SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION BASIC 101 SEO Considerations we can impact today
Why Bother with SEO > 85% of all web visitors arrive through search 60% of all queries today are 3 words or more 87% of click-through are organic (not paid ads) Increasing awareness of organization Increasing traffic to the site AND increasing ACTIONS
In 2014 mobile search will exceed desktop search
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Organic Search Paid Search
The World We Live In What s good enough?
SEO Then and Now SEO Then Key Words, key words, key words Link Building at all costs First page was good enough SEO Now Content, content, content Location Places Engagement reviews, blogs, likes, G+ High value link building Ranking 1-3 a MUST Behavioral keywords
Search Engines Mission Get people to the right and best sites for the information they are seeking
SEO Optimization 101 Headers - titles Title Tags Description Tags Alt tags High value links Anchor text (link text) Content And remember the url lesson: Do not use index.aspx in URLs www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/index.aspx www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/ Always use lower case! Do not use UPPER or mixed CaSE!
Titles, Title tags and Description Tags
Headers (titles that show on the page) ALWAYS use header tags H1 is critical to SEO 120 characters long with the key search words IN FRONT; first 70 will show
Title Tags Ever page MUST have one and every one MUST be unique (yes all 50,000+ pages) Is the title on the SERP page and only about 60 characters show Needs to be what the page is about, using key words in the first 60 characters The actual title showing on the page should be related and use the key search words in the front of the title
Description Tags Every page SHOULD have one and every one SHOULD be unique. Mention organization/unit here and very specifically the main purpose of the page. What s there? Is usually the description that will show on the SERP if one is available, not always (Bing and Yahoo)
Alt Tags Now play a much bigger part in SEO First priority is 508 compliance BUT Using key words if it makes sense is ideal This SHOULD drive us to make sure the photos we use are REALLY related to the page we are building
High Value Links Our EDU url is the second most powerful URL possible for others to link to. Don t give it away without a lot in return. Always request a link FROM those who link to your pages. The importance of links is not numbers, but quality (for our type of information site). Does the link to us make us appear more of an expert or not. How powerful is the site linking to us in our fields of interest? There is a whole lot more to this.in SEO 201
Anchor Text (link text) Anchor text or the words used to link to another page are a critical part of the SEO equation. Anchor text should reinforce the key search words, the content Anchor text TO a page should be exactly the same no matter who links to the page. Example einsight article Anchor text should be ALWAYS be unique. So for each page we link to the text needs to be different between them, but the same anytime we link to the same page Our immediate opportunity to improve is to stop using read more, learn more, etc.
Content what is good? Include key words that are in the header, the title tags, the description and the alt tags in the first several lines of content. Do not keyword load. Make sure EVERYTHING on the page is actually directly related to what the page is about Eliminate extra words, phrases, elements that are not directly related to the purpose of the page Photos/videos need to relate to the topic and purpose of the page. Then alt-tags will fall into place easily. ALWAYS use the same anchor text to link to a specific page.
Know Who s Looking for What Target Audience Areas of Interest Needs to be Met Actions to Take Students Education Information Apply Colleagues Research Find People Collaborate Donors Information/ Success Energy/ Community Donate
Building an excellent web page (for users) It is not what do WE want to say
So what about our page? Who is it for and what will they search for? Potential students and financial aid, or veterinary degree financial aid Good titles, good title tags, no description First and second paragraphs are useless for the topic of financial aid never mention financial aid. Alt tag is really misleading about topic. Is photo relevant to financial aid?
Bottom line Good content means that everything on the page (especially in the top third) clearly relates to the main topic and uses the main topics language both visible on the page and in the code Including: Headers, title tags, meta descriptions, captions, alt tags, anchor text and the first 200-400 content words.
What can we all do TODAY Follow good url usage Use keyword linking rather than learn more or read more Consider stronger H1s Make sure photos (and therefore alt tags) are really pertinent to the page. If not, then don t use photos Become more conscious about each of these items in every page you build or modify. Discuss and ask questions. Let s work on this together.
Next SEO Presentation Link juice - Linking 201 Duplicate content what it is to Google, how they see it and what a BOT does with it 301 and 302 redirects