Lecture 7: Social Media Sharing, Google Analytics, Keyword Research & Meta-Tag Optimization, Facebook Fan Pages

Transcription

1 Lecture 7: Social Media Sharing, Google Analytics, Keyword Research & Meta-Tag Optimization, Facebook Fan Pages

2 Agenda Social Media Sharing Traffic Sources Google Analytics Meta-Tags Keyword Research with Market Samurai Meta-Tag Optimization Quick-and-dirty guide to WordPress SEO Using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin Facebook Fan Pages (very briefly)

3 Types of social media sharing Like this page use Tweet, Like, Google +1 and Share plugin (only 5 buttons simplicity is good. Many of these plugins are way too heavy ). Follow me directs people to your social media pages and gives them opportunity to friend you or join your social networks. Use Social Media Widget Floating toolbars appear at top or bottom of the browser window while on your site and can draw your visitors attention to thing you want. Popups similar to the above, usually used for subscriptions after a set delay. See WP Encyclopedia. There do not appear to be any good free WordPress popup plugins Facebook comments highly recommended. Use facebook comments by Alex Moss since it can be activated by shortcode. Also the instruction are good (it s fairly simple) WordPress comments (possibly using Disqus or external comment system) Automatic sharing of new posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin: check WP Encyclopedia for best plugins or else post manually by using your own post s like buttons (manually gives you more control anyway)

4 Traffic Sources Traffic sources (only 4): Direct traffic (usually from s, print advertisements, or people typing in your url directly) Organic traffic (search-engine traffic) Referred traffic (links from other sites, including social media sites) Paid traffic (Google Adwords or other PPC system) Why Google sends you traffic (or not) (Nobody really knows for sure, and they change every months, but this we know) Keyword relevance with respect to: (in order of importance) your Domain name, Site title, Site description, Home page H1, Content (esp. keyword density) Your PageRank (which is in turn determined by number of backlinks, among other things) Frequency of content updates, Video on the site, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keyword density, and many other factors It can take some time (up to a month) to get your site indexed by Google. Google will find you so long as somebody somewhere points to your site just post a link on a popular forum or on another of your sites to be found Make sure you set Settings > Privacy > Allow search engines (robots.txt) Make sure you list your site in Google Webmaster Tools (will require the site be verified) Make sure you are listed in Google Places (local business directory) Be aware that at least 75% of your ranking is due to off-page SEO (links back to your site)

5 Google Analytics Create an account at Analytics.Google.com Click Admin and then in the Accounts drop-down create new account and follow the prompts Do NOT post tracking code to your site directly. Just use plugin Google Analytics for WordPress Let s review some of the available statistics through the Analytics dashboard: Total visit (or sessions) Unique visits (or users) Visitor source (direct, referral, organic), and referring sites Search keywords (includes impressions and clicks) Popular pages And much more

6 Meta-Tags Install Firefox plugin SearchStatus to view the meta-tags of any site. This will also show you the site s Google PageRank (PR) Important tags : Domain name Title Description Home page H1 (1 st Heading) Keywords on your site content (pages and posts) If local business, always add yourself to Google Places. This will automatically place you on the Google map for certain types of businesses Do some competitive analysis research your competitor s meta-tags and rank

7 Keyword Research Use free MarketSamurai program (the keyword research is free and it gives more information than the Google Keyword Planner) You need to choose your focus keywords Choose popular keyword that are attainable (i.e. keywords that you have a chance to land on the 1 st page of search results for that keyword) Different strategy depending on whether you are looking for global business or local business (because local business your focus keyword will have location info).

8 How to NOT do SEO Any of the following risk getting you banned by Google (which you can appeal ask for a site reconsideration at Google Webmaster Tools, but good luck ). You can tell you ve been banned when suddenly your page rank goes to Unranked. 1. Keyword stuffing, and/or hiding keywords on page with white color etc (ideal keyword density 2-3%) 2. Link schemes (Link exchanges from non-relevant or poor quality sites) 3. Cloaking (showing different content to users and search-engines) 4. Sneaky redirects (redirecting search-engines but not users) 5. Doorway pages (keyword-stuffed pages with low quality) 6. Duplicate content Golden Rule: Write your content for people, not for search-engines

9 Quick-and-dirty WordPress SEO Are you a local or global business? If you want global traffic: Do a first pass keyword analysis with free Market Samurai or Google Adwords Keyword Planner on your target keyword(s) find synonyms, brainstorm possible keywords and keyword combinations Choose attainable keywords (keywords that you have a realistic chance of getting on page one) decent traffic but not too much SEOTC (SEO Title Competition) Put your chosen keyword(s) on your Home page Title, Home page Description, Home page H1 (Header tag), and sprinkle liberally in your copy Also sprinkle keywords and synonyms liberally in your copy (but also prioritize human readability) If you want local traffic: Always do Google Places (local business directory) Choose the largest traffic keyword(s) regardless of competition Append geographic information ( in Philadelphia and Norristown ), and put on Home Page Title Tag, Home page description, Home page H1, and sprinkle liberally in your copy In all cases: Use either Month and name permalink setting or Post name (this puts the page title in each url) Change your default blog category to your primary keyword Limit SEO Title to about 64 characters Description can be up to 160 characters All mea tags need to be human-readable particularly important in the case of meta description since this is what people see in the search listing Be conscious of long-tail keywords and LSI keywords (synonyms) when you make new posts, and create WordPress tags and titles that match on each post Update your content as often as practical (write new blog posts)

10 Using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin Hand-code your home page Title and Description (on Edit Page of your home page in the Yoast command box) Put your primary keyword(s) in Site Title (WordPress Settings > General) Use the following template for Page and Post Title: %%title%% %%sitename%% Use the following template for Page and Post Meta description: %%excerpt%% Make sure you enable the XML Sitemap, Save and test it Verify all your meta-tags with SearchStatus (plugin for Firefox) or by looking at your page source

11 Facebook fan pages Google create a facebook page and go through the process Add your cover image Google add a tab to facebook page. You can add your own custom html including newsletter subscription boxes using a free Facebook app called Page Tab. (You can compose your content inside a WordPress page or post and then copy the html from the text tab of WordPress)