What is SEO? Search engine optimization SEO It s a way to get more users to your web site.

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2 What is SEO? Per Wikipedia: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine s "natural" or un-paid ( organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. In Other Words: It s a way to get more users to your web site. Very useful for small businesses and nonprofits who have smaller ad budgets, because organic web traffic is FREE.

3 Results of COA s SEO work: Google Page Rank raised from 3 to 4. Our site appears at top of the rankings (first page of search results) for keyword searches like: delaware ohio senior services (with or without ohio ) ohio senior services delaware ohio senior citizens (with or without ohio ) delaware ohio meals on wheels (with or without ohio ) in home care (without any location information at all)

4 The BIG Secret to Improving Your Site s Page Rank: Understand who s looking at your web site, and tailor your site to their needs. (So, who IS looking at your site?) (Who are your users?) (Who decides how high your site ranks in the search results?)

5 What is a spider? What does it see?

6 What human users see

7 What spiders see Have you seen or worked with the code for your web site?

8 What spiders can (and can t) see CAN see: Text only, no images (but, they can see the image names for your files) The quality of the writing, repetitive text, etc. Working links and broken ones The presence of new media (like video) How much a site has changed over time and when it was last updated The number of other sites online which are linking to your site and the quality of those links (ideally, from relevant sites that rank at least as high as yours)

9 Be spider-friendly Consider your text carefully What keywords are the USERS searching for (not jargon, not professional terminology) Keyword density (ex. Shipbuilder) Put the most important stuff above the fold Provide meaningful content articles with info that helps your users

10 Be spider-friendly Use your meta tags (but don t overdo it!) Write good page titles URL addresses should be meaningful ALT tags on your pictures so spiders can see them picture-of-meat-pizza.jpg pictureofmeatpizza.jpg pepponionmushpizza.jpg pizza42pic.jpg Use clickable text for navigation, not images of words

11 Be spider-friendly Listen to the experts the search engines themselves! Go to Google and search for: google search engine optimization starter guide Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools

12 Use new media Use new platforms like WordPress to build your web site Start a blog! Host it on your own server. Post video. Videos on your home page are the most frequently clicked item, they increase the amount of time a human user stays on your page and they tell the search engines that your site is modern, current and interactive.

13 Use new media Social media with links to web site (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, You Tube pick one or two, do it well) Request links from other sites (only good ones, and not too many) Be an authority offer content for other higher ranking web sites in return to links to yours Add a mobile site, and submit it to Google!

14 Digital advertising Paid ads Google Ad Words, providers like Dispatch Digital Buy ads on important, relevant web sites with a higher page rank than yours

15 Pitfalls to Avoid Broken links Stale content Infrequent changes & updates (small, frequent, timely updates; eventually, the spiders will come back to check on you more frequently) Over-doing your SEO efforts (too many keywords, putting words in white type that human users can t see the search engines are one step ahead of you) Avoid services that want to direct your traffic to their servers, assign a phone number to your ad or a new web domain to your site, etc.

16 Measure your results & keep at it Install Google analytics and check it every six months for progress Change site frequently in meaningful ways (life span of a web site now is no longer than 2 years) Google PageRank know it and try to improve it (but be realistic) Test your search results; Google yourself! Be patient improvement takes time

17 Hire a Pro? SEO is an uncommon skill; most web designers and developers are not well versed The rules of SEO are constantly changing Many very good web workers do not do SEO it s a world of its own Get references, ask for proof of results, Google their customers web sites hire carefully!