SEO – The Foundation of

Your Online Marketing

Success

+44 (0)208 257 3592

info@wowconsulting.co.uk

www.wowconsulting.co.uk

What is SEO?

• SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.• It’s about – Building your reputation– Increasing your online visibility– Getting traffic to your site

More online visibility = more traffic = more business!

Why do SEO?

• 694,000 searches carried out every second on Google alone

• Google has replaced the phone book so if you’re not listed there who are they going to call?

• More cost effective in the long run than paying for traffic –88% of internet users say they will never click on paid search ads

Most websites look like this…

Why being on page 1 matters

Source: http://chitika.com/google-positioning-value 2013

Traffic share by page

Page rank is not the be-all and end-all

• Searchers do still favour the top 3 results but being at the top of subsequent pages also results in higher click rates

• Rich text, snippets and author tags mean results lower down the page are getting much higher click-through rates

• You can rank well, get tons of traffic and still not make any money.– To maximise conversion rates, clicks, leads and sales you

need to focus on the right keywords and user intent.

Some other common SEO myths• SEO is technical so we

should leave it to IT/the web design guy

• SEO is about making Google happy

• Social media and SEO aren’t related

• You don’t need a lot of content for SEO

Content marketing is the new SEO

How search engines work

• Searching the web is like looking through a big book with an impressive index.

• Every day the Google search spiders crawl all the content on the web and update the index.

• When you perform a search Google checks against the index to find the most relevant and useful content and then shows that to you in the search results.

• Note that search engines rank pages of web content, not domains.

Page Ranking Factors• Each search engine has its

own unique algorithm that it uses to decide the order to show or “rank” search results.

• There are more than 200 different ranking factors in the Google search algorithm which is regularly updated.

• The precise algorithm is a closely guarded secret but we do know that certain factors carry more weight than others:

• Title tags• Meta descriptions• Keyword tags• Keyword density• H1 tags• Image attributes• Links from certain domains• Volume of links• Quality of links• Internal link structure• Anchor text in inbound links.

On-Page and Off-Page SEO

• On-Page SEO– Keywords– Page Title– Title tags

• Off-Page SEO– Links– Links– Links

Content on your website Who’s linking to you

• Links count as a vote for the usefulness of your website’s content.• More inbound links = more influence or authority.• Not all links carry equal weight and some can harm your page rank.

How search is changing• Old-school– Keyword matching– On-page factors– Volume of links– Focused on search

engines, not the users– Cookie cutter approach– Easy to “game” and

artificially inflate rankings

• Modern – Themes or topics– Personalisation– Localisation– Link quality and diversity– User experience– User engagement– Social signals– Click through rate

SEO is getting more competitive

• You can’t just pick one or two keywords and focus on getting ranked for them– Competition is too fierce and there will always be someone

who does it better or has a bigger budget than you• Instead build your exposure for many topical and

long-tail keywords while also building brand awareness, authority and credibility– Cast the net rather than throw the spear

• It’s becoming more difficult and expensive to get in-bound links and produce link-worthy content

SEO = Search Experience Optimisation

• What do they want and get from your website?

• How can you provide them with meaningful and useful content?

• How can you create a unique user experience for each visitor?

• How can you personalise those experiences so they feel authentic?

Create great content forusers, optimise for Google

You have a problem if…• You offer the same static experience to everyone– 76% of visitors say they want a site that makes it easy for

them to find what they want• Your website is slow to load, code isn’t search engine friendly• You haven’t caught up with recent search engine changes.• Your website doesn’t cater for mobile visitors

Local SEO = mobile SEO

Local on-the-go information

Source: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/click-to-call.html

Business address, business phone number, directions, opening hours, coupons, reviews

Mobile optimisation: your #1 SEO priority

• Ensure you have a responsive or dedicated mobile site.• Ensure all elements of your site are mobile-friendly.• Tailor your content to readers who are ‘on the go’.• Factor in the rise in voice search queries: for instance, hands-

free users are more likely to query “Where is the nearest petrol station” rather than “petrol station in Hackney”.

• Make use of a ‘click to call’ feature.• Keep in mind differences in user intent between mobile and

desktop users.• Make sure your mobile content loads quickly. Google would

like to see mobile pages loading in around 1 second.

Traffic + Conversion = Profit

• SEO is about generating targeted traffic• But traffic alone isn’t going to help you unless you

can also capture leads and convert them to happy customers

• So what does conversion mean for you?• That’s where you need to focus– If you’re a local business: Google+ Local and mobile– For B2B: inbound/content marketing– E-commerce: blend of organic and paid search plus

email marketing

Case study: SEO in action

• London waste removal company • Basic DIY SEO on their website and Google+ Local listing but

poor online visibility and not getting much traffic or enquiries

• What we did: – optimised their main website for key search terms and local

signals– added unique local content, a blog and customer reviews– started posting regularly to their Google+ business page– built a mobile optimised website with call to click– Dramatically increased the number and quality of their local

business directory citations

Online visibility up from 37% to 83%

127 keywords in top 1092 keywords in top 342 ranked first

More website visitors

Significant increase in mobile visitors

iphone/ipad visitors

Android visitors

30% of mobile traffic from Google

185% increase in mobile enquiries

SEO best practices in 2014• Keyword research

– Focus on long tail keywords and buyer intent• On-page SEO

– Topics not keywords, meaty articles, fresh content• Mobile SEO

– Your # 1 priority• Google authorship

– Link your Google+ profile to all your content to increase your author rank and build your personal brand

• Link building and content strategy– Produce excellent content and promote it widely to earn links

• Integrate social media with your SEO– Google+ is a must!

The final word from Matt Cutts

“A lot of SEO has been focused on technical matters and very highly specific ways to configure your website and stuff like that. There are best practices, and you need to make sure you get the basics right, but it is true that a lot of SEO is now circling back around to good old fashioned marketing.”

Why businesses fail with SEO

• Information overload • Lack of consistent application• Not following current best practices• Too much focus on page rank and not enough on

conversion• No systematic follow-upWhat successful businesses have • A clear step by step execution plan • A systematic process that can be followed,

repeated, measured and improved over time

So who wants more traffic, clicks, leads and sales?

Take action now…

Contact us to arrange a free marketing assessment

And to discover how we can help you transform

Your marketing and your business results

+44 (0)208 257 3592

info@wowconsulting.co.uk

www.wowconsulting.co.uk