02.

Search Engine Optimization

Concept of Search Engine Optimization – Introduction
Inbound marketing is marketing focused on being found by the customers. That is, it is all about attracting potential
customers with high quality and targeted content, engaging and nurturing them into action till they are ready to buy.
Anything that needs to be found requires an address and that address in inbound marketing is the website. Websites
usually provide a map and directions to the premises of the enterprise, so that visitors are less likely to have trouble finding
your location.

Website
The decision to build either a website or a portal is based on the company’s needs. Many a time, a website is confused with
a portal. Websites are for providing a plethora of generic information for the traffic driven to it, whereas web portals are
for limiting information to a specific group of users. Hence, web portals usually require a registration process and users
need to log in with credentials or authentication that facilitate the site to deliver a more specific content based on the user
profile. Websites are usually destinations that everyone can get to, and therefore are generally designed for a broader
audience.

One difference between portals and websites is that of ownership. Typically, the ownership of company portals and
websites will vest with different teams that have different vision of how they should work. The marketing team may own
the public website and prefer software built for blogging, measuring user engagement and enabling a strong visual design
of web pages. However, the support team may own the customer self-service portal and need a solution that integrates
their other applications.

Importance of Website
A website in itself can be used to accomplish many different marketing strategies to help a business grow.
• The web has a far wider reach than any other form of advertising.
• Website is like a business card that everyone assumes you have.
• It is the face of an organization/ product & is almost the first contact point with the prospective customer/ user.
• A good website helps in increasing the visibility and establishing credibility for the business. Customers may want to
carry out research online first, before entertaining the idea of doing business.
• Website is an important brand property, an intangible asset that projects an enterprise much bigger than what it
really is, if the website is creatively superior.
• A website gives an online presence and opens up online business opportunities. Being accessible 24X7X365, it is a
perpetual salesman on call.
• Building a website is not very expensive.

Website Musts
While planning or designing a website, it is imperative that the following be built in a website.
• Sitemap – An XML file that contains URLs of all individual web pages. It is like an archive of all the webpages in a
website. This file should be made easily discoverable in a website so that search engines crawlers can find them.
• Primary navigation – A navigation strip at the top of every page that stays the same, with links to the major
sections of the site, to facilitate visitors to navigate quickly.
• Ease of navigation – Uncluttered, simple and avoiding unnecessary links.
• Load time – The time it takes to download and display the entire content of a webpage in the browser window.
• Content management system – Manages the creation and modification of digital content that supports multiple
users in a collaborative environment.
• User interface (UI) – Displays screens, calls to actions and overall appearance.
• User experience (UX) – The overall satisfaction in search by getting the right answer or solution to the problem that
involves a search.
• Interactivity- Content that facilitates the participants’ active engagement beyond a simple reading.

Website Benchmarking
Benchmarking is essentially to gauge a website that gives a measure of where a website stands in relation to other websites
– direct competition, category or general. It can throw a light on competitive advantages and show the most effective ways
to improve a website performance. It also provides information on respective current levels of evaluation as compared to
that of your competition. Many different tools are available that can help determine how effective a website is; but for
beginners, it is best to start with a free analytics tool.
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Some typical benchmarking parameters are: site performance, search performance, and usability.
• Page load time is a critical factor
• Bounce rate measures number of visitors going deeper than the page they enter on.
• Bounce rate from e-mail campaigns looks at the traffic you get from e-mail marketing.
• Website visitor metrics indicate how effective the site is at drawing traffic.
• Acquisition source metrics indicate where the visitors are coming from.
• Conversion rates (CR) indicate the effectiveness of your strategy and tactics.
• Cart abandonment rate tells you how many buyers selected items to buy, began the checkout process, but dropped
off before completing the purchase.
• Products per transaction is an excellent benchmark to consider in tandem with cart abandonment.

Landing Page
While websites provide an overview of what you are (breadth), have tabs/pages that provide more information (length)
and links (depth) to provide specific information, a landing page (LP) is a standalone webpage, created specifically for the
purposes of marketing or an advertising campaign. It is where a visitor ‘lands’ having clicked on a specific advertising or
similar communication.

For a marketer, conversion means convincing a visitor to do one specific act only and not one of many things. It is about
completing a single business-driven objective. Landing pages are designed with a single focused objective known as ‘Call-to
Action’ (CTA) This simplicity makes landing pages the best option for increasing the conversion rates of campaigns. For this,
usually, a conversion centered design is adopted.

Conversion Centered Design (CCD)

Conversion Centered Design (CCD) helps in designing experiences that guide the visitor towards completing that one
specific action ‘call to action’ (CTA), using persuasive design and psychological triggers to increase conversions. In other
words, it is about persuasion.
CCD needs a source and a destination. Source is any campaign in social media. The destination is the landing page or LP.
The reason for LP and not the Home page is because the focus is on a single purpose with no distractions and making the
navigation friction free and seamless. The end purpose is CTA or call to action that could be the likes of Register/
Download/ Call etc.
There are seven principles that govern CCD.
1. Attention: The headline should be powerful both textually and visually to hold attention. The design should focus on the
action that is called for. An important element in attention is the attention ratio. It is the ratio of the number of things you
can do on a given page to the number of things you should do. In marketing campaigns, there should only be a single goal
(or CTA), and thus the Attention Ratio should be 1:1.
2. Context: Context is how well the initial above-the-fold landing page experience delivers on the promise made. Above-
the-fold is the portion of a web page that is visible in a browser window when the page first loads. The portion of the page
that requires scrolling down in order to see the content is called below-the-fold. Context is the equivalent of designing an
advertising in traditional marketing in giving prospects all the information they require in order to convert both pre-click
and post-click.
3. Clarity: Clarity implies that the copy or text should effectively communicate the value proposition.
4. Congruence: Congruence means alignment of context and clarity to remove all the distractions. Congruence calls for a
message match – which means having a headline that closely matches the call to action of the upstream ad/ email/ or any
other online communication. Design match is matching the visuals and color palette of the visuals presented in the
upstream communication. The landing page headline should maintain an attention long enough to deliver on the pre-click
promise.
5. Credibility: Credibility leads to trust which is an important factor and should be aligned with customer beliefs. Badges,
testimonials, awards visuals and logo etc. help in creating credibility.
6. Closing: Closing refers to triggering an action or CTA. Area around CTA should be well designed. There should be no
clutter or any confusing message around the CTA button.
7. Continuance: Continuance is about making sure every action you request of your audience leads naturally into the next
step seamlessly. If the CTA is to initiate a download, it should happen immediately and in real time. Similarly, if the CTA is to
give a missed call, it should lead a call back from the call center within a specific period of time.
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Search Engine Optimization
Having looked at the details of website, landing page and call-to-action, we can now look at how we coordinate and ensure
that someone who is interested in your company/ product or service indeed finds you. This is the process of searching and
the primary tool that facilitates the search is called the search engine and the process is called search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website to achieve the highest possible ranking on search
engine results pages (SERPs). Someone who practices SEO professionally is also known as an SEO (search engine optimizer).
The average website receives a significant proportion of its traffic from search engines, highlighting the importance of SEO.

Search engine optimization consists of two processes. The first is getting a website configured so a search engine like
Google can index it correctly and the second is making sure your website is in the top search results when someone
Googles your products or brand names.

With millions of people performing billions of searches each day to find content on the Internet, it makes sense that
marketers want their products to be findable online. Search engines, the channels through which these searches happen,
use closely guarded algorithms to determine the results displayed. Determining what factors these algorithms take into
account has led to a growing practice known as search engine optimization.

If you understand how search engines like Google and Bing work, you will also understand where to start optimizing your
website. Search engines take in ridiculous amounts of data from websites all over the world, put it in an index and when
someone comes to their website with a query like “Who won best picture in 1948?” they search their index to find an
appropriate reference and then serve up those answers to the user on their webpage.

But how did they actually get that data? How did Google know that Hamlet won best picture in 1948? It all starts with one
website which leads to another and another... What Google and Bing do all day long, 365 days a year, is crawl the Internet
and they do that with a program called Spiders. Spiders start on websites they deem as highly valued, like CNN.com or the
New York Times and they click on every link on both CNN and the New York Times which leads them to other websites
where they again click on every link that leads them to more websites so after a while they start to map out most of the
webpages on the Internet. When the Google spiders come across something new, they put that web page into its index for
future reference and there it sits in the Google data warehouse until someone comes to Google.com and starts a search.

When someone Googles, who won best picture in 1948, Google goes into its index and pulls out every webpage that
mentions best picture in 1948. It then applies its secret algorithm, and quickly ranks those pages from 1 - infinity and serves
them up to the users. Google says it uses more than 200 different factors in its algorithm to determine relevance and
ranking. None of the major search engines disclose the elements they use to rank pages, but there are many SEO
practitioners who spend time analyzing patent applications to try to determine what these are. Search engines update their
algorithms regularly. Each update is an attempt to improve search results, but can result in loss of rankings for some
websites, depending on the update. A contingency plan, such as a prepared search advertising campaign, needs to be in
place to cope with a sudden drop in rankings.

SEO is an extremely effective way of generating new business to a site. It is a continuous process and a way of thinking
about how search engines see your website, and how users use search engines to find your website. It’s search psychology.

People search with intent. They are looking for something. The intent people search with can be categorized as:
Navigational Searches: They are looking for a specific website but they don’t remember the exact URL.
Informational Searches: This is Google’s bread and butter. Stuff like What is the weather in Charlotte NC? Who won best
actor in 1964? People will usually tend to form these searches in the form of a question and the goal is finding the
information itself.
Commercial Investigation: People working at businesses will be given tasks by their supervisors. Things like, we need a
website built or can you find a good landscaper. These are the modern day equivalents of looking in the Yellow Pages. They
turn to Google to find reputable businesses to contact. These may or may not lead to commerce or leads, but presents
opportunity for both.
Looking for a Purchase: People will search the Internet when they are ready to buy. This will typically spike around specific
holidays as people look for very specific gifts for ideas for gifts. Things like best father’s day gifts.

Search engines need to help users find what they’re looking for. To make sure they list the best results first, they look for
signals of: • Popularity • Authority • Relevance • Trust • Importance
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SEO, also called organic or natural optimization, involves optimizing websites to achieve high rankings on search engines for
certain selected key phrases. Techniques used for optimizing on one search engine will also help efforts across others.

SEO can be split into two distinct camps: white hat SEO and black hat SEO (with, of course, some grey hat wearers in
between). Black hat SEO refers to trying to game the search engines. These SEOs use dubious means to achieve high
rankings, and their websites are occasionally blacklisted by the search engines. White hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to
working within the parameters set by search engines to optimize a website for better user experience. Search engines want
to send users to the website that is best suited to their needs, so white hat SEO should ensure that users can find what they
are looking for.

SEO can be divided into two main strategies:

1. On-page optimization: Achieved by making changes to the HTML code, content and structure of a website, making it
more accessible for search engines, and by extension, easier for users to find.
2. Off-page optimization: Mostly focused on building links to the website, and covers activities like social media & digital PR.

Optimizing a website for search engines should entail optimizing the website for users. Done properly, it should result in a
better user experience, while ensuring that search engines index and rank the website well. However, it can be tempting to
focus on the technicalities of SEO while forgetting that both robots and humans need to read the same website. One should
not be sacrificed for the other.

As with any digital marketing practice, SEO should not be the only focus of digital marketing efforts. It works best when part
of a holistic online marketing strategy.

Search engine optimization is a fairly technical practice but it can easily be broken down into five main areas:
1. A search engine friendly website structure
2. A well-researched list of key phrases
3. Content optimized to target those key phrases
4. Link popularity
5. User insights

1. Search engine friendly website structure

Search engines encounter two kinds of obstacles:
• Technical challenges that prevent the search engine spider from accessing content.
• A competitive marketing environment where everyone wants to rank highly.

To ensure that search engines can access your content, you must remove technical barriers. Those who want to achieve the
best results must follow best practices. The key is to make sure that there are direct HTML links to each page you want the
search engines to index. The most important pages should be accessible directly from the home page of your website.

The information architecture, or how content is planned and laid out, has important usability and SEO implications. Users
want to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, while website owners want search engine spiders to be able to
access and index all applicable pages. In fact, Google has released an update that penalizes sites with poor user experience
(such as no content above the fold, or a high bounce rate). There are times when user experience and SEO can be at odds
with each other, but usually if you focus on building user-friendly websites, they should be search engine friendly as well.

Another technical challenge to search engines is Flash. For the most part, search engines struggle to crawl and index Flash
sites. There are some workarounds, but the best approach from an SEO perspective is to avoid building sites or delivering
key content in Flash. Instead, use HTML5, which provides similar interactivity and visuals while remaining easily crawlable.

2. SEO and key phrases

First off, a keyword is not just a word, it can also be a phrase. This keyword or combination of keywords are what people
enter into Google, Bing, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or other sites to find stuff. They can exist in the form of a question
such as what is a keyword? They can be simple phrases such as john cashman princeton nj or they can be very long phrases
looking for specific information such as address digital firefly marketing princeton nj.

All of these phrases are considered keywords. But what separates one keyword from another? There aren’t good and bad
keywords, but there are competitive and non-competitive keywords that will help you start to understand the best way to
get Google to get traffic to your website.
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Key phrases are the very foundation of search. When a user enters a query on a search engine, he or she uses the words he
or she thinks are relevant to the search. The search engine then returns those pages it believes are most relevant to the
words the searcher used – and, increasingly, the implied meaning of the search.

Search engines have built a sophisticated understanding of semantics and the way in which we use language. So, if a user
searches for ‘car rental’, the search engine will look for pages that are relevant to ‘car rental’ as well as ‘car hire’, ‘vehicle
hire’, and so on. Search engines have also built up knowledge around common misspellings, synonyms & related searches.
It is crucial that you implement keywords that are likely to be used by their target audience. Websites need to appear when
their potential customers are searching for them. A large part of keyword research is to understand search psychology. To
build a key phrase list, one has to tap into the mental process of searchers and put together the right mix of keywords.

Defining a Keyword Strategy

Once people understand what a keyword is, it’s natural to want to start to use that knowledge across your website
properties. This is commonly referred to as keyword strategy. How do you start building your key phrase list? It requires a
little thought and a fair amount of research and insight, using tools that are readily available to help you grow and refine
your list of keywords. The first step in figuring out a keyword strategy is to list your services, industry and products. Let’s
take an example of a coffee roaster in Princeton, NJ
What do you sell? Coffee, coffee drinks and coffee beans.
Where do you sell it? My stores are in Princeton, NJ but I ship coffee beans anywhere in the U.S.
How do you sell it? People can buy in store or I can ship it to them. We accept cash, checks and credit cards. People can buy
in bulk every month or one at a time.
Why is your product better? We hand roast all of our coffee beans in small batches.
Once you start getting more answers you will start to see some patterns emerge. Here, the word coffee and coffee beans
appears often along with Princeton NJ. A keyword phrase that would work in this example would be coffee princeton nj.

When we are very clear on what we are selling and the keywords associated with those products we move onto the next
step which is trying to understand how people search for those products so we can use those searches as a basis to develop
our keyword strategy. The best tool for this is Google’s keyword tool. Using Google’s keyword tool, we enter each keyword
and Google will report back on the number of searches and how competitive each keyword is. They will also supply a list of
keywords that are similar to the search phrase you just entered.

Once we have that information we need to look at the following:

1 Take a look at how many searches and how competitive each word is. The more competitive a keyword the harder it will
be to rank in Google. Conversely the more searches there are, the more likely it will be that someone will find you.
2 Look at the keyword ideas. Sort by competitiveness. Those words that are not competitive should be used in your website
first as individual pages or blog articles.

There are four things to consider when choosing a keyword:

Search volume
How many searchers are using that phrase to find what they want? For example, there is an estimated monthly search
volume of over 338 million for the keyword ‘hotel’, but an estimated 6,600 searches per month for a key phrase such as
‘Cape Town Waterfront hotel’.
Competition
How many other websites out there are targeting that same phrase? For example, Google finds over 2.8 billion results for
‘hotel’, but only 3.2 million for ‘Cape Town Waterfront Hotel’.
Propensity to convert
What is the likelihood that the searcher using that key phrase is going to convert on your site? A conversion is a desired
action taken by the visitor to your website. Related to propensity to convert is the relevance of the selected term to what
you are offering. If you are selling rooms at a hotel at the V&A Waterfront, which of the two terms (‘hotel’ or ‘Cape Town
Waterfront hotel’) do you think will lead to a higher rate of conversions?
Value per lead
What is the average value per prospect attracted by a keyword? Depending on the nature of a website, the average value
per lead varies. Using the hotel example, consider these two terms: ‘luxury Cape Town hotel’ & ‘budget Cape Town hotel’.
Both are terms used by someone wanting to book a hotel in Cape Town, but it is likely that someone looking for a luxury
hotel is intending to spend more. That means that that particular lead has a higher value, particularly if you have a
hotelbooking website that offers a range of accommodation.
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Step-by-step key phrase research
Step 1: Brainstorm
Think about the words you would use to describe your business, and about the questions or needs of your customers that it
fulfils. How would someone ask for what you are offering? Consider synonyms and misspellings as well. Even common
words are often misspelt, and you may need to consider common misspellings – like, ‘jewelry’ or ‘morgage’. Bear in mind
that people may not ask for your services in the same way as you describe them. You may sell ‘herbal infusions’, whereas
most people would ask for ‘herbal teas’, and some might even request a ‘tisane’.
Step 2: Gather data
Two ways in which to gather accurate key phrase data are to survey customers and to look at your website referral logs.
Look to see what terms customers are already using to find you, and add those to your list. If they are already sending you
some traffic, it is worth seeing if you can increase that traffic.
Step 3: Use keyword research tools
There are several tools available for keyword discovery, and some of them are free. Some tools will scan your website and
suggest keywords based on your current content. Most will let you enter keywords, and will then return suggestions based
on past research data, along with: • Similar keywords • Common keywords used with that keyword • Common misspellings
• Frequency of the keywords in search queries • Industry-related keywords • Keywords that are sending traffic to your
competitors • How many sites are targeting your keywords
Bearing in mind the factors that make a good keyword, you need to aim for the right mix of keywords. Low-volume terms
with low levels of competition may be a good way to get traffic in the short term, but don’t be scared off by bigger
competition in the high-value, high-volume areas. It may take longer to get there, but once you do, the revenue can make it
all worthwhile.
It is a good idea to create a spreadsheet of the list of keywords, along with additional information about each one. A
spreadsheet of targeted keywords for reference will help you to choose the right keywords to target. These lists should be
created for the whole website, and can then be broken down for each page you want to optimize:
Keyword or phrase Search volume Competition Propensity to Convert Value of Lead
Hotel 3,870 90% 2% $18
Luxury hotels 345 80% 35% $35
3. Optimizing content for key phrases
Once keywords and phrases are selected, we need to ensure the site contains content to target them. You must ensure that
the content is properly structured and that it sends signals of relevance. Content is the most important part of your
website: Create relevant, targeted content aimed at your selected key phrases.
Content already has several roles to play on your site: • It must provide information to visitors. • It must engage with them.
• It must persuade them to do what you want. Now it must also send signals of relevance to search engines. You need to
use the keywords on the content page in a way that search engines will pick up, and users will understand.
Growing trends in SEO include the influence of social content on search results, mobile SEO and local search. Search engine
optimization can be influenced and enhanced by most other digital marketing campaigns, and they should all be
approached with this in mind. SEO and content marketing go hand in hand, since SEO relies on fresh, relevant and popular
content, and content marketing can be informed by SEO key phrases and insights. For example, search advertising
campaigns can provide valuable keyword research, which can then be fed into the SEO strategy. Social media marketing can
generate an enormous amount of links to a website. Digital PR aims to generate links too, and these can be optimized for
search engines. User research and web analytics can generate insights into how users find the website, which can inform
SEO strategy – and effective SEO techniques can provide insights into user behavior.
Most websites today will run off what’s called a content management system like Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. These
systems are very compliant in how they work to maximize your chances of Google indexing your keywords. There are four
key areas where Google will search for keywords: Page Titles, H1 Tags, Clean URL-s, & Alt Tags
Page Titles: These appear in the tab of your browser and are used by Google to understand what the web page is about.
H1 Tags: H1 Tags are headings on a website page. Paired with the Page Title, it gives the search engines more context to
what your page is about. So if your page title says chocolate and your H1 Tags says “white chocolate” the search engines
know that white chocolate is part of your site. H1 tags are important for SEO.
Clean URL-s: This refers to the url structure. On some websites you will see a lot of gobbledy-gook like www.
digitalfireflymarketing.com/#hlhldkhjglkahjd;dkjgf. You have no idea what the URL means, neither does a search engine.
You need URLs that have keywords in them so Google can understand not only what the page is, but how important you
think it is. The farther away the page from the front means the less important it is.
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Alt Tags: Every time an image is displayed on a website, there is an option to put an alt tag behind it so people who are
visually impaired are able to get text describing the image when they are looking at a web page. Google now uses Alt Tags
as a way to index images since Google can only read text and does not (yet) recognize images.

While H1 Tags, Page Titles, Alt Tags and Clean URLs provide a frame to build SEO compliance, it’s keywords that provide
everything else. Look at each web page on your site in those four areas and see if you can see any of the keywords in your
list in those areas. If you can’t see them, neither can Google.

If you can’t see those keywords or see keywords that are really obscure, the next step is to start to change them out. Each
content management system is different so you will need to do a bit of research on how your content management system
works. However, there are some similarities that can provide some immediate benefit.

Each web page should be optimized for two to three key phrases: the primary key phrase, the secondary and the tertiary. A
page can be optimized for up to five key phrases, but it is better to have more niche pages than fewer unfocused pages.

Here are some guidelines:

1. Title tag: use the key phrase in the title and as close to the beginning as possible.
2. H1 header tag: use the key phrase in the header tag, and as much as possible in the other H tags.
3. Body content: use the key phrase at least three times, more if there is a lot of content and it makes sense to. You should
aim for about 350 words of content. But don’t overdo it! That could look like spam to the search engines.
4. Bold: use tags around the keyword at least once.
5. URL: try to use the key phrase in your page URL.
6. Meta description: use it at least once in the meta description of the page, which should entice users to clickthrough to
your site from the SERP.
7. Link anchor text: try to ensure that the keyword is used in the anchor text of the pages linking to you.
8. Domain name: if possible, use the key phrase in your domain name.

Optimizing media
Images, video and other digital assets should also be optimized with the relevant keywords. Search engines cannot
decipher multimedia content as well as text, so they rely on the way that media is described to determine what it is about.
Screen readers also read out these descriptions, which can help visually impaired users make sense of a website. In
addition, media such as images and video are often also shown on the SERPs. Proper optimization can give a brand more
ownership of the SERP real estate, and can also be used effectively to target competitive terms.

Just as rich media can help emphasize the content on a page to a visitor, they can also help search engines to rank pages,
provided they are labeled correctly. Here are some ways to optimize images with key phrases for SEO:
• Use descriptive, keyword-filled filenames.
• Use specific alt tags and title attributes.
• Add meta information to the image. Make sure this information is relevant.
• Use descriptive captions, and keep relevant copy close to the corresponding media. For example, an image caption and
neighboring text will help to describe content of the image.
• Make sure that the header tags and images are relevant to each other.

Also think about what other digital assets you have, and whether these can be optimized in line with your key phrase
strategy. For example, consider app store optimization (ASO) – the process of optimizing your mobile and web apps for the
specific web stores they are distributed in. Here are some ways in which you can optimize your apps:
• Give your app a catchy name that also includes your most important keyword or phrase.
• Include a distinctive, recognizable and clear icon.
• Spell out the features and benefits clearly, including key phrases where possible.
• In your app store listing, add links to your major social media platforms and your website – and don’t forget to link the
other way too!
• Include as much meta data as you can, including tags, categories and descriptions.

The best way to ensure results is to focus on writing quality content while sticking to a few guidelines on tags and URLs.
Remember, you want search engines to rank you highly for your content, but you also want to ensure that the content is a
pleasure to read. Regularly adding fresh, valuable content will also encourage the search engines to crawl your site more
frequently.
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Use your website and its pages to establish and reinforce themes. Information can always be arranged in some kind of
hierarchical structure. Just as a single page can have a heading and then get broken down into sub-headings, a large
website can have main themes that get broken down into sub-themes. Search engines will see these themes and recognize
your website as one with rich content.

4. Link popularity
Links are a vital part of how the Internet works. The purpose of a link is to allow a user to go from one web page to another.
Search engines, doing their best to mimic the behavior of humans, also follow links.
Besides allowing search engine spiders to find websites, links are a way of validating relevance and indicating importance.
When one page links to another, it is as if that page is voting or vouching for the destination page. Generally, the more
votes a website receives, the more trusted it becomes, the more important it is deemed, and the better it will rank on SEs.
Links help to validate relevance. The text that makes up the text link can help validate relevance. A link such as ‘Cape Town
hotel’ sends the message that, “You can trust that the destination site is relevant to the term ‘Cape Town hotel’.” If the
destination web page has already used content to send a signal of relevance, the link simply validates that signal.
Links help send signals of trust. Signals of trust can come only from a third-party source. Few people will trust someone
who says, “You can trust me!” unless someone else, who is already trusted, says, “Don’t worry, I know him well. You can
trust him.” It is the same with links and search engines. Trusted sites can transfer trust to unknown sites via links.
Of course, not all links are equal. While link volume is the number of links coming to a specific page of your site, link
authority looks at the value of the links. Some sites are more trusted than others. So, if they are more trusted, then links
from those sites are worth more. Likewise, some sites are more relevant than others to specific terms. The more relevant a
site, the more value is transferred by the link. Well-known and established news sites, government sites (.gov) and
university domains (.ac) are examples of sites from which links can carry more weighting. Links form websites that have a
higher PageRank also carry more link weight.
Google uses links to find websites. In order to rank websites, one of the big drivers is the number of websites and pages
that link to your website. Not only do the numbers of websites make a difference, but the quality or “authority” a website
has makes a difference as well. For example, a link from CNN.com will be worth more in Google’s algorithm or eyes than a
link from Joe’s site on fishing that doesn’t have anyone linking to it. SEO is all about increasing the probability that Google
will put your site within the top ten when people search on a phrase.
Creating content is a passive strategy but one that can really start to pay off fairly quickly. Currently 20% of all Google
searches are brand new, meaning no one has ever made that search before. By creating content, you have the possibility to
capture this traffic before anyone else because you have content around that query. Secondly, creating content, especially
good content, allows people to link to you as a reference. The blog content can be text or images or video but should be
original. Once that content is created, use social media channels to get the word out. The larger the audience the more
likely it is you will get a link to your website and original piece of content. Even a couple of links can make the difference
between Google’s page one and the second page. Getting on page one will drastically improve your traffic via organic
search and is what links and SEO is all about. Some active strategies to create links to your website are:
Consider issuing a press release. You can use PR Newswire to easily set up and distribute a press release for a nominal cost.
When that press release is distributed it will be picked up by a number of news companies and bloggers around the subject
of your website for example fashion. Those bloggers will either repost your press release or use it for original content. One
thing to always ensure in the press release is to always have a linked domain name. We have seen too many press releases
that don’t link to their own website and lose the opportunity for links.
Submit your site to directories. Some are free and some require a payment to get listed. One that should always be used is
DMOZ.org, which is free and is used by all the search engines as a reference for websites. There are directories on just
about everything from crafts to technology to politics. If you want to get your site some links and found, submitting to
directories is a great place to start. To get started, try Googling “your industry directories” where your industry is where
your company does business, like retail or technology.
Comment on pertinent blogs. One strategy that can work if done day in and day out is commenting on blogs and websites
that are in your industry. Typically most blogs will allow you to post a URL as a commenter as well as a URL within the
comment field. Every blog will have different rules on comment submissions so use your common sense on when to
comment and being respectful of the audience. This strategy is typically low value, but can have an impact if done over
many months as the amount of links builds up.
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With links playing such a vital role in search engine rankings and traffic for a website, everyone wants more of them. There
are certainly dubious means of generating links, most of which can actually result in being penalized by the search engines.
However, here are some ways for ethical and honest website owners to go about increasing links to their websites.
Create excellent, valuable content that others want to read
If people find your site useful, they are more likely to link to it. It is not necessary to try to write content that will appeal to
the whole of the Internet population. Focus on being the best in the industry you are in, and in providing value to the
members of that community. Make sure that valuable content is themed around your key phrases. Infographics are visual
and graphic representations of data, and are a popular type of content that is useful to users, and can encourage lots of
traffic and inbound links.
Create tools and documents that others want to use
Interview experts in your field, and host those interviews on your website. Create useful PDF guides for your industry that
people can download from your site. Think outside the box for quirky, relevant items that people will link to. Calculators are
popular tools. If you have a website selling diet books, for example, create a tool which helps users to calculate their body
mass index (BMI) and target weight. Importantly, be unique!
Create games
Creating a game that people want to play is a great way to generate links. Make sure that the theme of the game is based
on the key phrases for your website, so that when others talk about and link to the game, they are using your key phrases.
Capitalize on software and widgets
Widgets, browser extensions and other software that users love to use all help to generate links for a website. Quirk has
released a Mozilla Firefox extension called SearchStatus that is exceptionally useful to the SEO community. Each time
someone mentions this SEO tool, they link to Quirk. People also like to include fun widgets in their forum signatures –
create a widget, make sure that the link is included, and let people spread these around the web for you.

5. User insights
Search engines want their results to be highly relevant to web users, to make sure that web users keep returning to the
search engine for future searches. And the best way to establish what is relevant to users is by looking at how they use
websites. User data is the most effective way of judging the true relevance and value of a website. For example, if users
arrive on a website and leave immediately, chances are it wasn’t relevant to their query in the first place. However, if a user
repeatedly visits a website and spends a long time there, it is probably extremely relevant. When it comes to search
engines, relevant, valuable sites are promoted, and irrelevant sites are demoted.

Search engines use cookies to maintain a history of a user’s search activity. This will include keywords used, and websites
visited from the search engine. Search engines gather data on the clickthrough rate of results, and on bounce rates. Site
speed, that is, the performance of your website, is a contributing factor to ranking in Google.

Social and search

Social information is playing an ever-increasing role in search. Social content, such as Twitter messages or YouTube videos,
can appear in the SERPs, and there is a growing indication of social influence on search rankings.

There are several social factors to consider when it comes to social and search.
1. Use social media properties to dominate brand SERPs.
When someone searches for your brand name, you can use your social media properties to ‘own’ more of the results on
that page, reducing the likelihood that a user will end up on a competitor’s website instead. Use your brand name when
naming Twitter and Flickr profiles, and Facebook and YouTube pages.
2. Social links are used as signals of relevance.
Links from social sites such as Twitter include “rel=nofollow”. However, there is a strong indication that these links are in
fact followed by search engines, and are used to determine relevance. If you focus on creating great content on your site
and making sure that it is easy to share socially, you should see a result in your SEO efforts.
3. Personalized results are influenced by your online social network.
If you are logged in to a social network while searching (Facebook for Bing, or your Gmail account for Google), you could
see results from or influenced by your social circle. In Bing, results can include indications of what your friends have
previously liked or shared via Facebook. On Google, you may be more likely to see your friend’s blog for relevant searches.
4. Optimize for social search engines.
While Google is the biggest search engine worldwide, YouTube is the second biggest. Even within social properties, users
still use search to find the content they are looking for. Content that is housed on these properties should be optimized for
the relevant social search engine as well.
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Mobile search
As web-enabled mobile devices continue to grow in the market, and become easier to use, mobile search remains a key
growth area. Mobile searches tend to be different from desktop searches. They are more navigational in nature (users tend
to know where they want to end up), and users are often looking for concise, actionable answers. Mobile search input can
also be different from desktop search. As well as typing in search keywords, mobile users can search by voice, or by using
images or scanning barcodes.

As with mobile web development, mobile SEO is a little different from desktop SEO, although the fundamental principles
remain the same. Build usable and accessible sites with great content, and you’ve already come a long way.

Where there are differences in approach for mobile SEO, these are largely because:
• Search engines have the ability to deliver precise location-based results to mobile users.
• Usability is critical in sites for mobile devices.
• Search engines have less data to work with (compared to traditional web) in terms of site history, traffic & inbound links.

The fundamentals of mobile SEO are not so different to those of desktop SEO.
1. A usable, crawlable site is very important.
Build mobile versions of your website for mobile users: simple navigation, strip down content to only what is required.
2. Content is important, and should be formatted for mobile usage.
Text and images should be optimized for the mobile experience – so no large file sizes! The meta data still matters: titles
and descriptions are what users see in the SERPs.
3. Links are important.
Link your mobile site from your desktop site and vice versa. Submit your mobile site to relevant mobile directories.
4. Submit a mobile XML sitemap.
Mobile-specific sitemaps use the same protocols as standard XML sitemaps, with the addition of a mobile tag.
5. Use the word ‘mobile’ on the mobile website, or use mobile top-level domains.
Make it explicit to search engines that this is the mobile version of your website, and they are more likely to prioritize it.

Local search
Local search refers to search behavior and results where location matters. Either results returned are local in nature, or
results returned can be map based. With blended SERPs, map-based results can be returned together with other types of
results, depending on the type of search. As search engines become ever more sophisticated, location can be inferred and
influence the type of results. For example, a user may search for ‘plumber london’, and the search will know to return
results for London plumbers. These may even be returned on a map. However, a user in London may search just for
‘plumber’. The search can infer from the user’s IP address that the user is in London, and still return results for London
plumbers (since someone searching for this term is likely to be looking for a nearby service).

For search engines to return location-relevant results, they need to know the location of things being searched for. This is
often determined from sites that include the name and address of a business. Note that this site may not be yours. Location
results are often determined from various review sites, and the results can include some of those reviews. Search engines
also allow businesses to ‘claim’ their locations. A business can verify itself through a process with the search engine, and
ensure that location information is correct. Google+ Local is a good example of this – the business can claim a listing, add
their details, and even receive reviews.

International SEO
As companies grow, one of the things they start to consider is going international. Understanding how SEO works outside
your country. can help smooth the transition and save a lot of money. Thankfully if you know how domestic SEO works then
you are probably 90% of the way to getting your site found outside your country. To get found by local search engines, the
best thing to do is like you did in the U.S., start out with a plan like the one following:
Know your market. While Google owns 65% of the U.S. market, they own a lot more in some other countries and a lot less
in others. For example, if you are going into the Chinese market you will need to have your website optimized for Baidu. If
you are looking at Russia then you need to consider Yandex.
Know the language. Like you did in the your home country, you need to know your local language, even U.S. English and
U.K. English can have some difference in keywords. If you are going with a non-English site, you will need someone with
local knowledge to let you know how people search for your product and what those keywords and phrases are. The best
person in this situation is typically the salesperson you are hiring in country. Know your website system - Some content
management systems like Drupal can support multilingual sites, while others can’t. You need to make sure that stuff
MM302 Digital & Social Media Marketing 02. Search Engine Optimization Page 11 of 12
published in your country can be pushed to other countries after a translation. You also need to know if your site can do
languages that are very different like Arabic that’s read right to left.
Location location location - Just like the real estate market, location matters. Search engines will give more preference to a
site hosted within a country rather than one outside of a country. Using a content system like Drupal can provide a master
website and database in the U.S. hosting that allows a site hosted in Spain to pull information. Thankfully, the rest of the
SEO evaluation is the same. You still need headings (h1 tags) Page Titles, clean URLs and Alt Tags. The only difference is
these will need to be filled with language unique to the territory.

What not to do
Black hat SEO refers to practices that attempt to game the search engines. If a search engine uncovers a website using unethical
practices to achieve search engine rankings, it is likely to remove that website from its index. Google publishes guidelines for
webmasters, available through Google’s Webmaster Central (www.google.com/webmasters). As well as outlining best practice
principles, Google has supplied the following list of don’ts:
• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don’t send automated queries to Google.
• Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
• Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicated content.
• Don’t create pages that include malicious behaviours such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other malware.
• Avoid ‘doorway’ pages created just for search engines or other ‘cookie cutter’ approaches, such as affiliate programmes with little or
no original content. If your site participates in an affiliate programme, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant
content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
• Avoid link farms and focus on attracting quality, valuable links.
The bottom line: design websites for users first and foremost, and don’t try to trick the search engines. It will only be a matter of time
before they uncover the black hat techniques.
Tools of the trade
There are a number of tools available to assist with SEO. Some are made available by search engines, and some are developed by
agencies and individuals who specialize in SEO. Most are available for free.
Google Webmaster Tools
www.google.com/webmasters
Google provides guidelines to webmasters, and tools to help ensure your website is being indexed.
Open Site Explorer
www.opensiteexplorer.org
Moz provides a useful tool called Open Site Explorer, which can help you determine the value of links from particular sites.
Tools from SEOBook
tools.seobook.com
SEOBook provides a number of tools that assist any SEO. For example, Rank Checker is a Firefox extension that allows you to save a
number of keywords and to perform regular searches on them, giving you the ranking of your chosen URL for each keyword in the
search engines selected. They also have tools to help with keyword discovery.
Keyword discovery tools
There are a number of tools available, some free and some paid for, to assist with keyword discovery. Some include:
Google AdWords Keyword Planner
adwords.google.com/keywordplanner
Trellian’s Keyword Discovery Tool
www.keyworddiscovery.com
Wordtracker
www.wordtracker.com
Wordtracker Keyword Questions
freekeywords.wordtracker.com/keyword-questions/
Microsoft Advertising Intelligence
advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/bing-ads-intelligence
SEO PowerSuite Rank Tracker (the trial version has limited functionality)
link-assistant.com
Online forums
Webmaster World (www.webmasterworld.com) is frequented by SEOs and webmasters aiming to stay current with latest trends and
search engine updates.
Google Merchant Center
www.google.com/merchants
The Google Merchant Center allows you to mark up any products you sell through eCommerce, ensuring that they also rank for relevant
search results.
SearchStatus
SearchStatus (www.quirk.biz/searchstatus) allows you to see a given website’s Alexa and PageRank rankings .
MM302 Digital & Social Media Marketing 02. Search Engine Optimization Page 12 of 12

Key terms and concepts

Term Definition
Alt text The ‘alt’ attribute for the IMG HTML tag. It is used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a web
page, normally with a descriptive function, telling a search engine or user what an image is about and
displaying the text in instances where the image is unable to load. Also called Alt Tag.
Anchor text The visible, clickable text in a link.
App store optimisation (ASO) Process of optimising mobile/web applications for the specific web stores in which they are distributed.
Backlink All the links on other pages that will take the user to a specific web page. Each link to that specific page is
known as an inbound/backlink. The number of backlinks influences your ranking.
Canonical The canonical version is the definitive version. In SEO, it refers to a definitive URL.
Domain name The easy-to-read name used to identify an IP address of a server that distinguishes it from other systems on
the World Wide Web: our domain name is quirk.biz.

Flash Technology used to show video/animation on a website. Can be bandwidth heavy, unfriendly to SE spiders.
Heading tags Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are standard elements used to define headings and subheadings on a web
page. The number indicates the importance, so H1 tags are viewed by the spiders as being more important
than H3 tags. Using target key phrases in your H tags is essential for effective SEO.
Home page The first page of any website. The home page gives users a glimpse into what your site is about – very much
like the index in a book, or a magazine.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Certain HTML tags are used to structure the information and features within a web page.
Hyperlink A link in an electronic document that allows you to follow the link to the relevant web page.
Internet Protocol (IP) address The IP address is an exclusive number that is used to represent every single computer in a network.
Keyword frequency The number of times a keyword or key phrase appears on a website.
Key phrase Two or more words that are combined to form a search query - often referred to as keywords. It is usually
better to optimise for a phrase rather than a single word.
Keyword rankings Where the keywords or phrases targeted by SEO rank in the search engine results – if your targeted terms do
not appear on the first three pages, start worrying.
Landing page The page a user reaches when clicking on a paid or organic search engine listing. The pages that have the
most success are those that match up as closely as possible with the user’s search query.
Link A URL embedded on a web page. If you click on the link you will be taken to that page.
Link bait A technique for creating content that is specifically designed to attract links from other web pages.
Meta tags Tags that tell search engine spiders what exactly a web page is about. It’s important that your meta tags are
optimised for the targeted key phrases. Meta tags are made up of meta titles, descriptions and keywords.
PageRank Google’s secret algorithm for ranking web pages in search engine results pages.
Referrer When a user clicks on a link from one site to another, the site the user has left is the referrer. Most browsers
log the referrer’s URL in referrer strings. This information is vital in determining which queries are being used
to find specific sites.
Robots.txt A file written and stored in the root directory of a website that restricts the search engine spiders from
indexing certain pages of the website.
Search engine spiders Programs that travel the web, following links and building up the indexes of search engines.
Universal Resource Locator (URL) A web address that is unique to every page on the Internet.
Usability A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a desired task. Sites with excellent usability fare far better
than those that are difficult to use.
XML sitemap A guide that search engines use to help them index a website, which indicates how many pages there are,
how often they are updated and how important they are.