An introductory presentation Webinar: Search Engine Optimisation

2 © 2004 NB2BC Who we are… Matt Charman E-business Architect Mark Bonnett Open Source Technologist

3 © 2004 NB2BC Search Engines 50% of searches are ‘business searches’ (source: Overture, 2002) Cost per lead from a search engine $0.29 (source: US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, 2003) 550 million searches submitted daily worldwide (source: US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, 2003) 80% of internet sessions begin at a search engine (source: Jupiter Media, 2003)

4 © 2004 NB2BC Introduction After this presentation you will: be able to have an informed discussion with a web developer regarding the optimisation of your website have answers to your specific SEO questions have learnt about our SEO ‘self help’ tool

5 © 2004 NB2BC Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Setting the scene You are to meet your web developer to discuss optimising your website for search engines: how do you prepare for the meeting? at the meeting – what questions should be asked? what happens before any work begins?

6 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation search engine ‘spider’ visits website spider follows links through site creates list of words found and page locations index created based on proprietary weighting system search engine database is updated For more information: How does a search engine work?

7 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation major search engines are: Google Yahoo MSN (Microsoft) other search engines exist but use results supplied by top 3 e.g. Google powers AOL Search, Netscape Yahoo powers Alltheweb, AltaVista, Hotbot, Lycos, CNN ‘What are the popular search engines?’

8 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation ‘What do you want to achieve through SEO?’ top in the search engine rankings for rankings sake rank above my competitors easier for potential customers to find you more traffic to your website increase sales

9 © 2004 NB2BC Questions to consider: how many sales leads do you want referred from search engines? where do you want these leads to come from? which pages do you want website visitors to land on? what do you want visitors to do at your site? what conversion rate do you want to achieve? Meeting Preparation ‘What do you want to achieve through SEO?’ business/ marketing objectives website objectives SEO objectives

10 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation ‘Which keywords do you want to be found with?’ Good keywords are those which: 1. define all products and services 2. are popular with searchers 3. are not too competitive brainstorm relevant terms don’t use industry speak get customer focussed what makes you unique? refine list to include popular search terms tools will help you to do this e.g. PrioritySubmitPrioritySubmit refine list AGAIN to include less competitive terms analyse number of results returned by search engine start with your homepage – repeat for all your key pages

11 © 2004 NB2BC How can I check my if my website can be indexed? Search Engines can help: Google search operator: ‘info: reveals information about your site Free Tools available: Google Webmaster - comprehensive info about how Google crawls and indexes websites Bobby - test single web pages for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues Meeting Preparation

12 © 2004 NB2BC How has my site been built? AND…. Is this preventing the search engines indexing my site? Technologies that may prevent your site being indexed TechnologyHow to improve Framed siteUse no-frames tag JavaScript menusUse static menu or a site map Flash driven siteLimit usage of flash Image driven siteUse style sheets & ensure enough text used Dynamic websitesRewrite URLs to be search engine friendly In the meeting

13 © 2004 NB2BC ‘Will you be optimising these areas on my website?’ Meta Tags Page descriptions Keywords Image descriptions (ALT) Page Titles Page Text ‘Can I make changes to these areas in the future?’ HTML skills Editing tool required In the meeting

14 © 2004 NB2BC In the meeting ‘What meta page titles do you want?’

15 © 2004 NB2BC In the meeting ‘What meta page titles do you want?’ Page titles should: be formed from keywords/phrases give prominence to keywords/phrases be unique for each web page be compelling to searchers be 5-10 words in length

16 © 2004 NB2BC In the meeting ‘Have you written your page text?’ Guidelines when writing for search engines: unique keyword/phrase focus for each page keywords/phrases appear ‘high-up’ on the page repeat keywords/phrases two/three times per page web page should have words per page use keyword rich, contextual, internal links home page is the most important page contextual links: e-marketing advice NOT click here

17 © 2004 NB2BC

18 © 2004 NB2BC Before any work begins ‘What is the scope of the SEO quote?’ Does it include: keyword research changing site architecture creation of page titles rewriting and editing web copy improving meta tags in-bound link building strategies directory submissions timescales for completion on-going support

19 © 2004 NB2BC Summary Meeting preparation define what you want to achieve through SEO do your keyword research During the meeting check your site can be indexed identify what needs to be done Before going ahead with the work evaluate the quote what is included? what isn’t included? Getting the most from SEO

20 © 2004 NB2BC 7 Steps to SEO success 1. Download and complete our step by step SEO guideSEO guide 2. Utilise our 1 to 1 support via ‘skype surgery’ 3. Keyword research using tools in SEO guide 4. Prepare to meet web developer 5. Review quote, any issues contact NB2BC 6. Review and measure results of SEO process 7. Contact us for follow up ‘benchmark’ report

21 © 2004 NB2BC In the meeting ‘What about links from other sites?’

22 © 2004 NB2BC In the meeting ‘What about links from other sites?’ the web exists as a number of ‘communities’ links to and from your site determine to which you belong If quality sites link TO you: your credibility increases your rankings will increase traffic to your site will increase Other sites will only link to you if your site merits it Content is king!!!!!

23 © 2004 NB2BC Improving Rankings …..have other sites linking to it? Your Website Major brands high quality highly ranked relevant to you On-line markets Governing bodies Industry Leaders relevant anchor text: e-marketing advice NOT click here ‘link worthy’ quality content add value

24 © 2004 NB2BC Step 10: Is my website….. …..registered with directories? directories are human edited websites are categorised trusted source for search engines trusted source for human searchers

25 © 2004 NB2BC Step 10: Is my website….. …..registered with directories? general web directories e.g. DMOZ Yahoo Directory Applegate

26 © 2004 NB2BC Step 10: Is my website….. …..registered with directories? Topic specific directories e.g. WMCCM CNET.com Assurweb

27 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation ‘Which keywords do you want to be found with?’ The process for defining your keywords: list terms that describe your products and services brainstorm all relevant terms get customer focussed – don’t use industry speak what makes you unique? refine list to include popular search terms tools will help you to do this e.g. PrioritySubmitPrioritySubmit refine list AGAIN to include less competitive terms analyse number of results returned by search engine NOW REPEAT FOR EACH PAGE IN YOU WEBSITE

28 © 2004 NB2BC Meeting Preparation Which keywords do you want to be found with? ToolAdvsDisadvs com/d/searchinventory/s uggestion/ Free Large sample Rife with bad data No historical data Based on last 60 days Advanced functionality Uses only minor search engines Requires subscription Full year of data Large sample of search engines Can segment by country Requires subscription