Part 1 of a 3 part Series on SEO Audits Slides associated with the Google+ Hangout from August 20th, 2014 at https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cdmu4pmjcn8sj045hjiglph142s

1. DMI Webinar Series 2014
Topic 1: SEO AUDITS - a 3 Part Guide
Part 1 - Identification
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Date: August 20th, 2014
Presenter: Livia Henderson, DMI Tutor & Acadmic Liaison

2. Agenda
13:00 to 13:45 GMT
13:00 - 13:05 Welcome and Introduction!
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13:05 - 13:15 What is an SEO audit, why is it important?!
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13:15 - 13:30 Audit Prep/Research - positioning & keywords!
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13:30 - 13:45 Using Webmaster Tools & Analytics for SEO.!
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Questions will be taken during each section and answered as we go along, !
wherever appropriate.!
Copyright © Digital Marketing Institute 2014

3. !
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
modification and refinement
of a website to improve
indexation & ranking by search engines
so that your audience can find you online
!
website + search engine + users

4. !
GOOD SEO NEEDS THE FOLLOWING
a well structured website that can be accessed
and indexed by search bots/spiders
website with content optimised for specific
search terms
relevant and connected data

5. !
sounds simple right?
!
…if only it was…

6. WHY…
WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?

7. Get found in the myriad of search results
http://www.catalystsearchmarketing.com/pubs/google-ctr-study/

8. Encourage Clickthroughs - Get listed on 1st SERP
http://www.catalystsearchmarketing.com/pubs/google-ctr-study/ http://moz.com/blog/mission-imposserpble-2-user-intent-click-through-rates !

9. AUDIT PREP/RESEARCH
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positioning

10. Competitive Search = More Paid Ads
PAID
SEARCH
RESULTS!
!
!
!
!
ORGANIC
SEARCH
RESULTS

11. Niche Search = Less Paid Ads
PAID
SEARCH
RESULTS!
!
!
!
!
ORGANIC
SEARCH
RESULTS

12. PAID
SEARCH
RESULTS!
!
!
!
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ORGANIC!
LOCAL/MAP
SEARCH
RESULTS

13. Search Listings - Anatomy
SEO/META TITLE (optimised) or Page Title (not optimised)
PAGE URL
SEO/META DESCRIPTION (optimised) or First line of page text (not optimised)
Search Terms or Keywords, are bolded in the Search Results listing

14. !
Identify Keywords
Forecast Keyword Traffic

15. Search ReSearch - Keywords
PAGE URL
Type anything into the google search to see “search suggestions”!
This is the first step in trying to predict what keywords and phrases!
users type in, to find what they are looking for.!

16. Search ReSearch - Keywords

17. Search ReSearch - Long Tail Keywords

18. Search ReSearch - Long Tail Keywords
1. Long tail, is a very big proportion of the Web search traffic. !
2. Anywhere from 20% to maybe 50% of all queries are in long tail format.!
3. Google says around 18% or 20% of all searches are extremely long tail, meaning
they've never seen them before - very unique kinds of searches!

19. Search ReSearch - Long Tail Keywords
1. Long tail, is a very big proportion of the Web search traffic. !
2. Anywhere from 20% to maybe 50% of all queries are in long tail format.!
3. Google says around 18% or 20% of all searches are extremely long tail, meaning
they've never seen them before - very unique kinds of searches!

20. Search ReSearch - Long Tail Keywords
As a user’s query becomes more refined they are more likely to click on a first page
organic result (~56% for four+ word queries v. ~30% for one-word queries). They
also tend to be spread more evenly throughout the 1-10 positions.!
!
http://moz.com/blog/mission-imposserpble-2-user-intent-click-through-rates!

21. Google Trends
Shows relative popularity of a search term over time – not total search volume.!
The numbers given are always relative to one another, the region, the time frame,
and the highest point on the chart. All numbers are shown normalised using a
1-100 scale with 100 considered peak search volume.

22. Google Trends
https://www.google.ie/trends/explore#q=digital%20marketing&geo=IE&cmpt=q

23. Google AdWords - Keyword Planner
https://adwords.google.ie/KeywordPlanner

24. SITE TOOLS & ANALYTICS
!
Google Webmaster Tools
& Google Analytics

25. Google WMT - Verify A Site
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en!

26. Google WMT - Why Use It?

27. Google WMT - Why Use It?
Monitor your site's performance in Google Search results:
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• Make sure that Google can access your content
• Submit new content for crawling and remove content you don't want seen
• Maintain your site with minimal disrup=on to search performance
• Monitor and resolve malware or spam issues so your site stays clean
Discover how Google Search—and the world—sees your site:
• Which queries caused your site to appear in search results?
• Did some queries result in more traffic to your site than others?
• Are your product prices, company contact info, or events highlighted in rich search
results?
• Which sites are linking to your website?
• Is your mobile site performing well for visitors searching on mobile?

28. Google WMT - Key Tasks
1. Data Highlighter – this is a tool allowing you to ‘tag’
structural and consistent elements of site content, for
increased exposure in the SERP
-­‐ hNps://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2692946?
hl=en&ref_topic=4599161
2. Search Queries -­‐ how are users finding you
3. Links to Your Site -­‐ who links to your content
4. Internal Links -­‐ measure of page importance
5. Index Status -­‐ how many files on your site are indexed or
blocked by the googlebot
6. Remove URLs – this is a tool that allows you to remove
any link to your site from google search.
7.Crawl Errors
8. Fetch as Google – monitor how Google fetches a specific
URL on your site, allows resubmission to index.
9. Sitemaps – Submit your own sitemaps (.xml file), for
increased accuracy and indexing speed. This is a core
benefit of webmaster tools, controlling what google, can
and cannot see on your site.
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29. Google WMT - 1.Data Highlighter Tool
Supported data types
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You can use Data Highlighter to
teach Google about the following
types of data on your site:
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• Ar=cles
• Events
• Local Businesses
• Restaurants
• Products
• Sodware Applica=ons
• Movies
• TV Episodes
• Books

30. Google WMT - 2. Search Queries

31. Google WMT - 4. Internal Links
The number of internal links pointing to a page is a signal to search engines
about the relative importance of that page. If an important page does not
appear in this list, or if a less important page has a relatively large number of
internal links, you should consider reviewing your internal link structure.

32. Google WMT - 7. Crawl Errors

33. Google WMT - 9. Sitemaps
Make sure your site has an XML sitemap created. The easiest way to check for
this is to type in www.site.com/sitemap.xml.

34. Google WMT - Site Settings - canonical domain
The preferred domain is the one
that you would liked used to index
your site's pages (sometimes this
is referred to as the canonical
domain)

35. Google WMT - Geographic Target
If your site has a generic top-level
domain, such as .com or .org,
and targets users in a particular
geographic location,

36. Google WMT - Other Tools

37. Google WMT - Google Places/Business Center
http://www.google.com/business/

38. Google WMT - Google Places/Business Center

39. Google WMT - Google Places/Business Center

40. Google WMT - Google Places/Business Center

41. Google WMT - Google Places/Business Center

42. Google WMT - Page Speed Insights

43. Google WMT - Why Page Speed Matters…
A 1-­‐second delay in page load =me causes:
• 11% fewer page views
• 16% decrease in customer sa=sfac=on
• 7% loss in conversions (source: Aberdeen Group)
!
Reasons Users Don’t Wait:
• 47% of people expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
• 40% will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to load.
• 52% of online shoppers say quick page loads are affect their loyalty to a site.

44. Google WMT - Page Speed Insights
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But…most sites load on average in
!
7 seconds…

45. Google WMT - Connect to Analytics

46. Google WMT - Connect to Analytics

47. Google WMT - Connect to Analytics

48. Google WMT - Connect to Analytics

49. Google Analytics - A PowerHouse of Data

50. Google Analytics - Traffic Acquisition

51. Google Analytics - User Flow

52. Further Reading
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53. GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS
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http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors
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54. Conclusion
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Currently Google owns standard search at 66.9 percent (Bing at 14.8
percent) and mobile search at 89.9 percent (Yahoo at 5.8 percent).
!
However, social media channels and increased browsing via apps is
impacting on it’s dominance. Good SEO stills reign supreme for SERP rank,
and will for a long time, but social integration will begin to be a factor -
something which Bing are embracing with Gusto…
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Best thing and the worst thing about SEO?
It’s constantly changing! You have to adapt with it if you want to stay on top.