Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit

1. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit This toolkit is intended to provide colleagues with a guide to assessing and improving academic departments’ visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This toolkit is split into 4 sections: • Update content regularly • Link building • Optimise your site • The alternatives - Pay per click SEO is something of a limitless area and what I have laid out here only covers the basics. If you feel you have something useful to add please contact me at john.burnett@ucl.ac.uk. Please also contact me if you would like help implementing this toolkit. www.ucl.ac.uk

2. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit First of all find your page rating – Google Toolbar • Download the Google toolbar: toolbar.google.com • Once the toolbar is installed go to your webpage • In the toolbar hover your curser over the page rank feature (as indicated) • This will tell you what rank Google gives your page Page rank scores For an academic department website a score between 3-5 is pretty good. Alternatives – searchstatus for Firefox, www.ucl.ac.uk

3. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 1. Update content regularly Google uses 2 kinds of bots to crawl sites and index pages. Web pages that are frequently updated will score better in Google searches Fresh Bot Deep Crawl Bot Indexes updated pages every few days Indexes all pages once a month www.ucl.ac.uk

4. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 2. Link building - Yahoo Site Explorer • Link building principals • More inbound links to a page will increase the page rank in Google • Link quality is important so try to get links from pages with a high page rank • Internal links are very important! • Google tries not to include paid ads www.ucl.ac.uk • Search “Yahoo Site Explorer” • Enter your site URL (as shown) • Click explore URL • 4. “Pages” shows how many web pages there are on your site • 5. “Inlinks” shows how many sites link to you. • 6. Click on “Inlinks” to see who links to you. Use the filters to edit out internal (from your site) links • 7. Do this for competitors to identify sites that may wish to link to you. www.ucl.ac.uk

5. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 2. Link building – Link baiting • Create content that will appeal to your audience • The content is published on the web (including a link through to your site!) and gains popularity • The target audience link to the content on social networking sites • A successful link bait can increase inbound links, traffic and brand awareness • Content can include: video, podcasts, research, statistical analysis, maps, reports, interactive tools, downloads etc • Post content on third party sites to increase exposure. (ITunesU, YouTube, Facebook etc) www.ucl.ac.uk

6. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 3. Optimise your site, Identify keywords and key phrases – Wonder Wheel In order to score well in searches it is important to research likely keywords and key phrases that your target audience will search for. Where appropriate these words and phrases should be included on your site. These same principals can be used in developing a Google Adwords campaign 2. From the expanded list select Wonder Wheel 1. On the Google homepage select more search tools from left hand navigation 3. Enter possible keyphrases to see popular related search terms • Keyphrase / keyword principals • Matched key phrases are stronger than keywords • Over 50% of searchers use 3 words or longer • Consider variations (singular/plural – US/UK)

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8. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 3. Optimise your site, Identify keywords and key phrases – Google Insights for Search • Search – “Google Insights for Search” • Enter keyword or key phrase to check usage. • Add search term to compare • Use filters to refine the search • Identify peak search times to coordinate marketing campaigns • Use regional interest section to identify geographic trends www.ucl.ac.uk

9. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 3. Optimise your site, Identify keywords and key phrases – Google Adwords Tool • Enter your keyword or phrase • Get keyword ideas and see the volume of global searches • See an indication of competition for those key words and phrases Keyword effectiveness index This formula is used in order to be able to compare the value of keywords and phrases: Supply/demand (# results/global monthly searches) MSc Economics = 129 Should be over 40 www.ucl.ac.uk

10. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 3. Optimise your site, Writing for Search Engines • Keyword placement • Page Title (60 letters max!) • Headings <H1> (should only be one!) • Body content • Text links • ALT text • Keyword placement principals • The above sections are the easiest for spiders to read and are therefore important places to put keywords. • The main priority should always be to describe who/what you are UCL School of Public Policy www.ucl.ac.uk

11. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 3. Optimise your site, Keyword / keyphrase placement • Page Title - This is the most important section for SEO, make sure the page title isdescriptive of the content and include keyphrases, where appropriate • Alt tags – these are a legal requirement for accessibility reasons. They also help search engines understand your multimedia content. In Silva select the image and write your description In the tooltip section on the right hand side. Then Select “update image” www.ucl.ac.uk

12. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit 4. Pay per click (PPC) - Google Adwords Search engine optimisation is an effective way to ensure that you appear in search engine results pages (SERP). In some cases a Pay per click (PPC) campaign can help to make your offering more visible. This might be appropriate for an Open Day, graduate evening or to advertise a new programme. • 1. Why use PPC? • Speed – instant rankings • Simple to implement • Increases visibility • Control title and wording • Update instantly • Performance is measurable • HE sector terms are relatively cheap (approx 5p) PPC PPC Organic • 2. Things to watch • More expensive than SEO • Needs management • Users prefer organic (only 27% will click PPC • Put day limits on your campaign to limit spend • Pay per click principals • Many searchers do not look past the first page of results • You only pay if someone is interested enough to click • Ads appear on the Google Ad Network (1 million + sites) • Ads appear on Search Network (AOL, Ask Jeeves etc) • Can target people who have previously visited your site www.ucl.ac.uk

13. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit Quick glance summary - Search engines like Google use “spiders” to crawl through the web and index pages. • Spiders like • Page title should represent page content and contain anticipated search words • Titles, sub-headings, tab names and links should be text not images, so that Google can read them. (if you can highlight the word with your mouse then Google can read it) • Main headings should be in H1 to make it obvious to Google and appear in search results • Complete the description meta-tag to control what copy the search results page shows • Provide descriptive hyper-links rather than “click here” • Update pages regularly • Spiders don’t like • Image maps • Flash • Text in graphics • PDF, Word, RFT, Excel etc • CSS, JavaScript • Too many Keyword duplicates • Redirection (301 redirect) • How do spiders work? • Read HTML from left to right – top to bottom • Follow links on your page and to your page • Place different emphasis on keyword placement • May or may not be interested in Meta Tags (Google does not use them in its algorithm) • Need “Alt Text” to understand multi-media files www.ucl.ac.uk

14. Search engine optimisation (SEO) toolkit Lots of articles about SEO and online marketing from Webcrediblehttp://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/marketing/search-engine-optimisation/Articles and case studies from WordTrackerhttp://www.wordtracker.com/academyWriting for the web guidance from Jakob Nielsen (web guru)http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/Free SEO Tool and articleshttp://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/browser-addons/seo-doctorAllinSEO plug in for Wordpress blogginghttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ Further reading www.ucl.ac.uk