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Editor's Notes
Question most people don’t ask
A lot of people think a website is setup and forget
Search engines seem clever
Only see the content in text
Don’t put content in images
Use alt tags to describe images
Add new content regularly
Depending on niche depends how regularly
Only add unique content
Never copy and paste content from other sites
Make sure the content has value to visitors
For example, if you’re a plumber “how to” guides might be a good option
Stay inside niche and expertise
Text content is a must as it is what search engines index
Host on a video service like YouTube or Vimeo
YouTube has small SEO advantage, plus you can have a channel, subscribers, etc…
If you have video content, make that into text content, e.g article(s) based on the video content or transcripts
Have an obvious point of contact on every page
Collect as little data as possible, e.g. only Name and email address / telephone number
Don’t make anything mandatory if you don’t need to.
Search engines seem clever
Only see the content in text and meta data
The title tag is one of the most important tags, so think about it
50 to 70 character (inc spaces) max
Relevant to page content
Second most important tag
Up to 150 characters (inc space)
Describe content in a concise but descriptive way
Relevant
Optimise image file size
Correct image size
TinyPNG.com
Don’t put content in images
Use alt tags to describe images
Compelling content
To remember your business
Tell people your site exists
All business materials have web address
Online and offline
Including things like company vehicles
Emails
Tell existing customer
Either via a one time email blast
Or mail shot if you don’t have email addresses
Use highly targeted online adverts
If you are a local business only advertise to the area you cover
Include web address
Prominently
Newspaper ads
Radio ads
Leaflets
Brochures
Register with Google My Business
Puts you on Google Maps
Add the “info” panel the Google Search Results Page when people search for your business by name
You can control (to a degree) the information Google gives people about your business in this panel
Can’t say this enough
Whilst people are on your site get them to sign up
Ask for nothing more than an email address
Use a trusted service like MailChimp, which is free for smaller users, up to 2000 email addresses
Send newsletter with new content at least once a month
Google (and others) are still about inbound links
No matter what Google would like you to believe
Apply to be listed in dmoz
Find relevant category, click “Suggest URL” and fill out form
Good luck, can take weeks to months be get listed, often NEVER
Associations or membership organisations you belong to
e.g. chamber, etc…
Share you new content on social media
Regularly re-promote existing, high value content
Use hootsuite to post to multiple social media accounts at one time
Get basic social media analytics
Pay for more advanced features, from £6.99 per month
Register for a free and install it on your site
May need your web developer to install
Regularly monitor your traffic levels, sudden drop off suggest there is a problem
Looks for pages with high bounce rates, e.g. anything over about 80%
Looks at the page in question and see why the bounce rate is so high and what you could change to improve it
Register for a free and verify your site
Add your XML sitemap
Regularly monitor it for issues
Get insight on various aspects of your website from Googlebots PoV
See what queries your site is appearing for on Google
Keywords / phrases
Avg. position
Over time
How your site as Googlebot sees it
Keywords
Server responses
Fetch as Googlebot
See the inbound links to your site Google sees
See internal links on your site
See any manual actions Google has taken on your site
Manual actions are bad and need immediate attention
Regularly have an expert analyse your site
Advancements in technology
New techniques
The web moves fast, don’t get left behind
Previous point about keeping up-to-date
When adding content make sure you are optimising images
Break content down into relevant chunks so pages are not too big
Making continuous small incremental changes to your site is better
User shock
Think about Amazon or Google, they changes things all the time but your never notice
2011 presentation Amazon said they deploy a code change to their site every 11.6 seconds (weekdays)