- Dave Collins, SoftwarePromotions -

Humans Before Spiders - the lost art of meaningful content

Things I never mentioned but should have

Hello HowToWeb person! This page outlines the main points of my talk, and also includes a few things that I didn't have time to cover. If you have any questions at all, drop me an email and I'll be more than happy to help.

  • Most people don't do SEO because they don't know where to start. But you're not most people.
  • "SEO is dead" is a silly idea - don't listen to it, and don't say it to others (apart from your competition).
  • Google's organic results are generated by a system - which can of course be steered and optimised.
  • There are similarities between Google and a small child - both need serious hand-holding and tantrums are inevitable.
  • You probably only need to pay for one SEO tool to start doing SEO. See below. 

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4 million new blog posts a day...

Three types of content writer:

The expert.

The regurgitator.

The polluter.

Google want to categorise your content too.

Their challenge is to serve the best content for any search.

A basic overview of how much organic traffic you're getting over time?

This is a quick and easy process. Here's a two minute step-by-step video, and it'll also show you how to use quality indicators too.

Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

This is worth its weight in gold. I have mine printed and bound. Stop guessing what Google think!

Getting Cosy with Search Console

Google Search Console is an incredible resource.

Make it your new friend, and spend a little time in getting to know each other.

In particular:

Performance - have a look at the date range and compare functions. Try looking at only one single metric (like clicks) to see which terms (or pages) have fallen.

URL inspection -  drop in a URL for one of your pages. See when it was last indexed and where from. Check the canonical and mobile friendliness.

Coverage - check on your errors and issues, but don't panic! Most websites have many, and some may be of little importance.

Sitemaps - make sure they're in there and error-free.

Mobile Usability - you may well have errors but how important are those pages? Dig deeper if required.

The Golden Rule of Content & SEO

Humans before spiders. Always.

Tattoo this on your chest.

The greatest (and most vital) tools

ahrefs. Doing SEO without this is far more work than it needs to be.

Google Search Console.

Google Analytics. No link required.

Bonus Tool: Sitebulb is the best desktop tool I've ever used.

Bonuses - some excellent Chrome extensions

SEO META in 1 CLICK - a nice overview of META data, images, links, etc.

Blue Button - webpage X-ray - similar to SEO META but you may prefer it. Or not.

Free Backlink Checker by LRT - the quickest way of checking for broken links I've ever seen.

GSC: URL Performance Report Deeplink - fantastic time-saver that makes Google Search Console even more useful.

Gifts from Google

PageSpeed Insights - a detailed page speed rater, with actionable recommendations.

Mobile-Friendly test - do Google think your webpage is friendly enough?

Google Trends - the number of searches over time. Super-useful.

Google Alerts - let Google keep an eye on what's important to you.

If you have any problems with any of the above...

Don't panic. Instead email me at dave@softwarepromotions.com. I'll do what I can to help you.


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