Day Four - Search engine optimisation and marketing

Nominated trainers
David Reilly, managing director, Barracuda Digital

ORGANIC SEARCH ADVERTISING

Understand search engines

Starting with a behind-the-scenes look at a search engine like Google will help you to understand how the natural listings are created in order to target them efficiently.

  • How search engines crawl and index websites
  • The relevance algorithm and the wide variety of factors that affect a websites position in the listings
  • The latest search engine developments and how they could affect a website

Search engines - access all areas

Now you understand how a search engine works, you need to make sure they can access your website. This section delves into various techniques that will help you ensure your site is open all hours.

  • Managing multiple domains and the challenges faced
  • How to design a website and overcoming structural and URL issues
  • How to deal with session IDs and cookies
  • Flash and frames and their effect on the search engine friendliness of a website
  • Overcoming issues with content management systems (CMS)
  • Navigation Issues - once in, you need to make sure a search engine can move around easily

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The ideal site structure

A successful SEO campaign is based on a few key structural elements that you should aim to mimic.

  • Depth of document in-site - the less clicks a user has to make the better
  • Organising multiple subjects
  • How a site map can improve the number of pages indexed

Content and copywriting

Search engines are user centric. They rank sites that are user-focused and demonstrate a commitment to improving the visitor's on-site experience.

  • Selecting and integrating search terms to a website
  • Important on-page elements and internal linking
  • How to achieve a good balance of content and keep it fresh and unique
  • Managing multi-language sites and translation issues

Build a strong online community

Search engines assess and rank a site based on the strength of its online community. An effective link building strategy will lead to a wider presence in your online marketplace and encourage your natural search engine listings.

  • How to encourage long term natural link growth and identify topical hubs
  • How to maximise existing links
  • Quality over quantity is key
  • How blogs and RSS feeds work and can enhance your campaign
  • Press releases, do they work?
  • What to avoid and why

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Watch out for a few common pitfalls

There are some unethical and 'black hat' approaches to SEO that should be avoided. This section of the course will explain such techniques and why to avoid them if you want your SEO campaign to thrive.

  • What is cloaking and hidden content
  • Avoiding unnatural linking (e.g. link farms)
  • The potential damage of associating with undesirable 'bad neighbourhoods'
  • What to avoid and why
  • Protect your brand - be aware of techniques that could harm your online brand

A few thoughts on other search channels


  • Video search
  • Mobile search
  • Local search
  • Social search

What's on the horizon?

The search industry is forever evolving. To close, this course takes a brief look into future innovations, how they might effect your business and what you can do to plan ahead.

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