optimizing library websites for better visibility
DESCRIPTION
Binghamton University Librarians have attempted to employ search engine optimization strategies to make their website more visible on search engine result pages. Search engine optimization is the practice of improving ranking on search engine result pages and also increasing targeted traffic to a website. The presenter will discuss the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of developing a “do it yourself” optimization strategy for library websitesTRANSCRIPT
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Erin E. Rushton [email protected]
Binghamton University Libraries
Optimizing Library Websites for Better
Visibility
College and Research Libraries New England Chapter
2010 Spring Conference May 14 2010
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Acknowledgements
• I would like to acknowledge the work Marcy Strong who helped develop an earlier version of this presentation and who participated in Binghamton University Libraries’ SEO Pilot Project.
• I would also like to acknowledge Martha Kelehan who worked on the Pilot Project.
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Agenda
• How we became interested in optimization
• Search engines and search engine optimization
• SEO and the relationship to libraries
• Our experiment in optimization….
• Challenges• SEO tools and resources
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• Conference series for webmasters, digital agencies, online marketers and corporate decision makers.
• Presentations about:– designing search engine-friendly web pages – building links and their importance to
rankings – building analytics package into websites and
interpreting the results
Where it began…. A trip to NYC
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Where it began….
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Search consultants and advertising agencies
Page 7Charts from 'Ad Age' Search Marketing Fact Pack
‘Ad Age’ Search Marketing Fact Pack
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Why the competition?
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skwishy/2048677231/
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Search is popular
Pew Internet “Search Engine Use” August 6, 2008http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/pip_search_aug08.pdf
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Competing for prime real estate
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Paid Results
Organic Results
How to
make this
happen?How to
make this
happen?
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Search Engine Optimization
Activities that improve search engine visibility and increase targeted traffic to a website.
Results in websites that:•are search engine (robot) friendly•are highly ranked •have successful conversions
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How search engines work
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Search Engine Optimization Techniques
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonpow/252312738/
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Disclaimer
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marciookabe/3102556540/
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•Frequency of keywords•Weight of keywords•Keyword proximity
Optimize with Keywords
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Optimize with keywords
Understand what users are looking for and understand how they look for this information.
Incorporating these words into the site
Paradigm shift in how we provide
access to our services and resources
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Look for opportunities to use keywords
Slide from “Search Engine Guide” http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/seo-101-part-12-everything-you-need-to-k.php
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Keyword prominence and location
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metaDATA
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Popularity
• Quality and authority of incoming and out coming links (not quantity)
• Number of visits AND time spent on site
• Number of repeat visitors
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Indexing of webpages
Pages not indexed by spider will not appear in the search engine results
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Why optimize the library?
Image of Bartle Libraries from: http://www.hermanmiller.com/DotCom/jsp/research/caseStudiesDetail.jsp?csId=15
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Are we even relevant anymore?
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We are but….
We can accomplish this through Search Engine Optimization
…we need to make our services and resources more visible on the web because that is where are users are
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Promote Library Content and Resources
Library Guides
Subject Expertise
Ask a LibrarianServices Library
Catalogues
Special Collections
Digitized Collections
Exhibits
Databases
Newsletters
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Other reasons to optimize
• Better understanding of information seeking behaviours and needs • As users become independent
searchers our role shifts to that of guide and educator
• Good practice to have an optimized site
• Knowledge gained from web analytics
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Mission: Optimize selected pages on the Libraries’ web site with the goal of improving the ranking of these pages on major search engines.
Pages included “Ask a Librarian” and pages related to Edwin A. Link (Special Collections)
Pilot Project
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• Increase:– # of successful conversions– # of referrals from search engines– # of page views– # of unique visitors– Page linkability with non-commercial sites
• Achieve higher page rank than competitors
• Identify problem areas with website in general
Objectives
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Phase 1: Pre-Optimization• Track web traffic and website
activity• Set conversion goals • Reviewed keywords, metadata,
html tags• Calculated number of indexed
pages and inbound pages• Tested pages used free analyzers
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Phase II: Optimization
• Ask a Librarian link added to homepage
• Added links to Wikipedia and other popular and quality websites
• Title tags and html were rewritten to be more descriptive and include keywords
• Broken links were repaired
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Phase 2 (cont.)
• Metadata title, description and keyword tags were added to webpages:
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Phase 2 (cont.)
• Text was rewritten when possible to include optimized keywords and phrases
• Pages were validated using W3C• Alt text was added to several images• Images were resized• Robots.txt file configured for crawling• Sitemap.xml file created
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Phase III: Post-optimization Testing and
results• Some pages had increase visits after optimization
• Some pages had a decrease in visits• Overall, refers from website and search
engines went up• Keywords helped improve the ranking of
the Special Collection pages (Edwin A. Link)• More pages indexed (pre optimization
Google only indexed 2 of our pages)
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• Our activity may have distorted results
• Only few pages optimized• More time spent ensuring
good keywords• Issues with Google Analytics
Challanges
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Next Steps
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Continue with SEO
• New website launched last year with some SEO “built in”
• Produce a fully optimized Library website and to share SEO best practices with other BU departments.
• Won a grant from the University which will help fund this project
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Goals of SEO for Binghamton
• Improved ROI on the millions of dollars spent annually on specialized research literature databases, journals and books.
• Provide greater visibility of unique digital collections to students, faculty, the local community, alumni, prospective students and donors.
• Better understand information seeking behaviours and needs of students, faculty and staff.
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Goals
• Create a Search Engine Optimization Task Force composed of library and university faculty and staff, utilizing skills in information technology, reference, instruction, public relations, marketing and web usability.
• Establish baseline levels of typical web activity for the libraries’ website using Google Analytics.
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More challenges…
• Not experts• Lack of time • Measuring success
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Websites about SEO• Delicious.com/novascotia32/seo• Search Engine Guide: The small business guide to search mar
keting
• SEOmoz.org - http://www.seomoz.org/: serves as a hub for search marketers worldwide by providing education, tools, resources and paid services to help make every SEO the best they can be.
• SEO tips index - http://www.seoconsultants.com/seo/tips/• ClickZ - http://www.clickz.com/: News and expert advice for the
digital marketer• Google Webmaster Central Blog -
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/: Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index
• Search engine optimization tips for libraries, from The Other Librarian - http://otherlibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/search-engine-optimization-seo-tips-for-libraries/
• Is SEO evil? http://www.slideshare.net/gleddy/is-seo-evil-web-directions-2007
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SEO Tools
• Google AdWords - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal: Keyword tool generates keyword ideas
• 30 SEO Bookmarklets to Save You Time
• Learn SEO in 30 Minutes a Day• 69 Free (or low cost) Tools to Im
prove Your Website
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