SEO BASICS FOR BLOGGERS

Chris Burgess

@chrisburgess clickify.com

What I’ll Cover…

•  What is SEO?

•  Getting Found

•  Structuring Your Content

•  Essential Tools

•  WordPress SEO by Yoast

•  Recommended Resources

What is SEO?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization

What is SEO?

ORGANIC  (SEO)  

PAID  (SEM)  

PAID  (SEM)  

Getting Found

1. Put your visitors first

Profile Your Visitors

•  What gender? •  What age?

•  What interests?

•  What do they need?

•  What can you provide them with?

•  What is the purchase cycle like for them?

•  What pain points can you alleviate?

•  What competitor sites to they also visit?

•  What can you give that no other site does?

2. What is your main goal?

Are You Looking For…

•  More visitors? •  More leads?

•  More customers?

•  More subscribers?

•  More online sales?

•  More advertising?

Use this to benchmark your progress and to ensure you have a focused call to action on your site.

3. Prepare Your Strategy

What Your Strategy Should Include

SEO •  Keyword Research

•  Content Marketing

•  Onsite/Offsite

It also needs to be integrated with:

•  SEM

•  Social Media

•  Comms/PR

•  Advertising

Keyword Research

Google Keyword Planner

h"p://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner    

Google Trends – Keyword Research

h"ps://www.google.com.au/trends/  

Structuring your Content

Content Structure – Hierarchical Order

<h1>Only 1 Heading 1(with target topic/keyword)<h1>

<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

<h2>Sub Heading 2</h2>

Pe9erunt  u9  sibi  concilium  to9us  Galliae  in  diem  certam  indicere.  Praeterea  iter  est  quasdam  res  quas  ex  communi.  Prima  luce,  cum  quibus  mons  aliud    consensu  ab.  

Pe9erunt  u9  sibi  concilium  to9us  Galliae  in  diem  certam  indicere.  Praeterea  iter  est  quasdam  res  quas  ex  communi.  Prima  luce,  cum  quibus  mons  aliud    consensu  ab.  

Pe9erunt  u9  sibi  concilium  to9us  Galliae  in  diem  certam  indicere.  Praeterea  iter  est  quasdam  res  quas  ex  communi.  Prima  luce,  cum  quibus  mons  aliud    consensu  ab.  

IMAGE  

Content Structure

•  Descriptive File Name and use Image ALT Tags

Content Structure

•  Page Titles – Unique Title Tag for each page combination of target keywords

•  Page URLs – Try to use keyword with hyphens as separators

•  Meta Description – Used in SERPs, try to include chosen keyword

Page  URL  

Meta  Descrip9on  

Page  Title  

Content Structure

Essential Tools

Essential Tools

•  Google Analytics •  Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

•  Google Keyword Planner

•  Modern CMS (like WordPress)

I’d highly recommend starting with these free tools.

Specialists will use a variety of tools, however the above are more than enough to get you started.

Google Tools Google Analytics

Google Search Console

Google Keyword Planner

WordPress SEO By Yoast

h"ps://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-­‐seo/  

Recommended Resources

•  Beginners Guide to SEO –  https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

•  SEO Meetup –  https://www.meetup.com/Melbourne-SEO/

•  Search Engine Ranking Factors –  http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

•  Google Webmaster Resources –  http://www.google.com/webmasters/