Yesterday I gave a presentation to an enthusiastic audience at the Food Blogger Indaba. Thanks to all those who attended! The workshop was a great platform where many questions were discussed. Hopefully I was able to give all who attended more insight into the mysterious world of SEO. In saying this though, I do believe that WordPress is making the technical side of SEO easier, because of this it is reducing the need for creating value from a technical SEO perspective. Obviously the larger websites, which run off their own CMS’s (Content Management Systems) will still see A LOT of value from a technical side as many programmers need guidance on the correct structures to make sure of correct optimisation. With recent Google updates (Panda and Penguin), the technical side of SEO is falling away slightly and is now being replaced by a more content based approach. SEO technicians and consultants need to start focusing on content strategy and placement. Without a good content placement strategy, you will not leverage the new algorithms that Google is releasing on a monthly basis. Contributing to other blogs, building a social media base and engaging with your followers and fans are all imperative to your success.
Something that wasn’t mentioned in the workshop due to time constraints is keyword research. It’s something that you should always use when writing a blog post, it shouldn’t define your content strategy but it does give you a better understanding of what people are searching for within Google.
Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool
You can download the below slide show here,
About Neil Pursey
Founder of WebGrowth. He has been optimising websites since 2006. He has since done guest talks on SEO at Wordcamp, University of Cape Town, Blogger Food Indaba and others.. Co-founder of the GROW Academy, a South African initiative to educate the youth in digital marketing. He heads up the SEO sessions at the GROW Academy.
He is also the Online Marketing Manager for the Rawson Property Group.
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Neil Pursey 
Wiehan Britz 
Michael Prince 
Margot Knight 
Jean-Michel 
SEOStyle
Thanks, very good and necessary article, in connection with last modifications of Google, influence of Anchor Text are very great!
Neil Pursey
@SEOStyle, we’ve seen data that Google is now favouring brand names within the anchor text rather than keyword rich anchor text. Websites that have used keyword rich anchor text are finding themselves in a precarious position with Google.. Focus on natural linking, you can’t go wrong.
Colleen Grove
Hi there Neil,
Thank you so much for putting the slideshow up here for everyone. I really appreciate your contribution to the Food and Wine Blogger Indaba and I personally learned a lot more about SEO, an area of weakness for me.
Colleen
Neil Pursey
It’s a pleasure Colleen. I’m glad you enjoyed it
Se7en
Wow, Thank you so much for posting your slides, so helpful!!! It has been years since I have taken notes and it shows!!! When I looked at mine they were all over the place, so I a really grateful for the slideshow!!! Thanks so much for your time and have a great week!!!
Neil Pursey
@Se7en, glad you enjoyed it! I’ll be writing a more comprehensive post soon. A white paper of sorts..