SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

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1 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION The Human Approach

2 Search engine optimization is a popular buzzword. With differing best practices and misguided information being spread around, it can seem like black magic. A certain mix of content, social media and optimization will make my site appear at the top of the results page someday right? But how do search engines work and what does optimization actually mean? MIkE BRIAN is a partner and Interactive Director at Penna Powers Brian Haynes. With 23 years of industry experience, he has worked with PPBH s major clients including UDOT, Daifuku, 2002 Winter Olympics and JPMorgan Chase. >> TAlk TO MIkE

3 There are two approaches to search engine optimization: BlACk HAT Utilizing underhanded tactics to trick search engines into thinking your page has more content, is somehow more widely used or contains relevant information when, in fact, it does not. WHITE HAT Building the site so it is optimized for a living, human person. OPTIMIZE FOR HUMANS, NOT SEARCH ENGINES The purpose of a search engine is to find the most relevant information for the human being behind the search. When pages are built, they re not built for Google s TM robots to view. They re built for real, actual people at the other end. Search engines are trying to emulate a human being. If your page is optimized for a real person, search engine crawlers will recognize this. Search engines are trying to locate information that is useful for a human, while weeding out information that is not useful or pertinent to the search. REvERSE BREAdCRUMB TITlES ANd NAvIGATIONAl BREAdCRUMBS Humans like to know where they are on a site or what site is loaded in the next tab on their browser. By providing a clean reference to where you are, people will be able to navigate your site easier. As an added bonus, search engines will detect your site-hierarchy based on page titles and your top pages will be included underneath your search results. Though most search engines are flexible, the recommended delimiters are for site hierarchy and after the site name: New Press Release News My News Site Your source for News. <Page Title> [Optional Sub-category] <Main Category> <Site Name> - [Site Slogan] SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION THE HUMAN APPROACH PENNA POWERS BRIAN HAYNES WHITE PAPER

4 Relevant URLs An informational URL can go a long way. Take the following URLs: vs. People like to know what they re clicking on before they click it. The first URL offers absolutely no indication as to the page content is it important? Is it a joke? URLs are also one of the highest-ranked metrics for search engines. If your keyword is in the domain or URL, the ranking will go up. However, there is a limit to the amount of good information that can be provided in the URL. The exact amount is never defined, but more than ten keywords is generally not a good idea. After that you risk Over Optimization Penalties (OOP). For a human, a relevant title is useful; a jumble of keywords is not. Quality Links Incoming links to your site are very important in determining the rank. As with any human being, recommendations from trusted associates will always be rated higher. The same logic is being applied here. You want lots of incoming links to your site, but not from shady sources. Good Links High-profile, top-level-domains (TLDs) such as.gov and.edu Reputable sites, high-traffic or otherwise well-known sites Wikipedia page about your product Social media (Twitter, TM Facebook, TM blogs) Forums News websites Bad Links Portal pages or link indexes Irrelevant sites Standards Compliance Making a webpage that will function for everyone (blind, mobile viewers, etc.) is a contributor to overall quality. Functionality also makes your site easier for search engines to read and index. Some developers still turn a shoulder to XHTML compliance, thinking HTML4.01 and the transitional hacks are good enough. However, the site may look correct on the outside, but won t function with things like screen readers, different font sizes, mobile devices and countless other possible configurations. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION THE HUMAN APPROACH PENNA POWERS BRIAN HAYNES WHITE PAPER

5 The World Wide Web Consortium has laid out guidelines to follow for ensuring compatibility among many devices. Not following them shows a lack of quality, regardless if your site is targeted at disabled persons, mobile devices or print versions. Not following the standards for interoperability is comparable to having typos all over your document. Likewise, if you cannot be bothered to build a website that conforms to standards, then how useful is the rest of your creation? If your webpage is built compliant, it should still provide useful information while degrading gracefully. Fancy features look nice, but you should strive to ensure your page also functions without Javascript, images, Flash or colors. CONTENT IS key Regardless of all the other optimizations made, the content on your page is the most important contributor to SEO. Frequent, useful site updates help produce a higher rank. Blogs and site news pages keep your site fresh. Frequent, useful updates entice visitors to return to your page and provide search engines with more information to index. THE HUMAN ASPECT Anything useful for a human is also a factor in SEO rankings. Likewise, anything a human finds annoying is going to decrease your search engine rankings. More examples of good optimizations: RSS Feeds People like to have a digest of all sites they re following. Proper HTMl Header Tag Usage A website flows like a book, with chapters, sub-chapters, headers, footers and a table of contents. Keyword matching in heading tags is given a higher rank, as with a traditional document. Relevant Anchor Text Click here tells a visitor and the search engine nothing. A text link should describe exactly what it is linking to. Social Media Humans like to share thoughts and ideas with their friends. Making this easier for them only helps increase traffic. Ranking and Commenting The community at large is smarter than any one person. A wide range of people often produces fresh insight and new, useful information. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION THE HUMAN APPROACH PENNA POWERS BRIAN HAYNES WHITE PAPER

6 Penna Powers Brian Haynes is a fully-integrated Advertising, Public Relations, Interactive and Public Involvement firm. For 25 years we ve been renowned for solving problems through smart, strategic thinking, powerful creative and appropriate media and marketing tools, with an emphasis on strong, quantifiable results. And while all the awards are nice (our lobby s lousy with statuettes) that s not where we hang our hats. The only thing that really matters at the end of the day is our clients success. Okay, that and our Emmy. TO learn MORE, CAll CHUCk PENNA AT ANd SEE IF you CAN GET A lunch OUT OF HIM. SOURCES: Vaughns Summaries GOOGLE Webmaster FAQs World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Guidelines ADVERTISING PUBLIC RELATIONS INTERACTIVE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT Penna Powers Brian Haynes