BUILDING YOUR SITE FOR SEO

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1 BUILDING YOUR SITE FOR SEO On- site traffic- driving strategies. Megan Ura St. Edward s University Instructional Technology What is SEO? the practice of improving and promoting a web site in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines SEOmoz s Beginner s Guide to SEO Why? 1. Conversion: Better visibility = More customers, on and offline 2. Trust: Worthiness and relevance image via usercentric.com 1

2 How Crawler- based Search Engines Work 1. Crawling 2. Indexing 3. Calculating Relevancy & Rankings 4. Serving Results Your mission: Make your site easily consumable for humans and search engines. Search Engine Robot Limitations 1. Crawling and Indexing: HTML text rules Forget forms, login fields Poor link structures Uneven support for plug- in content/media 2. Content to Query Matching: Language, slang fridges vs. refrigerators 3. Is your tree falling in a forest? Content must be marketed for visibility Generating popularity Planning it Out On- site what you can control content is king site design, structure Off- site What you try to affect link building image via SEOmoz 2

3 Search Plus Your World January 2012 Algorithm Update Google+ Bias Related Google+ pages from people and brands A must- have for businesses, writers, any content makers image via Keyword Research 101 What motivates your customers? 1. List most essential aspects of your site Review your own copy Niche vocabulary and jargon or not? 2. What do you customers want to see, learn about? 3. Learn what your competitors use 4. Use a mix of popular and long tail keywords Site structure and navigation Simple directory structure Help visitors find desired content Naturally flowing hierarchy Create a sitemap Why it matters Usability and crawl- ability Ease of use Watch for orphan pages! 3

4 Semantic URL Structure friendly URLs short, descriptive file names avoid symbols, numbers, capitalizations have only one URL per page of content! Better: brandonsbaseballcards.com/cards/majorleague Rules for Choosing your Domain Name to- choose- the- right- domain- name Get inspired by keywords. Make the domain unique. Just Say NO to hyphens and numbers. Only choose.com available names. Make it easy to type and remember. Keep it short! Create and fulfill expectations. Set yourself apart with a brand. Don t follow the latest naming trends. (flickr.com) <title>the Title Element</title> Unique, Accurate, Brief Site Name/Company Name/Your Name Page- specific keyword(s) Less than 65 characters, including spaces Seen at top of browser, browser tabs and search results Users rely on good titles! Keyword(s) (Location) Company Name 4

5 Description Meta Element page- specific summaries to encourage clicks On your site: On a SERP: images Google SEO Starter Guide Quality Content Unique and fresh people first, SE s second Easy- to- read, concise, appropriate HTML text equivalent for media keyword density frequency of use keyword stuffing overdoing it! Why it matters: Keeps visitors coming back! Visitors will want to share Image via pchackz.in rel= canonical distinguishing copies from an original To the <head> element, add: <link rel= canonical href= />! the page is treated as a copy of the canon URL all of the SE link & content metrics flows back to the canon URL Image via SEOmoz 5

6 Organize content with headings Headings present structure on the page to users. 6 sizes: <h1>to <h6>, largest to smallest. Use sparingly; only one <h1> per page. Serves as an outline for content Meaningful Anchor Text Anchor Text: clickable, hyperlinked text <a href="...">anchor Text</a>. convey the content linked Descriptive, not generic click here or URL itself Stands out visually Use for external and internal linking Use nofollow when needed rel= nofollow is a link attribute tells search engines certain links on your site shouldn't pass your page's reputation to the page linked sites you can t vouch for, bad sites business competitors A link on the web = a vote, vouch of quality 6

7 Image filenames & alternate text Accessibility and search engine relevance Used in image search results Short, literally descriptive Place the image near relevant text content <img src= image001.jpg /> <img src= SEUlogo.jpg alt= St. Edward s University Logo /> Analytics Record and understand traffic trends. Google Analytics is free! Maintenance An SEOer s work is never done. Evaluate keyword rankings monthly. Watch out for broken links. Update your content frequently! Integrate social media/blogging. The Unchanging Core: 1. User Experience 2. On- page SEO and Internal Linking 3. Backlinks: make citation- worthy material 7

8 SEO as a Career Agency, in- house, consulting Work with a variety clients and businesses HTML and social media literacy skills Where to go from here? Resources handout Books & Blogs Consider SEM companies carefully. Promote your site appropriately. Humans first, search engines second. 8

9 Recommended SEO Resources: Review content from this workshop: Google s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide: engine- optimization- starter- guide.pdf SEOmoz s Beginner s Guide to SEO: guide- to- seo Lots of helpful materials and checklists: seo Websites and Blogs: SEOmoz: Search Engine Land: searchengineland.com Search Engine Roundtable: Megan s curated web resources: essentials Books: The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice) by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie Stricchiola (2009) Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition - Steve Krug (2005) An advanced SEO text: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Secrets by Danny Dover & Erik Dafforn (2011) Free Online Tools: See your site as the search engines do: seo- browser.com Generate an XML Sitemap for painlessly at: sitemaps.com Get a 30- day free trial of SEOmoz s tools: Keyword research tools: o Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator o Google Insights for Search o Google Trends Keyword Demand Prediction o Microsoft AdCenter Keyword Forecasting o Wordtracker s Free Basic Keyword Demand o SEOmoz s Keyword Difficulty Tool (how hard will it be to rank?) Search Engine Tools for your Website: o Bing Webmaster Center: o Google Webmaster Tools: o SEOmoz Open Site Explorer: Compiled by Megan Ura for St. Edward s University Instructional Technology training@stedwards.edu

Website Search Engine Optimization. Presented by: David Backes Senior Account Executive Anvil Media Inc. www.anvilmediainc.com

Website Search Engine Optimization Presented by: David Backes Senior Account Executive Anvil Media Inc. www.anvilmediainc.com Tonight s Agenda Introductions Website SEO Presentation About an Hour [Quick