Course Overview

This SEO training course is covers the absolute essentials of search engine optimisation, i.e.

• How search engines gather data about your website
• How google, Bing, et al. analyse users' search queries
• How search engines match queries to web pages in search results
• How search engines rank natural search results
• How users respond to search engine results pages (SERPs)
• How to analyse and evaluate your competitive search position
• How to identify your SEO priorities
• How to construct landing pages and SEO-friendly web sites

Intro

• Myths:
  • SEO Equals Web Visibility
  • Copywriting Goals are Universal
  • The Homepage is the First Page
  • Meta Tags Increase SE Position
  • Inbound Links Good; Outbound Bad
  • You Can Cheat The System
• Errors:
  • Build Then Promote
  • Wrong Site Objects/Priorities
  • Specialism-based Workflow
  • Forgetting 'The Medium Is The Message'
  • Market Competitor Equals SE Competitor
  • 'Fire And Forget' Content Authorship
  • Obstructing SE Robots
  • Obstructing SE Content Analysis
  • Checklist SE Optimisation
• Misconceptions:
  • SEs Rank Sites
  • SEs Rank Pages
  • Pages are Ranked by Keyword
• Conclusion: Content is King

How Search Engines Work

• Introduction
• Search Engine Aims and Objectives
• Search Engine Needs and Requirements
• Match Site Objects to SE Requirements
• How SEs Discover New Pages
• How SE Robots Gather Data
• Obstacles to Robot Data Gathering
• How SEs Analyse Page Content
• How SEs Evaluate Search Term Locations
• How SEs Gather User Interests
• How SEs Analyse User Interests
• Evaluating Matches Before Rank
• Negative Page Ranking Criteria
• Positive Page Ranking Criteria
• How SEs Evaluate Link Sources
• How SEs Evaluate Link Content

Evaluating Your Competitive Position

• ID & Analyse Key Search Expressions
• Example: Search Expression Components
• Rank Search Expressions by Probability
• ID Top Pages Per Search Expression
• Count Occurrences in Ranking Pages
• Weight Occurrences in Ranking Pages
• Compare Cumulative Content Scores
• ID & Count In-bound Links to Pages
• Weight Link Values
• Compare Cumulative Link Values
• Evaluate Link Scores & Content Scores
• Identify Key Success Factors Per Term
• Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat

Improving Your Competitive Position

• Introduction
• Priority: Show-stoppers & Low Hanging Fruit
• Acquire and Deploy Skills
• Acquire and Deploy Tools
• Generate Enough Good Content
• Focus Content
• Focus Links and Site Structure
• Present Content Better Via Mark-up
• Present Content Better Via Writing Style
• Collect & Use Performance Data
• Experiment and Test
• Target and Prioritise Link Providers
• Improve Link Quality
• Concluding Comments

Course Objectives

On completion of this SEO training course, you will be able to:

• Understand how search engines find and use your web site content
• Understand how prospective customers find and use your content
• Identify your SEO strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
• Distinguish SEO competitors from business competitors
• Identify your SEO competitors' strengths and weakness
• Identify which SEO strategies and tactics best suit your needs
• Begin implementing a credible SEO strategy
• Evaluate your SEO strategy outcomes, including return on investment (ROI)
• Progressively improve your SEO tactics and results

Target Audience

• Marketing staff
• Web content authors
• Web designers
• Web developers with SEO responsibilities

Pre-requisites

• Basic computer literacy
• Basic web literacy

Technical knowledge of web fundamentals (e.g. HTML and CSS) is not required — but having those skills will enrich your experience of this SEO course and enhance the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.

In the long-run, we recommend that non-technical marketeers, content authors and designers all learn some basic HTML (and possibly CSS) if they really want to do SEO properly.

Don't let the smake-oil merchants kid you, if you want a real edge over your principal SEO competitors, acquiring these skills is one of the quickest ways to get one — much cheaper and more effective than many self-styled 'SEO consultants'.

Learning Style

This SEO training course is tightly focused on the practical steps you can take to improve your position in search engine results pages.

Even with the diversity of sites and businesses represented on publicly scheduled versions of this course, we can offer immersive hands-on experience of analysing and evaluating your competitive SEO position — since these steps are, essentially, the same for most businesses.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for devising and implementing an SEO strategy — since every organisation's business constraints are unique, and implementing good SEO is entirely about devising a unique strategy for those unique circumstances.

Those who want hands-on exercises and support in the design and implementation phases, may want to consider 3 (non-exclusive) alternatives:

• Take a private (in-house) version of this course — i.e. one tailored specifically to your business
• Follow-up this course with our SEO Workshop — where diversity is managed by restricting entry to 6 delegates and a maximum of 3 organisations
• Hire one of our SEO consultants to work exclusively with your business

Course Schedule

• Mon, 16 April 2012 in London, £250
• Mon, 18 June 2012 in London, £250
• Mon, 13 August 2012 in London, £250
• Mon, 15 October 2012 in London, £250
• Mon, 10 December 2012 in London, £250