💡Hiring a team of people who are better than you at certain things is essential to helping your business grow.

💡If you stay still, you’re effectively going backwards.

Every month you don’t invest in SEO is a month when your competitors will, and eventually, even if you have a long head-start, they’ll catch up and surpass you.

SEO is the practice of creating greater organic visibility for your website in search engines, driving traffic to your site without paid advertising.
→It covers a range of activities-both on your website itself and in your surrounding marketing-that are undertaken to optimize a website or webpage, to achieve the highest possible ranking in a search engine results page.

Ultimately, a search engine’s goal is to provide the best user experience for searchers, so they are looking for indicators-like trust, authority, relevance and even page-loading speed to determine how likely your site is to help them do that.

From a business point of view, the ultimate aim of a high search engine ranking is to increase the quantity and quality of organic visitor traffic to a website or page, and ultimately reduce the amount that needs to be spent on paid advertising.

The beauty of SEO is that while you are ultimately optimizing your website for human beings; it is a piece of software.
This means there is a pure science behind a winning SEO strategy. You are not trying to influence a particular human being, just an algorithm.
You might think you don’t have the budget or the resources to match some of the larger players in your market online, but you have other advantages. Your size and flexibility will allow you to move faster than them in an ever-changing online realm.
-Dallas Rabot, Head of Product, Pure SEO

• You have to be competitive
  →You need to be seen to make it into anyone’s consideration set-they have to know you’re there to have the option of choosing you; that’s marketing 101.
• Successful SEO is really just good marketing
  →In essence, a lot of it is about making sure you have good content for your users-interesting content that’s relevant and valuable.

Some common misconceptions:

1. You can get onto page 1 of Google really quickly.
2. Google Ads(paid search) impacts on SEO.
3. When you’re ranking top, you can stop.
4. Writing loads and loads of content is going to be better.

It is true that long-form content ranks better than short-form, but higher-quality content is far preferable to pure volume.
From an SEO perspective, approximately 2000+ words is the optimum length for a piece of content on a website.

From an SEO perspective, the title tag, or meta title, is the single most important thing on a website.

TOP TIPS

• Doing keyword research is the foundation of your SEO efforts. Try and look at as many terms as possible.
• Persevere and don’t lose hope — the results of your keyword planning investigation might not seem ideal or what you expected, but they are what your customers want.
• Think what your customers may search for, not expecting them to automatically know your industry jargon.
• Reach your local audience — make sure you include geographic-based keywords.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Your keywords are the foundation of everything you will do in the search sphere, but determining what they are — or should be — is not as straightforward as one often imagines.
• Think laterally about what your keywords actually are: the way that you refer to what you do or sell may not be what other people would type into a search field in order to find you.
• Think beyond just your primary keywords and consider how long-tail search terms can work for you. These typically have lower overall search volumes but higher conversion rates, meaning people are more likely to buy, click, respond or otherwise engage as a result of these more specific queries.
• Research matters — engage with the tools available online and get input from a range of people who know your business.
• Using your research, analyze your keywords based on competition, frequency, and relevancy, to determine where you have a chance to achieve a high ranking. These are the top terms that will form the foundation of your SEO strategy.

META TITLE TOP TIPS

• Meta titles should be a maximum of 50–60 characters (600 pixels).
• They should be unique for every (yes, every!) page of the website.
• They should be relevant for the page they are written for and contain the specific and most important keywords you want that page to rank for.
• Choose your words in descending order of importance, as search engines weight this information from left to right. Generic terms like locations should be on the right, as should brand names (as you will easily rank for your brand anyway).

Google places a high value on the content of alt tags.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Meta titles are the single most important thing on your web page from an SEO perspective. However, there are other aspects of your website’s ‘anatomy’ that you can make the most of.
Your meta description exists to provide context and information about your website or page. It’s your chance to encourage searchers to click through, so don’t waste it.
The H1 header is different to your meta title; think of it as a ‘you are here’ description on your web page.
Internet users are now far more comfortable with the concept of links, so make the anchor text for your link something more relevant (and keyword optimized) than the old-fashioned ‘click here’.
Images can be optimized, too — look to the alt attributes for another optimization option.
Lay a navigable trail of ‘breadcrumbs’ through your site for maximum usability and search optimization.
Robots that crawl the internet are automated scripts that crawl websites to gather information, and you can have a say in how they behave on your site with the robots.txt file.
Switch to the safer and more secure HTTPS protocol to avoid penalties when it comes to search ranking.
Content that is relevant, on topic and contains just a sprinkling of keywords is the most effective.
Having everything operating only within its induvial silo might not be ideal for your business, but it’s good for the structure of your website.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The majority of behind-the-scenes code on your website isn’t directly related to search results, but there are a few things you can optimize.
Most CMS function in similar ways, although our preference for being able to continually optimize and improve your site for search is an open-source system.
Use canonicalization to avoid dilution when it comes to search traffic.
Ensuring you have W3C web code compliance is essential but, luckily, there’s a handy online tool that lets you do that.
Make use of schema to enrich your search listings and achieve better results.

DO:

• Keep users in one browser window.
• Streamline any forms.
• Make images expandable.
• Design for imprecision

DON’T:

• Use flash for flashy content.
• Don’t overwhelm users with promos and pop-ups.
• Force users to navigate in all directions.
• Describe the desktop version as the ‘full site’.

Google specifically penalizes sites for horizontal scroll.

Google takes mobile optimization seriously.

Download and use AMP – accelerated mobile pages.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Google has rolled out its mobile-first index. If it was only anecdotally important to cater to mobiles before, this has now become even more vital.
• Create your website with mobile in mind, making navigation easy and design uncomplicated, bearing in mind the way users interact with phone screens.
• Speed matters, so beware of anything that will slow down your website’s loading speeds.
• There are heaps of great tools available, from checking your website’s speed to optimizing it for mobile.

Bear in mind that Google doesn’t usually pay attention to multiple videos on one page — it’s the first one that it cares about. So if you’re putting multiple videos on one page of your website, make sure that the first one is the one that can do the heavy lifting as far as impressing Google’s bots goes.

Imagine a newspaper folded in half as it sits on the table, waiting to be picked up and shaken out. The articles above that fold are the ones that you’re going to pay attention to first.
The same thing applies to web pages, with ‘the fold’ in this case being the bottom of the screen, with any content below the fold requiring you to scroll down to see it.
Anything of critical importance needs to be above the fold, so that you know for sure that people will see it when they first load your page, even if they don’t bother to scroll any further.

Aside from maintaining a reasonable consistency for posting, high-quality content is much more preferable than tons of junky content strung together at a moment’s notice by someone who either doesn’t have the time to write blog posts or just doesn’t have a knack for it.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Content exists in a variety of forms.
• Blog SEO optimization is relatively straightforward once keywords and relevant page locations are understood.
• Video is the future, and there are ways to optimize it for both YouTube and Google.
• Infographics are another valuable type of content that has the potential to go viral.
• Always value quality over quantity when it comes to blogging.
• Google’s perception of high-quality content is defined by EAT: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

💡There’s always something in the real-world calendar that’s influencing your business.

Persona example:
“Brian is 36, with a steady job in IT and a passion for new and cool gadgets. He has a girlfriend who he lives with, but no kids. He grew up on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man, and his enthusiasm for those cartoons of his childhood never went away. He has strong opinions on both the prequels and sequels of the Star Wars franchise. He drives a perfectly decent Honda Accord, but really wants a Tesla — until they came out, he wasn’t really a car man. His disposable income mostly goes on cool tech, but there’s a definite window for nostalgic buys too.
And here’s another:
Charlotte is 25 and fancies herself an influencer-in-the-making. She lives in Grey Lynn and studied communications, and spends her weekends scoping out the next best brunch spots. While she loves good food, in many ways her priorities are aesthetics and nutrition before taste — so she can get those beautiful shots for her Instagram and a caption that reads ‘Can you BELIEVE this gorgeous spread is totally gluten-free?’. As well as her growing Instagram following, she’s big on word-of-mouth recommendations.

💡Three hundred words is the bare minimum for a blog post to be able to rank on Google.

Social media has seen the most success with posts between 600~1500 words.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Yes, you do need to create a content calendar — to keep you organized, if nothing else.
Tailor your content to the time of year and real-world events.
Contemplate your target audiences — both your main core and secondary audiences — and personalize them.
Establish a planning timeframe.
Plot out your topics and remember to use keywords.
Think about the best length for your blog posts, for SEO and also for the user experience.

💡The issue with subdomains is that each of them will be treated as a completely different website by Google.
→Create subdirectories(or subfolders) with ‘hreflang’ tags.

You might want to investigate the use of ‘content delivery network’/CDN.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

An accurate and well-maintained Google My Business listing is a crucial part of local businesses ranking well both on Google and Google Maps.
Go all out on details and photographic representation — this is your chance to sell yourself!
Prove yourselves to be an accessible, customer-focused business through thoughtful review responses and answers to questions.
Consider the local implications of your keywords and Schema.org data.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Corporate needs are on a different scale to SMEs in all areas — and SEO is no different.
There are different ways you can start to make changes in SEO practice, regardless of how hands-on you are able to be with your company’s website and online channels.
Time is needed for change to happen — and it’s also needed for external digital marketing providers to understand the ins and outs of a corporate company.
Don’t be afraid to make your voice heard when it comes to supporting change for the better in the search space. Harnessing search is an inevitable avenue for all businesses in this day and age, so help your company be ahead of the curve rather than chasing after it.

The way to make conversions happen is to have a stellar conversion funnel in place, to carry people to the point of decision-making.

• organic search
• social media
• PR
• referral links
• email campaigns
• advertising
• word of mouth

The next goal is activation:

• sign up for an e-newsletter
• follow your social media account
• free trial
• free consultation
• discount on first purchase
• special offer code

Activating them is the part of the process where whose leads turn into buyers.

The activation phase of conversion should be supported by great content that relates to the offering in question.
You want to reassure people that taking this first step is a fabulous idea that will pay off for them.

“Use the code sockittome at checkout for 50% off your first order — then post a pic of you and your new Team Sock-it gears in the wild with the hashtag (#)teamsockitnewrecruit and you’ll go into our monthly draw to win a $100 Team Sock-it gift voucher!”

A customer who tells someone else about your company in excited, enthusiastic terms is going to be more effective than even the best online ad campaign.

CRO (CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION) TOP TIPS

• Create urgency with the user, pushing them to book or make a purchase. For example, if you are a hotel or tour operator, use language such as ‘Only one room left!’ or ‘Free for a limited time!’
• Make the call-to-action buttons such as the ‘Book Now’ or ‘Start Your Free Trial’ buttons more salient on the page as well, by using a color not replicated anywhere else on the site so that the buttons instantly attract a visitor’s eye.
• Pages that are designed to convert users are more successful if they include ‘social proof’ such as user reviews or testimonials.
• If you have an e-commerce website, and a user abandons their online shopping cart with items in it, you can set up your content management system to automatically send out an email 15 minutes later, asking them if they want to complete the transaction with a 10% discount.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Engage your customers throughout their journey with you for optimum results. Digital engagement is not technically SEO, but it can play nicely with it.
Conversion funnels are all about scooping up a large number of people at the top — there is always some inevitable drop-off.
Activate your potential customers with exciting offers and tempting opportunities where they can get to know you and your product.
Create effective, efficient landing pages with considered CTA buttons to help on the final stretch of bringing those potential customers home.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

RankBrain uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to interpret search queries and determine a user’s intent in order to rank results in terms of relevance.
There is no specific way to optimize for RankBrain, but some of the overarching rules for good SEO, especially those around content, still apply.
RankBrain is attempting to think like a human, so apply this thinking (and lashings of common sense!) to your website and content generation.

💡They say that someone needs to see your brand at least three times before they will engage with it, and I firmly believe that to be the case.

Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool is the best tool around for researching keywords for SEO.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

There’s more to successful marketing than just amazing SEO, even for digital marketing companies!
Brand recognition is a core part of any business’s success, and offline exposure of your brand is a core part of that.
SEO is a slow-burn activity — combine it with other, more fast-paced marketing approaches for a well-rounded strategy.
Paid advertising can create some quick wins, and platforms like Google Ads provide useful tools for your SEO too.
Content exists beyond the screen and can provide valuable chances for your name and company name to linger in people’s minds.

💡Links and great content are the most important ranking factors for Google.

Make sure to regularly check in on inbound links that you’re aware of, and the websites that they are coming from.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Links are a critical part of SEO — arguably even more important than keywords!
Sort out directory listings and appropriate social media profiles for inbound links that you have maximum control over.
Understand that some websites are stronger than others when it comes to domain authority. Google loves education and government websites.
Create content for other companies and websites to create inbound links on your own terms.
Soak up all the link juice you can — but don’t dilute it by going wild with too many links on your own pages.

The more social engagement, the more clicks from organic search.

What platforms should I be on?

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social media is an integral part of the digital marketing equation, regardless of what your main focus is.
Different platforms lend themselves to different kinds of businesses. Take that into consideration before signing up for everything you come across.
Even if Google doesn’t officially acknowledge social media as a contributing factor to its algorithm, the links driven by social still play a part.
Use appropriate keywords where possible to maximize the indexable nature of social media platforms.
Make use of scheduling tools if you have multiple platforms to manage.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Public relations and influencer marketing enable you to amplify your SEO efforts for better results.
PR and influencer marketing can be a source of additional, high-quality links.
Do your research. Like good marketing, utilizing influencers relies on drilling down to, and understanding, your target market.
Look past just the numbers of followers for real, genuine engagement, as that’s what will really bring the results.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Google Analytics is the free tool you need to kick-start your metric management.
Take into account the nuances of your business and website before making assumptions on what counts as good or bad rates in your analytics.
Get to know both acquisition and behavioral data to maximize your understanding of your customers.
Remember the importance of tracking keywords and links as well as generating them.