10 SEO Commandments

Kim McDaniel (@tivogirl)Jamie Mottram (@jamiemottram)

June 22, 2012

1. Create content that people want to link to.

• Content should be high quality, relevant, specific and unique.

• This attracts SEO-boosting links from sites, social networks, etc.

• This is the Golden Rule, really.

2. Include keywords in headlines.

• Write out names and keywords in full.

• Put keywords at the start of the headline.– The Mullet Strategy: business (keywords) in the

front, party (cleverness) in the back.• Example : “Miami Heat Take NBA Title to South Beach”

• Related: Include keywords in URLs too.

Keyword Headline Examples

• Good: Los Angeles Kings win 2012 Stanley Cup against New Jersey Devils

• Bad: Kings' Cup filled with perseverance

• Good: NBA Finals a superstar showdown between Kevin Durant, LeBron James

• Bad: A full dance card at the NBA Finals

3. Include keywords in copy as well.

• Relevant keywords should be in the lead and seeded throughout the copy in a natural way.

– Example:• Headline: Jerry Sloan a finalist for Bobcats head coach

job• Lead: ESPN reported Monday night that former Utah

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan is one of three finalists for the Charlotte Bobcats' head coaching job.

4. Link from within (with keywords).

• Links embedded within a story bring SEO value. • Include keywords in the anchor text of links, and

avoid generic text such as “more ” and “here.” – Example: “Kevin Durant fought back tears” instead of

“fought back tears”.

• Link to relevant content on your own site. – Adding links to related in-network content at the bottom

of articles/posts is helpful too.

Linking Example

5. Include keywords in image titles too.

• Helps users discover content via image search.– Example: The top Google Image search result for

“bryce harper tattoo” is bryce-harper-tattoo.jpg.

6. Use keywords that people are using.

• Highlight keywords that are trending and also those that receive higher search volume over time (e.g. “BCS playoff,” 28,500,000 results vs. “college football playoff,” 7,340,000).

• Note: Google autosuggest is an excellent tool.

7. Publish quickly and update often.

• Relevance is achieved by speed and timeliness.

• The ideal scenario for breaking news is to publish quickly and then update as the story unfolds with additional information.

8. Get out ahead of big events.

• Plan ahead and get your content into search engines early and linked up from both within your site and hopefully from outside as well.

• Related: Don’t change URLs for big events year to year (e.g. “super-bowl” and not “super-bowl-2012”).

Big Events Example

9. Publish and favor original content.

• Original content ranks better than partner or wire content.

• Produce your own version of the story and pay it favor via programming/links across site.

10. Push social to help SEO.

• Get your content out via social channels quickly as part of the production process.

• Social signals impact search results.

Bonus: SEO Tools• Google Suggest: https://www.google.com/

– Good for highlighting what users are searching for in Google.

• Google Adwords Keywords: http://bit.ly/MJ4HnM– Highlights which keywords are most searched in Google – provides

estimates and is filtered.

• Google News Top Stories: https://news.google.com/– Good insight into what keywords are getting the most clicks/interest.

• Twitter Trends: https://twitter.com/– Real-time trending topics and keywords users are looking for.