

Website Navigation

For Users & Spiders

• Tabs• Footer Text Links

• Hyperlinks• Site Map

The Importance of Linking

• Why• Abusive Links• Directory Links• PR & Popularity• Competitors backlinks• Articles• Wikipedia• “Link To Us”

Building Reciprocal Links

• Search for sites you would like to link to

• Find the webmasters contact details

• Write them an Email

Forums

• Find those that match your niche

• Create a “signature message”• Get involved, ask questions• Don’t “spam” forums

Blogs

• What is a blog• Comments in other blogs

Distribution of eye fixations while a user watched 24 seconds of a video clip on cnn.com

Get a copy of this presentation byemailing:

ian@iandewar.com