SEO, The Fifth Element

UPDATE: We’ve finally kickstarted our online SEO course, check out the details here.

I just got back from the Gold Coast having attended the @problogger conference.

I was delivering a session on SEO for bloggers. Specifically how to do SEO for wordpress. I was asked many times if I ran SEO courses or if I had any SEO courses that were delivered online. Sadly the answer was no. I used to run SEO Workshops about 5 or 6 years ago. I stopped because I found that there were more people that wanted me to do their SEO than do it themselves.

What Would You Want In An SEO Course?

Having being inspired by Darren and others at the conference as well as the feedback I received from those who attended, I have decided to create an SEO course. What would you want to see in a course like that? A business owners or blogger’s SEO course would be very different to a tech SEO course. For business owners here would be my top 5 must haves.

5 Things A Business Owner Should Learn About SEO

1. Keyword research

The one question a business owner must ask others “If you were looking for a product or service like ours, what would you type into Google?” From this all keyword research would flow.

2. Webmaster Tools

• Search Queries

  This is essential for identifying new opportunities.

• Google Index

  Find out if you have major issues with the way Google is indexing your site.

• Crawl Rate

  Are you on an underpowered server?

• Manual Actions

  Have you been manually punished for prior SEO tactics?

3. Understand the Importance of Site:search

I think it is essential that business owners learn what to look for using this search. Many times I have sat in from of business owners and they have been mortally embarrassed by some of the pages I have uncovered in the index that they were unaware Google had crawled.

4. Site Structure

Google does not really care about your beautiful UX. It needs to understand the pages and their relationship to each other. What authority does their content have based on where you place them in your site? Are you using categories? What is their purpose?

5. Content The SEO Fifth Element

Finally what are your editorial policies for publishing? How can you ensure that each time you publish you will have an excellent chance of ranking for a specific phrase. What are the elements you need to optimise? How often will you publish? What content themes will you follow to enhance keyword grouping.

These are of course just a few suggestions and some of those points would have a lot more study required than others. I think a course for bloggers would be similar. What do you think? Love to hear your feedback.

Jim

Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.