SEO Resources

Some useful websites and resources if you want to look deeper into search engine optimisation

GOOGLE ANALYSIS

Test My Site

Test My Site is a free online tool from Google that you can use to benchmark your website for speed. It measures the speed of your website based on a profile load time. In other words, it attempts to replicate what the end user experiences. Have a go and use the report feature to help you speed up your website based on the results.

PageSpeed Insights

If you don’t want to enter your email address to get a site speed report (as with Test My Site), use Google’s PageSpeed Insights instead. This online tool runs a speed test on any website with a mobile score and desktop score. It’s helpful for figuring out what bottlenecks are holding a website back. You can find out more about the test here.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is our recommended website analytics tool. By installing it on your website, you can track the number of visitors to your website as well as their sessions to get a complete picture of their journey. And this is just the start. With advanced techniques, we can define custom metrics and set up event tracking.

Google Analytics lets you see Acquisition (how you get website traffic), Behaviour (what your visitors do on your website), Conversions (for example, how many people checkout) and understand your audience better. You’ll find out things like the location of your visitors, what devices they use and what languages they speak.

Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

Google Search Console should be used alongside Analytics to provide you with a deeper understanding about your online presence. The difference between them is Google Search Console is focussed on information about your site’s performance in Google Search, and not your audience, as is the case with Google Analytics.

With Google Search Console, you can monitor the queries (keywords) your audience uses to find you, the number of impressions for keywords, clicks, click-through-rate (the click count divided by the impression count) and your average position of results. You can also track the links to your site and get alerts about usability issues.

SEO NEWS

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land is a leading independent authority on SEO. Their analysis of Google algorithm updates and coverage of industry news is second-to-none and they have separate website sections of general SEO, local SEO and SEM (search engine marketing). In particular, we find their Google Algorithm Updates page most useful.

Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Journal is a reliable source for SEO news and it’s also a solid resource for guides and helpful tips on how to make your website Google friendly. Their content is completely unique and written by experts who take the time to write in-depth resource pages. Bookmark their SEO news page to stay up to date.

LOCAL SEO GUIDES

• Ahrefs – Local SEO: A Simple (But Complete) Guide
• Hubspot – A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO
• Neil Patel – The Definitive Guide to Local SEO
• Search Engine Journal – Local SEO: The Definitive Guide (download)*
• Backlinko – LOCAL SEO: The Definitive Guide**

**If you read just one of these guides, read the Backlinko one. It’s brilliant. The download from Search Engine Journal comes a close second.

GENERAL SEO GUIDES

• Google – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide
• Moz – Beginner’s Guide to SEO
• WP Beginner – Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)
• Mangools – Learn SEO [Beginner’s Guide]*
• Backlinko – The Definitive Guide To SEO**

**Again, the Backlinko guide is our favourite with the Mangools guide a close second.

KEYWORD RESEARCH GUIDES

• Hubspot – How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
• SEMrush – Keyword Research Guide for SEO
• WordStream – The Big, Easy Guide to Keyword Research for Businesses
• Yoast – Keyword research for SEO: the ultimate guide**
• Mangools – Keyword Research for SEO Guide**

**The Mangools and Yoast guides are the exceptional two of the bunch and equally as good as each other. Read these guides first.