How to Rank Your Website on Page #1 of Google SEARCH ENGINE - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What is Keyword Research? 2 Keyword research is finding out what search terms your potential customers are using, so that you can optimise your site better with the data. Keyword Research Your customers use keywords/ Your job is to know what those search terms to search for your keywords are and optimise your business. website for them. How to conduct keyword research like a pro Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 12 Academy

The 4-Step Keyword Research Process Chapter 2: Keyword Research Brainstorm Build Organise Prioritise Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 13 Academy

Why is Keyword Research Important? Discover Buyer Personas 1 To provide the best answer to a question, you first need to understand the intention of the question, also commonly referred to Chapter 2: Keyword Research as the searcher intent . Keyword research can help you to identify buyer personas based on the questions (search terms) they ask. Create Useful Content 2 By conducting keyword research, you’ll discover exactly what questions your consumers are asking. The next step would be to understand the searchers’ intents and create content that will provide the best answers to each question. Optimize Your Content 3 Knowing what keywords your potential customers are using can help you better optimise your content for them and for the search engines (e.g. by including the keywords in your title tags, URL, meta description, copy, and image alt tags.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 14 Academy

Why is it important to identify What would you key in to Google if you were: your buyer personas? Knowing who your buyers are will give Chapter 2: Keyword Research you a broader idea of search terms to conduct keyword research on. From a keyword researcher’s perspective, different buyer personas key in different search terms. For example, a marketing director looking to hold a conference with partnering companies would key in “conference room rental” , whereas a business consultant looking to hold a meeting with his client would key in “meeting room rental” . Researching your buyer personas and understanding what keywords they are most likely to enter is the first step to effective keyword research. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 15 Academy

Identifying Buyer Personas Brainstorm with your team 1 Set up a meeting with your team to brainstorm and list down all possible buyer personas. Chapter 2: Keyword Research Conduct keyword research 2 Use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner to identify buyer personas. Analyse existing customer enquiries & profiles 3 Looking through your past customer enquiries and existing customer profiles can help you identify buyer personas. Conduct market survey Invest in paid market research data, conduct 4 surveys with 3rd party and existing customers, visit forums and attend community events where your potential customers hang out. Refer to buyer persona worksheet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 16 Academy

Thinking Like a Buyer What would you key in to Google if you were: Going into the personas of your buyers Asking these questions will help you to discover even broader • a business consultant looking to hold a Our earlier example (“conference (awareness) keywords. room rental” & “meeting room Chapter 2: Keyword Research meeting with your client 
 rental”) where different buyer For example if your customers personas keying in different are mainly event planners keyword variations that essentially looking to rent function rooms • an event planner looking run a birthday mean the same thing shows that it for their clients’ birthday parties, is important to go into your party for a customer 
 they’d probably use search customer’s minds in order to terms such as “function room optimise for as many possible rental” . keyword variations. • a speaker looking to run a seminar to You can also create If one of your buyer personas are showcase your products 
 “awareness” articles such as event planners, think about what “20 Amazing Birthday Ideas to words they would search for in Celebrate Your 21st” to increase order to find your products and • a tuition teacher looking to hold a class for brand awareness. services. your students 
 Conduct keyword research with What content do they digest? that title in mind and you will Where do they hang out on the probably discover keywords web? What sites do they frequent? • a training provider looking to hold a such as “ birthday party ideas. corporate training workshop Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 17 Academy

Conducting Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner) Chapter 2: Keyword Research How to use Google Keyword Planner Step 1: Sign into Google AdWords with your Gmail account. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 18 Academy

Conducting Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner) Chapter 2: Keyword Research Step 2: Set up your AdWords account if you have signed in to AdWords for the first time. Once done, navigate to Tools => Keyword Planner. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 19 Academy

Conducting Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner) Chapter 2: Keyword Research Step 3: Click on “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category”. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 20 Academy

Conducting Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner) Chapter 2: Keyword Research Step 4: Enter a seed keyword (e.g. “training room rental” ) and click “Get ideas”. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 21 Academy

Types of Keywords You Should Target AIDA Funnel (User Intent) Some examples of keywords in various buying stages: Chapter 2: Keyword Research } “Awareness” keywords: •how to organise a seminar Informational •how to promote an event Content “Interest” keywords: •meeting rooms facilities •seminar rooms singapore } “Desire” keywords: •training room rental rates Product- •training room rental in bugis Centered “Action” keywords: Content •rent a training room in singapore •rent a meeting room singapore Image Courtesy of Hubspot Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 22 Academy

Short Tail, Long Tail, Types of Keywords You Should Target Location Based Keywords Short tail Long tail Location based There are short tail (generic), long tail (specific), and location based • training room rental • training room rental keywords to consider when Chapter 2: Keyword Research in bugis choosing your target keywords. • room rental • long term training • rent a training room room rental • rent rooms in singapore Long tail (specific) and location • cheap training • rooms for rent • training room rental room rental based keywords tend to perform singapore • training rooms better than short tail (generic) • training room rental • singapore training rates keywords. rooms for rent The example on the left showcases A consumer searching The above keywords Location based a training room rental company for “room rental” could are more targeted to a keywords are high based in Singapore and the be looking for an specific audience. A potential keywords keywords gathered through apartment to stay in, consumer searching and tend to convert not specifically a for “training room very well. A consumer keyword research. training room to rental rates” has a searching for “training conduct business high probability in room rental in bugis” Another type of keyword would be activities. enquiring on rental most likely only wants brand keywords. Brand keywords fees. to rent a training room in that specific area. require very little optimisation and tend to be very easy to rank for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 23 Academy

Types of Keywords Take note of the You Should Target search trends. The average monthly searches is 170, What is a good search volume? however in certain months there are Is there a minimum search volume I Chapter 2: Keyword Research less than 170 should use as a guideline? - It searches. depends on the type of keywords and the buyer intent. Through our Google AdWords reports, we have noticed conversions on long tail keywords with a local search volume as low as 40 monthly average searches. Typically for long tail, actionable keywords, and location based keywords , you shouldn’t worry about a minimum search volume. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 24 Academy

Conducting Keyword Research Step 5: Explore the “Ad group ideas” and “Keyword ideas” tab and start building your Chapter 2: Keyword Research keyword list. Other keyword research tools Here are some other keyword research tools, both paid and free, to consider: •Google Suggest •Ubersuggest •Keywordtool.io •semrush •Answerthepublic Once you have gathered additional keywords from the other KW research tools, plug them back into Google Keyword Planner to estimate the average monthly search volume of each search term. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 25 Academy


 Conducting Keyword Research Using more than one keyword research tool for keyword research Chapter 2: Keyword Research There are many great tools to conduct keyword research. However, like most other softwares out there in the market, there is no one size fits all. Using only the Google Keyword Planner for example, you can gather a decent keyword list. However there will be long tail search queries Using Google Suggest provides extended that Google Keyword Planner will keyword data miss. Keyword research data is rather limited using just Google Keyword Planner Using Google Suggest and other keyword tools will help you pick up any missed long tail keywords. Refer to keyword research worksheet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 26 Academy

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness Chapter 2: Keyword Research Analysing AdWords CPC range and keyword competition level Looking at the suggested bid and competition at the keyword level, we can assume that since advertisers are bidding heavily on paid search ads, they are likely investing on SEO as well, thus increasing the competitiveness of a group of keywords in the organic search ranking results. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 27 Academy

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness Title Tags There are many third party softwares that can automatically analyse the keyword difficulty level (how difficult is it to rank a keyword on Google) URL Chapter 2: Keyword Research such as: • Moz keyword difficulty tool • Ahrefs keyword difficulty tool • SEMrush keyword difficulty tool To evaluate how competitive a keyword is without the use of tools, you need to look a range of on-page and off-page ranking factors in order to understand what caused a webpage to rank on the top 5 positions of Google such as: • Keywords in Title tags, H1 tags, URL • How useful and relevant is the content to the search result • Quality and quantity of backlinks to the page • Overall domain authority Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 28 Academy

How to Evaluate Keyword Search results Competitiveness for term: meeting room Chapter 2: Keyword Research rental Keywords found on page In the example on the right, Regus appears to be optimised for multiple related keywords (conference room and meeting rooms are used interchangeably). As a result, Regus outranked We Are Spaces for the search Search results term “conference room rental” at for term: one point in time, very likely due conference room to the fact that it had optimised rental its title to include “conference room rental” . Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 29 Academy

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness Quality and Usefulness of Content What makes a High quality page? A High quality rating requires at least one of the following high quality characteristics: Can you beat your competitors’ content in terms of quality and usefulness? Chapter 2: Keyword Research •A satisfying amount of high quality MC (Main Content). •The page and website are expert, authoritative, and trustworthy for the The key to achieving high rankings on topic of the page. Google is to create high quality pages •The website has a good reputation for the topic of the page. that achieve their purpose. In addition, the page and website should have most of the following: As stated in Google’s official Search Quality Rating Guidelines, •A satisfying amount of website information, for example, About Us information, Contact or Customer Service information, etc. •SC (Supplementary Content) which contributes to a satisfying user experience on the page and website. “High quality pages are satisfying and •Functional page design which allows users to easily focus on MC and use achieve their purpose well. High SC as desired. quality pages exist for almost any •A website which is well cared for and maintained. purpose, from giving information to making you laugh.” Source: Search Quality Rating Guidelines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 30 Academy

How to Evaluate Keyword Competitiveness How relevant are those links? 1 Chapter 2: Keyword Research It is also important to look at the quality of the backlinks. A camera blog Number of back links and quality linking to another website’s article on camera tips has more link relevancy of backlinks than a general business directory linking to a camera blog. A study on the importance of backlinks published by Cyrus Uniqueness of backlinks Shepard from Moz highlighted that 2 more backlinks correlated to higher How many unique websites a.k.a referring domains are linking to a rankings. particular website. According to a survey and correlation data report by Moz, a higher number of unique IPs linking to a domain correlated to higher rankings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 31 Academy

What is On-Page SEO / Why is it Important? 3 Search engines look for cues (i.e. keywords 1 in the title and URL) on a webpage to determine whether it is relevant enough to On-Page rank for a set of search terms. SEO There are also other factors that search 2 engines take into account such as site load time, page crawlability, and click-thru-rate. On-Page SEO is understanding these 3 ranking factors and fixing any issues to make your site more friendly to the search engines. Without fixing your on-page SEO issues, it 4 How to fix internal site can be difficult to rank well even with good issues and optimise your off-page SEO. pages to boost rankings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 32 Academy

} 1) Keywords Url: www.webdesign.com/ ecommerce-web-design / in URL 10) Design <head><meta name=“description” content=“We provide the best and most affordable commerce web design packages in the market.”> 2) Keywords in & UX On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet 5) LSI Keywords in Meta Description <title>E-commerce Web Design Service</title></head> 11) Mobile- Content Area <h1>E-commerce Web Design Service</h1> friendly 3) Keywords in Title Tags 6) Quality & We provide the best custom e-commerce web design services Chapter 3: On-Page SEO 12) Page Uniqueness of Loads Fast 4) Keywords in Content Subheadings 13) Page is crawlable/ 8) Link out to <h3>Why We Provide The Best Website Design Package </h3> Image indexable relevant sources Keyword Designing a site requires… inserted into if possible 14) Include Title and/or social sharing Alt Text Website creation process… 9) Interlink articles buttons with relevant 7) Keywords in Image 15) Https anchor text Title & Alt Tags Secure (Site architecture) View our other web design packages -> Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 33 Academy

Title Tag (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Ensure it is wrapped around the title tags <title>Example title</title> Title Tag (Best Practices) Place the keyword closer to the front of the title. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Ensure your title is unique, outstanding, and appealing. Keep the length of your title between 50 - 60 characters. Include your brand name in the title tag - In front for the homepage and at the back for other pages of your site. Optimise for multiple keywords Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag • https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 34 Academy

On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Ensure it is wrapped around the title tags <title>Example Title Tag (Best Practices) title</title> To check whether your title is Chapter 3: On-Page SEO wrapped around the title <title> tags: 1. Open the webpage on your Chrome browser 2. Right click and select “view source” 3. Enter “Ctrl + F (Windows) / Cmd + F (Mac)” on your keyboard and search for “title” Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 35 Academy

Place the keyword as closer to the front of the title. Moz tested and concluded that this On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet increases the likelihood of a user Title Tag (Best Practices) clicking on the search result and also helps in search engine rankings. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Ensure your title is unique, outstanding, and appealing. Cross check with competitor sites and your own internal page titles. Consider the searcher intent and make your title appeal to their emotions. The more appealing the title, the higher the click-through-rate. Search engines also place importance in the uniqueness of your title. Keep the length of your title between 50 - 60 characters / 512 pixels wide. If the title is too long, search engines will truncate the titles and show an ellipsis. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 36 Academy

Include your brand name in the title tag On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet It is good practice to place your brand Title Tag (Best Practices) name in front on the title tag for the homepage and at the back for internal pages of your site. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO This increases brand exposure and the likelihood of a user (who has repeated seen the brand’s name) clicking on a particular brand’s search result. Optimise for multiple keywords. Optimising for multiple keywords increases the chances of ranking for more than one keyword. For example, business cards and name cards share similar meaning and can both be included in the title tags if there is sufficient space. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 37 Academy

Domain & URL (Best Practices) Keep all sections of your site in one domain or subdomain and avoid nesting folders into deep Domain & URL (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet layers. Include your keywords in your URLs. Keep your domain name and URLs short and easy to understand (< 100 characters) and use lower Chapter 3: On-Page SEO case letters. Consider removing “stop words” such as and, or, but, a, etc. Avoid using uncommon TLDs such as .info, .name, .biz, etc. Avoid rewriting dynamic URLs into static URLs e.g. (www.example.com/index.php?page=icdl- module&id=31) Use hyphens and underscores as word separators but avoid hyphens on domain names. Https secured Recommended reading: • https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2154469/write-title-tags-search-engine-optimization • https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329?hl=en Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 38 Academy

Keep all sections of your site in one Domain & URL (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet domain or subdomain and avoid nesting folders into deep layers. It is recommended to keep your important webpages in sub directories Chapter 3: On-Page SEO (e.g. example.com/blog/post/ as opposed to blog.example.com/post/) as search engines use different ranking metrics for domains and subdomains. Avoid nesting folders into deep layers e.g. ( www.example.com/folder1/ folder2/folder3/example-content ) as search engine spiders may have trouble crawling deeper into your site, Search engines also tend not to crawl deeper into your site if you have a low domain authority. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 39 Academy

Include your keywords in your URLs. Domain & URL (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet https:// example.com/classroom-for-rent/ With that said, exact match domain names (EMD) like classroom-rental.com no longer have Chapter 3: On-Page SEO significant direct impact on rankings after Google turned the knob down on EMDs in the recent years. www.example.com/keyword However having an EMD can indirectly impact rankings when external sites include a naked hyperlink (e.g. <a href=“http://classroom- rental.com>classroom-rental.com</a>) to your www.example.com/?p=123 site, since keywords in the anchor text are considerably an important ranking factor. Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a- guide-and-best-practices-for-emds Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 40 Academy

Keep your domain name and URLs short and easy to understand (< 100 characters) and use lower case letters. Domain & URL (Best Practices) Consider removing “stop words” such On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet as and, or, but, a, etc. This makes it easier for users to remember and type into the browser. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Some users may not be exactly sure whether they have gotten the correct www.example.com/book-event spelling of the domain name. Thus they would search for the domain name on Google instead of typing the full address. www.example.info/book-an-event Similarly, shorter URLs allow users to easily remember and type the full URL. Avoid using uncommon TLDs such as .info, .name, .biz, etc. Uncommon TLDs tend to be used by spammers and don’t tend to rank as well as .com domains. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 41 41 Academy

Avoid rewriting dynamic URLs into static URLs e.g. (www.example.com/ Domain & URL (Best Practices) index.php?page=icdl-module&id=31) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Though it is advisable to use static URLs as much as possible, in cases when you have dynamic content, it is Chapter 3: On-Page SEO recommended not to remove information (hiding parameters) to make them look static. To check whether Google has problems crawling your dynamic URLs, you can check for any issues/ alerts in your GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) account. Recommended reading: • https:// googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.sg/ 2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 42 Academy

Domain & URL (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Use hyphens and underscores as word separators but avoid hyphens on domain names. Using hyphens and underscores Chapter 3: On-Page SEO (hyphens preferred) on your URLs is www.example.com/experts-exchange recommended. It helps indicate to search engines the number of keywords used in the URL. E.g. example.com/rentalounge/ should be written as example.com/rent-a- www.example.com/expertsexchange lounge/ On the other hand, domain names should avoid using hyphens as this is common practice among spammy websites. (e.g. class-room-rental-for- rent.com) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 43 Academy

Domain & URL (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet HTTPS secured Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Google has confirmed the use of HTTPS as a ranking signal. However it is only a very lightweight signal compared to other signals such as high-quality content. It is still good practice to adopt HTTPS on your websites as Google may decide to strengthen this signal over time. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 44 Academy

Meta Description (Best Practices) Meta Description (Best Practices) Keep your meta description between 150 to 160 characters. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Include your target keywords in your meta description. (Note: Meta description is not a ranking factor) Make your meta description is unique, outstanding, and persuasive. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Ensure it is wrapped around the meta tags <meta name="description" content=“Example meta description content that will often show up in the search results snippets.”> and placed in the <head></head> section. Use only alphanumeric characters in your meta description. If wrapped in quotes “ ”, Google won’t display it. Use structured data markup if it is appropriate to the content. (Use a WordPress rich snippets plugin if you are using WordPress. Use schema-creator.org/ if you wish to create your own snippets.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 45 Academy

Image Optimisation (Best Practices) Image Optimisation (Best Practices) Use a descriptive image file name i.e. (car-showroom.jpg instead of DM9902.jpg) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Make your alt tags descriptive of the image and include your target keywords when possible (do not stuff keywords). <img src=“http://example.com/uploads/car-showroom.jpg alt=“car showroom”> Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Reduce your image file sizes and use the right image file type (e.g. JPEG is preferred over PNG / GIF). Use unique, high quality, custom graphics/photos where possible to increase chances of people embedding/citing your images. Include your images into your sitemap and submit your sitemap to search engines. Recommended reading: • https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-optimization?hl=en • http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-web-optimization-tips-best-practices/ • https://www.shopify.com/blog/7412852-10-must-know-image-optimization-tips • https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 46 Academy

Use a descriptive image file name i.e. (car-showroom.jpg instead of DM9902.jpg) Image Optimisation (Best Practices) Including your target keywords in your image file names can On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet increase your page’s overall relevancy score as search engines are able to pick up the keywords used there within. Make your alt tags descriptive of the image and include Chapter 3: On-Page SEO your target keywords when possible (do not stuff keywords) Search engines factor the image alt tags into their ranking algorithms. Including your target keywords in your image alt tags can help your rankings as well. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 47 Academy

Image Optimisation (Best Practices) Reduce your image file sizes and use On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet the right image file type. There are a couple of popular graphics formats (e.g. PNG, JPEG, GIF) used on the web. For more information on which Chapter 3: On-Page SEO file types to use, read this article. You can reduce your image file sizes by selecting “Save for web” if you’re using a photo editing like Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you may use a free tool on the web such as jpeg-optimizer to reduce your JPEG file sizes. Recommended reading: • http://info.eps.surrey.ac.uk/FAQ/standards.html • http://jpeg-optimizer.com/ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 48 Academy

Use unique, high quality, custom graphics/photos where possible to increase chances of people embedding/ Image Optimisation (Best Practices) citing your images. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Which image are you more likely to trust or link to? Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 49 Academy

Image Optimisation (Best Practices) Images sitemaps On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Ensure your sitemap has information about your images, otherwise you can also use a separate sitemap Chapter 3: On-Page SEO for your images. This helps Google to discover images on your site that they might otherwise not have been able to find. In your image sitemap, you may indicate which images you want Google to crawl and index. Upload your sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 50 Academy

How to Rank on Youtube and Video Optimisation Video Optimisation (Best Practices) Conduct keyword research for “Video Keywords” using Keyword Planner and Google Search. 
 Create an awesome video that engages viewers. Good viewer Chapter 3: On-Page SEO retention sends quality signals to Google. 
 Include Keywords in the video file name, video title, description, and tags. 
 Promote your video on Social Media, Forums, and influencers to increase views. (Views need to be authentic) 
 Video embeds and backlinks pointing to your video send positive ranking signals to Google. Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/blog/seo-accessibility-images-video Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 51 Academy

Content Creation (Best Practices) Ensure your main content (MC) and supplementary content (SC) is relevant to your target keywords and provides the best answer to the searcher intent. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Mention your primary and secondary keywords early on in your copy. Content (Best Practices) Primary and secondary keywords should be included in subheadings and distributed evenly Chapter 3: On-Page SEO throughout your copy. Include keywords that are closely related to your main keywords (also known as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords) throughout your copy. Ensure your content is unique and has E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Write like you’re the subject matter expert and worry about keyword optimisation later. Link out to relevant internal pages of your website or relevant external websites where appropriate. Recommended reading: • http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/ searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf • On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet • http://searchengineland.com/rank-position-0-3-simple-steps-featured-snippets-primer-275941 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 52 Academy

Mention your primary and On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet secondary keywords early on in your copy. Content (Best Practices) It is good SEO practice to mention your primary and secondary Chapter 3: On-Page SEO keywords in the first paragraph of your copy. Primary and secondary keywords should be included in subheadings. This helps to minimise “pogo- sticking” (where a visitor bounces back to the search results pages right after clicking on a search result), as visitors expect to see a relevant content after clicking on a search result. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 53 Academy

Primary and secondary keywords should be distributed evenly throughout your copy. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet This sends signals to search engines that your content is Content (Best Practices) relevant to your target keywords mentioned in your title. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Include keywords that are closely related to your main keywords (also known as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords) throughout your copy. LSI keywords are synonyms of your target keywords and related keywords that are often mentioned or seen together with your target keywords around the web. Examples of LSI keywords of “classroom rental” are “classroom rental rates”, “seats 4 pax”, “training room rental”. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 54 Academy

Ensure main content (MC) and supplementary content (SC) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet serves its purpose well and is relevant to your target keywords Content (Best Practices) and searcher intent. Main Content (MC) is any part of Chapter 3: On-Page SEO the page that directly helps the page achieve its purpose. MC is (or should be!) the reason the page exists. The quality of the MC plays a very large role in the Page Quality rating of a webpage. Supplementary Content (SC) is also important. SC can help a page better achieve its purpose or it can detract from the overall experience. Source: Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 55 Academy

Ensure your content is unique and On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet has E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Content (Best Practices) Trustworthiness) and main content (MC) and supplementary content (SC) serves its purpose Chapter 3: On-Page SEO well. In this example, www.xe.com ranks on top for the search term “currency converter”. Analysing the search query, we can derive that the user is searching for a tool to convert currency. On www.xe.com, the MC appears prominently and above the page fold. This tool has also been around for many years and has gained authority and trustworthiness. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 56 Academy

On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Content (Best Practices) Link out to relevant internal pages of your website or relevant Chapter 3: On-Page SEO external websites where appropriate. To improve your pages’ relevancy score and help search engines understand the topic of your pages and index them better, link each page back to its category or subcategory pages, related internal pages of your site, and external relevant and reputable sources. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 57 Academy

Design & UX (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Design & UX (Best Practices) Page layout is designed with the enduser in mind. Main content elements stand out while supplementary content are displayed in a more subtle manner, making page easy to scan through. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO No excessive placement of ads above the page fold. Ads are not to be disguised as content or be intrusive to users. Use breadcrumbs, submenus, navigational menus to provide users a better user experience when navigating through your site. Text is readable, images and multimedia are high quality. Page renders fast (optimal loading time < 3 seconds). Page is browser and device responsive. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 58 Academy

Page layout is designed with the On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Design & UX (Best Practices) enduser in mind. Google knows when users click on a search result and immediately Chapter 3: On-Page SEO bounces back to the search results pages a.k.a. pogo sticking, and not fixing this issue can affect your rankings. Always put yourself in the position of the enduser, then design your pages. Recommended reading: • https://studio.uxpin.com/blog/4-things- youll-never-hear-from-successful-ux- designers/ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 59 Academy

Main content elements stand out while supplementary content are displayed in a more subtle On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet manner, making page easy to Design & UX (Best Practices) scan through. The main content should be displayed prominently on the Chapter 3: On-Page SEO page’s real estate. For tabbed content for example, display the main content in the display-by- default tab. No excessive placement of ads above the page fold. Ads are not to be disguised as content or be intrusive to users. Don’t use ads that pop/slide out and block the page’s content when the user’s mouse hovers over it, or text ads that trick the user into thinking it is part of the page’s written content. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 60 Academy

Use breadcrumbs, submenus, navigational On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet menus to provide users a Design & UX (Best Practices) better user experience when navigating through your site. Though it is not necessary to Chapter 3: On-Page SEO include all of the above site navigational elements, it is good practice to include at least one or two of them. Text is readable, images and multimedia are high quality. Font-family, text colour, and font size should be clear and easy to scan through. Images and multimedia such as videos should be of high quality and optimised for speed. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 61 Academy

Page renders fast (optimal On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Design & UX (Best Practices) loading time < 4 seconds). Page loads from server and renders fast with an optimal server Chapter 3: On-Page SEO response time of < 0.5 seconds and a completely loaded page of < seconds. You may check for any issues hindering your page speed with a free tool provided by Google - Pagespeed Insights. Recommended reading: • http://www.dwuser.com/education/content/10-steps-to-a-faster-wordpress/ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 62 Academy

Page is browser and device responsive. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Design & UX (Best Practices) Following the Google Mobile Friendly Update a.k.a. Mobilegeddon since April 2015, pages that aren’t mobile friendly Chapter 3: On-Page SEO may not rank as well on mobile searches, though this issue does not affect desktop searches. Note: This only affects pages on an individual basis. Meaning that if a site has certain pages that aren’t mobile friendly, it will not affect the overall rankings of mobile friendly pages. To test whether your page is mobile friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 63 Academy

Choosing Configuration Options For Your Mobile Version Google recommends responsive or dynamic serving, but does not favour any particular URL format as long as all pages are assessable to all Googlebot user-agents. - Google Developers Design & UX (Best Practices) Configuration Content Serving URLs Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Serves the same HTML but Responsive Design One URL uses CSS media queries to render content differently. Displays different mobile & Dynamic Serving One URL desktop versions depending on user agent. Redirects users to a different Different URLs (e.g. Separate Mobile Site site depending on the user m.domain.com) agent. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 64 Academy

Responsive Design Dynamic Serving Design & UX (Best Practices) Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Recommended reading: • https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/responsive-design • https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/dynamic-serving Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 65 Academy

AMP Project (Accelerated Mobile Pages) How AMP Speeds Up Performance Design & UX (Best Practices) AMP HTML is basically HTML extended with custom AMP properties. 1 6 Allow only asynchronous scripts Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Font triggering must be efficient 2 7 Size all resources statically Minimize style recalculations 3 8 Don’t let extension mechanisms block rendering Only run GPU-accelerated animations 4 9 Keep all third-party JavaScript out of the critical path Prioritize resource loading 5 10 All CSS must be inline and size-bound Load pages in an instant Recommended reading: • https://www.ampproject.org/docs/get_started/about-amp.html • https://www.ampproject.org/docs/get_started/technical_overview.html Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 66 Academy

Common Mistakes to Avoid 1 Multimedia content that are not compatible with mobile devices. Design & UX (Best Practices) 2 Inappropriate redirects such as redirecting all desktop internal pages to the mobile homepage version. 3 Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Employing interstitials such as mailing forms and promotional popups. 4 Cross linking to inappropriate versions (desktop and mobile). 5 Font size and words on images too small. 6 Touch elements too close to one another, making it difficult to tap on a desired element e.g. a button. 7 Blocking Googlebot from accessing Javascript, CSS, and image files. Recommended reading: • https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/common-mistakes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 67 Academy

Site Architecture (Best Practices) Site Architecture (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Target keywords are well organised and optimised on individual pages in order to avoid keyword cannibalisation. Main navigation menu is well organised, with the most important pages placed there. (Users can easily understand the theme of the site just by browsing through the main menu.) Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Related pages are well interlinked with appropriate anchor texts. Site is well organised into main categories and subcategories. (Proper URL structure is recommended. E.g. example.com/parent-category/child-category/post) Indicate paginated content with rel=”next” and rel=”prev”. Use breadcrumbs. Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/blog/site-architecture-for-seo • https://moz.com/blog/information-architecture-for-seo-whiteboard-friday Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 68 Academy

Arrange the following structure Site Architecture (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Orange Fruits Lettuce Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Meat Vegetables Cabbage Raw Chicken Apple Spinach Raw Fish Pear Raw Beef Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 69 Academy

Supermarket Site Architecture (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Meat Fruits Vegetables Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Raw Chicken Pear Cabbage Raw Fish Apple Lettuce Orange Spinach Raw Beef Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 70 Academy

Illustration of a Good Site Architecture Site Architecture (Best Practices) On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 71 Academy

How Do Search Engines Work? Ranking Algorithms Search Results A score is given to each of To calculate authority and webpage after taking into account relevancy of a webpage to Chapter 3: On-Page SEO hundreds of ranking factors. a given search query. Crawling Indexing Search engine spiders Search engines store the crawl the web through information it collects following links into its index. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 72 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Robots.txt file not blocking crawlers. Meta robots tags allows crawling and indexing. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Redirects from older versions use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary) and not more than 2 hops. Page content loads in page’s HTML. Implements canonicalisation where necessary. XML Sitemap is submitted to Webmaster Tools. Is not password protected or requires login. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 73 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders robots.txt file example Robots.txt file not blocking crawlers. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet User-agent: * A robots.txt file is used by web Disallow: /wp-admin/ masters to give instructions to web robots not to visit specified pages or Disallow: /downloads/ sections of a website. Note that it is Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Disallow: / entirely up to robots whether or not to obey your robots.txt commands. A robots.txt can be easily generated Robots <meta> tag example via a text file and placed in the top- level directory of your web server. Meta robots tags allows crawling <html> and indexing. <head> <title>...</title> Meta robots tags on the other hand <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, tells robots not to index the content of a page and/or not to scan it for NOFOLLOW"> links to follow. It is placed in a page’s </head> <head></head> section. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 74 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders Redirects from older versions use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary) and not more than 2 hops. On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet A 301 redirect is recommended over a 302 redirect. 301 or permanent redirects tells search engines and Example of redirect command in browsers that a page has moved permanently. This passes100% of PageRank or link juice to the newly Chapter 3: On-Page SEO .htaccess file specified page. A 302 or temporary redirect indicates that a page has “moved temporarily” and 100% PageRank or link #Redirect your website to another domain juice will be passed to the newly specified page. Redirect 301 / http://example.com/ It is also recommended not to redirect more than 2 hops (e.g. from page A to page B to page C and #Redirect your one page to another finally to page D) as search engines bots might stop Redirect 301 /index.html http:// following the redirects after a few hops. example.com/ Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection • http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php • http://searchengineland.com/google-no-pagerank-dilution- using-301-302-30x-redirects-anymore-254608 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 75 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Human Search engine robot Page content loads in page’s HTML. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Flash Website It is imperative that the content you’re optimising your keywords in loads in HTML. Though it is not advised to load your keywords in Javascript or Flash, Google can still pick up your keywords in these languages in some cases. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 76 Academy

When Do You Implement Implements canonicalisation where necessary. Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders Canonicalisation? What is canonicalisation? On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Canonicalisation is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls: Chapter 3: On-Page SEO www.example.com example.com/ www.example.com/index.html example.com/home.asp - Matt Cutts. In cases where you require similar content on 2 or more different URLs (e.g. an A/B split testing experiment), implement the rel=canonical tag on the duplicate pages. This passes the same Rel=canonical tag example amount of link juice as a 301 redirect. <head> Recommended reading: <link href="http://www.example.com/ • https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/ mainpage/" rel="canonical" /> • https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization </head> Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 77 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet XML Sitemap is submitted to Webmaster Tools. Submitting an XML Chapter 3: On-Page SEO sitemap to Google Search Console can help Google better crawl and index your website. It is also recommended to include a HTML sitemap on your website for users to access, especially if your site is huge and split into many main categories and subcategories. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 78 Academy

Accessibility For Search Engine Spiders On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet Is not password protected or requires login. Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Password protected pages prevent search engine bots from accessing the page assets, resulting in subpar rankings. If it is necessary to include gated pages (e.g. the backend of your CMS), it is good practice to block search engines from crawling these pages via your robots.txt file. This will save server resources and bandwidth. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 79 Academy

Google Local Search Ranking Factors Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Source: http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 80 Academy

Ways to Target Your Site Multi-Regionally example.sg sg.example.com example.com/sg ccTLDs Subdomains Sub Directories Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Google Webmaster Geotargeting Tool Other signals such as NAP , language, Google Server Places account Location Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 81 Academy

Why Use the <link rel=“alternate” hreflang=“en” href=“http:// www.example.com” /> ? “The hreflang attribute signals that the page has an alternate language version on the specified url.” Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Variations of the same Different languages across language regionally entire site American British English Chinese English English i.e. (home) $ i.e. ( � ) £ You may list the hreflang in the on-page markup <head> section, HTTP header, or site map. Choose one. Also remember to specify all various alternate hreflang attributes on every page. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 82 Academy

Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 83 Academy

Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 84 Academy

On-Page Markup Or HTTP Headers Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 85 Academy

Declare All Chapter 3: On-Page SEO Alternate Versions On Every Page Recommended reading: • https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-international-seo • https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en • https://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool • http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 86 Academy

Why Use Links? 4 It’s easy to manipulate on-page SEO It’s more difficult to influence inbound links Link Link Building Link Link Link The definitive guide to link At one point, Google tested removing links entirely from the core algorithms and they didn’t like the results. building Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 87 Academy

Anatomy of a Quality Backlink High Domain Authority High PageRank Co-occurence Chapter 4: Link Building Relevant Co-citations Relevant Page Title Relevant Content Topic Keywords in Anchor Text Placed in Main Body Age of Page and Backlink Dofollow Link Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 88 Academy

High Domain Authority External External External External Site Site Site Site Chapter 4: Link Building Domain Authority Main Domain example.com Internal Internal Internal Pages Pages Pages Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 89 Academy

What is PageRank? Site C PR4 “PageRank is a link analysis algorithm Site A PR 0 used by Google to help determine the relative importance of a website. Every PR 8 website is given a Google PageRank score PR4 between 0 and 10 on an exponential Chapter 4: Link Building scale.” - Bruceclay Site D Each link from one website to another is interpreted by Google as a vote. PR 2 Depending on the number of outbound Site B links a page has, the PageRank is split equally. Unless the link is nofollowed , in PR 3 PR3 which case no link juice is passed at all. PageRank is not… the ranking position of a page in the search results. PageRank is only one of the Recommended reading: many ranking factors and it does not • http://searchengineland.com/what-is-google-pagerank-a-guide-for-searchers- guarantee #1 position in the search results. webmasters-11068 • http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/what-is-pagerank/ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 90 Academy

Relevant Co-Citations and Co-Occurence Site B Shoe Chapter 4: Link Building Co-occurence: Notice “shoes” was mentioned near the link text “re-lace the shoes”. Site C There we can make a statement that “shoes” Shoe co-occured with “re-lace the shoes”. Your Site (Shoe) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 91 Academy

3 Major Off-Page SEO Ranking Factors Link Relevancy Link Popularity Link Diversity Chapter 4: Link Building Shoe Website High PageRank Shoe Article Shoe Website High PageRank High PageRank Shoe Directory Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 92 Academy

Social Media Signals Are Facebook and Twitter signals part of the ranking algorithm? How much do they matter? Chapter 4: Link Building Google crawls and indexes Facebook and Twitter pages just like any other webpage on the web. 
 There are currently no special social ranking signals in Google’s ranking algorithms due to one instance where Google was blocked from crawling these pages for over a month. 
 It is more a matter of correlation than causation if a webpage has lots of social shares and is ranking highly on Google. 
 Links from Social Media sites are also usually nofollow links, preventing PageRank from passing to the linked page. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 93 Academy

Search Engine Penalties Blog Comment Spam Forum Comment Spam Chapter 4: Link Building Large-scale article marketing with keyword-rich anchor texts Mass submission of site to low quality directories Buying or selling links that pass PageRank Text and graphic advertisements that pass PageRank Use of automated bot software to create backlinks Embedded and widely-distributed links on widgets or footers Excessive reciprocal linking Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 94 Academy

Search Engine Penalties Chapter 4: Link Building Source: • https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/webmasters/JOAJ6CSxYBo/2FUs0TUZD6MJ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 95 Academy

Search Engine Penalties Chapter 4: Link Building Source: • https://moz.com/blog/dear-google-links-from-youmoz-dont-violate-your-quality-guidelines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 96 Academy

Search Engine Penalties Chapter 4: Link Building Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 97 Academy

Fixing a Search Engine Penalty Check whether your site is indexed or deindexed by entering the search operator site:example.com into the search engine. If you used to rank first position for your own brand name but are not anymore, it could also possibly mean you got hit by a manual penalty. 
 Chapter 4: Link Building Go to your Google Webmaster Tools and/or Bing Webmaster Tools if you got penalised by both of the major search engines to check for reasons your site got penalised. 
 Analyse all inbound links and identify spammy ones with a backlink checker tool like AHrefs or SEOSpyGlass. (This is usually the case of manual penalty resulting from unnatural backlinks) 
 Send requests to the webmasters where you found those unnatural links, for the unnatural links to be removed. 
 Disavow links. 
 Send a reconsideration request to Google and/or Bing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 98 Academy

The 4-Step Link Building Process Chapter 4: Link Building Develop & Analyze Define Measure Execute Refer to: • 4-step link building process workbook Equinet 99 Academy


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Link Building Strategies - Directory Submission 
 - Guest Blogging 
 - Reverse Engineering 
 - Reverse Guest Blogging 
 Chapter 4: Link Building - Video Submission - Relationship Building 
 - Event Submission 
 - Link Reclamation 
 - Forum Posting 
 - Writing Testimonials 
 - Customer Reviews 
 - Create a Link Bait 
 - Conduct Interviews - Content Marketing For a more complete list of link building strategies, visit 
 http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course Equinet 100 Academy