SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Donna Habersaat

SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION
Donna Habersaat
WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
(SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the
process of setting up your web site so that
it ranks well for particular keywords within
the organic search results of major search
engines such as Google,Yahoo and Bing.
WHY WE NEED SEO?
In order for users to find your web site
 It needs to be more than just a great web site
 Web sites need to be “search engine friendly”
 Help search engines with spidering and indexing
 Help match queries with web site content
 Search engines do not generate popularity but promote
links to an already popular web site, so SEOs need to
work on making your web site popular through
marketing.
THE LAYOUT OF A SEARCH RESULTS PAGE
HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
 Crawling
 Building an Index
 Calculating Relevancy and Importance
 Ranking
WHAT SEARCH ENGINES ARE ABLE TO
“SEE” ON A WEB PAGE
WHAT SEARCH ENGINES ARE NOT ABLE
TO ”SEE” ON A WEB PAGE
 Images
 Flash files
 Audio and Video files
 AJAX and Java applets
 iFrames
 Web pages only accessible after a form
 “nofollow” attribute of a link
SEO SKILL SETS
 HTML writing
 Knowledge of CSS
 Data analysis
 Graphic design
 Server administration
 Copywriting
 Link building
 Blogging
 Social media
MAIN SEO TACTICS
 Keyword Generation
 SEO for each web page
 Web site structure (basic and advance)
 Content creation
 Create communities
 Build Links
 Google Webmasters Tools and Analytics
 Social Media Optimization
 Pay-per-Click Campaigns
 Measuring
KEYWORDS
 Unique keywords
 Each page optimized for 1 or 2 essential keywords
 Keyword placement in the title, meta keywords and meta description
tags as well as text of the page
 Keyword generation tools: Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, Rapid
Keyword, Term Extractor, (all paid services) and Google’s Keyword
Suggestion Tool
 Continuous keyword research
SEO FOR EACH PAGE
WEB SITE STRUCTURE
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:image="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"
xmlns:video="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/foo.html</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>
</image:image>
<video:video>
<video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc>
<video:player_loc allow_embed="yes"
autoplay="ap=1">http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>
<video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title>
<video:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</video:description>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
WEB SITE STRUCTURE
 Advanced techniques
 Friendly URLS
 http://www.example.com/green-dress.html not
 http://www.example.com/index.php?id_sezione=360&sid=3a5ebc944f41daa6f849f730
f1
CONTENT CREATION
 Unique, well-written content
 Use keywords at least 3 times within text content
 Latent Semantic Indexing
 Each unique piece of content has its own URL
 User generated content to keep content fresh
 Any text in an image needs appear in text as well
CREATE COMMUNITIES
 Blog or forum
 Establishes you as an authority or expert others will link back to your site
 Promotes interaction and activity on the site
 When syndicating with RSS feeds be sure use absolute links, so all referrals come
back to your site
BUILD LINKS TO YOUR SITE
 Search engines prefer quality links:
 Links from local or topic-specific popular web sites
 Links from global popular sites who are trusted sources
 The use of keywords as anchor text links
 Methods to recruit links:
 Directory listings
 Business or partnership badges
 Company blog
 Build content that can be shared through citation-based licensing ageement
 Link Broker or pay-per-post network
 Participate in other blogs or forums with links back to content on your site
 Press releases through PRWeb
SEARCH ENGINE TOOLS
 Google webmasters tools
 Geographical Target
 Google Image labeler
 Web Crawl
 Mobile Crawl
 Content Analysis
 Google Analytics
 Top search queries
 Top keywords that are sending you traffic
 Goal tracking of target keywords
 Identify where traffic is dropping off
SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION (SMO)
 Participating on various social media web sites to generate traffic, buzz and links back to
your site.
PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) CAMPAIGNS
MEASURING & TRACKING SUCCESS
 Referring visits from users
 Direct Navigation
 Referral Traffic
 Search Engine
 Compare performance
 Terms and phrases that generate traffic
 Learn depth of search engine indexing
ITERATIVE PROCESS
STAYING UP TO DATE WITH SEO
PRACTICES
 Blogs: SearchEngineLand.com, Seroundtable.com, SEOmoz.com
 Websites: DMNews.com, ClickZ.com, WebProNews.com
 Industry conferences: Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo,
WedMaster World, SEOmoz’s SEO Training Seminars
RESOURCES
 SEOmoz. (March 14, 2011). The Beginners Guide to SEO. Retrieved from
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
 Kristopher B. Jones (2010). Search Engine Optimization:Your visual
blueprint for effective Internet marketing, Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.
 Enge, E., Spencer, S., Fishkin, R., Stricchiola, J.C, (2010). The Art of SEO:
Marketing Search Engine Optimization. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.