Seven easy steps to search engine success

Natural search engine optimisation (SEO) is about common-sense web production, resulting in a bunch of free marketing. Yet some people still dismiss it for a number of reasons. They're either too sceptical, too busy, don't see it as their responsibility, or feel that it interferes with their copy. The truth is SEO is everyone's responsibility, from design, code, editorial and marketing. Ultimately, what's the point in being 'too busy' producing websites if your users can't even get to them?

Before launching any web product (or even a single page) identify your keywords, define the best possible site structure and seek links from authoritative sources from around the web. There are other aspects of SEO, but if you can knock off the following basic principles you'll be in great shape for performance in search engines.

1. Research your keywords. (This is not about meta keywords. These are used only by Yahoo currently. It's the words you will use throughout the page elements in #4). Don’t just think about the brand name.
Make it your business to know what people are looking for in relation to your planned content. Exploit other popular words and phrases people are using when searching. Always start with Google Adwords Tool.

2. Create a holding page early ensuring there are links to it.
This increases chances of being indexed by search engines and allows people to link back to your page.

3. Build your proposition’s overall structure around your keywords, using those keywords in your local navigation.
This means using keywords in all the right places, making it easier for search engines to take meaning from your page. Overall structure and the contents of individual pages should be informed by things people are looking for, and the phrases/labels they actually use when they search.

4. Use keywords in all the right places.
The more of these you can hit the better (* essential)

• Title text - the most important element*
• In the H1, H2 tags etc* - also very important that it complements the title text using the same targeted words
• In the page content (first 200 words)*
• In anchor text (link text) of any internal and external links*
• Top level navigation (site structure)*
• Meta description (under 140 characters including spaces) - this won't help rankings but increases chances of being clicked on in search results pages (SERPs)
• In image filenames and alt text - (to improve chances of being indexed by Google images)
• Video titles and associated descriptions
• Meta keywords

5. Be a smart copywriter
Write copy that will be loved by both humans and search engines
Reinforce keywords in your body with synonyms and clarification words. E.g. green, eco, environment; green, vegetables, spring, recipe; green, car, fuel, efficient.

6. If you already have a site and you’re restructuring never just delete pages.
Do your research to see where inbound links are concentrated, and carefully create a 301 redirect plan.

7. Obsess about good linking behaviour.
Spend 30% of your editorial effort obsessing about the following types of linking:
i. Seek out external links from trusted sites that are most relevant to the central theme of your page
ii. Encourage related internal and external sites to use link text that matches keywords on your page
iii. Exploit every internal linking opportunity and always use matching keywords in the anchor text, never Click here or Read more.

If you're interested in learning more about SEO the following sites and blogs are leading authorities on the web:

• Matt Cutts' Blog (Google's SEO)
• SEO Book
• SEO Moz Blog
• Search Engine Land

Countryside Massive from BBC Comedy

 
More nonsense from BBC Comedy in the form of the Joes, Countryside Massive.

Jerry Jackson is RLY RLY Board!

I'm very much enjoying these little web originals by David Firth, commissioned for BBC Comedy Extra. You can watch more David Firth here.

It's the people stupid

Understanding search behaviour is an essential, but often neglected part of delivering on your audience needs.

One of the BBC Values is that 'audiences are at the heart of everything we do'.

So, that means doing solid research and being confident that a product is delivering something the public wants or needs that they can't get elsewhere. As a Producer this means adopting user-centred design principles (yawn), which, briefly are about meeting and researching your audience, and testing a product early and often throughout the lifecycle.

While I still subscribe to this, I've recently come to realise that it only provides part of the solution to delivering 'audience-focused' products. Meanwhile, I've gained surprising insights into user behaviour and needs just by spending a bit of time looking at search-related data.

If you're responsible for conceiving, managing, or maintaining any web product you should know the answers to most of these questions, and it really shouldn't take long to find them using your analytics system.

1) Which keywords do your visitors use to arrive at your site?
Let's say you run a site providing support for parents with their child's studies. A look at the 20 most popular keyword searches shows lots of searches about 'becoming a classroom assistant'. You'd never know this unless you interviewed hundreds of your site visitors or ran a site survey. While you may not have planned any content like this, spending a bit of time creating a simple page about this theme would greatly increase the chances of one of those users landing where they want to land, then clicking on a link to another of your pages. A positive experience on this occasion means they're more likely to return next time too.

2) What are the most popular terms relevant to my site in Hitwise?
This activity complements the above but provides wider insights in that it aggregates data from UK ISPs on how 8 million UK Internet users interact with thousands of UK sites. If you work in a large firm with a big presence online they will have at least one Hitwise account. Ask your Marketing contact if they'll let you spend an afternoon running off some reports. If they're feeling helpful, they may even offer to do it for you. The simplest thing you can do (or request) is to run a keyword report for the last three months for people arriving at a any given url. This takes seconds and provides one of the most valuable (and low effort) insights into visitors' search behaviour.

3) Have you researched Google Adwords?
Study Google Adwords to see what specific words and phrases people use in relation to the content you offer; or plan to offer; or maybe never even thought about offering. (NB: Make sure you change the drop down-value from 'broad' to 'exact match' for a more accurate reflection on popular keywords.

4) Which sites bring you the most traffic? (top referrers)
This is useful to know as it gives an insight into what other sites your target audience use, but are they linking to the most appropriate page with words in their link text that match the keywords you're using on your page? Might they be interested in being updated when you publish a particular new piece of content? This activity is known as link-building and contacting your most popular referrers is a useful place to start.

5) Which are the most popular pages on your site?
Is it the one you need it to be in terms of flowing traffic through the most authoritative, highest ranking pages? (People say search engine rankings are meaningless these days, as it's all about "conversions",  but for a non-commercial site, I'm not sure that's true)
Do your most popular pages have any connection to your most popular referrals?
Perhaps your big referrers are directing visitors to the wrong page on your site. You can always ask them to change their link to a more desirable page.
Are there sufficient links in your page navigation to other priority pages in your site?

6) What's your bounce rate?
If you have a good analytics package you can see the bounce rate for your site. This is the percentage of single-page visits. A high bounce rate implies your landing pages (key entrance pages from search) are not relevant to your visitors. According to Google, a typical bounce rate overall is around 40% but it can vary widely depending on the sector in which you operate.

7) How long do visitors spend on your site/page?
Whether this is spent in puzzlement or enjoyment, only user-testing will tell. Track this over time and you can consider it a loose form of success measurement. Is this figure rising, static or falling, and if you work for a large organisation, is it in line with other sections of the domain?

8) How many people are linking to you?
Yahoo Site Explorer is a very useful tool that tells you who is linking back to your pages. It's far more accurate than the Google equivalent and you can filter inlinks from within your own domain, or from another domain. The more inlinks from authoritative sources, the better your site will perform in search.

These are just a handful of tips that help you learn more about your visitors and also help you measure effectiveness of your site.